Oh Hwayugi, How Did You Go Wrong?

The Hong Sisters made a name for themselves with fresh, addictive romantic-comedies like Delightful Girl Chun-hyang, and explored their strengths over the next decade. Sometimes they were successful, like with adorable fantasy My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, or with delightfully eccentric Master's Sun. But their most recent blunders, Big and Warm and Cozy, have turned so many fans away from them. After an almost three year hiatus, they brought Hwayugi to the table.

NOTE: Expect spoilers. And, again, Blogger is playing up with the spacing. 

Hwayugi, better known as A Korean Odyssey thanks to butcher-of-titles Netflix, tells the story of ghost-seeing Jin Seon-mi, cursed with the fate of Samjang (making her irresistible to monsters) after meeting a monkey who tricked and betrayed her as a child. Now an adult, Seon-mi meets this monkey again - but the tables are turned when she unintentionally steals his heart, making her a permanent addition to his circle of mythical creatures. 

In many ways, the Hong Sisters went back to their strengths with Hwayugi. The drama frustrates me in that it both crafted wonderful characters, and put them to shame. Casting Lee Seung-gi again was a stroke of genius - the role of the apathetic and selfish monkey was practically tailor-made for him, and he just keeps getting more charming. It struck me whilst re-watching Shining Inheritance how much he's grown, both literally and as an actor. I would recommend this drama simply for his stunning performance and his character's growth arc. That, and the reunion with Cha Seung-won, were good choices. I think he overacts in comedy, so it was fortunate that he was such a multifaceted character. I was mostly impressed with how he'd been written, because I struggled to put a label on what type of character he was - because he was not the protagonist nor the antagonist. 

  Bravo, but the good character writing couldn't hide the bad. But whilst the majority of the characters were well-written and interesting, there's just one who clearly no thought had been put into: Jin Seon-mi. I don't know how the Hong Sisters have lost the ability to write personality into their heroines, but it's a crying shame that Oh Yeon-seo was so criminally wasted in a drama about her love story. She was phenomenal in Come Back Ajusshi, where she played an aged gangster trapped in a woman's body, so why is no-one noting and actually utilizing that kind of talent? None of the magic powers she was given served to make her interesting. Seon-mi frustrated me for being unforgivably dull, constantly in the dark about things, and repetitiously reiterating the same conflict over and over again. 

  And then what about the actors and characters completely wasted. Lee Hong-ki's pig was promised to be a main character, and had virtually nothing to do until the end of the story, which was an injustice to him after You're Beautiful. Most of all, regardless of whether it was a clever or unique writing choice, I can't forget how badly the Hong Sisters treated their best character, Buja. Lee Se-young was amazing, obviously, in both of her roles, but giving no closure to Buja's story is a crime and I'll never stop being bitter over it. 

Considering how big and important the forced love story was in the plot, the Hong Sisters didn't do much to keep it interesting. I got tired of it quickly, because there wasn't anything they could do to build upon the issue and make it more interesting over time. It was just the same argument over and over again. No number of steamy kisses convinced me that the two actors had chemistry, either - Oh Yeon-seo had more of that with Honey Lee than with Lee Seung-gi.

The fact that the monsters reacted to situations differently from humans was funny - what with most of them being immortal, their feelings towards death was particularly interesting - but I'm still frustrated by the fact that each of them tried to kill Jin Seon-mi at least once and there were never any repercussions. Reset, continue as normal. Little things like this incessantly frustrated me - similarly to how the characters in Reunited Worlds never reacted to the fact that a dead boy was alive and walking around again. It's basic logic that should be there.
  This show never needed to be twenty episodes - the conflict was stretched out until it threatened to break. They definitely could have cut out four episodes, perhaps gotten rid of some frankly weird ghost-busting story arcs, and come out tighter.

  And if they did, maybe they would have had more budget for the fucking ugly CGI dragon. It's laughable that they built up to an epic conclusion and let it fall flat. I'm in the camp of people who liked the ending, firstly because it meant I didn't have to suffer with the drama anymore, but also simply because an open ending suits the fantasy genre. When you can't wrap up your internal logic in a convincing way, let the audience know that the adventure continues. Simple. I'm almost sad that everything I like about Hwayugi needs to be buried under complaints in order for my review to work. 

This is my judgement: Hong Sisters, you're going to have to do better than that.