1
kobeno1
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
This review may contain spoilers
I watched "Oh My Ghost" a while back, and that series is infinitely superior to this one. It had intelligent characters, a great plot with some good twists, and a cast that was first-rate, led by Bo-Young Park, who is one of the best in the business.
This series is a poor imitation by comparison. It actually starts out quite strong with interesting characters, for the most part, and an interesting story. However, much like a house of cards, everything falls to pieces in the last 4-5 episodes when one is expecting things to continue strongly.
Bong-Pal Park is a young college student living on his own, majoring in Economics, and yet he has an interesting ability: he can see, hear, and even fight ghosts. In fact, he's earning money by being hired as an exorcist. This isn't your "western" exorcist who recites prayers and performs silly rituals, but a man who literally beats up ghosts until they disappear/move on. Yeah, I know...it's a bit silly too. Bong-Pal is a loner who doesn't interact with anyone except for a disheveled and inept monk who feels responsible for Bong-Pal's situation.
Bong-Pal is called to exorcise a ghost at a haunted high school. It's there that he meets Hyeon-Ji Kim, a rather weak, vain, and pesky ghost.
After a fight, she begins following him all around, and they end up teaming up together to fight ghosts. Yes, she can fight them too.
Meanwhile, we have Professor Joon Hye-Seong, who has a way of making any girl sway in her shoes, but is far more diabolical than meets the eye.
There is a connection between all three characters which attempts to drive the story.
The series is intriguing while Bong-Pal and Hyeon-Ji are together. However, a twist unfolds that shakes things up. You can't very well have a K-Drama without a wedge that drives them apart, can you?
We find that, for some reason (unexplained) that Hyeon-Ji is an even weaker and more pathetic young girl than we thought. For some reason, her personality changes, and she's a 24-year-old woman living under the heels of her overbearing, controlling mother. Yes, she has no say in her life, which unfortunately, is very typical of Asian mothers. I ought to know as I've worked as an ESL teacher in China, Korea, and Taiwan. Hyeon-Ji may be 24, but she acts like she's 14, and her mother treats her as such. Some of the worst parents in the world are Asian and American parents. Neither one knows how to empower. One rules by complete control, and the other spoils their kids with everything under the sun. Both are pathetic.
To make matters worse, she's a typical 24-year-old woman who acts 10 years younger than she is, because she's so immature. She gets upset if calls/texts aren't immediately returned (also typical of Korean women) which are followed up with threats of being cut-off permanently if an immediate response isn't given, and she gets upset if all of the attention isn't on her. She pouts and constantly asks, "Did you miss me?"
A 24-year-old woman (who's actually a couple of years older by now) having to ask her boyfriend to ask for permission to date, is one of the saddest and most pathetic things in any culture. This isn't the 1900s!
Episode 15 finally gives us a silly, unconvincing climactic battle. At one point, Hyeon-Ji is asked to get the weapon that will kill the evil spirit. She sits on the ground for 5 minutes before being told again. She literally says and does nothing during the whole battle. The series should have ended here.
Instead, we're giving a completely useless and unnecessary Episode 16 that will challenge even the most hearty viewer to sit through as we are lulled to sleep because it took the writers a whole episode to sort things out with Bong-Pal and Hyeon-ji. We're given scenes that any decent editor would have scrapped! I couldn't even get through the final episode. I finally shut it off with, "Enough!"
If you're looking for a good series to watch, I highly recommend the vastly superior, "Oh My Ghost." Leave this one to the exorcists, as that's what it would take to sort through this contrived mess of a series!
This series is a poor imitation by comparison. It actually starts out quite strong with interesting characters, for the most part, and an interesting story. However, much like a house of cards, everything falls to pieces in the last 4-5 episodes when one is expecting things to continue strongly.
Bong-Pal Park is a young college student living on his own, majoring in Economics, and yet he has an interesting ability: he can see, hear, and even fight ghosts. In fact, he's earning money by being hired as an exorcist. This isn't your "western" exorcist who recites prayers and performs silly rituals, but a man who literally beats up ghosts until they disappear/move on. Yeah, I know...it's a bit silly too. Bong-Pal is a loner who doesn't interact with anyone except for a disheveled and inept monk who feels responsible for Bong-Pal's situation.
Bong-Pal is called to exorcise a ghost at a haunted high school. It's there that he meets Hyeon-Ji Kim, a rather weak, vain, and pesky ghost.
After a fight, she begins following him all around, and they end up teaming up together to fight ghosts. Yes, she can fight them too.
Meanwhile, we have Professor Joon Hye-Seong, who has a way of making any girl sway in her shoes, but is far more diabolical than meets the eye.
There is a connection between all three characters which attempts to drive the story.
The series is intriguing while Bong-Pal and Hyeon-Ji are together. However, a twist unfolds that shakes things up. You can't very well have a K-Drama without a wedge that drives them apart, can you?
We find that, for some reason (unexplained) that Hyeon-Ji is an even weaker and more pathetic young girl than we thought. For some reason, her personality changes, and she's a 24-year-old woman living under the heels of her overbearing, controlling mother. Yes, she has no say in her life, which unfortunately, is very typical of Asian mothers. I ought to know as I've worked as an ESL teacher in China, Korea, and Taiwan. Hyeon-Ji may be 24, but she acts like she's 14, and her mother treats her as such. Some of the worst parents in the world are Asian and American parents. Neither one knows how to empower. One rules by complete control, and the other spoils their kids with everything under the sun. Both are pathetic.
To make matters worse, she's a typical 24-year-old woman who acts 10 years younger than she is, because she's so immature. She gets upset if calls/texts aren't immediately returned (also typical of Korean women) which are followed up with threats of being cut-off permanently if an immediate response isn't given, and she gets upset if all of the attention isn't on her. She pouts and constantly asks, "Did you miss me?"
A 24-year-old woman (who's actually a couple of years older by now) having to ask her boyfriend to ask for permission to date, is one of the saddest and most pathetic things in any culture. This isn't the 1900s!
Episode 15 finally gives us a silly, unconvincing climactic battle. At one point, Hyeon-Ji is asked to get the weapon that will kill the evil spirit. She sits on the ground for 5 minutes before being told again. She literally says and does nothing during the whole battle. The series should have ended here.
Instead, we're giving a completely useless and unnecessary Episode 16 that will challenge even the most hearty viewer to sit through as we are lulled to sleep because it took the writers a whole episode to sort things out with Bong-Pal and Hyeon-ji. We're given scenes that any decent editor would have scrapped! I couldn't even get through the final episode. I finally shut it off with, "Enough!"
If you're looking for a good series to watch, I highly recommend the vastly superior, "Oh My Ghost." Leave this one to the exorcists, as that's what it would take to sort through this contrived mess of a series!
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