In the months of being confined at home due to this present health crisis, I’ve seen a number of Kdrama of different genres and themes. From medical, legal to action but not suspense and dark-fantasy. Not until I got to pick the series Hotel del Luna.
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I never thought I was in for a ride with this Kdrama. Hotel del Luna is about a fictional hotel owned by a moody lady named Jang Man-wol (played by IU) and is managed by Koo Chan-sung (played by Yeo Jin-goo). What sets Hotel del Luna (or what was once known as Guest House of the Moon) apart from the others is that the hotel only caters to ghosts, giving them a place for relaxation as they prepare to cross the bridge above the Sanzu River to go to the afterlife. And just when you think that’s the only thing there is, both Man-wol and Chan-sung are far from being ordinary individuals either. Man-wol is a 1,000 year-old soul who was tied to the mysterious Moon Tree; a punishment from the deity named Ma go for the wrongdoings she committed when she was alive. Koo Chan-sung on the other hand, is a Harvard MBA graduate who has the ability of seeing ghosts despite being a normal human being. | ||||
Despite looking forward to seeing this drama, I had some hesitations at first particularly if I will be able to finish this or of I’ll stop after one episode. Given that this has the dark fantasy genre and I binge watch a lot during night time, I was worried about getting nightmares (as the show involves prosthetic-laden creatures) in my sleep. But I remember my former officemate who left a comment for me on Facebook telling me how this series is worth watching and I won't throw anything out. It was something I tried to believe as I finish one episode after the other.
The show offered a lighter, comfortable narration of what journeying to the afterlife is. It may have shown the reality about death, but in a less-scarier form. While there are ghosts involved in the story, Hotel del Luna offered the audience a not-so traditional take on how souls of the departed prepare as they transition from the land of the living to travel to the afterlife. It showed a refreshing and funny take on the topic of death and what happens after. Imagine, a hotel for the deceased (that has the sea within its premises for the purpose of recreation), staff who, despite being ghosts, are well-acquainted with the technology of the modern world, and one’s soul being driven in a shiny, black Jaguar during their send-off going to the afterlife. Funny but during the whole time I was watching this drama, I’d playfully ask at the back of my head, “what if a hotel like this really exists?”
Next to the drama’s light, colorful and funny representation of the inevitable, what made it interesting is that even the “supernatural guests” have their own backstory. Like the events that happened before they reached Hotel del Luna and what each will do before they leave the mysterious place. Some of those made me cry. Particularly the scene about Yoo-na's short-lived romance with the hotel's receptionist Hyun-joong, the father and son who despite being killed in an accident, decided to forgive the driver responsible for their deaths through the hotel’s dream call service to communicate to someone who is still living. The other one was the scene when Chan-sung brought his best friend, Sanchez to the hotel’s sky lounge during a lunar eclipse to break the sad news that the latter’s girlfriend, Veronica has died and to give him the opportunity to see her ghost and bid her goodbye for the last time.
If there’s one thing that the drama imparted, it’s the reality that we will all really cease to exist one day. Much like what happened to all the characters in the story: the hotel staff left after having settled the unresolved issues that hindered them to leave the land of the living, Koo Chan-sung sent Jang Man-wol off as the hotel's last guest so she can proceed to her long-awaited journey to the afterlife, the Moon Tree died, and Hotel del Luna itself vanished at the emergence of the full moon. And while the conclusion to Man-wol and Chan-sung’s love story was an open-ended one, I just want to believe that they were reincarnated and met again in a different place, perhaps in New York as that was the last conversation between Sanchez and Chan-sung suggests.
In my opinion, despite 90-minute run for each episode, this series is worth the time. And after seeing My Love from the Star’s Kim Soo-hyun making a cameo in Episode 16, I now understand why Kdrama fans want a second season (if not a sequel). I would love to see Man-wol and Chan-sung as human guests of another mystic hotel should that happen.
