Every episode of Hotel del Luna is amusing, captivating, intriguing, stirring, and thrilling due to the perfect balancing of humour, fantasy, myth-making, drama, romance, and horror further enhanced by the gorgeous costumery of the female lead, visually-dazzling production, heartstrings-tugging soundtrack music, cameo roles, and socially-relevant sub-plots that tackled: molka epidemic; prevailing patriarchal assumptions; and toxic netizen culture.
Two of the most popular young actors today, Lee Ji-eun or better known as IU and Yeo Jin-goo exude palpable chemistry in their memorable lead performances as Jang Man-wol and Gu Chan-seong, respectively. The accursed millenium-old Man-wol is the alluring, chic, ethereal, luxurious, and petulant chatelaine of the mystical and marvellous Hotel of the Moon while the dashing, dutiful, empathetic, and courageous Harvard graduate Gu Chan-seung serves as the hotel's 99th or current human manager.
Veteran thespian Seo Yi-sook leads the trio of superb supporting cast as the mysterious deity with several identical manifestations. She is joined by Shin Jung-geun who plays the 500 y/o untimely-killed Joseon top scholar-turned-hotel bartender and by Bae Hae-sun, the 200 y/o grudgeful murdered daughter-in-law of a privileged clan who is the hotel's meticulously efficient room service supervisor. Also starring are promising actors Lee Do-hyun and Lee Tae-sun; idols P.O and Mina; and Cho Hyun-cheul and Park Yoo-na. Jung Dong-hwan as ex-Manager Noh and Kang Ho-seok as Grim Reaper are also endearing in the portrayal of their special characters.
Hotel del Luna, although a fantastical drama, is actually a foray into the reality of life. It teaches among other things: that like flowers from the moon tree, life is beautiful yet fleeting - and so, we must make the most out of it; that humans are endowed with the ability to make choices and are consequently tasked to bear responsibility for the choices they made; that life is not always easy or fair - as such, we must learn to play the hand we're dealt with much courage and grace; that if the past is a source of suffering or ill-feelings, we must learn to let go and make peace with it and with ourselves if there's nothing anymore that can be done about it; that our way of thinking and feeling can have a powerful outcome or influence; that revenge is sweet for it provides an outlet for pent-up aggression and wounded feelings, but, at the same time, it is also burdensome and masochistically painful for it recoils and does not diminish with time, thus inflicting endless pain on the person who exacted vengeance; that forgiveness has a rending and liberating power; that love has a transmogrifying power which can contour our character - either for the worse or for the better; and as Gu Chan-seung has perfectly shown us - that true love is self-abnegating or it makes you forget yourself and seek the welfare of your beloved.
Unfailingly riveting until the end, Hotel del Luna will for sure hold a place in the hearts of many of us. A big kudos to the writers, director, actors, and production crew for making this drama an enjoyable and worthwhile watch.
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This may be the only drama, after Goblin, that made me cry- and I'm not much of a weeper!The story line was new and refreshing, and it was filled with moments that were relatable, hilarious and heart breaking. After watching the final episode,I came to the conclusion that this was, in my opinion, one of the many masterpieces of Korean television. The actors all had great chemistry together, especially the main leads. I really liked the way each relationship was explained and portrayed. Because if this, the last episode had me bawling my eyes out as we said goodbye to each of the staff members. Also, the ending to me was brilliant. The way that they all were connected in their next lives made me so happy as I felt like they all got the happy endings that they deserved, especially Man Wol and Chan Sung.
Don't even get me started on the OSTs for the drama. Although most of them were quite slow and emotional, each artist brought their own flavour. My personal favourite was Done For Me by Punch as I really enjoyed the music, and the lyrics had so much meaning behind them.
Overall, I can say without a doubt that this drama is an incredible story, and is now one of my all time favourite dramas ever!
P.S. I really wish that Kim Soo Hyun's cameo in episode 16 was a hint at a possible season 2?
