This review may contain spoilers
Disappointing
If you like a good strong female lead then just watch the first 20 mins of ep1 then leave it at that. The rest is just a slow painful walk towards yet another strong female being walked all over due to "feelings" ( ffs shes been evil as hell for a 1000 years). It makes no sense, its patronising to see yet another korean woman (evil ghost, whatever) ruined by their inability to overcome love just because a guy "looks kinda cute" (1000 year!!!! Plenty of cute guys mustve come across her path!). I know IU isnt everyones favourite but i thought she did well given a terrible script so any points i gave above 0 for this mindless show were for her, male lead just looked a bit weird tbh ( im not into blokes but i can at least tell ugly from good looking and his acting was wooden at best).Was this review helpful to you?
Absolute candy for your eyes and ears!!!
One glance at the cast shows why Hotel del Luna is and will be one of the most talked about dramas of 2019. A second glance highlights an interesting premise, and more in-depth research reveals HDL’s insane ratings and chart-topping music. The only blemish is the screenwriters, the infamous Hong sisters, though many love their work. Unfortunately, HDL does not quite live up to the hype, and I find its substance a bit lacking, much like candy. Still, I’m sure HDL will be a must-watch for most viewers regardless of what I say, but maybe I can lower your expectations just a hair. Who knows - maybe you can better appreciate the show without such lofty expectations.Story:
I am not purposefully trying to rain on the parade, but the story is the weakest aspect of Hotel del Luna. To HDL’s credit, fantasy is one of the most challenging genres to pull-off in kdramas (said another way, it’s easier to relate to human dramas). The other two Hong sister supernatural dramas I have seen are The Master’s Sun and My Girlfriend is a Gumiho. I am not a huge fan of The Master’s Sun, and I have a feeling that Gumiho has not aged well since its debut in 2010. The Hong sisters are a master of the romcom craft, and the overall story remains surprisingly coherent through its multiple time period settings.The balance of romance and comedy is also carefully weighed, and each piece of HDL’s episodic format adds to the main underlying plot and tension.
Many may think that HDL’s plot is incredible based on what I have said thus far. The true challenge that HDL does not quite surpass is a relatable and believable gravity within the main plotline. It is not enough to say the main character waited hundreds of years for this moment and expect all viewers to immediately empathize with her. HDL fails to adequately address some critical questions: Why wait hundreds of years? Is this really a problem/challenge? The Hong Sisters’ responses are sadly insufficient. Looking back, one of the root causes is that too many subplots, plots, characters are covered over 16 episodes, even if each episode is over one hour long. As a whole, the story, while intriguing, did not leave me thinking about it throughout the week like some of my favorite dramas.
Acting:
Hotel Del Luna boasts two of the hottest main leads of 2019, IU and Yeo Jin-goo. I had 2 thoughts before starting HDL: unsurety of IU’s shedding of the idol-actress image and the poor taste left after Absolute Boyfriend. Let me caveat that I did not finish the most recent dramas starring IU or YJG, My Mister and My Absolute Boyfriend, respectively. In HDL, both exceed my lowered expectations. In comparing the 2 leads, Goo Chan-Sung shows a narrower range of emotions and often plays the straight man, shutting down many of Jang Man-Wol’s anctics. YJG executes this role with precision and professionalism, plus he’s only 22! I look forward to his future performances as he continues to grow as an actor.
Jang Man-Wol experiences a much wider range of emotions and actions, and I cannot confidently say that IU is a bonafide top star (of acting) yet. The main reason is because the casting of IU is as much a part of her success as her acting chops. HDL jumps between romance, comedy, and drama frequently and sharply. IU’s execution, like YJG, is exceptional, but sometimes it looks more like IU playing multiple characters vs her portraying one consistent character. Furthermore, IU puts together a more convincing character in the “drama” scenes than the romance and comedy scenes, and the chemistry between the two leads is just short of electric. All around, I praise IU for committing to her acting career and participating in different genres of dramas/movies, and I fully expect her to become a topflight actress sooner or later.
