Avi

His scenes in A Shop for Killers were so much fun to watch. I'm surprised to see so few action roles listed here.

They definitely increased. It's just that the Jinman disguised as Bale action scene is better than most Jinman as Jinman action scenes. That they had to swing the camera during the Bale vs Jinman confrontation in Ep 1 and go into 1st person pov for the last confrontation seems to strongly indicate that Lee Dong Wook isn't really here for the physical fights. It's awkward to have these when everyone else has such a specialist fighting style. Like Pasin is instantly recognizable even shrouded in smoke and the ex-northern spy's action is so fun to watch. Jinman just doesn't stand out, imo.

They do drown to walk the spirit world. At least their gurgling sounds like it to me, lol.

The white bound-together cloth simply allows their souls to stay near like some kind of umbilical cord and therefore keeps them alive. That's why when the Shaman cuts the line Saeng-gang actually dies until Gu-cheon gives her his energy. The white cloth was/is used to retrieve souls in certain shamanic rituals, so its function in the show seems based on that.

Gu-cheon doesn't die even without it because he's been stuck between worlds/a living spirit since his mother died, which we learn because he survives as a child, at one time he retains his 'ghost markings' (these face veins the crown prince has too) even while his spirit is in his body and he tells Saeng-gang that he sometimes retains "a spirit-like state, even after coming out of the water".

A GL that just so happens to be GL? 👀 Exciting!

I'm not assuming he is not a Shaman, he says it flat out in Episode 1, lol.

Shaman? I do not serve any kind of spirit.
If you are not a shaman, how will you catch the pond spirit?
That is none of your concern, so…

As you will notice, the description does not call him a Shaman either or a Buddhist. But I guess just being in proximity to Buddhists now makes you a Buddhist.

He's neither a Buddhist (he doesn't follow their teachings) nor a Shaman (he doesn't want a presiding deity because of what happened to his mother). You are just assuming things the show doesn't show or state because you want a swordfighting training montage. He's good at swordfighting because he has had to defend himself in the World of Gwi since he was a boy. That's it.

We know he has entered the World of Gwi before with peach blossom branches because he knows how to use them as swords and at the start of the show Gu-cheon reveals a lot of people want him to exorcise spirits, so he has been swordfighting at least on and off. But to defeat the guard he needed extra help through a more powerful shamanic artifact that is the lightning-struck jujube tree branch. Gu-cheon also doesn't so easily exorcise the guard. He is so exhausted from the fight that he falls to a gwi-mae and wouldn't have returned to the living if Saeng-gang and Ggeomeoksali hadn't helped him.

A nice movie with some heartfelt moments. To me the sismance was more compelling than the romance. It would have been cool if they had changed the twist from the Taiwanese original to bolster the disability representation and be a story less by the numbers.

Fu Tingyun keeps being like "I'll say this or that later" to people who are important and it keeps biting her back deservedly. Can't make plans like that if you're not in control at all.

On episode three and the SML's "Three Nos" strike system is such a bullshit excuse. "I don't wanna get a third strike." Dude, you already have 30.

His job? Ambitious.
His personality? Not at all.

Same! I hope she has a similar arc to Gu Lan from A Splendid Match.

I couldn't really get into some other characters Ding Yu Xi has played, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but he's really bringing the smuggler/outlaw type to live here. The daredevil acting suits him well.

Ah In is so fun and such a crybaby. Ji Yoo is such a badass, yet apologizes the most. Ha Young is such a mom friend but also an anxious mess. They are such great archetypes with a twist.

Thank you for taking the time to read all of my thoughts. I liked engaging with your questions ❤️

#1 The soul of Saeng-gang's mother was destroyed when Gu-cheon claimed the eyes of the spirit. She basically sacrificed herself for him. I agree that it has never been properly explained but I think her being unable to reincarnate ever again alludes to off-setting whatever the consequences might have been. Consequences might also just mean that Gu-cheon is becoming more and more spirit instead of human, and not enough time has passed to show that. I would argue that the soul's destruction shows how dangerous getting those eyes was, but I do think this was swept under the rug too fast. If the show had gotten a bit more time, maybe the gravitas of that situation had been felt more.

#3-#4 That's true. The first time he comes close to becoming an ak-gwi he goes after the king immediately because his resentment is so strong and at that point he doesn't care about anyone in the palace. Ak-gwi are also described as killing innocents but even the crown prince, who was already murderous while alive, doesn't just kill everyone. (Except if you count the epidemic as a direct ghost action but it seems more like a side-effect to me.) There doesn't seem to be an inherent "berserker mode" to ak-gwi, so because Gu-cheon's perspective has changed, his violence and reason level have changed. When he sets out to kill the king, he is filled with resentment and has just relived killing his mom. All he wants is to not be in the palace. By the end of the show he becomes an ak-gwi because he wants to save Saeng-gang.

I think there are a few times the characters tell us one thing, but things happen slightly differently. Idk if that is because everyone is an unreliable narrator, sometimes the translation is just a bit inaccurate or both. What I mean is that Gu-cheon is the only one who can tell us about the World of Gwi, but he also hates it and he certainly doesn't want to become part of it more, so I wouldn't be surprised if his pessimism colors the way he talks about it.

Some clarifications:
1. The gwi-mae are not ghosts. They are just yin energy and resentment taking on form, so Gu-cheon didn't destroy a soul when he destroyed the first room's spirit. It's explained in the first or second episode, I think. You can also check out the discussions on here, where the Netflix explanation for the different types of spirits has been posted.

2. Gu-cheon was poisoned at the time by Saeng-gang. It caused him to be largely immobile, so he drowned by blood instead.

3. & 4. It has to do with the primordial Gwi-mae he made a deal with to save Saeng-gang. When he flies off into the light, he decides he doesn't want to be forced to serve it. The chain was tied to the sword, so it might still stick in the primordial gwi-mae and Saeng-gang disturbed that fight. We also know the river is where Gu-cheon first became a person who became connected to the World of Gwi. Whether he truly still is human at the end of the show, only a second season could confirm.

The story is decent. The acting is good but suffers under the editing and setting design, which is at short drama level. Some of the directing even positions the characters differently after every cut. It just makes it all really fake.

The production is so bad that I am struggling to make it through episode 3.

Oh my god, so it sneak aired after all.