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If ghost stories lie within your watching preferences, perhaps you would have a better time with Hotel Del Luna. As for myself, I was not a fan of the overall plot. It came off as a tad too shallow. For one, there’s a severe imbalance between plot filler (which is how I classify every individual ghost’s story, each of which occupies 80% of each episode) and the truly interesting main plot, which falls off to the wayside. Unless you enjoy brief appearances of random guest ghosts, you’ll probably end up like me: sitting through over an hour’s worth of time per episode, helplessly asking when the Hong Sisters will address Man Wol’s story—which is rarely, until you cross the halfway point of the entire show. What the writers do with Man Wol’s history when it is addressed feels lackluster, if only due to all the unnecessary time buildup prior to it.
The real problem is that we are hardly given reasons to care about each visiting ghost in any major emotional capacity. Although they have interesting stories, it’s a bit like walking down a city sidewalk: you see someone with a pretty wardrobe, “ooh” at it for a second, and then forget your appreciative impressions of it an hour later. Maybe it seems as if I’m being coldhearted, but as much as the Hong Sisters try to emphasize that these ghosts were human with human sufferings, the way the show frequently relies on shock value and horror elements over the ghosts’ pain and healing resulted in me not being able to build true sympathy for these souls. Imagine repeating this apathy for every episode: it’s exhausting trying to force an emotional connection.
The only saving grace of Hotel Del Luna is Man Wol. The way IU presents her character’s conflicting ego and heart is as poignant as it is mysterious, and she executes the identity of a CEO with a low economic IQ with hilarity. Had it not been for this quirkiness of Man Wol’s character, I would not have stuck around until the end. And that’s despite my love for Yeo Jin Goo: though his acting is excellent as always, Chan Sung is a perfect example of a supporting character who hides behind the guise of being a “main character.” There’s only one protagonist in this story, her name being Man Wol. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it is a bit of a letdown that everyone else has the potential to be equally interesting, yet doesn’t get nearly enough development. Chan Sung, for example, is a nobody—beyond pushing Man Wol to address her emotional wounds, he doesn’t possess the individualism that a lead character should have. This means that while the interactions between him and Man Wol may be compelling to watch, the moment that you isolate Chan Sung away from her, he devolves into a character who’s mediocre at best and painfully boring at worst. Seeing as I view Chan Sung like this, that should give you a pretty good idea of what I think of the other supporting characters: meh.
That all being said, I can see the reasons behind the hype. I just wouldn’t say that they’re justified: gorgeous cinematography, a cast list riddled with famous names, and an amazing soundtrack are all great assets to have within a drama. If future shows could continue Hotel Del Luna’s ability to create an effective atmosphere, I would have zero complaints. But what use is all of that if the show at its core doesn’t match up to the level of its decorations? Hotel Del Luna is almost sadly entertaining in that it may be fun in the moment, but doesn’t leave a deep enough impression to be phenomenal.
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The plot is totally unbalanced when it came to quality of writing, one part of the story is about Jang Man Wol's past and her personal story, a wonderful story about a character who is serving an eternal punishment for a revenge happened in the past. The flashback moments are basically the best part of this show and the contrast between old/present Jang Man Wol is superb, IU did a great job in portraying different personalities.
Instead of making a drama entirely dedicated to this plot, the Hong Sisters decided to fill in the rest of the drama with boring sub-plot about hotel management and ghost hunting. Qualitatively speaking, the present story doesn't hold up to the past story.
In addition, the Hong sisters failed to develop interesting characters outside IU's role. None of the other characters can compete with IU's performance, the show was made for her, written for her and invested tons of "money" on her, with beautiful outfits, make-up and accessories. It almost seems that the Hong sister first wrote the role of IU and her personal story, then when they realized that they had to fill 16 episodes they added crap as much as they could.
