The East Palace

Presentation

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Overview

Synopsis

Strange incidents take place within the palace. So, the King secretly calls for Gu Cheon who can kill ghosts with his sword and Court Lady Saeng Gang who can hear ghosts to uncover the curse that lies within the palace of the Crown Prince. 

My Opinion (No Spoiler)

I loved this drama so much! Let me start with what I liked the most: the aesthetics and the cinematography. The drama is a visual piece of arts with an excellent work on colors and lightings (among other things) that support the narrative. There’s a clear distinction between human and spirit worlds and the transitions are very smooth. The plot is well-written. Each episode brings about a new twist that allows viewers to unravel all the secrets linked to the palace. The curse, and ghost stories in general, shed light on the power dynamics and politics of the palace, showed as a place of survival. Apart from the leads, it’s difficult to appreciate characters – they are vile, corrupt or blinded by greed – but their intentions make sense in this context. As for the romance, it developed quite fast but it was credible and not overshadowing the horror. The drama was also full of action scenes that kept the pace going and the ending may suggest another season because I do have questions that need answers now. Finally, I dream of having the Ggeokmeoksali as a plushie, it was so cute!

Analysis

• Characters
  Gu Cheon, the sword swinger
  Saeng Gang, the voice of ghosts
  The King, the root of evil
• The palace dynamics
  The origin of the curse
  The real curse
  The power struggle
  The impunity
• The Korean folklore
  Gwisin and gwimae
  Ggeokmeoksali
  Gucheon
  Shamanistic rituals
  Water
• The cinematography
• The romance
• The ending

Characters: I would focus on the main trio of the drama that literally carry the story and the action.

Gu Cheon, the sword swinger: Gu Cheon (Nam Joo Hyuk) is a lonely character whose peculiar ability to see ghosts and travel to their realm isolated him from the rest of the world. Though this comes in handy in the palace, this ‘superpower’ hinders Gu Cheon in his everyday life. He doesn’t have relationships with others and spends all his time sleeping in a temple, away from everything. Despite all that, Gu Cheon proves to be an altruistic, devoted, if not sacrificial person. He is forced to go to the palace to lift the curse and the King threatens to kill him if he doesn’t save the young Crown Prince. After saving him once, Gu Cheon could’ve left. But instead, he chose to stay and put an end to the curse by risking his own life.

Saeng Gang, the voice of ghosts: Saeng Gang (Roh Yoon Seo) is the King’s daughter. She’s introduced to Gu Cheon as a palace maid to spy on him, but she quickly develops an interest for him and the discoveries they make. As a child, she was pushed away because of her ability to hear ghosts. This frightened the King, as spirits would be able to reveal his darkest secret to his child – just like they did with the previous Crown Prince. This caused her father’s immediate rejection and fear. Later on, her mother was killed, yet she never found out the cause behind this assassination. Her return to the palace is her chance to find out the truth. Just like Gu Cheon, she is altruistic and has at heart to save people. She has no interest whatsoever for the throne, contrary to the many royals and ministers who walk the Palace.

The King, the root of evil: The King (Cho Seung Woo) may appear like a doting father at first glance, but he’s actually wearing a mask. He’s calculating, greedy, blinded by power, egoistic, ruthless and sometimes cruel. He doesn’t hesitate to kill others (his own family or his people) to protect his position and beloved throne. His lies and manipulation carried over the years are the actual root cause to the catastrophes that unfold in the Palace. I thought the King was a malicious and sneaky character who didn’t really deserved to be saved in the end. He was simply paying for his bad karma, as the consequences of his actions boomeranged in his face.

The palace dynamics: The entire intrigue relies on power struggles and politics. They dictate the events occurring at the palace and the fights led in the past now resurface in the present, adding more fuel to the fire Gu Cheon is trying to extinguish. The palace is not a happy place to live in. It’s a cursed place where survival is what matters most.

The origin of the curse: To understand the events in the present, Gu Cheon and Saeng Gang have to investigate the past. Through a series of dangerous and life-threatening back-and-forth to the other world, Gu Cheon discovers that the origin of the curse is way different than what he’s been told in the first place. Supposedly, it started decades ago when a concubine died in the palace pond and came back to end the royal lineage. This led to the deaths of many Princes, except the actual King. Turns out, the King and his own mother, had no chance to succeed the throne if his brothers were to stay alive. So, they disguised their deaths as the natural vengeance of the angry water ghost. By doing so, not only did they protect their cover, but they also established their royal authority, ruling through fear and dominating people with scary lore. After that, the King kept on using this beneficial legend to justify his wrongdoings and cover his tracks.

