[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Lovers of the Red Sky" Episode 3

The first full six minutes of this episode just recap the climax of the previous one. Haram and Chun-gi have finally met, and are having a nice chat in Haram's palanquin. They still haven't gotten around to exchanging names. Then Haram gets possessed by the Demon King, terrifying everyone unfortunate enough to see Haram in this form, and the Demon King then proceeds to chase after Chun-gi. Thanks to other supernatural intervention, Chun-gi survives. And then, finally, at the end of the episode, Haram and Chun-gi make proper introductions.

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Surprisingly little of the plot is actually moved forward over this runtime. Once the situation with the Demon King has been deescalated, we're just left with a comedy of errors as Haram's work superiors are completely dismissive of claims by his palanquin bearers that they were attacked by a supernatural entity. That supernatural entities exist in this setting shouldn't be controversial, given the massive effort that was made to seal the Demon King.

This plot device also serves the purpose of making the human characters seem even more useless, in a television show that's already been struggling to give its actual characters purpose in the ongoing divine drama. While Haram and Chun-gi finally know each other's names at the end of this episode, they still don't seem to understand their situation. Namely, that Haram is acting as the human seal for the Demon King, and Chun-gi has to come up with a more permanent solution.

Instead of actually engaging with any of these plot hooks, we instead just watch Chun-gi run around just as ineffectually as Haram's palanquin bearers trying to get aid for Haram. None of these very basic plot points should be treated like insurmountable obstacles. Screenwriter Ha Eun just seems to be stalling for time. This is never a good feeling to have this early in the drama, that the actual process by which the conflict can actually be solved is so poorly defined.

Yet "Lovers of the Red Sky" isn't functioning particularly well as a romance either. The two lead characters have surprisingly little actual screen time together. That issue, at least, will hopefully be solved in the next episode since there's now finally cause for the two to have an actual conversation. Whether this conversation will feature actual communication I have no idea. Any number of ridiculous excuses could be contrived to prevent Haram and Chun-gi from being honest about their known situations.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Lovers of the Red Sky" is directed by Chang Tae-you, written by Ha Eun, and features Ahn Hyo-seop, Kim You-jung, Gong Myung, Kwak Si-yang, Kim Kwang-kyu, Choi Kwang-il. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/08/30~Now airing, Mon, Tue 22:00 on SBS.