Oh My Ghost (aka Oh My Ghostess) is a 16 episode 2015 KTV drama. The story involves a lowly kitchen worker who wants to become a chef, the head chef as the romantic interest, and a ghost who wants to settle her grudge. There's also a murder mystery angle involved.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Our story revolves around 2 young women; one is a lonely restaurant assistant who has a crush on her boss, but is too shy to act on it. She also happens to have the ability to see ghosts, which ain't helping her any in her personal or professional life. The other woman is a ghost who can't find her way to the afterlife because she's resentful that she died a virgin. She can't remember how she died and doesn't really care at first., she's just looking to inhabit any living woman she can in order to lose her virginity so she can finally leave this world. Ghost girl meets living girl and discovers that the chef she has a crush on is one of the few living men who can handle her "supernatural sexual powers". Thus, ghost girl plans to quickly enter living girl's body to have sex with this chef in order to satisfy her desires before departing earth forever.
What happens here is ghost girl periodically inhabits living girl in order to accomplish her main goal (i.e. getting laid). This creates all kinds of problems for the living girl, as she can't remember anything that occurs when the ghost girl takes over her body. Furthermore, these two women are polar opposites in terms of their personalities; living girl is timid and lethargic, and ghost girl is an aggressive loud mouth. Thus, everyone around living girl now thinks she's suffering from some multiple personality disorder as she switches back & forth from quiet & reserved to boisterous & outgoing (depending on whether her body is being occupied by the ghost girl or not).
Unfortunately for ghost girl, this chef she's trying to seduce has old fashioned values and wants to take the slow approach to a relationship. She just wants to hop in the sack with the guy, but he won't acquiesce, and this frustrates her to no end. Left with few options, ghost girl and living girl team up in order to find a solution for each of their separate problems; ghost girl helps living girl blossom as an all-around woman and win over the man she likes, and living girl allows ghost girl to continually try to accomplish her goal while also helping her out in other ways. It doesn't take long before these two girls become BFF's while also balancing out each other's personalities.
Everything is going according to plan, but problems eventually arise. Ghost girl starts falling in love with the chef over time (which was not her intention), and living girl discovers that ghost girl's grudge may not be related to being a virgin at all. There's also an attractive career woman vying for the chef's affection that must be dealt with, and someone who might be inhabited by an evil spirit that eventually represents your main antagonist on several fronts. From there, it's just a matter of following along with the story to see how everything will play out.
As usual, you need to give these K-dramas some breathing room to see how they evolve before casting judgement. The first few episodes are a little rocky but the story does settle in quickly, and it's mostly entertaining for the bulk of its run time.
There's a lot to like about this story and this show, and it's helped greatly by the performance of the two lead actresses. I'm quite familiar with Park Bo-young (who portrays the living girl, and is the main star of the show), and she just kills it in a role that requires her to start out acting on opposite ends of the spectrum and slowly blending them into some middle ground over time. Kim Seul-gi plays the ghost girl, and this isn't the first time I've seen her play a bit of a manic character in a supporting role, but she's quite good at it, and somebody needs to give her shot at as a lead actress asap. These two actresses drive this show from start to finish, and they interact so well that you'd think they've been working together for years.
Jo Jung-suk plays the chef and lead love interest. He's fairly likable and effective (especially when compared to the asshole head chef character portrayed in 'Pasta') and, of course, he's pretty easy on the eyes. The rest of the cast of characters not mentioned above consist of the "ghost catcher" lady with a soft spot for the ghost girl, an assortment of fit subordinate chef dudes ranging from reasonable to obnoxious and that get shirtless for no reason (other than to obviously appease the female viewers), along with a few others of import.
This show utilizes several cooking related segments throughout, and a few ghostly special effects as needed, and while both of these of aspects are employed rather sparsely, they do serve their purpose. Production values are solid enough for this type of show, and it's competently written and directed as well (though you'll have to excuse the lack of rules of what a ghost can or can't do). There is a bit of lag during some of the middle episodes, but not so much that it doesn't comply with my number one rule for any K-drama (i.e. "Don't Be Boring!").
Summary: Is it great?...Of course not!. But there are a number of things to like here. It does ultimately work quite well for what it is, it's also pretty well paced, and there's a nice mix of drama, humor, poignancy, suspense, love, etc. Personally, I thought it was very nicely done!
Bottom Line: 8 out of 10 stars on the K-Drama scale!...Solidly Recommended!
