The thread is open.
Trust me. This whole brushing-your-teeth-and-spitting-out-the-toothpaste-together act is only cute in kdramas. Because guess what you have to do next? Floss! Will you floss each other’s teeth, too? Ewww.
Plus, once you have double sinks in your master bathroom, you’ll never look at a single sink the same way.
The next set of gifs reminded me of a Nescafe commercial.
I’m behind two episodes. Go on ahead without me. Will catch up tomorrow. 🙂
Let’s enjoy the show.
Hmm. Long before this point, I’d stopped viewing this drama for the story or the plot.
I’m viewing it from acting perspective and cinematography.
Ep 15 is Twilight New Moon right down to NO EDWARD DON’T! – the only difference being I like watching both Song Kang and Kim Yoo Jung MUCH MORE on screen than either Robert Pattinson or the Kristen Stewart. Much better looks + much better acting.
Such type of stories appeal wildly and widely to a teen / young audience.
Couple of things
– As noted by many on this blog, SK is much better in scenes that depict despair, desperation and pain than silly love. Can’t blame the man – the drama had far too many silly (and unhygienic) “love” moments.
– Kim Yoo Jung is excellent at depicting anxiety and hopelessness.
– He surrenders to the almighty in a way. He calls upon Him to save his love.
– No matter how shoddily written, I was moved my Do Hee’s sadness because of the acting. Similarly, in the last scene, I connected with the characters and their desperation because of acting. No points to plot/storyline.
Ah. Too many typos in the above comment. Kindly pardon.
Lastly,
The ep 16 preview promises that story will continue taking “inspiration” from Twilight in portraying a thoroughly distraught FL. It’s a teen show at this point.
Kudos to both actors for doing their best and holding up the show solely on their shoulders without compelling storytelling or noteworthy secondary characters.
I’m coming here right after episode 15 and not wanting to give too many spoilers early on.
There were a lot of tears for me and you were right in saying that Kim Yoo Jung cries prettily. (My favourite crier is ZhaoLuSi…she always manages to hit the right crying emotion for me…to make me cry when she does it bitterly)
There were a handful of flashbacks…particularly like a compilation of their kisses! Which they did a favour for their viewers by not having to search a mv of all the kisses. I guess all those sweet moments was a build up for this?
Spoiler coming up….
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My favourite line in this episode was when DoHee said “Did you save me?” and GuWon replied her, “I saved myself.”
I know it is not theologically right but in the story plot, it made sense. It does sound selfish but it made sense for that moment.
At this point I think he doesn’t save dead people because he dies when he resurrects any one, which he did save for her.
I think of how Mdm Ju wanting to save herself by making up for her wrong doing but she could not. At this point I feel like there is a similarity between her and GuWon in this aspect but I can’t put a finger on what. Is it the idea that when you save someone, you also save yourself…something like that? Let me mull it a bit more.
@grace ! We’re the same when it comes to LuSi ! She’s the FL in Hidden Love, correct? She’s so emotive on screen ❤️
I’m watching now for no reason, except trolling a bit on MDL.
What makes me find good lines, always a good exercice for writing. 🙂
*SPOILER*
@grace my favourite scene was when Do Hee kept shouting for Gu Won to stop. She works desperately to free herself so as to stop him (something she didn’t seem too keen on earlier 😅). Yoo Jung conveys Do Hee’s anxiety so well in those few seconds!
@Arihsi, I know!! I am loving YooJung more through this drama, it brought out a lot more of her range and I felt it along with her. Gu Won was in rage mode! His red eyes…what activates it? I remember the last was when he ended the contract with the lady that came into his office. Did he always have those red eyes when he ended the contract? No right?
And so I’m watching as much Lusi’s drama as I can…I started the Last Immortal even though it potentially is not a great drama but ZLS…
@WE I love good lines, I have a collection of them. Though I remember how many Shakespeare lines I have remembered and memorized in my school days..and now with my kid.
Any good lines you like in this drama?
