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.
1. To regain his sight, Gu Cheon says it’s not easy and he must disturb what shouldn’t be disturbed. But then…
#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.
1. To regain his sight, Gu Cheon says it’s not easy and he must disturb what shouldn’t be disturbed. But then…
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.
how is the story? is it really that bad? I wanted to give it a watch.
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.
It's surprisingly good. I didn't even realize the episodes are closer to 20 minutes than the state 30 minutes here. The first few scenes are overly dramatic but then the production team calms down a bit (while the leads don't, lol). The pacing doesn't seem too bad for a show of its length. (Just finished episode 4.)
Is it full blown horror or something like Hotel Del Luna
I felt it was no horror at all and more like a supernatural suspense story. But it depends on how much you're affected by the special effects. The spirits seemed more morbid to me than horrifying.
Her acting is decent, but I think the reason why she's getting so much criticism in Korea is cuz her dialect sounds…
I can see how that would break the immersion somewhat. Would be great if her agency or the production team can give her a good dialect coach for her next sageuk or season 2 .
She did well portraying Saeng-gang. The princess is a nervous character given the conflicting things that happened to her. Roh Yoon Seo brought her internal conflict to life well. She's so constraint and then bursts into action when it all becomes too much.
What am I watching at this point. This should have been a really interesting tragic romance. Instead every plot point from the romance to the mystery is so half-baked. Things just happen. The only thing slightly thought out is the parents' beef.
It's more that the King just blamed it on spirits again. Prince Inha was already moving again when the King stood over him. So it can be assumed the King used non-lethal poison on him and when noticing he was recovering, send him out of the palace to prove Prince Inha really can't stand the palace energies. That was already the scheme the first time Prince Inha entered the palace during the Queen Dowager's birthday, and it explains why the King temporarily installed him as the Crown Prince. It was part of the plan to get rid of him.
I get why the Stranger Things comparisons are coming easily but the World of Gwi reminds me a lot more of Silent Hill's Otherworld than the Upside Down. Maybe because the leads bleed so much, lol. Overall, the fights in the World of Gwi have a bit of a videogame vibe too.
The pond spirit’s story (the most favored court lady) ended kinda underwhelmingly. Like… was the purpose of…
Her only target was the queen dowager. The queen dowager mentions that the oppressive feeling on her palace is gone so the pond spirit must be gone too. It seems the most favored court lady essentially cursed the queen dowager's family line specifically but there is no family line to cut off because the queen dowager never had a child (that's the very reason she gives for killing the court lady while under the influence of the snake). So, even the brothers the now King killed where from other consorts and concubines, but because they are all the queen dowager's children culturally/heavenly, nobody questions them dying. Then the crown prince decides to curse his father as he dies with those same words and he is already more murderous and spiritually stronger than the court lady ever was, so his resentment takes root immediately.
I thought Saeng-Gang's wound by the pond spirit reacting when the crown prince got angry would have been a nice touch to show a connection between the curses but that probably wasn't meant that way. It was just to show the damage to her spirit increased the danger of her brother possessing her.
Plotholes I noticed:- How exactly did Saeng Gang's soul travel back to her body if the Crown Prince-turned deity…
When Gu-Cheon flies off into that yellowish light after defeating the crown prince and saying something akin to "I'm an ak-gwi already anyway, not point in serving a gwi-mae", I took that as him deciding to take on the gwi-mae in a fight and it predictably not working given the chain remains.
The Shaman had a spell to figure out that Gu-Cheon was hiding beneath the Buddha statue. I'm guessing he used that spell to find the pond spot. Given he wanted the crown prince as his new presiding deity, he would have known Saeng-Gang is confronting him, not Gu-Cheon. The pond is also rather infamous. The most favored lady died there and one of the princes. Plus it's the only big body of water in the palace. Considering how often the leads use it without hiding their intentions, the queen dowager's people might also just know about it by then.
This was such a cool thriller! I was expecting a more dramatic ending, but it's so sequel coded that they just must give us more Gu Cheon and Saeng Gang. 🙏
I thought this would have more of a The Ingenious One dynamic between ML and FL but the FL is really underutilized. And then she only appears more because ML's logic has left the chat.
1
#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.
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.
I thought Saeng-Gang's wound by the pond spirit reacting when the crown prince got angry would have been a nice touch to show a connection between the curses but that probably wasn't meant that way. It was just to show the damage to her spirit increased the danger of her brother possessing her.
The Shaman had a spell to figure out that Gu-Cheon was hiding beneath the Buddha statue. I'm guessing he used that spell to find the pond spot. Given he wanted the crown prince as his new presiding deity, he would have known Saeng-Gang is confronting him, not Gu-Cheon. The pond is also rather infamous. The most favored lady died there and one of the princes. Plus it's the only big body of water in the palace. Considering how often the leads use it without hiding their intentions, the queen dowager's people might also just know about it by then.