BOO!
The cursed case-of-the-week format! I was more interested in the FL's mother case which is the main case that was developing in the background than whatever case the ML threw himself in. I really wish this was a one big coherent case to follow or at least have the side cases directly connected to the main one. What made matters worse was the poor dynamic between the leads, they just didn't bounce off each other well. There was a weird constant disconnect between them. Thank god they didn't add romance into the mix. The side characters were an embarrassment to label them as a supporting cast. They were just a white noise blended in the background, completely forgettable and faceless. One of the most important things about horror is to set up the atmosphere which this drama forgot to do most of the time. It was more like a flashy horror with some horror elements. This was probably my least favorite Jang Na Ra drama.Was this review helpful to you?
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A fantasy drama done right
i’m not a big fan of ghost themed dramas but WOW this drama took my breath away! my initial thoughts upon starting this drama is there’d be scary ghosts and violent scenes but this drama put a unique twist on the supernatural genre: hong ji ah a mysterious, strong enigma who owns daebak real estate, a company that specially sells haunted houses. her abilities to exorcise ghosts were awesome ( the way she’d remove that hairpin from her hair made her look so cool ) but she always holds a mysterious aura that simply pulled you in to her character and made you wonder just what weight does she carry on her shoulders. i love the fact that the ghosts ji ah encountered all had a backstory and gave some depth and meaning to the plotline, which leads us to our other lead: oh in bum, a conman that ji ah encounters. and guess what: in bum specializes in exorcism fraud. what a coincidence.this drama was packed with action and never was there a dull moment, and the acting especially blew my mind — jang na ra was simply out of this world! she wore a stoic expression but upon meeting her gaze you could see the deeply buried pain that would briefly resurface; when she cried your heart would constrict with her just as much as it would soar upon seeing her have a moment of happiness. jang na ra’s acting was flawless, she fit the role of hong ji ah so well i can’t imagine anyone else playing the role. another thing i loved about this drama was the characters and their portrayals. as ji ah and in bum slowly got to know each other you could see they had developed romantic feelings but nothing needed to be said: they had each other’s backs and i love the maturity they both had ( ex: when ji ah found out her mother’s death was connected to in bum’s uncle’s death and she lashed out at IB, she swallowed her pride and apologized to him, showing her maturity and that she truly cared for in bum ). they worked amazingly together as exorcist and psychic, especially their fight scenes! there was no actual romance but the drama was okay without it, the characters were still enjoyable.
the recurring antagonist, do kak sung, is one that certainly infuriated me with his horrid crimes and manipulative tendencies — the actor did will on his role as I found myself hating DKS more and more as the drama progressed. he played a large role in the deaths of many characters, IB’s uncle as well, and DKS is a prime example that when allowed, greed can poison a person’s heart and lead them to do despicable things; till the end our gang dealt with him and his evil, the ending showing DKS getting sealed away eternally — the villain getting defeated and the characters finally being able to move on well, a satisfying ending in my book. overall this drama was paced well, i found it difficult for me to say goodbye to this drama; i’ll miss the characters greatly, i enjoyed every episode thoroughly, a 16 hours well spent in my eyes. if you’re looking for a good supernatural / ghost themed plot with a steady storyline and no-filler episodes i 100% recommend this drama! congratulations to the actors + directors / producers that helped in creating a truly amazing drama and, in my opinion, one of the best 2021 dramas.
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If you love Del Luna's Jang Man Wol, watch this!
PROS:- A refreshing genre and plot (this drama was released in the season of thriller/crime dramas).
- Chic, gothic, savage, cool af lead female. I dare to say this is the real Del Luna's Jang Man Wol competitor. IOTNBO's Go Moon Young is crazy, but from the character consistency side, Sell Your Haunted House's Hong Ji Ah is far on the top of hers.
- Touching ending. I'm a male and I couldn't hold my tears watching how Hong Ji Ah's story ends.
- Horror-themed drama is not that common, but this drama bravely shows a beautiful story while maintaining its scary scenes. - The concept is unique (just like Hotel Del Luna's uniqueness, but the story is far different).
- Mesmerizing action scenes by female lead that we can rarely see in K-Drama.
Cons:
- Lack of comedy.
- The anti-climax is not that dramatic and too short.
Questionable Pros or Cons:
- Horror level: It's on the same level as Hotel Del Luna. Jumpscares are there, but only a little amount and intensity.
Not so horror. If you don't like scary stuff, this is one is for you. But if you a horror-drama lover you might find this drama not so satisfying.
- No romance: I personally love it when romance is not taking a big part in the drama. It focuses only on the mystery and horror plot. But, I think most people want to see the male and female lead end up in a romance world.
