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Overhyped
My friend's recommendation led me to this kdrama featuring Song Kang and Yoojung. Positive reviews fueled my anticipation.Intro: Encountered the intro on TikTok multiple times—it's catchy but carries similar fantasy vibes as Goblin. Yet, nothing beats the Goblin intro.
Story: The plot feels oddly familiar, reminiscent of dramas like Goblin and Doom at Your Service. Prior exposure to the ending on Facebook, with Guwon's body disappearing, raised suspicions of replication from Goblin. The parallels between Kim Shin and Guwon's journeys are hard to ignore—the past lives' connections, saving people from accidents, beggar as the Diety/God and even the disappearing bodies.
The plot lacks coherence, leaving me puzzled about the inexplicable transfer of Guwon's tattoo to Dohee. No discernible meaning emerged. Guwon's indecisiveness about Dohee's marriage proposal felt erratic. It's an easy watch, suitable for newcomers. The final episodes seem hurried, rushing Guwon's return for a swift happy ending. Seuk-hoon's ascent to chairman pleased me, overcoming initial doubts from my Vincenzo-induced skepticism of brown permed guys.
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EXTREMELY overrated
The appraisal of this drama is excessively inflated. So in other words, all of these reviews literally don't make sense. It has a boring plot, always the "met in past life" trope, jokes are extremely overused and boring. I'm so sure that the only reason people even watch this drama is due to it being Korean, having popular and pretty actors, and it just keeps making middle finger/f**k you jokes and I don't care about swearing but at some point all the jokes are way too used. I seriously don't understand what people see in this show.P.S: The female lead is actually so annoying, the way they tried to make her cool, independent but also kind, and soft inside I cannot emphasize how overused this trope is. Same with the male lead, but instead his character is new and unique but unique isn't always the good thing. The only good character in this show was the grandma, and of course the writer had to kill her off the bat.
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Full of clichés and the looks of a rich style magazine
This show is for some reason very overhyped.This drama was a chore to finish for me, but I'm the completitionist type and so I endured. Otherwise I would have dropped it around episode 4 or 5.
The plot in this show is laughable. It had potential as a premise if they had gone on a different direction but as it is, it's just pointless and it doesn't even bother in explaining how things work in the fantasy of this world. One of the main things that annoyed me so much is how they decided to include once again the super cliché of main leads knowing one another from previous life (hers that is) while completely ignoring the core christian believe that the whole series wants to portray. Nothing is really that explained anyway, even his powers as a demon are mentioned superficially. Actually, the fact he's a demon is just overall brushed over and it's a background prop to be used in some scenes. It could have been cool and more explored but it wasn't.
Both main characters did have a bit of personality at the start, something that made them more individual, but this is dropped very early on as soon as they start being together, they become baseline neutral with nothing unique. Their quirks are completely dropped . Rich girl meets rich boy and they fall in love, how refreshing. She also becomes damsel in distress and he's your average "bad boy" that is actually not bad but that it gives him the edge to be appealing to viewers. Whether he was bad or not it's not really explored, because except for a couple of grey area situations the show always wants to portray him as good.
In other clichés we also have here, we include two forgettable side characters that are interested in the main two (and mid show they were almost unbearable, especially Jin Ga Young).
All scenes and environments are very fabricated as if taken from a photo-shoot of the actors for a fashion magazine, and so it happens in outdoors scenes too, the little magical details are very on the face put there purposely, some little fireflies, some bubbles, some water droplets...etc.
This also brings me to the fashion. The whole show is basically a catwalk for upper fashion trends and their hair and makeup is always ˖⁺‧₊˚✦perfect˖⁺‧₊˚✦ Not even when they are in bed there is a hair out of place nor they stain the bed sheets despite having a cake of makeup on.
Continuing with the clichés we also have the funny side character couple that while it made me chuckle a couple of occasions and overall I think they were better than the main couple, some others it crossed the line too much into second-hand-embarrassment territory.
