Season3 of KINGDOM to salvage the atrocity that S2's finale was would've been really nice, but I'm not holding my breath at this point, writer seems to lose all the inspiration she had for that story. That aside, REVENANT is so far doing pretty good - concept is interesting, execution is engaging, characters mostly make sense, acting is great (KTR in ghost mode is really scary and OJS is showing some nice physicality I've never seen him do before), visuals are properly creepy and so on... Let's hope it'll land well after such a promising start.

Guesswork time - why did Professor Gu leave that cursed daenggi to his daughter to inherit and get possessed? Was it to ensure that she would be the host instead of one of victims? That only works if hairy ghost never hurts people she latches onto, which I find rather doubtful given her high blood thirst. Then again, ghost apparently attacks only people that host has negative thoughts for (plus those who pose a direct threat to herself), so there is certainly some self-preservation/protection motive going on.

Which leads us to big question number 2 - who the ghost is/was, since we need name to exorcise her? Most clues - daenggi, child-like size, youthful voice etc- hint to the little girl shaman killed, but there is a popular theory online that it's a shaman instead. I wonder if it's actually both merged into one and that's why ghost was taunting SY to guess her name while looking so "you have no chance" smug in process... Professor Gu also seemed to have some epiphany over the matter right before his death, which is why ghost went this far to get rid of his notes - there must be some (hidden) big clue in there.

It does feel like some smaller details were left unshaped, idk why. Like wtf was that trapped kid storyline? Why parents did that? If she was an unwanted child, why not leave her in orphanage or whatnot? They just held here there like some animal for many years, wasting time/effort/resources to keep her barely alive and even going as far as murdering people to hide her - for what? Writer-nim, pls elaborate, I didn't sign up to imagine all the sick possibilities for you!

P.S. HS's grandma is sus. SY's one was too, but now we can cross her out, I guess...
P.P.S. Who's the boy drunk HS talked to? Ghost? His teen self? Relative?

Do ghosts have bad hair days?

Vehicles braking or swerving to avoid squishing San-young while she was standing out in the road... What is kdramaland coming to?

Seeing ghosts in mirrors... because they are reflections of what is inside the people? Much like the shadows are images of the people.

I'm yet to watch episode 2 but now its clear that I have a lot waiting for me.

I'm in love with Hae-sang's apartment.

And I'm glad, very glad that Kim Won-hae is a different vibe here.

Hae-sang and San-young make a very good team btw. They balance out each other's abilities. One thing though. Is there a way they can keep spikey-hair ghost cushioned, like stop it whenever it kicks in.

I am probably in the minority of those who consider Kim Eun Hee a mediocre writer. She is not bad, but I often care very little for her characters and if I do, it's because the cast is nearly always phenomenal. It also might be that plot-driven stories are not exactly my thing. With that said, I liked the first two episodes. I did not get scared once, but I was engaged. Also, Cameo or not, it is always nice to see Kim Sung-Kyu.

On a less positive note, I have trouble with the FL. She literally saw the ghost and ten minutes later, told the professor that the ghosts don't exist. While, I can discard that for bad subtitles, I have no clue why she assumed that hey, ghosts are generally okay and thus, the creepy thing attached to her is benign.

I enjoyed this. I think this will be fun even if the individual stories are heartbreaking. I will say kdramas are the only tv shows I ever seen where cars do not stop, it wild, the expectation is that the person will keep moving as opposed to the car, it is very weird

Thank you, @lovepark for a recap that actually changed the way I was thinking about this show, which was, to be honest, about dropping it. Not because it was bad, not at all, just because I'm not really that big a fan of horror/suspense shows featuring the supernatural and spirit possession. I guess the rotating head in the Exorcist, which I saw when I was in high school, kind of turned me off from that genre.

I only tuned in because I thought the ML would be a literature professor and I thought the theme would be the current global war on the humanities, which sadly turned out not to be the case, at least in these first 2 episodes.

But I do like the point about this show being different because of the role of shamanism and spirit worship in Korean culture, which I really hadn't thought about. In the U.S. there is a stream of the occult that runs through a lot of mainstream religions, from Mormonism to Pentacostalism, but aside from Native American faiths, and the small numbers who practice Santería, there's not a lot of shamanism out there, so maybe I should stick with this one to get some insight into it.

Of course, I doubt this is going to turn into a dissertation on traditional Korean religious practice, even though that would draw huge ratings. But still the show might have a little more depth than some possession horror--and I hope no projectile vomiting!

I quite enjoyed it. I'm too much of a scaredy-cat to generally watch horror but this has the right mix of thrills and chills without going overboard.

Side note - did anyone notice that they thanked 'Kim Seong-kyu' instead of Jin Seon-kyu for the special appearance in Ep. 1. Pretty big fail 🤦‍♀️.

I quite liked this. I did not find this terribly original, not even the shamanism, which I feel we see a lot of. But it took the genre tropes and did a solid job with them. And the level of horror, unease is just right for me. Too much and I might have bailed.

