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Pierce Conran

This article contains minor spoilers.
Lead cast: Bona, Yook Sung-jae, Kim Ji-hoon
Latest Nielsen rating: 9.2 per cent
In The Haunted Palace, a period drama with shades of horror, comedy and romance, Bona (Twenty-Five Twenty-One) and Yook Sung-jae (The Golden Spoon) play a spectacles maker and a dragon in human form who find themselves within the walls of the royal palace, where they tackle a mystery.
That sounds like a lot to take in, but the set-up is even more complicated than that, as we discover through the show’s opening episodes, which bring us up to speed on the many events that led the protagonists to that point.
Yet it is to the show’s credit that it pulls off a heady mix of disparate genres and dense plotting with relative aplomb.


It begins with a mythological curtain-raiser about Kang-cheol, a serpent-like imugi who spends 1,000 years training in a pond to become a dragon, at which point he bursts forth into the sky and hurtles up to heaven.
Unluckily for him, Kang-cheol is spotted by a newborn human during his ascent, thereby cancelling his ticket to heaven. He becomes a vengeful spirit, roaming the land and cursing the human race that doomed him.
This story is told by a shaman to her granddaughter Yeo-ri, who she warns to stay away from this dangerous spirit. Young Yeo-ri finds it hard to comply, as Kang-cheol has taken a liking to her – appearing before her in human form, played by Kim Young-kwang (Call It Love).
Possessing a pure shaman would enable Kang-cheol to ascend to heaven, so he continues to torment Yeo-ri as she grows up.

Yeo-ri does not follow her grandmother into her spiritual profession. As a young woman – played by Bona – she has become a skilled maker of optical lenses. Kang-cheol still hangs around causing mischief.
Meanwhile, in the royal palace a young prince has been possessed and violently attacks his vassals. His father, King Lee Sung (Kim Ji-hoon, Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area), not knowing what to do, turns to Yoon Gab (Yook), an officer in the court, who leaves the palace on a diplomatic errand.
During his travels, Gab bumps into Yeo-ri, who he was close to as a child. He invites Yeo-ri to return with him to the palace, claiming that the king needs her glasses. But he has ulterior motives, probably connected to her shaman roots and the spiritual troubles plaguing the palace.
Before embarking on this journey Gab is killed by the king’s political enemies, and Kang-cheol takes this opportunity to possess Gab’s body.

The pair soon wind up at the palace, where Yeo-ri tries to find Gab’s spirit while Kang-cheol begins to enjoy the sensations of being a human – particularly the sensation of taste, as he gorges on all the food he can get his hands on.
The king, who already has glasses, tries to figure out why Gab brought this young woman before him. All the while, the prince’s condition grows more grave.
The contours of the show’s mystery and the motivations of various other shady palace figures, not to mention how the leads connect to it all, are vague. However, there is a zest to the proceedings and enough crumbs to earn our patience.
For now, we can sit back and watch the story unfold until these dots inevitably begin to connect.

With its shamans, imugi and other spirits, The Haunted Palace lives up to its name, doling out a steady stream of horror vignettes, none tense enough to scare off viewers. They are visually appealing and afford the show a semblance of cohesion that the fractured story fails to deliver.
These many elements are also cleanly staged by director Yun Seong-sik, who has plenty of experience with high-concept period dramas, having previously directed the smash hit Mr. Queen among several other period shows.
Bona, a member of K-pop girl group WJSN last seen in Pyramid Game, is a compelling lead, deftly balancing the strength and hesitancy of her character.
Yook, a member of the K-pop group BOTB, essentially plays two characters, switching from the clean-cut Gab to the raucous Kang-cheol who possesses his body. While he clearly delineates the characters, there is not a great deal of subtlety to either performance.

There was a hint of romance between Yeo-ri and Gab early on, with the reluctant shaman even experiencing a vision of the two together, but his premature death appears to have put paid to that.
Perhaps the romance will pick up again from a new direction once Kang-cheol has fully settled into his human form.
The Haunted Palace is streaming on Viu.


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A shaman’s granddaughter and an official whose body a vengeful spirit has taken over end up in the royal palace. Will romance follow?


K-drama The Haunted Palace: Bona, Yook Sung-jae lead spirited period drama

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A shaman’s granddaughter and an official whose body a vengeful spirit has taken over end up in the royal palace. Will romance follow?

A shaman’s granddaughter and an official whose body a vengeful spirit has taken over end up in the royal palace. Will romance follow?