MariaMan

-----------------⚠️ATTENTION!⚠️This review CONTAINS SPOILERS and its main purpose its to analise the story and character developement-------------
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What made me start the drama: The presence of Yook Sung Jae.
First Expectations: I was told that Sungjae would play 2 complete oposite characters and one of them was going to be the beddie...Sungaje? Baddie? Enough to make me click play.
Do I usually watch and love saeguks? Yes. Ofc. And when you combine a saeguk with fantasy,romance,comedy,ocult things,ghosts...there is just an implosion of wow happening here.

STORYwise it was not what I initially expected. I had In mind someting more like xianxia driven but in Joseon rather then Ming. However it was BETTER then expected.

I saw people here in comments being like FRIDAY: Its draggy...I am going to drop it. SATURDAY: I am back cause what the heck was that plot twist? 😂

The fact that I finally saw both audiencies finally on the same place about a drama made me genuinely happy.

This is not your usual saeguk drama. Yes it revolves around a palace, a haunted one...yes it has a king but not a normal one. A king that loves his family and puts them first. And then his duties as a king. A king that by the end even though he was not directly gulity kneeled in front of all thoes souls that perrieshed for him to even be born. A king kneeling in front of his people seeking forgivness for his ancestors, from his wife whom he could not protect and from his people promising a brighter future full of FORGIVNESS. Where profund hate will no more create aquis (evil spirits) who in turn will create a vicious cicle of crimes. A king that ruled as a human not as an almighty diety. And a king that has grown to respect the diety that create him and aknowledge he is not top of the top...a king that befriended a diety that was at the begining insufarable but at the end become his closest person. I even believe he ended up suffering more for Changchul rather then his wife.

Because Chagchul was also not a normal diety. He was a clumpsy and braggy and full of himself one. He was a diety that needed to live as a human, feel love and pain and hunger and desperation of loesing everything from a human's perspective in order to understand them. A diety that had the destiny to peace the souls he couldn't save. He embraced his destiny and save them all, and saved his all, which was Yeori. He also lost his brother Bibi in the way but It was his Karma for not hearing the prayers of the needed when he was send back to Earth. Because he freed everybody from Palcheokwi he was given a choice: to ascend as he always wished or to go back on earth...and he once again embraced his imperfactions and choose to go back to his half human life and this time use his powers when needed. And the most beautifull gift he recieved in the end was his ABSOLUTE MINI MATCH. 😂 Ga Eon is 100% HIS daughter. I wish we had one more special episode at least to see his family finally happy.

This story followed closely the "en eye for en eye" premise seeking the ultimate forgivess and the braking of the bad cicle. Everybody recieved more or less what they deserved. I DESAGREE with some people saying that the finale was draggy and rushed and boaring...it was the most entrateining part. I even heared they had a problem with the fighting scenes. BUT this is not your usaul saeguk in which you see only ninja kind of fights. This is also fantasy. The actual fighting scenes might have been laking in movement and expression but it was because the primary focus were the ocult rituals and how Pung Sang, The Monk and Yeori played a game of amulets. It was also the training of the not so almighty god that got trapped in a human body and could not use his powers at its fullest until the very end after consuming the Gargona flowers tea. The more he suffered as a human the more he has grown as a diety. Also who would they phisically battled against? The king of the country that was possesed...the Prince, a child that was possesed... they could not have just gone creazy in swords battles and risk wounding the innocents that were not themselves.
However the Queen death scene left me speechless...they did not even have response time. It was just a pure evil impulse. But the most cruel thing was to see everything from Palcheokwi's eyes...how his entire family was murdered in the name of the former king and nobody cared even for the inocent baby. They were reaped and born to ashes. The queen's Dearh was painfull as she was also pregnant but it felt like some kind of karma for the kids that were sacrificed back then.

The haunted palace really had no boring scene. A bit repetitive in the middle but then it came to its senses.

ACTING: Each and evry character was EXCELLENT. The kids were magnific. We do not get to see children involved in heavy possesion scenes yet the young Prince was fenomenal. I watched the behind the scenes and everybody was just so careing about him. Constantly asking him if he is not scared, If he could do that...and he just played along the adults sometimes as if he was a little adult himself. He had way more scene then expected for a child actor. His character understood not only that he and people around him got possesed. Not only that he needed magical objects to stay safe, but that he needed to cooperate with the adults to save himself and his father. He even had to be present while his mother and sibling were killed. Its very brutal for a child but in the behid the adults were always around him reassuring him its just drama, nothing real. And were very supportive of his developement. Very impressive. Also the little ghost girl stealing shoes to try to go back to her mother...she had an amazing angry ghost kind of scene while being practically tighted to the ceilling yet from the behind I could see she actually enjoyed her time. And the one playing Ga Eon only had 2 scenes in the whole show yet she stoled her fathers spotlight and made a funny ending to rewtach and remember.

