Death's Game Part 2 (2024)

Nothing different but good enough for what it is.

- Will review the drama as a whole (including S1)
- Will have some "social commentary" so if you're not into taking things too "deeply" this isn't for you.

This is my first review. I was compelled because of the main subject matter of this show: desperation leading to suicide.

Let's start at the opposite end.
1. Rewatch Value
It may be good to rewatch to see clues but personally the show is too heavy to rewatch so I gave it a passable 7.0.

2. Music
It was excellent especially the scenes with the main antagonist. It really made me feel like he was dangerous.

3. Acting/Cast
I liked the idea that we have the true protagonist (Seo In Guk) but he rarely shows when he is in the body of someone else. Most of his scenes were either flashback or with Death. In this way, it showcased the acting chops of the other actors (his reincarnations), who portrayed their parts excellently. Special props to Yoo In Soo. He played the pathetic bully to a tee. I love that he can play antagonistic (All of Us are Dead) and comedic (Good Bad Mother) roles very well. It really shows his range. Also, Kim Ji Hoon, who played the main antagonist. Roles like that really make me want to play villain roles even though I'm not an actor.

Mind you, even though Seo In Guk's scenes were mostly with Death, he was still able to portray his party extremely well. When he was laughing after being killed by Park Tae Woo, I really felt how good he was. I was having a slump with good-looking yet not very skilled actors recently, but he brought me back to believing in Korean's acting skills which I was impressed by when I started watching Kdramas. I used to be apprehensive because I thought they were all handsome/beautiful faces with no substance, but I was proven wrong before.

Now on to the main portion of this review.
4. Story.
I liked it for what it was. But it was nothing new. Plenty of stories like this have been told with that end in mind---for the protagonist to realized what he/she did/thought wrong and they are always wrong in them. Other tropes/gimmicks of this kind are 1. body switch stories wherein the two people in misunderstandings get to understand each other; 2. I wish I was never born stories wherein a spiritual being of some kind will help the MC realize that he/she was actually loved all along or that his/her life wasn't that bad. And while stories like this have good intent and have a place in media, it is overtold and lacks nuance. The end goals of these stories are "What about them," which is the case in this story. It shows, yet completely glosses over the pain and troubles that the MC goes through because "What about them."

In the case of this story, it (and major spoiler here though it wasn't really a big twist) was about his mother. What about her struggles and what about her love. The whole point of the story was Death, who I believe wasn't sadistic but only trying to teach him, was to make the MC realize that he was too caught up in his issues to see who could be hurt with his passing. In as much as I appreciate the value of that in storytelling and as it relates to real life, (because stories are made to relate to real life and say something about it no matter how fantasy-oriented the story is) it, just like other stories, have always been "But what about us," completely failing to fully recognize the plights that the MC experienced. Yes, it showed us his trauma and his messed up state of mind, yet it completely was disregarded that in favor of other people. By no means am I saying the emotions of the people we have relationships with don't matter, but ours should be as equally validated.

This, as I said, related to real life. Often times, those going through a tough time or those with mental health issues or trauma are told to just suck it up because what about other's feelings or because others had it worse. Their feelings are not validated and they are guilt-tripped. They are expected to be better without help just because "what bout them." I recognize the fact that the MC wasn't given a diagnosis or depression or whatever, but it was still shown that he wasn't in a healthy state of mind. What healthy person, who studied in a prestigious university, goes SEVEN YEARS without a full-time job? Yet he was still blamed for his final act of desperation (taking his own life). I have heard it many times in real life as well. "They were selfish, they never thought about how we would feel." My thoughts were aren't you selfish for failing to recognize the desperation your loved one must have felt to do what he/she did. I personally relate because I had an uncle who did the same. All that came out of my mother's mouth were that he was selfish and he didn't think about them. Not once did she say what could she have done to help him. These stories always fail to acknowledge that the MC's were truly desperate and feel like there's no way out. Not to justify what they did and not to say people will not get hurt, but to just understand and empathize without saying they were wrong or selfish.

