DFR: Arang and the Magistrate ep 2

Diving right in!

Episode 1 ended w/ Lee Jun Ki, riding up, hero style, to our heroine, during a big chase scene w/ General Dead Dude.  It was very exciting & I love that she was actually swept off her feet. {{giggle}}  So romantic! Sigh.  Especially when the sweeper is Lee Jun Ki!  Making me wish I was the sweepee.  Although, then I'd have to be dead & that I would not want, I much prefer being all fleshy & warm.  {{wink wink rowr}}  Thinking about that now, I wonder how will this love story work out?  She is a ghost, after all.  Almost every time they touch he goes all "burrrrr-y", where she touches him & he shivers because, you know, dead = cold.  It's a puzzler, isn't it?  o_O

So, he sweeps her up, but General Dead Dude is moving in on them, on foot no less.  Until that is, Arang, reaches into her Hanbok & grabs a handful of peach blossoms & then flings them, behind her & Eun Oh on the horse, right at General Dead Dude.  Who stops in mid tracks & tries to protect himself from the vicious blossoms.

As you can see, it's pretty hard to block peach blossoms, as one has managed to penetrate his awesome blossom block & slices his cheek.  Looks like it hurts.

He stops running after this because there is no way he'll catch them now.  And once again Arang escapes his clutches.  She & Eun Oh ride off into the sunset....  I mean.... they ride off to safety.  No sunset.  That was all my imagination.  They arrive lakeside & Eun Oh slides off the back of the horse & Arang, who looks like she is in shock, just sits there.  He pulls her off the horse & pretty much rips the hair pin out of her hair.  Remembering giving the hairpin to his mother the night before she disappeared.  Then demands that she tell him where she got it.

When our girl snaps back to reality she snatches back the hair pin & when he asks again she tells him, she doesn't know, she's had it since she died.  She thanks him for saving her & says she'll return the favor someday & then walks away.  He glances at the hairpin, that she just put back in her hair, & decides that he is going to help her figure out who she was & how she died.  They get back on the horse & head into town together.  And as they head in to town she tells him that she knew he had a good heart.  That he tries to act all cold but that he is brave & warm hearted.  To which he replies...

The last thing he needs is for people, &/or ghosts, to think is that he is soft hearted, right?  

It's time for General Dead Dude to report to the Jade Emperor.  He apologizes for losing Arang again. And just as he is apologizing Yeom Ra (Hades) arrives & scoffs at his, meaning Gen Dead Dude's, inability to capture her & then asks him how did the red rope even become loose to begin with?  At this point the Jade Emperor, for a split second, looks slightly responsible.  But maybe that was all in my head.  And then the Jade Emperor stands & walks into the garden & says, "She will come.  Since I planted the seeds of fate, now it's time to shoot out the buds."  Then he touches a bright yellow flower in the very colorful garden & we get a glimpse of his other worldly powers...

When the bright yellow flowers turns a pure white.   

As does the entire garden... 

and he says, "Fate is something like this.  Round and round it spins.  And then..."

At this point he touches the now white flower & turns it back to it's original bright yellow, and the rest of the garden too, turns back to color...

And he continues again, "you end up where you started."   

Then the Jade Emperor goes up to the lamb from the last episode & asks it, 

"Why....is my mind so disturbed...like this?"

That's a loaded question if you ask me.  Or maybe it would be a loaded question if I was the one asking it?  Either way one or both of us are disturbed.  xD

Back on earth, Dol Soe finds out from Eun Oh that he intends to continue being magistrate & Dol Soe immediately flies off the handle & blames the 3 town councilmen.  Who are drafting a letter to the King, they don't know yet that Eun Oh intends to keep the post as Magistrate, and in their draft they claim, "We elected a magistrate & he ran away"  then they proclaim it is an insult to the King & the people.  Until Dol Soe arrives ready to rattle some heads together.  But Eun Oh comes to their rescue.  Afterwards, while they are trying to figure out why Eun Oh wants to continue to be magistrate they decide it's actually a good thing.  First they get off the hook with the king, about trying to find a magistrate.  Second, because he changed his mind so much, that must mean he can be their puppet magistrate.  But he is the son of Lord Kim Heung Bo, shouldn't they be worried about him?  They just don't know.  Now the hard part.  One of them will have to inform Lord Choi, aka Creepy Daddy, that his position, as the fake magistrate, has been usurped by a real magistrate.

