‘Hotel Del Luna’…At long last, a Hong Sisters’ drama that hits the bullseye.
Hong Sisters (Hong Jung Eun & Hong Mi Ran) is a well-known name among K-drama viewers and fans, you can call them a brand even. Like how actors make headlines for reading through scripts for selecting their next project, the Hong Sisters will make headlines about their new ideas for their next drama, or about their next collaboration with so and so director, producer or actor (as I write this, they are already in talks of shooting their next drama). In such a manner, they are celebrated as much, if not more, as the actors who act out their stories. This is a big deal, because, in an industry where directors, writers, and other technicians names aren’t heard as much or mentioned even, Hong Sister’s popularity is a testament to their talent and hard work.
With that being said, until Hotel Del Luna, I wasn’t exactly an admirer of their work. Just last year I had watched two of their previous works — Master’s Sun and A Korean Oddysey, both smash hits, but both of which I dropped by the fifth episode. Both these shows had a solid premise, but a little over two episodes in, it felt like most of what was happening was merely fillers to keep us entertained till the big, serious climax. A Korean Odyssey had episodes running at 70 minutes each, with very little going on, and it didn’t help that the leads, Lee Seung Gi and Oh Yeon Seo, had terribly poor chemistry. Likewise, Master’s Sun — even with my favourite Gong Hyo Jin, wandered aimlessly after a solid premiere and the whole male-who-is-a-jerk-on-the-outside-but-sweet-on-the-inside trope was just tiring to sit through in 2019. But after watching Hotel de Luna, I do seem to understand what exactly the Hong sisters would have originally wanted to achieve with Master’s Sun and A Korean Odyssey. The plot is quite similar in all three — it involves a lead who can see spirits, and the other lead is their answer to getting rid of this curse or the answer to why they are bestowed with this peculiarity. This leads to episodic ghosts, which leads to episodic mysteries, which eventually help us and the characters put together pieces of the larger problem at hand. Hotel Del Luna excels expertly at this; sure, it is overstuffed, with ghosts, spirits, an afterlife, murders too, but with a tight screenplay, lively, diverse characters, a conflict that is introduced and built upon continuously, Hotel Del Luna is exhilarating, fresh and moving.
The drama follows Jang Man Wol (a spunky IU), trapped in a sort of purgatory, with her soul chained to the titular hotel, where she has to host spirits as they rest after their death until they are ready to move onto the afterlife. This is imposed upon her by Ma Go, one of the many deities (played by the spectacular by Seo Yi Sook), as a retribution for her sins. She is assisted by three (ghost) staff (played by Shin Jang Keun, Bae Hae Sun and Block B’s P.O.), who have all chosen to stay on earth to fulfill their last wishes, and a human manager Ku Chan Sung (played by the talented Yeo Jin Goo), the outsider amongst these fantastical beings, through whose eyes we are taught the rules of this world.
This peculiar setting organically incorporates the ghosts and spirits, and no time is wasted in getting Chan Sung to believe that such a place exists. These episodic ghosts and their stories are naturally weaved in without confining their story to an 80-minute episode, as they could be introduced in one, and then their story could be followed up in the coming few episodes. Even the coming and goings of the deities, the Grim Reaper (Kang Hong Suk), seem natural, like a network, a system created and run by them. Hence, you don’t need to keep finding an excuse to include these characters in the ongoings of the plot.
As entertaining as they are, the ghosts of the week are also proficiently used to touch upon the sensitive topic of death, and the untimely nature of it. While some spirits are happy to directly move on to the afterlife, some are held down by unfulfilled work, wishes or grudges. There are three episodes in particular — one involving an accident, one, a ghost wedding, and another, a suicide, brought on after being sexually harassed — are as scary as they are emotional. They touch upon topics of blind faith, acceptance about the reality of how you passed, and how sometimes, help comes from beyond the grave as well. These topics provide laughs, scares, twists but above all are presented with dignity and respect, without ever ridiculing the victim or the situation they were placed in.
Hotel Del Luna, even with tvN’s infamous long-drawn-out episode lengths, is captivating largely thanks to its well-rounded characters. IU is phenomenal, and though it takes a few episodes to settle into this role, she is a riot! IU infuses Man Wol with a childlike zest but also with the foresight of someone who has lived over a thousand years and a quiet vulnerability that comes to the surface when she has to confront her past. Her whimsical personality is duly matched with Chan Sung’s no-nonsense air, a character which in someone else’s hand would have registered as bland, but Yeo Jin Goo plays him as a righteous stranger equally fascinated and flabbergasted by Man Wol, and her world. Even with not much focus on the romance, Man Wol and Chan Sung win you over with their chemistry and are a large part of the show’s success.
I have said this in my Memories of Alhambra review, and I shall say it again — short format finite series is a goldmine for lovers of the fantastical, and the obscure, and Hotel Del Luna scores high on the fantasy meter. From the design of the hotel, with its unusual services which include a beach on the premises, and a phone call to your loved one via a dream, to the tunnel and bus stops that take spirits to the Sanzu river, right down to the hotel staff uniforms, the attention to detail is remarkable, and even if the plot doesn’t excite you, Hong Sisters’ dramas and their uniquely crafted worlds always warrant a watch.
