An unemployed man is overcome by his unhappy life circumstances and decides to take his own life.  But instead of dying, he finds himself face to face with a spirit called death.  Angry that he would look for death before his appointed time, she punishes him by sending him into the bodies of 12 different people who are all about to die. If he can find a way to keep them alive, he can live on in their body but if he fails to keep any of them alive, he will be sent to Hell.  And as he experiences life through the eyes of the bodies he inhabits, he begins to understand that life itself is a privilege that should not be squandered.  But saving their lives proves harder than he expected.  

Park So Dam as Death

Death lives in dark chamber in Hell, where she has control over the end of human lives.  She is outraged at the audacity which allows a mere human to think they can choose when to meet her.  So, when Choi Yi Jae ends his own life, she decides to punish him for his arrogance.  So she plans a punishment that forces Yi Jae to experience death 12 more times, by taking over the bodies of people set to die soon.  And if, by some miracle, Yi Jae can find a way to stop any of them from their inevitable death, he will be rewarded by having the opportunity to continue living their life until God calls them.  

Death is cold and unconcerned with the human condition.  But her inital disdain for Yi Jae does seem to evolve into a kind of reluctant interest.  It is obvious that she doesn’t have much affection for human kind in general, and yet she does seem to give Yi Jae a few crucial clues to his predicament.  Park So Dam plays this kind of steel edged character well.  And even though there is very little character development to the role of Death, she portrayed the character with a flair that made her interesting.

Kim Mi Kyung as Yi Jae’s Mother

Yi Jae’s mom has raised Yi Jae on her own her whole life.  Taking difficult jobs and working long hours, she has devoted her life to make a better future for her son.  But Yi Jae has no idea how his death would make her feel until it’s too late.  So he is saddened and shocked when his final life turns out to be that of his mother.  And he will do everything he can to cherish the body that gave everything for him.  

 ♥ Cast

I can’t say enough good things about this extensive cast.  I don’t think there was a weak link to be found.  I especially loved Kim Ji Hoon as the evil villain.  Kim Ji Hoon has already shown us that he can play this role in spades, but he was chilling as Tae Wook.  I loved how each character’s story gets told in increasing detail.  A lesser cast might have left me missing Seo In Geuk’s charming face, but instead they each carried their own stories with a clarity that made them important in their own right.   

♥ Tight Story

There is so much to say about the storytelling of this drama.  First the 8 episode format kept things fast paced and intriguing.  The writers did an amazing job of pulling all the story thread together carefully so that every character had meaning in the overall plot.  While the ending itself may have been a bit predictable, there were plenty of little surprises along the way to keep us satisfied.  

Death’s Character

As much as I loved Park So Dam as Death, and I think she played the role well, I didn’t always understand the character.  It was unclear how much power she actually had as Death.  Even though she seemed to really hate Yi Jae in the beginning, there were points where she almost seemed to be giving him clues as to how to beat his punishment.  And she seemed glad when he did.  Also, her getting involved in the death of Tae Woo seemed out of character for her.  I just didn’t always feel like her personality, roles, or motivations were very clear.

Ending Questions

The end of this drama left me with a whole lot of questions.  If I understand this right, Yi Jae has gone back to before his death.  So does that mean that all the good he did in the lives of the others is now pointless?  There is still a pyschopath and a serial killer running around then?  And if everything else changes, will Ji Soo and his mother still die?  I could almost imagine a season 2 where Yi Jae goes out to try to save them all again as himself.  Left the way it is, it just seems a little sad.  

“Death’s Game” has a rather predictable outcome that gives it something of a happy ending for Yi Jae.  Yi Jae’s final life is in his mother’s body.  And he makes this one count.  In the end, he spends 32 years in his mother’s body, before she finally dies peacefully.  Back in front of Death, Yi Jae begs for a second chance to live his own life.  Death agrees to one last game.  She loads a single bullet into the gun, spins the cylinder, and lets him pull the trigger himself this time.  The final scene shows Yi Jae, back on the roof.  But this time as his mother calls him, he stops to pick up the phone.  Yi Jae has learned that he is irreplaceable in the lives of those who love him.  And although his circumstances haven’t really changed, it seems like he has gained the strength to go on trying.