Lord Choi, as you can imagine, is not pleased to hear this news.  As the town councilman stays on bended knee, begging forgiveness & explaining that it was by royal decree, that they fill the position officially.  Lord Choi's advisor, while agreeing that they made a stupid move, does believe that placing a "puppet" in the position, wouldn't be so bad.  However, he is bothered that the new magistrate is none other than the only son of Lord Kim Heung Bo.  Who is responsible for the demotion of Lord Choi, which sent him back to his hometown.  Uh oh...I have a feeling there is a complicated back story & some foreshadowing of issues in the future here.  Hmmm....  And even though Lord Kim Heung Bo is retired & teaching is own hometown now, he still has very powerful followers.  So Creepy Daddy will have to tread carefully.  Ahhh politics.  Got it.  And ooohhh  Creepy Daddy says, as an aside to himself, that he didn't even know Lord Kim Heung Bo has a son?!?!  I have a theory here but I will keep it to myself.  You probably all have similar theories anyway.

Now I ask you, what is the best way to find out what happened to Arang?  Who she is?  How she died?  If she lived here & went missing, an Amber Alert would go nationwide.  Complete with her picture, where she was last seen, maybe who she was seen with.  Well, Eun Oh has a similar idea.  He wants to draw a portrait of Arang & then post it around town.  To see if anyone recognizes her or can say where they last saw her.  The only problem is, is that Eun Oh, is not so talented at drawing....

Once he completes the picture he proudly shows it off to Arang.   

"Missed it by...THAT much!"
15 points to anyone who gets that movie reference

 I LOVE her reaction!  Remember she has no idea what she looks like.  Hard to look in the mirror when you're dead, after all.  

He crumbles up the paper & throws it aside.  According to the councilman, who is reporting to Lord Choi, He spent hours trying to draw a woman's face, all to no avail & then had an artist come in & draw according to his specifications.  Of course, the artist trying to draw it is trying to follow Eun Oh's descriptive instructions.  But Eun Oh is trying to be subtle about describing her, the artist isn't supposed to know he can see the dead.  The artist keeps looking over to where Eun Oh is looking, but he can't see anyone.  Hours more go by & still no pictures that look even remotely like Arang.  Both give up in frustration.

He's trying to get her to remember something but there is nothing for her to remember...except.... 

WAIT!

She does know 2 things;

1st thing; that has been dead & memory less for 3 years.

2nd thing; that sometimes she gets this horrible pain in her left rib cage, like she's being stabbed.  

Maybe it is a knife wound?!?!  

He asks her, "You're just mentioning this now?!?!?!" 

Followed by, "Humph & Aish!" from both.  

Needless to say the next morning he asks for all the cold case files for the last 3 years, girls only, to be brought to him to read. 

He then holes himself up for the next couple of days & nights, in the magistrate's office, going through the files, all to no avail.  He can find nothing that sounds even remotely like Arang's story.

When he finally comes to the conclusion that none of the victims he's read about are her, she says, "Maybe my corpse hasn't been found yet?"  He laughs at her & says, "Yes maybe your body is laying out there somewhere rotting & lonely."  Needless to say she does not find this remotely funny & storms off.  She goes off walking alone & he goes off walking alone.  

She finds a group of ghosts waiting for "Goosorae" or food offering, as part of the ancient rite of offering food to the dead.  Then via flashback, we see a newly dead & starving, which seems weird because if you are dead how can you be starving?, sorry I digress.  

Anyway, uh...oh yeah....Goosorae.  

