DFR: Arang and the Magistrate ep 3

I hope you guys are all having a great week filled w/ K Dramas left & right.  I hope you are looking forward to my review of Arang & the Magistrate.  I hope you are looking forward to lots of mystery & romance & fight scenes & almost kiss scenes & watching Lee Jun Ki be all dashing & heroic & shexy on screen.  

I hope that YG releases the prices & release date for the tickets for Big Bang's concert in Anaheim soon.  I need to start planning that trip!!  YG!!!  Please?  Pretty please??  {{on knees, rubbing hands together}}

{{blushes}}  

Sorry AddiKts.  I should probably get on with the review huh?  I'm just a really impatient Unnie.  

Are any of you going to be going to the BB concert in Anaheim?  Wanna hang out?  Wanna join Unnie & Dongsaeng for GNO-Korean style?  No we are not doing a sauna.  We're too shy for that!  

{{blushing & giggling}}

But some yummy Korean food, maybe a little Karaoke?  That we can totally handle!  Of course this all depends on whether we can get tickets!  I am so terrified we won't get tickets.  BB concerts are notorious for selling out really fast!  Oh please let us get tickets!!  BB Y U got to be so awesome!?!?  I really hope people realize that we should get first dibs on the tickets!!  

{{Just Kidding}}  

First come, first serve.  I know the drill.  Besides it's not like we're going to get to party w/ the band.  I am just looking forward to really awesome music, dancing, great memories for Dongsaeng & I to share, LOADS of Laughter, & LOADS of FUN!!!

Par-Tay!!  

Yes, I can party too.  I am a California girl after all!  This Unnie is ALWAYS up for a party & good time!  Who's With Us?!?!

{{silence}}

Chickens!  :)  

Okay I get the message.  Let's get on with the review.  

How many of you out there are totally digging this show?  

How many of you out there are totally digging Lee Jun Ki?!?!

{{Unnie, raising hand as high as she can while standing on a step stool.  ME!!! ME!!!  

I AM to both of those questions!!}}

So let's get to it, shall we?  

When last we saw our hero, he was a having a ... ahem ... dream.  A really nice dream.  

Unfortunately, he woke up before anything good happened.  

{{aww sad face here}}

{{Eun Oh you aren't going crazy.  I promise.  You're just a guy.  A perfectly normal guy.}}

Here we leave Eun Oh stressing over his very vivid & romantic dream & instead we get to overhear Yeom Ra & the Jade Emperor discussing the state of too many spirits wandering the earth.  All while fishing.  Hmm...  Who knew gods liked fishing?  Yeom Ra blames the Jade Emperor for the chaos below.  And he makes sure that the Jade Emperor understands that if he doesn't fix the problem soon that he will have to do it for him.  Oooh...that was interesting!  Hmmm...  Makes an Unnie wonder at the foreshadowing!

Back on earth it's time for the Shaman to gift the new clothes to Arang.  

Dead or Alive new clothes just makes girls happy.

And whether dead or alive a beautiful girl in the right kind of clothes makes a man take notice.  

Eun Oh, you need to work on that Poker Face a little more.  

Sigh.  She really is so beautiful.
I know that Shin Min Ah is gorgeous in whatever she wears but I love this Hanbok. 

Earlier that morning Eun Oh had given a letter to Dol Soe to deliver to Choi Ju Wal asking him to meet w/ Eun Oh.  After staring in amazement at Arang for a couple of minutes he gruffly clears his throat & tells her she should just stay w/ the Shaman until it's time for the meeting.  Wonder when he'll figure out that she is bothering him in a totally different way than he might expect a ghost to "bother" him.   Arang's not happy about staying behind but she does as he tells her & waits with the Shaman.  Who is also less than thrilled to have Arang still hanging around.  And because she is so bothered by Arang's presence encourages her to go early & meet Eun Oh & her former fiance.

By this point Ju Wal has received the letter from the Magistrate & is it just me or does he look less than pleased.  

