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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Believe or not death is really painful
This show that told us even it's every episode little was interesting✨Episode 1✨
"You are guilty of coming to find me before I came to find you."
✨Episode 2✨
"Isn't it that what you humans do? You care more about the thorn in your own finger than the knife inside someone else's body."
✨Episode 3✨
"At first, it felt so unfair. But now, I regret being trapped in a prison called death after going out of the way to ruin my own life."
✨Episode 4✨
"Humans always struggle to live only after they die, not while they are still alive."
"The reason we're afraid of death is because there will be no tomorrow."
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Originale
Cette série est originale de part son intrigue et son contexte. Il y a pas mal d'acteurs, certains sont vraiment de courte durée et d'autres durent plus longtemps... le personnage de la mort est mon préféré , ça façon de parler en énigme et ça façon d'être m'on fait sourire plus d'une fois. Le héros aurait mérité quelques paires de claques, ces réactions puériles sont devenues soulantes mais dans ces épisodes on ne traine pas , pas le temps de pleurer sur son sort la mort l'envoyait à une autre vie rapidement et on était à nouveau pris dans une nouvelle histoire.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
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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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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Interesting plot
LIKEI loved how every character played their parts in each re-incarnation - especialy loved the third one Hyuk Soo's life
DISLIKE
Nothing to complain for part one
MUSIC - personal fav
It's A Lie - Sondia
Even If There Is No Miracle - Seo In Guk
REWATCH VALUE
Five for now
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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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Gripping show that ultimately falls flat
I don't really write reviews, but this drama had me thinking as soon as I finished it, and I really had to get my thoughts out.First, the positives. Death's Game is a gripping show. It hooked me from beginning to end, and I binged the entire show in one sitting. The acting is phenomenal, although Death was a little one note, but what can you really do when playing the immortal personification of death itself? The serial killer subplot in particular was probably my favorite part of the entire show, but I mostly consume crime related dramas so that's no real surprise.
So, the negatives. Death's Game takes a very reductivist attitude to suicide in a way that bothered me quite a bit. If you boil down the main message the show seems to be trying to convey, it's essentially "Be grateful you're alive, your death would hurt the people around you." Or even something like "Keep living and trying just as the ones before you, look how hard others have it compared to you."
The sin Death spoke of very early on in the show is revealed to be Yijae not even thinking of how he hurt his mother (and Jisu, although Death only really seems to focus on Yijae's mother). Should Yijae have considered how his actions would affect those around him? Probably, but suicidal people are not in the frame of mind to be thinking of others. If you have reached the point in life where you are seriously considering jumping off of a building, you need psychiatric care, not the personification of Death cuffing your ear and telling you you're ungrateful and selfish. Death's trials were entertaining and made for a good story, but the ending really left a bad taste in my mouth, even if it was technically a happy ending.
One last thing, which is probably nitpicky but I'm writing this, so I might as well. Jisu's death was a part of a series of dominoes falling that led to Yijae getting his second chance. Yijae waking up and getting that second chance essentially means she will never be there to be hit by the psychopath (I honestly forget his name). This means the series of events changes, so Yijae will never get his second chance? Or will Jisu still die just as she did? Did the things Yijae do as others still happen, or do they not since he did not jump? Which means psychopath man 1 and 2 are still out there? I love time travel fiction. Unfortunately it is rarely done well, due to the nature of the concept. Time travel is incredibly difficult to write well due to the plot holes and impossibilities that always emerge. This show is no different, and I think the ending is so brief because the writer knew this. You are meant to take the ending as a happy moment and immediately move on, since thinking about it for even 5 minutes makes it fall apart.
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Good message, but little character development
Starting this show, you will be left a little confused, but it progresses very fast, making the show very binge-worthy. However, even after watching everything, I feel like the character development is very poor, not taking into account the last episodes, it is almost non-existent. The character shares some valuable insights in the meaning of life and why we should always try, bur at some point it got very repetitive and death's arrogant personality did not make it a lot better. What I was hoping for was a little bit more character development, although it seemed like the Choi Yeejin learned his lesson, he did not really seem to progress and that made me very frustrated.Apart from that, it is quite a masterpiece, seeing how the story gets clearer and clearer with every episode, therefore I highly recommend to watch it, especially if you like mystery!
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