An older ghost, with more experience offers a newly dead Arang some rice.  Which she promptly starts stuffing into her face.  He smells her...uh ew?... and determines that she doesn't smell strong enough to be an old ghost & therefore she must be newly dead.  Mostly, she ignores him while she stuffs her mouth, but eventually he asks her what her name is & she says she doesn't know.  It is then we find out that 'Arang' is the name given to virgin ghosts who cannot remember their real names.  He explains that as a ghost she is going to be hungry no matter how much she eats.  But since she has no family to offer her sacrifice, meaning food offerings {{ie SoJo, rice, meat etc...}}, that she will be starving all the time & that anytime she comes across "Goosorae", {an offering}, she must do everything she can to get the offering before any other ghost.    

So when she sees all these ghosts waiting for the offering she joins in the wait.  All geared up.  The human comes out, sets out the food & as soon as she goes back inside, chaos reigns supreme.  All the ghosts there dive for the food, knocking each other & pulling each other out of the way, all fighting over the small bowl of food offering.  She doesn't get it btw.  And when the other ghosts, that also didn't win, get up, one of them gets really angry & says he wants to hit her.  He even starts to raise his fist but the other ghosts tell him they need to go.  He yells out that this isn't over, he'll get even!  Be interested to see, if he plays a role later, or if this is one of those weird things the writers just put in there & never finish?  We'll seeeeeeee...

On Eun Oh's walk, in the magistrate complex, he comes across a building that is locked but yet has a light glowing.  So he hops the wall & goes inside.  He finds its a bedroom & it's neat & clean & filled with make up, hair accessories, a needlepoint that looks really familiar etc...  An ahjumma appears & tells him to get out of there.  He apologizes & explains he is the new magistrate & starts questioning the ahjumma as to what this place is & who lives there?  She explains that she is the seamstress & that it belonged to the daughter of the previous magistrate & that she has been keeping it ready in case she returns.  He looks confused & asks her what she means.  She explains that the young woman, disappeared....3.  Years.  Ago.  {{OMO!!}}  

After Arang, loses the Goosorae she goes back to the Magistrate complex & finds Eun Oh, pacing impatiently, waiting for her.  He starts to drag her off only she shakes him off.  Then he says simply, "I found it."  

He takes her to her room & as she stands there slowly taking it all in he tells her... 

She walks around & then looks at him & asks if he is sure?  He nods & points to the needlepoint that looked so familiar to him.  

She kneels down in front of it & then realizes it's an exact duplicate of the needlepoint butterfly on her Hanbok.    

He asks her if she remembers anything?  She tells him no.  She remembers nothing.  

The next morning he asks the town councilmen what they can tell him about Magistrate Lee's daughter.  How she went missing & if anyone knows what happened to her?  He then hears a rather sordid story of how she fell in love with a servant & ran off with him.  That she wasn't missing but that she had brought disgrace to her father & that he gave up his position as Magistrate because he wanted to find her so badly.  But he died before he could.  They explained it was quite the shock, because no one had ever suspected that such a well mannered, quiet young lady would do such a thing.  That no one in the village, really even knew what she looked like, because she was so ladylike, every time she went out in public, she wore a veil.  Then Eun Oh asks them if she had any other relatives & they tell him sadly no, it was just she & her father.  But there was someone who was wronged even more.  And then....we find out.... that Arang (Lee Seo Rim) was engaged.  

Out in the courtyard, Eun Oh asks Arang again if she remembers anything.  She still does not remember anything.  She believes that she should meet the guy she was engaged to but since she's a ghost it would be impossible & so she asks Eun Oh to help her.  He freaks out at the idea of anybody else finding out he can see ghosts.  She understands & thanks him & then says, even so, thank you for helping me to find out who I was & then says, now they have no reason to see each other,& starts to leave.  As she walks past him, he focuses on her hairpin again, remembering his mother, & decides he has no choice & stops her from leaving & tells her he will help her.  Her memories have a clue as to what happened to his mother.

