Mystic Pop-Up Bar
Welcome back to Hallyu Reviews! We hope you enjoyed Sabrina’s review of "Jinxed at First." If you missed it, be sure to go back and have a read!
This week we take a look at “Mystic Pop-Up Bar.”
SPOILERS AHEAD!!
Can someone who spent 500 years helping settle grudges for other people, learn to forgive herself?
This short drama is only 12 episodes, but each episode packs a ton of emotion and a great variety of drama. The cast of this series is phenomenal.
Wol Joo, a young girl, is asked to read the Crown Prince’s dream to determine why he cannot wake. She determines that tormented spirits haunt him and slowly she comforts the spirits and eases the prince. She grows to like the prince, but because the prince starts to act strange, they call for her to be sent back to the palace. Wol Joo’s mother, who senses things, tells her to escape the village and tie her hair up, which is a sign of a married woman. When Wol Joo escapes, she turns and notices that her house is on fire. She goes back to see her mother, who has her hair down in a braid, murdered and stuck in the burning house. She goes up to the Sacred Tree and after saying a curse to all, hangs herself.
Courtesy of Forbes
Sometime later there is a sign that says Mystic Pop-Up Bar - 99990 and Wol Joo, played by Hwang Jung-Eum, and Manager/Chief Guibanjang, Choi Won-young are in a pop-up tent looking for customers complaining about Weol Ju’s decision to hang herself on the Sacred Tree and her need to get 100,000 customers, she only needs 10 more people to be free of her punishment. She had to help 100,000 in 500 years. Han Kang-bae, Yook Sungjae, has an uncanny ability that when he touches a person, they spill out their secrets, he works at a supermarket. One day he is at work and there is a disturbance that Weol Ju happens to witness and intervene in between Kang-bae and his co-worker Song Mi-Ran. At the pop-up bar, Mi-ran runs into Kang-bae when he brings her medicine for the scratch on her chin. This is how Kang-bae meets Weol Ju, he can see the pop-up tent and by touching Mi-Ran he is able to insert himself into Mi-ran’s dream. According to Manager Gui, his spiritual vision wasn’t locked when he was born and therefore this makes Kang-bae very special.
Courtesy of Whumperfect
Wol-joo is given 1 month to finish getting 9 more people to reveal and solve their issues or risk being sent to hell permanently. She signs a contract with Kang-bae to use his ability to get people to talk about their problems, or spill their guts, in hopes to get Weol Ju to meet her quota because she is having difficulty.
They work together to listen to different stories and heal people’s pain, some stories are completely heartbreaking, some are so uplifting, and all of them are emotional in some way. As they work together, they get to know each other and their background stories, and they also become closer, as Chief Guibanjang says in episode 2, they make a great team. You learn that Wol-joo is responsible for the death of 100,000 people and that is why she is being punished with 100,000 grudges, when she hanged herself on the Sacred Tree it caused terrible luck for the village. She also learned of the loss of a child, a prince’s child that she was carrying.
As we learn more about the background stories of the three main characters, we discover that Wol-joo and the prince were in love, and he vowed to protect her in death since he couldn’t keep her safe in life. Chief Gui was once a Police Chief; he was responsible for catching and destroying evil spirits
Episode 8 is really a turning point in the group’s dynamic, the background story is Chief Gui is hooked on this X-rated novel called “Juliet’s Temptations” and gets Wol-joo hooked on it as well until they find out that the last novel is canceled because the author died. Well, it turns out that Kang-bae happened to check out the apartment that the author died in, and is haunting. He takes Chief Gui and Wol-joo there to meet the author in hopes of not only getting the last chapter but also settling her grudge and helping her pass to the underworld. We also get more background story between Wol-joo and the prince from when she was younger. We see the time when the prince sneaks into her bed chamber in the middle of the night and then promises to protect her at all costs. We also see the countdown go to only needing 3 more people… which is essential to the story. We also get more background story on the evil spirit that is staying close to the three characters. Both Chief Gui and Kang-bae hold their hands to the moon just like the prince did in Wol-joo’s background story, who could it be? Obviously one of them is the reincarnated prince, but who, the one is has been close to her side at the bar, or the one who recently came into her life?
Courtesy of Soompi
Kang-bae’s spiritual door is opening up more since working with Mystic Pop-Up Bar and now he can see spirits. Wol-Joo goes finds out that she can’t close his spiritual door anymore and he may be stuck receiving the complaints of others he touches. Kang-bae walks in on Chief Gui and Wol-Joo discussing telling him, she was working on a plan on finding yang to his yin and curing him through love’s kiss, but Chief Gui says it would be right to tell him the truth.