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Multiple wrongs made right a. Great drama
What a great great Drama absolutely love these type of fun fantasy mysterious crime solving just like zombie detective(watch if you haven't) you didn't want them to end.Between Jang na ra, Jung yong Hwa, kanh Hong suk and Kang Mal geum there acting was superb made you feel all there emotions happy, funny or sad. Then we have Ahn kil Kang who always aces as the bad guy with his facial emotions. I loved the storyline of an exorcist and a medium who start off on the wrong side. Oh in beom is running a ghost scam and convincing his customers to buy his equipment until he crosses path with Hong ji ah of Daebak reality who rids homes and businesses of real ghost then sell there place. Oh in beom was always told to keep his crystal necklace on no matter what by his uncle who they say killed 7 people in a fire then committed suicide. Now grown-up hes trying to find any information on the fire and what really happened 20 years ago as he remembers being at Daebak realty when he was younger. Once she realizes he's a medium which he didn't know she uses him to try and send off her vengeful mother who's by her side for 20yrs, but it doesn't work.. The story continues as more cases seems to be involving Do Hak sung construction company in his underhanded fight for power and money.
The story continues of them sending off all type of ghost. Until they meet the egg face(which is formed what multiple people die at the same time, samenplace etc.) Its very difficult to get rid of that how Jiah mom. Died. Watch the drama👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
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This review may contain spoilers
Ghostbusters Kdrama Style
Likes:1. Perfect combination of badass Jia and cool In Bum 🥰 i didnt mind that they didnt end up together, coz Inbum might lose his psychic (special) abilities ☺ They are like Kdrama version of ghostbusters!
2. I really liked the episodic cases, though towards the middle the main story was losing steam. The tone of the drama also changed from fun to somber.
3. No matter how many times they show it, i cant get enough of Inbum whenever he is possessed by the spirits.
4. Jia's mom had a nice sendoff. I thought they were going to give her a fantastic goodbye but what we got was beautiful and perfect.
5. Loved the bromance between Jichul and Inbum. Even Jia lost to their i love yous 😆 i also liked Hwajeong and how she took care of Jia.
6. This drama had the oddest PPL (men's underwear lol).
7. Are they releasing the OST album? I hope so! I keep hearing "I Got you!"🎶🎶 In my mind all day
Dislikes:
1. The exorcism of the egg ghost wasn't spectacular as I expected it to be.
2. Do Hak Sung was a boring villain.
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Slow storyline
Slow storyline which does not elaborate much on anything else aside from exorcism related, which fits the title, no complains.The story can bring out more each other's backstory instead. Maybe it is just me, but I felt it is up to the viewers to decide the relationship between each characters. Either the explanation was not clear or vague for my opinion.
Jang na-ra may be a good actress but her expression felt stiff this time through all episodes (unlike her previous dramas, which I know, was supposed to be light hearted). Might be due to her role in this drama, but I felt it could have improvements on this part (see character development).
However jung yong hwa's acting was surprisingly good in this. You can see that he matured through the episodes tho some dialogues are still tacky. And his friend, I am not sure if he supposed to love yong hwa or not??? I felt some BL going on between them, am I over thinking?
The ending! I do not fancy an ending like a first episode kind. Nothing ever changes and I want a season 2 now.
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very very good
Just finished watching this, a couple of years behind everyone else but then there's no expriy date on excellent television. Abolutely loved it, every moment, and jang Na-ra's performance is absultely grupping, spellbinding, notew perfect in every sece. I'm getting used to the excellence of Korean female lead actors but this was a standout alongside IU's work in Hotel del Luna. And the ending - which is sometimes either a little rushed or too drawn out in Kdrama - was completely perfect, giving a completely acceptable rounding off of the story.Obviously production qualities were superb.
One question, and I hope someone can help; the music we hear on the actual soundtrack does not all seem to be on the OST that I have found on the internet. (I cannot find a copy of the cd) I am particularly interested in the instrumental sections, particularly the main title opening credits theme. PLEASE can someone tell me what the full soundtrack credits are - on the actual drama, not the OST.
Really great television. Next for us is going to be something more recent - THE BEQUEATHED - which I have seen only a few minutes of so far but looks good.
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unexpected bursting chemistry and heartwarming in a pretty dark way
The concept itself is pretty refreshing. One is specialist in eliminating spirits in houses that can't be sold and one is specialist in tricking people believing that their property is haunted by a ghost.Every exorcism that's been done got a good background story. There are stories that made me sad and even mad of how the victim ended up dead.
The past between the main leads are also quite tragic and what I don't expect is , Jang Nara and Yong Hwa's chemistry is just so good even the skinship is mostly hand holding and there's not even more than that.
Quite satisfied with the ending even I hope there's more between the main leads.
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This review may contain spoilers
Ghost Whisperer meets Buffy the Vampire…eh ghost slayer….
…Well sort of. There are some minor similarities between this show and those two shows but a lot of differences too.The FL is a dark, brooding real estate agent with mommy issues. Her real estate niche is that she exorcise vengeful ghosts in haunted houses then makes a profit when helping the owner sell those homes. In this mist of all this she meets the ML a ghost hunter con artist who turns out to be a true medium. At first they’re at odds but eventually team up to rid various dwellings of vengeful ghosts while unraveling the traumas and conspiracies of their intertwining pasts and present.
