top of page

The East Palace Full Review: A Joseon Haunting With Marvel Flair

  • Jul 19
  • 7 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

A hybrid of Kingdom and The Haunted Palace with the visual traits of Stranger Things, The East Palace is light on frights, heavy on squelching, and filled with vengeful spirits-- both living and dead.


Title:

The East Palace (2026)

Platform:

Netflix

MDL &IMBD Rating:

8.4 & 7.3

Genre:

Period (Joseon) Horror/Fantasy

Parental Guidance Rating:

MA: Scary Images/Horror (On the level of Stranger Things with a little more bloodshed, but not as intense as Kingdom), Smoking, Violence (mostly against spirits)

Starring:

Nam Joo Hyu as Gu Cheon (Male Lead/ML)

Roh Yoon Seo as Saeng Gang (Female Lead/FL)

King Ju Sang as King Ju Sang

Jang Young Nam as Queen Dowager

Hwang Young Hee as Choi Suk Bin (The King's Mother)

Hong Seo Joon as Kim Sang Seon (Chief Eunuch)

RBTS Rating:

4.15/5 Stars

Cast:

From Left to Right: #NamJooHyuk (Twenty One, Twenty Five & Start Up), #RohYoonSeo (Crash Course in Romance & Moving 2), #ChoSeungWoo (Divorce Attorney Shin), Jang Young Nam (Love Next Door, #HwangYoungHee (Queen of Tears).

Synopsis:

After the consequtive deaths of an audacious number of Crown Princes, Gu Cheon, a seemingly lazy and hobo-esuqe man with the ability to see spirits, is forcibly recruited by the King to solve their murders and save the next Crown Prince from the same fate. He reluctantly accepts the aid of an also reluctant Saeng Gang, who can hear spirits, and together they journey to the Upsidedown-- Ahem, sorry-- the world of Spirits, gathering all the juicy tea to uncover long buried wrongdoings reawakened to bite everyone in the keister and end the royal line.


Characters:

From Left to Right: Gu Cheon (Male Lead), Saeng Gang (Female Lead), Ju Sang (The King).


Non-Spoiler Thoughts

Last year, I was both impressed and deeply mystified/disturbed by Lee Jae Woo's Dear Hongrang. The cinematography was excellent, the sets felt authentic, and the Male Lead was pretty darn handy with a sword. It also leaned into horror (although more occult based), and towards the end of the drama, it saw the deep end and said let me jump off here. But it had a vision, and I expected the same kind of lofty intention that, even if the logic became tangled along the way, had a defined goal and would still be able to look fab in the act of being messy.



The East Palace wasn't quite that. Instead, the drama felt reminiscent of the middling The Haunted Palace (2025) but from an alternate universe, where Netflix execs decided it needed the aesthetic of Stranger Things. Don't get me wrong, I think The East Palace is way better than The Haunted Palace, but a large part of that feeling is due to the limited number of episodes.



The drama had a specific story it wanted to tell, told it, and then promptly clocked out at 5pm with an eight episode cap, and I salute that. When in doubt, brevity! The cinematography, similar to Dear Hongrang, was excellent, but never artistic, and the "stylish" fight scenes felt a bit empty and silly. Call me crazy, but the action sequences and some of the lighter beats felt very Marvel. As for Nam Joo Hyuk (ML Actor), while he looked great, he never made me care about his character, which stayed pretty surface level. Roh Yoon Seo (FL Actress) slayed though. She was actually helpful and elegant, and the biggest surprise of the drama. While she is the FL, don't expect romance from the drama; there is but a read between the lines whisper. Although The East Palace suffered from Whodunnit zeal and flash without substance, I still finished the whole in thing in less than 24 hours. I genuinely had a great time watching, and I can't ask for more than that.



_______Beware Mateys: There be Spoilers ahead!______




Will the Real Crown Prince Please Stand Up?



Holy Hannah, this ruthless gandmother killed so many crown princes. Maybe it's just me, but I could not keep track of which crown prince was doing the haunting. The late King and current king's sons are all given the name "Crown Prince" and since the makeup is so elaborate on the spirit, I couldn't connect him to his former image.


As for the ultimate "villain" of the show...there wasn't one. Instead, it was the culmination of bad deeds done by many that snowballed out of control; evil begat evil. It was a nice twist that the main culprits were actually the living who caused all the hoopla through their scheming, as it makes the message of the drama feel more actionable: If you act like a demon, you'll become one. Humans make the worst monsters. But the guessing game felt exhausting after a while; first it was the Pond Spirit, then it was the Queen Dowager, then the King, then the Grandmother, then the King again, then the Crown Prince. A murder board would have come in handy.