Here are a couple thoughts on the supporting cast. Overall, the supporting cast is as wonderful as the leads, but they lose major screen time to not only the main leads but also to the guests who fill out the episodic format of HDL (again, a criticism more of the story than acting). Of course, there are weaker areas, one being Kang Mi-Na. Her character is convoluted and a difficult challenge for the young actress. Hopefully, she grows and follows/exceeds IU’s acting career trajectory. To end on a sweet note, I am a huge fan of Kang Hong-Suk and would love to see more screen time from him in the future.
Music:
The backing cast of artists for Hotel del Luna is incredible, especially for kpop fans. Even the non-”pop” singers are well-respected veterans of kballad. So, I won’t get into every single song and artist from the OST. I will mention Song Ha-ye because she is relatively “new” (5+ year vet) and may be lesser known. Her track, “Say Goodbye”, fits great with the drama, and her latest hit, “Your Regards”, is definitely worth a listen. My favorite track from the OST is Heize’s “Can You See My Heart”. It didn’t top the music charts like Taeyeon’s or Gummy’s, but I still listen to it on repeat! Also, nearly an hour of original music for a cable network drama?! HDL shines bright in countless ways.
Rewatch Value:
Writing this review made me reconsider my thoughts on Hotel del Luna as a whole. I would enjoy HDL more had I binged the drama instead of following the weekly releases. Since I found the main storyline slightly unconvincing, my interest in HDL wavered while waiting for a new episode. It is entirely possible that I bump up the overall rating by half a point after a binge rewatch. However, I do not have any plans to rewatch HDL at the moment.
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This review may contain spoilers
It’s a k show not a kdrama
My transition from cdrama to kdrama wasn’t the smoothest but let me just say this is probably one of the decent one I have watched. Still boring and predictable with every situation being the same and barely any chemistry improvement. No kisses no hugs at their most vulnerable side just aloofness. At this point, we can just called it a show rather than a drama.Story: omg. Seriously, every situation was almost the same the only difference is the character, the setting, the idea, more involvement of different rule to this concept, and the event that’s it. This is literally a show not a drama; every situation only impacted the male lead, and the female lead is acting like a support giving guidance to him that’s it. This is literally just show about different ghosts impacting the male lead that’s it; it didn’t improve their relationship for the worst or for the best, and their relationship remains the same after the situation about the ghost: it didn’t contribute anything to the growth of the female lead and the build up want even there. The perception of the male lead is impacted that’s it. The female led is still arrogant and aloof with her coworkers on the outside: she probably already has the kindness in her heart, but it’s just never expressed and the male lead was only there to express it. Literally so boring and predictable. I could literally be watching another episode of criminal minds but with ghost smh.
Character:
Male lead definitely has improved in terms of his PERCEPTION of the idea but the chemistry hasn’t and so is his personality, which isn’t entirely a bad thing but still.
Female lead is just another freaking supporting character there to protect the male lead without any chemistry. The one dynamic change you can say is her loneliness and her sober heart that’s it and anything else? That’s it
She liked the male lead and the male lead likes her back but there chemistry wasn’t literally non existence I swear. There are just there to say it but has there been anytime where they would actually demonstrate it through something like a hug or a kiss? She only demonstrated her caring and arrogant side of her when disputing about the chemistry but that’s it. The male lead’s character just feels like he wants to care for everyone so I can’t really tell if that’s love for her
The “breakup” was so dumb; it didn’t change anything about their individualities or anything their perception of each other is still the same, which is they care for each other and can’t live without each other: it didn’t improve the character or anything they just have the same relationship as a boss and employee
OST
Omg every time any ost plays it was so beautiful-especially Taeyon’s singing . I enjoy all of the ost, and this is the few drama that has all of the good ost.
