“Sell Your Haunted House” has completed its first-half, its been a fun ride and I am here to talk about it.

Korean dramas have a plethora of ghost-related stories with basically similar arcs and while “Sell Your Haunted House” follows a similar format, it still offers an interesting take on the genre.

So let us begin discussing “Sell Your Haunted House” and what makes it stands out.

Note: this will be a spoiler review of the said episodes in the title. This is a subjective review.

The story

I’ve seen so many kdramas about ghosts and I must say many of them were great projects, from “The Masters Sun” to “Hotel Del Luna,” kdramas offer so many interesting takes on ghosts and how to deal with them and while “Sell Your Haunted House” follows a similar format, it still has found a new way to approach the subject.

Rarely do kdrama leads make a career out of chasing ghosts, in the traditional sense. It’s almost the same story, someone who is ‘forced’ to take on the burden of sending the ghosts to the afterlife and rather than attempting to make a profit out of it, they settle for the good old ‘out of the kindness’ of their hearts route even if it ends up taking a toll on their health, which is usually the case.

“Sell Your Haunted House” tells the story of a woman who made it her career, her clients usually come to her and ask her to get rid of ghosts in exchange for a commission when they sell the place later. That’s a very interesting take on the genre because its rarely approached that way and its kinda of a genius move, why not make money for getting rid of the ghosts and selling the apartment/land/house/etc?

“Sell Your Haunted House” also has a ‘questionable’ male lead who scams people.

The thing that always annoys me with such characters is how contradictory they are. Whenever we have a character that is supposedly a ‘scammer’ in kdramaland, they almost always abandon the idea almost instantly and become the usual heroine by the end of it. This annoys me because they’re scammers who steal people’s money and thus, they aren’t ‘nice’ people in the traditional sense, it appears the writer uses such a trope to add edge to the character without much else.

In the case of “Sell Your Haunted House,” I see the screenwriters are trying to be a bit different, In Bum (played by Jung Yong Hwa) doesn’t stop trying to scam people easily even after joining hands with Hong Ji A (played by Jang Nara) which was nice to see, he does eventually settle for what I expected but its done gradually which I appreciated.

In the grand scheme of things, the drama is very similar to other kdramas about the same topic with a slight ‘edge.’

For the most part, the writing is done well and the story also has a good pacing thus far, its nothing extravagant but enough to be interesting and a fun watch.

I think there are some more twists to come but I like what I’ve seen so far. It’s going the usual route but its not so tedious that its lost my interest.

Jang Nara’s choice

How can an actor be so active but still able to continuously choose interesting projects? She’s truly rare, and I can’t get enough of her. It’s almost a guarantee that a Jang Nara’s drama will always be fun and well-made.

I wanted to highlight it here because its not easy to find a Korean actor who has been active for this long be able to almost always pick nice projects that have interesting scripts. She’s truly a legend. Most of her projects as I’ve seen in recent memories do very well in ratings, and many of them are memorable.

The performances

It goes without saying that Jang Nara is doing tremendously well as expected of her. She is one of the very few actresses who can make me cry with them, she brings so many emotions to each character she plays and does it effortlessly. Her acting is very engaging.

Now onto whom I am slightly disappointed with. Jung Yong Hwa.

I’ve been watching his dramas for close to a decade and he’s one of the very few idol-turned-actors whose performances haven’t improved drastically since their debut. I guess I don’t like his acting style.

The issue for me is how his performance almost always feels like a ‘parody,’ as if he’s impersonating characters and emotions but doing it in a comedic style that ends up coming off as a bit pardoy-ish and merry. It is enough for a comedy romantic drama but when its time for serious scenes, you can see the cracks.

He’s never been able to perfectly embody any character in my opinion, it always felt like Jung Yong Hwa acting out a character. The reason why his acting doesn’t work here is because it can be very heavy at times.

There is comedy but there are many serious and heavy scenes especially when his character has to deal with the aftermath after they get rid of the ghost. In those scenes, he comes off lacking and I can’t seem to take his character seriously. He cries on cue and says the right words but there is a noticeable lack of depth of emotions in his performance.

Special shout out to actress Kang Mal Geum who is simply amazing here. She gives off a chilling vibe at times and its so fun watching her. I can’t wait to see where they take her character next. She’s a terrific actress and has been on my radar since 2020, her performance in “Missing: The Other Side: made me cry buckets of tears.

“Sell Your Haunted House” , so what about you guys? did you like the episodes? let me know what you thought in the comment section below.