Mystic pop-up bar is one of my most anticipated dramas of 2020. When it finally aired on Netflix, i was exited and had high hopes. This drama did not disappoint and delivers. What I’ve seen in the first episode so far, it’s funny, witty, good writing, good acting as well. The mystic pop-up bar is a drama about a bar that pops up at night at different places and with a little counselling sprinkled in there.
Episode one begins with Wol-joo. She’s a young girl who can enter people’s dream and help with what’s wrong with them. One day, she was invited to the palace to help the crown prince who has been sick for quite some time. She helped the crown prince get better and the the queen rewarded her with lots of gifts. Wol-joo and the crown prince fell in love in the process. The queen not too happy with this, sends people to her house. Before they get there, her mother, being a shaman already saw it coming and sends her away and gives her a binyeo and tells her that whenever she needs extra strength, to hold the binyeo tightly and the person she needs the most will appear . On her way out of town, she looked back and sees her house on fire from afar. She ran back home to find her mother murdered. Because of the pain, She committed suicide under the sacred tree and puts a curse on the royal family.
Fast forward five hundred years later, present day. Wol-joo now runs the Mystic pop-up bar with Chief Gwi and needs to help hundred thousand people with their problems so she can be free or else she goes to hell. Because no one seems to be telling her their problems, she’s been stuck at 999,990 for six months.
Han Kang-bae works at a department store and doesn’t like touching people because if he does, they tell him their problems. Han Kang-bae works with Song Mi-ran who seems to be the perfect employee. Even winning the employee of the month 5 months in a row. One night Kang-bae was going home when he notices Mi-ran stepping in front of a truck and saved her. He takes her to the mystic pop-up bar and Wol-joo tries to get her to spill her guts but to no avail until Mi-ran accidentally touched Kang-bae’s hand.
She reveals that her boss at work has been sexually harassing her for months and she feels helpless. Wol-joo tells drunk Kang-bae to go use the toilet across the street before giving Mi-ran a special drink that made her fall asleep. As Kang-bae was coming back from the toilet, he could see the bar flickering but chucks it up to him been drunk. He goes inside the bar to find Mi-ran sleeping all by her self. He tries to wake her up by shaking her but got transported into her dream where he sees Wol-joo punishing the boss and he helps her only to be joined by Chief Gwi. The boss tries to run away but was stopped by Wol-joo throwing her mother’s binyeo at him.
The next day, not sure if it was a dream or reality, Kang-bae goes to the rooftop where Wol-joo threw her binyeo and finds it there. Wol-joo and Chief Gwi were celebrating finally helping one person after six months when Chief Yeom comes into the bar with message from someone called Yeomradaewang and tells her she’s taking too long and only has one month to complete her number or it’s hell for her. Chief Gwi tells her she would need a people magnet if she wants to complete her task in one month. Wol-joo remembers Kang-bae who was also looking for her with her binyeo. They both meet on a bridge and he asks her to help him so people doen’t tell him their problems anymore and she agrees on the condition that he helps her.
I love this drama so far. They tackled the issue of sexual harassment in the first episode alone and they handled it appropriately by letting the Victim know it’s not her fault and giving her the strength to go after the creep. Act like you have claws and growl even if you don’t have fangs.
HAPPY WATCHING!!!!!