Acting and visuals
Omgg iu is so pretty like literally iU queen; I would literally be excited to see her every she appears on screen. One of the few times I have actually liked the female lead more than the male lead. The visuals are on peakkk
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This review may contain spoilers
Hello my first review. As a super casual k drama fan ( seen less than 5) I am extremely conflicted on this show. Let’s keep the good good. The cast is fantastic and the production and music was so special that I was convinced during the shows run that this was a once in a lifetime classic.
But without writing an essay I can just say that the bad is bad. The storyline was a fantastic procedural... new cop solving ghost cases with his immortal goddess. I like a lot of the twists and cases.
The problem is that they turned it mid way through to a central storyline and went halve ass on everything. Sanchez girlfriend... main leads mom... even the bartender stories. No substance at all
Than the love story was non committal. I can’t for the life of me convince my wife the main character even likes IU. He made no effort except acceptance. If this was a show about accepting death... I seen many people tell their sick love ones they love them. They don’t just eat meals and wait for a cry scene.
Also laziness at end. They introduce time travel... Childhood connection... IU not losing memories on bridge.... reincarnation... multiple gods with conflicting goals.... but nothing explored just a quick give up and painting fantasy.
I can tell from the show that the main lead is smarter than me. And I can easily see a path to save her. He even bought her to the past to see snow.... (freakin send her to the bridge in the past!)
Anywho. Lack of effort and interest after the past life means that the writers thought episode 14 was the ending. Shame they didn’t end there
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This review may contain spoilers
Likes: A strong heroine. IU’s fab wardrobe & timeless beauty. Yeo Jin Goo’s gazes. The beautiful set design. The banter. The slow burn.Dislikes: Kang Mina’s superfluous storyline with P.O. Some of the subplots.
Written by the Hong Sisters, I was excited to watch this fantasy series as I generally like their dramas because they know how to pull the heartstrings and they do the enemies to lovers theme well. And it didn’t disappoint!
Let me just say that IU looks stunning in this drama. Her wardrobe was beautiful and theatrical. They did a great job with the hotel design as well, creating this hauntingly beautiful environment. IU did a fantastic job portraying the dark and world weary owner of the mysterious Hotel Del Luna, a hotel for the dead. I just loved the fact that the female in this story is the strong one, the protector. So many dramas portray the guy saving the girl a bunch of times, but here, it’s the opposite. Jang Man Wol is one cool character.
Yeo Jin Goo plays the upright assertive hotelier who’s at odds with IU’s money hungry ways. Yeo Jin Goo pretty much can do no wrong in my eyes in terms of acting. The dude is just a phenomenal actor. Every expression looks natural and real. He had me laughing at so many parts.
And when you pair him up with IU’s opposite personality, the scenes just light up. The banter made me laugh, the yearning made me sad. The slow burn is what I live for. I definitely think they could have trimmed some of the sub plots and I wasn’t a fan of the P.O/Mina love line or even Mina’s character, but overall I really enjoyed this drama
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The CG was damn cool and amazing. The story keeps you stuck to the screen and makes you watch the episode again to get hold of the mysteries going around (I almost watched each episode twice :P).
Talking about OSTs, they are seriously worth listening to. According to me, they have a major role in making the audience love the drama along with the amazing story.
About the actors: The cast has been chosen quite well, where you will love each and every character of the drama. The writers have given each and every character its own importance. IU, yes she is really beautiful and has done justice to her character and so has Yeo Jin Goo.
We cry with the characters, laugh with them and feel what they feel at the same time. The drama has also focused on some social issues which are a great way to reach people and make them aware.
If you are a fan of fantasy, comedy, and romance then this drama is certainly for you. For me, this has been the best drama of 2k19. Loved it to the core!!
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Where does one begin..I have seen many K-Dramas over the last 6 years but only a few have I set to memory and will watch over and over again. Hotel Del Luna will be one of them. The drama was marvelous from the beginning. The chemistry that the cast had was amazing. The story line kept me coming back for more every weekend. If I was to compare this drama with any other dramas it would be Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo and Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, because they all had chemistry, amazing casting and story line. All three tugged at my heart strings.
