[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Lovers of the Red Sky" Episode 2

King Seongjo (played by Cho Seong-ha) notes with some alarm that the sealed painting is destroyed, which means that the Demon King (or Ma Wang) is free. So they need to locate painters skilled enough to make a new sealed painting. Then we skip ahead ninteteen years. Which was a lot more than I was expecting, given that Ahn Hyo-seop is only twenty-six and Kim You-jung is only twenty-one, and now their characters are improbably old to be unmarried in the Joseon era.

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That's a relatively minor complaint, but "Lovers of the Red Sky" puts me in a nitpicky mood due to the sheer quantity of uninteresting minutae packed into the storyline. This contrasts sharply with the exposure given to backstory that's actually important. The entire climax for this episode apparently hinges on lunar movements and the effect Chun-gi has on the Demon King's seal, neither of which were mentioned or explained ahead of time.

What we do get is a convoluted story about Chun-gi drawing forgeries to buy medicine for her sick father Eun-oh (played by Choi Kwang-il), who you'd think would be on King Seongjo's radar given that he's trying to find skilled painters to make a new sealed painting. Chun-gi is being hustled for fake medicine. It's not very easy to tell, since in a world where apparently magic is real, medicine derived from ancient magical creatures that can cure dementia doesn't sound that outlandish.

Incidentally, Eun-oh's dementia is the main compelling plot hook of the episode, despite its general irrelevance. Kim You-jung actually gets a great opportunity to act, as a loving daughter who's in denial about the fact that her father is getting old. Chun-gi's youthful talent for painting, bargaining, and even calling bluffs is a marked contrast to her naivete in other areas. This once again leaves me confused as to why "Lovers of the Red Sky" went out of its way to tell me that she's pushing thirty.

Haram is much less interesting by comparison, despite his eye makeup looking pretty cool. I'm still not totally sure what his actual job is. I think he's some kind of city guard- the dude's outrageously buff, as we see in a fairly gratuitous scene where he's doing pull-ups. But also Haram works as some kind of secret oracle, I guess? There's also a bunch of exposition about an assassination plot that didn't actually kill anybody, which just made me wonder why anyone even cared.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Lovers of the Red Sky" is directed by Chang Tae-you, written by Ha Eun, and features Ahn Hyo-seop, Kim You-jung, Gong Myung, Kwak Si-yang, Kim Kwang-kyu, Choi Kwang-il. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/08/30~Now airing, Mon, Tue 22:00 on SBS.