Kdrama 2019
Hotel Del Luna (Kdrama Review & Summary)
Global Granary Drama Recommendation ✴️✴️✴️✴️
Hotel del Luna poster
- Genre: Fantasy, Ghost
- Release Date: 13 July 2019
- Origin: South Korea; Hong Sisters Original
- Kdrama: 16 Episodes
Cast:
- IU as Jang Man Wol
- Yeo Jin Goo as Goo Chan Sung
- Lee Do Hyun as Go Chung Myung
- Jun Dong Hwan as Noh Joon Seok
- Shin Jung Keon as Kim Seon Bi (Bartender)
- Bae Hae Seon as Choi Seo Hee (Room’s Manager)
- Pyo Ji Hoon as Ji Hyun Joong (Hotel Receptionist)
- Kang Mi Na as Kim Yoo Na (Fourth Choice)
- Lee Tae Sun as Yeon Woo/Detective Park Young Soo
- Park Yoona/ Princess Song Hwa/Lee Mi Ra
- Kang Hong Suk as Sa Sin
- Seo Yi Sook as Ma Go Sin
- Jo Hyun Chul as Sanchez
Quick Precis:
Apparently, Hotel Del Luna is a oldy worldy hotel situated in Seoul, South Korea. The CEO for this establishment had been Jang Man Wol for the last 1000 years.
Due to a most heinous sin which she committed all those years ago, she had been damned to run the hotel.
Hotel Del Luna is a lodging for ghosts. the dead.
Sounds really interesting.
Episode 1
Just started this drama today. Watching it on Netflix.
It started a thousand years ago when Jang Man Wol was a soldier, who killed lots and lots of people.
She did feel remorse but her sins were so heinous, it was unforgivable.
She was frustrated with herself as well and she began to see the ghosts of people she had killed.
She stabbed at one but what she hit was a tree trunk.
She then watched woods flying around and started building an inn.
A mysterious woman had told her that she would be in charge of the inn where lost souls or those with grievance still to settle in the human world could lodge.
The little inn had turned into a multi-floored hotel over the years. It could rival the Ritz for its glitz. This is a night. But it turns into a more modest establishment during the day.
Anyway there was a petty thief who was on the point of dying but able to beg Man Wol to let him live as he has a motherless young son.
Mansol eventually agreed under the condition that the child will be given to her in 20 years time.
The man did not really much choice so he agreed.
A lot of money was transferred to his account to bring up the boy well.
Episode 2
Mr No died after 30 years of service as a manager at Hotel del Luna;
The last Siberian tiger from North Korea had finally rested in peace.
Goo Chan Sung is now resigned to his fate as the new manager of Hotel del Luna.
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5 The Ghost Bride
A bride was running away from a ghostly marriage for the afterlife.
She almost married Sanchez and then Goo Chan Sung but Mansol made the real fiance of the ghost bride come to the hotel to marry.
It turned out the parents of the bride turned out to be the real parents of the groom who was in a coma.
They knew that if the bride marries the spirit of their comatose son, he will never wake up.
The groom wanted to marry the girl but she told him he can go but he refuses so she showed him her ghostly decaying face which frightened the groom and broke the red ribbon tying them together.
The girl was finally ready to go to the afterlife.
Manwol told Chang Sung that one day he will be sending her to the afterlife. This saddened him and tried to grab her.
She teased him that she was not really to be pushed into the tunnel, she still has to give him so much trouble that he will be so happy to see her go.
Goo Chang Sung’s ex-girlfriend arrived from America and Manwol was curious about her.
Episode 6 The Possessed King
The Hotel del Luna got excited when a ghost king came to stay.
Chang Sung was rather sceptical about their VVIP and he had good reasons to.
He was actually a king in a tv drama.
Episode 7 Torn between two lovers
A dead husband found his dead wife with her dead lover at Hotel del Luna and mayhem ensued with Chang Sung being thrown off the air.
Manwol gave a cleaver to the husband and an ax to the wife and told them to go for it. Hack away.
Their next case was the killer porn video. The girl was from room 13 at the Hotel who got away.
Her back story was that in university, her male classmates were sniggering at her video. This enraged and depressed her until she died and now hunting and killing the guys one at a time. They watch her video again which then propelled them to kill themselves.
