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Pierce Conran

This article contains spoilers.
3/5 stars
Lead cast: Jung Kyung-ho, Seol In-ah, Cha Hak-yeon, Tang Joon-sang
Latest Nielsen rating: 4.2 per cent
In the socially aware legal comedy-drama Oh My Ghost Clients, struggling labour rights lawyer Roh Moo-jin (Jung Kyung-ho, Hospital Playlist) finally gets to put his legal degree to work after gaining the ability to see ghosts who harbour resentment about their terrible workplace experiences.
Over five weeks and 10 episodes, director Yim Soon-rye (Little Forest) has brought a well-honed mix of commercial and social sensibilities to bear on an easy-to-follow show with a clear message.


That message was crafted by writer Kim Bo-tong, writer of the webtoon D.P. and its acclaimed Netflix series adaptation.
He uses a familiar narrative and characters to criticise shoddy workplace safety protocols, rigid hierarchy systems, rampant cronyism, and anything else that those at the top use to take advantage of vulnerable workers.
A new case is presented each week. One surrounds an elderly cleaner at a university who dies of a heart attack while studying for unnecessary tests that her employer forces him and her colleagues to take.
Moo-jin, whose mother is one of the other workers, convinces the staff to go on strike. But while the administration predictably gives them a hard time, the toughest blow comes from the student body, who also side against them at first.

It is only after a secret live-stream showing the head of university administration viciously berating the cleaning staff outrages students that they finally come around.
More often than not, Moo-jin and his helpers, including his sister-in-law Na Hee-joo (Seol In-ah, Business Proposal) and YouTuber Go Gyeon-woo (Cha Hak-yeon, Castaway Diva), have to resort to hidden camera videos such as these to sway the public emotionally. They seldom triumph with facts and evidence alone.
In the final case, which takes place over the course of the last few episodes, the ghosts of a group of deceased workers who died in a warehouse fire crowd around Moo-jin.
Moo-jin faces off with Kim Myung-ahn (Choi Moo-sung, The Good Bad Mother), the vile chairman of the building company responsible for the tragedy, and assemblywoman Moon Jung-eun (Moon So-ri, When Life Gives You Tangerines).

During the argument, the building they are in begins to crumble thanks to its shoddy construction, teeing up a suitably climactic finale.
While charismatically brought to life by Jung, Moo-jin is a very simple character – a side effect of a story more concerned with its message than its characters.
The series tries to imbue him with some depth through a backstory about the death of his older brother Woo-jin, played in a cameo by Jin Seon-kyu (Kingdom).
Woo-jin popped up halfway through the series, seemingly alive, but most viewers probably figured out pretty quickly that he was either a ghost or a figment of Moo-jin’s imagination.

That Woo-jin died in a workplace accident would have given more meaning to Moo-jin’s career choice had it not been made clear early on that the latter’s initial motivations were financial.
Furthermore, this revelation undercuts the poignancy and relatability of Moo-jin learning to become empathetic on the job.
Overall, Oh My Ghost Clients does not offer much of a lasting impression. After helping out the group of ghosts who died in the fire, Moo-jin gets his happy ending, too.
He makes peace with his brother’s death – an issue we did not realise he was battling with until the very end – and scores a windfall when his cryptocurrency investments suddenly skyrocket, which helps him to get back together with his estranged wife Na Mi-joo (Kyung Soo-jin, Mouse), whose impact on the story was negligible.

We also finally learn that Bo-sal (Tang Joon-sang, Move to Heaven), the deity who has been guiding Moo-jin, is in fact Jeon Tae-il, a garment industry worker who set himself on fire to protest horrific working conditions, and whose statue Moo-jin drunkenly talked to in the first episode.
The show ends when Moo-jin is confronted with yet another ghost in need of his help.
While a second season of Oh My Ghost Clients, though welcome, is probably unlikely, this feels like a suitable conclusion since, when it comes to fighting injustice, the work is never truly over.
Oh My Ghost Clients is streaming on Viu.


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This socially aware comedy-drama about a lawyer who serves those who died in workplace accidents is stronger on message than characters


This socially aware comedy-drama about a lawyer who serves those who died in workplace accidents is stronger on message than characters.


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Cha Kang-yoon

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An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}This socially aware comedy-drama about a lawyer who serves those who died in workplace accidents is stronger on message than characters

This socially aware comedy-drama about a lawyer who serves those who died in workplace accidents is stronger on message than characters