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This review may contain spoilers
The Bittersweet Taste of Life and Death
If I spend the next 4-6 months trapped in the ancient korean drama section of asian dramaland, this show will be to blame.
Don't get me wrong, I love a good ghost justice story but I honestly wish I had seen more of the backstory that brings about the Hotel to begin with LOL But that's just me. The point of this one is the redemption and forgiveness more than the ancient tragedy that create all the karma and punishment.
This show was a roller-coaster of emotions for me, right from the opening scene. We see our FL, Man Wol, wandering, injured, followed and insanely bitter and cold. This is where our tale starts as she finds herself confronted by a goddess, and suddenly becomes the owner of a ghost inn as part of her karmic debt to pay for her crimes.
Fast forward to 1998, and we our introduced to our ML, Chan, in his poverty ridden childhood. One thing leads to another and our ML's father makes a deal with our FL, to spare him in exchange for his son's service later in life.
Of course, his father isn't that uncaring. The money Man Wol sends to his father to help raise him, is explained was spent on taking him to america and hoping that he never return to Korea. Of course, Man Wol is an ancient spirit and finds him the moment he steps foot back in the country.
This drama follows two different stories that slowly converge beautifully into one. At first, it seems like a glamourous and quirky idea as we meet the ghosts, both staff and guests, and some of them even receiving justice for their death. If they are particularly noble in life, the reaper drives them off in a limo, instead of a bus towards the bridge of the after life.
It's all a very entertaining concept, until we start to see the effects of death on those left behind. Even a dog isnt spared from his pain, and chooses to join his master in death instead of run free.
This is a theme that runs throughout the show. It's the cold, harsh reality of death. Although a creative take on what happens after, the message is always the same. The pain of separation, things people leave unsaid, unresolved, how the people left behind must continue, while their loved ones fates are unknown. Are they happy? Are they free? Do they even remember us while we continue to suffer over their memory?
And it's theme, of this deep heartfelt human experience that slowly unravels what actually happened to Man Wol in her life, 1300 years prior to the plot. When we do finally learn what happened, honestly, I can't imagine anybody feeling like they wouldn't react the same way. It was a deep, traumatizing betrayal for all involved.
Everything is woven into the ultimate plan of the Goddess, in several different forms, who is genuinely trying to help Man Wol. It's shown over and over, with various characters that a divine plan may be in front of us, but the choice is always ours. We can give in to our anger and hate, and destroy ourselves with it, or we can let go and move on.
At the end, we are all connected in some way. Such as the side plot of having the Princess and Woo's present incarnations meet, fall in love and mention their plans to get married at the end. Two people who were enemies in Man Wol's life, and the reason for death, falling in love. For me personally, even though it is kind of joked about by the Goddess who connects them, it feels like a karma as well. The two see each other only once in Man Wol's life but they connect instantly. Maybe they knew each other even before that life. Maybe they knew each other at some point in the lives they lived between the past and the present. Maybe they even just past each other. It's this romanticism of reincarnation and living hundreds of times, that really pulled me in, and made me really feel Man Wol's fate because she's holding herself prisoner but we can all understand why. We see what happened to her.
While her enemy and beloved brother, are living different lives and finding happiness there, she's still trapped in Man Wol's life, and her pain. And when we reach our final goal of getting her to release and forgive, we are then faced again, with the pain of the one left behind. In this situation its the ML Chan. You could easily take the script and place it onto a character dying of cancer. They both know that she has to move on, and he needs to let her move on, but will he be ok? Is he really prepared to let her go?
I really appreciate that we wrapped up Man Wol's plot by ep.14, because it means that our side characters were also given the resolve that they deserved, rather than trying to squeeze it in during the last episode. So when they, one by one, cross over, I was also feeling the separation. They weren't just goofy side kicks, they were also fully fleshed out characters, with stories and grudges of their own, that they were finally able to put down and be at peace.
The romantic in me is a little disappointed that Man Wol chose not to go up to Woo's reincarnation because they chose to keep in the scene of him seeing her, and making an impact. Also that he cried after he had the drink towards the end, to let Man Wol see his memories and learn the other side of the story. Once again, in another way, even though Woo, in his life as detective Park, no longer remembers, the pain of that life time, is still there. He really was a side character and perhaps thats why I wanted more of his lifetime because his thoughts and feelings were reduced to snippets, despite the writing hinting that his thoughts and feelings had a lot to say. So I feel unsatisfied there.
Overall, this is a very visually stunning and very heartfelt serious that had really hit a nerve with me, and had me tearing up a few times, which doesn't happen often.
My only complaint is that I didnt feel the passion between the leads. I actually felt the love and sacrifice more from Myung in his small parts, than I did from ML Chan. The leads felt more like flirting school kids. I do like to think though, that the ending scene is a future life of the two being in love again, with other 3 characters running free in the area with lots of good fortune thanks to the good karma they built up during their time in the hotel.
