The thread is open.
The first four episodes are on Amazon Prime videos here in the US.
Cast: Our favorite actor, Seo In Guk (“Doom At Your Service”) and Park So Dam (“Parasite” and “Cinderella and the Four Knights”). It’s a star-studded show. Lee Jae Wook (“Alchemy of Souls”), Go Yoon Jung (Naksu in “Alchemy of Souls 2”) and Oh Jung Se (“It’s Okay to Be a Psycho”) will make guest-appearances, too.
Episodes: 8
Start Date: Fri, Dec 15
Airs on Fridays
Where to Watch it: Amazon Prime videos
Network: TVing
Enjoy the show!
Thanks very much @pkml3!!! I guessed I’d be able to reach you bright and early on a Friday morning.
This is a fast paced show. We are in the thick of it, the minute the show begins!!
Dear @Packmule3!
Thank you for the thread! I was elated in the morning, when I saw that it was available for us in Greece too!
I won’t be around much here, until I am up to date! LOL
You got me.
I was about to go for my morning jog but when I opened the front door, the wintry air hit my face. I thought to myself “I don’t need this” so I went back in to check the blog instead, and enjoy another cup of coffee.
It’s about 30 degrees here (minus 1 degree Celsius (?), for you). I’ll wait another hour to go out.
Good idea @pkml3. Minus any degree of Celcius is ‘death’ for me!!! Even in 22 deg C I’m in extra layers!!! 😅🥶😨🤧
Hmmm… commenting without spoilers.
The set up is sure and clear. We are in the thick of the ‘story’ and action, but we know what’s what.
In contrast to the falling in love slo-o-o-ow-ly of the very sweet, full of positive vibes Love Me Love My Voice …. this Show serves up the dark and negative with oodles of charm, loads of gripping action and a lesson or two to learn about self and humankind from elegant Death.
The cast of cameos are as good as Seo In Guk and Park So Dam. The visuals are great, the background music/sounds/silence evoke dread and anticipation, and I emerge from just 2 episodes nerve-wrecked and practically breathless from excitement/fear/suspense.
In the end “Eek! Aaaar! Oooh!” are pretty accurate!
Unnie! I am jealous! *grins*
Hi Doensaeng @Cleo, let me know when you can watch and which episodes you manage to complete.
At the pace it’s going. I understand why 8 episodes are enough. Can just about survive it since we get a break after 4 episodes. Inhaling all 8 in one sitting will probably give me stress overload! But it’s fun stress. It’s dark without being a blackout and with little rays of light and errr dark humour LOL.
Unnie,
If I can watch two episodes tonight, then I will finish it somewhere during the weekend.
I am glad that is pace is gripping in a good and weird way at the same time! I was waiting for this drama!
Hello GB, Cleo, and Pm3…
Here’s a drama that awakens my enthusiasm!
After completing the 4 episodes, quick review:
– Fast paced and high impact. Even a 45-minute episode feels like an hour.
– A solid high-concept. Not entirely new, but enough to renew the genre.
– Little comedy (which helps maintain a consistent tone) except situational (the paratrooper’s death).
– A bevy of good guest actors, thanks to the concept.
– Very good visuals. I can see that the director also takes care of the screenplay. And you can feel it. A lot goes through visuals. For emotion or…
– Scene transitions you wouldn’t think of:
Ep03 – 37:54 – Night Flashback. Gunshot. Hole in head. Continuing with the new incarnation seen in the hole. Present Day. Same place.
Ep04 – 16:26 – Flashback Day. The wind blows away the leaves of her novel. He picks them up. Less than a minute is enough to make us believe in a love story. With the right visuals, the right music, the right actors and the right scenic idea.
I’ve barely started reading the webtoon:
https://manhuascan.com/manga/54174-deaths-game-official/chapter-1
But I can already see how the director has perfected this, by a lot!!!
He kept some good lines though (normal!).
Regarding the recurring shot:
Two corpses on the floor under a sheet. At first I thought that when he committed suicide, he’d accidentally killed someone. This added to his record of damage caused by his decision to die. But big SURPRISE!!! It was a flashforward. And GOSHHH! That hits hard!
@GB Unnie, I finished two episodes tonight, but I have to stop for now!