Side characters are just very superficial and add nothing to the story nor we learn much from them either despite sometimes having longer scenes than they should for that amount of pointless dialogue. This is the case of all office workers for example as well as some of the family members of FL.
The villains here are very cliché and their motives are just plain bad, and they all had itchy rashes because... they're sooo *evil*. There is a bit of a motive for their actions but then towards the end it crosses the line of absurdity. The cherry on top was main villain falling from that tower and surviving, eyes rolling I saw stars✧˖°
Some of the moments with more tension, like for example that moment between the end of episode 15 and beginning of 16 are solved in such an anticlimatic and fast way that you wonder why they even bothered. Clearly the whole idea of this drama was creating those ˖⁺‧₊˚✦perfect˖⁺‧₊˚✦ moments where they hug, kiss or look at each other and they filled the rest of the episodes with things in-between so it looked like something. But it seems they didn't even manage enough fillers to do this since after the beginning of episode 16 when they already solved the main issue they still had so many minutes to fill the episode with little bits of secondary characters that no one cares about because the plot didn't care for them before anyway. Also, Jin Ga Young spent half the series saying she was going but didn't lol and then when actually something interesting happens to her in the last episode that could have been explored as a small side plot and it's just left there. What the actual hell is this writing lol
There is not really a discussion on anything obviously, like morality for example. At one point FL is taken aback by the reality of the ML's work as a demon, but then it's brushed off because the script said so and because they have the lame excuse he saved her mother when she was pregnant with FL. It was as weak of a plot point as expected.
The most interesting character in this show is God, but obviously is a background character just so she could save him in the end. I liked the detail of her hat.
Overall I think that while there are shows that can be entertaining and use some clichés, this one almost was playing a bingo to see how many of them they could include in this show. For me personally what makes this one worse than some other shows that also use clichés is that overuse of very crafted scenes, fashion and hair/makeup that make everything look so much more fake rather than fantastical. Even their more intimate moments are just so on the face "we're doing this now" that it was taking me out of it and I didn't find it cute. This is paired with the fact I didn't think the main actors had that much chemistry and specifically ML actor was so stiff at times.
Something else that I found extremely annoying in this show are the recap scenes. Sometimes you would have a recap of scenes two minutes after some of the scenes in that recap had happened. This was so overused that I started skipping them. As I said, they simply didn't have enough material for this show and they reused as many scenes as they could as recaps of cute moments between characters or to reminisce about some character.
Product placement is also quite on the face many times.
Music is also very annoying, they reuse the same couple of songs continuously to no end. Also the song that one of the bad guys in the beginning was using and that becomes a trigger for FL, who in their right mind would say to their partner "now it's our song". Like, excuse me sir? just because you say now it's our song it doesn't mean the trauma is going to disappear. But here it does because script said so. I didn't suffer what FL had and yet every time that song appeared again it was irksome to me as a viewer so imagine someone that has nearly died and associates that song with a psycho. I would knock my boyfriend's head with a saucepan if he told me that song is "our" song now. No thanks!!
If you want to watch because of the ML, or you don't mind extremely thin plot and very fabricated everything then you might enjoy this. If you care about plot AVOID this, it's not worth the time I assure you. If you care about certain level of realisticness even in fantastical settings then avoid this too, there are no explanations for almost anything and the main focus is put in the main leads intimate moments and them walking from one place to another in ˖⁺‧₊˚✦perfect˖⁺‧₊˚✦ fashion.
