Maybe it was the "smallpox" vaccine's presence or the fact that both have the same "foreign" actor (and theme) and a great female lead, that I recommend watching both kdramas. Of course, Rookie Historian is much lighter and has "young actors" but Jejoongwon is so worth the time you spend. It's much more mature and makes you feel a lot of emotions. Both want to break "prejudices" and discrimination against a certain group of people: women and foreigners in Rookie Historian and "butchers" or"untouchables (baekjong) , women and foreigners in Jejoongwon.
I haven't finished Rookie Historian yet (I'm currently binge watching), but I can see some similarities in the male leads personalities. Both are imperfect in the sense that some dramas tend to make de ML good at everything, and both are like giggling school girls after interactions with the FL. Both female leads are also strong women with strong personalities.
Sungkyunkwan Scandal is set near the end of the 18th century while Rookie Historian is set in the early 19th century.
Both female leads are feminists starting out on the career path of a government official. Said career path is illegal for women throughout Sungkyunkwan Scandal, but newly made legal a few episodes into Rookie Historian.
In Sungkyunkwan Scandal, the female lead is a Sungkyunkwan scholar, which -- to loosely connect the two dramas together -- was a typical starting point in the career path of a royal historian. However, in Rookie Historian, the government is in a hurry to fill the newly legalized positions for female historians, meaning that the women who want to become historians take the civil service exam without ever having attended university, drawing yet another divide between them and their male colleagues.
If you've watched Sungkyunkwan Scandal and wish to see further conceptualization of the career path and feminist movement that the female lead of SS started down, watch Rookie Historian.
If you've watched Rookie Historian and you're curious about what kind of university experiences the female historians might have missed out on during a time when such experiences were forbidden to them as women, watch Sungkyunkwan Scandal.
Both female leads are feminists starting out on the career path of a government official. Said career path is illegal for women throughout Sungkyunkwan Scandal, but newly made legal a few episodes into Rookie Historian.
In Sungkyunkwan Scandal, the female lead is a Sungkyunkwan scholar, which -- to loosely connect the two dramas together -- was a typical starting point in the career path of a royal historian. However, in Rookie Historian, the government is in a hurry to fill the newly legalized positions for female historians, meaning that the women who want to become historians take the civil service exam without ever having attended university, drawing yet another divide between them and their male colleagues.
If you've watched Sungkyunkwan Scandal and wish to see further conceptualization of the career path and feminist movement that the female lead of SS started down, watch Rookie Historian.
If you've watched Rookie Historian and you're curious about what kind of university experiences the female historians might have missed out on during a time when such experiences were forbidden to them as women, watch Sungkyunkwan Scandal.
Both dramas have strong female leads that are a bit more on the rebellious side, whereas the male leads were a bit more rigid when it came to the rules & formalities. Both stories have the perfect balance of comedy, mystery, and romance. Both kdramas are period dramas set in the joseon dynasty, however moonshine focuses on events surrounding alcohol prohibition and rookie historian took a more wholistic approach regarding different topics. I highly recommend both shows, and if you're on the fence about either of these shows, just know they'll make you feel an array of the emotions because every aspect of the shows were beautiful.
These both strike me as less intense than a lot of traditional sageuks when it comes to the plot, but also they are not as "fun" as some of the more recent historical dramas have been.
Both had endings that were optimistic and full of hope in a way you don't see in a lot of historical dramas. They left me teary-eyed, just thinking of how far they had all come.
If you like historical dramas and don't mind investing some time in slow (but largely intentional) pacing, I highly recommend them both. You will leave feeling inspired.
Both had endings that were optimistic and full of hope in a way you don't see in a lot of historical dramas. They left me teary-eyed, just thinking of how far they had all come.
If you like historical dramas and don't mind investing some time in slow (but largely intentional) pacing, I highly recommend them both. You will leave feeling inspired.
