I'm very surprised by the controversy in the comments. A lot of people are saying this is insensitive and promotes the idea that people who commit suicide should be punished. While I can see why people think that for the first couple episodes, it makes no sense to me that people who have completed the drama still believe this.
I feel like Death was antagonizing and provoking Yi Jae early on to give him an incentive to live, claiming that he was being punished for his sins. While I guess you can interpret his sin as committing suicide, I feel like by the end, it becomes clear that Death was trying to show why living is so important and precious. He had to live through so many people's lives who experienced great hardship and died unfair deaths. After experiencing that suffering, he saw how precious life is, and especially, how precious loved ones are in living your life.
By giving Yi Jae the last gun and bullet, Death is saying that what he went through isn't strictly a punishment for committing suicide, but a way of giving him perspective on how those around people who commit suicide suffer. Not only that, but giving him the choice to go back if he WANTS to. This is not to diminish the suffering people who attempt suicide experience, but instead to show that there are multiple perspectives to a situation. The victim is hurting, yes, deeply so, and it suicide may be the only perceivable way out for some situations, but there are also others involved that are directly affected by that choice. Depending on individual circumstance, the best option can be living for your loved ones, until you can also live for yourself. For Yi Jae, this lesson of living multiple lives seems to be what HE needed to experience to find HIS reason to live again.
While Death may have called it a punishment at first, what Yi Jae was truly experiencing, was a lesson on how important life is and that it should be worth living, and more personally how much he was deeply loved by his mother and girlfriend, that even through his suffering, he was not alone.
the messages behind the show basically:"your struggle is stupid because theres people that have it worse, so suck…
I see what you mean with how it focused too much on how he is living for others and didn't say anything about living for himself. They could have done slightly better clarifying or explaining why they made that choice sure..
...but how is anti-suicide messaging disgusting and propaganda? Suicide is objectively an extremely tragic thing that should be prevented. And if that means living for others until you can live for yourself, why is that such a horrible thing?? Life is meant to be lived. I don't see why the main character in this TV show wanting to live on for his mother, who literally lived her whole life as a mother for her son, doing everything she can to provide for him, is such a bad thing.
If you don't mind me asking, what ending would you have preferred if you hated this one so much? Choi Ii Jae couldn't find anything to live for except for his mother, so would you have preferred him to live through that final life and go to "heaven or hell" without ever seeing his mother again? Over getting another chance at life, even if it meant living for someone else until he found a reason to live for himself.
Side note: Why did you watch a show literally about the afterlife, dealing with heaven, hell, death incarnate, and God, if religion seems to bother you so? Also, from episode 1, you can easily tell what message this show is going for, so why did you keep watching? Genuinely curious.
This is one of the few times in a K-drama where I was actually really SHIPPING the two main leads and of course they don't end up together.
They don't kiss and we don't even get a hug. By the end all I was asking for was SEEING EACH OTHER like what The Devil Judge did, but they couldn't even give me that
Otherwise, great drama. Namkoong Min serving per usual
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7sVlIQKcdEc
While I can see why people think that for the first couple episodes, it makes no sense to me that people who have completed the drama still believe this.
I feel like Death was antagonizing and provoking Yi Jae early on to give him an incentive to live, claiming that he was being punished for his sins. While I guess you can interpret his sin as committing suicide, I feel like by the end, it becomes clear that Death was trying to show why living is so important and precious. He had to live through so many people's lives who experienced great hardship and died unfair deaths. After experiencing that suffering, he saw how precious life is, and especially, how precious loved ones are in living your life.
By giving Yi Jae the last gun and bullet, Death is saying that what he went through isn't strictly a punishment for committing suicide, but a way of giving him perspective on how those around people who commit suicide suffer. Not only that, but giving him the choice to go back if he WANTS to. This is not to diminish the suffering people who attempt suicide experience, but instead to show that there are multiple perspectives to a situation. The victim is hurting, yes, deeply so, and it suicide may be the only perceivable way out for some situations, but there are also others involved that are directly affected by that choice. Depending on individual circumstance, the best option can be living for your loved ones, until you can also live for yourself. For Yi Jae, this lesson of living multiple lives seems to be what HE needed to experience to find HIS reason to live again.
While Death may have called it a punishment at first, what Yi Jae was truly experiencing, was a lesson on how important life is and that it should be worth living, and more personally how much he was deeply loved by his mother and girlfriend, that even through his suffering, he was not alone.
...but how is anti-suicide messaging disgusting and propaganda? Suicide is objectively an extremely tragic thing that should be prevented. And if that means living for others until you can live for yourself, why is that such a horrible thing?? Life is meant to be lived. I don't see why the main character in this TV show wanting to live on for his mother, who literally lived her whole life as a mother for her son, doing everything she can to provide for him, is such a bad thing.
If you don't mind me asking, what ending would you have preferred if you hated this one so much? Choi Ii Jae couldn't find anything to live for except for his mother, so would you have preferred him to live through that final life and go to "heaven or hell" without ever seeing his mother again? Over getting another chance at life, even if it meant living for someone else until he found a reason to live for himself.
Side note: Why did you watch a show literally about the afterlife, dealing with heaven, hell, death incarnate, and God, if religion seems to bother you so?
Also, from episode 1, you can easily tell what message this show is going for, so why did you keep watching? Genuinely curious.
They don't kiss and we don't even get a hug. By the end all I was asking for was SEEING EACH OTHER like what The Devil Judge did, but they couldn't even give me that
Otherwise, great drama. Namkoong Min serving per usual