Death's Game (2023) K Drama Episode 1

Episode 1 of Death’s Game starts with our protagonist, Choi Yee-jae, panicking in a dark room and regretting his choice. A woman walks in and tells Choi Yee-jae that he is guilty of going to find her before she goes to find him, and then shoots Yee-jae, who seemingly falls off a plane. Yee-jae says he always wanted to have a clean death and cannot let himself die in that manner and suddenly opens his eyes.

Flashback to before the scene with Death, an enthusiastic Choi Yee-jae is heading to an interview at one of the most prestigious companies, Taekang. During a call with his girlfriend, Lee Ji-su, we learn that he made it to the final interviews while he is yet to graduate.

His girlfriend applauds his awesomeness and gives him some encouragement. Unfortunately, a man runs past him into the busy road and gets hit by a car. The man dies clutching onto Yee-jae, traumatising Yee-jae, who is so shaken up that he fails the interview. 

Yee-jae loses the opportunity to start ahead of the rest and thus begins his life laden with student debt. He has to work several part-time jobs to make ends meet and is still at it seven years later. However, he gets another chance to interview at Taekang. The interview went well, and Yee-jae was enthusiastic when he left the room.

He gets a call from his friend, who tells him that all the money he had invested in a certain deal is lost since it was all a fraud. Misery seems to follow him everywhere he goes, and he hysterically runs to the person he has invested in, but he does not open the door. He had lost all their money and had taken off. 

Since he had invested with his friend, hoping for a profit, the police tell him they cannot get him arrested for fraud. Later, he meets up with Ji-su on his way home and sees someone dropping her off in a luxury car. He gives her flowers. Yee-jae feels he burdens Ji-su and decides to break up with her.

As if he has not gone through so much already, Yee-jae’s proprietor puts him out on the streets, leaves a note on the door saying he is keeping the deposit, and gives him two days to move his things left outside under the pouring rain. 

Yee-jae sleeps outside, wet and cold. The next morning, he receives a notification from Taekang that he has failed the final interview. That night, Yee-jae stands on top of one of the highest buildings in the city and decides to end his life. He blames the man who ran past him to his death seven years ago for his misery. As he jumps to his death, his mom calls his cell phone. 

Next, Yee-jae wakes up in a plane and wonders if people travel to the afterlife in a plane. Death reads his will, where he says that Death is a means for him to end his pain. When Death removes her shades, Yee-jae is transported to a scary, dark, barren place and back to his body. Death says she took him to that place for a punishment. He sinned and made a mockery of Death, and his punishment would be severe. She says she is the only being that never dies, the thing she mocked, Death. She throws him into the abyss with man-eating demons ready to feast on him, and as he hits the bloody water, he wakes up back in the exquisite plane in a different body. 

Death gives him his punishment. She strips Yee-jae of his God-given privilege to die only once in his life. Instead, Yee-jae will die 12 times. His soul will enter 12 bodies of people facing imminent Death, and he will end up dying regardless of the body he wakes up in to experience the pain of Death. However, when he manages to evade their deaths, he can carry on living in that body for the rest of his life. 

Yee-jae insists that he wants to die and end it all. Death tells him that Death is not the end but just the beginning. Before she vanishes from the plane, she tells him that she would like to see him try controlling Death as he wishes. Suddenly, the plane enters a storm, and Yee-jae, now in Park Jin-tae’s body, thinks he will die.

The flight attendant tells him that the turbulence is temporary, and the plane stabilises. A floating pebble informs Yee-jae about his new body. Park Jin-tae is the second son of Taekang’s CEO, who has been competing with his older brother all his life. He manages to outdo his brother and is now undergoing training to become the new CEO. 

Realising his new status, Yee-jae is shocked but simultaneously thrilled since he can now go on living as the CEO of the company he desperately wanted to work for all his life. However, Death refuses to give him his satisfaction, and soon after, the plane’s engine blows up. The pilot tries to control the plane but fails.

The fire spreads, creating a hole in the side of the plane, and both the flight attendant are sucked out of the plane. Yee-jae tries to survive desperately, but the plane bursts into flames, and Park Jin-tae faces a painful death in the fire. 

Yee-jae wakes up in the dark room with Death waiting to remind him there are 11 more deaths to face. He asks about the spinning orb he saw, and Death tells him that the orb transfers the body’s memories and abilities to him once his soul takes over. Yee-jae likens the experience to a video game, and using video game terms, Death explains the game.

Every time Yee-jae dies, he will meet with Death, and she will shoot him in the head, and as he plunges to his Death, his soul will enter the next body. The orb will gift him the memories and abilities of the new body; it is up to him to figure out how to evade the body’s imminent Death.

If he fails to survive until the end, he will go to hell, and Death gives him a preview of what will be awaiting him in hell. Back to the opening scene, Death tells Yee-jae he is guilty of going to find her before she goes to find him. Death tells him that he can avoid going to hell depending on his actions when he manages to survive in a new body. After all, God and not Death gives judgment. Yee-jae becomes enthusiastic about life again and vows to try his best to survive. He wakes up in his next life.

Song Jae-seob lives a dangerous life and loves extreme sports. Yee-jae enters his body amid an impossible challenge being streamed nationwide. Jae-seob’s challenge is diving without a parachute from 8000 meters and landing safely on a safety net. The prize is 300 billion won in cash.

Yee-jae gains confidence from absorbing the man’s abilities. Encouraged by the 300 billion won, he attempts the challenge. The television crew celebrates getting a 30 percent viewership while Song Jae-seob plunges head first to his death. 

The Episode Review

Episode 1 of Death’s Game delves deep into helping the audience understand the series’ characters and plot. The game is detailed, and the viewers’ know what to expect. The episode is easy to watch, with a straightforward plot without hidden mysteries or emotional scenes to tug at the heartstrings.

Simply, it seems that the audience will have to follow Yee-jae’s soul as it morphs into various people all facing certain Death and trying to help them escape their deaths. 

He has 12 chances to cheat Death, and his reward will be getting to live out the rest of his life in the body he manages to save and earn back his one death privilege. The first two deaths were relatively straightforward and not very thrilling to watch, but hopefully, the rest of the episodes will offer more unexpected twists to the death scenes and give Yee-jae more chances to try to change his fate.