Trouble in the Upside Down

The production team gets points for cinematography and sets, but really fell short when it came to the fight scenes. The filming felt flashy without being impressive. Sure, we got high budget action scenes in the upsidedown and CGI monsters, but it felt like (I'm so sorry) Marvel slop. The scenes also used a lot of handheld (?) cam which made me a little sea sick.



The spirit world looked cool, but it left an impact the first time I saw the iconic red haze and desolate alternate reality in Stranger Things, so I felt nonchalant about it here. The lighting felt too dark and when the camera panned out, the dialogue became quieter, which (I'm assuming) was done so the audience would get a sense that someone is watching our heroes. But I'm not as young as I once was. I wish to see and hear my dramas, even if I don't know what they're saying lol. The R&B music also had no business being in the show.


My biggest complain was the overuse of a certain sound effect: For the love, why does everything got to be squelching? NO.


Finally, RIP to my theory that Gu Cheon was the child of the favored Court Lady.


Let Them Scuba: When Romance Strengthens a Motive


There is a scene in season 6 of the Office, where one of the more nutty office workers, Creed, is concerned that his coworkers might let it slip that he has asthma, which is an issue, because apparently his whole purpose in life is to scuba. This scene is hilarious because it feels random as the audience is given a motive that had no foreshadowing throughout his six seasons on screen, and yet it still makes sense, because it's aligned with the wackiness and history of his character.


When we meet Gu Cheon, he is an anti-hero who has been abanonded by the world, so he has abandoned it. He constantly tries to escape and shows irritation at Saeng Gang's constant questions. However, after she risks her life for him, Gu Cheon willingly becomes a pin cushion with moody bangs and determinedly risks his life for her. Now. This might be where my disconect comes to play with the character. It makes sense that he would be moved by someone similar to him, who looked out for him in a way that even his own mother didn't. But we never dove into his trauma, nor did we see see the ML or FL bond outside of the crisis. But the ML puts his life and boundaries aside because of a trauma bond that's never fully explored?



I'm assuming the narrative is pointing towards the fact that the two have romantic feelings for each other, although all we get is a hug. But I think the about face of the ML would make more sense if we had gotten more personal. Outside of their shared gift and the case, how do they interact? Would they interact? What about the other person, and not their own life experience, makes them like each other? It felt like the narrative dropped a bomb that the ML is doing all of this for scuba, when we were told from the beginning that his character doesn't like water. Like in the Office, the motive feels random, but that Office scene was only a throw away line, whereas this involves the driving motive of The East Palace's main character. The drama would have only benefited from a strengthened (or clarified) bond between the two, but I understand the scope of the story was limited to the mystery.


A whimsical, But Very Necessary Goober



Following in the (adorable) footsteps of Monty Python and Captain Marvel, The East Palace introduced the "Very deadly Creature in Adorable Goober Skin" in the form of the Ggeomeoksali. This little cutie was a bit of a deus ex machina that conveniently popped up when the plot needed it to but I loved it. It was creepy in a cute way, and lightened the tone of more intense scenes, while not feeling out of place. Fun Fact: The Ggeomeoksali is actually an urban legend from the 1960's that was rumored to appear late at night to follow travelers. For more info on the little goober, check out this post.


The Curse of Hater Energy

I enjoyed this drama, so I don't know why I'm writing a post sounding like a hater. What is wrong with me? It was fast paced, concise (thank the heavens), flashy, and fun. It didn't lean too heavily into horror, which I appreciated because my K-drama blanket was in the wash, but delivered an interesting mystery that didn't take itself too seriously.



4.15/5 Stars-- I recommend!

Story:

4

Too many possible villains and Crown Princes, but it stayed focused on the mystery. Would have liked more character development.

Acting:

3.5

The FL Actress slayed, but the ML wasn't giving much.

Production Quality:

4.75

Cinematography looked excellent, as did the CGI and costumes. The music could have and should have been better.

Ending:

4.25

No Complaints But I would have liked the King to kick the bucket. And the dowager. And the Grandmother. And the Prince.

Enjoyability:

4.25

Binged it in a day and it wasn't too long!


Trailer:




Director: #ChoiJungGyu (The Devil Judge, Children of Nobody)

Screenwriter: #KwonSoRa (Bulgasal: Immortal Souls)



*Disclaimer: I do not own any of the images used on this blog. All images belong to their respective copyright holders and are used for commentary and review purposes. All reviews, opinions, and statements expressed on this blog are my own and are intended for entertainment and informational purposes only. They reflect my personal thoughts and interpretations and should not be considered as factual.








Comments

bottom of page