And after this Eun Oh stops his walk to the meeting & decides he's not being fair.  What if Arang gets into trouble without him around to help her.  So until she finds out what happened to herself he should keep her close by him.  Then he turns around & heads back to the Shaman.  It turns out this is a really good idea.  Because shortly after Arang left the Shaman's house she found herself in trouble.

Remember the angry male ghost who lost out on his goosorae?  Yeah he's still angry.  As she walks through the town to go & meet Eun Oh, she walks past a derelict old house.  And flashes back to the when she bought the magic pill that allowed humans to see her.  And decides to go back in to the house.  Honestly, I kind of got confused at this point because the kids interrupted my viewing for a split second & I was too lazy to go back & see what reasoning she had for going into the house.  But once she was inside I caught back up.  And as she was there alone that's when Mad Ghost guy showed up, with backups.

He is ticked off & he has decided that the only he'll feel better is if she gets hit repeatedly.  In other words a beating.  I guess being dead he figures it isn't going to really hurt her.  But still does he not know that it's wrong to hit a girl?  Even if she is a ghost!  It's just so rude!  

But it's all good because our Arang can take care of herself.   

Although she is really badly outnumbered.  And just as they are about to start the real beating who should arrive in the nick of time?!?!

The incredibly dashing romantic lead...

Lee Jun Ki. 

Yeah, that'd be the look on MY face too Arang.

Tell me you guys weren't as swept off your feet as she looks like she is in this still shot?!?!  I'll call you a liar!

Omo!!  Lee Jun Ki, I am now your faithful servant.  Whatever you want I will happily obey.  Chincha!!  O_O

Now we insert a little comedy before we get back to a really cool fight scene.  Remember how he threw red beans at Arang to try & get her to stop following him?  {{giggle}}   He tries that with these guys too.  And they actually looked as scared as she did when he brought out the bag.

Until that is, he discovered there was only one small red bean left.

Apparently one bean is not scary to ghosts.  

What's a guy to do?

Kick some ghost butt of course!  

It's blurry but it's still cool!  I honestly think it is so beautiful  watching him fight with all of his robes flying through the air like this.  Every time he does some sort of flying twirl kick thing or jump or flip my breath catches.  It's so graceful & sexy.  I sound like I really know my martial arts don't I? "Flying twirl kick thing"?  Very technical.  LOL  ;)P

But they are all ghosts too which means he is really not going to win.  They can just keep going.  They don't die or get tired or get hurt really.  No matter how cool he looks while fighting or how much he impresses the ghosts or Arang who really was impressed as they fought.  He just is not going to win this fight.

They're surrounded by ghosts, fighting side by side.  With him constantly pulling bad ghosts off of Arang & rescuing her.  Yup, he is now in my list of favored romantic leads!  At this rate I will eventually be in love with every single leading actor in Seoul!

Let's not tell CA about my massive amount of crushes, okay?  He doesn't read this blog so he'll never know my secret.
;) 

 But have no fear Eun Oh, because there is help on the way.  Seeing as you are human & all the ghosts are fighting with you, it brings out the reapers!  Of course this may be good news for you but it isn't so much good news for Arang.  So yeah...um now would be a good time to RUN!!!!

Of course once you come to a stop Arang is going to realize that her hair is a mess & her brand new pretty Hanbok is ragged & dirty.  Poor girl.  She just cannot get a break.  Which is frustrating to her & I  gotta say I don't blame her.  So when she yelled at the Jade Emperor that he was an old man I was all...you tell him girlfriend!  He is a jerk for not making your death easier!  I mean isn't bad enough you were murdered in your beautiful youth but to suffer memory loss & starvation & then beatings on top of all that, as a ghost is just adding insult to injury.  And you can see that the Jade Emperor agrees with her, in his own slow, laid back way, he starts the motion for things to start righting themselves.  But he is really good at playing his cards close to his chest.  Must be a god thing.

I wonder if it's in the job description for being a god.

Wanted one god of the heavenly garden!  

Requirements: 

Must be adept at being;

an Enigmatic, Confusing, Cryptic, Frustratingly Slow, Absent, All Powerful, All Knowing Control Freak.  

