So perhaps the most cinematically beautiful drama of 2012 has just ended, as we say good bye to MBC's Arang and the Magistrate. This drama was amazing. It was a well-rounded story placed in the sageuk era, but filled with modern undertones and elements. It's not as extreme a fusion drama as say Hong Gil Dong was, but it definitely had that mix in there, especially in terms of the soundtrack. That hip hop/ rap like tone in the OST in not something typically found in a sageuk now, is it?
I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Arang and the Magistrate, it grabbed me from the get go because of the lead actors, Shin Min Na (Girlfriend is a Gumiho) and Lee Jun Ki (My Girl, Iljimae). I find both of them to be fantastic actors and so a combination with them as the main couple was something I couldn't resist. As expected, they didn't disappoint.
With Arang and the Magistrate being Lee Jun Ki's return project from his mandatory two year military service (Oh how we missed you in dramaland) I have to say that he chose well. He is always great in sageuk (see Iljimae for evidence of this) and he also pulls of comedy well, as My Girl proved. So it was a great project to combine both of these elements. As for Shin Min Na, she has that great timing and is wonderful in her portrayal of innocent mystical creatures, which gets you on board her train easily. I mean who could ever possibly forget the lovable Gu Mi Ho? So, what is Arang and the Magistrate about?
We begin in a dark and ominous forest. Oohh, we have a creepy ghostly world for a drama about ghost to start it all off. LOVE IT. Here we meet Kim Eun Oh (Jun Ki) with his trustee servant Dol Swe (Kwon Oh Joong) wandering along as they have taken the journey through these ominous woods en route to yet another town. Eun Oh is clearly a nobleman, but he is in search of something and never seems to stay in one place for to long. As we will learn in the future, his search is for his mother who abandoned him and he is making his way to the town of Miyang to find her, since he has been spotted there some time ago. But Eun Oh and Dol Swe are not alone in these woods.
Also, lurking, well more like frolicking, in these woods is a beautiful young woman and a band of ghosts. She is the lovely, but not so elegant Arang (Min Na). She and her ghost gang go around waiting for humans to pass by in order to loot them for their goodies, since as we find out, ghosts cannot survive without human supplies. Arang is running to meet up with her ghost counterparts, but they decide to attack without her. Unfortunately, there is one quandary in relation to their thefts, any "attack" or invasion on human life by ghosts immediately alerts the grim reapers and sure enough they come to take these ghosts away. We watch as in quick succession all of the bandit ghost go down, but then Arang spots a particular reaper and he immediately give chase. It is an intense chase and we can see that this particular grim reaper later to be identified as Mu Young (Han Jun Soo) has been trying to capture Arang for a long time, yet she continues to allude him. The chase leads Arang to run right past Eun Oh, and surprisingly it appears as if he can see her and her pursuer. Ah so Eun Oh has some mystical juju. Nice, well that explains how the main pairing is a ghost and a human. Eun Oh pretends not to see them and continues his journey through the woods.
Of course, since our drama could not unfold without the two leads meeting, heavy rains begin to fall and Eun Oh and Dol Swe take refuge in a conveniently located hut in the forest. Arang also escapes from the rain in this hut (since in this world ghosts can get drenched as well). What is most interesting about this particular rain fall is that unlike other dramas we get a reason as to why these fate altering rains have occurred. Since this is a mystical drama the writers take great advantage of it and we meet the Jade Emperor a.k.a King of Heaven (Yoo Seung Ho) and King of the Underworld (Park Joo Gyu). They are busy playing their heavenly game of Korean chess betting different things on the game. The Jade Emperor wins and goes to water the back of his goat. Say whut? Water the back of the goat? I kid you not, he literally goes and water a goat's back which has these flowers growing on it, which in turn is a direct correlation to the rain falling on earth. EXCELLENT DRAMA I LOVE WHAT YOU ARE DOING HERE. Such a well put together concept and it is one that remained throughout the drama. Furthermore, how much do I love that the Jade Emperor is the cutie pie Yoo Seung Ho from Queen Seon Duk and Warrior Baek Dong Soo and then the counterpart from Hell is an old grump. That shows how stressful hell is, doesn't it? Hehe.
Anyway, back to my recap. Inside the hut, Dol Swe has fallen asleep leaving Eun Oh and Arang as the only two awake. There is a hilarious scene where Arang talks to Eun Oh about every and anything, and even begins to undress in front of him, since her wet clothes are bothering her. To be honest, I see no benefits of being a ghost since you still get afflicted by all human problems except you are dead. Eun Oh does a fantastic job of pretending not to see her, and even goes to sleep ignoring her. Sharing his ability to see ghost is obviously not intriguing to him.
Time progresses and Eun Oh and Arang's paths continue to cross. She discovers that he can indeed see ghosts and requests his help. She wants to know how she died as she has no memory of the event. This is quite a strange feat for a ghost, since for the most part the ghost know how they died, but alas Arang has no recollection of it. Even her name was given to her by another ghost, so she doesn't even have that to go on. Eun Oh refuses on account of the fact that he doesn't want to get tackled up in the mystical business. He would be a lot happier if he couldn't see ghosts. He makes the statement that he would help her if he was the Magistrate but since that is not his place he can't be bothered. She asks him if her were magistrate if he promises to help her and Eun Oh absentmindedly agrees, since after all he will never be a magistrate. LOL!!! Sucker!!!! He walked right into that one, didn't he?
