Watched all 16 episodes of Korea's Bulgasal: Immortal Souls (2022). We are presented the story of an immortal spirit--a Bulgasal--who apparently steals the soul of a man so that she can live as a human and keep reincarnating. The man, in turn, becomes a Bulgasal and swears to search for her in every reincarnation to kill her a total of eight times, thus regaining his soul, and then seal her forever in a well, The first two episodes are gothic, bloody, and violent, set in the ancient Joseon period 600 years ago; Episode 3 onward is set in the present time. It is in Episode 3, indeed, where things become very interesting all the way through Episode 16. Yet, as we plod through the succeeding episodes, the story of the Bulgasal keeps revising itself via revelations from different characters.

The series features karma, karmic groups, and characters reincarnating and revisiting their relationships to one another, and is engrossing because the performers play their different roles very well. Produced two years after Tale of the Nine-Tailed (2020), it uses the same fantasy template and is just as engaging. There are, however, many non-sequiturs in dialogue and in characterization, particularly in protagonists' wanting to sacrifice themselves in some scenes and then not wanting to sacrifice themselves in later scenes, a pattern that keeps repeating itself ad nauseam. The key narrative, which is fully revealed in Episode 16, also seems too contrived, as though the writer had to write the story backward and could not make up his mind as to how it all began 1,000 years ago, and the final resolution convoluted and confusing. The subtitle "Immortal Souls" is yet another loophole, for the viewer is reminded again and again that Bulgasal have no souls.