@Arihsi, I know!! I am loving YooJung more through this drama, it brought out a lot more of her range and I felt it along with her. Gu Won was in rage mode! His red eyes…what activates it? I remember the last was when he ended the contract with the lady that came into his office. Did he always have those red eyes when he ended the contract? No right?
@grace I think they are assisting Song Kang in demonstrating blind rage/ “demon mode” with those red irises. From story point of view, I think it didn’t happen till Ep 10 because he didn’t have his tatoo with him.
I can’t see a way out ? He can’t be reborn at this point for god’s sake. Then he’d be fit to be Do Hee’s child, not her lover what with a 25 year age gap.
Wrt your favourite scene, I am right there with GW in not agreeing to keep living for posterity YET AGAIN without DH. Man has done it once already. He’s been condemned to hell already. In multiple previous dramas, supernatural leads have choosen an end to their endless suffering by choosing to die instead of their lovers.
@Arihsi, I have NO idea what’s next. Like how will they have their happily ever after? Will he be pardoned be humanized?
What I can’t understand was why DoHee would shield GuWon from the gunshot when he can actually self heal? So she saved him first….again! (Remember the time she saved him from drowning?) And in return he saves her from her death. He is able to this now because he has resolved that he can die for her. I wonder if history will repeat itself…as in when they save each other, they redeem each other’s fate…like in the petrol station explosion.
I think it’s because she loves him beyond reason. I’m ok with this part. I don’t see it as a plot hole.
I’ve been in a real life large magnitude earthquake and riot situation (at two different times). Based on my experience, I’m very willing to believe that DH won’t remember that GW can heal himself and needs no shielding when she sees the bullet coming. You sincerely don’t remember these things when it comes to pure survival.
@grace, they are maybe, but I can’t remember well.
The line of the butler about “we are partner in this capitalist world” or something like that, I put it in a comment.
I like more a whole situation. Ep02, in the car, about having sex here. This scene was the best of this drama.
Else, about the cheesy lines, I wrote some on MDL, right if they were from the drama. lol. Not difficult to find. Everybody here was about explode their heart, and find me a nice guy, even I’m trolling a lot. But it makes me think a drama needs some lines like that. I put some in mine. Here, as a spoiler, I give you one:
“I won’t let anyone hurt you. Not even yourself.” 🙂 🙂 🙂
@grace I remembered something else ! There was some stuff about a demon’s heart being his weakness? That’s why the earlier contract killer stabbed Gu Win’s heart ? And this Suk min has read the demon manual ?
Thus Do Hee tried to protect him being shot in the heart (as Suk min knew his weakness) ?? And it wasn’t due to survival instincts but storyline 😅 ?
@WE ooo…such nice simple lines. I’m gonna go search for them!
@Arihsi,
It must have been so scary to be in those situations you were in. So glad you are safe now. It’s true that when in survival mode how decisions made becomes for the sake of survival and…love!
Yes it can very be likely a reflex love decision Do-Hee made and though I wonder if there were other reasons. I’m looking forward to tonight’s episode!
Sorry, @Grace.
I don’t know why this comment of yours got sent to my “to be moderated” pile but I fished it out already.
I have nothing to say about this drama. It was ok.
@grace, thank you. It was very scary, I won’t lie. But God’s grace, I did not suffer any personal loss during these events. a LOT of people did. 💔
I’m calling this drama King the Demon or Lo Cal Goblin…
Like King the Land there was a LOT of filler scenes of two pretty leads doing pretty things together (eating, drinking PPL, biking, etc.) and the ML wearing smashing ensembles (here the FL also). Like Goblin, he disintegrates … and then comes back (but we don’t know where this demon came from. Out of thin air? From the GOOD/GOD hat lady’s mind?) Also like Goblin he saved the FL when she was in her mom’s womb (but here her dad paid a price for it). [What kind of God would answer people’s prayers/pleas through a demon that sends them to hell in 10 years? How could you send a parent to hell for wanting to preserve their spouse and baby? I didn’t get the theology of this show at all. A father/husband wanting to save his family isn’t equivalent to a greedy person wanting to be rich.]
