This review may contain spoilers
A Korean Waste of Space
I was really loving this but by episode 8 or so I started to notice the dramas flaw.Honestly I just ship the heck out of PK and our cutest zombie girl. Their interactions sincerely added 50 years to my life. They are just so darn cute.
I also have to admit that while at first I thought the Devil King's tantrums were funny, they kind of have become really repetitive. I mean c'mon can't you think of something better to do with this epic character?
Somehow this kdrama went from a 9 to a 7, and ultimately a 6.
I was also starting to ship the heck out of Son O-Gong and Seon Mi but honestly that bracelet is stopping me from fully shipping them. In all honesty, if Seon Mi really loved him she would have removed the bracelet by now since it's only hurting the person she loves. But does she remove it? NO! And there's honestly no reason for her to keep it on Son O-Gong. Like if you want to be in a healthy relationship you need to remove that bracelet and you need to trust him. I get that she still needs him but he probably would still help her because he obviously loves her too and he still has the deal with her which they made years ago. I'm really getting annoyed, well I'm actually fucking pissed off, that the bracelet is still there. For fuck's sake it is currently hurting him even more as in he literally threw up blood because of that fucking bracelet but she still didn't take it off him. I mean how is all of this healthy and how can this ever result in a supportive, trusthwortgy, healthy and swoon worthy relationship if she never takes the braces off him? I really REALLY fucking hate this. I DON'T GET IT, I DON'T UNDERSTAND. SERIOUSLY TELL ME WHY
Also, this didn't really need to have 20 episodes of seventy minutes long.
However, I do like the mix of the past and the present & I especially loved the episode when they went into a film set in the time when Korea was occupied by Japan. I sincerely need more dramas about that time period.
The side characters also made this show. I truly loved PK, Richie, Ms Ma, Seon Mi's employee, the fancy CEO and maid to Son O-Gong, and the octopus. I also really liked Son O-Gong, he was pretty epic too.
I'm fucking mad about the ending that my babies PK and Richie got. They deserved so much better!
To be honest, this show could have been so much better and really good, amazing if it had better writers. I'm not really a fan of the Hong Sisters. I don't think they're that great. The concept and idea were really cool but the execution of the story itself really lacked. Once again better writers could have solved this and saved this kdrama that never fulfilled its potential.
The ending was just straight up bad. I honestly regret waisting my time on this kdrama.
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Too many ideas
This one started off promising. The cast is full of great actors, the story seemed interesting, and I was excited to start it. However, as I was watching it I realized that it had too much going on. I started wondering if they had written everything before they started filming or if they made it up as they went along. There are too many characters and most of them don’t do anything. There are too many subplots that don’t go anywhere. There’s honestly nothing that makes this drama worth watching.Was this review helpful to you?
- Good introduction that drew in audience's interest but story got dragged around meaninglessly after the first few episodes.
- Good bromance, love-hate and witty interactions between the two main male leads
- An ending that makes sense and wasn't forced
- The side stories and pairings, eg: General Frost and his sister, PK and Bu Ja etc, is more interesting than the development of the OTP's romance
- Could benefit from a shorter version, eg: 13 episodes, instead of the draggy 20 eps.
- Story and plot too simple with many potholes
- A weak female lead character that does not shine as well as her co-stars
- Poor chemistry between the OTP
- Questionable script with 'dodgy' conversations of kindergarten level in poor attempt to make the characters sound witty
- Use of poor quality CGI
- A final showdown that was a disappointment after spending 18 episodes to build up towards it
Therefore, DO NOT watch this drama if you are looking for:
- Good and sizzling chemistry between the OTP
- A tight good story with complex characters and addictive plots
- Clever and witty conversations that does not belittle the characters' (and the audience's) intelligence
- A drama with good quality CGI that does not stick out like a sore thumb
- A conclusive ending that may defy logic and the laws of nature itself
- A drama with fresh new ideas
- Trying to find a drama that will restore your interest and faith in Asian dramas again
Watch this drama if you are:
- A fan of Lee Seung Gi, Cha Seung Won and Lee Hong Ki regardless of how bad the story is
- Like the sort of love-hate witty bromance interactions similarly found in Goblin
- Not into strict happy endings
- Doesn't mind a non-outstanding female lead who's just there as long as the main lead's handsome and charismatic enough to attract your attention
- Looking for a drama that recycles old ideas previously used by the same writers such as having the OTPs wrapped around in a big comforter as they exchange sweet nothings while staring out of the window (eg: Secret Garden) or use of Asian drama "must-haves" such as memory lost or as this drama termed it as "fragmented memories"
My conclusion:
- It's an okay drama but I won't be re-watching it soon.
