Lovers of the Red Sky (Korean: 홍천기, Hong Cheon-gi) is a 2021 fantasy romance sageuk starring Kim Yoo-jung, Ahn Hyo-seop, Gong Myung and Kwak Si-yang. The series adapted from the novel of the same name written by Jung Eun-gwol.
During the reign of the fictional Dan dynasty, the Demon King, an evil deity of death and destruction, takes residence in the old king’s body, sowing chaos and bloodshed across the land. To get rid of the menace, future King Seongjo, along with a coalition of scholars, mystics and shamans, seals the creature in a magical portrait painted by divine court painter Hong Eun-oh. However, the ritual doesn’t go quite as planned: while the Demon King is sealed (with the help of benign deity Samsin), it manages to place a curse on the land. In addition, Hong Eun-oh loses his sanity, and his daughter, Cheon-gi, born at the same time the ritual is held, is blinded due to the curse.
Nine years later, the country has been suffering from severe drought and the royal shaman is preparing for a fateful ritual that will bring back rain. Ha Ram, the son of the scholar who led the Sealing Ritual, is chosen as the helper (and secretly, sacrifice) of the rain making ritual. As he comes to the capital to attend the ritual, Ha Ram meets blind Hong Cheon-gi and the two form an instant connection. However, during the ritual, the portrait in which the Demon King is sealed is burned by the young Prince Juhyang, the king’s disaffected second son, and the liberated demon finds its way into Ha Ram’s body. In order to prevent another rampage, Samsin takes the Demon King’s eyes and gives them to Cheon-gi, restoring her sight but leaving Ha Ram blind.
19 years later Hong Cheon-gi is a talented painter at Baekyu Painting Society and the only female painter of the time. Ha Ram has become a government astrologer, despite his blindness, and is secretly plotting revenge against the royal family. The two are fated to meet again, but also become entangled in the machinations of the royal court involving Prince Juhyang and his younger, easygoing brother, Prince Yangmyeong. And this is before you remember that Ha Ram is unknowingly possessed by the Demon King and that Cheon-gi is destined to create the divine portrait that will trap it once again.
Yes, this is just the first couple of episodes.
The series provides examples of:
- Ambition Is Evil: Juhyang is obsessed with ascending the throne and will do anything to achieve this, putting the entire kingdom in serious danger.
- Balance Between Good and Evil: Originally between Samsin (representing birth and life), the Demon King (death and destruction) and a third deity representing balance. When the Demon King revolted, he destroyed this third deity, thus disrupting the harmony that existed until then and paving the way to a world full of fear and strife.
- Berserker Tears: Juhyang’s eyes tend to fill with tears in moments of great frustration or rage.
- Best Served Cold: Ha Ram spends years scheming and preparing for revenge on the royal family for ordering the death of his father and the subsequent destruction of his family. He drops it once he discovers that the current king had nothing to do with his father's death.
- Big Good: The goddess Samsin, who meddles with the events behind the scenes to ensure the Demon King’s defeat.
- Blood from the Mouth: As usual in Asian dramas, used to signify various health concerns, from a supposed heart attack to being adversely affected by demonic energies.
- Bolivian Army Cliffhanger: The drama ends with Juhyang and Yangmyeong clashing for what is presumably the last time. Ha Ram’s prediction and the shaman's prophecy imply that Yangmyeong will survive, though.
- Brought Down to Normal: Royal shaman Wol Seon loses her powers during the second Sealing Ritual.
- Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Samsin, goddess of birth, appears sometimes as a golden butterfly, first seen when she arrives to save the newborn Cheon-gi after her mother’s death.
- Chekhov's Gun: The white jade ring Ha Ram gives Cheon-gi as a token of his love turns out to be an incredibly important divine artifact that plays a key role in controlling the Demon King.
- The Corruption: Prince Juhyang was briefly touched by the Demon King as the latter was escaping the burning portrait, leaving behind a scar that is slowly spreading. Juhyang believes that without being possessed by the Demon King, the affliction will eventually kill him.
- Cosmic Deadline: If the Demon King is not exorcised from Ha Ram's body by the night of the red moon, it will consume Ha Ram completely.
- Darkest Hour: The situation at the end of chapter 14. Cheon-gi’s father and Moo Young are dead, Juhyang is about to execute the entire Baekyu Painters Society, and the Demon King seems set on either subsuming Ha Ram completely or going over to Juhyang... that is, until the king shows up.
- Deal with the Devil:
- Prince Juhyang is angling for one with the Demon King, letting it possess him in exchange for power.
- Painters can make a deal with the art-loving goblin Hwacha that will allow them to paint a once-in-a-lifetime masterpiece. Once-in-a-lifetime, as in they go hopelessly mad afterwards. or at least, this is the rumor.