I could imagine being married to a Goblin who sometimes helps people—but a demon?! And they didn’t answer the problem of what would happen as she ages and he stays young…
I FFed through most of this so maybe I missed some of these points
Ep 15.
The big nothing. Boredom, clichés, fillers, flashbacks, slapstick secondary characters.
Until the last part where:
– The villain kidnaps Do Hee. A rifle in his car.
– HUGE PLOT-HOLE: no explanation of how he survives falling from a skyscraper.
– He explains to Do Hee that he disfigured himself so as not to be caught by Gu Won.
– But two seconds later, he asks him to come. Without his gun, just a knife.
– Gu Won’s grand entrance, power-cheese, walls shaking.
– Villain knocked out with a stone slab to the chest.
AND…
– Gu Won and Do Hee cuddle WHILE TURNING THEIR BACKS. Forgetting him.
– Still TURNING THEIR BACKS TO HIM, Gu Won magically removes the stone slab.
– And as THEY HAVE THEIR BACKS TURNED FROM HIM…
The villain has time to go to his car, grab his rifle, come back and shoot Do Hee.
Yes, that’s the horrible cliché you’ve seen in the lame TV series of the ’90s.
Or in any other horrible B-movie or mediocre series.
The one where the villain is a bit knocked out and everyone turns their backs to him to give him time to strike back. Yes-yes-yes, it’s that ultimate crap.
INSTANT RAGE QUIT !!!!! 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
I don’t care to see ep 16. MY DEMON: GO TO HELL.
As a precaution: Yeah, I see you coming GB, as a stalker on this topic.
With a big:
“AH AH AH, you shouldn’t have tried this drama. AH AH AH, I dodged the bullet from the start. AH AH AH, so WEnchanteur, are we pissed off? AH AH AH !!!”
My comment is blocked. Maybe a prohibited word? Nothing that crazy, though.
That’s okay. I found it @Wenchanteur and approved it.
@pm3, thanks.
Maybe it was “go t.o h-e-e.l”. But I needed it for doing the words joke. 😉
@WEnchanteur – I felt the same way after (semi) watching episode 15. Yet I tuned in for episode 16 to see how they would inevitably bring back Mr. Demon. Just as I feared, it was presto-chango Mr. Demon reappears because hat lady/God makes it so without any explanation of where he had been.
So–Demon is saved from hell/oblivion because he saved Do Hee but her father is condemned to hell for saving her (in utero) and her mom. The worldbuilding here makes absolutely no sense and follows no rules. Oh but aren’t our leads pretty?
I’m so glad I mostly FF-ed through this thing. The only things worth mentioning were: the fabulous wardrobes of our leads; great sword dancing by WolSim and what’s her name at the foundation; and upon further reflection, I can’t think of anything else.
@BethB. We can see the demon resurection as a good joke:
A Uninhibited Deus ex-machina !!! 😀
It’s overall a 8h kdrama. But you are right, there are also trouble with worldbuilding, or the high-concept. We don’t have much information about that, is he the only demon here? With more effort to build and develop the concept, I’m sure there was a way to produce something more exciting, with enough twists and content for a 16h drama.
Plus, I don’t see the point to use some christian concepts when here we have a hobo-god-woman who’s in fact both God and Lucifer. (if I understood well)
Simply put, I didn’t like the drama. There are multiple problems with it that @BethB and @WE have already pointed out.
DH aging but GW not, how did GW come back, why would any “God figure” irrespective of religion grant wishes through a demon, why will anyone be punished for wishing well of their family and wanting to protect them etc many MANY threads were just left untied.
It became boring and one had no choice but to FF.
Initially, I had thought as a demon, he would make deals with bad guys – killers, drug kingpins etc. and those baddies would then pay for their horrible karma by going to “heel”.
I hoped our demon would later find correct path/salvation through developing empathy for human suffering from his love for DH- but no. He takes people to hell for wanting to save their children – wow. Just wow.