- It's time the Korean entertainment industry consider employing new writers with new ideas and styles coz recycling the same old ideas using same old writers who most likely have given us their very best and can no longer offer anymore better is frankly getting....well, OLD. Time to consider retirement, Hong sisters. Make way for new bloods.
- Sad waste of great names and talents. It's like placing a Lamborghini engine in an old Toyota car! What sad waste of resources!
- If I want to be lenient and consider the star-studded cast much loved by many (despite the disaster of the story), it can get away with an 8.0 but if you have a list of things to assess this drama on like in a Quality Assurance assessment, as you tick things off without consideration for the big names, you'll realize that the best rating you could give this drama is 7.0
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Enjoy this as a standalone but not an adaptation of "Journey to the West"
Completed - 6/10/2022This Korean adaptation of the Chinese classics “A Journey to the West” is mainly a fantasy-romance drama. It is quite interesting to me to watch these characters and think of their Chinese counterparts. This is definitely not a serious adaptation, but it’s a fun and comedic version (some might think it’s a little over-the-top). If you don’t take the word ‘adaptation’ seriously and just watch it as a standalone Korean drama, this could be quite fun. I am a little late to the game, since I am watching this 2017 drama in 2022.
Plot/Pacing - As a binge-watcher, I watched about 5 episodes a day and finished this in 4 weekdays. I think splitting them up helps with not feeling the drama dragged out in the middle. I think the pacing would be a lot better if this was only 16 or 18 episodes long. This drama revolves around demons, deities and evil spirits living among humans. We learned about their background stories from thousands of years ago, and how they’re still affected by the consequences of their actions. The main plot is about the fated love story of Song Oh Gong, the Monkey King 齊天大聖 and our female lead, Jin Seon Mi/Sam Jang 唐三藏. Just like in the Chinese version, everyone wants a piece of Sam Jang. We follow their journey of love and how they save the world. We also learn of the tragic love story of Woo Ma Wang, and his interesting bromance with Song Oh Gong. The main cast also includes pop idol Jo Pal Gye/PK, CEO Sa Oh Jung and Secretary Ma Ji Yeong. I actually would like to know more about these characters. How did PK come to work for Ma Wang? Why is CEO Oh Jung serving and listening to Oh Gong? How did Ji Yeong end up being Ma Wang’s loyal secretary/dog? I also think the ending is a little anticlimactic. I don’t want to say too much as it’ll be spoilery. The ending is not really a big surprise. The last episode explained the aftermath through many dialogues. When the main event happened, I didn't feel a lot of emotions. I wanted more!
Acting - I am surprised that this is my first Lee Sung Gi drama. After watching “A Korean Odyssey”, I can understand why he has such a large fan base. Son Oh Gong is a multi-layered character and this role allows Lee Sung Gi to showcase his acting skills. This is also my first Cha Eung Won drama and I am so not expecting how hilarious and over-the-top his character is. Personally, his acting or character just tipped over the cheesy/cartoonish line. I actually enjoy the more subtle comedic moments of Secretary Ji Yeong. Coming from watching Lee El in “My Liberation Notes”, I like her so much better here. She’s perfect as the loyal dog. However, I am most impressed by Lee Se Young as our zombie/priestess. She was young then, and was able to portray the innocent zombie well (and her mannerisms), yet also the complicated feelings of the evil priestess. No wonder she continued on to deliver excellent performances in “The Crowned Clown” and “The Red Sleeve”. Our female lead Oh Yeon Seo also gave a pretty good performance, but I think Lee Sung Gi, Cha Eung Won and Lee Se Young might have overshadowed her a little.
Romance - I enjoy watching the slow-burn romance of Oh Gong and Sam Jang. Because there are so many episodes, the back-and-forth question of whether Oh Gong’s feelings for Sam Jang are real lasted a little too long and became repetitive. I do think they have good chemistry and it doesn’t hurt that we got a few good kisses. On the other hand, the tragic love story of Ma Wang and Princess Iron Fan is a little lacking. I don’t think the drama is showing us enough about their love for us to understand Ma Wang’s pain. Instead of gazing at the princess’ painting repeatedly, why not provide us with some flashbacks of their times 1000 years ago? Show us how their happy lives were before. How did a demon and deity get married and have a child? How did she steal souls for her son? I just needed more.
Bromance/Frenemies - I quite like the dynamics between Oh Gong and Ma Wang. They act like rivals, trying to con and outsmart each other. They will lie and hide the truths. Yet at crucial times, they care and help each other out. Their interaction is interesting, but I do think Ma Wang’s complaints about his bull acting as a coat hanger got a little repetitive.
