#I also gave him a lot of the tiger family motifs not just to give credibility to them being brambles kids but also because

[gizkasparadise]

kdrama rec/review: mystic pop up bar

KDRAMA AND CDRAMA MASTER LIST OF REVIEWS

Series: mystic pop up bar Episodes: NOT ENOUGH 12 Genres: urban fantasy, urban horror lite, found family!!!, friendship, mystery, comedy, supernatural, warm fuzzies despite an alarming amount of death Spoilers in the Rec: minor ones/for the set-up If You Like, You’ll Like: hotel del luna (although it has a very different feel), early bleach (manga), found families, being human (uk & us versions), those moments in shows where you’re like OH MAN HOW ARE THEY GETTING OUT OF THIS and then they do. because friendship.

Rank: 10/10

I went into this with low expectations. it sounded like it was trying to bank on hotel del luna, but i was still down to watch a ghost version of leverage or whatever this turned out to be. figured it’d be decent to watch but not AMAZING. 

the first ep gave me that impression. by the second ep i was hooked. and by the third ep this was one of my favorite shows of all time

PREMISE

during the joseon era, a shaman named weol ju went and fucked up a perfectly good sacred tree. as punishment, she now has to resolve the grudges of 100,000 humans or go to hell. as a shaman, she can accomplish this by plying them with alcohol and entering their dreams (well the alcohol part might just be her artistic signature).

time to start a bar!

in the current day, 500 years later, weol ju owns and runs mystic pop up bar, where she learns about her customers’ grudges. and apparently has sound business strategy, as she serves like 4 people a day but still has enough overhead to craft these 4 people bespoke meals that speak to their inner tragedy. and also sandwiches.

helping her is chief gwi, a ghost cop who’s been reassigned to her bar to help weol ju accomplish her quota. because time’s running out--weol ju now has less than a month to solve her 10 remaining grudges.

enter bambi kang bae. a regular human who works a regular customer service job, kang bae has one terrible power: anytime someone touches him (or he touches them), they want to confess their deepest, darkest secrets. kang bae is understandably not comfortable around people (but desperately wants to be around people. my poor fucking heart) and incredibly lonely. 

when his and weol ju’s paths cross, she makes him an offer: he helps her out with her remaining grudges, and in return she’ll remove his powers.

deal!

MAIN CHARACTERS

weol ju

a 500+ year old shaman who is paying for her sins on earth because she went out on a limb :| . begins the series angry and ends the series angry, because it turns out angry people can still be kind, which is great to see with a female protagonist. how close she’s cutting it to the deadline on her quota speaks strongly to sixth-year senior vibes. wears modern versions of hanboks which are all v. cool and on moments of aching realization wednesdays she wears pink.

will steal your shit and look you straight in the eyes as she walks backwards into hell.

gwi/gui

a former ghost cop who’s been reassigned to help weol ju run the mystic pop up bar. he’s a lot more chill than weol ju and has the vibe of someone who forgets keys at home. while at the bar, he does a lot of the prep work, and is sometimes asked by yeom to help catch nearby, evil spirits. 

he’s actually like a hardcore warrior, but you forget it because he wears goggles to cut onions and dresses like someone who would be the spokesperson for microwaveable fish sticks. team dad. fanboy of romantic serial e-novels.

han kang bae

a baby.

in a truly amazing narrative move, kang bae works customer service at a market by day and solves grudges at a bar by night. is a sweet, simple boy who just wants to help people and is SO EXCITED to have new friends in weol ju and gwi. you want to give him a hug BUT YOU CAN’T.  human carebear

even the yellow collar of his customer service uniform makes a heart:

SOME SUPPORT CHARACTERS SELECTED BY HOW MUCH THEY ARE MY FAVORITES

kang yeo ri

lmao you know it’s going to be good when a character is introduced dropping a dude straight to the ground. yeo rin is a bodyguard mild spoiler turned security guard for the market where kang bae works. she could beat the shit out of you and you’d thank her. has no luck in dating. rocks a suit. sobs at movies about gout

yeom, the grim reaper

your friendly neighborhood grim reaper. yeom very much screams middle management, and works in the same “district” that weol ju and gwi have their pop up bar in. sometimes they’re at odds with one another (because weol ju has about the same amount of respect for the rules that an untrained puppy has for new carpet), but they’re still friends. gwi sometimes works with him to catch evil spirits, buddy-cop style. loves noodles. 

yeomra-daewang 

god of the underworld. in charge of handing out punishments and determining the fates of those sent to the afterlife. forgets who she’s texting. appreciates true love but is also aggressively annoyed by it. take your fucking scroll and go

samsin

probably the character with the most name recognition. samsin (or samsin granny) is the goddess of mothers and children, and in the show the focus is more on children. loves karaoke, basic bitch coffee, and claw games. gives out too many sexy tiger dreams.

kim wong hyun

he gave them the heebie jeebies. he had nothing else to give

ringtones.

they’re their own character. check out those motifs. 

Drawbacks

if i had any, it’s that the first episode undersells the rest of the series. and even the first ep isn’t bad

12 episodes is not enough :( 

Reasons to Watch.

i love the little details: that the supernatural characters have ring tones that correspond to their role (ex: the god of the underworld’s are screams; i believe the grim reaper’s are a shaman’s bells?, gwi has SPOILERS), or that the food special of the day connects or reflects with the person they’re helping. themes/significant moments are represented by the colors characters are wearing. im a nerd for this stuff

there are some dramatic reveals about who characters are and how they relate to one another, but like. dynamics barely (or don’t at all) change, and that’s due to how strong/familial they are already? and the show’s built up to it and it all feels really earned A+

i HATE monster of the week formats, but the ones in this show are integrated with the main characters’ backstories and also propel the major arcs forward. and it’s wholesome when the grudges are solved

i like that you think you saw a full scene in the flashbacks, but then a few eps later the flashback gets extended. idk it’s a cool narrative device

the romance is wonderful all-around

the pacing was great. i wish one of the Reveals was introduced earlier just so we could have more moments with it, but everything was cohesive/wrapped up nicely

all the characters have their own unique relationships to one another. kang bae + weol ju have their own dynamic, weol ju +gwi, gwi + kang bae, and so on. it was nice to see that none of the main trio were satellite characters 

Final Thoughts.

they’re a team, god damn it ;;;;;;