This review may contain spoilers
Death’s Game has an interesting and thought-provoking premise. There is also fun to be had from spotting famous Korean actors in cameos or supporting roles. The amount of blood is not too surprising since death is the main topic but it gets very very gory several episodes in -- the type that curls your toes and feels gratuitous after awhile. On the plus side Seo In Guk does a great acting job, as do most of the other actors. But I wish that Park So Dam as Death had showed a little more nuance or range towards the end. Her acting seemed monotonous after awhile. There are also some logic gaps in the story that one has to ignore.Mild spoiler: This is a drama where nothing changes but at the same time everything changes. And it is pretty powerful as an anti-suicide argument. I give it points for that.
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Is this worth a watch? HELL FKN YES!!!
I think every time I think about watching a show I search for the comment that in short tell me whether i should watch this show or not. so for all of you like me I will simply give you the answer.YES, THIS SHOW IS WORTH ALL THE HYPE!!!
To add more to it... Should I even talk about the casting? the cast is an absolute gold mine. I cannot stop talking about it. such excellent actors all in one drama. what else does a k dram fan girl need?
The story arc for each one of them is so well written. 10 on 10 if you ask me. The acting, chemistry between all the actors, pace of drama, everything is amazing!
TBH I walked into this one thinking its a normal fantasy based drama but the thrill this gave me.... I enjoy myself some dark stories but there were times where I literally shut my eyes or paused to breath first...... I loved every second of it!
With a powerful message, beautiful cinematography, editing, and a star studded cast this is MUST WATCH!
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This review may contain spoilers
Part 1
Long time quite intrigued to watch this. Since now I'm a little bored with typical drama, so I decided to jump into this drama. Haha... Happy to watch this. Good drama with unusual story that's in the end help us self respect.People often said the biggest SIN is when u took ur own life. Yeah in here we can see how angry Death when face with the man, Choi Yi Jae (YJ), that took his own life. Death decided to give YJ punishment by having him go through 12 life that supposed to end up dead. With one condition, he can keep the man life if he can avoid their death. So he went from rich man, student, baby, guilty man and the end of this part famous model.
In this part we see how at first YJ angry to Death until he tried to hang on in the life of Jang Geon Woo. And also in the end of this part he finally saw the thread of connetion between all the man he lived as...
Really exciting to see the 2nd part. Thank God they aired directly after part 1....
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the reality check in life
Honestly, I was skeptical of this drama at first but oh wow,this drama gave me such a reality check in my life that it is embarrassing now. first of all the cameo's in this drama made it so interesting and literal eye candy to watch and the love, family relations, and all the frustration the main lead goes through portrays a big slice of life, honestly, I agree with the fact this kind of dramas answers to the questions we don't like to acknowledge in life, the drama is well written with binge-worthy thriller, romance, action, drama. they round up the best cast for this show . It's such a short but meaningful drama that everyone should watch
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Glamorous cast, crazy stunts, $$$ production
It feels like a collection of famous actors visiting because there are 12 reincarnations. "Let's see how many famous people we can have for this drama." Just for the actors' appeal it's a must watch. Every single actor can act! Then there are the visuals/crazy stunts/production quality all top notch. Impressive for sure!I can't say the story has much depth as it revolves around the concept of "suicide is condemned therefore you have sinned."
That's how Korean Dramas are these days, pretty on the outside touching only the surface of society issues.
Just watch it for the actors and the stunts. It's entertaining overall.
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Death's Game: Action-Packed Thrills with a Satisfying Finish
"Death's Game" captivated me from the start with its compelling mix of weak hero class and John Wick-style storytelling in the initial episodes. The highlight for me was the thrilling fight scenes that added a dynamic edge to the drama.What I really liked was how all the characters' stories connected, adding a cool layer to the drama.
While the second half didn't quite match the brilliance of the first four episodes, it maintained a good overall quality.
Overall, it's a binge-worthy show, and even though a Season 2 might not happen, I'm satisfied with how everything wrapped up. If there was more, I'd be curious to see where the story could go.
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Side Character Stories are Fun!
I like the concept of this drama, even though the main plot is tragic. Also, death is very straightforward, and she never lies; I like that about her. Everything aside, I feel like Yee Jae should've had a grand scheme to survive because the only thing he thought of saving was the money and not the lives he got. He has six more lives to live in the second part, and it makes me wonder how he will utilize the chances he gets now. Just like Death said, he should stop being dumb now.Aside from that, out of his all lives, I liked the ex-convict's life because he seems to be more resilient and kind of smarter than the others.Plus he didn't get any chance in both his first two lives because they both were a few minutes from their death when he took over their bodies.
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One powerful episode.
This show thrives off of one powerful episode. The casting was very good, but the writing ranged from why to wow. I finished the show feeling maybe the show will get good on episode 9. It had a lot of promise and I do not feel it lived up to it at any point besides episode 4.I honestly believe that the high rating is because of how powerful episode 4 was. It made me feel real emotion and gave me great hope in where the show was going. I was willing to forgive episodes 1-3 for feeling incomplete and consider them a lul to help make an impact for episode 4. In episode 5 I kind of got sucked into his feelings for a moment and then I was like why? The show should have been more than this. It could have been great a show to talk about for a long time and maybe bring in a fresh perspective on Korean dramas as a whole.
Instead, we get a show that for what it was trying to say felt incomplete and even worse the ending made me feel like what comes next would be the real show. I guess it fits the narrative of the character Death the end is just the beginning. In a way, I suppose the show can be praised for achieving that.
