Hotel Del Luna Ending Final

Ever since 49 Days, I think Hotel Del Luna is one of the meaningful drama about life and death. It's truly remarkable to be able to have this kind of drama every once in a while. And thanks to my dear friend, letting me know this drama exists and for sure, I do recommend this drama.

It was clear right from the beginning that there is no such happy ending between Jang Man Wol (played by IU) and Ku Chan Seong (played by Yeo Jin Goo). They both know one day Man Wol has to leave and go to afterlife. To be honest, there was a bit of spoiler that Man Wol has died because she committed suicide after killing so many people, yet I do not see that background story. It's just that her time stopped and she's been living for 1,300 years and never aged.

Man Wol has been punished for her entire life because of her past. She has to attend to ghost who just died and still want to linger in this world with their unfinished business before the time comes for them to go to afterlife. Because once you go to afterlife (crossing the Sanzu River - or we used to call it as the bridge that separate the living and the death), you will forget all the memories during your living time and that's where the reincarnation theory will take place.

Man Wol could not let go of her past and instead dwelling upon it, tried to take revenge before she go to her afterlife. That revenge energy hold her to get punished in the world between the living and the death. Even after 1,300 years, she never once let of of Chung Myung who betrayed her and still want to take revenge on him. So irony, that human life is like that, maybe for some there are still some unfinished business during our living time, yet we still hold onto them - making our journey to the afterlife a bit complicated.

The subject of death is not an easy one to talk about, much less create lovely stories around, but I loved the tales of the hotel’s guests and the lessons they taught. For me, Hotel del Luna wasn’t so much about death as it was about concepts like peace, forgiveness, kindness, good and evil, and appreciating life while you can. Even though it took Man Wol thirteen hundred years to learn how to understand and forgive, she was eventually about to heal once she was willing to let herself be vulnerable, and by healing she enabled herself to move on and be happy. It’s a simple lesson, but an important one, and seeing her become capable of letting go is a help to me to be able to believe by letting myself be vulnerable, healing will take place and letting me be happy instead.

Hotel del Luna has taught us, it’s that parting is inevitable, but that goodbye is never forever. Life and death are a circle, and every ending is also a beginning. And it's our duty to start living and appreciating life as it is, be kind and always learn how to forgive and cherish life.

Hotel Del Luna 2019 Korean Drama Review

"Don't judge a book by its cover" is a pretty well-known saying and I think it suits the Korean Fantasy Drama, Hotel Del Luna. Naturally, a scary, old, dilapidated building isn't worth a second glance because come on, there's nothing to see but cobwebs and ruined walls. But this particular building begs to disagree because it holds a grand secret that's definitely shocking.

The 16-episode series give viewers an exciting new look at shabby buildings because the torn down establishment located in the heart of Seoul is actually an extravagant, Victorian-styled hotel complete with an outlandish interior, luxurious rooms, and expensive champagnes (because what's a hotel without a nice drink, right?) that is open for business as soon as the sun has set. I might just catch a plane to go there right away if not for the, er, scary catch: the hotel only caters to ghosts! The youthful-looking actress, IU, will act as Jang Man Wol, the CEO of Hotel Del Luna. Her character is a bossy and ill-tempered woman who has done something terrible in the past so she is being punished with immortality and is tasked to run the hotel. Try as she might though, she can't seem to  remember what her grave sin was (spoiler alert: she committed suicide);  but she has accepted her fate and continues to manage the business.

Because of her extravagant spending, the hotel is doomed for bankruptcy. This is where Yeo Jin Goo's character, Goo Chang Sung comes in handy. He is hailed as the youngest assistant manager in a multinational hotel company. He's a perfectionist and is good at what he does but is secretly faint-hearted. Jang Man Wol uses this to her advantage and sends a ghost to scare him and persuade him to work for her. Goo Chang Sung takes up the position of General Manager in Hotel Del Luna and ends up nagging Jang Man Wol a lot. 

I think it's safe to assume that this drama will have lots of funny, bickering scenes of the two main leads and I'm already loving it! Days before the show's premiere, new posters have been released and one of them appears to be a character relationship chart which shows Lee Tae Soon and Lee Do Hyun as somehow connected to IU's character. Meanwhile, it shows Park Yoo Na and Cho Hyun Cheol as having a close relation to Goo Chang Sung. Other actors in the character map were Shin Jung Geun, Bae Hae Sun, P.O., and Kang Mina. Seo Yi Sook and Kang Hong Seok will be playing gods in the drama as well as actor Jung Dong Hwan who plays Manager Noh.

Thanks to my love for all things supernatural and fantasy-related, I'm already dying to watch the show! I'm also wondering if like in Goblin, their lives are intertwined in the past. Oh well, the only hope of finding out is to tune in once it premieres!