“Hotel del Luna” (호텔 델루나)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
September 6, 2019

 Jang Man-Wol (played by Lee Ji-Eun)
Go Chan-Seong (played by Yeo Jin-Goo)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

Prior to starting “Hotel del Luna,” I had watched Yeo Jin-Goo in “Absolute Boyfriend.” He played a robot who was programmed to fall in love with the first woman who kissed him. Over time, he malfunctioned and began to show signs of human emotions that hadn’t been computed into him. He felt heartache, he said. Of course, he was a robot. So he was mirroring how the humans around him were reacting — or should behave. The female lead didn’t fall in love with an inanimate object, but rather the loving human traits he displayed that were lacking in the men she had dated. That was my interpretation.

In “Hotel del Luna,” the concept of falling in love with someone who’s not human is explored again, but in a nuanced way that makes the viewer’s heart swell and hurt.

Yeo is very good in this series. But make no mistake about it: “Hotel del Luna” is Lee Ji-Eun’s pièce de résistance. The actress — an accomplished musician better known to K-Pop fans as IU — was required to show a range of emotions that made a sometimes unlikable character not only relatable, but lovable.

Hotel del Luna is a gorgeous five-star hotel that only accepts dead souls, before they move onto heaven or hell. Yeo plays a Harvard-educated hotelier who is forced to work at the eponymous establishment, due to an agreement his father had made years ago. His boss is the otherworldly Mal-Wol, who has run Hotel del Luna for the past 1,300 years. She is neither dead or alive, but can’t peacefully enter the afterlife until she has settled her personal business on earth. Though the pair’s relationship starts off contentiously, they slowly fall in love and feel they are tied together by a force that can’t be explained.

In both this Korean drama and “Absolute Boyfriend,” the scriptwriters ask the viewers to accept that love is possible, even when the partners aren’t human. But what “Hotel del Luna” does so well is show the humanity in characters who are no longer alive, but not ready to accept their demise. It’s a heartbreakingly beautiful series by the Hong Sisters (Hong Jung-eun and Hong Mi-ran).

The mild horror and overt humor of the debut episode doesn’t prepare viewers for the stirring sentiments they will feel as the plot progresses. The storylines cover undying love, revenge and repentance. And while some of the arcs aren’t as well fleshed out — such as the tepid backstory surrounding Chan-Seong’s missing mother — there is an overall sense of finality, if not satisfaction, by the series finale.

As with “Goblin” and “My Love From Another Star,” some of the plot is told through flashbacks. In Episode 14, viewers learn more about what drove Man-Wol and her first love, Chung-Myung, apart. That scene broke my heart more than just about anything else in the series.

The lush cinematography is well suited to this series and both the set and fashion designers are on point. Man-Wol’s wardrobe in particular is a throwback to old-school Hollywood glamour and Lee pulls off all the styles with aplomb.

Airdates:

tvN aired 16 episodes — ranging between 70- to 90-minutes each — from July 13 to September 1, 2019.

Meta Moments with Spoilers:

There are so many clever pop culture references in this series. A few of my favorites:

Episode 3: Lee’s “Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo” co-star, Lee Joon-Gi, makes a cameo as an overzealous exorcist.

Episode 6: When King Lee Hyun arrives at Hotel del Luna, there are references to two of Yeo’s K-Dramas, which were set in the Joseon era: “Moon That Embraces the Sun” and “The Crowned Clown.” Trying to figure out which king he was, Man-Wol starts rattling off the names of every king she can think of, including a couple fictional K-Drama kings:

Kim Soo-Hyun played King Lee Hwon in “Moon That Embraces the Sun,” while Yeo played the younger version of the king. And earlier this Spring, Yeo starred as King Lee Hyun in “The Crowned Clown,” which is parodied here as “The Crowned Queen.”

Episode 11: The staff prepares a honeymoon suite for special guests (they’re alive!) as a favor for a previous (live) employee. The groom had been conceived in that same suite decades ago and grew up to become South Korea’s best soccer player. Coincidentally, the time frame of his birth coincides with that of Manchester United midfielder, Ji-Sung Park. In that same episode, a deceased BTS fan gets the opportunity to talk to the band members (which they’ll dream about). Happy that she got to talk to her oppas, the fan leaves for the afterlife satisfied and singing, “Fake Love.”

Episode 16: Kim Soo-Hyun, makes a 1-minute 30-second cameo appearance that had the internet buzzing. It was his first acting role since being discharged from the military two months ago. Kim plays the new owner of the hotel, which has been renamed Hotel Blue Moon.

Spoiler Alert:

One of my favorite story arcs involved a vengeful ghost that hated and terrorized humans. In Episode 7, we learn that her life was ruined by a fellow classmate’s use of molka — which is shorthand for molae camera (몰래 카메라). (몰래/molae means unaware.) After he sexually abused her, he distributed the illegal video online. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t scrub the internet of the video. Rather than feeling compassion for her, classmates shunned her and branded her as a whore. She died without receiving justice.

Trying to right the wrong, Man-Wol gives the man a taste of his own medicine, taking photos of his property without his consent.

Her answer was perfection. She took a photo of his backside, showed it to him and said:

The most moving episodes occurred late in the series. Man-Wol and Chan-Seung’s fate in the series finale was definitely touching. They would not meet again until he died.

But Episode 14 gutted me. Man-Wol learns what happened to her first love, whom she killed for betraying her and her loved ones. Lee Do-Hyun adds just the right amount of nuance as the royal warrior, Ku Chung-Myung, who is beholden to a princess and not brave enough to give it all up to be with Man-Wol. Brave may not be the proper word, because his betrayal to the royal family will result in all his soldiers and family members being killed to atone for his actions.

Lee Tae-Sun also did a spectacular job as Man-Wol’s childhood friend, Yeon-Woo, who is later reincarnated in the modern world as police detective Park Young-Soo. He ends up marrying a doctor, who is the reincarnation of the princess who had been in love with Chung-Myung.

© 2019 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved