Hometown Legends Episode 4

Ghost Letter

This is an episode that I would actually classify as horror. It's of course also a mystery, and has some welcome bits of humor thrown in, mostly courtesy of the coroner, played by Lee Han Wie. So the story opens with the death of the emperor, and then weird things follow. Obviously. Can't have a horror story without weird things happening.

Other people die, some go crazy and then die...finally, the prosecutor and his sidekick, along with the coroner, are called in to solve the mystery. Rumors start that the deaths are following a pattern similar to a popular story in which someone dies, and then possesses people.

Ultimately, the root cause of the emperor's death is determined, but I'm still a little confused about how some of the things that happened in the middle of the story relate to that incident. Maybe I need to watch it again to make sense of it all. So I can't say that the writing is the best.

It is acted pretty well, and the directing is very stylishly done. So much so that a few minutes in, I had to pause and look up who directed it. It's Kim Yong Soo, whose directing I have enjoyed in the past (White Christmas, among others), so it doesn't surprise me that I also enjoyed it here.

So at this point, halfway through the 2008 season, I'd rank the episodes: 1, 3, 4, 2. This one only falls below episode 3 because it's a little confusing. But for someone looking for more of a horror/mystery, this episode is the closest to horror of the bunch (so far, at least).

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