Let's not forget the music..awesome just awesome..I will not say more because I do not want to spoil this drama for anyone..
Just have a box of kleenex you going to need one.
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Acting: The only reason I finished watching it is because of IU. Period. I was really bored with other characters, even the male lead.
Music: OK
Rewatch Value: NO. There are no special scenes for me to be rewatched, All I do was cry on the last episode. I hate that. This kind of drama is not comforting. Not emmitting good vibes. All I can feel while watching is the approaching sad ending. Although there are so many good moral values that the drama can impart, it seems that the story just wants us to be slapped with reality that there's no happy ending on earth and everyone just dies. Why so cynical? It's a drama, they should atleast comfort the viewers.
Overall: My 5.5 is purely because of IU , her performance and her outfit.
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Korean Drama
I didn't expect this drama to leave this much impression but from cinematography to acting, it couldn't be described in words of how beautiful this drama is. What made this drama impressive is the fact that the old-era storyline was so nuanced that I became invested on it as much as the modern storyline. This drama while maintaining its romantic essence manages to covers nuanced and serious themes that revolves around today's society such as political corruption, accidental deaths, online bullying and many more. The drama made an excellent way of making all the characters' likeable by having their story leave a deep impact. In addition, the veteran actors really shine in this drama by showing its deep chemistry and relationship with body language. Although some actors did need work, their relationship was still cute and bearable! Lastly, I would like to focus on Goo Chan Sung (Yeo Jin Goo) and Jang Man Wol (IU) relationship. This drama became one of the most prominent ones I have watched due to their face-acting, gesture-acting and voice-acting. Every words they say feels like they really meant it and you really become invested with the emotions which makes you feel like you first-handed experience it. Not to mention, the fact this is also due to assistance of excellent soundtracks and cinematography that made every scene become much more memorable!
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I did not feel the chemistry between the leads, Yeo Jin-goo's bad acting perhaps? To me it feels like the Hongs tried to recreate the goblin experience, but their writing just did not live up to the task. This is their worst work so far I think. Don't misunderstand it's not bad by any means, but it's like an empty shell compared to Goblin. Even though I think the last episode was pretty good, I just wasn't emotionally invested enough in the characters to really feel the melo, so to say.
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This review may contain spoilers
Clumsy but heartfelt
I'm a big fan of IU as a singer, so I watched quite a bit of her on youtube, and I couldn't help but notice some of those comments that mention her as an actress as well. The thing is, when you watch a dozen or two of K-Pop videos, you start to realize that all comments for all videos are more or less the same, they might as well be automatically generated at this point. If you take them all at face value, you might think that K-Pop industry produces nothing but masterpieces after masterpieces, all vocalists are world-class, and in case they also happen to be an actor, they are also a genius actor, because of course they are. Needless to say, all this can't be true at the same time (and it's not), so when I saw all those comments along the lines of "wow, IU is such an actress, such an actress, wow", I was unimpressed. Famous singers branching out to an acting career is not a thing that often yields outstanding results, or even good ones for that matter. But oh well, what do I have to lose. "Hotel Del Luna" was one of the latest things featuring her at the time, the premise sounded kinda anime-ish, and I love me some anime now and then, might as well give it a shot. Long story short, I was skeptical about IU's acting, didn't know any of the other actors, and therefore didn't expect a lot from the drama itself. Was I wrong? Well...First, let's address the elephant in the room. Saying IU's perfomance here is good would be a vast understatement. As I said, I thought she'd be passable at best, just stand there being pretty and maybe have a funny scene now and then, and honestly I'd be okay with that. Instead, right of the gate I got something wildly different. The ease with which this woman owns the scene is jaw-dropping, with force and confidence in every movement, every glance and gesture radiating such immense amounts of screen presence that at first it took me some time to even remember who I was looking at. That, mixed with (mostly) great comedic timing and several deeply powerful dramatic moments, make up a fascinating character. Words can't describe how fun she is to watch on screen, she literally carries the whole series. There's no ignoring it, I just have to admit: this time, youtube comments actually got it right.