Other than that, this was one hell of a ride, pun intended, and definitely one to remember as I now freefall down the ancient korean drama section LOL
Don't get me wrong, I love a good ghost justice story but I honestly wish I had seen more of the backstory that brings about the Hotel to begin with LOL But that's just me. The point of this one is the redemption and forgiveness more than the ancient tragedy that create all the karma and punishment.
This show was a roller-coaster of emotions for me, right from the opening scene. We see our FL, Man Wol, wandering, injured, followed and insanely bitter and cold. This is where our tale starts as she finds herself confronted by a goddess, and suddenly becomes the owner of a ghost inn as part of her karmic debt to pay for her crimes.
Fast forward to 1998, and we our introduced to our ML, Chan, in his poverty ridden childhood. One thing leads to another and our ML's father makes a deal with our FL, to spare him in exchange for his son's service later in life.
Of course, his father isn't that uncaring. The money Man Wol sends to his father to help raise him, is explained was spent on taking him to america and hoping that he never return to Korea. Of course, Man Wol is an ancient spirit and finds him the moment he steps foot back in the country.
This drama follows two different stories that slowly converge beautifully into one. At first, it seems like a glamourous and quirky idea as we meet the ghosts, both staff and guests, and some of them even receiving justice for their death. If they are particularly noble in life, the reaper drives them off in a limo, instead of a bus towards the bridge of the after life.
It's all a very entertaining concept, until we start to see the effects of death on those left behind. Even a dog isnt spared from his pain, and chooses to join his master in death instead of run free.
This is a theme that runs throughout the show. It's the cold, harsh reality of death. Although a creative take on what happens after, the message is always the same. The pain of separation, things people leave unsaid, unresolved, how the people left behind must continue, while their loved ones fates are unknown. Are they happy? Are they free? Do they even remember us while we continue to suffer over their memory?
And it's theme, of this deep heartfelt human experience that slowly unravels what actually happened to Man Wol in her life, 1300 years prior to the plot. When we do finally learn what happened, honestly, I can't imagine anybody feeling like they wouldn't react the same way. It was a deep, traumatizing betrayal for all involved.
Everything is woven into the ultimate plan of the Goddess, in several different forms, who is genuinely trying to help Man Wol. It's shown over and over, with various characters that a divine plan may be in front of us, but the choice is always ours. We can give in to our anger and hate, and destroy ourselves with it, or we can let go and move on.
At the end, we are all connected in some way. Such as the side plot of having the Princess and Woo's present incarnations meet, fall in love and mention their plans to get married at the end. Two people who were enemies in Man Wol's life, and the reason for death, falling in love. For me personally, even though it is kind of joked about by the Goddess who connects them, it feels like a karma as well. The two see each other only once in Man Wol's life but they connect instantly. Maybe they knew each other even before that life. Maybe they knew each other at some point in the lives they lived between the past and the present. Maybe they even just past each other. It's this romanticism of reincarnation and living hundreds of times, that really pulled me in, and made me really feel Man Wol's fate because she's holding herself prisoner but we can all understand why. We see what happened to her.
While her enemy and beloved brother, are living different lives and finding happiness there, she's still trapped in Man Wol's life, and her pain. And when we reach our final goal of getting her to release and forgive, we are then faced again, with the pain of the one left behind. In this situation its the ML Chan. You could easily take the script and place it onto a character dying of cancer. They both know that she has to move on, and he needs to let her move on, but will he be ok? Is he really prepared to let her go?
I really appreciate that we wrapped up Man Wol's plot by ep.14, because it means that our side characters were also given the resolve that they deserved, rather than trying to squeeze it in during the last episode. So when they, one by one, cross over, I was also feeling the separation. They weren't just goofy side kicks, they were also fully fleshed out characters, with stories and grudges of their own, that they were finally able to put down and be at peace.
The romantic in me is a little disappointed that Man Wol chose not to go up to Woo's reincarnation because they chose to keep in the scene of him seeing her, and making an impact. Also that he cried after he had the drink towards the end, to let Man Wol see his memories and learn the other side of the story. Once again, in another way, even though Woo, in his life as detective Park, no longer remembers, the pain of that life time, is still there. He really was a side character and perhaps thats why I wanted more of his lifetime because his thoughts and feelings were reduced to snippets, despite the writing hinting that his thoughts and feelings had a lot to say. So I feel unsatisfied there.
Overall, this is a very visually stunning and very heartfelt serious that had really hit a nerve with me, and had me tearing up a few times, which doesn't happen often.
My only complaint is that I didnt feel the passion between the leads. I actually felt the love and sacrifice more from Myung in his small parts, than I did from ML Chan. The leads felt more like flirting school kids. I do like to think though, that the ending scene is a future life of the two being in love again, with other 3 characters running free in the area with lots of good fortune thanks to the good karma they built up during their time in the hotel.
Other than that, this was one hell of a ride, pun intended, and definitely one to remember as I now freefall down the ancient korean drama section LOL
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