Arang and the Magistrate

Arang and the Magistrate

8/10

Arang and the Magistrate 

Genre:                                   Episodes: 20                                   Year: 2012

Historical

Supernatural

Romance

Synopsis:

Kim Eun Oh is the son of a nobleman and a slave-woman, and has a strange ability to see and hear ghosts. Eun Oh’s mother leaves him with his father and disappears, and Eun Oh begins to roam the country in search of her. By chance, Eun Oh becomes the Magistrate of Miryang and crosses paths with a ghost who is in possession of the last gift he ever gave to his mother- a hairpin. However the ghost, a young woman named Arang, has no recollection of how she came to posses the hairpin, or any memories of her life before she died. The two agree that the Magistrate will help investigate Arang’s death and bring the murderer to justice, and Arang will work to recover her lost memories to assist in locating the Magistrate’s mother.

Cast:

Lee Joon Ki (Magistrate Kim Eun Oh)

Shin Min Ah (Arang/Lee Seo Rim)

Yeon Woo Jin (Choi Ju Wal)

Kwon Oh Joong (Dol Soe)

Hwang Bo Ra (Bang Wool)

Kang Moon Young (Moo Yeon/Lady Seo/Hong Ryun)

Yoo Seung Ho (Jade Emperor)

General Thoughts:

Adorable characters and a compelling plot- off to a good start. The cast was wonderful. We get further confirmation that Shin Min Ah is the most gorgeous woman to walk the face of the earth, as she returns to take on another supernatural/fantasy heroine.

And thus was born my love of Lee Joon Ki

While the drama did run the risk of coming across similar to ‘My Girlfriend is a Gumiho’, with a similar fantasy element and the same main actress, thankfully Shin Min Ah was able to deliver a completely different (yet still completely adorable) character. Lee Joon Ki was a perfect fit for the Magistrate, and I instantly wanted to watch more historical dramas that he stared in, not only for his excellent acting- but he also looks killer in a hanbok. The supporting cast were as equally delightful as the main leads, playing their roles with nothing held back. Even at times when it was a tad overacted, it always fit in well with the tone of the scene. The writers really left nothing out with the well crafted universe they created. The mythology was extremely well thought through, and followed its own rules to perfection- allowing the drama to make perfect sense, and saving us poor viewers much frustration. Sadly, the plot does start to drag towards the end when it really should have been ramping up for a final showdown, but is bearable enough if only for that glorious ending the viewers and characters deserved.

Ace leading couple

What Was Great:

Mythology:

Seeing your own dead body- what a downer

The constructed world was so perfectly detailed. At no point did the writers leave it up to viewers to infer what was happening based on their own knowledge, but instead spelled it out simply for us. This is a giant bonus for people like myself who are not well-versed in the details of Korean mythology, and allow us to watch at our leisure without scrambling to figure out who’s who and what’s going on (unlike some dramas). Similarly, it also doesn’t insult the viewers’ intelligence by constantly reminding us what the rules and limitations of this mythological world are, but simply presents a fact once and continues to stick with it for the duration of the series (again, unlike some dramas).

Ju Wal slayed my emotions like he slayed those girls

Different Girls:

It was an unusual, but altogether successful idea to present Arang and Lee Seo Rim as two separate people. Having Arang talk to Seo Rim in her reflection was an easy, yet not obvious, way for the character to monologue and let the viewers in on what she was thinking. It also made the romantic switch from Young Lord Ju Wal to the Magistrate flow smoothly- because Arang had never loved Ju Wal, Seo Rim had. That whole balace of romance was handled deftly- well done writers. You succeeded in having Ju Wal destroy my emotions.

Solid Chemistry:

Yeah sure Magistrate- 'sharing breath' so she can recover faster. We'll pretend to believe you

Lee Jun Ki and Shin Min Ah were just slaying it. They were so delightful together, and all their interactions were unbearably sweet. And that’s it. They’re perfect. Always. Forever.

Fight:

The fight scenes were splendid to watch. They were executed perfectly every time, and added a real sense of excitement to the drama. The movements were choreographed excellently, and there was always a great use of props and scenery. It was filmed well- it was easy to keep up with the awesome, kick-ass movements.

Fight, fight, fight

Perfect Finish:

K-Dramas are notorious for their rather weak endings in their good dramas. However, ‘Arang and the Magistrate’ manage to nail it. At first, it was looking sceptical- but it was all saved by one simple plot-point. They remember. Hoorah! The whole drama could have been completely ruined had they simply written off our main couple’s relationship as ‘destiny’ and have them start again from childhood. The fact that they remembered their previous lives made all the struggle and dying worthwhile, and let our main couple reap the rewards of their fight. Young Arang was just golden and her inner Shin Min Ah was on point. The wrap up for the rest of our characters was also delightful.

Best reincarnations ever

Dol Soe and Bang Wool are wrapped up nice and happy and the bad guys are getting what was coming to them. The end mapped out for Ju Wal was painfully poetic. After watching him struggle so much with his feelings about himself and seeing his resentment towards Lady Seo- but being unable to break away from her really beefed up his character and gave him a lot of depth. I’m glad he had more of an ending than just disappearing to live his life elsewhere- even if his end was a tad sad.

What Wasn’t:

No Danger Here:

More or less useless without humans

Our villain…wasn’t that threatening. Sure, she was creepy as all hell and really mean, but she couldn’t really do much. She relied on humans for souls to keep her sustained. She relied on willing humans to provide her with new host bodies. Okay, she did make scary evil grim-reapers- but that was really all she did. The simple fact is, without Arang giving the all-clear ‘please take over my body’, the evil fairy lady was absolutely no threat. And once her handsome minion fell for Arang it was pretty obvious that the fairy-demon wouldn’t be getting inside Arang’s body. Frankly, pretty-boy Ju Wal posed more of a danger- what with killing her multiple times and all. His ninja break-ins and countless murders made him spine-chillingly creepy (you know, before the sympathy card was played). But then he fell for Arang so we knew he wouldn’t kill her again. Oh yeah- she also couldn’t actually die. When the body is immortal it takes away a lot of the scary. Sure it might suck dying repeatedly and be terrifying- but at the end of the day, at least you’re not really dead. So all in all, it was never convincing that our ghost girl was ever in any real danger.

How many times does this poor girl have to die?

No Surprises Here:

80% of this drama takes place in the dark

The first…let’s say 3/4 of the drama was ripe with mysteries. Who killed Arang? Why’s Magistrate’s mumma gone evil? What up with Ju Wal? Delicious story that kept you on your toes wanting more. However, once our characters had more or less unravelled all the mysteries that needed unravelling, there wasn’t a lot of new information given to us. Watching our characters learn a bunch of information isn’t nearly as riveting as learning the new information ourselves. Given that we’d had so many brilliant episodes and so many brilliant reveals, it felt a little disappointing to know pretty much the whole story a good four episodes before the finale. It would have been nice to keep some mysteries going right up to the end.

Re-watch?

As much as I enjoyed this drama and its cast, I probably wouldn’t watch it again in a hurry. Much of the excitement comes from the mysteries surrounding our main couple, so knowing the outcome would definitely impact the enjoyment of the series.

Shin Min Ah and Lee Joon Ki earned 10 out of 10 adorable points though