Intense but meaningless in the end
Joseon-ish supernatural horror. Royal family and palace are terrorized by spirits and given what all's gone on there, it's no wonder. The King brings in a ghost hunter and pairs him up with his daughter who has been ostracized because she can hear spirits, but the King figures she can be of help in this instance. Meanwhile, a rival nobleman hires a shaman to rile up any vengeful spirits that might be around, thereby improving his own chances of grabbing power for his family.
Our ghost hunter goes to and from the spirit world of Gwi, which is a lurid, chaotic mess where it's hard to see what's going on, whereas the "real world" scenes are beautifully and crisply shot. Unfortunately, we spend an inordinate amount of time in Gwi in indistinct, if intense, combat between ghost hunter and spirits.
Throughout, this drama tries very hard to be something--but what? Important? Meaningful? Unfortunately, it just swirls and roils, intensely, forcefully, and sometimes beautifully, but in the end goes nowhere. Except for the ghost hunter and the princess, there's not a sympathetic character to be found or anything to be learned. The evil shaman's rituals were impressive, though. I liked those.
Our ghost hunter goes to and from the spirit world of Gwi, which is a lurid, chaotic mess where it's hard to see what's going on, whereas the "real world" scenes are beautifully and crisply shot. Unfortunately, we spend an inordinate amount of time in Gwi in indistinct, if intense, combat between ghost hunter and spirits.
Throughout, this drama tries very hard to be something--but what? Important? Meaningful? Unfortunately, it just swirls and roils, intensely, forcefully, and sometimes beautifully, but in the end goes nowhere. Except for the ghost hunter and the princess, there's not a sympathetic character to be found or anything to be learned. The evil shaman's rituals were impressive, though. I liked those.
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