- Death by Childbirth: Cheon-gi’s mother dies minutes after giving birth to her. Praying alone in a secluded forest shrine probably didn’t help her chances.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Ha Ram’s parents die during the Time Skip some time under the rain making ritual, while Cheon-gi’s mother dies giving birth to her.
- Demonic Possession:
- The Demon King can possess willing humans, granting them great power but invariably causing bloodshed as a result.
- While usually trapped inside Ha Ram, under certain circumstances the Demon King can take full control of his body.
- Hwacha possesses the body of Hong Eun-oh’s assistant in the prologue, apparently as part of a deal the painters made to create a divine portrait.
- Disability Superpower: Pretty understated, but due to his blindness, Ha Ram has exceptionally sharp senses and can even hold his own pretty well in a fight.
- Dying as Yourself: Hong Eun-oh briefly becomes lucid and recognizes Cheon-gi before he passes.
- The Evil Prince: Prince Juhyang.
- The Gift: Cheon-gi is destined to become a divine painter, like her father before her.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: The fate of Hong Eun-oh, Cheon-gi’s father, after the original Sealing Ritual. It is unclear if the ultimate cause was exposure to the Eldritch Abomination they were sealing, Hwacha’s interference, the mere act of creating a divine portrait, or some combination of all of the above.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Moo Young stays behind to hold off Juhyang’s guards while Ha Ram and Cheon-gi escape, knowing full well that it will cost him his life.
- Samsin sacrifices herself to seal the Demon King once again. It is unclear if she is truly gone or just trapped in the portrait along with him.
- Hopeless Suitor: Prince Yangmyeong really likes Cheon-gi and attempts to court her, even though he has every reason to believe (including an explicit prophecy) that she only has eyes for Ha Ram.
- Human Sacrifice: Attempted at the Dragon Rainmaking Ritual held to end a drought, with young Ha Ram as the intended victim.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Happens a few times when the Demon-possessed Ha Ram goes after Cheon-gi.
- In the Back:
- A rare heroic version. Yangmyeong stabs a possessed Ha Ram in the back with a magical sword, thus temporality saving him, Cheon-gi and everybody else in the vicinity from the Demon King.
- Not so heroically, Prince Juhyang puts a poison arrow through Hong Eun-oh’s back as the heroes are attempting to escape.
- Like a Son to Me: Master Choi views Cheon-gi as his own daughter, which he states outright when slamming into Ahn Gyon for endangering her.
- Lunacy: The Demon King is prone to popping out on nights when the moon is full, due the excess of dark Yin energy which makes him stronger.
- No-Sell: During the second Sealing Ritual, the Demon King effortlessly tears through the divine portrait that was supposed to contain him, much to everyone’s shock.
- Panthera Awesome: The Spirit of Mount Inwang, who also serves as the guardian of the Royal Palace, appears as either a young girl with white hair or a massive white tiger.
- Parental Substitute: Master Choi and Ms. Gyeonju treat Cheon-gi as their daughter, since her mother is dead and her father was mostly unable to care for her.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Demon King.
- Redemption Equals Death: Mi-su sacrifices herself to delay the Demon King during the final Sealing Ritual.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Ha Ram’s eyes change from reddish-pink to deep red when the Demon King takes control. Since Cheon-gi has the Demon King’s eyes, supernaturally inclined characters can also see her eyes glowing red under certain circumstances.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Demon King is contained in a portrait, and after escaping it, sealed again inside Ha Ram. Much of the series is dedicated to trying to trap him in a portrait again.
- Secret Identity: Ha Ram. During the day, a mild-mannered royal astrologer; at night, the formidable information broker/crime lord Ilwolseong.
- Serious Business: Painting, naturally. Two entire episodes are dedicated to a royal painting tournament, treated with all the suspense and surprise last-minute turns of a sports drama. Also, the fate of the world hinges on whether the heroine can paint a portrait really well.
- Sibling Yin-Yang / Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Prince Juhyang is aggressive, self-centered and ambitious, with his main hobbies being hunting and archery; Prince Yangmyeong is a refined patron of the arts and dutiful to a fault.
- Tainted Veins: Ha Ram develops visible black veins on his face and neck when controlled by the Demon King.
- Those Two Guys: Jung and Young-wook, Cheon-gi’s two painter friends who are usually seen together.
- Undying Loyalty: Moo Young towards Ha Ram. Unfortunately, it ends up being dying loyalty.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Mae Hyang is last seen meeting with Juhyang in prison, promising to free him and alluding to some greater power she apparently works for. We never find out what was her deal, and Juhyang only escapes five years later without her apparent involvement.
- The Wise Prince: Yangmyeong gradually matures into one.
- Your Days Are Numbered: The king is slowly dying from a disease, and is intent on making sure that the Demon King is sealed before he goes.
