Bulgasal: Immortal Souls (2021)

A tale of love that span a thousand years

Loved it. I liked the switch from paranormal traditional drama to modern day paranormal drama.

The backstory was so engaging it made me hooked to the show. Their stories and histories are complicated and a bit convoluted. I think that's normal, if you're trying to tell a thousand years of history..

I was on the edge of my seat almost all the time. The show gave me the thrill, the adventure, the mystery, a few laughs, a heart tugging tears and an epic love story.

The last episode almost threw everything to the drain, the only saving grace was the consolation of a happy ending.

There are some plot holes, but are forgivable. Cast were great. OST too, they set tone of the scenes beautifully. And I would very much likely to rewatch the show.

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Mindblowing Bulgasals

First of all I really enjoyed the series and how the plot is very unpredictable, I love the never ending plot twists from the beginning till the very end and honestly I did not stop watching this since you will get your attention on what's next, you will be curious in every episodes that's how I felt watching Bulgasal: Immortal Souls.

I also love the friendship and family of the leads how all of the characters are connected in the three timelines and I felt sad for the other characters but amazed on the other hand when in the next life they met again, literally in other life I would be your girl~~~ hahaha that's all

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Quality Dark fiction which tickles our binge watching genes

Due to the plethora of shows with 'fiction' tag thrown at us, it is nearly impossible to actually find one that we would enjoy and re-watch later. This is one of them.

What hooked me to this series was the overall storyline and how events unfolded keeping the suspense till the last episode, with a perfect ending, giving the viewers full closure. The actors have done a fabulous job especially the villain in giving life to their respective characters'. OST was well balanced to the plot and moments.
Even with 16 episodes this one tickles our binge watching genes.

Overall a great drama to invest our 16 hours in.

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good points?
lee joon's acting
do yun's pretty face c:
seeing hwal's hairstyle change over the years
ost, gosh I love 4men's voices
seeing a family form

bad points?
...quite a lot, gosh I really wanted to love this one
the repetitiveness and I mean this in all aspects you can think of
that damn light they shine everytime hwal and sang un are in the same frame. this is, funnily, my most hated aspect lol
the 2d characters
...the romance :/

honestly the drama started a bit strong but it went downhill maybe from episode 6 or so. as with so many other dramas, it was unnecessarily stretched. 10 episodes would've done it more justice but it is what it is.

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Lazy writing

The insane amount of plot conveniences ruined the drama and killed even the slightest potential it might had which made the writing seems abysmal. Not only it was stupid with every step along the way but it also removed the tension with any serious scene. Moreover, we were over fed the same repeated information like babies. Even if we were to disregard all of that, the pacing was terrible with a big empty gap of nothingness in the middle parts. None of the side cast were interesting enough to make the middle parts worthwhile. Aside from the first episode, there wasn't much appeal left.

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So underrated!

It was just AMAZING✨️
The acting, the story , everything

I really loved the story and how you get to know each character with time and understand the story. I got really attatched to all the different characters by the end and didn't want it to end.

I really love action series, so it was perfect for me! I personally think, that fight the scenes as well as suspense scenes were made very good and made me feel like actually being in the story.

To add, the sounds.
They always fitted perfect to the scene, not like some other series. The had amazing soundtracks, which are now in my playlist and the backgrounds and enivorment had very beautiful sceneries.


I really love this k-drama and it is definetly worth watching , I can't believe that this isn't famous. It should be given an award!!

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Tormentous but intense, romantic tale of posssessive love

The ending was good...better than I expected.
My only complaint is that the female lead was not upto par with the male lead when it comes to sensitivity. And the male lead wasn't that bad at all. After all, the humans made him that way 1000 yrs ago. The female lead should've understood that & forgiven the male lead 1000 yrs back itself. From what I see, she was one of the main source of all complications & messed up fate of the main male lead. The male lead had too much faith in her for his own good. Such a pity. But the ending made up for what was lacking in the their initial backstory & the plot as a whole --- somewhat.

The backstory of the main leads 1000 yrs ago ( minus the sidekicks) had huge potential. Such a pity all of that got erased by a poorly designed plot.
The story could've been made thousand times better and rosier--- not moodier!

Hope there will be a season 2 with a more epic but simpler, rosier story revolving around the male lead and the same, but wiser, more sensible female lead with no unnecessary side stories and convoluted complications. Only then, will I as a viewer be completely satisfied.

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Great cast, mediocre writing

I thought this was pretty slow moving up until about episode 8, it took that long to build enough backstory to make it interesting. I know a lot of reviewers liked the beginning and the later episodes less. I also didn't like the way some of the plot twists were written to MF with the audience. Yes, I know it's a common K-Drama plot device. I did not like the Finale, it was rather depressing and the reunion felt rushed and incomplete. A darker but happier full circle ending might have been interesting.

I did enjoy the cast, the ladies were so pretty. LOL. I'm sure the female viewers enjoyed the pretty boys too. The detective and the 'Housekeeper' were great as well. I really liked Kwon Na Ra, although I admit she was not my favourite in Itaewon Class. I also noticed Gong Seung-Yeon's eyes, as mentioned by other reviewers.

The plot was Goblinesque, I will rewatch Goblin one day, but not this show. I would watch a season two if it ever happens, but I can't imagine where it would go from here, perhaps we would get the romance that never bloomed this time.

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Had High Hopes for this

It is a unique dark and gory folklore fantasy supernatural drama about immortality where the characters reincarnate through time. The characters either were related or have interacted with each other. I was enthralled in the first half of the drama, it was sufficiently dark with excellent cinematography with an OST that was so good. The acting was good as I had seen some of the S. Korean actors and actresses in other series before and they are talented. The Villain Dark Hole stood out where he layered aspects of childish desperation, insatiable greed, and centuries of hatred for the ML and FL. The film artistry with the historical scenes, settings, and costumes were excellent.

This is a big budget drama but it didn't save it from the bad plotting and scattered storyline that really unraveled in the second half of this. Why??? Noooooo... It kinda broke me a little when the storyline started to fall apart and got messy. It felt rushed towards the end sort of like GoT's final season. I watched this to the end and refused to drop it but it did hurt a bit when it could have been executed a lot better.

We need more unique dramas like this but with a tighter narrative storyline.

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Wanted to like it, but the plot makes the characters seem like simpletons

The "waiting hundreds of years for revenge" plot has been done before, but I was very happy to go through this iteration because the cast looked scrumptious. However, a few aspects concerning the show preclude true enjoyment:
1. The story is actually rather slow -- although there is fighting and lots of dramatic dialogue, little actually happens that has any emotional resonance (esp. in the first two or three episodes)
2. POINT CONTAINS SPOILERS:
SO MUCH of what happens, and some of the major dramatic turning points, make the main characters seem like complete simpletons. For example: The main character goes through hundreds of years thinking that one monster killed his family and it turns out that it could be another one. Really? For hundreds of years this assumption was not checked? In episode 9 the Other Bulgasal becomes incapacitated by our heroes WHO THEN JUST LEAVE HIM THERE. Really? How about restraining him and taking him along SINCE YOU WANT TO FIND OUT INFORMATION FROM HIM AND WILL TRY TO CATCH HIM AT A LATER DATE? One could make an argument that, being immortal, the Bulgasal do not have a need for brains in order to survive, but the human characters do not have such an excuse. If the show aimed for a sillier tone (e.g., Korean Odyssey) then this would be easier to overlook, but its mood is very firmly in the "serious drama" category, so that does not fly.
Maybe I am aging out of being able to enjoy fantasy shows, but this point is making me doubt if I can finish watching the show....
Just a few episodes to go....

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The future circumstances brought by past

First of all i want to say a small disclaimer lol I do believe in past lives so the concept of this drama was close to the reality i imagine to be. I will try to be as objective as possible but we are all people and have our preferences so all the reviews will always be subjective based on our own likes and dislikes. So if i liked this or disliked this doesn't mean you will too :) I had a drama slump and took a break from dramas for many months :) (i thought this is important). I binged (slowly) this drama in 4 days.

Overall i liked this drama :) and recommend it to the ones who like fantasy genre. Just try not to expect much. Expectations might ruin it a lot. Also try to go passed the first 3 eps. :) Oh and i think this is more suited for binge watching rather than ongoing. Shorter review at the end.

