I just finished watching this 2012 Korean drama. It was mostly because I had just finished watching Moonlovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo which revived the Lee Joon Ki fangirl in me.
The first thought that came to me when I watched Arang and the Magistrate was how dated the production looked. It made me think the drama was shot in 2007. I suppose the technical aspects in drama production have greatly improved since 2012. Either that or Arang had a much smaller budget that Scarlet Heart.
Anyways, the story is about a young man, Kim Eun Oh, who is on a quest to find his mother who left him many years ago. During his journey, he meets a girl named Arang. She is not a normal girl however, she's a ghost. Eun Oh can actually see ghosts but pretends not to be able to see Arang the first time they meet. He just wanted to get to his destination without getting caught up in any ghostly matter.
They meet again and Arang figures out that he can see ghosts. She follows him to get him to help her find out how she died. After finding herself in the afterlife, Arang lost all her memories of her previous life. Eun Oh refuses and said he would only help Arang if he became the town’s magistrate. Through Arang’s machinations (with the help of a shaman and some gullible officers at the Magistrate’s office), Eun Oh ended up being the magistrate.
He still refused to help Arang though. He changed his mind however, when he saw that Arang wore a hairpin that he gave to his mother before she left him. With no memory though, Arang had no idea how she came to possess the hairpin. So, Eun Oh decided he would find out the truth being Arang’s death and at the same time, find his mother.
Later on, Arang, together with the help of the shaman and Moon Yeong, one of the Grim Reapers, managed to gain an audience with the Jade Emperor, whom I assume is the ruler of Heaven and Yeom Ra, the ruler of Hell. Frustrated at the lack of information regarding her death, she made a deal with them: she will be sent back to Earth as a human and given three months to find out the truth behind her death. If she succeeds, she will go to heaven. Otherwise, she will be sent to hell. Her mission will be considered as completed only upon the death of her killer.
Arang is sent back to earth in human form and together with Eun Oh, resumed working together to find Eun Oh’s mother and piecing together the events that led to Arang’s death.
Overall, I thought it was a solid drama in terms of the storyline. Every loose end was covered at the end. As I mentioned earlier though, the production is not as high quality as some other dramas. The scenes involving Heaven and the Underworld looked tacky but these were only minor issues in my opinion. Also, as much as I like watching romance dramas, I thought the part this drama played love songs and the accompanying montage a little cringeworthy. It wasn’t as seamlessly done as it could've been. Nonethless, I still enjoyed watching it from the beginning to the end.
The drama raised a few issues, especially in terms of life and death. One of them was the consequence of killing a person. This is not something new but we got to see how horrifying it is to recollect the memory of killing someone over and over again like how Ju Wal experienced. It makes you wonder what drove him down that path and we got our answer through his flashbacks. He may have been a cold-blooded murderer and you may not agree with his life choices but after seeing his rough childhood, you can understand how he ended up making those decisions. He came to regret those decisions in the end and it felt cathartic seeing him finally admit the gravity of what he had done and his desire to atone for what he had done towards Arang.
We see how the memories, or the lack of it, affect a person. For Arang, it bothered her greatly that she didn’t have any memory of the time she was alive. I thought it was strange she didn’t have her memory when there were other ghosts around her with grudges from their past lives. Turns out there was a good reason for this but I shall not discuss it here.
After hearing about the girl she used to be when she was alive from people who used to know her, Arang felt dissatisfied at what she saw as a girl who did not fully live her life. She thought her past life was not interesting and couldn’t believe that she and Lee Seo Rim (her name when she was alive) was the same person. Later on, Eun Oh found Seo Rim’s diary and passed it to Arang. He told Arang, “She’s not as you think. I think she’s a wonderful person.”
It made me think how I would react if I was in the same position as Arang. Would I be happy with what I had done during my lifetime? I’m not so sure. Of course there were interesting moments in life but are they enough? I have a loving family and good friends, so no grudges there. One grudge I would have would be that I did not get to meet the love of my life. If the afterlife is like the one in the drama, someone would have to ease my grudge regarding my love life in order for me to “move on”.
Apart from easing the grudges of ghosts, the belief system of the people depicted in the drama included one where all those who go to Heaven would lose their memories of their past life but those who go to hell would retain their memories. It wasn’t said explicitly but the reason seems to be that due to the tough times they would face in hell, the memories of their past life would be their source of strength. In Heaven, you don’t need your past memories because there would be no hardship. I don’t agree with it but it does make a little sense.
This rule made Arang decided to go to hell instead of heaven. She had fallen in love with the magistrate during the time they spent investigating her death and didn’t want to lose her memory of him. So strong was her love that she would be willing to suffer in hell rather than not being able to remember a loved one.
At another point, Eun Oh was also willing going to hell because he thought he could take Arang’s place instead. These two loved each other greatly that not even the horrors of hell made them hesitate. Some people may think it’s sappy but I find it sweet. I would be lucky to experience a love as great as the one between Arang and Eun Oh.
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