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Jul. 17th, 2024 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsWe recently watched the kdrama Sell Your Haunted House and were hooked from the first episode, which kicks off with the following premise:
- our hero is a scammer fake exorcist
- our heroine is a real estate broker slash real exorcist
- the way exorcism works is she hires virginal young men who are weak to ghost possession to get possessed by the ghosts, so that she can trap them in an ghost array that she SHOOTS OUT OF A MAGICAL STAPLE GUN and then STAB THEM IN THE HEART with a CUSTOM GHOST STABBING NEEDLE, after which the ghost energy dissipates and the virginal young men sag limply in her arms
As the meme goes: to me, that's cinema.
Our hero the scammer fake exorcist is, of course, unbeknownst to himself, an extremely powerful medium; our heroine is looking for an extremely powerful medium to exorcise the ghost of her mother, who lurks silently in the upstairs room of their exorcist real estate agency ominously judging her daughter's life choices and shopping habits, such as buying dozens of pairs of completely identical black chunky-heeled boots. (Hong Ji-ah's entire aesthetic and personality come directly and charmingly from the front cover of a nineties urban fantasy novel. You could pick any random image of this character and tell me she was a supernatural PI with a werewolf love interest and I would believe it.)
Both protagonists have a sidekick. The hero has a himbo hacker life partner who supportively follows him around everywhere he goes, and eventually gets hired by the real estate agency as the hero's plus one despite having no relevant skills.
The heroine has a stylish middle-aged office manager who handles all the parts of running an exorcism-based real estate agency that require any soft skills whatsoever. They will flip your haunted apartment at market value!
I was initially expecting this character to be one hundred percent supportive comic relief so I was thrilled and delighted when several episodes in the camera began to suggest that not only was she a highly competent shark, but she was Protecting Dark Secrets that Might Be at the Center of the Show's Mystery. Frankly as much as I enjoyed all the exorcism nonsense this show could have been the Office Manager Joo show and I would have been content, she's dreamy and I loved her passionately. (Of course it turns out that all her secrets were to protect the heroine and she did nothing wrong, about which honestly I was a bit disappointed -- she could have done something wrong -- but on the other hand the show did give some really lovely narrative weight to her relationship with the heroine's mom, so you win some you lose some.)
Now I have talked a lot about the silly aspects of the show, of which there are numerous, but also like all ghost-themed kdramas this is at heart a show about loss and grief. Something that I thought was really interesting and unusual about the setup here is the fact that the exorcist and/or medium end up burdened with a ghost's memories after the ghost has already been exorcised; if they then decide to take action to resolve an unresolved thread or sort out some unfinished business, it's not about what the ghost needs. The ghost is already gone. It's just the grief that still lingers. The central themes are about what the living feel about the dead, not what the dead feel about the living.
... and also about gangsters and the housing crisis! The other major plot is gangsters taking advantage of the housing crisis. These are REAL ESTATE THEMED ghosts and we will NOT forget it.
Aside from gangsters and the housing crisis, the other other central plot is not romance, unless you count himbo hacker's earnest texting affair with one of the real estate clients of the week. Startlingly enough, despite the extremely tropey setup (he MUST be a virgin for ghosts to possess him! they MUST frequently Hold Hands For Warmth in the face of chilling ghost energy! she MUST penetrate him repeatedly with a sharp needle!) and the dramatic backstory (their fated encounter as children that led directly to the deaths of both of the most important adults in their lives!) the show really has no interest in playing any of this for romantic tension ... they come to care about each other very much and become good friends and colleagues who sometimes have to hold hands for work reasons. Occasionally there's a supportive hug. We spent all sixteen episodes braced for an unconvincing kiss at the very end and it was genuinely a great relief that it did not occur.
The hero does share a poignant love confession with somebody at the end of the show! It's with himbo hacker; of course we all cheered. However, it's also very easy to read this virginal young man as amiably asexual, and he certainly does not end the show with any plans to become un-virginal -- after all, they've got ghosts to exorcise!
- our hero is a scammer fake exorcist
- our heroine is a real estate broker slash real exorcist
- the way exorcism works is she hires virginal young men who are weak to ghost possession to get possessed by the ghosts, so that she can trap them in an ghost array that she SHOOTS OUT OF A MAGICAL STAPLE GUN and then STAB THEM IN THE HEART with a CUSTOM GHOST STABBING NEEDLE, after which the ghost energy dissipates and the virginal young men sag limply in her arms
As the meme goes: to me, that's cinema.
