The East Palace is a bizarre South Korean dark fantasy drama full of supernatural goings on.
For the King, three of his sons have died – two from illness one from taking his own life. As such, for reasons best known to him, given that Gu-cheon (Nam Joo-hyuk) survived 15 minutes under water, he wants his remaining son to survive, hence this new recruit is the one to banish the spirit that would harm him.
For an assistant, the King brings his young, dead daughter – Saeng-gang (Roh Yoon-seo) – back to life. Hmm… I can’t help but think he’s missed the obvious step.
Netflix calls this scary, but I just saw it’s baffling.
Gu-cheon waffles about the Gwi-mae and Won-gwi spirits, the former of whom are souls bound by lingering attachments, unable to pass on to the afterlife… and are harmless.
Meanwhile, the Won-gwi are the souls of those who died, bearing deep resentment of others. They torment the ones who caused their resentment. As the resentment grows larger, it weighs down the soul, therefore binding it to the Earth forever. Only by removing that mass of resentment can the soul that has been bound to the Earth, be released and pass on to the afterlife. And this is no simple task to do… or understand, it seems.
I really have no idea what’s going on. It really drags, it all feels like it’s being made up as it goes along, and is a very gory, Resident Evil-style horror fest.
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
The East Palace is on Netflix from Friday July 17th.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 45-60 minutes per episode (8 episodes)
Release date: July 17th 2026
Studio: Netflix
Format: 2.00:1
Director: Jung Kyu Choi
Writers: So-ra Kwon, Jae Won Seo
Cast:
Gu-cheon: Nam Joo-hyuk
Saeng-gang: Roh Yoon-seo
The King: Cho Seung-woo
Queen: Park Su-yeon
Ghost of thought: Chloe Park
Queen dowager: Jang Young-nam
Queen consort: Park Soo-yeon
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.