Story:
If i were to give different rating to story/plot and the concept i would give the concept 10 and the plot 7. The concept is great! past lives, reincarnations, and how people connected in the past lives will always be connected again, that is karma, and until it is fulfilled even enemies can become relatives. (i do think this is what happens in rl too, so that might have kinda influenced the way i saw this drama) I do like that this also is taking a big span, so not just one past life, but many. On the other hand the plot that was based on this concept was sometimes inconsistent. By inconsistency i mean they waited a very very very long time to reveal us the real truth but they left out some of the big questions. I would have liked to know the answers to some but as the drama didn't give any answers i just theories my own. This is another thing, Theorizing of who is who and what is what was fun. Most of the stuff i was thinking turned out to be true (which i don't really like) but it's okay xD The real big big truth might have been underwhelming because of how "simple" it was, It was kinda the misunderstanding type of thing, i did wish for a bigger and more impactful thing, but this truth was relatable and kinda what happens all the time in our lives every second. The envy, rage, miserableness, being left behind, loving someone, wishing power, revenge... all that is something we have seen countless times, but it is what is always moving this world. Also as everything was revealed at the very end it might have felt rushed for many people. I binged this so that didn't feel rushed, it felt a little bit dragged even.
I didn't like how bloody it was. especially the start! i was going to drop it after the first ep, and then after the second too. But then it got interesting for me (and my mom). I have seen people for whom it was the other way around so i guess it is the matter of preference. The first two eps were about the past, and there was lots of blood. Then there was more blood near the end.
I liked the incorporation of the folklore demons. Though it felt like huge anime arcs squished into one ep each. The way they were introducing the demons/monsters was really anime like, it made me remember all those hyakunin ikki and stuff. Would have been better to elaborate more on them, but it might have become more draggy for a drama. If so they could have squished it more and removed some of the demons making less episodes, as they were not the main plot.
The concept of bulgasal was also nice (something like an immortal being) but they kinda merged it with vampires/zombies. which is okay i guess as there seem to be a zombie craze.
I didn't look at the actors list so i was surprised when they revealed the villain.
More weird things were when the house was suddenly a super lived in house, hurt person suddenly appearing lying outside when he was in car just now, how did he fly there remains a mystery! and some other small inconsistencies.
revenge all around, makes me remember naruto as that was the one of the best explanations of the endless revenge circle i have seen lol but still it was okay. Also the sacrifice talks also were okay for me, as that was what i thought would have been right to do too.
I think they could have dome much more and explained more in the story. But it was still okay and good for me as i fully theorized the rest. I really liked some parts of the real truth as it was indeed resonating with my own beliefs about family and enemies and karma. I would have liked if they elaborated more on the villain and the brother (i won't tell what brother) but still it was alright! so thank you for the story!
Characters/Acting:
There were few characters but they were all interesting. The ml was a bit plain for me, though the rough look, the size and everything suited the role i guess. This is purely personal preference and doesn't mean that the actor didn't do a great job. I did like the fl though. I only remembered that actress from iteawon class and couldn't imagine her as main, but i was pleasantly surprised! Min Sang Un for us is a start of everything and our hatred goes to her from the first ep. The second ep focuses more on her reincarnation "asking for sympathy towards the villain" which was really weird! Later we see her grown up, being a lovely bubbly girl, which made me feel proud of her as it is extremely hard to maintain a good personality in such circumstances. I love that kind of characters. But at the corner of our minds we keep thinking that she is bad, we mustn't like her, just like some of the side characters think. But as the story progresses we learn more and more, slowly we start to see her in different light. She was strong despite everything and followed her beliefs no matter what to protect her family.
the ml on the other hand is consistent but then slowly also changes near the end.
The villain was amazing. Acting was top notch, i remembered the gap dong days! Anyway we were slowly starting to feel sympathy for him. It was very well done, but at the end his story was a little bit underwhelming, so don't expect anything grand. It was something i would come up with if i was a writer, but i would wish something greater from a professional. But! at the same time it was very normal, i mean something like that happiness all the time and the feelings he got and the acts he did happened a lot back then. Which is just simply sad.
The side characters like mr. detective, heeseok aunty, doyoon, and shiho each of them had their story and it was interesting to see all the connections in the end. I loved it. The actors also did a great job! Shi ho is the best i love her and she is gorgeous! Though I was really frustrated at them a lot because as usual, like in any drama the side characters get always in the way and get used. So if you are weak please, just please, stay at home and don't try to act! let the strong people do stuff! that is called helping!
Addressing romance: if you plan to see romance here it's better not, but if you plan not to feel any romance here you better not as well lol. I knew there will be romance, because how can they do it without romance? XD they just neeeed it! (sarcasm) but if in all honesty, was it forced? Anyone will fall in love with a person who saves them, especially if they didn't talk with anyone before, and no one saved them before. I would too. But the love that was there did feel forced sometimes when it was too strong, though at the same time after everything was revealed i started understand why. The past connections have their influence, and the connection we see at the first two eps is like a drop in the ocean, and not the whole truth. But the overall romance is mostly around, taking care of wounds, a piggyback ride, couple of looks, and being sad of the thought of the other one dying. That's all, and i'm happy with it.

Music:
what can i say! music was great! <3 i loved some of the songs!

Rewatch value:
I never rewatch dramas so there is a random number there.

Overall!!
i liked it a lot :) I had a break from dramas for many months so maybe it played a huge role but i really enjoyed this one with my mom, very interesting, was something to look forward to everyday! :)

Short review:
Liked:
-her hair! <3 xD
-concept of past lives and how it was handled (for me it was much better than other dramas who did this before, if you know anything better let me know, I'd like to see more :D )
-all the connections
-monsters (nice idea but maybe not necessary here, idk)
-the fast pace

Disliked:
-a lot of driving around
-house suddenly filled with flower pots lol
-suddenly flying out of the car (idk how)
-twins (would go to likes if explained)
-ml
-too much blood!!! why >< they try to copy western shows but i hope they don't
-monsters( nice idea but maybe not necessary here, idk)
-weaklings not staying out of the way but trying to help.
-unanswered questions! too many lol i didn't think of them when i just finished as those questions were kinda active at the very start but i forgot about them later. Now when i look back, there were too many, and all left unanswered. But it's okay as the after taste was still good! i mean bittersweet.
-brother at the very start, was important as it's the start but this was left out completely.

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