Even the great Yeo Jin Go couldn't do much about it, his role was weak from the start, a scary kid that end up working in a hotel full of ghost, despite his good acting skills, the personality of his character wasn't strong enough to compete with IU's charater. Other characters were mere filler, they explained a bit about them but most of the sub-plots were closed only during the last 4 episodes, sign that the show didn't give them much space and importance.
The romance is another giant failure of this show, the initial chemistry felt between IU and Jin Goo during the first episode disappear complety when the role of Go Chung Myung came out. I was too curious about their story to care about a Jin Goo, in addition IU and Ji Goo moments together were very slow and the romance take a long time to sail.
If we consider that most of the drama was shot inside the hotel, the director had to exploit a lot of other elements to entertain the viewer, as already said, they have invested a lot in the appearance of IU, with beautiful outfits. They also used a lot of scenes that provided color games (the tree in the hotel) and the beautiful soundtrack. But as I always say, making the most of some good element of the drama doesn't hide a weak and poorly written script.
They say that Hong sister are a hit or a miss, HDL was a miss and it survived only thanks to the hype.
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I am not going to lie, I felt extremely frustrated while watching this drama. It had amazing potential, but close to nothing worked out. The beauty - amazing cinematography and styling of our main character, and the beast - the writing.There honestly is not much to say about the characters, since the only one that had true depth was Man Wol. She was the centre of the drama and IU did an amazing job representing her development and gradual change. Chang Sung could have worked way better if it wasn't for Chung Myung. All the rest of the characters we simply did not spend enough time with, to truly care about. I must say, Sanchez was my favorite and he was the breath of fresh air.
Kim Seon Bi/Choi Seo Hee/Ji Hyun Joong aka when writers do not care.
Out of all their stories, only Seo Hee's had some depth to it. Kim Seon Bin's story was extremely random, there were close to no hints about his previous life so I did not even care to speculate what happened to him. Hyun Joong's past life story had the least sense. How did his sister not recognize that the guy taking care of her was not her brother. How did his family not ask any questions, why did they recognize her and not him? You could say it was a war so they did not see him for a long time, but the same would apply to the sister. Hong sisters did not care enough about those characters to spend time to truly explain and develop their stories. They had the material for a good 8 episodes of Man Wol's side and had to fill the rest with random storylines. I could not feel emotional about them all leaving at the end, because all I could think about was: None of it makes any sense.
I also believe it would be better to start sending away the characters around episode 10-12, and not just have them all gone in the last 2 episodes. We could slowly see how Man Wol is realizing all the people she loves and cares about are gone and moving on to the afterlife. How the ones that stay behind struggle with the loss. We would see her being more concerned about how will Chan Sung deal in the future when she is gone. Them gradually leaving would have more impact on both the characters and the storyline.
Chan Sung/Chung Myung aka the failed romance
While I enjoyed Chan Sung at the beginning, the moment we got more scenes with Chung Myung and the past story developed into something interesting, I could not focus on the present. Chan Sung was simply a boring character that was there only for Man Wol's story to develop and he had nothing going on for himself. When we met another male character that had a past romantic relationship with Man Wol, but also was its own character, it was easy to forget our male lead. At the end of the day I wished for more flashbacks and less present plot. And I would rather have them as friends than as romantic partners.
Kim Yoo Na aka no one truly cares about anything
While I enjoyed Yoo Na, I do believe they should have made her a more tragic character. Yet again, there was no depth to the story. Show me how much she struggles to fit in that new house, how she misses her old friends and family and how she is tired of pretending to be someone else.
All the hotel cases aka when you try too hard to please the viewers
I did not truly like any of the random hotel cases, but I hated some more than others. The most random one with the humans having sex in the hotel room to have some superior child in the future. I was truly confused why this plotline was in the drama.
There were too many cases, so at the end, none of them was developed or complex. They tried to fit any genre (horror, crime, romance, melo, etc.) into the drama, just to make sure all viewers can find something they may like.