Other desired characteristics include but are not limited to;

Insanely beautiful, Arrogant, & Smug.

Yup he qualifies.  

The Jade Emperor & Yeom Ra are playing another round of Go.

{{I am still not sure if that is what this game they are playing is called so if one of you knows please clue an Unnie in would ya?}}

And the way this scene is played out is that with each move the Jade Emperor makes on the game board more happens below as though each move reveals another layer or pushes forward another of his moves on earth.  Example...Move 1, it starts to rain.  Move 2, rains cause flooding & rushing water.  Move 3, rushing water, floods cause the unearthing of our heroines corpse which leads to the discovery that she did not run away & that she was murdered.   Well played Jade Emperor.  Well played.

Just as Eun Oh is making his way back to the Magistrate compound he spies Dol Soe & all the town councilmen as well as several of the towns people themselves running in panic towards....something.  He stops Dol Soe who explains that the body of a young woman was found in the floods.  And it looks like she was murdered.  They are saying its the Magistrates daughter from 3 years ago.

Everyone has gathered to see if it's her or not.  And then Eun Oh slowly walks over & gingerly pulls back the covering to reveal sure enough, it's Arang, aka Lee Seo Rim.  The ahjumma seamstress who kept her room preserved in case of her return is wailing loudly for the young mistress.

And Eun Oh, pulls back the cover even further to reveal her hand & the fact that she is not holding his mother's hair pin in her hand & we can see it isn't in her hair either.  Did you forget he is still helping her simply so he can find his mother.  I had almost forgotten.  He looks even more confused & stands up & as he turns around he sees, Arang standing at the edge of the crowd of onlookers.  Staring at her own dead body.

 He steps between her & the body & tells her to not look.  But I would have to look too.  I would have to see my own body.  Who wouldn't?  I would have to see with my own eyes before I could accept what is.

So she ignores his warning & looks anyway.  And then backs away slowly in shock & horror & then turns & runs.  And she keeps on running for what has to be miles.  Until she reaches the lake & then she collapses.

Back at the crime scene, Eun Oh cannot leave, because Ju Wal has arrived to see for himself the corpse of his former fiance.  Ju Wal & his servant inform everyone that they are under the orders of Lord Choi himself to bring the corpse back to their house & prepare it for burial.  Here is another prime example of how Creepy Son is very much confusing me.  It's like there are 2 different versions of the same man.  Kind of like a Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde scenario.    In this still shot he seems in shock & sad.  Like he can't believe all this time she was dead.  A "this cannot be real" kind of look.

At this point Eun Oh, as Magistrate steps forward & informs the servant & Ju Wal that the body will be going to the Magistrate's house.  It is after all a murder scene now & therefore the authorities should be responsible for the body.  This does not please Ju Wal.  He & the servant question Eun Oh's interference & he tells them he is the new Magistrate.

Ju Wal asks him why he wanted to meet him earlier but didn't show up.  Eun Oh, realizing he can't very well tell him why he didn't show tells him something kept him tied up & he was unable to arrive in time & then this happened.  But it's okay he just had a question that he no longer needs to ask.  Ju Wal accepts this but he feels it important to tell Eun Oh that his father wants this kept quiet & taken care of speedily.  That their family has already been through enough with the original rumors of her supposed 'running away'.  That he won't be happy that the Magistrate is refusing to release the body to the Choi family.

Eun Oh is determined the body go back with him, and I think this illuminating conversation has him suspicious of the Choi family.  Why wouldn't Ju Wal want to know what happened to his fiance?  Shouldn't he want answers to her death?  But Ju Wal tells him, honestly I really knew nothing about her.  I only had a glimpse of her once.  How can I be emotional over something that I had no emotional attachment to, to begin with?  But then why would your family want to take her body so badly to your house, when you have no relation & by your own admission you really cared nothing for her & knew nothing about her?  Very suspicious indeed. And it was this reaction of not caring for her, not knowing her & being heartless, that then had me thinking there is the other personality living in Ju Wal.  And this is why I call him Creepy Son.