Before she could kill her third victim, the Fourth Mago turned up and obliterated the girl because she was an evil ghost who had harmed humans.
The tree at the Hotel del Luna garden was beginning to bloom flowers and they were thinking that Manwol will be passing soon.
Chang Sung was taking Manwol yachting but Mira turned up.
Manwol was shocked to see the familiar face of Princess Song Hwa, her love rival from the past.
8
Really loving this drama. My favourite CP is Manwol with the second male
Manwol was betrayed by the general by killing every one of her clan and then having her arrested and then she felt that Chan Sung betrayed her as well.
Episode 9 The Water Deity
When Cha Sung woke from a three day sleep, Hotel del Luna was gone.
Episode 10 Serial Killer
The rich man ghost wanted his grandaughter to marry Chang Sung but he tuned the girl down because he already like someone else.
Ghost of his mother at the library. Cha Sung sent off his mother to the afterlife.
Meanwhile, Cha Sung was shocked to find that Yun Woo had reincarnated to Detective Park Yoon Soo. And to complicate things he was dating Mi Ra, the Princess Song Hwa who caused his death and of his clan.
Episode 11
Sad for Sanchez. His fiancee, Veronica died. Cha Sung had to bring him to Hotel del Luna to say goodbye to the ghost Veronica during a solar eclipse.
It turned out, one of the human workers at Hotel del Luna was not the President of SK.
Episode 12
They got the serial killer but he jumped to his death and became a vengeful ghost who was after Cha Sung.
Manwol had to ask the grim reaper to get the vengeful ghost, in return she will harvest the terminally ill child whose life is being prolonged by life lines from his mother and father which aged them before their time. The parents ended up trying to buy lifelines from other people.
The recent many deaths had make Manwol and Cha Sung realised their mortality especially that of Manwol.
Episode 13
Another back story. I have to say the scenes with Chung Myung always make me cry.
After Manwol killed the Princess, she also killed Chung Myung who allowed her to because he loves her and he did what he did to save her and his clan.
He hugged her as he was dying and promised that he will always be with her even as the moon watching over her.
But annihilating all her clan was unforgivable so she went on a rampage killing anyone and everyone who got on her way to the safer inn.
Anyway, a little boy came to the inn looking for his mother.
The staff initially welcomed him but quickly found out that he was a living human so they had to tell him to go home but the child was insistent to find his mother so they went to Cha Sung.
But then Cha Sung could not find a child but could see that afterlife limo was just departing into the tunnel.
Cha Sung could not help himself. He knew he mustn’t but went in anyway. He then got lost in the tunnel and cannot go back, he was getting weaker and weaker when a firefly appeared and carried him back out of the tunnel.
Manwol was waiting for him worriedly who hugged him as soon as he got near.
Manwol noticed the way he was caressing her tenderly was reminiscent of Chung Myung when he was dying in her arms.
Manwol moved away from him and asked Cha Sung who was he?!!!
Episode 14
Manwol and Chung Myung story
Manwol takes Chung Myung to the afterlife bridge
Episode 15
Story of Ji Hyun Joong and his sister.
Episode 16
Story of the scandalous Kim Sik, the bartender. After his name was cleared, he crossed the Samdo River to the afterlife. So sad.
Poor Yuna. Hyun Joong’s sister had died so he had to pass on as well. Strangely, the staff and Manwol did not see him off.
Mira and Young Soo are planning to get married.
I don’t know if I was all cried out but the long-awaited goodbye between Manwol and Cha Sung did not really move me.
Then about three minutes later, I was actually glad that I did not cry my heart out because there was a strange ending of them being together again during a clean, lovely sunny day.
What was that? Where was that? When was that?
The tantalising after-credit ending was the new owner of the revamped and renamed Hotel Blue Moon was a suave and devastatingly gorgeous Kim Soo Hyun.
I initially gave this drama a 5-star because I really enjoyed it and Manwol’s romance with the general was so heartbreaking I shed a copious amount of tears on their doomed love story. But then the drama started to went on a tangent. Some of the storylines do not make sense plus the protracted goodbye between Manwol and Cha Sung, in the end, made me drop the drama rating to four.
I have to admit that I could not drop it any lower because IU’s wardrobe alone is worth 4-stars. She was stunning throughout the whole drama.