Disney ending aka when you are afraid to commit to the tragedy
None of the characters involved in the drama had a truly tragic ending. Which was extremely unrealistic. It could be easily fixed. Make Yoona too late to say goodbye to Hyun Joong. After Seo Hee goes to the bridge, cut to the mother registering the baby with the father's surname because of the grandparents. Make the book about Seon Bi flop. I would even like for Chung Myung to vanish because he used all his energy looking after Man Wol. The Song sisters wanted to show us how sad, tragic, and emotional the feeling of loss is, but they did not want to show the truly ugly side of it. Because of that, the ending felt bland.
Overall, during the whole watch, there was literally (and I truly mean it) only one time when I thought "wow, this is a good writing, I finally feel the playoff" and it was with how they used the Coffee Writer Dude. They spent just enough time for us to be curious about him and wonder what will happen to him, when he will go to the afterlife.
At the end, Hong Sisters had an amazing idea, about an amazing character, and no idea what to do with the rest. Trying to fit too many stories of too many characters made this drama a... mess.
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The Hong Sisters Have Finally Returned To Wonderland..
For most watchers first looking over the drama, Yeo Jin Goo ( Hwayi; A Monster Boy and Moon Embracing The Sun) would seem to be one to steal the show from his legendary roles in numerous dramas and movies , yet, instead, it is IU ( My Mister and The Producers) ‘s role as the angel-faced yet foul-mouthed owner of the hotel, Jang Man- Wol who instead quickly steals the show from Jin Goo in her glamorous frocks.
From inspired attires straight out of Daphne Du Maurier’s gothic modern romance tale , Rebecca ( 1938), to Katherine Hepburn’s little black dress in a favourite film of the Hong Sisters, Breakfast At Tiffany’s ( 1961), IU
truly embodies the mature and complex core of a cynical female lead who is shaped by her own experiences and choices rather than merely love itself.
Yet whilst the casting of the show is fairly diverse with fellow Kpop costar P.O being cast as the giddy hotel receptionist and Bae Hae- Sun as the strict housekeeper of the hotel, some of the roles within the show (especially the storywriting ) felt slightly lacklustre in comparison. ( Particularly P.O and Kang Mi- Na’s romance as their respected characters, which did have some bittersweet moments in particular to P.O’s character, but Mi Na’s character Soo- Jung had little relatability despite her tragic circumstances).
Admittedly this isn’t entirely the fault of the actors as one noticeable flaw which arose in the drama was how the Hong Sisters had added little complexity or emotional value in regards to the respected storylines of some of the other characters (excluding Man Wol of course). The biggest example of this arose with Jin Goo’s character, Gu Chan-Sung.
Man Wol was supposed to be the fiery ‘Yang’ to Chan Sung’s level- headed ‘ Ying’ personality within their relationship, there was little to actually express or delve into Gu Chan- Sung apart from the evident plot roles. His father dies several years presumably after his first scene in a flashback in the show , yet Chan- Sung neither really expresses anguish nor heartbreak at this fact. Whilst there is the arguable emphasis that Chan-Sung is too rational to break down over these matters, this is greatly contradicted within the scene when Chan- Sung simply loses his composure at a bus stop over thoughts of Man- Wol. Undeniably a heartbreaking scene and a moment of brilliant acting from Goo, this scene just doesn’t entirely add with the intended composure of Chan Sung who in several episodes prior, who didn’t bat an eyelid to the return of his mother as a ghost.
This also moves us onto the other problem of Hotel Del Luna; how the storyline played out. Ironically, Hotel Del Luna’s biggest problem wasn’t trying to adhere to the typical cliches, but instead trying to overcome them at the last minute. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with a drama doing this, however, where the evident flaw lies for Hotel Del Luna is that rather than only doing this a couple of times to mark a red herring by diverting the audience’s attention ( and then deliver an actual plot-twist by moving onto the expected becoming the unexpected), the Hong Sisters tried to do this at every given opportunity during the storyline. Without spoiling anything, I will say this. The novelty of the storytelling becomes less effective when you did this too often, and so whilst Hotel Del Luna was certainly interesting within certain character plot-lines ( particularly Jang Wol’s past), some of the show for a major part felt anticlimactic and disjointed in the long run.