These stories also often fail to acknowledge the shortcomings of those around the MC's and mostly center on the MC's shortcomings taking the form of "They were selfish." In this case, the mother and to an extent his girlfriend's failures weren't truly under the spotlight, only his. Actually, only the GF's was really shown on one scene when she told him couldn't he just try harder. It was as if he wasn't for all those years. Mind you, I don't consider neither the mother nor GF to blame nor to be awful people. It was just portrayed that they were such lovely people while diminishing the loveliness and thoughtfulness of the MC himself. Sure it was shown he was sweet in the form of the pen for his GF and the shoe for his mother, but it wasn't such a big highlight as their love and sacrifices for him was.

Going back to the mother, her failures were never shown. She was this overwhelmingly good force who only loved her son the best she could. And she did. But this not take away from the MC's own desperation. Sadly, Death could not care less about the MC's own feelings. If his mother truly was this paragon of motherhood, how was it that she allowed her son to get to such a low place? Again I am not tainting her. My point is just to keep both sides into perspective not to justify, not to side with, just to understand and empathize which these kinds of stories never really do. It is always how dare you! Your pain and desperation does not matter. You are selfish for not thinking about them when you are in such a low place. I wish their would be more stories that took a more "balanced" approach to these kinds of stories, not to blame but to seek to understand.

To add to this, I saw a comment saying these kinds of parent-centric storytelling are often based on culture. I agree. I am also an Asian in a parent centric country wherein even if the parent actually does you harm (unlike the MC's mother) you must still respect, love, and repay them for having you.

That was the end of the "social commentary" part. Now on to some loopholes or things I found weird.

a. Why did he live in his mother's body for 32 years to keep her alive? Didn't Death already say that when he goes into someone else's body, they were already dead. So isn't it pointless for him to say that because she was already dead by that point. Though I understand it, sort of, from the point of repentance. It was him punishing himself. If that was the only reason it seems slightly acceptable, I guess.

b. When did she die? Did she die 32 years after already and he was returned 32 years prior (because it was shown Death can return him to 7 years earlier) or did she die recently? I know it doesn't really matter but I wonder if his death lead to her dying soon as well.

c. His memories were inconsistent. With some characters he only knows little about them. Like he didn't even know his model reincarnation's brother. But in some cases, he knew everything when it was convenient. That to me was an odd choice. Like he suddenly knew what his other incarnation's were up to so he could capture the antagonist and he knew his mother's whole life too.

d. How did he not know his girlfriend's big brother? I think someone said they dated for 3 or 4 yrs? I didn't really care to read that part. Social media is so popular in South Korea and hello even if he didn't have one, didn't she show him a picture of her brother to him?

5. Overall Score: 8.0
I actually rated it a 9 in my own list because the story made me want to finish it as soon as possible, but I wanted to be more objective in this review because this story really isn't anything different. Regardless, I was having a slump finishing dramas recently but I actually didn't drop this one. I also liked the shifts in tone. It was very well done; it wasn't weird; it made sense. It goes from dramatic and depressing to thrilling and action packed to wholesome and lighthearted and back to dramatic. I also liked that the end he was reincarnated to his mother's body. In the end I was thinking hmm will his last be his own body so he can change things, since he was reincarnated into the man who killed himself, but when I thought about it, that was too easy. Still, it wasn't a major shock. I knew they wanted a "twist" of some sort. Everything was leading to it after all so there was only one other body he could end up other than his own. They tried to hide that by only making him incarnate into men's bodies. In addition, I thought that it was nice that they were trying to mislead us into thinking that he was being punished because he killed someone else when he feel from the roof. I liked how that was done. But I did realize how easy it was to see how absurd it was that he had a photo of himself when he jumped. They also tried to add to this the man whose daughter was killed in a hit and run to confuse us even more. Still, Death, itself, wasn't very vague when it was trying to tell him about his fault. It really was just about the people he left most especially his mother.

Overall, it's one of my favorite dramas. But I'll never rewatch it alone because it's too heave like Hi Bye Mama which coincidentally stars Kdrama's Mother too. Hopefully in the future there will be more nuanced stories of this kind.

Lees verder