Where is Arang all this time?  She is still laying by the lake.  After having flashed back to all the struggles she's endured since becoming a ghost.  Not knowing she was a ghost & the first time she walked through a human being, starving & fighting for Goosorae with dozens of ghosts, mostly men & a couple of boys.  She is done.  She goes back to the Magistrate's house but doesn't look for Eun Oh.  Instead she seeks out her body.

This is the first time she's seen herself since her death.  How awful to have to see yourself for the first time but you're dead.  Chilling.  Depressing.  Wrong.  She asks herself, "Why were you in such a low & dirty place?  What happened to you?  Even if I don't know, you should.  I'll find out for you."

She then goes to the rooftop & begins earnestly praying to the Jade Emperor.  Apologizing for calling him an Old Man & for all her misdeeds & sins since her death.  And begging him to come to her & tell her the truth of what exactly happened to her human self.  She bargains with him that if he'll grant this one request she'll turn herself in to Yeom Ra & accept her punishments.

Needless to say it doesn't work.  The Jade Emperor remains stubbornly quiet on the matter.  But I think he wants to tell her very much.  But, for Yeom Ra watching over him, I think he'd happily help her more.  But I guess even gods have to follow certain rules about their involvement in the lives of humans, even dead humans.  Eun Oh is actually worried about our girl & wants very  much to find her so he leaves.  And when he does he leaves Dol Soe in charge of Lee Seo Rim's body.  When Dol Soe asks why he should, Eun Oh tells him that as the Magistrate something should be done to help her.  And he has somewhere to go, so he is leaving the protection of her to Dol Soe.  He wants Dol Soe to act as magistrate while he is gone & protect that body w/ everything in him.

Since the Jade Emperor was less than helpful w/ her prayer she has decided she only has one other choice.  So she goes to the Shaman for one last favor.  She needs the Shaman to help her get in closer touch w/ the gods.

They end up at another derelict building.  The Shaman asks Arang why they had to come here, Arang says... 

But the path is blocked.  By this little slip of yellow paper.  It seems harmless enough.  Unless you are a ghost.

 Arang tries to enter the building only there's some sort of other worldly force field preventing her from entering.

 That's okay though.  This is one of the reasons she brought the Shaman to begin with.

The Shaman walks up to the door, prays to her mother & grandmother & then rips the yellow paper from the door.  Breaking the spell & allowing Arang to enter.

While the women are trying to get closer to the gods, Creepy Daddy (Lord Choi) & his Creepy Son (Ju Wal) are having a little heart to heart under the moon.  It's only episode 3 I know but I am already getting a little tired of the cryptic conversations between these 2 creepy characters.  This is how the conversation goes...

LC: If you keep craning your neck to look only at the moon, did the rabbit say he'll fall in front of you?  For someone who can't even bring a corpse, what would you do?  {{Then his father steps closer to him & gives him the up & down check out & says}} You've prepared yourself better than expected.  But...  Even if you look quite right, that doesn't mean everything is going well.  There's a clear distinction between what's real & fake.  It's not right at all to put a horsetail string on a silk hat.  {{here the subtitle person tells us this is similar to throwing pearls before swine.}} Because of you, if anything goes wrong in our household, I won't stand by and do nothing.  Should I put it more clearly for you?  How someone who's real does his work.  I will tell you this only once.

I feel like I need a subtitle for the subtitle!  I'm hoping that these two start making some sense to me soon because this one sided conversation had me scratching my head.   Obviously it's a warning about whatever it is that Ju Wal is going through.  And as this is a Scifi Fantasy KDrama I would imagine Ju Wal is some sort of stealer of souls or murderous monster.  But as of right now I am lost.  Right after this the big door to their property swings wide & a bunch of men w/ torches run out & down the street.  I'm pretty sure they are on their way to the Magistrate's compound for the corpse.  Which means Dol Soe is going to have a lot of company very soon.

Back to the Shaman & Arang.  The Shaman walks through the building ripping off more of those yellow pieces of paper.  All on one particular wall & then she opens up the wall & reveals...

Obviously a portal or doorway to the underworld.