Ghost Stories - The ghost/evil spirits stories are not as memorable as the episodic stories as in “Mystic Pop Up Bar” or “Tomorrow”. They don’t carry as much weight, only seem to exist to move the plot along to show that Oh Gong will save Sam Jang at all times.
Other Random Observations:
1. I like all the random but casual celebrity name drops
2. Great fashion for the whole cast - I love FL’s long coats, even though they are all black
3. Watching this in 2022, the special effects were not that great.
4. Great OST - like all the songs
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Disappointing. Giving it 6.5 stars is generous i believe, don't bother with this drama if you're looking for something that gives off "the goblin" feels.
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And o boy, what a show! I immediately fell in love with this story and the cast. The OST gave me goosebumps everytime. I'm still playing all those songs every day. I love fantasy kdrama like this and Lee Seung Gi can kiss!!!
I cried a lot during this show, i never thought i would be so addicted to something in my life.
At first i didn't know how to think about Lee Seung Gi. But i slowly fell in love with him and also his character Son o Gong. The chemistry is amazing between the cast, even the dorky Cha Seung Won is funny to see.
I told myself i had to buy this dvd, and i finally bought the dvd a few weeks ago online. My very first kdrama, this means so much to me!!
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Story: I actually really enjoyed a lot of elements of this story. I thought it was a clever re-imagining of Journey to the West with the geumganggo being a hold over his heart rather than a crown over his head. Many of the throw away lines about his position in heaven prior to throwing a fit were great references. There are elements of this story that I found wonderful and interesting. The back and forth of whether his love for her was real or not could have been fleshed out so much more and made more interesting. There could have been a lot more sturm und drang on the both character's feelings toward whether his feelings were completely manipulated or only gently coaxed. It feels like it pops up a few times for her, but she never really reckons with it and continues to abuse the relationship. It's odd. Also, the entire last episode bothered me. I'd rather the last episode be about what they suggest the open ending to be (him breaking into the afterlife).
The characters, however, were extremely uneven. Ma Wang, in particular, is a mess of writing. They use him for physical, ridiculous comedy over and over, but honestly his strongest scenes were those with emotional gravitas and his misery over Princess Iron Fan and feeling used. I also struggled with how he treated Son Oh Gong. They seem to not know whether Ma Wang is supposed to be a villain or hero. That works for me a little, but it just KEPT going back and forth to a ridiculous degree. He kept making broad statements about how Son Oh Gong deserved all this misery, but the show only gives us Son Oh Gong doing innocuous and non-hateful things to Ma Wang. So, it felt misplaced. (7/10)
Acting/Cast: Honestly, this cast (for the most part) was the strong point of the drama for me and completely wasted.
Lee Seung-Gi was wonderful. I've seen him in a LOT of mediocre dramas, but his performance is never the weakness for me. It was interesting seeing him play a character that on paper is relatively similar to Choi Kang Chi from Gu Family Book (literally - a 'demon' who is controlled by a bracelet who falls in love with a woman, and one of them is prophesied to die by virtue of their relationship with the other) but vastly different on the screen. I liked seeing him take similar subject matter and spin it. He plays the emotional heart strings well, and I buy his comedy a lot more than the others. He did a good job of playing mixed and confused emotions, and I enjoyed the slow change to how he said "because I love you". To me, he clearly commands the screen.
Cha Seung Won - I already addressed this a bit above, but the character was a mess which made the performance suffer for me. He committed to the humor, but I didn't find the joke itself funny which isn't his fault. The extended physical comedy bits (like the bit about his body odor) just fell flat. I almost always preferred him playing drama.
Oh Yeon Seo - The character and performance were just so flat to me. There was almost no change to character whatsoever across the course of the show. I know we're supposed to feel this subtle change of her letting people into her life and building a found family of people who care about her after shielding herself for so long, but I never saw her emotionally open up for it to happen. It was more like... it just happened. There was no emotional catalyst for it. I found her pretty expressionless throughout, and it was made all the more obvious by how much gravitas Lee Seung-Gi had as a scene partner.
Others - special mention to Lee Se Young who had to play like 5 different characters in this show and was legitimately outstanding. She did creepy horror physical zombie comedy at the start, young hopeful idol trainee in flashbacks, broad comedy zombie, "Bu Ja" the bright and innocent, sweet zombie, and then the Priestess - conflicted and heartbroken but dark. And then all the shades in between. Priestess as Bu Ja. Priestess feeling Bu Ja seeping through, etc. I found her wonderful, and I hope she gets more leading work in other dramas soon.