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A fate that renews their faith and a love that reunites them—again
A deadly fight induces the defeat of an already lie-ridden and lust-driven chaebol family in a suspenseful feud over the nomination of the mystery heir that would come to inherit the role of CEO for Mirae Group following a suspiciously timed death. Regardless of the classic business magnate trope of which deems itself recurrent in modern day Korean dramas, ‘My Demon’ uses its commonality in a transformative way; bringing structure to the complicated fantasy themes brought to scene. The series excels with its stellar performance that depicts the jubilation, hardships and fear that accompanies the role of being the country’s top influencer.Its entirety—from outfitting and cinematography to script-writing and character complexities—exudes a sense of superiority that reigns it above all other releases. This is applicable to not only its genre, but taking into account its high viewership rating and audience response; indisputably succeeding it as one of the top dramas of 2023. Though the esteemed actors visibly play a pivotal role in its popularity and emerging fanbase, the series’ comedious usage of the notorious role of demons is unique and attractive to devotees of diverse genres, notably romance, fantasy, sci-fi, and thrillers.
The summoning of love rather than your typical demon serves a lesson that what is stronger than fear is weaker than the human complexion. This underlying declaration implies that the essentialness of being human and thus experiencing love can transcend even the strongest of emotions like being fearful. “What’s best for you is what’s best for me…” All that is needed in the face of challenges is each other and when Dodohee and Jeong Guwon open their eyes to this truth amidst all else, it’ll represent the true testimony of love which promises the show with its build-up of tension, rivalry and romance.
Their existences throughout the timelines presented intertwine in a fateful clash of ethics and principles in forthcoming to the eventual turn of events that leads the series into its mysticality. Their connection grows stronger through the difficult circumstances in which they find themselves, unveiling a healthy face to their relationship as they put in favor trust, responsibility and understanding. With Kim Yoojung personating a rich celebrity through Dodohee and Song Kang a handsome immortal as Jeong Guwon, together, the main leads journey to find meaning in their successful lives—but not without being at high stakes of losing the traditional values that hold together their respective mindsets.
They attempt to grapple onto their old selves and struggle to accept any change from the past, something that causes them both to get farther away from their reason to live; getting them farther away from what makes the insignificance of being human hold value....something of which viewers will get to piece together with the answers hidden throughout the sixteen episodes of the series.
Unpredictable but precise, impulsive and yet thoughtful, pressing, but nevertheless fatuous…The demonic antagonist has diverse contradicting personality traits that make for the quirky authenticity his character brings to ‘My Demon’ and Song Kang’s maybe-not-so-flawless portrayal of Jeong Guwon contributes a decent portion of the show’s overall wittiness. Rather it be unintentional or not, his serious attire, inexpressive face and monotone line-delivery was a laughable derailment to the certain scenes that can especially make one wonder whether those particular moments were even acted out in synchronization to the script, or completely out of character. Taking in consideration the actor’s mediocre embodiment of Jae-eon from one of his most recent previous lead roles in ‘Nevertheless’, it could either be lackluster performance from his part or a mere penchant towards taking on cold-hearted and stoic roles. Nonetheless, this characteristic aspect of Jeong Guwon itself took on a new face to the character, striking to viewers as yet another comedic appeal to the romcom.
As for Kim Yoojung, her role as Dodohee provides a strong consistency to the show’s romantic appeal amidst its outwordly ambience. The renowned actress has proven to have the remarkable talent of turning lines on a script to a whirlwind of emotions.
Overall, in the emotional aspect of the series, Dodohee’s rather structured and consistent persona paired with the male lead’s random and impulsive tendencies highlighted the polarity of styles between both actors; enabling a complementary duality to their connection.
The seamless harmonization between the fun storytelling of emerging secrets and the enigmatic anticipation of who would come to take on the country’s most reputed company amidst a gripping murder-spree was remarkably conducted into the exuberant romcom drama ‘My Demon’ deems itself to be. Its perfect execution of mystery and romance furthermore made for the extravagant dance of passion it ignited within viewers with its additionally enthralling take on the forbidden love between a fate-intertwined demonic power and a reputed influencer.
As expected, the couple’s fans are left in awe once more as their passionate characters grapple a hold on international k-drama viewers, bringing rise to the success of both acting careers.
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" We may destroy each other at times, but we're also the ones who save each other"
" We may destroy each other at times, but we're also the ones who save each other". Therefore, we are both each other's destroyers and saviors.
" My Demon" is one of the first kdrama i enjoyed watching without getting bored, i was always excited to watch the new episodes when it aired every Friday and Saturday.
STORY: My demon is a fantasy rom com that tells the story of Guwon and Dohee, it switched from supernatural, romance,
Joseon era (which is the key foundation to Guwon and Dohee's Love story),thriller, family drama, CEOxbodyguard, and just
the right balance and mix that had me waiting impatiently for the next episode. Guwon and Dohee's love story started
as enemies to marriage contract to lovers and fighting for love to be with each other. Though their fate was cruel to them,
they always found a way to overcome every trials they faced. The past live of Yisun and Wolsim was beautiful yet tragic. I
do have a lot more to say about this drama but i will keep my review short.
CAST: Song Kang: He played the role of Guwon, i liked the fact that he didn't remain stoic and cold and aloof the entire time,
rather he displayed silliness, malewife role , and his comedic side is so funny.
Kim Yoojung: I could feel the depth of her character Dohee just by watching her, she portrayed the role of a
CEO, a cute wife and a strong woman who is outstanding. I could also feel the emotions through her eyes as she
embodied Dohee like a real human who went through so many pain. The pairing of Song kang and Kim Yoojung together
created an explosive magical chemistry, that word's cannot describe and i am grateful to have gotten to know them more
because of this drama. The side characters all played well as each of them portrayed the characters of humans, The
gangsters are so funny and have a good enemy to lovers bond with Guwon.
Although the story of My Demon may have its ups and downs, I was truly invested in the story of Guwon and Dohee, their love story is really captivating and touching, as they went through so many eventful times were they had to save each other again and again until they finally conquered. The emotional connection between them made me feel the love they both have for each other. Though some may not like their cute couple moments but each time i watch them i always find myself smiling so hard.
WHY I LOVE MY DEMON
Kim Yoo Jung and Song Kang have good chemistry between them, the way they interact with each other, the eye contacts, and how comfortable they are around each other. They defined chemistry in the way i could not describe because i can feel just by watching them.
OST : My Demon Ost is so good as each song has meaningful words that adds to the story and the melody is soothing to my ear, my fav ost is "With You" by winter of Aespa girl group." True" by Yoari is also good as its the intro song used in the drama and i never for once skipped the intro even though i was eager to watch the new episodes.
ACTING : Song Kang played his role as a demon and human as he did a good job portraying the character of a self -absorbed demon, playful and funny human too. He has the potential of becoming a more better actor and I hope to see him excel more when he returns from the military. I have watched some of Kim Yoojung's drama and she is indeed a good actress who can portray different characters in one play, she did so well in her thriller parts i could feel the agony, sadness, happiness, and her crying scenes here in this drama and I hope for all the best in her career.
STORYLINE: I enjoyed the storyline in this drama, the angst scenes, the past live story which was a big part of this drama which was built with historical and cultural references, making it more bittersweet and so rightfully satisfying even though some people complained about this troupe it was very useful here as it answered all my questions. The religion aspect here made me like this drama more as I could relate to most parts that talks about Christianity and was also the link to Guwon and Dohee's story. I really have so much to say about this story but I think my review is becoming too long now.
PARALLELISM: The parallelism in My Demon is my roman empire because it explains that "history repeats itself " which is true and it happens. As their fate was cruel in the past but ended in the present as they both conquered all the hardships they faced and started a new beginning.
CINEMATOGRAPHY- Aesthetically pleasing throughout each episodes .
The story of Guwon and Dohee ended happily but left audience thinking if it's truly a happy ending because Guwon still returns as a demon and Dohee as a human and i say yes it is a HAPPY ENDING because Dohee wished to have him back and their lives are linked together, when Dohee dies so will Guwon because his life is her wish. This is also implied by God that said "silly humans" meaning that both in fact will go eventually brought back for a limited time. Also the good on the hat of God is now shining so it means good ending. They will always find each other and Love each other for as long as they can.
As i end my review, I would like to say that this drama may not have satisfied everyone but i was truly satisfied even though some mistakes were made, nothing is perfect but the story of Guwon and Dohee is Perfect and memorable, leaving me with so many quotes to remember.
My fav Quotes : " Caught in the crossfire of hatred and misfortune ceaselessly hurt each other and destroy each other's
souls. However, despite all that, our lives and this world continues. Perhaps that's because there are more
people who save each other with their love and trust".
" I can do all things through him who strengthens me - Bible verse Phil 4: 13.
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Not worth it unless you're bored
This drama starts pretty well. The story is not very original, it's one of those classic 'damsel in distress' plot with a touch of fantasy. Nothing wrong with that.My problem is with the main's character lines... It's like writer's believed that Kim Yoo-jung and Song Kang physical appearance's where enough to fill the plot. Instead of exploring the relationship on a deeper level, we're sitting through several minutes of empty stares, futile discussions or Jeong Gu-won chaging outfits like it's a fashion show. Don't get me wrong, I like playful scenes but this was painful to finish. Kim Yoo-jung and Song Kang may not be the greatest actors but this was an absolute disservice to their career (even though the ratings will say otherwise), specially Song Kang who already struggles with facial expression.
I wanted to stop after episode 10 but I pushed through. I do not recommend unless you have nothing else to do.
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seriously lacks
The next paragraph completely spoils this entire series. stop reading now If you haven't finished.It's entire series is killed by the penultimate episode. The main villain is pinned with over several thousands of pounds of concrete but in the span of 15 seconds despite literally on the verge of being crushed to death he's able to completely unpin himself, find a shotgun, and shoot the FL... Of all the things I've ever seen in a k-drama this is the thing that makes the least sense of anything I've ever seen.
It completely ruined the entire series and any enjoyment I got out of it. There's still over an hour left of this series and I don't want to watch it now because of the god awfully bad writing that I just witnessed.
you'll miss absolutely nothing if you skip this series, and frankly it's simply not worth it.
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Popular does not necessarily mean good or quality drama
It seems it is a trend nowadays to have good cast/actors but not a good drama. In MD, the FL seems to be the reason it is popular. She is popular and indeed she acted good. The acting (of the rest of the cast including the ML) is less than satisfactory. The comedy part is wanting.One area that noticeable in dramas (K or C drama) is directors have difficulty in the love story part. It is more often at best cliche; at worst stupid. Only a few dramas where directors got it right.
Just like the earlier commenter, it started good. Then it went astray...
But if you like the FL (like me) - then its ok to finish the drama.
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Disappointing
Another series that is disappointing and stupid especially in the last few eps.I was enjoying the show for the most part b/c the story was interesting to me. It's not my typical genre, but I thought the synopsis was good. The series ended up being nothing like I thought the synopsis would be. What I wanted was a love story between a demon and human but what I got was a story about bickering chaebols; one of which was extremely awful who brutalized ***********. Also, got some past life story that was completely unnecessary.
What I did like was the cast; Very good and I like Kim You Jung and this was my first series with Song Kang. I like him in this plus anyone who reads my reviews know pretty boys are my jam. I thought he and the FL looked great togther. I loved the character of Ms. Shin. Actress Seo Jung Yeon nailed the role as FL secretary.
The only character I sympathized with was Noh Do Kyung. The character broke my heart. Actor Kang Seung Ho was brilliant as someone slowly losing his mind and being tormented by someone who should have loved him.
3/4/24
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I could not avoid this one
"My Demon" is a drama i saw headlines of everywhere i went on the internet and my social circle,LOL. Everyone had great stuff to show and tell me about it so i was like, why the hell not? It was a exciting start and kept me on toes, this magical tale of a demon who makes a deal with a human. I felt the magic, darkness, enchantment and the romance in the air between the main-leads, reincarnated lovers and soulmates Do do-he & Jung Koo Won. Their exceptional love-story is the centre of it all in this epic tale where our demon becomes Do he`s savior in all the ways she never expected and she manages to stir feelings inside of him he thought he never could possibly feel. Jung Koo Won is a charming devil...witty, arrogant, dedicated, charismatic. And he thinks all humans are insignificant creatures...well except for when he meets Do-he,lol. I love this drama, its been so long since i watched a k-drama i really enjoyed like this one. It has one of the most stunning on-screen couple i have ever seen as well. This one gave me goosebumps, made me cry,smile and laugh and swoon with the magic and thrill of what was My Demon!Was this review helpful to you?
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What a big disappointment
This feels like an ordeal, to be honest.I only started getting hooked at episode 5 onwards; the beginning wasn't bad, but I thoroughly enjoyed episode 5 and 6 without watching it in double speed (which, btw, I have never watched so much of a show through double-speeding...). I wasn't as crazy about it as the rest, but the middle of the show was generally enjoyable and nice to be honest (episode 5-10).
Visually, the series is great. The leads look great - individually and together -, the styling is exquisite (oh, to have DDH styling...) and the sets/colors as well as the cinematography are stunning. I also liked the OST a lot, which offers ballads but also moody Pop (the title theme is pretty cool - even with the cursive singing lol).
The acting is alright. In my opinion, Song Kang lacks depth in his performance and definitely shines more in action scenes that are intense (I loved him in "Sweet Home" for example). But I don't think he has the subtle or eye acting down just yet. There are some actors out there who do that very nicely (for example just recently Jung Woo Sung, or also Namkoong Min and Ji Chang Wook). Maybe romance isn't his strength, i don't know. Though SK played the lovesick, goofy boyfriend very well. He was cute with his infatuation with DDH, I will admit.
I enjoyed Kim Yoo Jung's acting a lot, especially in emotional scenes (or also in episode 12 with the past life storyline). She also touched me in the last episode. Her acting in the beginning of episode 16 was quite moving, she made me shed a tear haha!
The other characters - didn't care for them. They were there to create drama - Jin "Star" (can't believe there was a weird attempt to redeem her somehow...) - or some were there for comedic relief - the office people or Noh Soo An.
The story is badly paced and boring. This should/could have been a 12-14 episode drama, but they dragged it out way too much. The episode 14 breakup was also unnecessary and didn't do the plot (or my viewing experience for that matter) any favor as episode 15 was boring and dragged. The last few minutes of the final episode also felt endless. It's like they had several scenes as the "last scene" and just put them all together, more and more scenes added - like stop, put an end to it.
I think overall, this drama was okay but I think it's a little overrated. The acting is so-so. the story is okay but not crazy - it's a cute show/fantasy rom-com for the vibes, but it's not as grand as people make it out to be. Which is okay, doesn't have to be.
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Will be keeping my review short
This show for me went from 9/10 to 6-7/10.Stellar cast, production, outfits bgm but lack of utilizing the story & giving depth. It started out so damn well & went downhill the moment they started adding filler scenes from ep 9 onwards. The mystery wasnt mysterying because they had to come up with the most predictable villain. The Writer just wasted jin gayoung & SML character. The SML was nothing but just a SML of any other kdrama & jin star was nothing but a one sided lover of guwon. I thought their role had so much more to offer. For a title like "Demon" on top of fantasy drama , it clearly lacked the demonic supernatural tropes it was supposed to provide.
Now on good side, i like the fashion sense of both ML & FL. I liked song kang's comical acting. He was clearly doing his job according to the script & did well. The comedy scenes before ep 9 were actually funny. I had a good laugh. But
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