Who was she engaged to?  Why duh!!  Lord Choi's Creepy Son, of course.  Whose name is Choi Ju Wal.  He still can't believe she fell in love with a lower ranking guy, when she had this rich guy.  They walk around the large house & find Lord Choi's son, outside in the garden on the other side of the yard wall, painting.  She goes to the wall & peeks & suddenly her heart starts to beat rapidly & she can't catch her breath.  She gets suddenly shy & extremely nervous.  And she panics & says she can't meet him.  But Eun Oh is determined they go through with it & can't believe that a ghost's heart can even beat. 

But she absolutely refuses!  No matter how much he tries to push her to the door. 

Eventually, he decides he's just going to go by himself but she is not having any of that!  And she grabs his face & starts dragging him backwards.  She is really strong for a dead chick.   

Of course as people walk past they can't see Arang but they do see Eun Oh.  

Nothing like a little slapstick comedy to lighten the mood, eh?

After a couple carafes of rice wine, Arang, decides that the reason she couldn't go through with it & the reason her heart beat so fast was because she must have really liked Choi Ju Wal.  And she refuses to go & see him looking the way she does, she wants to be pretty first!  But how can she get clothes?!?!  She starts to think of the shaman girl again but shakes that notion away. She already tried that.  Fail!

But Eun Oh is going to help her.  He piggy backs her to the shamans house, who knew a ghost could weight that much!

He looks like he's going to have an aneurysm!

 I LOL'd when he said, "When I pulled her up on the horse she was light as a feather!"

So he readjusts to get her higher on his back & oops her incredibly lovely face is right next to his!

Their chemistry...so far...is awesome! 

He's so turned on in shock by her sudden closeness, her cheek bumped his cheek & he felt her ghostly coldness, that he drops her...on purpose.  Yeah it was the "cold" that had you chucking her off your back all of a sudden.

Eventually he picks her back up & they continue....

Of course just as he has picked her back up & is struggling to regain his balance with her weight on him a man passes by giving Eun Oh a weird look.  He can't see Arang & so Eun Oh must look deranged!  So he drops her again!  And after the man passes he picks her back up ...again.

I can only imagine what it must look like to see a man in the weird positions he's been in & not anyone else with him. 

While they are heading to the Shaman's house, Choi Ju Wal, Creepy Son, acts ...well... creepy again & actually quite scary too!  Earlier, when they were fighting on knocking over whether or not Eun Oh was going to go or if he was going to follow Arang & run away, a servant informed Choi Ju Wal that the preparations were all made & that Hong Ru Mo, which the subtitler tells us is a gisaeng house, is prepared for his arrival that night.  The servant then asks him why he is suddenly interested in something like that, when he never has been before.  Choi Ju Wal just gives him a look.  He is very good at the '"looks".

At the gisaeng house he is being served by the madam, with all the girls looking on & admiring how handsome he is.  The Madam informs him, that tonight, they closed off the entire establishment just for his pleasure.  However, he looks anything BUT comfortable.  And even though she has a great many beautiful women to choose from, he just keeps glancing at his ring.  Obviously this ring holds meaning.  

It's too much & he abruptly stands up & looks around & then walks out quickly.  As he exists the gisaeng house he looks at his ring again & says...

But not long after one of the gisaeng's grabs his arm & starts flirting outrageously with him & telling him if he is uncomfortable there she knows of lots of other places they can be alone.  He shakes her off twice & the third time she grasps his arm to prevent him from leaving he swings her around & up against a tree where he holds a knife to her throat.  He doesn't say anything but he looks insane.   

As he starts to turn away from her he turns back & points the knife at & threatens her to keep her mouth shut or else!  He walks away & she sinks to the ground trying to catch her breath.  Frozen in fear!  

See?!?!  That's NOT normal!!  He's totally creepy!!  I am sticking with my, "he's waiting for the "Rotten Moon" to kill a girl" theory!  

