A Review of Hotel Del Luna (2019) and a Partial Critique of KDrama in General
Hotel Del Luna has its clichés ’cause it still is a KDrama at the end of the day, but (well compared to the ones I’ve watched so far) I give it 5 stars mainly because it breaks a lot of conventions:
1. The woman is the other-worldly being who ends up saving the man most of the time. Also, she is not of the virtuous kind. There is character development which is important in any story but she is still, at her core, an anti-hero.
2. The man is not the stereotypical male lead who is strong and aloof but is actually introduced to us as a coward and a cookie-cutter type.
3. It tells you that your first love is not necessarily your last love. And that just because your first love was “epic” doesn’t mean you won’t experience love that is equally (or even more) powerful. Typical KDramas make love out to be something you can only experience once with that one special person. We all know that’s not reality (except for some which is totally fine), which brings me to my next point.
4. Love isn’t necessarily “fated.” Admittedly, finding out that Koo Chang-su and Jang Man-wol already met in their previous lives weakens the point. I didn’t need an answer as to why the deities chose him. But even if he was the one who introduced to Jang Man-wol the idea of a hotel for the dead in his past life (so you can say that it was poetic for him to be the one to send her off), he played a very minor role in her past. We don’t even know what happened after that past life encounter, though we do know that Yeon-u’s family took in the orphan girl Jang Man-wol.
5. Lastly, let’s talk about the ending. A doomed romance is an irresistible story. Most KDramas owe its appeal to it. But at its core, it’s still a doomed romance. When you give a doomed romance a happy ending, it loses its magic. It may make us all happy but it still doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t solve the fundamental issue or what makes it a doomed romance in the first place.
Take a look at My Love from the Star, we learn in the ending that Do Min-jun was able to come back intermittently and so was able to live a life with Cheong Song-i in some way. But it doesn’t change the fact that he’s an alien with a different time period. Cheong Song-i will grow old and die eventually while he will remain as he is, which is how he’s been the last 400 years. If you watch the extended epilogue (which isn’t available on Netflix but is on YouTube so you’re welcome), they are shown to live happily ever after. But that isn’t enough ’cause of that unanswered question that’s made it a doomed romance.
Another example, in Crash Landing on You, the ending shows us that they get together in Switzerland for two weeks in a year which is fine. Long distance relationships are real. But until when? No one’s defected so for sure they can’t get married and have babies in the legal sense. You’re looking at a very limited future here. I’m happy Yoon Se-ri and Ri Jeong-hyeok got together in the end but I’m still left feeling sad.
Hotel Del Luna, on the other hand, just took it head on. No forced happy endings whatsoever. There was a beautiful montage in the end of Koo Chang-su and Jang Man-wol reuniting but it was a dream more than anything, or a beautiful love letter to each other which is a KDrama staple. We’ll just have to wait for them to find each other again in their next life. Of course we can only dream ’cause there’s no point in showing that in the ending anymore really. And it’ll only be painful to see Koo Chang-su either living a life as normally as he can post Jang Man-wol or having waited his entire life to die so he can see Jang Man-wol again. Either way it hurts. So thank you to the writers for just ending it there.
Let’s not forget that the show is all about death, and with death comes a finality the living are confronted with. It was a satisfying ending. Sad but satisfying nonetheless. I am reminded that art is not a democracy otherwise it wouldn’t be art.
Other things to appreciate about the show:
- The chemistry between IU and Yeo Jin-goo — low-key but intense at the same time if that makes sense
- Jang Man-wol’s killer outfits
- IU’s acting giving us Jang Man-wol’s sass
- Korean food being a significant part of the show
- Cinematography and scoring come on
- The effects of unforgiveness — I know I wasn’t able to touch on this important aspect of the show ’cause the point of this review was to mainly show how different it is from your usual KDrama but really, really good theme!
- That Kim Soo Hyun cameo ending
There were unnecessary storylines, weird product placements, and absurdities (granted it’s a supernatural KDrama but still). Like I said, it’s still a KDrama. But Hotel Del Luna just delivers. Beautifully written and beautifully made.
