User:Looney Toons/sandbox/Memories of the Alhambra

Memories of the Alhambra (Hangul: 알함브라 궁전의 추억 Alhambeura gungjeonui chueok) is a 2018 South Korean television series starring Hyun Bin and Park Shin-hye. Primarily set in Spain (with locations in South Korea added in later episodes), the series centers on a company CEO and a hostel owner who get entangled in a series of mysterious incidents surrounding a new and intricate Augmented Reality Game inspired by the stories of the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain.

Yoo Jin-woo (Hyun Bin) is the CEO of a Korean investment company that specializes in optical devices. Already in Barcelona on company business, he receives an email regarding a groundbreaking AR game about medieval battles in the Alhambra, the possibilities (and potential profit) of which staggers him. When the anonymous creator phones him in a panic late at night and asks to meet with him at a place called "Hostel Bonita" in Granada, Jin-woo immediately packs a bag and takes off for Granada.

When Jin-woo gets there in the early hours of the morning, he finds a run-down student hostel and the anonymous game designer is nowhere to be found. Demanding lodgings from the dubious owner/operator, a young Korean woman, he bullies his way into getting the only unshared room in the hostel, an unused sixth-floor walkup with dust, rats and a toilet that is only semi-functional. After settling in as best he can, Jin-woo abruptly walks out into the night to a plaza from which he can see the Alhambra on the hillside over Granada.

Against all likelihood, it is under attack by cannon fire. A stray cannonball strikes a nearby building, showering Jin-woo with debris -- and with that he is immersed in the game for the first time.

, Jung Se-joo (Park Chan-yeol). However, Se-joo is missing and there, he meets his sister Jung Hee-joo (Park Shin-hye), owner of the hostel he stays in and a former guitarist. Both get entangled in a mysterious incidents, and the border between the real world and the AR world built by Se-joo begins to blur.

Memories of the Alhambra is (as of this writing) one of the highest rated Korean dramas in cable television history, and was praised for its creative plot and its unexpected twists. Its title also alludes to Francisco Tárrega's eponymous classical guitar piece "Recuerdos de la Alhambra", which is also a part of the series' original soundtrack. It was co-produced by Netflix, which broadcasts it in the West.

Tropes used in Looney Toons/sandbox/Memories of the Alhambra include:

Augmented Reality Game: The central device around which the plot revolves.
Beyond the Impossible: The reaction Jin-woo and his team back in Korea have to the detail and environmental effects in the game, particularly the moment in the first episode when a Nasrid warrior lands on top of a (real) car and appears to cave it in and shatter its windows.
- Their reaction is more understandable when you learn in the second episode that the electronic contact lens technology on which the game runs is months away from commercial release. How Jung Se-jo even got his hands on the platform to develop for it is a mystery.
Breakable Weapons: Jin-woo's Level 1 weapon, the "rusty iron sword", breaks almost every time the Nasrid Warrior defeats him in the first episode, forcing him to return time and time again to the restaurant men's room where it spawns to get another one.
Disappears Into Light: Whenever Jin-woo is killed or logs off, the weapon in his hand turns into transparent polygons that break loose and "evaporate", deconstructing the weapon.
Flashback/Flash Forward: A signature device -- although there is a core plotline advancing through the episodes, we are also constantly bouncing around past and future, seeing different events, often repeats of the same event from other points of view.
Goggles Do Something Unusual: The groundbreaking electronic contact lenses which are used to project the AR content over the player's visual field.
Hell Hotel: Hostel Bonita isn't one of these -- it's just a somewhat run-down youth hostel -- but Jin-woo, being a very rich businessman used to only the best and most expensive accommodations, clearly thinks it is.
Heroes Prefer Swords: Even though the in-universe game is set after the invention of gunpowder and cannon, the very first weapon Jin-woo is able to find is a rusty iron sword.
Holographic Terminal: The user interface projected by the game acts like one of these without actually existing outside the image generated by the contact lenses worn by the player.
Jerkass/Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Yoo Jin-woo comes across as an arrogant bastard at first. It later turns out that while he does have a bad temper (and it certainly flared up in episode 1), it appears that he actually likes people who stand up to him and deliberately provokes people to see if they'll rise to the occasion or submit meekly. It's a telling detail that despite his temper and brusque manner, his underlings can get away with things like calling him mean and blunt to his face, or admitting they like seeing him get repeatedly beaten down by a game boss.
Metaphor Is My Middle Name: When Cha Hyeung-suk tells him not to be childish in episode 2, Jin-woo responds (at least in translation) "'Childish' is my middle name."
Metaphysical App: The Augmented Reality Game at the heart of the series. It runs as an app on a newly-designed electronic contact lens device, and somehow seems able to blur the border between reality and the game world.
Mind Screw: By the end of episode 2, you will already be saying "what the hell is going on here?" Between the flashbacks, the flash-forwards, and the unexplained weirdnesses, this seems to be the series' stock-in-trade.
Mission Control: Park Seon-Ho and Choi Yang-ju back at J One in Korea, whenever Jin-woo is in the game. Not that he pays a lot of attention to them at times.
Mooks: The Guards of Aragon in episode 2, at least to Cha Hyeung-suk.
No Body Left Behind: Averted by the game, at least for the encounter from episode 1, the Nasrid Warrior. When Jin-woo finally defeats him, the "body" remains, propped up by the fountain where it "died", until he's logged out.
- Played straight in later episodes, such as with the Guards of Aragon defeated by Cha Hyeung-suk who blink out of existence when Jin-woo approaches him.
Oh Crap. When Jin-woo learns that the hostel owner he's just verbally eviscerated is the legal guardian of the underage programmer he wants to make a deal with. He recovers quickly, though, and tries to undo the damage with a charm offensive.
Point of Interest: Found all over Grenada, ranging from a men's room in a bar that spawns a sword when needed to the Alhambra itself.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Episode 2 has three of varying degrees, all aimed at Jin-woo (to no one's surprise).
- First, his Business Strategy Director Park Seon-Ho lets him know just how much of an ass he is after learning how quickly he upset Jung Hee-joo, whose good will is critical to their plans, and disputing the spin Jin-woo tries to put on the event.

Your advice wasn't really advice. You make mean, blunt remarks to people's faces.

- Then, when his secretary Seo Jung-hoon shows up in Grenada with a rental car for him, they have a brief conversation where Jung-hoon comments on how rude and unpleasant he can be.
- Finally, Hee-joo herself returns Jin-woo's episode 1 vitriol point-for-point during a phone conversation in an eloquent tirade that leaves him stunned with admiration at her spirit.
Scenery Porn: Just about every exterior shot in Granada. This show takes advantage of its location and makes every exterior shot count.
Split Screen: Episode 2 makes clever use of two-way and three-way splits during Hee-joo's rant at Jin-woo over Jung-hoon's cell phone.
Those Two Guys: Currently, Park Seon-Ho and Choi Yang-ju back at J One in Korea, who also act as Mission Control from time to time.
Time Skip: Episode 2 ends with a jump one year into the future from the events of the rest of the episode.
Training Boss: The Nasrid Warrior at the start of the game. Subverted in that Jin-woo can and does lose to him -- dozens of times, almost always losing his weapon in the process and forcing him to start over.
Tutorial Failure: Jin-woo takes all night (and multiple trips to get a new weapon) before he is able to defeat the first enemy that appears to him in the game. Maybe more his failure than the tutorial's -- his employee-friends watching from South Korea seem to suss out what he's supposed to learn long before he does, but he won't listen to them. But judging from the bits of game interface we see, he gets almost no welcome, almost no explanation, and very terse and uninformative instructions as to what to do next.
Unusual User Interface: The game requires special electronic contact lenses and an earbud which then project the game over the real world, along with a pseudo-Holographic Terminal for the player to manage game functions. Amazingly, these somehow manage to provide the illusion of weight, mass and texture to objects that only exist within the game, such as weapons and the rubble created by cannonball hits.
Video Game Historical Revisionism --> will this come into play?