skygiants

Man, bless the Hong Sisters and their constant dedication to terrible fashion, weird haircuts, and the wildly unlikely lives of the rich and famous. This was enjoyable in You're Beautiful, a farce about a crossdressing nun and a bunch of kpop idols, and possibly even more enjoyable in Hwayugi: A Korean Odyssey, an epic piece of tragic Journey to the West fanfiction that is also sort of a farce about a bunch of (demonic) kpop idols.

The cast of Hwayugi is as follows:

Our Heroine Jin Seon Mi, aka the reincarnation of Tripitaka: once a small child who saw ghosts and made an unwise bargain with the Monkey King; now a wealthy real estate executive who's made a fortune flipping haunted houses
The Bull Demon King: a demon attempting to become a deity to save his long-lost love; also has a day job hosting the Korean version of American Idol, so from now on we can just call him Simon Cow-ell
The Monkey King: chaos god with terrible fashion sense, currently crashing on Simon Cow-ell's couch, refuses to move out because his apartment has such great parking



plus assorted side characters:
P.K.: a pig demon who is also one of Korea's most beloved pop stars; played by Jeremy from You're Beautiful, has the same hair and fashion sense as Jeremy in You're Beautiful, will therefore only be referred to as Jeremy going forward
Bu Ja: an adorable but tragically rotting zombie accidentally brought to life by Jin Seon Mi's blood
Secretary Ma: Simon Cow-ell's loyal dog demon secretary; constantly asking if she can murder people on his behalf and constantly, tragically denied
CEO Jang Gwang: the elderly and dignified CEO of a cell phone company, also a supernatural entity whose only joy in life comes from cooking and cleaning for the Monkey King for some reason
Octopus Prince: an octopus prince
Alice: another one of Korea's most beloved pop stars whose destiny unfortunately includes getting possessed by an octopus prince
The Winter General and the Summer Fairy: polite sibling demons who take turns sharing a body (the Summer Fairy runs a classy demon bar and the Winter General operates an Emack and Bolio's)

All of these demons are GREAT and on friendly terms with the heroine and also all of them attempt to kill her at some point or other during the show, because one thing Hwayugi does do extremely well is remembering that demons do not operate by human morality.

Anyway! The plot kicks off when Jin Seon Mi and the Monkey King meet again after twenty years, and the Monkey King promptly tries to eat Jin Seon Mi because one of her Tripitaka powers is that her blood is delicious, and Jin Seon Mi (aided by Simon Cow-ell) promptly turns around and puts Tripitaka's magical control circlet on him, except because this is a kdrama this version also compels the Monkey King to fall immediately in love with her! And he's really mad about it!

Also Jin Seon Mi has visions of a terrible apocalypse that she's destined to prevent, and gets recruited to fight demons to help Simon Cow-ell get into heaven.

All this happens by like episode three. The next twelve episodes or so go approximately as follows:

THE A-PLOT:

HEROINE: Time to go on another demon-defeating mission!
MONKEY: Hey, guess what: I love you!
HEROINE: That's nice, but I'm aware that it's a really bad idea to date a chaos god who would want to murder me if he hadn't been magically compelled into loving me.
THE REST OF THE CAST: YES
MONKEY: Okay, but, counterpoint, here's a nice wrap-up of the episodic demon plot combined with a demonstration that my love for you is slightly less tinged with an equivalent desire to murder you than it was yesterday.
HEROINE: ....ok so guys hear me out, would it really be a bad idea to date a chaos god who would want to murder me if he hadn't been magically compelled into loving me -
THE REST OF THE CAST: YES

MEANWHILE, THE B-PLOT

SIMON COW-ELL, IN FRONT OF A PORTRAIT OF A SERENE AND BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: I must become a deity to bring a conclusion to the endless suffering of my lost, tragic love!
MURDER SECRETARY MA: boss you're so noble
SIMON COW-ELL, IN FRONT OF A PORTRAIT OF A SERENE AND BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: if only she hadn't eaten all those babies that one time
MURDER SECRETARY MA: yes if only

FURTHER MEANWHILE, THE C-PLOT

SUMMER FAIRY: hey guys who wants a fancy cocktail?
ADORABLE ZOMBIE: I'm adorable!
JEREMY THE DEMON PIG POP STAR: You're so adorable.
OCTOPUS-POSSESSED POP STAR: Am I also adorable?
JEREMY THE DEMON PIG POP STAR: no
DEMONIC CELL PHONE CEO: hey guys who wants some delicious homemade kimchi?
JEREMY THE DEMON PIG POP STAR: best zombie friend, I promise we will solve the mystery of your identity before you turn into a mindless brain-eating monster
ADORABLE ZOMBIE: so who do you think murdered me? was it that dashing but sinister presidential candidate who might be destined to bring about the apocalypse?
WINTER GENERAL: hey guys who wants some Emack and Bolio's?
ADORABLE ZOMBIE: I do! it helps keep me from rotting! :D

THE DISTANT D-PLOT THAT WILL EVENTUALLY BECOME THE A-PLOT IN THE LAST FOUR OR FIVE EPISODES OF THE SHOW

A DASHING BUT SINISTER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WHO MIGHT BE DESTINED TO BRING ABOUT THE APOCALYPSE: [enters stage right, exits stage left, collects paycheck for the episode]

Every so often we would forget that everyone in the show was meant to be enormously famous in-universe (with the exception of Our Heroine) and have to be reminded again, so as we watched we frequently found ourselves saying things like 'Okay, so imagine you're Ted Cruz and Justin Bieber just burst into your office to accuse you of murder -'

SO FAR SO ENJOYABLE, some caveats with ending spoilers under the cut

( spoilers under the cut )