On the other hand, IU carrying the show is precisely the issue, because it unfortunately does need to be carried. Despite it being overall solid, the problems are many, and they are hard to look over.
The first, and the biggest one, is the tone. The show is all over the place, jumping from genre to genre as fast as a hamster on coffee. Sure, you can combine a comedy, a horror and a drama, but it's hard, and boy oh boy here it's not done greatly. You can have a scene where the male lead runs away from a ghost with BLOOD-STAINED EMPTY EYESOCKETS and there's jolly "Benny Hill"-style music playing in the background. Like, look, what a wacky predicament this guy's in, don't you also hate it when there's an eyeless undead coming after you in the evening?.. Zoinks, Scoob! That's just one example that came to my mind, but there're many.
The writing suffers from this inconsistency too. I won't go into how the local "ghost world" doesn't really work, how they keep inventing new rules all the time, because to me all this ghostly stuff seemed more like means to an end, a medium to convey their ideas. There are other issues to talk about, for example how the episodes are divided. Episodes, except the first one, almost never feel like they have a beginning and an end, it always seems like the writers just chopped the whole script into 16 even pieces and each episode ends as soon as the runtime is over, no matter what happens. The final episode especially, it was literally like, "oh damn it, we still haven't wrapped up the bartender's story, quick, shoehorn it in! Ok, done, now back to the main stuff". It's really glaring.
Next. there's the most random stuff throughout the series. For example, IU's character happens to be a fan of some... dumpling-eating-champion dude?.. Huh? They make such a big deal out of it, just left me wondering, what it the world is this for. Maybe you have to be Korean to get it?.. Or another thing, this show has a strange habit of introducing new characters just to immediately kill them off (or despose of them in another way, given that some of them are already dead), Sanchez's girlfriend as the prominent example. This makes characters into plot devices, and it's not a sign of good writing.
The serial killer subplot was a huge disappointment. All that building up just ending in a wet fart. I get it, the Grim Reaper is an unstoppable force, but then why hype the killer's ghost up as this huge threat? What was the point of this dude in the story?
Most of all, after watching the whole drama, I'm still not sure I understand what IU's character did that was so wrong as to have to pay for it the way she does? From what I saw, all her deeds in the past warranted a prison sentence (ok, maybe an execution even, considering the times), but this? For killing that guy, really? She mentioned something about "a lot of bad things afterwards", are those "things" what's supposed to be her sins? Or it just guilt, like a self-inflicted punishment? Honestly, hell if I know, but whatever.
Acting is yet another mixed bag.
Yeo Jin Goo as the male lead is simply bland. As far as I heard, the guy is a really good actor, but for some reason here he always seems slightly out of place, always just a bit off, always just barely good enough. And the way I see it, it's not even really his fault, it's just the writing doesn't exactly know what to do with him with its tone jumping all over the place. His interactions with IU's character can be engaging to watch, but as everything in this show, it's hit-and-miss. Given it's supposed to be a romantic subplot, there should be much more chemistry between the leads. But it's... hardly ever there. His character development doesn't feel organic, he has like two and a half facial expressions, and with such a powerhouse of a screen partner, the guy's just kinda... there.
Hotel's staff I mostly didn't like very much. The bartender and the head maid were mostly there either to re-iterate what just happened (which required them standing next to each other and looking into the distance meaningfully) or to briefly announce what was going to happen next, with maybe a small occasional exposition dump. The receptionist had his own romantic subplot, because otherwise he'd have no place in the story. All three also got their personal quests just thrown in at the beginning and never addressed until the last stretch of the show. The "Miss Fourth Choice" girl I felt was the only one remotely interersting, even due to her circumstances alone, but even those were never really explored after she, uh, settled in. It was more like, oh okay, I guess I live in this body now, cool, and that's it. And yes, she's the receptionist's romantic interest.
One who was awesome was the Grim Reaper, I freaking loved that guy. He didn't have a lot of screen time but delivered a couple of one-scene miracles. Give that man an Oscar.
