The East Palace Review
Director: Choi Jung-kyu
Date Created: 2026-07-17 18:19
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The East Palace Review: Directed by Choi Jung-kyu and written by Seo Jae-won and Kwon So-ra, 동궁 is Netflix’s eight-episode Korean historical fantasy thriller starring Nam Joo-hyuk as Gu-cheon, Roh Yoon-seo as Saeng-gang, Cho Seung-woo as the King Ju-sung, Jang Young-nam as Queen Dowager, alongside Tae In-ho, Hwang Young-hee, Hong Seo-joon, Lee Hong-nae and others. Each episode has a runtime of 50 minutes.
The East Palace Review
Netflix Korean drama The East Palace begins with a chilling mystery at the royal palace, with princes falling dead from unknown reasons, with some whispering about a vengeful spirit of the pond making a comeback to destroy the entire royal family line. While the king at first ignores the stories, his plans for the future change when the last heir becomes ill. With not much time left, the king calls upon Gu-cheon, who has the ability to enter the spirit world, to find out the truth behind the deaths. Gu-cheon joins forces with the court lady Saeng-gang, who possesses the ability to communicate with the spirit world.
Going into Netflix’s The East Palace, my expectations were rather high. With Nam Joo-hyuk returning from military service, this came as a good K-drama, and I had high hopes for it being a fantasy. Fortunately, it did not disappoint me in the slightest. Although expecting a horror show with plenty of ghosts, I was surprised to find something far more intriguing than that.
Behind all the monsters and mystical powers is an engaging puzzle, which forces both Gu-cheon and Saeng-gang further into uncovering the secrets of the past, buried deep inside the palace. Every answer only leads to yet another question, giving the plot an engaging twist. However, one should note that although the ghosts themselves are frightening, it is the decisions of the people behind them which leave the strongest marks.
Nam Joo-hyuk’s Gu-cheon is definitely among the most compelling characters that I’ve encountered in any fantasy K-drama lately. To start with, he appears as the type of person who is happier alone than with other people around him. The sarcastic nature of Gu-cheon, together with the fact that he doesn’t utilise his supernatural powers, makes him look emotionally unavailable. However, with more information about his past coming out in subsequent episodes, the character of Gu-cheon starts making total sense to me. Every visit to the spirit realm leaves him physically exhausted, while every ghost he meets weighs him down with yet another emotion.
Even more surprising is the way I loved Roh Yoon-seo’s Saeng-gang. Rather than just existing to help out the male protagonist, she is the focal point of the investigation. Whereas Gu-cheon battles supernatural beings, Saeng-gang solves mysteries within the palace walls. Her knowledge of court intrigue is often just as useful as Gu-cheon’s supernatural powers. In particular, I loved seeing how well they worked as a team in separate realms, trusting each other without any misunderstandings between them. Though they don’t become romantically involved from the start, the mutual admiration they gain for each other forms its own type of chemistry.
The palace itself is almost a character in its own right. Everything about it seems haunted with historical secrets. Instead of using jump scares, the series makes you feel uncomfortable with unanswered questions and a creepy atmosphere. Even the scenes that have no action seem to exude some sense of fear of being watched. Each time that Gu-cheon ventures into the spirit world, the change in visuals serves as a stark reminder of how scary his journey is.
When it comes to performance, Nam Joo-hyuk gives a top performance here. He conveys everything through his silences, where exhaustion, guilt, and determination exist in the same look. Roh Yoon-seo is an equal match to him with her portrayal of Saeng-gang, who never seems like a hero but brings warmth and intellect to her role. They form a bond of trust rather than of cliché, which got me hooked on them.
Apart from the two main characters, Cho Seung-woo and Jang Young-nam, raise every single political drama element to the next level. The King and the Queen Dowager are interesting as they are not motivated by pure evil. However, they are too consumed with the protection of the secrets that lie in the palace and keeping the lineage of the royalty that they eventually end up losing all sense of humanity. Seeing them kill everyone in their way to prevent the truth from coming out is equally suspenseful as watching Gu-cheon’s fight against the spirits. It becomes obvious that what is most threatening to the palace does not come from the spirit world; it lies within the palace walls.
A good example is how the story changed with every mystery. At the end of almost all episodes, the duo gets closer to solving the mystery, and one gets the impression that the mystery is solved. However, in the next few minutes, something else comes up and turns everything around. This is not just because it adds suspense but because every new twist brings another layer to the palace’s history. In this case, the mystery is not just about what one sees in each episode but much more. Every episode made me curious about what happens at the end of the episode.
The visual impact of Netflix’s The East Palace series cannot be understated. With magnificent palace sets, stunning costumes, strange creatures, and highly choreographed sword fight sequences, the movie provides a wonderful visual feast from start to finish. For the most part, the special effects are very good; some CGI-dependent scenes are somewhat overzealous, but they can easily be overlooked nonetheless.
Netflix The East Palace Review: Summing Up
Overall, kdrama The East Palace is a perfect example of how a fantasy thriller should be made. Mystery, horror, action, folklore, politics, and intriguing characters with well-developed emotions perfectly co-exist in the show, while sometimes making it too complex because of too much mythology. Nevertheless, I was completely engaged in the investigation and atmosphere, and the performances were excellent.
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