I need to catch up with the latest Friday episodes…
What a show and Seo In Guk is amazing. As Park So Dam is!
I have enjoyed all the cameos / reincarnations so far!
@Cleo, you are mad to lurk on MDL. You risk heavy spoilers !!! 😱😨😰
I’ve read 20 first chapters of the webtoon. (last ones, really fast)
I could see the changes.And even at one point, it changes totally.
It keeps some intro, plane and school life, with improvements, then, it’s different.
Big improvements for the intro: with the guy commiting suicide in the street.
He breaks-up, not her. The main character is less trashy.
The school part remove one of the bullying scene (not needed, redondancy).
And delete weaker scenes to go straight to the point, or add new better scenes.
The director used more continuity in the different lifes, with characters bouncing into each other. I can feel the director want to tell also his own story, and not copy-paste the manhwa.
Hi All, okay, before I read @WE, I just wanted to put down some thoughts and see if we gel.
I’ve watched 3.5 of the 4 episodes, and found it rollicking good, dark fun. (At the same time I keep in mind those in real life who are facing death and where it’s dark without the fun. 🙏)
Show abounds in irony… in my notes: “A show of Dark Humour and Irony, there’s much pain/suffering/death so that irony becomes inescapably Tragic Irony. However I find myself laughing.”
This Show is making good use of the camera with interesting shots from unexpected angles/places. Loved how those 2 bullets left a hole in the head through which we could see the assassin. So webtoonish, so horrific, so much fun!
I appreciate that this production team have put in a lot of effort to make every moment of the first few episodes count (and I expect it to continue for all 8 episodes), to give us loads of info, to make everything clear and logical even in the supernatural realm. No need for manufactured mysteries and weird unexplained things cropping up, just the main conflict itself is the great mystery.
We’re so used to dramas about multiple lifetimes, about there being 12 years in the East Asian zodiac. Here we are offered multiple or rather 12 deaths… and gruesome ones at that. The question of interest is: “How is Yee Jae to survive when every body he enters is supposed to die?”
We see again (as I noticed in ‘Goblin’) that the sin of suicide is a truly great sin in Korean culture. Yee Jae adds insult to injury (so to speak) by dissing Death in the process of dying. I need to rewatch to get the words he thought to himself before he jumped.
Park So Dam was most intriguing as Death who is both a punisher and one who allows a chance at survival. But why? Why not just punish him completely!! Or perhaps to offer hope and then take it away repeatedly was also a great punishment. She offers 1 percent of hope with the possibility of a longer life, sometimes riches, fame, success, or poverty and gloom, and we see that regardless of circumstances, Death is the great leveler.
A good joke is that Yee Jae in death finds fault with others who cause his death, but fails to see that he is as self-absorbed and selfish.
At the back of this is the premise that much of what we/protagonists claim is beyond our control, a matter of chance or bad luck, or someone else’s fault, is possibly really a matter of our choices. Also we assume we can predict how our lives would go… ‘if only’ BUT …
… If Yee Jae had not chosen to speak to the dying man in Episode 1, might he have done better in the job interview? If he had told the interviewers what had happened to him before he arrived, might he have been given more time to compose himself? Even if he had done a good job in the interview, would he really have got that job at Taekang? Even if he had been working in Taekang for the last 7 years, would he really have been happy?
There is much to think about in this short series. 🤨🧐🤔🙄😬😆
What life means to us or death, for that matter, is a matter of perspective. It seems that this Show is a dialogue with Death. Human beings think that they are lords of their lives. They decide what they want and when they cannot achieve it, face pain and loss, etc, some decide their lives are hell and wish to escape it. But they fail to go past the surface to truly appreciate life. As long as there’s life, there’s hope, but Yee Jae chose to be hopeless after a mere 7 years of failing to get what he wanted. He treated life and death too casually.
Yee Jae seems to have never considered that he had his health, that he could turn to friends, that others were less well off than himself and still carried on, that he had his mum. He gave up because he became emotional over his losses, decided that he did not want to suffer anymore and wanted an out.
YJ also had to be disabused of the idea that he did not deserve hell. At the end we return to the same scene of YJ traumatised after seeing hell. “Why do I have to go there when I haven’t done anything wrong?” However he has committed a graver sin than just killing himself. Unknown to him he caused others to die and in the process of committing suicide he had mocked Death and disavowed responsibility for the hardships in his life.
