One of the greatest pleasures of watching a television show is immersing oneself in another person’s life. By stepping into someone else’s reality and seeing the world through their eyes, we experience emotions and circumstances that are otherwise out of reach. This immersion is heightened by fantasy scenarios about spiritual possession and body swapping. Tales about souls inhabiting different bodies and characters being dropped into a new life to navigate an unfamiliar world have the power to transport us out of our routine. Phantom Lawyer and Moon River are two Korean dramas that guide viewers through this exercise of empathy.

A lawyer with the ability to see ghosts is determined to help them settle unfinished business in the courtroom. That’s the striking setup of Phantom Lawyer, a supernatural thriller with a courtroom drama twist. Such a premise is not unheard of for a Korean drama. In the Arang legend, featured in the long-running series Korean Ghost Stories, the ghost of a slain maiden asks the local magistrate to bring her tragic death to light. Phantom Lawyer transposes old tales like Arang to a contemporary courthouse, with the legend’s maiden and magistrate becoming modern-day victims and the protagonist their lawyer.

Shin Yirang (Yoo Yeonseok), the show’s protagonist, starts to see ghosts after opening a legal office in the former suite of a shaman. He digs up cases at the request of ghosts who were victims of murder. But intriguingly, he doesn’t just listen to the ghosts’ complaints — they also possess his body, which helps him get to the bottom of their cases while also gaining a visceral experience of their despair and terror.

The victims in the show run the gamut from a brilliant scientist to a gangster, a K-pop idol in training and an abducted child. Each of these ghostly clients have their own story, which is told through testimony and possession. Despite dealing with grave crimes that left indelible wounds on both the deceased victims and their bereaved families, the drama takes pains to lighten the mood with comedy in the course of possession as well as tear-jerking moments of human drama. It’s also gratifying to see the bad guys get their day of reckoning in a drama without a dull moment.

In an occult genre, it’s common for ghosts to personally exact vengeance on their persecutors or for justice to be administered through supernatural means. But Phantom Lawyer represents a step forward for the genre by generally convicting the perpetrators in the public space of the courtroom with evidence gathered through the help of ghosts. Thus, potentially destructive grievances are constructively channeled through the courts to achieve true justice.

In Phantom Lawyer, possession is a way for the protagonist to better understand others. And in the historical romance Moon River, the fantasy scenario of a body swap between a man and woman of vastly different social standings helps them better understand each other. The story begins with an encounter between crown prince Lee Kang (Kang Taeoh), who longs to avenge his deceased wife, and Park Dali (Kim Sejeong), a peddler who bears a suspicious resemblance to Lee’s beloved wife. Despite knowing he needs to move on, Lee is drawn to Park, who lost her memory in an accident five years before. Through their meetings, Park gradually regains her memories. By this point, most viewers would have surmised that Park is in fact Lee’s not-so-dead wife. But the drama doesn’t overplay its hand, devoting its energy instead to a series of surprising episodes.

Body swap stories have more of a punch in Korean historical dramas than in dramas set in the present day. For one, Joseon Dynasty(1392–1910) was a society with strict boundaries between genders and classes. After Lee and Park swap bodies, the prince discovers the everyday struggle for survival of a peddler wearing straw shoes, while the commoner learns that the glittering palace is a gilded cage with enemies lurking around every corner. Experiencing each other’s struggles refines their love for each other. But the show also sketches a narrative of communal collaboration in which Lee and Park team up with newfound companions to fight back against corruption.

One of the greatest strengths of Korean dramas today is its ingenious genre mashups. Mixing the occult and the courtroom and inserting a body swap into a period piece are spins on familiar genres. Such diverse genres can blend seamlessly because they’re tied together by the goal of emotional understanding. Supernatural storytelling devices like spiritual possession and body swaps serve as intuitive shortcuts to experiencing other people’s pain, which could never be fully grasped through language or reason. Instead of observing others’ lives from a distance, we’re stepping directly into their lives to experience them as they do.

These quiet hours aboard the plane are the perfect chance to dive into another person’s reality through these two dramas. As you lose yourself in their laughter and tears, you’ll be at your destination before you know it.

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