The real curse: Unfortunately for the King, he unleashed a real demon when he chose to kill his son. The latter was moved by the same thirst of power as his father. However, he was also born with a special gift that allowed him to hear the dead – just like Saeng Gang. Thanks to them, he found out that his father had manipulated the narrative regarding his ascension to the throne. So, he tried to use it as leverage. Panicked, his father chose to eliminate him, so his secrets would never be revealed. The story could’ve stopped there if the Crown Prince (Kwak Dong Yeon) had not nurtured the ambition to be the next King. This greed made him come back as a vengeful spirit who used other palace ghosts – wrongly killed – as leverage to kill the royal bloodline. Interestingly, the King created a fake curse to protect his inhuman behavior, but ended up making it real.

The power struggle: It’s obvious in the drama that everyone wants power in the palace except for Gu Cheon – the outsider – and the Princess – the outcast. The King wants to protect his position, the Crown Prince comes back as a ghost to dethrone him, the Queen Dowager (Jang Young Nam) wants a say in the choice of the successor so she can manipulate the court, and even the King’s relatives are eyeing the position, not to mention Saeng Gang’s grandmother who played everyone and made her son King by killing people. No position is good to have and no character is really worth empathy. They are all controlled by their selfish desires and interests. The more the drama advances, the more power gets to characters’ head. It’s like a descent into hell fueled by ghosts, the fear of having one’s secrets revealed and the curse that hangs over the palace.

The impunity: The East Palace left me with a bittersweet feeling. It felt like bad people were unscathed despite their evil actions, while those who had legitimate reasons to avenge themselves were punished. At the end, the King remains untouched on his throne though he’s the source and catalyst of this chaos. His mother, who also spent years pretending, goes back to her private residence and doesn’t pay for what she’s done. The Queen Dowager now leaves in isolation in the palace but she spent 50+ years not answering for her crimes. She ends up alone and mentally incapacitated, but she’s not punished per se. Meanwhile, the Crown Prince – who was technically the only one with a legit motive to get his revenge, is suppressed. Other ghosts are destroyed when they too were unfairly killed. Gu Cheon is now bound to the afterlife when he’s the hero of the drama and sacrificed his life for others. It seems like he’s the only one burdened with a cosmic punishment.

The Korean folklore: The drama delves into the Korean folklore and uses it as basis of its narrative. There are actually a lot of details hidden in the show that are worth mentioning.

Gwisin and gwimae: In Korean folklore, there are two main categories of ghosts: Gwishin which are common ghosts (like water ghosts, court ladies…) and Gwimae which are malevolent entities. ‘Gwi’ refers to ghosts in Korean language and ‘-mae’ to demon. In the drama, Gwimae haunt the palace in the spirit world and manifest under many different forms whether human-like or not. They are powerful and aim at consuming your energy to survive.

Ggeokmeoksali: This cute little plushie-like entity is a parasitic creature who drains the energy of the human it attaches himself to. In the drama, he follows Gu Cheon around but also becomes his companion and ends up saving him a few times by transforming into his terrifying form. In Korean, ‘Ggeokmeok’ means pitch-black and ‘-sali’ means a living being, so roughly translated it is a being who lives in darkness. This sweet creature indeed lives in the ghost realm in the drama.

Gucheon: The name of the main character is also quite meaningful if you take a closer look. ‘Gucheon’ in Korean literally refers to the in-between world where souls wander after death. This is a good reference to Gu Cheon’s actual capability to travel between both worlds.

Shamanistic rituals: The East Palace is full of shamans, shamanistic rituals and other ceremonies aimed at appeasing spirits. This is what the King does to free himself from the spirits he burned to death for instance.

Water: In Korean folklore, water is the source of many ghosts stories – water ghosts, pond ghosts… Here water is a bridge between both worlds. It allows Gu Cheon to descend to the other realm.

The cinematography: The cinematography of the drama is absolutely fantastic. It is a perfect palette of colors, designed to support the narrative. For example, the lights and entire screen turn red when Gu Cheon is in the ghost world. Gu Cheon has his hair down and can rely on his sword. The world is dusty, inhospitable and threatening. In the human world, Gu Cheon’s hair is tied. He and the Princess can enjoy a broader spectrum of colors from the green sceneries of palace gardens to the yellowish rays of sunshine. These colors suggest life, peace and serenity. However, the dark night also brings about its dangers and that’s exactly what the drama suggests by playing with shadows and ephemeral lights.

The romance: The drama essentially focuses on the curse and the action. However, it also gives some space to the romance. I thought it was not that well done – it was too fast and superficial. By the end, it felt like the leads were madly in love with each other when they had little to no time to get to know each other. If there is a second season, I hope we will get to see more than that.

The ending: At the end, Gu Cheon makes a pact with the original Gwimae in order to gain enough power to kill the Crown Prince. After his victory, he goes back to the Gwimae using the chain of his sword. Seems like everything is fine, but the last scene shows that he’s still linked to the palace with this chain. This strongly suggests a second season, but who knows?