YJ : “…. Looking back the reason I’m standing here is that man from seven years ago. My life ended up this way because of that bastard. (He blames his failure on someone else).
There’s no further hope for me. (He presumes to judge as if he’s god).
It’s life that I’m afraid of. I’m not afraid of death at all. (Hah, she’ll show you!)
Death is merely a means of ending the pain I’m in. (He dismisses Death as a means to end pain, instead of as a start to his afterlife.)
I refuse to struggle to survive anymore.” (He had no clue how terrible it was to be in hell forever).
Continued…
Continued…
Death has decided to teach YJ many lessons about what he should value and to change his perspectives.
I like the irony in this Show. It’s chock full of them. Unlike from our human perspective, we find that death is seen not as the end but the beginning from Death’s perspective. We see that dying just once is a great blessing. That we know nothing about what we are saying if we think our lives on earth are hell.
Yee Jae returns from his tour of hell. Thinking that he will end up there he is disgusted : “Each day felt like hell while I was alive. Now I have to go to hell even after I die.” (He still does not get it how wrong he’d been to call his human life hell.)
Death is mildly amused : “Humans really are amazing. They say their life is like hell, but they bear with it and carry on living in their so-called hell. What’s you impression of the real hell? Do you think you can even last a minute in there?”
YJ admits that he cannot. Death says dryly that he has to survive, then.
We find that Yee Jae, when given chances to live, rejects them as pointless when all he’s faced with is hell at the end. But the moment he’s offered just one chance to survive and to do something in that life to avoid hell, his perspective shifts and he becomes willing to live the next life with a smidgeon of hope. The irony is that when he was alive, he had more than just that smidgeon of hope, he had had loads of opportunities and more to hope for, but he chose death and narrowed his opportunities to just about 12 or 1 depending on how we look at it.
Another bit of irony, although Death disapproves of Yee Jae’s cavalier attitude towards herself, she allows that his remaining attempts at surviving can be considered a game. In Episode 2 she wants to watch him struggle for fun. So it has become a game to her, to see what he will do and how he will repeatedly fail.
Death : “Since you likened this to a video game, let me explain it to you in those terms. The original owner of the body played the game until the ending without saving it once. But you started that same game from the save that was made right before the ending. Depending on your efforts, you may have a different ending.”
To his earlier question on how he was supposed to have found a way to survive in an exploding airplane, it’s ironically possibly why we get his next life (or death, if you will) of him plummeting from an airplane without a parachute. LOL. He was supposed to land on a net without being able to slow himself down. Tough!
EPISODE 2
What level of importance is one’s life and death? Laughably, trhe value of YJ’s death as extreme sportsman, Song Jae Sub who jumped without a parachute, amounted to only 30% ratings on TV and a chance for all the station crew to get a bonus. Later we find that schoolboy bully, Lee Jin Sang, found the death funny.
Laughable irony. YJ dies as Song Jae Sub and says the skydiver without a parachute was reckless. Death says he’s no better since he jumped off a roof.
As Choi Yee Jae, we find that he’s not alone in death. A woman seems to have died along with him. We assume he is one of the dead bodies under the white cloth.
Is this the present, past or future? Is his sin compounded because he caused another’s death? I like that the Director has chosen everything except the colour red to appear as black and white. The colour of blood: of life and death.
It’s interesting that Yee Jae’s photo should be on the ground next to the woman’s bag, as if it dropped from her hand before she was killed. So now we need to know who the 2 people are who died on the sidewalk, bleeding profusely. Who, especially, is the woman who was just standing there.
EPISODE 2 – THE REASON YOU’RE GOING TO HELL
The title introduces a further consideration to his quest.
Death : “Your sin is great enough to even anger God. (The softhearted one)
YJ : “What? What did I do? The fact that I killed myself?”
“It’s much bigger than that. You’ll need to find out what that sin is. If you fail to figure it out, you’ll go to hell, even after you’ve survived this.”
He hears the sounds of screams from hell. It’s likely a Mise-en-scène choice that the lighted doors to hell show up with the reflection of the light on the floor as an upside down cross of light. Hmmm suggestive!
Death : “But why did you kill yourself?”
YJ : “Because all I could see was darkness whether my eyes were open or shut.” And he tells his sad tale.
Death : “So you killed yourself because your life felt hopeless?”
YJ : “Is that so wrong? It’s not like I did harm to anyone.”
Death : “Think carefully if you really didn’t harm anyone.”
YJ : “I won’t bother. It’s over for me already, so why should I?” (His attitude still has not changed.)
Death : “So that you can regret it and repent.”
YJ : “Will I go to heaven if I regret it now?” (The attitude is always: what’s in it for him.) “Will repenting give me another chance at life? I won’t do it.” (He’s too proud.) He has a chance to repent, but Death’s words fall on his deaf ears.
Death : “You really must not care about anything but yourself.”
YJ : “What else should I care for other than myself?”
The next life reminds him that he has a mother who loves him: the someone else he should care about.
@GB,
Yes, there is some dark humor. The comedy is indirect. No comedy scenes, but it’s pretty funny at times. Like when he wakes up in a baby and risks losing his money.
Death has 12 bullets. But the number of resurrections allowed is 13. She didn’t shoot for the first one. (the CEO on the plane)
In the manhwa, his insult to death (written on his suicide note) is: “Death is nothing but an insignificant way to help end my pain”. Then, later: “I control my death”.
You’re right, the show does make you think about what you do in life.
For the character of Death. Here we have a death that’s a bit cruel and petty. If I were to create a Death character, I’d probably give her lines of dialogue like this:
“I am the ultimate forgiveness and my love is boundless. I practice no discrimination and accept you all. Whether you are rich or poor, good or bad, happy or unhappy. To all I bestow the blessing of eternal peace.”
However, that wouldn’t produce a series with so much conflict and ironically amusing stuff.
When Yi Jae looks at hell. Heat, flames. In short, the classic hell concept. It’s rather disappointing, but I noticed this: the director never shows us what he sees. This opens the imagination to a different, scarier concept of hell.
Video game reference: the first time he wakes up (on the plane), it’s in subjective view. “First personal shooter” style.
Gangster life, too. Rather unrealistic. Out of extreme action films, Korean, Hong Kong or John Wick.
@WE Oh that Episode 3 ending would have caused me untold fits of laughter.
So far the trajectory is still that YJ has to figure out in what way he has been selfish. Death practically gives him the answer but he just does not see.
I’ll watch Episode 4 later.
This song of the OST (spoilers Ep 4)
Part 1 – Sondia
https://youtu.be/7lRaRtnlVWs?si=0yc_YMU26MN1N2r0
Beautiful, the sentimental scenes of this episode are powerful, what a feeling!
Actors are perfect. Actress Go Youn Jung makes believable a love story, not just romance.
@WE, Yes now that I’ve watched Ep 4, I’m totally sold on the love story. I’m glad show toned down the action for one episode and just gave us a consolidation of YJ’s life. It’s just the right time, when it was getting tiring seeing him die 5-6 times.
I like how Ep 4 ended… it was foreshadowed in the chat with Death. One thing YJ still has not learnt is to not be so sure about himself or that he knows what should have been. He seldom gets it right, in fact, come to think of it, he seems to have been wrong on most counts where it mattered. He’s been trusting the wrong people, and been complacent when he should be on his guard.
Even when knowing he would be facing death, he’s been going around quite complacently, tempting Death LOL.
This has been so far a well-made, well executed drama. Should keep track of this production team.
@GB, when he’s in the coffee shop and…
SLOW MOTION – step.. step.. step..
It’s HER !!! Waahooo, this moment. Then…
Flasback when she loose the sheet of her novel.
Start with instrumental version of Sondia, then the song.
DAMN IT! I just rewatched that x3.
Then maaaany good scenes. Ofc, he knows but she doesn’t know.
And last one when he reveals bit by bit his life to her: her face with tear. DDDAAA!
AND– terrrrrrrrible murder and cliffhanger. It broke me.
@WE, am I addressing a broken man now? 🫣😬😅😂 Thanks for the link.
Yes that is a beautiful song. The melody alone was so full of love and longing. An excerpt of the translated Korean write-up about it says… “This song stands out with Sondia’s unique voice and sensibility.
Park Seong-il, the music director of [Lee Jae, I’m Dying Soon], took charge of the composition and arrangement.
Love and hate, longing and denial, sadness and comfort, etc.
The ambivalence is expressed in a restrained tone, raising expectations for the drama.
Based on the world-famous webtoon [I’m About to Die (Written/Illustrated by Won-sik Lee/Kulchan)]
The appearance of actors with a strong presence
Foretelling a grand worldview that transcends life and death
Expectations are high that it will provide special fun where numerous genres such as human, romantic, and thriller coexist.”
All the actors were wonderful. So much weight and emotion had to be brought to bear even if some of them were on screen for a brief time only. The emotions were well conveyed.
I’m only 17 minutes into the first episode of Death’s Game, and I’m already blown away by Seo In Guk’s emotional range and dramatic delivery in this role. He conveys hope, enthusiasm, fear, anger, despair, numbness, resignation…what a tour de force. And the camera work at 17:10 is remarkable, quickly panning up (not down, as expected of the situation) the skyscraper, slowing as it gets to Seo In Guk, but instead of stopping on him the camera continues up until we get a God’s-eye view. Very impactful.
⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡@Packmule3 my previous (and first) comment on this thread is awaiting moderation.
The lighting on Death’s face during her conversation in the private jet is masterful: light and shadow play across it, and the wall behind her, as she speaks. Most dramatically, shadow rises from her chin as she imposes her punishment on Choi Yi Jae.
I found it, @Welmaris.
Sorry about that. I can’t find any “banned” words either. 🤔
@Welmaris, HI! Welcome here.
The beginning: as the director made changes to the webtoon, he starts with a short scene (like a teaser) of Death with the protagonist. Then tell how he’s dead.
Then, it doesn’t play on surprise but anticipation.
We know the drama will start with him in a regular situation, then we are curious to know what kind of bad moments he will endure, so he ends up to commit suicide. I wasn’t disapointed, it was fast and short. Even someone reading the manhwa could like more than the manhwa, because of the surprising random guy commiting suicide in the street.
About the plane scene making, you can see this “behind the scenes”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whl_0HSlryA
Various other spectacular scenes are in this video, often using giant green screen sets.
Randomly found Park So Dam interview about the drama.
I didn’t know she had a cancer, 3 years ago:
https://www.straitstimes.com/life/entertainment/the-life-list-death-s-game-marks-k-actress-park-so-dam-s-comeback-after-cancer
PSD: “I think one really important message of the series is how it encourages you to look back at your own life. In life, some days are good, some are bad, and a lot are just ordinary. But as humans, we tend to remember only the good and the bad. We forget about the ordinary or mundane days, but those days are precious and worth cherishing.”
Thanks for the link @WE. It’s strange how TVing airs the first 4 episodes 3 weeks apart from the last 4 episodes. In the mean time viewers would have found other shows to watch and forget to return for the final 4 episodes, or would have gotten annoyed and not bothered to watch the end.
Now Soundtrack #2 is out as well. A lot of competition for viewer attention.
@GB, I liked Soundtrack 1. But ofc there was Han So Hee in it.
I’ll probably watch, or try it. Same director, but different writer.
@WE, I actually forgot that I did start on Soundtrack #2, but got distracted by other shows. I didn’t really think much of #1, although our Han So Hee and Park Hyung Shik looked nice. I hope #2 is better.
This past week was hectic for me, so I haven’t been able to finish the latest two episodes.
As soon as I catch up I will write my thoughts. So far, I really like Seo In Guk’s and Park So Dam’s acting. Also all the reincarnations and the actors who play them are spot on!
Annyeong! I managed to finish the last two episodes and to catch up with the rest of you.
So that Taekang’s Chaebol was behind every murder we have seen so far.
I also believe that he was the one who killed that man Yee Jae witnessed him falling from above 7 years ago, when his first Taekang’s interview was up and he failed it.
I am not going to take noone’s side in the so far story / game.
Death might feel that Yee Jae needs a lesson, but this is from the pov of an immortal. When you are a mortal you can also break and forget that life is beautiful. I am not into severe punishment, since I believe that God is Love.
Still, I enjoy this because the acting performances are insane. Let us see how that it will go in the next 4 episodes.
Now I have to read you.