The Haunted Palace | Recommended Kdrama

The Haunted Palace starring Yook Sung Jae, Kim Ji Yeon (Bona) and Kim Ji Hoon ended Saturday last week and your guess is right... my mind still thinks of it. It's a romcom fantasy period drama that revolves around an Imoogi and a Shaman's adventure, taking on and sending off resentful spirits inside the palace. 

There were a few resentful spirits that haunts the daily living of the royal family. Queen Dowager's son, Prince Yeong In, was resented by a female ghost in a well because of foul treatment towards her while she was living. He's disgusting so somewhat, he deserves what happened to him in the end. Other that that, there were more but the biggest villain in the story was none other than the Eight-ft Spirit. This resentful spirit was very powerful as it also carry the souls from the village that got massacred because of the coward King 100 years ago. Eight-ft Spirit got summoned by Pung San backed by Kim Bong In, the betrayer among the few trusted people of the King. Together they aim to take down the King and his family. Actually the Eight-ft Spirit wanted more, his grudge towards the Royal family was immense that he wanted to continue taking down the Royal family for eternity. But despite all that, it's still a happy ending as Gangcheori and Yeori won in the end. Yaaaass! 

Gangcheori/ Kang Chul was the name of a dragon that was bound to ascend 100 years ago. But it did not became successful as someone from the Yeongdam Village saw him while the massacre was on-going. Years later, he has found a way to ascend and it's through Yeori. Gangcheori took form into human figure and pursue Yeori but failed. They all thought Gangcheori was the root cause of the unfortunate happenings including the death of Yeori's grandma, so they try to stay away from him. Then one day, the Royal Scribe Yoon Gap appeared and deceived Yeori to take her to the Palace and solve the mystery behind the resentful spirits. However, as they were on their way, Yoon Gap got killed and that's when Gangcheori possessed his body. Since then, Gangcheori was not able to come out from Yoon Gap's body. 

Yeori wanted to find Yoon Gap's soul and bring him back to his body so she continue on with her journey to the palace despite Gangcheori's opposition. Once they were in the palace, they meet the King and the rest is history. 

That's just a teaser for y'all, if you haven't watched the drama then I'll say you should. It's a recommended drama from me. 

This is Yook Sungjae's drama series since Golden Spoon (2022). Tbh, I didn't like that drama and was not able to finish it.. it felt like it's a drag watching it so dropped it along the way. But this one, The Haunted Palace, was really something. There were no boring episodes, I enjoyed every bits of it. The characters were lovely and they grew on me. Love them. 

Yook Sungjae Accused By Jung Chae Yeon As Suspect For Her Father's Death In The Golden Spoon Episode 8

We're already halfway through the series and it's instantly becoming a headache for me. lol WTH did just happen? I'm so confused with the ending! It was going so smoothly (or not) and then the ending and the preview for the next episode flashed before my eyes making me frustrated severely. kkk I'm really so close in abandoning this show. Sigh...

Anyways, I'm here to do recap of the episode 8 only so that'll I do so. Basically, Na Ju Hee and the real Hwang Taeyong are both experiencing financial crisis. They are the characters that saw money as not that important or to put it simply, they haven't realized how important until now that there's no one giving nor helping them out in difficult times. Na Ju Hee had always been rich and her father was always backing her up against her step brothers while Hwang Taeyong was no longer getting any help or protection from Seungcheol. Hwang Taeyong finally witnessed how essential the presence of money in his life thru his poor family and Na Ju Hee losing the 500 million won. 

Yook Sungjae Got Arrested Over Lee Jong Won's Own Crime? In The Golden Spoon Episode 7

Okay, after this episode, I can now understand the essence of the golden spoon in Seungcheon's life. Before, I completely despises it since it makes everything so easy for him and thought that he would just laze around become boastful and abusive using the wealth of another person but I guess that's not the full picture. Now I see the usage of golden spoon by Seungcheon could serve a much bigger purpose and that's to reveal the whole truth behind all the dirty rich people abusing their powers to get whatever they wanted. Clearly, I see that the main villain here remains the father and son, Hwang Hyeon Do and Hwang Taeyong. 

Yook Sungjae Once Again Abandoned His Parents For Wealth In The Golden Spoon Episode 6

I'm having this huge disappointment in Seungcheon after this episode. I do get it, fate if not the old lady selling the golden spoon, that Seungcheon's tolerance is being challenged with all the unfortunate events that's happening to his family. And he actually gave in to that challenge and once again swapped his parents for wealth. Sigh. When will you ever learn, Seungcheon? 

