As Netflix currently only offers the first two episodes of Under the Black Moonlight, the nine-part drama, this is what will be mentioned in the review. Read about what we had to say about the drama being available on Netflix here.
The premise of the horror-drama is somewhat typical; a college drawing club welcomes a new member. He’s a straight A student with a special for drawing. But he’s got another, more unusual talent; he can smell death. This concept is introduced immediately with the scene of flowers typically found in a graveyard.
There’s things about the first two episodes of this drama that leave the viewer slightly confused. The new student is immediately given the nickname “angel of death” by his classmates, but this is unexplained and not really brought up again. Aditionally, some of the characters, such as Kang Woo’s mother have the tendency of suddenly appearing. However, this can be seen as necessary in order to provide them with the scary atmosphere, especially when Kang Woo’s girlfriend, Wol Ha, dies under mysterious circumstances in episode one.
Episode two fast tracks to a year after Wol Ha’s death; a bit of a lengthy fast-forward for only being forty-five minutes into a show. A new girl, Juhye Jin joins the school’s art club, and to everyone’s surprise, she looks exactly like Wol Ha. It doesn’t take long before she gets with Kang Woo and dies in an isolated mansion the group took an overnight trip to. Unfortunately, this makes the series already feel a touch repetitive; although many viewers state that the series is quick to pick up after this.
Fomer WINNER member Nam Tae Hyun stars as Kang Woo, and Kim Soo Yeon plays the role of his girlfriends. The pair are believable, however, the rest of the cast do not gel in the same sense. The friendship group feels like an odd group of quirky, overblown characters, and the relationship Nam Tae Hyun and Kim Seo Ra are meant to have as son and mother isn’t remotely believable. There’s no sense of the characters speaking in dialogue; lines are simply recited. It’s a little disappointing, but one can only hope that with plot progression, this thriller drama improves.
watch the Korean trailer here:
