Hometown Legends Episode 7

Story of the God of Death

First, this episode is by far the funniest of any of these (unless ep 8 tops it, which I doubt). Not a horror story, not really even a ghost story, or a mystery - this one's totally different from all the rest.

In this story's mythology, there are a number of "hell's envoys" or grim reapers, who are responsible for locating the next person to die and making sure that they actually do. To do this, they rely on a book which lists the names, ages, dates, whatever information they need to find the next person. The problem is that one of the junior reapers loses the book. One of the more senior reapers (played by Lee Won Jong) is blamed, and must enter the human world again to get it back. Laughs ensue (really).

It turns out that he's not the only one after the book, so things get tricky. Also, he's not used to being human or living with humans, so there are some nice fish-out-of-water moments too, and even moments of pathos.

This episode is directed by Kim Yong Soo again (like episode 4). This one has less of his trademark visual style, but definitely displays his penchant for unconventional music choices. It works though. So I guess I approve of the directing. As for the writing, who knew that a supernatural comedy caper story would actually work? And that it would be slotted into this series? I sure didn't. But I'm glad I watched it. I think this one's my favorite so far, but not too far ahead of the first episode.

Disclaimer: I suspect that I may have a strange sense of humor. I also almost always like stuff that Kim Yong Soo directs. A supernatural caper comedy may not be for everyone, and if you think you're getting a horror story out of this one, you'd be sorely mistaken. But if you like really fun and creative stories, and don't mind (or even seek out) a healthy dose of oddball music and general weirdness, you might like this one as much as I did.

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