I truly feel the wasted potential in this drama and it makes me want to revisit it in the future. I doubt I will, do not want to feel this disappointment again. I do not know what other people are thinking, but from my perspective, this shows high ratings are all hinged on one episode. I think that shows how great it could have been, and worth giving it a watch once. I will give this a could have been great rating.
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Great but weird
flow of the story is pretty good, how everything is connected is also good. premises, problem, and climax are pretty good too,every character is meaningful except the baby, i really don't understand why its there, mc doesn't seem to have gratitude problem. i don't know if those were addition or webtoon adaptation.
one thing that bugs me is the 'game' plot, the rule of how you can save yourself is weirdly mixed up or even contradictive as the story progressed, especially after part 2 later on. i might say there are no game whatsoever, its a losing game and outright punishment. which makes the ending questionable for me. I personally would have face any judgment with my heads up "i did my best, with every limits, ego and stupidity i have as a human". its not like the mc refuse to admit what he did is wrong nor he lives his life as an outright arsehole, he is not that desperate to make that request. if the game is a way to repent why suffer more ?, no guarantee that things will be better anyways
"death" says she gave a chance in the last scene. its weird that along the story she insist that she is no god and has no power over someone fate, her job is only to watch over the 'game''. and suddenly she plays god with giving mc a chance, if only they could think of a small detail that differs the usual "death" and the "death" mc saw in the last scene (eg hair/makeup), and the roulette is actually the judgment
im gonna be hated for this, but i think "death" actress kind of confused about her role, idk even she supposed to represent death but when i saw her acting 'fear' or 'intimidating' is not what i feel. it feels like iu in hotel de luna, cant say good or bad just not a fan of it.
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THRILLING AND ZERO PLOT HOLES
Only flaw of this show is that it finished too quickly!!! ):I really loved it! Not only for the cast which is AMAZING! But for the plot too.
It's definitely something new, but it ate and left no crumds. The thrilling part were always delivering amazing results.
And i felt soo bad at some point for seo in guk that i started too cry and i was so emotionally involved with this show whish is a good sign in my opition.
The whole industry is in this drama and I'm not kidding. Kim Ji Hoon THIS SLUT always have me in a chokehold. Every drama he does he's a total psycho and I'm always enchanted by him. AND I KNOW IT'S NOT NORMAL OKAY!!
Anyways overall this is a masterpiece and so fullfilling in every acpects.
ps: in some poing i started to ship choi yi jae with death which was kinda psychotic, but nvm...
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This review may contain spoilers
Unique storyline with amazing actors/actresses combination!
I love the story so much...Also everything is connecing each other. I actually started to watch this drama cause of the excellent actors/actresses.I didn't expect that the story is gonna be that awesome! That's so unique.There's so much life matter messages that give in the drama..And they gave that messages so well to us,
I appreciate that.
Especially, between the main character's mom and his girlfriend connection, their feelings meaning a lot of things in his life, but he's not aware of this connection and feeling are so special...He forgot how he gave value his mother and his girlfriend in the old days.
In the end, thanks to death (girl) he aware how special and important they are for him and life is value to live.
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Unhappy about a couple of aspects
March 2024. Watched Parts 1 & 2 together on PrimeI thought the casting for this was incredible. So many actors I love, in one drama, was frankly too good to be true and the acting was, predictably, great.
I really enjoyed the ways in which events began to expose a troubling connection. It wasn't obvious what that was to be, however, and even when revealed, was still far from final.
There are shocks, tragedies, grief, unfairness, manipulation and the old favourite, money and power.
The struggles are real and I don't think anyone could blame Choi Yi-jae. Having said that, there were numerous times his character didn't speak up, or did some truly stupid things; where his mother was concerned, especially. It numbed my mind.
There were also moments of brilliance in the plot though, but it did vere sharply between that and "What?!", at times.
Apart from Seo In-guk, I absolutely loved Kim Jae-wook, Lee Jae-wook, Lee Do-hyun and Kim Mi-kyung in this. None of them overacted and given LJW's part, he could have. His scenes were the most visceral for me.
Nice seeing LJW and Yoo In-soo acting together again, although in vastly different roles to Alchemy of Souls.
I do wish the story had focussed less on Yi-jae as being cruelly punished and more on his realisations, growing determination and self-worth, through the trials, as being healing. Those are positive lessons to drive home.
However, I found myself getting incredibly angry at times, because instead, to me, it really felt like they were saying suicide is a selfish choice, made with no regard for those left behind and should be a punishable act.
Selfish? Perhaps that is true, but only to a point. The reason being, it is a decision very, very rarely made by someone in a normal state of mind. Suicide isn't something a happy, mentally stable, rational person, would commit.
If life has become painful, terrifying, utterly hopeless, everything else becomes irrelevant in that person's mind. Death is, indeed, no longer frightening, but an escape.
So why portray it as though it was (is) done as a normal, conscious decision, with no care for loved ones? In that frame of mind, rationality has long departed, together with being concerned about the impact on others.
Were they trying to send a message, due to the frighteningly high number of suicide cases in S.Korea? I sincerely hope not, because it's cruel (especially to those left behind) and it's wrong.
The ending was totally perplexing, to me, for one huge reason, which I can't actually say, because it would be a spoiler... unless all the things he went through were indeed part of an elaborate game and not 'real'... but then, he wouldn't have been standing on the ledge.
Whilst I enjoyed the many actors, characters and their stories, the plot fell a little short and I wasn't happy, at all, with the unkind assumptions made around suicide.
I haven't seen the webtoon of the same name that this is based on and, therefore, don't know how close to it this drama is.
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