What I also liked was the exploration of characters and relationships. It could be the longer drama length that allows them to do that, but it’s that extra depth I really enjoy in dramaland. The actors were good.

But I did notice several plot issues that jumped at me. I’ll add just one from my list: Why were the FL’s fingerprints all over the loan scammer and his stuff if it was the ghost that attacked him while FL was asleep in her house? OK. Just one more. If the evil ghost is in the FL’s body, why is it letting them investigate it? Hoping answers will come.

Looking fwd to the next episodes.

I am struck by how film-like the series feels. That I quite forgot I am watching a kdrama series.

Cant wait for the next episode!

My only less favored in this drama was too many "suicide" been potrayed, although it was not always the truth.
Although the young cop acknowledged SK is at the top in suicidal cases,but yes... repetitive one seems too much for me (especially the middle school one did the jump 😖).

It should be flagged with big warning while watching this drama forward.

Love the first 2 eps!. I always will check out whatever show Kim Tae-ri or Oh Jung-Se is starring in, but I am staying because the show has managed to be fascinating for now. Just like the other beanies, horror has not gone overboard (which when they do, they become comedy farce) - so it remained gripping enough to want another episode.

Thank you for the recap, you really put into words what's so interesting about San-young and Hae-sang's dynamic. To my surprise as a card carrying member of Super Weenie Hut Jr.'s, I'm enjoying this one! It's plenty creepy, and I hope they ease up on the number of suicide scenes but I appreciate the general lack of jump scares.

I have a lot of questions, most of which have at least been acknowledged as questions by the show but now that San-young's grandma is dead, I hope we still find out what her deal was too. She didn't seem particularly aware of the evil spirit itself but she had some suspicious moments. The evil spirit definitely used the opportunity to push San-young's buttons, but given it (she?) was also specifically targeting that research, I think San-young's grandma knew something relevant.

Anyways, given how quickly the evil spirit escalated things, here's hoping San-young's mom and friend make it through the series!

I enjoyed these two eps!
Personally I feel that the horror genre in Korean Dramas is not their strong suit but they nail it with the romantic comedies genre.

Maybe I've just grown thick skin to horror (the last time I felt genuine fear from a horror movie was Nope by Jordan Peele MAN that guy KNOWS how to get under your skin istg)
but I'm hoping they would up the scare level a little as right now I'm just feeling uncomfortable due to anticipating/keeping a lookout for the scare.

Apart from that, the acting from our leads is amazing. That scene when San-yeong was sitting on the bench by the river carving at the doll and the background switched from blur to clear when she "reverted" back MAN that was GOOD. Its also refreshing to see OJS on my screen again in a role that we don't normally see him in.
I love the scenes they have together as they click well and can act off each other!

I'm praying HARD they maintain the storyline & pace and it doesn't (touch wood) pull those mid ep downwards spiral PLEASE

Oh, this show popped up on my radar but I hadn't had a chance to watch it yet. Call me now convinced and I will immediately jump in and share my hypotheses soon.

I've had my eyes out for Oh Jung-Se since I've finally got around to watch It's Okay To Not Be Okay... and that made me realise I had overlooked his delicate and realistic gem-like touch in many K-dramas. In most things I watched, he wasn't a ML, and therefore I stupidly overlooked him. Now finally, the time to address this void in my K-drama knowledge has come!

On a side note, while the setups and scripts are completely different, I'm getting The Guest vibes and this might completely come and haunt me in my hypothetical game — the spirit playing the long game of basically screwing everyone up (because that's the core learning I've retained from The Guest; if you hold a grudge, however small it may be and whomever it may be against, turn yourself into a spirit and come back every 20 years to f* completely random people up for fun. I mean, I too can hold grudges for ages, so you can bet my spiritual form will come back for any descendant of that maths teacher whose magnificent incompetence made him accuse me of cheating... It was over 20 years ago, so I think we can call it not only a Grudge with a capital G but THE GRUDGE with supreme caps lock power. Spirit world, here I come!)

I didn't know what to expect with Revenant, but the first two episodes were good and I'll continue to watch.

I've liked the past work of the main actors so I'll more than likely watch the series to the end.

Is Jangji-ri a real place in Korea? I couldn't find anything about it.

It will be interesting to see how folklore is interweaved into the story.

OK. Kim Tae-ri as the spirit is spooky. The lighting, the hair, the makeup and the smile. Whew. It gives me the chills.

My colleague really pushed this drama cause, in his words, it's a really big deal in Korea. He also said I'd like it if I liked 곡성 (which was a beautiful film) Looking through the cast, I said OK, I'll try it out.

The production value is definitely high. And the acting is brilliant (when it matters). The editing is decent, without any of the usual mood whiplash.

But the fantasy aspect makes it somewhat... unwatchable. Spirits forcing someone to take their life is not a subject I can accept with any degree of seriousness. There is always a reason why people resort to such drastic decisions. To minimise it to "they were possessed" is akin to saying social injustice and mental illness don't exist. And this especially matters because it follows a very good monologue about the issue. So I'm confused about what to think of this show.

For now I'll continue until ep3, but my hopes aren't all that high.