The Master's Sun

After finishing Dramaworld, I was debating going back to either Doctors or trying something new. But, dilettante that I am, I decided to go for something new. I liked So Ji-Sub in Oh My Venus (even though I am mad at the ending a bit) and I'd seen some clips that made The Master's Sun look interesting, so I thought I'd try something paranormal-ish. Have watched three episodes now, mostly while at the gym.

Seo In-Guk (Shopping King Louis) is in it too, playing a character called Kang-woo, which I didn't know going in, but I like him too, so that was a bonus. Anyway...the story. Tae Gong-Sil (Gong Hyo-Jin) nearly died in an accident of some sort some years ago. Since then, she's been able to see dead people (yes, the whole: I see dead people thing). Consequently, she's constantly in a state of semi-terror and exhausted as she can't usually sleep. The dead often want things from her, though sometimes it's almost like they're just glad to be seen. 

So Ji-Sub is another chaebol type this time, but this character is a bit of an ass and only worried about money. He's got his own traumatic past thing where he was kidnapped when he was a teenager. His girlfriend at the time died in a fiery car crash when he was rescued (after the ransom was already paid)...and at first you think, oh, he must be pining for her (everyone else around him thinks that) but it turns out that she was in on it with the kidnappers somehow and instead he really thinks she's some kind of evil bitch.

He's also the only respite Gong-Sil gets from ghosts -- when she touches him, they disappear. That reminds me a bit of the thing in About Time, though hopefully here it'll be a more consistent thing. So she's doing everything she can to be near him (gets a job at his company, follows him around, etc.). He thinks she's trying to seduce him at first (very unsuccessfully) but by the third episode he's starting to believe her about the ghost thing.

Each episode has (so far) had a little mini-mystery of it's own that Gong-Sil has to solve. Well, maybe solve isn't the right word. She has to help the ghosts before they'll leave her alone. Kang-woo is somehow involved with the dead girlfriend stuff (Cha Hee-joo, played by Han Bo-Reum) but no idea how/why as yet or if he's a good guy or a bad guy. 

So...so far I'd say it's interesting. Ji-Sub's still got that deadpan style. Have to see how his character plays out. He professes to have no interest but he keeps getting pulled in despite his protestations. It's a bit of a methinks he doth protest too much thing. Oh, and weirdly, his assistant is played by Choi Jung-Woo who was the idiot dad in Legend of the Blue Sea. So odd to see him play a nice guy. 

Not entirely sure about Gong-Sil's character mostly because I'm not sure why she's so terrified. I mean, yeah, the ghosts look scary at first, but so far we haven't seen them do anything to her other than look terrifying (though dead girlfriend just possessed her body at the end of episode 3, but that was only because she's drunk). She's a bit of a weird combination of shy/flirty/terrified/bold but I guess I'll see how it plays out.

Edit: I waited to write more about this one until I finished it. Mostly because I did most of my watching at the gym/lunch/train this time around. I have lots of thoughts and I'm going to bullet point them because, well, it's my blog and I'm the only one who reads it, so why not?

Random screenshot I took of So Ji-Sub's WTF face. Can't remember why.

• This might be the first Kdrama I've seen where I can actually buy into three tropes that I usually hate with a passion. 
• One: The Noble Idiot/Martyr thing. Gong-Sil's got that going on through a lot of the last episodes BUT it actually kind of makes sense as Joong-Won (So Ji-Sub's character) literally dies at one point because of her ghost connection thing when he saves her from a guy and gets stabbed in the back. She winds up making a deal with this spooky Chinese ghost-whisperer lady to get him to go back to his body.
• Two: Amnesia. Joong-won loses his memory of his time with her because of the deal with Mrs. Go (the spooky Chinese lady with the crazy eyes). This one I didn't think was wholly necessary but it worked okay and actually fed into the Noble Idiot thing because Gong-Sil was holding his memories and didn't want to give them back because she thought he was safer without her. And, since he actually is safer without her, I can buy it.
• Three: Forced Separation. I can forgive this one because Gong-Sil doesn't actually leave because of the Noble Idiot thing but because she needs to find out what happened to her when she wandered the earth as a spirit for three years. She also wants to (hopefully) get rid of her spirit sense and/or come to terms with it so she can be with Joong-won unfettered and unburdened by her NEED for him. It also works okay for me because he KNOWS why she's going and, while he doesn't want her to go, he can understand why she needs to for herself. I'm not even going to be mad about the no contact thing because we know she's got it in the back of her head that she may NOT go back to him if she can't get rid of her ghostly connection.
• There are only a few things that I found awkward/lacking:
• Kang Woo/Seo In-Guk's fighting scenes. I mean, I like him and everything and there wasn't anything really technically wrong with them...but somehow they were filmed really awkwardly. I can't even pinpoint what it was. Maybe because it seemed too melodramatically staged? I dunno. I just kind of inwardly cringed.
• The introduction of the twin sister of the dead girlfriend came so late in the show that it felt a bit like a red herring, especially as she'd been essentially following Joong-won around for 15 FREAKING YEARS. I'm actually fine with introducing that plotwise at that point, but there should have been at least background glimpses of her or something before that.
• Also the introduction of Lee Chun-Hee's character at the very end as the guy Gong-Sil had spent her missing 3 years with while she was a spirit. From his talks with the ghost, you can see he'd been keeping tabs on her the whole time. So why introduce him so late? It isn't deus ex machina exactly but it's something akin to it. And she's been "awake" again for, like, 4 years? Five? So why did he wait until now? Wouldn't he have found her as soon as possible after traveling the world with her for three years? Did he love her? It's implied but not stated. And why doesn't she remember her time with him at all when all the dead spirits are hanging around precisely because they do remember and have unfinished business still on earth? Maybe the argument is that only permanently dead remember? 

And...I'm done with bullet points. I liked the leads in this. Still enjoy So Ji-Sub. There's something about his comedic timing that I really like. Not entirely sure he and Gong Hyo-Jin had the best chemistry together (it wasn't sparks flying or anything), but it worked well enough. There was also enough humour to balance out the dark bits for me. Seo In-Guk as the second lead was good, though it was only at the very end that I could root for the second leading lady to actually get together with him because she was such a jealous bitch to start with. 

Liked Gong-Sil's sister and glad she had her moments at the end too. Really enjoyed the Mr. Kim character (Choi Jung-Woo) after I so didn't care for him in The Legend of the Blue Sea. 

Am I glad I watched it? Yes. Overall, I really enjoyed it. It was a nice blend of humour, romance, and pathos. Really surprised about not minding the three tropes popping up that I mentioned above because, honestly, those have been really bugging me in a lot of the dramas. But they did work for these characters. That's the difference. It didn't feel shoehorned in. Would I watch it again? Yeah, I might. Not for a while, but I could see it happening. I have a vague wish that there'd been more romantic-y bits for the leads as they spent most of their time verbally sparring. But, yeah, this was a good one.