Goblin

while waiting for finishing start up, let me catch up the reviews from all the drama that i've watched. it's been so many dramas that i've watched, so let's start with an oldies but goodies, goblin. i've been interested with goblin, but since there are so many people saying that it has bittersweet ending, i keep postponing it. but i decided to watch it to see what's people have been talking about.

title: goblin

cast: gong yoo, kim go eun, lee dong wook, yoo in na, yook sung jae

genre: romantic melodrama with a bit fantasy

kim shin/goblin (gong yoo) was a military general from goryeo dynasty. he was framed as traitor and was killed by the king. apparently, the king was his brother in law who wed his sister. unfortunately, in that event, the king also killed his queen, gong yoo's sister, kim sun. i don't know what was the background, but some people prayed that he would come back alive, but since he has killed so many people, he was cursed to be immortal, hence he became a goblin. he was back alive and lived through the centuries. it was quite a lonely curse, but lucky for him, there's a man with his grandson who stood by his side and managed his alibi in the world as he would need to die and then resume another identity in the world. this family also managed his wealth and anything related to the human world. however, the only way to put an end to his suffering is the goblin's bride, who would be able to pull the sword that's piercing through his body. of course there's no one else able to see the sword other than the goblin's bride. so he's been searching through centuries to find his bride just so he could end his misery. 

he's been helping people here and there, so without him knowing, he helped a mother from dying while being pregnant with a baby. both mom and baby were supposed to die, but they didn't. and later the mom gave birth to a girl, ji eun tak who was later told that she's the goblin bride. but she's also known as the missing soul as she was not supposed to be born. eun tak has been living a hard life. she was living alone with her mother and since she was a little kid, she could see ghosts so she got no friend because they thought she was weird. however, he mom passed away in accident when she was 9. she then was forced to live with her aunt and her family and they put her as slave to do the housework and kept pressuring her to give up her mom's insurance money which eun tak herself knew nothing about. fate brought her to goblin and the grim reaper. 

she was a joyful girl that the gloomy goblin couldn't push away. at that time, goblin has met grim reaper (lee dong wook) without knowing that grim reaper was the king in the past life. both stayed together in the same house when eun tak joined in. as eun tak had nowhere to go, goblin took her in so she could study for her university enrollment exam. as time goes by, both goblin and eun tak fell in love but since eun tak's fate is to be the goblin's bride, goblin realized that his fate is torn between ending his immortality or to be with eun tak. 

and there's the grim reaper (lee dong wook). he was punished to be a grim reaper because he did the greatest sin in his past life. he couldn't remember his sin, but after serving several time as grim reaper, he would be able to pass on and then reincarnated. to be human again if he's lucky. his main job was to bring lost souls to the after life. since he had no memory of his past life, he didn't remember that in his past life, he was the king that killed both kim sin and his brother, kim sun. however, he then realized that he's been fooled by the eunuch and he regretted to kill both kim sin and his bride, so he took his own life. apparently, that's the greatest sin that he's done. funny thing is, he then meet sunny (yoo in na), eun tak's part time's boss, and fell in love with her. he didn't know that sunny was kim sun in the past life. somehow, while the other forgot their past life, sunny still remembered her past, thus she had bittersweet love story with the grim reaper, but later she chose not to have relationship with him in this life. both then proceeded to the afterlife and then both reincarnated as actors, and later we saw that both has another chance in romance.

there's also yoo deok hwa (yook seuk jae). a chaebol heir and the only grandson in the yoo family. his family has been taking care of the goblin's matter in the world and they passed on the responsibility since ages. living together with goblin and grim reaper has its perk. he had to clean up their messes and it was really funny. anyway, later we'll see that sometimes the Almighty has taken his body for several times. 

anyway, the eunuch in the goryeo era has been living as a lost soul that grim reaper tried to catch, but he failed. and the eunuch found out about the goblin and eun tak. so he kidnapped eun tak to try to lure the goblin out. in the event to kill the eunuch, goblin decided to use eun tak's hands to grab the sword and pulled it out from his body. he then vanished. but he didn't go to the afterlife, but wander around until he was summoned by eun tak, 9 years later. though at first eun tak didn't remember anything about the goblin, but later she remembered and had their wedding. but again, fate didn't agree of them. grim reaper got eun tak's name so he knew that eun tak's is going to die. eun tak involved in an accident and died. leaving the goblin alone again. eun tak decided not to take the memory eraser tea and promised the goblin that she would find him again after being reincarnated. in the end we see that eun tak came back as a high school girl again, smiling at the goblin.

what i like:

- solid storyline. though it has a bit fantasy in it, but it was explained well. like how sometimes deok hwa was seemed different it was explained at the end.

- solid acting from all actors. both gong yoo and lee dong wook are considered high rated actors, so no wonder they are solid. and kim go eun was a newbie but she managed to deliver good acting. that cry though. 

what i don't like:

- age gap between gong yoo and kim go eun. though the storyline began when eun tak is still a senior in high school and then a university student, the age gap in reality is pretty big. they're careful for not starting the love story while eun tak is still a high school student, but still... and after reincarnated, their love story would still start while kim go eun is still in high school.  

- the open ending. so, goblin won't died now after his sword being pulled out? then he would live forever while eun tak isn't? so would their love story will stop after eun tak's died and then resume when she is reincarnated? in the story, human was told to have 4 lives. so after 4 lives, how goblin would supposed to live without eun tak? ain't that a more tragic curse?

rating: 10/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: people who don't mind bittersweet ending, cries a lot while watching this touching drama. who loves gong yoo, lee dong wook and their bromance.