Now I have to vent a bit, please bear with me. The thing that started to really, REALLY annoy me several episodes into the drama was the soundtrack. Or, to put it better, the way the soundtrack was used. The playlist features a multitude of high-tier Korean stars, including IU herself, Gummy, Paul Kim, Red Velvet, the list goes on. So, what are they gonna do with such a cast? Of course they're gonna milk it dry! Every single there's an emotional scene, a ballad turns on in the background, most of the time the same one. After three or four episodes, it had me eye-rolling and thinking "please don't start the song, you don't need a song here, just let the scene play out", but my prayers were never heard. One time, the song had already finished but the scene still went on, and what do you think they did? Immediately put on another song! Because apparently the audience wouldn't know how to feel without Taeyeon singing in the background. This is one of the major directing problems with this drama, it seems to have no clue how to utilize its quiet moments, and hence there's barely any. I swear it made me remember Nostalgia Critic and his review of Disney's "Tarzan", where he bashed the cartoon for hammering Phil Collins into every "feely" scene. And it's a darn shame, these songs are great, too bad the authors didn't think of a way to use them sparinlgy. The funniest thing is, the soundtrack also has... "The Moonlight Sonata"! Because "moon", "luna", get it? I think it was the first track to play in the very first episode, and it was so jarring I couldn't help but laugh a bit. I don't know, maybe European classical music sounds exotic and otherwordly to Korean audience or something, but I just found it very odd and borderline pretentious, thank god it didn't play often.
Vent over, thank you, sorry.
All that being said, when "Hotel Del Luna" commits to something, it can be great, there are multiple cool little side-plots sprinkled in, and it can be genuinely funny and genuinely creepy, and sometimes deliver a good tear-jerker. It just doesn't always feel the right way to shift between the three or how to mix them up. I guess the whole point is to tell the story of this tormented old soul, and if you view it as IU's characters story, as opposed to a romance story, it does indeed work. When they speak of grief, guilt and learning to let go, it can actually be meaningful and touching. Though sometimes awkwardly put together, sometimes clunky and corny or even downright silly, it's still truly soulful, and it's still entertaining if you're willing to give it a pass on some stuff. This is not a masterpiece but more like "their heart is in the right place" sort of situation. It feels like they actually want to make something good. And if you haven't seen IU as an actress before, maybe it'll become your IU gateway drug, it sure became mine.
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This review may contain spoilers
After all of the positive things I have heard about this popular Kdrama, I have decided to finally give it a go. It took me a very long time to finally finish the series, I kept on stopping and putting it off after intervals of watching 2-3 episodes of the show. I can see why it is that popular: the cinematography, the lovable cast, the amazing OST and the fantasy theme that takes you back to the times when Goblin was still airing. But I will never fully understand when people say it is their favourite drama. Personally, it is lacking in so many various fields, especially with the levels of engagement. As mentioned before, I was about to drop the show, but it suddenly became very good towards the end. Why did the director and the scriptwriters keep us on edge right from the beginning, but instead decided to make the drama full of thrill at the end? It is mind-boggling. However, I did enjoy the complete storyline, as I am a fan of folklore and the Korean cultural elements, which dominated the drama. IU was a brilliant actress for this drama, and she keeps on improving and improving with every role that she acts. Additionally, I loved the fashion and overall aesthetics that she brought out. The male lead, on the other hand, I did not like: nor his character, nor his acting or the chemistry between him and IU. The tragic love story of the hotel owner tore me to pieces, and I wish they would have chosen to reincarnate the general. I would say the secondary characters were more favourable than the leads. Moreover, the amazing OST is a huge part of why I like this show too. There are so many great singles, all equally as beautiful and sung by very talented singers. In the end, would I recommend this drama? Yes, I feel like it is a definite staple of a drama to watch, but for me, it is a watered down version of Goblin. There is definite room for improvement, but it is a great watch with fascinating cinematography and soundtrack! Was this review helpful to you?
