Early Access: Lovers of the Red Sky E1 (Patreon)

E1. Well, that was certainly A LOT more mysticism and magic than I'd expected, coming into this show. For some reason, despite Show's promos revealing Ahn Hyo Seop's character's red eyes, it hadn't connected in my brain that the reason for his red eyes, would be related to mysticism and magic. Although, now that I look back on it, what other reason could there be, eh? 😅

So far, I'm.. cautiously intrigued. As in, there's so much that goes down in this opening episode, that I'm a little uncertain of where Show is going to take this, and if it will be able to handle it well, through to the end. But for a start, I'm not opposed to what Show is serving up, and I'm interested to see what happens next. That's not bad?

While I'm not used to seeing this much mysticism and magic employed in a kdramas, it doesn't feel completely unfamiliar. In a way, all this strong fantasy, complete with lots of CGI, reminds me of Chinese fantasy dramas that feature gods, goddesses, and lots and lots of magic. I'm actually quite curious to see how a kdrama manages a story like this.

It's an interesting idea, that Samshin used to be three deities dwelling in one body (that almost gives me Holy Trinity sort of vibes), and together, they'd kept the balance between life and death in the world. It's an interesting idea, that the deity of death, which works out to be the Big Demon in our story, is actually, in some way, a part of the deity of life, since they used to share the same body. Is this some kind of meta reference, to how we, as humans, can feel conflicted between the parts of us that want to do good, and the parts of us that want to rebel?

That said, I'm not getting a strong vibe from Show that it actually is trying to say anything meaningful about anything; this, so far, feels more like pure set-up for our story. We need a force for good, a force for evil, and a couple of key humans to get caught up in the midst. Check, check and check.

I have to admit that I was rather confused at first, over the blind baby being named Hong Chun Gi, since in all the promos, it's been clear that it's our male lead Ha Ram who's blind. And now, at the end of the episode, I feel terrible for both babies, because it feels like their very lives have been deeply affected by all the supernatural warfare that's going on.

Chun Gi was born blind, as a result of the Demon's anger, and then, now, Ha Ram is tasked to house the Demon within his body, and given blindness to incapacitate the Demon's power, while Chun Gi gets his eyes, which, unbeknownst to her, she's kinda-sorta holding hostage. Show's going big on the magic, that's for sure.

It feels pretty cruel to both kids, from where I'm sitting, but because Samshin's portrayed as giving them this fate in a gesture of kindness and benevolence, to save them from an otherwise worse fate, I'm willing to roll with the idea that this is all going to get sorted out in the future, and all will be well, in the end.

I'm generally rather jaded with the idea of the Big Childhood Connection between a show's OTP, but in this case, because we literally see this being set up by Samshin at the point of Chun Gi's birth, it feels more organic - and even necessary - to our story.

I will say, however, that it feels weird to me, that the kids are only 9 years old, and we're getting a few moments of hyperawareness from time to time between them, with Chun Gi even appearing to kiss Ha Ram at one point.

I rationalize that they're drawn to each other more than the average pair of kids, because of their magical, fated connection. Still, for the record, I would have been perfectly happy without the moments of hyperawareness.

And, if Show is going to be going strong on this hyperawareness thing, I'd like our characters to grow up quickly please, so that I don't feel so weirded out by watching kids go through these typically romantic motions on my screen. 😅

Next episode notes will be out on: Tuesday, 21 Sept 2021!