Title: Alchemy of Souls 2: Light and Shadow
Language: Korean
Episodes: 10
Where to Watch: Netflix
Genres: Action, Historical, Romance Fantasy
Objectionable Content: Violence
Summary (from mydramalist): Jang Uk returns from death, and three years later, the story of the mages unfolds anew. Jang Uk becomes a hunter of the soul-shifters when a young woman, a prisoner in her own home, seeks his help to reclaim her freedom.
My Review of Alchemy of Souls 2: Light and Shadow
**note that this review will contact huge spoilers for the ending of the first season of Alchemy of Souls.**
So, I started watching this extremely eagerly after I finished the first season. In the final episode of Alchemy of Souls, Mu Deok was being controlled by Jin Mu and forced to kill several people. When the mages from Songrim confront her, Janu Uk protects her and she stabs him in the heart. She comes back to herself long enough to realize what she’s done she see him die. Jin Mu’s control takes over again and she goes to the Lake and jumps in.
Jangu Uk’s funeral pyre is held and the power of the ice stone brings him back to life. Two unknown people are seen pulling Mu Deok’s body from the Lake and the episode ends.
I was expecting (hoping) that season 2 would pick up from this point. Annoyingly, there’s a three year gap. Jang Uk has only been allowed to keep the ice stone if he uses his power to kill soul shifters and no other reason.
I have a suspicion that the writers of the show had different intentions from the beginning and that, perhaps, Netflix didn’t give them the green light right away so when they finally did get the go ahead for a second season, the lead actress, Jun So Min, was probably unavailable to reprise her role. Instead, they had to come up with another way to continue the story.
It’s extremely unfortunate that it worked out the way it did. Three amazing relationships were ruined by the ending of season one. This show could have ended with a beautiful happy ending, with all the characters in the relationships that were built up over 20 episodes. Instead, we got…this.
I don’t know if I enjoyed it as I was also annoyed with how it had that three year gap and so many things weren’t explained. The actors all did a great job with what they were given so I can’t fault them for that. Overall, there was this overwhelming sense of sadness through the whole thing. I kept watching because I wanted to know how it would all end and it was only ten episodes.
More or less, I feel more like I want to rant than give this show a proper review. I kind of want to pretend that the last half of the last episode of Alchemy of Souls didn’t happen and that everyone got to have their happy endings.
My rating for Alchemy of Souls 2: Shadow and Light is 3 out of 5 stars. I don’t know that I would necessarily recommend it though if you have season one you’ll probably want to know what happens after. Just try not to have high expectations like I did.
Have you seen Alchemy of Souls? Please let me know what you thought.
As always, thanks for reading!