On a more positive note, however, Hotel Del Luna’s magic is greatly brought to life through fairly good CGI and storytelling upon this element. Whilst not entirely touching new ground in the face of predecessor shows like Goblin , Hotel Del Luna still brings its own element of dark fantasy through traditional Korean mythology being brought into modern Seoul. From disturbing evil spirits, bartender ghosts like Kim Seon Bi ( Shin Jung- Geum) to deities such as the mysterious Mago ( Seo Yi- seok) with unpredictable plans of fate for our main characters.
Additionally, whilst the finale of Hotel Del Luna has caused a lot of debate amongst drama fans, the bittersweet ending was surprisingly appropriate for the drama . Overall Hotel Del Luna was an enjoyable watch (although perhaps flawed by some elements of the storyline and certain characters’ contributions to the show )-the elements of dark fantasy, traditional mythology and IU’s stellar performance as the twisted and cynical Man- Wol will keep you captivated. Although not flawless, definitely worth a watch.
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Spectacular dresses and world-building but falls short on screenwriting
Sadly, Hotel del Luna's fanciness couldn't make up for the story's lack of coherence and sincerity.The extravagant hotel for the ghosts and the splendid clothes of its owner didn't quite impress me. Each episode has the same dreary pattern of spirits struggling and protagonists babbling at the end. After the first half of the show, I found myself neither interested nor thrilled.
The answers were already laid out so I didn't get the point of dragging out the story. The antagonists which I once thought of as formidable opponents were easily gulled and defeated. Indeed, there is a fine line between a show with a high-caliber script and one with a mere show-off wardrobe.
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Each episodes contains Goo Chan Sung trying to help the ghost go in peace while Man Weol unexpectedly ending up helping him through his persistent. The chemistry between the two grows as Chan Sung persistently work his way through Man Weol's heart. There is a lot of special guest coming in throughout many episodes, but even the surprises will make your heart go wild.
Overall, I give it a 10 star (not for exaggeration) but it had a great flow of story, great actors/actresses, and also OST!
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This drama had that bit of a fairy tale vibe about it that I really enjoyed, and I felt lacking in their previous fantasy show. There seems to have been put a lot of effort into it, looks wise at least, which made it really cool to look at. The drama looked stunning. The clothes that IU wore were frenzy, the scene was done, and the special effects were well done.
The story wasn’t terribly original, and you can very easily point out similarities to other dramas like Goblin - another hugely popular drama about a fairy-tale creature that lived for a very long time and falls in love with a human being. Or just other stories about ancient being falling for mortals. There are plenty of those to go around. But I do like this version of the story. Mainly because here that ancient being is female, which is rarely the case.
And that magical being, Jang Man Wol (and of course IU), stole the scene every time she came on the screen. And the fact that she got to be the main star there, in a role most often assigned to a male character in similar stories, was what made this drama sorts of unique to me and was one of the main reasons why I liked it so much.
Yeo Jin Goo, though perhaps a better actor than IU, did not get to shine all that much in this drama. His character was sometimes just there. He was out connection to the human world to us and the ghost characters, but he was also just there to make Manwol open up and find love again - a role most often given to the female character. It got on the nerves of some people (understandably) but I enjoyed the role reversal a whole lot.
Some of these ghosts of the week (as I call them) didn't really do much for the plot, didn't link it too much together and were often just there to act as fillers while we waited for more on Manwol's backstory and gave the characters time to do something as the story chucked along. But Manwol’s story was the focal point of the whole drama. But even if it happens quite slowly, but I didn’t really get that bored. I enjoyed a lot of this extra bits (even if it started to drag the story a lot towards the end) and some of the side characters that the drama gave us.