It's awful 'coz this drama really is showing the real comparison of the life of the poor and the rich. It's really provoking me to get irritated everytime this drama is pressing on the stupidity, desperation as well as laziness of Seungcheon's family. It's really irritating to watch but this is just what reality is. There are a lot of uneducated poor population and so whenever they are in a difficult situation where their brains couldn't handle, their desperation to survive is surfacing and they instantly clings to a knife without thinking of the future consequences. The mother is like that and the laziness comes and lack of responsibility comes from the father. Actually, these traits are really applicable to all of them. 

Yook Sung Jae Confesses To Jung Chae Yeon But Yeon Woo Hinders Their Love Form Blooming

My emotions really took a rollercoaster ride because of this episode. It felt like a lot of things happened in just one episode. Seungcheon finally got back to his old life, however, they once again face another debt due to his father's accident of falling to his boss' car. The boss asked for 100 million won to repair the car and the whole family just conformed to it after the boss took down their request of making the repair payment smaller. Hmmm... I am not really judging the whole population of the poor but some truly lacks knowledge here. I mean, 100 million won for a car repair? Anyone could already buy a new car with that money! Also, ain't he the boss? Seungcheon's family could at least get a public attorney and settle this with that goon! Seungcheon's father got hospitalized for such a dangerous job and that goon being his employer, he should at least be responsible of what happened. What is their labor code for? Does labor code not apply to part timers? Hmmm... 

Sung Jae's Pretense Get Busted By Yeon Woo In The Golden Spoon Episode 4

All along I thought I'm gonna watch Seung Cheon boast the wealth that wasn't his the entire drama. Thankfully there's some twists and turns too. Some things really aren't for forever and some things are really good to be true. Seung Cheon is finally waking up from his false perception that anybody would swap their parents to accumulate wealth. He didn't know, Hwang Taeyong had long wished to have such warm family that would love and care for him. So his questions turned accusations that Taeyong would do the same thing as he did to achieve wealth went down the drain quickly. It hurt his pride and guilt overwhelmed him. Sigh. 

It's saddening that when Seung Cheon was treated unfairly by Taeyong's uncle, he ran automatically to his real parents only to find out that his original family is already happy without him. His father also took the initiative to abandon his dream and work outside that field to earn money for his family. That was definitely a slap to Seung Cheon's face. That served him right for swapping his parents so easily like that for wealth. He did a wrong move and now he's seeing these changes before his eyes. And now that his father got into an accident it'll be difficult for him to show his emotions and care for him just because he isn't Seung Cheon in their eyes. In everyone's eyes Taeyong is their son and not him. 

Yook Seung Jae Gets Threatened By An Anonymous Text Message In The Golden Spoon Episode 3

I'm starting to get irritated by Lee Seung Cheon (Yook Seung Jae) already and we're only at episode 3. lol After his life and identity got swapped with Hwang Taeyong (Lee Jong Won), my reaction was already "he sure knows how to act rich". He has long dreamed to be a rich person but I didn't expect that he'll transform 360 degrees in just a few days or weeks. I really like him a lot when he was the passionate and hard working Lee Seung Cheon but when he became rich and started giving off the boastful vibe, it was a turn off for me. I know that these rich people did him wrong, but if continues to punish them.. a lot of people would definitely go against him. Hate begets hate after all and so I wish he would humble down a bit.

Well, when he swapped his parents to Taeyong's, that was already the beginning of me disliking him. Although I did say in my previous blog post that I'm curious about that changing incompetent and awful parents to a deserving ones but after seeing how lovable Seung Cheon's mother and sister, it breaks my heart that he did that to him. Though in this episode, Seung Cheon really was pushed to do the swap thing because of his undignified father. Damn that man only knows how to beg on his knees. That's really awful especially for a man. 

Yook Sung Jae Switched Lives With Lee Jong Won In The Golden Spoon | Episodes 1 & 2 Recap

I recently watched the first 2 episodes out of the new on-going drama The Golden Spoon and wow I'm totally hooked with it after. Since I've watched several Kdramas that have those annoying parents who aren't competitive enough to provide well for their family, I've been thinking of the chances wherein a Kdrama would be open to a concept of children abandoning their parents and be rewarded... then this drama came out with that kind of scenario. Mostly. lol 

So basically, Lee Seung Cheon (Yook Sung Jae) was born in a poor family where his father is an aspiring webtoon artist, his mother is a waitress while he and his sister do part time jobs. I really have nothing against the 2 female of the family but the father. Seeing him hiding from the goons collecting rent/money, that really irritated me the most. I mean, he's the head of the family after all and yet he stooped so low in making his family face the debt collectors instead of him. I really hate incompetent and coward parent/person like him. Being a manga or webtoon artist is a decent job, but at least he could do something else to pay the debt of his family and be courageous to stand up for them. All he did was hide behind them. Sigh. He seemed really kind person but reality check it's not enough to survive this cruel world especially when you have a family to feed.