Everyone, I’m so glad I dropped this drama in the first Episode or so. Thanks for your comments! I’ve only read sporadically but they justified my decision to run from this drama as soon as possible. LOL
@Arihsi: all I can think with this resolution is their intimate life in bed, when he’s still 20yo and she’s 80yo. EPIC sensation in my imagination. I can hear the wood creaking.
@WE!! I had to burst out laughing…I also wondered how she will be old and he will be forever young but because it is the drama world, I’m not gonna care about their future…
Guwon: Do Do-hee, your time goes by too fast.
DoHee: That’s what makes this moment even more precious.
I guess the writer asks you to be short-sighted and stop thinking about the future of this drama. End of story…like a fairy tale happily ever after.
Since this was a family watch with my family, AND I couldn’t FF so I can watch faster, I watched everything on 1x, I rather enjoyed it actually. I know its flaws and the similar story plots from other stories we are familiar with. But I enjoyed the main leads eye candy…which is why they ‘overdid’ their romantic moments? I enjoyed watching Song Kang even though he isn’t what you call ‘hot’ category but more like ‘cool’ kid…puppy cute category for me.
I did wish they made a resolution and made GuWon into a human, so in a way he is finally able to actualise their life together. Their previous life was cut short.
AND I wished they gave a reason how GuWon ended up being a demon. I mean, is it like in Tomorrow drama where you can get an assignment because of some reason?
I would think in the Catholic belief, you DO not come back to life into the human world and that means DoHee would not have been reincarnated. It is a mish mash of religions in this storyline that feels out of place.
Is it the scriptwriter’s style to write storylines that mix up well known principles (she wrote Mr.Queen).
BUT I have to say the styling, matchy beautiful clothes (GuWon’s the wildest but he looked good in most of them). The cinematography is beautiful. Those beach sunrise sunset scenes, the falling at the balcony scene, the firefly scene, the past flashback scene where she was dancing. I love the colour schemes. It’s like a pretty package. You know how Japanese snacks are wrapped so beautifully in boxes and individually wrapped in beautiful textured packaging…this was My Demon’s ‘outfit’. I fell in love with that.
The flaws weren’t that bad for me to give it up altogether though I was aware of it. All in all, I enjoyed the watch! 😀
@pm3, thanks for the approval! I think I could have sent the comment in twice.
Hope you get to finish this drama! I’m reading very mixed reviews from all sides. Curious on your review of it!
Wait! Hold on a second. 🙂
Let’s give credit where credit is due. People often get this wrong.
“Mr Queen” was an adaptation of a Chinese drama, “Go Princess Go.” It was rewritten for Korean audience by TWO screenwriters: Park Gye-ok and Choi Ah-il.
As far as I could tell, Mr. Park was the lead writer. I say that because he got the most flak from knetizens for the Chinese influences in the drama. It was brought up during the “Joseon Exorcist” brouhaha because he also wrote that one.
“My Demon” can be solely credited to Choi Ah-il. I would consider this her first major work. Prior to this, “Mr. Queen” was the only drama on her resume. I wouldn’t go as far as to say she “wrote” “Mr. Queen” because that would suggest that she did it all on her own. At best, she “co-wrote” it with Mr. Park. At worst, she was the assistant writer.
In comparison, Mr. Park has a substantial body of work, going all the way back to 1995. (I checked mydramalist to count them all but there were too many. lol.)
@Pm3, I hold the second. 😬
Many flaws in the writing but biggest one:
After ep 6, it’s like the writer didn’t worked much the oultine than that:
Start of episode, Cliffhanger, and some informations/foreshadowing.
No strong moment in-between!
Then, when writing, add fillers and pointless scenes, secondary gogo characters.
What even an amateurish screenwriter wouldn’t do.
It’s fan fiction level.
@pm3, Ah! Thanks for clarifying that.
I’m not well versed in script writing so I’m still learning how to evaluate. I get the pointless scenes like @WE said, I agree on it but I also get that the pointless scenes is also possibly for the fans who don’t care about the storyline…but still!
