Synopsis
A trio of freedom fighting friends Seo Hwi Young, Ryu Soo Hyun, and Shin Yool meet tragedy when a comrades from within their group decides to betray them to the head Korean Japanese inspector Heo Young Min. The three friends meet death each separatly. But the events that transpire in the 1930's haunts the three friends in different ways and eventually leaks into their lives in modern day Seoul. Ryu Soo Hyun was reborn an Jeon Seol, played by Soo Jung Lim, and is a jack of many trades. She is vet, and used to once be a professional sharp shooter and scouted for the Olympics, as well as a call and hire girl (someone who is hired to do errands for people). She is obsessed with famous writer Han Se Joo, played by Yoo Ah-In, who is Seo Hwi Young, who is the Korean Stephen King. Everything begins to unravel when Jeon Seol deliveres an old Korean typewriter to Se Joo's door step. From then on Se Joo's life and Jeon Seol's are intermingled then when they meet Ghost Shin Yool, who has been trapped in the typewriter since 1930, the bigger story revealed. The three piece together their memories and write the story of their past lives .
Review
Hello Dear reader! I first want to apologize if I put any spoilers in the synopsis it was hard for me to be able to write a clear one for this show without revealing too much. I hope I succeeded. In any other case, I hope you are well and happy. If you are returning to this page thank you for coming back! If you are a new viewer, welcome to my page! I hope that you like my review and return. Just in case you are unaware of how my ratings work. I rate on two categories, story telling and direction. Under Story telling I take into account not just the acting but the writing, and music as well. Under the category direction I consider both editing and direction. I call them my sticky notes because that tends to be what I write my thoughts on when I'm watching.
I know I'm a few years late for this one, but I loved this entire series. Ghost Writer is something that I have been looking for since my first love affair with Queen in Hyun's Man and Legend of The Blue Sea.On my sticky notes I gave the storytelling a 100% and the direction a 4/5. I absolutely fell in love with this show. I mean it when I call this a binge worthy series. The story flowed and yet twisted just when you think you have it figured out. However, it won't drive you nuts to the point where you constantly think about breaking up with it like the ever so popular The Last Empress. The acting was phenomenal all around, even the side character's.
I do have two warnings for you, dear reader. The first is, second male lead syndrome is strong in this one. I mean it is strong. Normally, I can get past it and understand because the male leads eventually win me over. I have nothing against the character of Se Joo, but he is a sad shadow to Yool. I fell head over heels for this boy, however I agree that neither Soo Hyun nor Jeon Seol were the right girl for him but, damn, I really wanted him to get some love. I was ready to jump into the TV and give it to him. He is definitely a swoon worthy character (the costuming for him is incredible too, it just suits the actor and the character perfectly).
The second warning is this will give you the feels. I have only blubbered twice while watching K-Dramas. The first was with my personal favorite Queen in Hyun's Man and the second was during Descendants of the Sun. when I mean blubber, dear reader, I mean I had a stream of tears down my cheeks and even the crying hiccups. I had to hold it in because I was binge watching in the middle of the night and I didn't want to wake anyone up, but let me tell you. If I was in that house alone it wouldn't have been a pretty one tear down the cheek, oh that's sad/ endearing moment. It would have been loud and not pretty. The friendship between the three leads is so beautiful and sweet that it will touch your heart.
I do have to give main male lead Yoo Ah In some props for acting and character building. He breathed to life into two charater's both with different personalities yet enough similarities that you know Se Joo is supposed to be Hwi Young. I like how the writer and the actor decided to make the reincarnated Se Joo highly suspicious of others while Hwi Young trusted his two friends more than anything in the world, even to the point of death. Both his past self and his present self build walls around his heart to protect himself from being hurt, however the sentiments and reasons for the 'barricade' and are completely different. Ah In pulls this off well and plays the two characters flawlessly. As a side note I do have to say his long hair is so much more appealing than his short haircut, but that is just personal taste (teehee shout out to Lee Min Ho's Personal Taste).
As for the other two leads, their performances deserve to have a shout out as well. I fell in love with these characters and I hope you do too, dear reader. I appreciated that although there was a love triangle it was pretty much clear who belonged with who and didn't leave me frustrated wondering who was going to get the girl. It was pretty clear, in both past and present, who her heart belonged to. Yet, it didn't ruin their friendship. I loved that aspect. I also appreciated that there was no soul mate and husband being two different men concept. It is a concept I hated from Boys Over Flowers, and something I have run into from time to time in other K-Dramas. I think it is an honestly retarded concept that never should have taken fruition.
Please give this wonderful drama a chance. I am a little ashamed I've waited this long to see it, but I'm glad I got to it. I watched it on Viki.com. Viki is a free streaming services without the fear of viruses. They even stream new series, but you might have to pay to get the new shows right away. Goodbye and until next time, dear reader!
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