'Yoon Hwa Pyung had no idea how to use a rosary.
When he came to on the pitching deck of a small fishing boat, salt in his mouth and sun beating down on his face, he registered distantly the feeling of beads digging into the skin of his left wrist, a metal cross dug deep into his palm.'
...I found it on Netflix and couldn't stop watching it dammit!
It's a beautiful ball of demons and horror and angst and hope and... argh! I loved it.
The premise is that Yoon Hwa-Pyung is a psychic child from a Shaman family whose life is ruined by the arrival of powerful demon Park Il-Do.
Twenty years later, he is chasing that demon down with everything he has. And becoming caught up in the lives of other people affected by Park Il-Do.
Including a police officer, Detective Kang, and a priest, Father Matthew, who have their own problems (dun-dun-duuun!)
Father Matthew, via Tenor
This is just... the acting, the characters, the twists and turns - it's amazing!
(And I once again related way too hard to the characters, especially Hwa-Pyung. Don't judge me, I just empathise too often, even with characters in Korean demon-based horror shows, apparently. 😅)
In case you're thinking of watching it though - it is GRAPHIC.
Gore, murder, violence, self-harm, and suicide, only slightly blurred to keep the Korean TV authorities happy.
It gets pretty damned shocking as far as my little Western-TV-eyes are concerned. Just a head's up!
But, as with the vast majority of K-dramas, it only had one series.
Which left me bereft after the final episode.
And... well... you know me.
If I need more of the thing, then I go to other people who need the same. I read fanfiction.
And while there is hardly a vast quantity of English-language fanfiction out there for this series, the stuff that there is is so well-written!
And basks in all the angst and drama I'd want it to bask in.
(As you can imagine, this fic is also totally full of SPOILERS.)
...And also, a lot of the time, makes it Queer. Because fanfiction.
That's what this fic does - it basks in parts of the final episode that were never fully explored, and it makes it Queer.
There isn't really much romance in this fic (and even less in the show) but it gives our central three characters the start of an M/M/F relationship.
Which, as far as I'm concerned, 100% fits their characters.
(Yes, this fic makes the priest Queer too - if you think this is the thing that'll send someone to hell then your God isn't one that's worth worshipping.
If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times - if there's a God, I'd like to think they're not a complete jerk.)
Some Content Warnings for this one, then:
- horror and demon elements
- suicide and self-harm (not graphic, but its there)
- grief
- blood and injury
- drowning
- alochol abuse (brief, side detail)
...As always, dearest nerdlets, I may have forgotten something - so be careful!
This week's fic, then, is:
beads and string by magnificentbirb
Have you seen The Guest?
Do you ever finish a TV show (or film or book or whatever) and then go looking for fanfiction about it?
Talk to me! 😊💬
Previous Friday Fics Fix Posts:
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It's interesting to me how Western tv is a whole lot different than tv from other parts of the world. A lot of Western tv is super censored and regulated for content, where I think there's a bit more freedom in other places. I think it goes to show the hold that capitalism has on western television.
ReplyDelete...That's not always a bad thing, given how vivid some of the suicides in The Guest are! On the other hand, I'm sure there are things you can show in the West that you can't show elsewhere. Knives, for example, are blurred out in Korean shows - they're there, but they're blurry, and you don't get that in the UK or the US, for example.
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