Back at the Shaman girl's house we find her praying for special abilities.  Eun Oh arrives & she thinks, "oooh good omen!" & "customer!".  Then she hears Arang but is still unaware that Eun Oh can see & hear Arang too, so she tells hi she is talking a god.  She questions why Arang is back but she looks in the wrong direction & he finally breaks & tells her that she's over here.  And she is stunned that he can see her!!  But this is not why they came.  They are there to talk the Shaman Girl into making Arang a new dress.  He pays her with two gold balls, her eyes widened & then she tells them, okay but we gotta get the measurements.  Only Shaman girl can't SEE Arang.  And if she can't see her she can't measure her.  And it's impossible to measure yourself.  This means that the only other person available to do the measuring is none other than.....Yup!  You guessed it!  Eun Oh.  {{giggle}}  I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this wonderfully chemistry filled scene!!

"Let's start with the chest measurement." says the Shaman Girl.  To which Eun Oh takes a step forward & Arang stops him!  She measures that part herself & then whispers the info the Shaman Girl.  Who then promptly repeats them nice & loud, leaving Eun Oh chuckling.  

But now it's time to measure her neck...

Then it was time to measure from neck to shoulder... 

Then slowly down her arm from her shoulder to her hand.  And we all know hand touching is a big deal, right?  It was such a sizzly, romantic, chemistry filled scene.   And then her shoulders on her backside...

Then around her waist...

Omo!! 

They are so perfect together! 

Then Shaman girl looks over the measurements & remarks out loud that judging by the measurements Arang has a slim & willowy figure.  And of course this is something that Eun Oh now knows personally!! Hehehehehe....

Afterwards, Arang leaves & the Shaman Girl begs Eun Oh to tell her the secrets, to being able to see the dead, like he can.  He swears her to secrecy.  And he leaves.  Once outside he bangs his chest, which is obviously beating rapidly from the measurement excitement & declares he must be crazy.

Later, at Lord Choi's "throne room" his servant returns & tells him that his son had tried out the gisaeng house.  He chuckles & says, "how impatient he must feel & his mind must be disturbed too".  You ain't wrong there Creepy Daddy!!  Your Creepy Son is very disturbed!  And you aren't much better!!

End Scene: {{& it's a good one!}}

We find Eun Oh is asleep on his side, but he feels a draft, & opens his eyes to find Arang laying on the floor, in front of him, on her side too, facing him.  She tells him that lots of people have their own different grudges.  "Do you know what my grudge is?"  To which he replies, jokingly, "What? Surviving in one dress for 3 years?"  She shakes her head no & says, "No.  Not getting a kiss...before I became a Maiden Ghost."  His eyes shoot wide open as he asks her "What?"  She then reaches forward and...

Oooh I loved this scene.  Pretty sure it's just a dream sequence, it is only episode 2 after all.  But is it his dream sequence or hers?  Do ghosts even dream?  Will he/she wake up just before the actual kiss takes place?!?!  So many questions!  And the preview for this week's episode 3 looks really good! I cannot wait!!  

I hope you guys are liking the show too.  But I won't know if you don't tell me.  So leave me a comment & tell me what you think of the actors, the story line, the writing, the action, the myths, the legends, the chemistry...  Ask me questions!  Any questions you want!  Chincha!! Even if I don't know the answer, I'll try to find it!  So just a couple more days & I will be starting my review of episode 3 & then episode 4!  So excited!!!

Hope you had a great weekend & that your week just gets better & better!  And that you like the reviews.  Don't forget to tune in Wednesday for my WWU!   I have a couple ideas rolling around in my nutty little Unnie head.  Shhh...keeping it on the DL till then.  And as always, we have a FB page, a Twitter page & lots of sexy extensive K pinboards/pins on Pinterest.  To talk to an ahjumma you can email, FB, FB email, Tweet, or just leave a comment anywhere you want!  We really do love hearing from you guys!  

Until Wednesday....

Saranghamnida,