The adults were all above expectations. With that much possesions almost every single actor had to shift between personalities. Sungjae had the unforgetable fight between Youn Gap and Gangcheol over the body, Bona was posseed twice or trice and the first time she was allowed to appear as her new personality as well. The king top notch. Constantly shifting between his self and Palcheokwi. And even had some kind of face to face scene with himself. You would believe its a peace of cake to do all that but oh it takes skills. Pung Sang the blind shaman also had to do shifts between his blind self and his shaman and it was a scarry delight to watch. He also had constant shifts between inner personalities. One moment he was sure of himself and of his Commander, one time he felt momentum defeats, one time he felt evely happy for the death of the queen...and his ending almost poetic.
The dowger queen although not possesed had a full range of personalities portreid as well. First she believed herself a justitiary. Then she was a bad mother that lost her only child to the Evil Commander behind Palcheokwi. Then she became like a scared kid for her own life. Then she wanted to make up for her scenes so she has grown up a tone....from confronting the king, the king possesed, Gangcheol the diety , Yeori the shaman. She had no real powers yet she endagered her life to finally save the little prince from the palace. Exqusite.

There were some commic characters amoung all this black mass. Like the Head Eunuch best known as Grilled Abalone. Or Gap's mama. This 2 actors have played togheter in countless dramas trying to put up with the main leads and their own blood pressure simultaneously and this time was not an exception. Grilled Abalone was skeptikal of the imoogi but wanted to be loyal to the king. His loyality was tested when he had to choose not to respind to the kings body being possesed by Palcheokwi and help Yeori perform the mortal ritual instead.

Gap's mama was not a stupid women. She noticed the change in her son and was not completely fooled by Gangcheol. She just like the Queen Dauger had to send her son off the After life and pray for him. Yet she somehow adopted Gangcheol as her son afterwards. And not just because he had her real sons body. But because one of the things the imoogi learned from his human experience is how to have, love and cherish a mother. He took a body that was not his. And even though he was brazen to her, he never let her alone. He saved her when she was kidnapped. He gave her Gap's payments from the palace...with one exception when he bought her a hair pin cause hers was too old...and to Yeori new shoes.

And then there is Yeori...not your usual beautyfull,poorely dressed and usless fl...on the countrary...she was dressed properly throughout the entire show. She was involved in the fantasy part of it, doing all the rituals. She is also a glasses crafter so she can make a living for herself. She was brazen enough to put both Gangheol, and Bibi (dieties) and the King in their places. Throughout the whole show it looked like she was the Commander of the good side. Stop fighting. Start thinking. Lets make a ritual to ask for forgivness, lets find ways to protect the queen, the kind and the price...eather she or the monk came with the most usefull ideas. Her visions were also helpfull in the mission. Even though she could not change the outcome of any of them. And besides the big fight agenst the big fat ghost, she also took responsability for all the other minor ghots lost in the palace. A baby girl that wanted to go back to her mother but could not cause she died. A girl in a fountaine that was raped and killed, the one feet ghost which kept returning precisely to her rival in love...whoever sais Bona's acting was flat should put some glasses on and watch again.

The romance part as it was not a main part of the plot was obviously lacking. They had exactley 2 kisses and I am not even sure we can actually call those proper kisses. In the secound one initiated by her she almost did not glued her lips to his. (Question for the mens here... is it THAT weird to kiss a long time friend? A 16 year old long time friend? Is it more frightening then kissing a random strager? ) This is the thing that pissed me off on this drama. However from her side she just confessed her feeling to a diety that was gelous of the body he was possesing. So almost kissing the air insted of him might be to some extend explicable. 😅 "I want so bad to kiss you but you know I would somehow kiss him so I am doing my best".

And he was just so loovey doovey in the clouds afterwards I really could not. 😂
But they did have some serious romantic tension here and there. It could have been more but again the primary focus was the ocult not the romantic.

I liked the music. Very suitable for each and every moment. I am yet to start listen to the OST properly. But really made the action more enjoyable and not at all boring.

There were some scenes I wish I had scene here and there such as: The conversation between Cangcheol (in his real form) and GOD when he gave him the choice to decide his fate, Yeori actually doing the mortal ritual. In the finale she was already possesed by the death diety so we have seen nothing...also her actual training with the monk. All the time she was with the monk we were given scenes of Changcheol complaining about life as a human them eating a feast to feel better. Like he was funny and all but we had like 15 scenes with him eating. Her training would have been also important in the economy of the story. And perhaps a label saying how long the time leap was in the end. Ga Eon looked around 8 but the transition was too quick. Btw I heared a lot of people complaining about the ending when the ending was shown in ep 1 through Yeori's vision. Back then it was just a matter of is it going to be Gap or Gangcheol? Gap made the choice to leave to the afterlife episodes before the finale so it was obvious. But I would have gotten angry had I not seen Yeori's vision in the end. All her visions good and bad ended up ocuring. Why would her dream not come true?


Well that being said...I absolutely LOVED IT. And recomand it if you like ocult and ghosty kind of stories. Comedy, romance, bromance, good female leads and EXCEPTIONAL young cast.

I do wish to rewatch one day this. It was shokingly fabulous. And both Korean and International public seemed to have loved it.