This show was an easy watch and works well mainly due to the cases of the week and chemistry between the characters. The underlying storyline with the ghost mom and the town gangster were passable but not enough drive intrigue in the series. I will say the antagonist in this was awful. Hated him. I was absolutely sick of him by the time he met his end late in the series. The acting was good. The FL/ML had good chemistry. It was obvious there were more feelings between them than friendship but the expression of those feelings were minimal at best. The description of this series genre as “romantic comedy” is grossly misleading. Southern if you’re looking for a love story in the midst of ghost slaying you won’t find it here. Still this was good series and thus worth watching.
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Amazingly Addictive
I have become a big fan of sleep as of late and I have, in a situation where I am a bit tired and can choose between staying up or shut eye, I always chose rest or sleep. So it's been a while where I have chosen to stay up, especially to watch a drama but this drama was worth staying up for. It's quite addictive, and it's easy to click to the next episode without even realizing.Story: Although ghost stories and exorcisms are nothing new, this drama takes a fresh angle by incorporating the real estate market and shedding light to SK's real estate problem. It ties in well to the episodic cases and the main storyline. The episodic cases are interesting and enough depth is given to these short-appearing characters. I really liked how all the spirts did not talk or have expressions. Unlike other dramas that have ghosts acting just like humans, this non-expression state honed in the point that these spirits are not human; they are a remnant of something that once was and something that needs to go. I also really appreciated the female lead's relationships with her mother and her secretary/aunt. It was so relatable for her to be so independent yet also dependent on her mother, something I think a lot of adults or young adults can relate to with their parents.
In terms of acting, everyone did a pretty good job but Jang Nara absolutely nailed it. I really wish there more female characters like Hong Ji Ah (despite the increase of strong-willed female leads, I do find most of these intelligent and aloof roles go to the male characters) but it was Jang Nara that made her such a great character. Her tone of voice, her enunciation of her certain words, her gait and her facial expressions, like the slight narrowing of her eyes, were all so on point. In a less experienced actress's hands, Hong Ji Ah may have come off as pretentious or rude. I very much appreciate that Hong Ji Ah is given struggles and has to make important decisions - aka she is an active character.
The music was good and added some nice quirk. The production was well-done too and I liked the homey street area set location. While the drama does have some interesting twists, there are no major crazy shockers that take away the enjoyment of a re-watch. Overall, recommends hands down, especially if you want something with solid writing, a very interesting and well-written female lead and/or spooky themes. Spoilers below:
***SPOILERS***
So why not a higher rating if I loved this so much?
First, the villain character, Do Hak Sung, felt so one-note that he felt less like a character and almost more like a concept or plot device. Second, Kim Tae Jin and the ML's uncle Oh Sung Shik. I know the drama was trying to create two somewhat morally grey but ultimately sympathetic characters with these two but I could not come to like either. You can do bad things but there are some bad things (even minor bad things) you cannot do for audience to like you and the drama failed on that, for me.
Kim Tae Jin was supposed to be what I guess was a down-on-his-luck thug that served as comedic relief and ultimately comes around but I personally am still very upset at the problems he caused. Irl, he would be the type where I would maybe forgive but never call a friend. And Oh Sung Shik chose to put himself or his family over others twice. And when given a chance to try to repent aka confess, he eschews that again, to his own detriment. I know that he was doing it all for this family and it really Do Hak Sung's fault but this is where I come back to Do Hak Sung feeling less like a character and more like a plot device. To me, Oh Sung Shik's actions are equivalent to being forced into unforeseen circumstances (like a natural disaster) and choosing to sacrifice others over yourself. I don't hate him and I cannot condemn him but I don't have much good feelings toward him either.
But overall minor stuff in an otherwise amazing drama!
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Good Enough
Korean Drama 'Sell Your Haunted House' is a plethora of ghosts and smooth dynamics.The best thing about this drama is the lack of romance. The two did have chemistry and their dynamics were spot on, but they were not romantic ones. The ghost stories were all pretty interesting as well, and were nicely knitted into the main mystery. However, the latter was stretched out a bit too far. Still, the take on the ghost, from their abilities, to their makeup, was a refreshing touch. The exorcist ceremonial characteristics were also a factor that gave originality to the drama.
Finally, the performances were all great, but this needs a special shout-out to Jang Na Ra who proves that she can play rom com leads as well as dynamic, hardcore women.
So, overall, 8 out of 10.
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A Meaningful Drama!!
The drama is about a female exorcist and her special psychic. Hong Ji Ah runs a real estate business of exorcism and when she meets Oh In bum she realises that he is a special psychic without knowing their past connection.The drama is very good. I'm a very scaredy cat but this drama wasn't that scary. The drama is a very meaningful drama with short stories mixed to make the whole bigger drama. Each episode almost gives us a new story and a new meaning of life.
I was disappointed with the villain, he wasnt that scary as a villain should be.
The acting was amazing. But I loved Jang Na-ra the most. So beautiful, powerful, a femme fatale. She nailed her character.
Ah. I'm definitely going to miss the drama.
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