Possessed

I was going to watch something Halloween-ish last week, but I had so much fun looking up weird pictures of idols in awkward costumes. So this week I decided to put on my big girl panties and watch something that I have been wanting to watch for a while, even if it would potentially give me nightmares.

Initial thoughts

I saw this drama on Hulu sometime last year and I put it on my list of Things to Watch Eventually. I didn't really know anything about it going into it either. All I knew that the title was Possessed and the thumbnail picture was kind of creeping looking. I was fascinated by it even though I knew that it was about as far from what I usually watch as possible. I don't even really read scary books, I'm a giant sissy baby and I am not ashamed to admit that. 

The drama 

Our drama follows the story of sixteen year old twins Hana and Duna. Hana is the older sister and she has a fear of fire stemming from the fire that killed 29 children she was with at a retreat when she was five.

Along with having a traumatic past, Hana also has the abilities to see ghosts, but aside from just being generally scary, they don't interfere with her life and she brushes it off as "seeing things".

In the neighborhood that Hana lives in, there have been three murders of high school girls and Duna unfortunately becomes the killers next victim. Since Duna was murdered, her spirit is angry and can't move on and begins to take shelter in Hana's body.

When Hana is receiving psychological help for her her unknown ailment, she meets a criminal psychologist, Shin Ryu, who wants to see justice served in a unjust world. He has his own back story, when he was a teen his sister was murdered by some classmates. They were eventually acquitted of their crimes which caused his mother to kill herself. He decides that with Hana's power to harbor these angry spirits he can right wrongs that have been ignored or been payed off by the higher authorities.

Throughout the first episode I was a little scared of the drama and might have hid behind my hands once because I knew some bad ju ju was about to go down. After the first episode though, I got used to the drama and realized that it wasn't so much the ghosts that made the drama scary, but the music and and cinematography.

The score of the drama was amazing it really captured each moment whether it was scary or lovely, yes there are lovely moments in this drama. Music is very important to stories that are scary because it's what sets the mood. You know when something is about to happen because the music swells and becomes eerie. It makes the whole experience more intense and that is both terrible and wonderful.    

Characters

Im Joo Eun as Yoon Ha Na

Wow, this girl was Awesome with a capital A. She went to her crazy place and she stayed there and this was also her first main role in only her second drama which makes her even more awesome. I looked into this actress and also found that she played Mu Yeon in Arang and the Magistrate and for anyone who has seen that, we all know how stable that character was. She is also in Heirs right now playing the teacher that Won is in love with but she did not take a crazy pill for that role.

Park Ji Yeon (T-ARA) as Yoon Du Na 

 
Du Na is the younger twin and is murdered in either the second or third episode, but that doesn't mean that she goes away. One of my favorite lines from her was said to Ha Na toward the end and it was , "I'm sorry that I left, and I'm sorry that I didn't leave." Park Ji Yeon wasn't as good as Im Joo Eun, but she definitely wasn't overshadowed by her either. She did very well as the vengeful spirit hell bent on destroying those that destroyed her.

Geon Il (Supernova) as Jeong Si Woo 

 

How cute is this boy. Seriously, he's adorable, and he's 187cm AND he's older than me. Obviously we're perfect for each other. He hasn't done a lot in the acting world, but just from seeing him in this, he has a lot of talent. At the beginning of the drama, you're not sure what to make of him. At school he's the kid that lets others walk all over him, but at home he reads books on criminal psychology and collects knives. That reminds me, is it wrong that I thought it was incredibly sexy when he would flip his knife open?

Yoo Yeon Seok as Baek Jong Chan 

This guy is a giant turd. I feel like that is all I need to say about the character and that doesn't even capture how much of a freaking turd that he his. I guess that just goes to show that he did a good job. He was another character that went to his crazy place and rocked it.

So Jin as Shin Ryu

Here we have another fantastic addition to the cast. Everyone in this drama did such a good job. Shin was the tragic villain of the story and I love me a tragic villain. He wanted so bad to be a good person and to make the world a better place but realizes that it isn't as easy as it sounds.

Kim Kap Su as Baek Do Sik

And here we have the grand daddy of all turds, he is also the father of the before mentioned turd, so I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. He was really creepy and slimy and he might also be the devil. No joke.

Themes

I think that people who have seen White Christmas or read the manga Death Note would enjoy this drama. The main theme of White Christmas is whether or not a monster is born or created and while this is never outright said in Possessed, the characters do talk a lot about how past events have shaped the characters and how they deal with those events.

The story of Death Note is about a high schooler named Light Yagami who who finds the Death Note which is a note book that gives the owner the ability to kill people by writing a name in it. Light decides that he is going to create a utopia by killing off bad people. Of course, Light does eventually get the crazies and there are many other story lines, but the main issue of the story is should a human get to play god?

Something else that came to mind is what I mentioned in my I Miss You review and whether or not a person deserves the punishment that they are given. There is a character in this drama who is a total dirt bag and he ends up basically losing his mind. He is constantly being tormented by both literal and figurative demons and it is really sad to see even though you know that he was a sucky human being who kind of brought it upon himself. Does he deserve that or is that too cruel even for him?

Final Thoughts   

I'm going to admit that I am a little confused right now. Why would the writers do that to us and to Hana and now that I have finished the drama, what did the first seven minutes of the first episode have anything to do with anything? I thought THAT was going to be the end, it would have probably been a lot better than what was given. It just seemed so wrong that the writer would do that.

I also read something where the writer even said that he didn't even like the ending to his own drama. Why can't Korean people write endings to their dramas? Is it like an unwritten rule that there can't be too many good endings in a year or the country could explode or something. That's not the case Korea! You will survive to see another day if you would teach your writers how to properly conclude a drama!

I did really like this drama though and it was only ten episodes so that was also nice, it doesn't require as much time as some others. So if you want something that it thrilling and exciting, I would say go watch this and bring your teddy bear to keep you company during the first episode if you are a baby like me. 

What else am I watching?

Mirae's Choice - I'm still suffering second hand embarrassment from Monday's episode.

Heirs - Oh my gosh, the paintball game. So much drama.

~ Alora