I was impressed by some of these ghost stories were told and some of the more fantastical storylines, though they became weaker as we went further into the story. The Hong Sisters are usually good at mixing ghosts and some of the more traditional romantic comedy plot, but they also tend to loose their hold on that as the story goes on.
The romance in this one was a bit on the slow-burning side of the spectrum. I expected a whole lot more from it at the start of the drama. There was never any great spark between IU and Yeo Jin Goo. That chemistry where you felt they were right about kissing every time they were together. I was a lot softer than that and the romance a lot quieter than I expected, but you really got the sense that they really cared about each other.
The story, or the romance, was never too tense. It was more just sweet. But I really enjoyed that. The intensity was more in Manwol’s backstory, so while some might find the modern version of the show a bit boring and lacking compared to that, I felt like it created a bit of a balance between the two stories. And that part being more somber and mellow made the backstory stand out more. However, it also made the story kind of just fade out towards the end instead of going out with a bang. It was nice, but maybe not super rememberable.
It was a mellow little noona-romance and I liked it. There was more chemistry and drama in the other storyline, but this one had that fairytale vibe. Unlike other stories, like Goblin, it was never creepy that one person was immortal and the other was not. And I think the role change helped. And I enjoyed that.
The story wasn't big enough for these sixteen episodes. It was rather simple. But what the drama may have lacked in story, it sorts of made up with style and a kickass female lead, which I was kind of okay with.
After all, this was Manwol's drama, where her character and her backstory were the strongest point of the drama. Her backstory could have been its own drama. And IU is so charming in this role. This drama would be lifeless without her and getting to see a female character in such a role is not something I see every day (both in kdrams and other shows). I shall remember this drama for a long time because of Manwol.
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Did not live up to the hype
The whole production was amazing- cinematography, ost, scoring, production design, etc. BUT the love line really did not make sense to me. It felt too pushed for fans’ sake. The writing on the second lead’s ending was too lackluster, it’s like the writer gave up on the character to save Yeo Jin Goo some face, as obviously he got overshadowed by Lee Do Hyeon as a character and as an actor (c’mon, let’s all agree on that).Plus this drama’s ghost stories as fillers were too obvious as fillers. It’s like watching a variety show with an MC introducing the fillers one by one because it’s THAT obvious. It took a lot of screentime too that you’d eventually realize that the main plot was actually very short and so-so if you take out all the ghost stories.
If you came for the hype, then by all means watch it. The cinematography was definitely astounding. Its novelty was also commendable, I truly learned a lot about Korean folklore, thanks to the characters. BUT don’t expect it to watch a Best Drama contender for Baeksang because that’s definitely not what you’ll get, unlike what the rating promises. Acting was so-so too, a bit disappointing actually since you have Yeo Jin Goo and IU as the main leads. Lee Do Hyeon stole the show.
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Who doesn't love a good reincarnation story or finding resolution/closure for wandering souls? However, the one word I can sum this up in is "long-winded". I watched the entire series through severe fast-forwarding and ended up with a pretty weak ending.The positives to say is they did focus in on the backstory of your main leads and your main supporting characters. I found myself looking forward to unveiling of everyone's past that was presented in bits and pieces. The chemistry between all of them worked pretty well. The only major disappointment was our lonely firefly who was misunderstood for so long and then just pretty much kicked to the side. It really downplayed the strength of their long tragic love story and made it too real, where one easily replaces another these days. Why build up the lovely surreal to smack us with this coldness of reality? It would have been fine if it didn't feel so awkwardly done.
The cases where they assist souls in resolving issues was also a bit below average. It started off fairly interesting but just slowly descended into not much. If you're an absolute romantic, then you might enjoy this piece more than I did. As much as I appreciate a good love story, this one dragged on too much with each scene unnecessarily. It didn't help with the excess flashbacks that assumed the viewer didn't pay attention at all a couple of episodes ago. Overall, it wasn't great and it wasn't terrible but doable in higher-speed viewing.
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