Brief Story Line
Choi Yi-jae (Seo In-guk - Project Wolf Hunting, Doom at Your Service TV series etc) was a young man who had been really frustrated after failing to get proper jobs for the past 7 years. The situation was worsened as his girlfriend Lee Ji-su (Go Youn-jung - Moving TV series, Law School TV series etc) was more successful. Although Yi-jae's mother (Kim Mi-kyung - Switch, Welcome to Samdal-ri TV series etc) was always supportive, he still felt depressed and decided to end his life.
In the after-life, Yi-jae unexpectedly met with a mysterious being called Death (Park So-dam - Phantom, Record of Youth TV series etc) who punished him for committing suicide by making him reincarnate into other people and experience their death. Yi-jae was given the chance to live as the person he reincarnated into, if he managed to avoid the demise. But he would go straight to hell if he failed to do it after 12 times.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story LIne
Well as usual my wife was right. I was indeed entertained by the series with its interesting premise. Although I had seen stories about reincarnation previously but I never saw it done twelve times into different people. It reminded me a bit about the popular Western series Quantum Leap where the protagonist "leap" into other people and must solve their problem/issues until he could "leap" into another person in each episode. The distinct difference was in here, Yi-jae would have to die before he could reincarnate into a different person.
Anyway at first the reincarnation felt like fun as the persons Yi-jae reincarnated to were always unpredictable and he tried his best to solve their problem before the untimely and sometimes shocking death. But as the series progressed, it would soon be clear that it was not all fun with some dramatic and emotional moments involved. And it was enhanced especially after the first half of the series (it was divided into two parts, 4 episodes were released by Prime Video on 15 December 2023, and remaining four on 5 January 2024). The second half felt very dark and gloomy as Yi-jae became increasingly annoyed and desperate with each reincarnation.
The main attraction of the series to my wife and myself were the various characters that Yi-jae reincarnated into who were played by multiple stars. To avoid giving spoilers on these characters, I would just mention some of the cast names like Choi Siwon (Bloodhounds TV series, She Was Pretty TV series etc), Kim Kang-hoon (Miracle: Letters to the President, Racket Boys TV series etc), Jang Seung-jo (The Good Detective TV series, Secret Zoo etc), Lee Jae-wook (Kill Boksoon, Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol TV series etc), Lee Do-hyun (Sweet Home TV series, The Good Bad Mother TV series etc), Kim Jae-wook (Her Private Life TV series, Crazy Love TV series etc) and Oh Jung-se (Fabricated City, Jirisan TV series etc). In addition, there were also support characters such as Park Tae-woo (Kim Ji-hoon - Ballerina, Love to Hate You TV series etc) the son of large conglomerate group owner, school bully Lee Jin-sang (Yoo In-soo - All of Us Are Dead TV series, Alchemy of Soul TV series etc) and few others.
What really amazed me though was behind the seemingly unrelated events, apparently there was a large story arc that was revealed in subsequent episodes. It made me more excited as the story continued. However, I personally felt that the light tone in the first half was more enjoyable since the second half felt really dark and slightly depressing, although I was eager to find out how it would end. I did enjoy the 6th and 7th episodes which gave a real satisfaction, but the final episode felt rather anticlimactic after such intense moments as it chose to focus on the more dramatic side. It had a predictable ending that felt like to appease audience.
Overall it was an entertaining series with interesting premise and a large story arc that would satisfy fans of such series like me (I prefer it compared to an episodic series where everything was resolved nicely without having ultimate ending in sight). It has some action and enough drama that would please people who loved them so I could also understand why my wife enjoyed this a lot, especially with the various supporting stars whom she was familiar with. Btw, the series was written and directed by Ha Byung-hoon based on webtoon of the same title by Lee Won-sik and Ggulchan. So if you are interested in a fantasy series combined with plenty of melodramatic moments (those involving Yi-jae's mother were always so heart breaking), few surprising twists and a huge moral message, then I think you would enjoy this series like my wife and I did.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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