Oh My Ghostess tells the story of Na Bong Sun (Park Bo Young), a shy and timid restaurant worker, and Kang Sun Woo (Jo Jung Suk), the star chef who happens to be her boss and whom she has a crush on. Bong Sun also has the ability to see ghosts, and one day she gets possessed by Shin Sun Ae (Kim Seul Gi), a lusty virgin ghost who is trying to settle a grudge by sleeping with a man before she is able to move on to the afterlife.
Oh My Ghostess certainly has a fun premise! We initially get to see Sun Ae as she possesses body after body attempting to sleep with a man, but to her dismay, she is unable to fulfill her grudge because the men she tries to sleep with suffer ill effects from being with her. She is also on the run from a shaman who is trying to help her cross over to the other side through a ritual, but Sun Ae wants no part of it.
SPOILERS BELOW
I must say that Kim Seul Gi is absolutely hilarious as Sun Ae. She was actually what initially made me interested in watching the drama, and she didn’t disappoint. She is just so lively and animated. Also, it is easy to connect with her character. She may be a lusty virgin ghost, but there is so much more to her, and she really brings that across.
It doesn’t take long before Sun Ae possesses Bong Sun and realizes that she is a perfect match to be her host. This initially gets her trapped in Bong Sun’s body.
At this point, a very timid Bong Sun had been having a rough time because of her lack of confidence, one sided crush on Sun Woo, money troubles, and lack of sleep due to her ability to see ghosts. That all changes when Sun Ae takes over her body. Once Sun Ae adjusts to her situation, her confidence shines through and everyone notices the drastic change in “Bong Sun’s” new personality.
It’s not smooth sailing, but ultimately she is able to better connect with her co-workers who are quite the lively bunch of guys. They provide a lot of laughs throughout the drama and make for a nice little team.
Sun Woo even begins to take notice of her, and Sun Ae soons learns that Sun Woo is a ‘man of vitality’ which means that he is strong enough to handle ghostly advances. There is no holding back as she tries and tries to get him in bed, but his caring and conservative ways (and maybe a little bit of annoyance) prevent her from succeeding.
Eventually, Bong Sun gets control of her body back and is terrified of what has happened. At first she avoids Sun Ae and tries to deal with her new relationships. But when she realizes that she might really have a chance with Sun Woo, she finally agrees to let Sun Ae take over her body to make the relationship succeed.
And succeed it does! The perky and outgoing “Bong Sun” is able to grow closer with Sun Woo and a relationship blossoms. Their couple interactions are definitely adorable to watch, and they get plenty of screen time!
While all of this is going on, we learn that Sun Ae was murdered, and she has no memory of how she died. We meet Sun Woo’s brother-in-law Officer Choi Sung Jae (Im Joo Hwan) who takes care of his disabled wife and appears to be about the nicest cop you could ever meet. Not so! We see him do some not so nice things in secret and well, he’s a bit creepy and tends to lurk around a lot.
Then the big secret…it turns out he was involved with Sun Ae’s murder! Im Joo Hwan plays such a wonderful nice guy and while he did share that smile plenty of times, it is all an act. Even so, I enjoyed seeing him play the creepy psycho here. But of course, things aren’t black and white. Eventually, we learn an evil spirit has overtaken his body. Apparently, evil spirits are attracted to shady people, which he was, and the spirit has made Sung Jae’s body his home for a number of years.
Things get more complicated when Sun Ae starts to have her own feelings for Sun Woo. As her jealousy of Bong Sun starts to take over, she becomes concerned of what she is becoming. With Bong Sun back in control of her body, sadness and guilt cause her to confess to Sun Woo that he had also been in a relationship with a ghost. It was difficult for Sun Woo to hear on many levels, but I did feel especially bad for Sun Ae who ultimately had no chance of ever having a relationship with him. She finally decides it is best that she moves on without settling her virgin grudge, but her plans are put to a stop when she realizes that Sung Jae has figured out who she is, and he is trying to kill Bong Sun!
