A Korean Odyssey " Hwayugi" Review
A must watch Korean Drama Series.
Philippines is one of the country that was invaded by the Korean dramas. And I'm one of those kdrama addict. I like rom-com fantasy genre as they are really good on making funny yet romantic series that you can't really resist on watching. I'm currently watching an ongoing Korean drama titled: A Korean Odyssey " Hwayugi" that was first aired last December 23, 2017 and will last until March 4, 2018 with 20 episodes for 1:20 hours each.
Plot
This is a story about a girl who's been bullied and hated by her age because of her weirdness as she have the ability to see spirits. An event lead her to meet Woo Hwi-Chul/ Woo Mawang, the bull demon king (played by Cha Seung-Won) who helped her to escape from a bugging spirit. Woo Mawang made a deal with young Jin Seon-Mi (played by Kal So-Won) to get the princess iron fan in the house in the middle of the woods in exchange of his umbrella, whom Seon-Mi thought it is powerful and can defeat souls.
Upon getting what she's after, Jin Seon-Mi met Son Ogong, the equal of heaven, the monkey king (played by Lee Seung Gi) and pretended that she never hear or see him, as what Woo Mawang instructed, but unfortunately Son Ogong found out that she can really see him. He learned that it is Woo Mawang who sent her in that place. Son Ogong made up a story that if she will walkout by herself, something scary will attack her. Offering to be her company on her way out and to be her protector, Son Ogong asked young Jin Seon-Mi to put out all the candles while he's changing clothes, but the clever young Jin Seon-Mi knows that Son Ogong can't do it him self so in return, she made a contract with him, in the condition to protect her from the scary creatures and that he will appear every time she calls his name. Upon the completion of the contract, young Jin Seon-Mi put out all the candle that serves as the marble mountain who sealed all Son Ogong's power and completely freed him.
When Son Ogong is finally freed, he deceived young Jin Seon-Mi and asked her to call his name, when Jin Seon-Mi is about to utter his name, he immediately removed it to her memory so she would never be able to call his name again and just left her there alone like that.
25 years later Jin Seon-Mi (played by Oh Yeon-seo ) is now a real state CEO, she uses her ability to drive away bad spirits and resell houses with notorious bad luck. Until one day, she and Son Ogong have crossed their path again which started their new chapter to their lives.
Geumgango
The story will rotate on this magical bracelet. Originally Son Ogong was planning to eat Jin Seon-Mi to gain more power as she became Sam-jang when she releases Son Ogong from the marble mountain, her blood makes all the demons more powerful that makes her life endangered especially when she's wounded as her blood attracts evil demons. Jin Seon-Mi find a deterrent by the use of this magical bracelet, whom the effect is to make Son Ogong fall deeply in love with her.
My favorite characters
First would be Son Ogong. He was described as a self centered, mean and stone hearted demon, who doesn't care to anyone, until everything changes when he got the geumgango which the effect was for him to fall in love to Jin Seon-Mi who gave the thing to him. His character gave me this deep impression. There's a lot of mystery in him that is not yet revealed, but from what I've seen up to the present episodes, he's not originally bad, it is the human who made him that way. He was exiled because of a human and was punished to be locked up for thousands of year, all of those things happened from trusting a human.
And 2nd would be Woo Hwi-Chul/ Woo Mawang, though you can't really guess if he's an ally or enemy of Son Ogong, but he have a soft spot especially when it comes to love, as he's been enduring pain for thousands of years because of his lover who's been exiled to be a human and to live and die miserably for eternity, this was said to be all because of him. The story is not yet clear on why it turned out that way, but Woo Mawang is trying his best to do good deeds for him to earn points so he can be a deity and lift the punishment for his lover. Since Jin Seon-Mi have the power to control Son Ogong by the use of geumgango who was originally came from Woo Mawang, he uses that to make a contract with her in the condition of defeating demons by using Son Ogong, and credit all the points to him. His character surely brings color to the show.
The other Cast.
Lee Hong-gi - as P.K / Jeo Pal-gye
- He's one of the top star of Ma-wang's agency. He's a pig demon.
Jang Gwang - as Yoon Dae-sik / Sa Oh-jeong
- He's the right hand of Son Oh-gong, a CEO of a mobile phone manufacturing company.
Lee El - as Ma Ji-young
- The loyal secretary of Ma-Wang.
Lee Se-young - as Jung Se-ra / Jin Bu-ja / Ah Sa-nyeo
- She died from an accident but because of Sam-Jang's blood she roseup from the dead and became a zombie.
Kim Sung-oh - as Lee Han--joo
- He's the right hand of Jin Seon-mi. A real estate broker.
Sung Hyuk - as General Dong / Fairy Ha
- He's living with two spirits. Being an ice cream owner in the morning and a bar owner in the evening. The two personalities is totally opposite, as General Dong is an Ice general and Fairy Ha, is a Summer fairy.
Sung Ji-ru as Soo Bo-ri
- An elderly deity who looks after Son Oh-gong and the other demons.
My Rating
I will give this Korean drama 5 star for the following reasons,
The actors gave justice to their character. This series surely have a set of great actors that gives spice to their role. Not really knowing if the characters are ally or enemy as there's a lot of backstabbing happening on the characters. This will make you think even more.
There's a lot of twist in the story that will leave you an impact and hanging emotion especially at the end of every episodes.
Along the way of watching this episodes, it will give you the sense of thrill, happiness, sadness, fantasy and most of all romantic excitement. Lee Seung Gi and Oh Yeon-seo surely got the chemistry to make the viewers feel the emotions of their characters.
My Take on the story.
There are some information about the characters that was not been explained well in the story. Like the the parents of Jin Seon-Mi. It didn't mentioned what happened to her parents and why she end up with her grandma. The background story of her childhood have less information thought it gives this mysterious image to her. Though I think the writer keeps this hanging as most of the characters still have this hanging background as to the present episode. Like to the great sage Son Ogon, the reason why he was been punished is not yet totally revealed. As for Woo Mawang, his love interest is still a mystery, on how she end up being punished and exiled.
At the present they have already 12 episodes, but still there's a lot of mystery on each and every characters and along the way they are incorporating new characters that gives twist to the story.
Since this is a love story between a human and a demon, the ending is quite unpredictable, if they will have a happy ending or, this will be a tragic love story. We need to watch out to see how it will go.
Here's the first episode and be the judge.
Thank you so much for the review! This has been really helpful :)