Explore what a life worth living is while diving into the world of various social issues.

⚠️ SLIGHT Spoilers ⚠️

// Intro //

At first, "Death's Game" literally felt more like a fever dream than anything else. I wasn't entirely sure where it was headed, and nor did the producers I presume, until the last few episodes, when the plot, characters, and ideas all merged and the message of this show truly began to crystallize.

// Story //

Enter Choi Yee Jae. Exposition of the world he lives in, the people around him, and the issues he deals with are basic yet well-done, but it is entirely the development of the rest of the show that really sets it apart. This is not any cozy drama that you cuddle up to watch; it's a thoroughly intense yet thrilling drama that will keep you on the edge of your seat, wanting for more and more of each reincarnation, even though you're aware of the fact that each life Yee Jae moves through must come to an end.

Initially, the lingering feelings from the end of a ruined life spill over into his initial actions, but as he cycles through each life, Yee Jae must learn a lesson. After all, why did Death even choose to sentence him to such a cruel game? Early on, Yee Jae is the personification of human greed and egocentrism, and that becomes painstakingly obvious as he cycles through each life and fails to understand what lesson he should even be learning from the pain he goes through until the very last reincarnation.

A major takeaway of this show is definitely the issues that it sheds light on, including school bullying, corporate corruption, and I could keep listing things, but what lies at the heart of the show is, as the name suggests, the concept of death. Whether or not you choose the death of your life, one thing that is made clear is that you should never come to approach death before it comes to approach you. This very lesson is weaved tightly even into the rules of the very game Yee Jae plays. However, I found the implications of such a rule to be almost unfair in a certain way, especially to people at risk of suicide—a similar message to that of the show "Tomorrow".

And eventually, I came to the realization that this is a lesson that undermines the struggles and helplessness that suicidal people go through in their life. Even though suicidal people may have loved ones surrounding them, what about those that don't? The show tried to preach with religious undertones that almost felt like proselytization, and I don't think that this should be the underpinning of a show for the general masses. Another user pointed out that it would've been more valuable to let Yee Jae discover the true values of life, like, for example, how he may be able to reach self-actualization according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which could've been a far more satisfying ending than the constant droning that his act was "selfish"; he himself was suffering, so how could Death undermine his own suffering by forcing him to experience that of others!

The show wrongly tries to generalize the final message that suicide is wrong because it affects your loved ones to all suicidal people, when in reality this is most definitely not the case, with many having no loved ones at all. The juxtaposition of a flawed lesson with superb everything else, like the cast, production, etc. leaves me confused as to how to rate this drama, and this ended up making me give it a 6, solely due to the lack of an ethical message.

// Cast //

Needless to say, this was one of the most star-studded casts of all time. To be exhaustive in the list, we had our favorite 꽃미남들 including but not limited to Lee Do Hyun, Lee Jae Wook, and Yoo In Soo, favorite 아저씨들 Kim Jae Wook, Kim Won Hae, Oh Jung Se, and Jeong Hee Tae, favorite 아줌마 Kim Mi Gyung, and many other duly appreciated appearances like 우리 애기들 Kim Kang Hoon and Oh Ji Yul, our queen Go Youn Jung, and very unexpected appearance by Super Junior's Choi Si Won. Most of their appearances were short-lived and fleeting, but each and every actor, as expected, put on their best show for this show. Not a complete K-drama afficionado myself, but I wonder how they managed to get all these splendid actors.

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