Kang-bae finds out Wol-joo’s real story, that she was pregnant with a child when she hanged herself on the Sacred Tree. Wol-joo never got the chance to meet her child, but it was cursed with living thousands of miserable lives until the Tree’s grudges were settled. Wol-joo was upset that she had cursed her child, whom she did not know of, and so she agreed to settle the grudges of 100,000 people to save the soul of her unborn child. Wol-joo signs a contract to release her sins and go to Hell instead of being reincarnated to help Kang-bae close his spirit door. Of course, he is flabbergasted and doesn’t understand why, but she just says she had no intention of going to Heaven anyways. The more you see the three of these together, the more they look like a family. At the end of the episode, there is a girl who addresses the Crowned Prince, and both Kang-bae and Chief Gui turn around…who could it be, did you guess correctly?
If you guessed Chief Gui you are correct! He is the Crowned Prince and the woman who recognized him is none other than his reincarnated mother! She apologizes for not realizing how strong his feelings are and asks him why he hasn’t been reincarnated yet. He says “because now I can finally keep my promise that I failed to so many years ago”, his promise to protect her.
All of a sudden, Shin Ji Hye, his reincarnated mother walks into the bar to meet with Chief Gui and Wol-joo loses her mind. She immediately tells her to leave instantly recognizing her as the woman who murdered her mother the mother of the man who betrayed her. Kang-bae tells Chief Gui about the contract she signed to be disclosed the secret to fix Kang-bae and being sent to Hell instead of Reincarnation. Chief Gui immediately tells her to stop solving cases until he can find a way to save her soul and prevent her from going to the Hell of Extinction.
Shin Ji Hye comes back to the bar and tells her a story of how her lover’s parents didn’t like her and Wol-joo joined in the conversation. Wol-joo enters her dream and she is sent back to the time the Queen banishes her from the prince’s house. Suddenly Chief Gui enters the dream and sends Wol-joo back to reality. Chief Gui goes to the Underworld and basically begs the Devil to be sent to Hell for Wol-joo. Wol-Joo overhears Kang-bae using the prince’s lines on his girlfriend and asks where he heard the lines from, he tells her Chief Gui, and she rushes to see him but doesn’t say anything.
It is revealed that the evil spirit is Kim Won-hyung, the prince’s guard and friend who killed Wol-joos’ mother and is currently in Death’s body walking around as a friend. On the day of Shin Ji Hye’s funeral Chief Gui finally admits to Wol-joo who he is and what happened after she died and how he has been by her side all this time. Kang-bae witnesses the two being extra sweet at work and interrogates them to find out what is going on. Kang-bae and Chief Gui leave to take and walk and when Kang-bae comes back Wol-joo is being strangled by Death. All of a sudden Kang-bae starts glowing orange and you see his visions of the past - Kang-bae is the Sacred Tree!!!!
He is the reincarnated son!
Kim Won-hyung kidnaps him and forces him to drink the magic juice to enforce his dreams, but luckily Chief Gui and Wol-joo show up. Chief Gui and Won-hyung start a fight and it is clear to see why Chief Gui was such as asset to the police task force. He stabs Won-hyung with the sword, but at the last minute, Won-hyung points it toward Wol-joo and Chief Gui rushes to save her. It stabs Chief Gui and Wol-joo and they have a sweet moment before he disappears. Won-hyung drags Kang-bae to the never-ending spiral staircase in his dream world, and Wol-joo enters it just as Won-hyung is attempting to throw Kang-bae down. Unfortunately, Won-hyung grabs Wol-joo and in his attempt to throw her off, throws himself off. Wol-joo is holding onto Kang-bae, who is still on the staircase, and she tells him to let go. As she is holding on to Kang-bae, he calls out to her Oemma (Mom) it is such a heartfelt moment.
Courtesy of Koreaboo
In the end, she realizes that all 100,000 souls are accounted for, including the one of her child’s. Since she completed her task, she is able to be reincarnated, yet she asks to go back to the realm of the living with Chief Gui. One day, while walking Kang-bae comes across a street bar titled Mystic Pop-Up Bar and goes inside, he is so thrilled when he realizes it is Chief Gui and Wol-joo. They have finally reunited again at last.
Final verdict: MUST WATCH
Of course, this whole story was foreseeable, but I love it! I love the concept of the family being reunited at last. Our main couple and our side couples having a Happily Ever After, and the prince finally learning about his child 500 years ago and why Wol-joo sacrificed her life for 500 years to save 100,000 souls. Must watch! Plus, it’s short. It's also got great acting and great costumes!
So, there it is, our review of “Mystic Pop-Up Bar.” What did you think?! Thank you for joining us on this journey.
Have a favorite K-drama you think we should review, comment down below!! We look forward to seeing you back again next week!
Up next, “Oh My Ghostess”