Our hero the scammer fake exorcist is, of course, unbeknownst to himself, an extremely powerful medium; our heroine is looking for an extremely powerful medium to exorcise the ghost of her mother, who lurks silently in the upstairs room of their exorcist real estate agency ominously judging her daughter's life choices and shopping habits, such as buying dozens of pairs of completely identical black chunky-heeled boots. (Hong Ji-ah's entire aesthetic and personality come directly and charmingly from the front cover of a nineties urban fantasy novel. You could pick any random image of this character and tell me she was a supernatural PI with a werewolf love interest and I would believe it.)
Both protagonists have a sidekick. The hero has a himbo hacker life partner who supportively follows him around everywhere he goes, and eventually gets hired by the real estate agency as the hero's plus one despite having no relevant skills.
The heroine has a stylish middle-aged office manager who handles all the parts of running an exorcism-based real estate agency that require any soft skills whatsoever. They will flip your haunted apartment at market value!
I was initially expecting this character to be one hundred percent supportive comic relief so I was thrilled and delighted when several episodes in the camera began to suggest that not only was she a highly competent shark, but she was Protecting Dark Secrets that Might Be at the Center of the Show's Mystery. Frankly as much as I enjoyed all the exorcism nonsense this show could have been the Office Manager Joo show and I would have been content, she's dreamy and I loved her passionately. (Of course it turns out that all her secrets were to protect the heroine and she did nothing wrong, about which honestly I was a bit disappointed -- she could have done something wrong -- but on the other hand the show did give some really lovely narrative weight to her relationship with the heroine's mom, so you win some you lose some.)
Now I have talked a lot about the silly aspects of the show, of which there are numerous, but also like all ghost-themed kdramas this is at heart a show about loss and grief. Something that I thought was really interesting and unusual about the setup here is the fact that the exorcist and/or medium end up burdened with a ghost's memories after the ghost has already been exorcised; if they then decide to take action to resolve an unresolved thread or sort out some unfinished business, it's not about what the ghost needs. The ghost is already gone. It's just the grief that still lingers. The central themes are about what the living feel about the dead, not what the dead feel about the living.
... and also about gangsters and the housing crisis! The other major plot is gangsters taking advantage of the housing crisis. These are REAL ESTATE THEMED ghosts and we will NOT forget it.
Aside from gangsters and the housing crisis, the other other central plot is not romance, unless you count himbo hacker's earnest texting affair with one of the real estate clients of the week. Startlingly enough, despite the extremely tropey setup (he MUST be a virgin for ghosts to possess him! they MUST frequently Hold Hands For Warmth in the face of chilling ghost energy! she MUST penetrate him repeatedly with a sharp needle!) and the dramatic backstory (their fated encounter as children that led directly to the deaths of both of the most important adults in their lives!) the show really has no interest in playing any of this for romantic tension ... they come to care about each other very much and become good friends and colleagues who sometimes have to hold hands for work reasons. Occasionally there's a supportive hug. We spent all sixteen episodes braced for an unconvincing kiss at the very end and it was genuinely a great relief that it did not occur.
The hero does share a poignant love confession with somebody at the end of the show! It's with himbo hacker; of course we all cheered. However, it's also very easy to read this virginal young man as amiably asexual, and he certainly does not end the show with any plans to become un-virginal -- after all, they've got ghosts to exorcise!
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Date: 2024-07-18 01:17 am (UTC)That sounds great.
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Date: 2024-07-18 03:57 am (UTC)I should get some icons from it... I probably won't actually get around to that, but there are simply so many excellent faces being made, too.
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Date: 2024-08-05 11:41 am (UTC)Unrelated - semi-related: the only thing in writing that broke my book hangover after a Bulgakov reread was your Iron Children! <3 I knew I was saving them for a rainy day for a good reason. I loved it to bits, read in one evening!! Went to bed and worried like a mother hen about what would happen with Asher and Hot Sergeant and their iron baby ducklings. I have a weird amount of confidence is Ester's angry revolution and tablet-smashing, though, now that Cascabela joined her.