[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Oh My Ghostess" Episode 9

"Oh My Ghostess" grows both more whimsical and more dire as it progresses into deeper plot territory. The mystery of Soon-ae is slowly being unearthed, but as that happens, new bits of information crop up that create more questions. While that happens, Soon-ae and Bong-seon are discovering what love is like, especially with an agenda driving the already potent emotion.

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Episode 9 is nothing if cute. Bong-seon and Seon-woo begin to date in earnest and Seon-woo is nothing but honest with her, which makes him a winning main lead. Bong-seon and Soon-ae are quite the pairing as they play vixen and damsel using Bong-seon's body. Seon-woo likes it, but the pressures for sex are hard on him because he is a man who wants to respect his woman. The gender reversal here is well portrayed. It's not only women who get pressured. Seon-woo handles the pressure from Soon-ae well, and shows his intentions for the long-term. We've seen that he is an upstanding guy in snippets throughout the show, but fighting Soon-ae's temptation isn't easy and watching him turn her eagerness into his earnesty is great character stuffs.

There is tension built into the romance between man, woman, and ghostess. Seon-woo likes Bong-seon and the flirtatious Soon-ae. Soon-ae, although desperate to dispel her virginity and move on, has moments of pause when she realizes she is dabbling in an honest, genuine romance. The plot elements tugging at Soon-ae and forcing her to grow and change are clever and just as relevant to the living as they are to the ghostess. She is the third wheel in the romance whose agenda is interfering with the development of a healthy relationship. That involvement she has also helps her start to see what she is missing in her life, or rather, in her life after death.

As for the villain, we learn more about both him and his victim. He is what Soon-ae will become should she not resolve her grudge by the end of her second year: a vindictive, heartless shadow of a ghost who torments the living. He is also dangerous to everyone we have come to care about on the show because he is a long-lived evil spirit, one who has possessed Sung-jae since teenagerhood. It was good to see the real Sung-jae's childhood before ghost possession. Perhaps the boy inside can escape.

Seon-woo is growing fast, learning to open and up and trust and forgive where he once shunned true affection and relationships. He sat on the edge of social interaction without truly engaging. His affections for Bong-seon are drawing him out of that. It even brings him to the point of proposing a long-term relationship, a thing that has never been easy for him.

Individual growth is a focus of "Oh My Ghostess" that I greatly appreciate. Without the supernatural aspects of the show, these are just people struggling to get through life and grow past their pasts that weight them down - just like all of us.

Written by: Raine from 'Raine's Dichotomy'

Follow @ raine0211

"Oh My Ghostess" is directed by Yo Je-won, written by Yang Hee-seung, and features Cho Jung-seok, Park Bo-young, Lim Ju-hwan, and Kim Seul-gi