It reminds me of many stories that start strong and fizzle in the end…even the ratings kinda of went down and plateaued.
@grace, I can detect a few more point about why and how. But anyway, as long as we are not in the writer room or in the writer mind to see how did the writer…
The usual process is to use outline, some use little cards (post-it), so you get the content of episode. And cross fingers the screentime won’t be too short or too long.
I use just notepadd++ with block of text I copy-paste and re-order as I don’t like post-it. And too, I use a lot my mind. I know a lot by heart, it’s so more easy. Still need to write plan, help to clarify and being confident.
What’s more complicated about kdrama, is you should do that for all the episodes first. Like a giant 16h movie. The more work during this phase, the more the drama will be dense about interesting content.
Of course, some scenes, you could just write two lines in the outline. And I did. I had even missing scenes (various transitions). But I had also many scenes in the draft. Each time I made errors of screentime, bingo, my outline wasn’t enough detailled. Well, it creates screentime problems, but it can be very good scenes too.
Anyway, as I didn’t have a contract saying, give exactly 16 episodes, it was more easy. I can put only good and dense content mostly necessary for the story and zero fillers. I manage to cut into episodes with cliffhanger, moving scenes from one episode to the other, maybe using flashback or flasforward. Then, I don’t care it ends to be 8, 16, 24 or 32 episodes.
But pro screenwriters have this problem to manage, to boot.
Is the whole story ok for the number of episodes?
– My Demon, obviously not.
– W, crash! the writer did 17 episodes when 16 were asked. Well, no problem to have dense and only interesting content here. lol.
– Death’s Game, sounds perfect, but more easy, only 8 episodes.
– Empress Ki, mystery, how they did 51 episodes? I can’t believe they can outline all beforehand, or a dezoom outline. As clues, last episodes were rushed. (what is insane in a kdrama already so fast paced).
@GB, if you’re ever in the area.
You were talking the other day when: the writer doesn’t respect the audience.
That’s exactly what we have here.
It’s like insulting the intelligence of the audience.
What did the writer want to do at the end of the drama?
A copy of Goblin or other similar dramas: the hero must sacrifice himself, then come back.
Plot created in reverse time, starting from the desired result and building towards it. A process I’m not criticizing, on the contrary! But it has to be used in the right way, with a credible path. But here, it’s the opposite. To achieve her goal, the writer creates a series of stupidities.
– Bringing back the villain after his fall from a skyscraper. Huge Plot-Hole.
– The cliché of the villain out of combat, the hero turns his back, the villain counters.
– The heroine sacrifices herself to save the hero, when he could use his superpowers.
– And finally, a Deus Ex-Machina to bring the hero back to life.
Not only do we see all the puppet strings, but we have to accept the illogic, and the sudden stupidity of the characters forced to act as they shouldn’t. Plot contrivance.
@WE
I know what you mean and if you’re fed up, I also know the feeling. 😡 I just heard a person say that another Show insulted our intelligence, so this is far from being the only one. From the start, I had the unfavourable sense that this Show would do that. It would be a waste of my time to try and find something good in it, to justify why I was spending my limited time on it. 😒
It didn’t care about how we are investing our time, interest, our brains, … to watch a Show. It was written without care for the script, the actors, the whole production team or the viewers. 😤 That’s why I said that I felt it would not/did not respect the viewer. I didn’t want to hang around to continue to be insulted.
I hope it was at least an additional learning journey 🤓 for you on all the things to be avoided, but I don’t think you actually needed to take this journey. You have a very good base for knowing when something is written well and where errors are made. 😎
All I can say in consolation is that there are better shows and may you enjoy those and get rid of the bad taste 🥵 left by this one. 😆😇
The script fizzled after the first half but I was too invested and had to finish the show. I wish Netflix had a speed up option on my tv.
A silver lining – I am still enjoying most of the soundtrack. Current favourite is
https://youtu.be/gE36GXSY6o4