At this point I was pretty sure what Arang was up to.  And I thought it was brilliant & gutsy!  I like her moxy!  I like how if things don't work her way she makes them work her way.  Determination!  Even if it's risky, it makes a difference!  In fact the riskier the choice, the more likely it is to work.  In my opinion.  But it requires a lot of bravery, stubbornness, determination & Grit!  Which she has in spades!  You get 'em girl!

The Shaman, who is helping her is still not completely clued in as to what is going to happen & I have to admit I wasn't sure how she was going to start until she walked over to the Shaman, & blew very softly on her face.  At this point the Shaman broke out in boils or pox or something like that.  She harmed a human.  This brought General Dead Dude.  Awww...I kind of missed General Dead Dude this episode.  Glad he made an appearance.  He arrives & she tells him she is ready to go to the Underworld.  Suddenly the Shaman understands what is going to happen too.

Arang tells General Dead Dude she's ready but in exchange for turning herself over to him, she wants him to let her meet the Jade Emperor.

In a shocked voice he tells her the only one she can meet is Yeom Ra. And then she tells him she has to meet that old man!  Then she says it again.  Then she yells at the Shaman what are you doing I said Old Man!  And it is here that General Dead Dude realizes it's a trap, just as the Shaman releases the tapestry behind him, which then sucks him into another portal.

Of course the strength of the pull from the portal then pulls Arang into him as well.  So now he is holding himself & her from taking a one way trip to the underworld.

 Above in the heavens w/ The Jade Emperor & Yeom Ra, we find them once again playing their board game.  And once again fate is affected by the game's outcome.  And it looks as if Yeom Ra may be winning this round.  Which it would seem is not good for our girl.

 Until the Jade Emperor, whom we are led to believe never loses, makes a move that wipes the smile off of Yeom Ra's face.

Back on earth Arang just keeps asking Genveral Dead Dude to let her see the Jade Emperor.  But he refuses.  She tells him I have nothing to lose.  But you are different.  You are in quite a high position and still have a lot to do...  And you are being favored by that "Old Man".  She continues to plead.

At this point in the game, Yeom Ra says, "Let's go back one round."  Which makes the Jade Emperor smile.  He got what he wanted.  You can tell because now he has leverage.

He looks ticked off, don't you agree?

At this moment he screams, "MOO YOUNG!"  And General Dead Dude looks like he is listening to some conversation in his head & then agrees to Arang's request.  At this point Arang tells the Shaman to let them loose.  All that is needed is to take the tapestry off the wall & the portal closes letting both of them go.  And we see Arang following behind General Dead Dude, whose name is obviously Moo Young.  Now what do I do?  I really like my nickname for him.  Guess I'll just use whichever one I'm in the mood for from here on out.  Anyway she's following behind him in the same style she did when she first died.  Only minus the red rope this time.

 And we flash on Eun Oh, who is running around looking for Arang.  He then stops & stares hard as if he is looking right at her walking behind Moo Young.  And then he says, "Memory Loss, Where are you going?"

So now what happens AddiKts? I haven't the foggiest idea!  I haven't watched ep 4 yet.  But I am dying to.  It feels really good having finished one review completely before starting the next.  I'm excited to see what happens next, aren't you?

And on a personal level... a friend of mine & Dongsaeng, and one of the first readers & commenter on TCA is on her way today to Singapore to be a part of the Lee Seung Gi Fan Meeting.  We are so incredibly exited for her & jealous beyond belief.  But mostly really, really excited & happy for her.  Keep your fingers crossed she gets to meet him & get her picture taken with the Dimple!  We love you & are rooting for you babe!  Maybe we'll have to do another guest post & let her tell us all about her fun dream trip!
What do you guys think?  Are any of you going to be there too?  I dare someone to shout out, "Can I kiss your dimple?!?!"  LOL  If you do have someone record you screaming the question, plus his reaction & make sure you post it on the TCA FB page or Tweet it to us.  That would just be so Daebak!!

Well that's it for me.  Time to bid you all farewell till the next review.

Saranghamnida,