I actually really wish they would have included more of the murder mystery and Sung Jae in the drama. The drama as a whole is super cute with lots of loveable and relatable characters, but I felt it could have used a bit more backstory to push it along. I was always very interested when Sung Jae came on the screen. He was fascinating to watch, and I wanted to know more about what he was up to and how he was involved with Sun Ae. The little snippets they gave us were just too small for the bulk of the drama.
As the plot finally ramps up around episode 14, it felt like the entire mystery surrounding Sun Ae’s death was crammed into the last few episodes. Episode 15 was particularly intense and almost felt like I was watching a different drama. As we learn all of the details of Sung Jae’s involvement with Sun Ae’s death, I really began to feel for Sung Jae. He was a ‘shady’ person to begin with, which is what attracted the evil spirit to him, but he wasn’t all bad. In a flashback when he was about to commit murder, he ultimately stopped himself and made the right decision. But afterwards in his distress, he ends up accidentally hitting his future wife with his car thus causing her to be confined to a wheelchair. It is evident that he is distraught by what happened, but the evil spirit overtakes him at that moment which eventually results in Sun Ae’s murder, because she witnessed the event.
Sung Jae ends up kidnapping Bong Sun, but luckily she is rescued by Sun Woo. As Sun Ae and the shaman pursue an injured Sung Jae to an abandoned rooftop, the evil spirit comes out of Sung Jae for a momentary confrontation. The horror left on Sung Jae’s face as he recalls everything he had done while being possessed by the evil spirit is heartbreaking. When the spirit re-enters his body, Sung Jae regains enough control to make the decision to end his life by jumping off of the rooftop.
So now we come to the conclusion of the drama which is where I had a few issues. First, we learn that Sung Jae somehow survived his rooftop plunge, but is now left with no memory of what happened or of being inhabited by the evil spirit. He is in some kind of guarded hospital room, but apparently nobody has told him what he did. He is visited by his wife who seems to want to maintain a relationship, although I’m not sure how exactly that would work out.
Second, I thought Sung Jae dying would ‘kill’ the evil spirit, but since he is still alive, I guess the spirit is too? And we’re never told exactly how much time the evil spirit was in Sung Jae’s body. Why did Sung Jae end up marrying his wife? Was is it really him, and he felt guilty for paralyzing her? Or was it the evil spirit just trying to create his false persona? These were the kind of questions that never really get addressed.
Finally, I felt a bit led on by the whole virgin grudge thing. After all, that was the whole premise of the drama. Sun Ae spends the bulk of the drama trying to solve her virgin grudge by sleeping with a man of vitality. Then at the end of the drama when she regains her memories of how she died, she simply says she was wrong about her virgin grudge…it turns out her grudge was needing to solve her unjust murder. And that was it. There was no explanation as to why a ghost with no memories decides she has a virgin grudge when in reality her grudge was completely unrelated to that. I thought her virgin grudge would be connected to her death somehow, but nope, no relation at all. I felt a bit cheated.
Okay, now that I’ve said my negatives, the drama actually ends very pleasantly. Sun Ae resolves her grudge by revealing and dealing with her murder. She is able to say her heartfelt goodbye’s to her family, Bong Sung, and Sun Woo. With all of this resolved, she is finally able to move on to the afterlife.
Bong Sun takes a two year trip abroad to study and comes back a more well rounded and confident person. She remains close with Sun Ae’s family and even helps out at their restaurant. Bong Sun also resumes her relationship with Sun Woo and even takes the big step of sleeping together. Happiness abounds.
So all in all, Oh My Ghostess was a nice little drama with lots of laughs and lots of cute. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the murder mystery plot to carry the drama along, but it was a pleasant watch that I could see myself revisiting.
So what did you think of Oh My Ghostess?
My Rating: 7/10
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