[PREV - OTA_SPACE] [TOP]
OH_MY_GHOST
November 8, 2017
February 1, 2018
"Oh My Ghost" (2015)
(aka "Oh My Ghostess"
or a number of other http://www.gooddrama.to/korean-drama/oh-my-ghost
translations)
A pathologically shy girl is
possessed by an extrovert ghost, This ghost has latched on to the idea
causing much confusion. that the "grudge" that's keeping her
spirit hanging around is that she
This is one of the best died a virgin.
things I've seen come
out of the world of She keeps possessing women and
Korean comedy-drama series. trying to use them to seduce men.
It has some of the best acting Part of the premise though
I've seen anywhere: the female is that she reaches a point
lead (Park Bo-Young) plays two where she realizes she's
radically different personalities, called this wrong, and
and both of them evolve as the actually it's an issue with
story progresses. how she died.
At one point, my partner remarked This shift in focus
"Is that the same actress?!". parallels a shift in tone
that seems to be part of
All are confused by the shifts in the genre conventions.
character, in particular the male lead
who suddenly has this young woman coming When this *isn't* built
on to him in un-subtle fashion. into the internal logic,
the series often gets
(The dialog goes something like: "No, that's remarkably dull around
okay, I don't need pride or shame or anything in the 1/2 to 2/3 range.
like that, I just want you to do it with me.")
This all hits a wall mid-way through, as
all of these shows do, but this one juggles
sideways reasonably effectively, shifting
into two different phases: the male lead
must learn what's been going on and deal
with it, then the female ghost goes after
the her murderer (a man possessed by an
"evil spirit").
That unfortunately goes
off into a lot of CHEAP_SUSPENDERS
Suspense schtick, which I
always dislike, but it's In many series like this, it's all too
preferable to the usual. common to shift from comedy-drama to
drama, and the last third of the show
feels dragging and padded-- the pacing
You will be surprised to of the dialog grinds to a halt, with
hear that at the end the long serious pauses between every
female then suddenly wins line; people stare at each other
a trip to study abroad, meaningfully; a character reflects on
and they do the what has gone before and there's a
traditional Long Period dissolve to a flash-back montage while
of Separation: two years the music swells.
before first sex.
OTA_SPACE
OH_MY_GHOST
November 24, 2018
"Oh My Ghost", on the second viewing, it's
apparent how tight the first episode is-- every
line is needed to be there to introduce some
little bit that gets used later in the story, even
down to the detail that the Chef doesn't like
rice.
The pacing of the story is a little slow in some
respects-- there isn't much ghost-action on stage
for awhile, as Soon-Ae is imprisoned by the
Suhbingo.
The female lead's character begins changing very
quickly after she's possessed, there's two ways
of looking at this: Perhaps there be some
spiritual "osmosis" between her and the ghost
that possesses her? Myself, I think it's more
indirect: the fact that she behaves differently
when the ghost takes over changes everyone else's
expectations of her-- they stop looking at her
like a girl who won't look back at them.
--------
[NEXT - AVENGERS_SOCIAL_CLUB]