This results in a classic be careful what you say and promise to people, especially to spunky and determined ghosts, because the next thing we know, Arang has orchestrated a great plan through the use of the local shaman Bang Wol (Hwang Bo Ra), who can hear but not see Arang, to advise the workers in the magistrate's office to kidnap Eun Oh and make him the magistrate by force. Apparently, the last three magistrates have all died under mysterious circumstances as a result of a ghost and no one wants the job, but the king has decreed a new magistrate must be found. Cue to Eun Oh being dragged away in a bag, then waking up dressed in a magistrate's uniform all tied up. Enter Arang in her most ghost like fashion, which is just completely hilarious instead of scary. Eun Oh, who is completely accustomed to ghost, is not perturbed by her and gives her a scolding instead.
Arang unties him and we learn that Arang IS indeed responsible for the death of the preceding magistrates. She hadn't killed them intentionally though, each case was an accident. The men all died of heart attacks. LOL!!! She had just wanted to request their help. LOL!!! Poor ghost. Couldn't find a strong enough magistrate.
Eun Oh continues to refuse and Arang is irritated with him and the two part ways. But of course, fate, dramaland writers and just good old story lines intercede and Eun Oh recognises that Arang possesses a hair pin that he had given to his mother. He saves Arang from the clutches of the grim reaper in hopes of learning her connection to his mother, but alas Arang has no memory of her human life. This in turn links their goals, with Eun Oh helping Arang to regain her memory in hopes that it will help him to find his mother. Thus the journey of Eun Oh and Arang begins as they work together in order to help Arang regain her memories.
There are a lot of factors which make this drama great, and as I have mentioned the beauty of which the drama is presented is definitely one of them. I am guessing they had a pretty good budget, because the colours and the CG that were used later on were great as well. The choreography was great as well. The fighting scenes were well placed, timed and directed. They looked great on screen. On whole the drama si a beauty to behold. Also the fact that the script was well-written and in turn well-directed was another decisive factor. Something was always happening on screen, and I looked forward week and week to get the next big reveal. At times it was indeed very confusing, because I wasn't sure where the writers were taking me, but it wasn't the bad kind of confusion. I liked being confused, because it led me to be intrigued more than irritated. It was a supernatural world that I knew nothing about, and therefore I had a lot of difficulty predicting what would happen next. I LOVED THAT. It was great not to have a predictable drama. Anything could happen and that kept me at the edge of my seat. Therefore, I commend the screen writer Jun Yoon Jun and the director Kim Sang Ho. Excellent job to both of them.
In addition, the fact that this drama included a combination of the day to day and the supernatural was great. The majority of the tale took place on earth in our plain, but it is clear that we are not alone in the world. Ghosts and eventually other creatures exist there too. I think it was a great addition to include the heaven and hell, ying and yan scenario to the story line as well. Getting to meet the heaven and hell duo and watching them banter over a game of bandok (Korean chess) was great fun. They knew things that we didn't and refused to tell us those things, but it wasn't done in such a way that I was irritated. Rather it peaked my interest and forced me to continue watching. And THAT is great writing.
One cannot forget our leading man and leading lady. The chemistry between Lee Jun Ki and Shin Min Na was on point, which meant that Arang and the magistrate were great together. They were trapped in that ill-fated relationship of one part of the couple being dead and the other alive, which meant we had angst from the get go, yet it didn't feel all angsty. Perhaps, more melo than anything else, but not MISA kind of melo, more we need a challenge to overcome kind of melo.
I loved the ways the characters developed as well. When we first met Eun Oh, he cared only about himself and his issues. Even after being forced into the position of magistrate he did nothing to help the citizens around him, because he simply did not care. Meeting Arang changed all of that. He slowly evolved as a person, becoming a great magistrate. As for Arang, I loved her spunk. Shin Min Na carried over some of those adorable qualities from her Miho character in My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, but not so many that I thought I was just seeing a repeat of the same character in a different drama. Watching the two grow to love each other was always rewarding, sweet and beautiful. It was great character development.
If I was to name one fault with Arang and the Magistrate it perhaps lies towards the last few episodes of the drama. As the time for Arang and the magistrate to be separated grew closer and closer, the strong and spunky character of Arang began to show some emotions that I could only describe as sappy, and seemingly out of character to me. Her desire to sacrifice herself to the big evil, supposedly for Eun Oh's sake did not seem to compute with me. Nothing about the sacrifice seemed like it would really benefit Eun Oh. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind sacrifices for love. I know some people hate it, but at times I can understand it in a story line, but in this one, making this sacrifice seemed like it would cause more harm than good and didn't really fit into the character personality that was established. Other than that, the drama was excellent from beginning to end.
Now that it is over, I have a sense of bittersweet melancholy and I'll go re-watch the entire series in its entirety over the weekend. So, on the Bel Scale Arang and the Magistrate get 4.5 out of 5. It's a wonderful drama which I highly recommend.
According to Bel: Let yourself be possessed by the ghost of Arang and her Magistrate.
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