Yeesh, how did we never knew that the Joseon Dynasty was filled with zombies, evil spirits, and various other things that go bump in the night? I know my high school textbooks were very light on Korean history, but you’d think that ancient people fighting these otherworldly hoards would have been worthy of some sort of mention! Good thing there was the Joseon Exorcist to save us all.
I saw the first teaser for Joseon Excorsist a while back and meant to say something about it, but it always became one of those things I passed around to my friends, never remembering to post it here. YEESH. From the first moment I saw it, my brain went ‘woah‘.
I watch it, I jumped at the jump scare, but besides that, I have no idea what is going on! Zombies? Witches? Demon possession? All of the above? It, of course, made me think of the Netflix Joseon zombie drama, Kingdom. For a second I actually wondered if this was also a Netflix show, however, surprise-surprise, it’s SBS. This horror gorefest is going to be on regular tv? I mean, there is so much blood, gore, and violence. I could see it on tvN or OCN, but one of the main broadcast networks? I still am a little shocked.
It appears to have such a high production value here. The effects, the camera, and all that blood can’t be cheap. It screams Netflix, though I’m wondering if they saved the sharp bits for the teaser?
What brought this to mind is a new teaser was just released which somehow looks even more “ahhhhh! Where is my scary movie blanket?”
Is there an exorcist? Is he the random white guy in the cast? Or is it going to end up being that boy? I don’t know! Here’s what the synopsis has to say:
When Prince Lee Bang-Won of Joseon patrolled the northern region, he faced an evil spirit which wanted to dominate human beings. Prince Lee Bang-Won was able to seal away the evil spirt.
Now, Lee Bang-Won has ascended to the throne and has taken the title of King Taejong (Kam Woo-Sung). He is cool-headed, but a powerful king. King Taejong is proud of the fact that he helped his father establish the Joseon dynasty. He also feels heavy guilt from killing so many people during the founding of Joseon. The evil spirit which King Taejong sealed away in the past resurrects itself on the land of Joseon. To seal the evil spirit away, King Taejong must again fight the evil spirit.
Meanwhile, King Taejong has sons Crown Prince Yangnyeong (Park Sung-Hoon) and Prince Chungnyeong (Jang Dong-Yoon). Prince Chungnyeong’s only interest is to learn academics. He suddenly faces a crisis caused by the evil spirit. To protect the people of Joseon, Prince Chungnyeong jumps into the war against the evil spirt.
Crown Prince Yangnyeong seems full of confidence. He actually lives with chronic anxiety over whether he will be recognized by his father King Taejong. He tries to be recognized by his father, but his actions never seem good enough. Nevertheless, King Taejong has a strong desire to have his first son Crown Prince Yangnyeong become the next king. Greed then consumes Crown Prince Yangnyeong to enter into a contract with the evil spirit.
Well, first off, someone needs to bone up on their synopsis work there, but we definitely have some more information. I don’t think the exorcist is the father and probably not the older brother. I vote it’s the younger son or some outside person that the younger son finds.
I’m not a huge fan of the palace intrigues but throw in someone getting their faces eaten by a zombie every now and then and I somehow have an easier time stomaching it.
While I’m definitely very interested in this show, I might give it a couple of episodes to hear what people have to say about it. Can it keep up the quality? The screenwriter previously wrote Inspiring Generation with Kim Hyun Joong. That does not really super inspire me. Since the show doesn’t come out until March 22, my guess is we may still get another teaser or more insight into this show before it begins which will help us be able to make better drama watching related choices.
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