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 (and in South Korea 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 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

, 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.

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

Augmented Reality: A key element to the story.

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.

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.

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: Yoo Jin-woo comes across this way at first.

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.

Scenery Porn: Just about every exterior shot in Granada. This show takes advantage of its location and makes every exterior shot count.

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.

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?