My other special mention is to Lee El who always seems wasted. Secretary Ma was such a great minor character, and Lee El was just great. I always felt drawn to her in scenes. (8/10)
Music: I actually really liked this OST. A lot of the songs stuck with me, and the lyrics were pretty appropriately on the nose. The only thing that drove me nuts was the lyric "Always behind of you." I know that English inserted into Korean songs isn't always perfect, but "of" isn't necessary there, and it was used so prominently in the drama. (8.5/10)
Rewatchability: Some episodes are pretty good, and I could see myself rewatching. But honestly, this wouldn't be high on my list of dramas to watch again. (5/10)
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Is the story entertaining? Enough.
Is the story good? Eh. It's a bit sporadic and doesn't tie up loose ends well. It tried to do something different for the ending, but it was just....meh.
Acting: My biggest issue with this drama was Oh Yeon Seo's character. I felt like she was trying to pull of a vibe similar to Tae Gong Sil from Master's Sun, but missed a major mark. Most of the time I ended up wanting to just skip her scenes all together because her character was too ambiguous, flip flopping from "strong and stubborn" to "meek and spineless." I just couldn't like her character. I don't know how much I can blame OYS as opposed to the writers who really made her character pretty much a sucker for the Monkey...but not in a good way.
I WAS pleasantly surprised by Lee Se-Yong's character(s) and acting. I saw her in the flop "The Best Hit," and liked her on-screen presence. She really stole the spotlight from Oh Yeon Seo in this drama.
As a huge fan of Lee Seung Gi and Cha Seung Won I am both surprised and not surprised that they would sign on for a drama of this caliber. However cheesy it was, they both delivered great energy that we have come to know and love from their previous work. I was very satisfied to see them in this type of extremely corny role. They made Hwayugi fun. I can't imagine a better casting choice for their respective roles.
*side note* Lee Seung Gi was serving sexiness in so many scenes. I had to fan myself a few times.
Music: No comments here.
Final Thoughts: I have a feeling if they had either rewritten the main actresses role to be less...cute? gullible? clueless? confused? or if they had replaced the actress entirely, I would have enjoyed Hwayugi much better - cheesiness and all. I was really only watching for LSG and CSW, but several other members of the cast stood out as well such as the Dog demon played by Lee El and the Chairman of the phone company played by Jang Gwang. There was lots to appreciate about the cast and the energy they brought to the role, but unfortunately some aspects were difficult to ignore which impaired my enjoyment of the show. Will I rewatch? Probably never. But I'll always remember that in 2017 there was almost another show as mystical, magical and moving as "Master's Sun."
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I was not expecting this show to be as good as it was and I really wasn't expecting it to snatch all of my attention. If life allowed it, I probably would have watched every single episode in one day. So you can imagine my annoyance when there were times I had to cut it off. I love shows that can draw me in like this, it makes me wish they never had to end.
My emotions are still raw and all over the place so I admit my review probably won't be as long as they usually are because I'm sorting through feelings. ESPECIALLY THAT FREAKING ENDING!!!
Am I the only one upset with it? I mean, it's amazing but... not? I hate open endings with a passion. So I'm like "will there be a second season?" Then I remember this show was from years ago and realize if they haven't done it by now, they won't do it at all, which really sucks. I would be happy with even a mini extra episode that would explain where everyone is and if things worked out.
But all in all, I really did love this show... even the bad CGI. lol The show wouldn't be amazing without it. LOL
I loved all of acting. Even from those that annoyed the hell out of me, I know the show probably wouldn't have been as good without them.
**I'll update this more when I sort through my moods and thoughts**
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The chemistry between leads is okay , son oh gong(Lee seungki) and the bromance is good which are the only elements that can keep u watching it otherwise it is nothing.
OSTs are good.
It is watchable for those who like Lee seungki otherwise not recommended. But I can't re-watch it again for sure.
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Background plot - 40%
Romance - 40%
Misc comedy - 20%
Background plot - Excellent
Romantic chemistry - Terrible
Misc comedy - Good
Production value - Fine (for the time)
The lead actress just completely ruined this whole show. I've never seen her in anything before, but she was so bad I've gone through and "not interested" everything else she's done.
Lee Seung Gi was AMAZING, especially given who he had to act with as a partner.
The rest of the cast was hit or miss, which is why I gave the overall cast 4.0
The story was phenomenal.
The direction and production value were *meh* at best and it makes me sad because the story and dialogue were amazing.
It's too bad about the director and MFL.
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