My Demon (2023)

Romantic Comedy turns to Humanity Self Reflection

My Demon is endorsed to me through my colleagues who thought that Song Kang plays a character to my liking (Guwon) and boy, isn't he? My Demon is not the first fiction that portray demon as a charming and nonchalant men, lean to heartless as he doesn't possessed humanlike emotion. His encounter to a matchmaking and crossed fate to Dohee starts an evolution to himself and both his role as a demon sent by God.

As a picky romance enjoyer, I think the quality of romantic relationship My Demon portrays are not my liking and some of the actions are considered to me invite cringes rather than heartwarming. I think the one that not intended to be romantic sinks into me better (especially towards the end after they learn about their tangled fate.) The comedy itself shows better on the side characters rather than the main characters, but I think it is because the complicated trope they share together.

I ended up completed My Demon through the influence of how the Demon character deals with God and its role to follow its heart as it involves himself in human business. It is intriguing from the start of the name choice for Guwon (that means salvations.) In this drama, he is portrayed as a savior for people in desparation but actually really, he is a false hop trying to stir human away from God, I think that is interesting and shows a philosophy the writer possess within themselves. It is then continued in the story of how Guwon evolution to be a demon, a change in faith and bet alongside prayers changes him as a humanlike demon. As a non-human and human relationship enjoyer, it gives an interesting perspective for me. Many Christian values also shared in this drama as the core understanding of Demon itself. The potrayal of God as a woman who takes cover to see human intention also takes a valuable interpretation, I think (I am not a Christian myself, but the saying God is everywhere around you are common in Abrahamic religions.)

The family conflict and classes in this drama is exclusive to the riches and I think that alone is a foundation to not make the drama stir from its conflict, again, maybe it is a tad bit boring at some times and unrelatable for some or many watchers. Me, myself even doesn't really gets it about the business conflict as the main issue of how the family is breaking up and turning their backs among each other. But this conflict, align with the political issues showed in the second half of the drama as the modern issues of human civilizations and challenges are pretty relatable and thus evokes a sentimental reaction for me. I think it is not very unusual for us to experience discomfort through our lack of priviledge and pressure of classes we are in among the society.

Afterall, it is an enjoyable drama, especially after digging in to more than the romance. Song Kang has been an absolute eye candy and his charisma is flowing through together with Kim Yoojung who has a wide range of emotion especially in desparation and joy. I have to bite my nails and knocking the door through some scenes because it is fun! Well done! Digging more tropes like this in Korean drama and perspective.

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Great job to all of the cast for doing a great job 🥳 The casting was perfect and each of the cast projected their roles excellently. Song Kang should definitely get more roles like this. Even though others say that the storyline/plot is cliché, I loved it so much and I was entertained while watching the show. Their chemistry was amazing!!! I remembered a time I had to pause and recollect myself because I was gushing too hard. I enjoyed every cute moment with them but I can't stop thinking about how Guwon will stay as a demon and won't age alongside Dohee :( I still find some scenes unbelievable like the last one because how did he manage to stay alive after jumping on a high building?! but at least he can rot in jail. And at least, some of the characters got their redemption arc.

Overall, I enjoyed watching the show! If you don't have any problem with cliché romantic scenes alongside fantasy, then watching this drama is recommended. But personally, I don't see myself rewatching this as often in the future.

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Another boring human-fell for a supernatural-drama

I was excited when I first heard of this, knowing that Netflix produces promising and really interesting shows. However, the drama just fell flat and did not show anything new. The story is about a woman (KYJ) who fell in love with a Demon (SK) because some circumstances forced them to marry each other.

Cast was very promising. Kim Yoo Jung, I believe, is one of the best actresses of her generation. I mean the girl is acting since she was a child. And, she's one of the reasons why I was excited for this drama. She actually delivered Do Do Hee to the audience very well. Song Kang, hmmm, well his robotic acting did not help him on this one. I mean, I watched Love Alarm and was rooting for him, but his acting hasn't evolve yet. He was just not able to show emotions on specific scenes. Some scenes expects him to be scary, nope same face. Another scene needed him to show grief, nope same face. I still believe in him, maybe this is just a wrong project for him.

The plot is like a combination of fictional love story cliches. The family drama is also not that interesting and a bit over the top. I get it children is fighting to get the business their mother built but, is it worth killing each other? The plot twist was very obvious. However, I really find the eldest son really scary.

I actually am very disappointed with this one. I was just able to finish this because of a long holiday vacation, out of boredom.

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So predictable, I’m not even disappointed

If you have a list of mediocre Korean dramas, this is one to add to the list. This is another typical drama that has quite a good concept and strong start but horrible progression that ends up draggy and boring.

The villain is lame and just evil, not exactly smart. Those hidden plots or mystery pointers they planted throughout the drama are underwhelming. You can almost foresee what is going to happen next when watching the drama. At least, from the first quarter I’d already knew

1. Do Hee and Koo Won must have been lovers in his past life.
2. Seok Hoon is definitely not the evil one here - despite the scriptwriters planting so many parts hinting that he was.
3. The true villain was never Do Kyung but actually his father.
4. Do Hee and Koo Won will never die - regardless how many times they actually went through death.

I find predictions in the comment section more interesting than the actual plot. Korean dramas must be running out of ideas at this point.

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You've seen bits of it before... but it's still lots of fun

You are definitely going to be getting de ja vu while watching this, I agree with some of the other reviewers - I definitely found myself drawing comparisons with Goblin, Black Knight, and some Doom at your Service.

But you know what? It's still an enjoyable watch, I love the sound track and the chemistry between Kim Yoo Jung and Song Kang was excellent.

There's some threat and mystery as people keep dying around the main characters as we figure out who that is and follow that trail, meanwhile the demon is making deals and ultimately all the stories come crashing together and we realise there's nothing random about this at all.

There's one thing they didn't face off squarely though in my opinion and I suspect it was to keep the positive tone particularly in the ending, but it just rang off key for me. Black Knight faced it head on, he was immortal, she was mortal, there are implications for that and as tough as it made Black Knight to watch it finished the story. I kinda get why they didn't go down that route, but it just felt like a bit left unsaid.

Cast are all brilliant. Kim Yoo Jung is always a top star and I enjoy watching her performances, Kim Hae Sook is brilliant to watch as well, and Cha Chung Hwa's character is brilliantly done too, I especially like her cap - which has "GOOD" written on it, but one of the O's is barely visible. I mean, just in case you needed it spelled out...

The show does have one of my favourite lines though, which i'll paraphrase ;)

"People like to think I control everything, but really i'm just a companion on their journey".

I like that, it played off well in the moment too.

It does have a magic button fix-all moment, but I think it worked and was led up to numerous times prior to it happening so it didn't feel like the writer had an "i have no idea how to get out of this, i'll just magic up a solution" moment.

The little bickering bit at the end however just felt really odd. I guess the writer was trying to get a final message in but honestly it didn't hit home for me at all, and just scribbled a bit over the general positive theme.

I'd certainly recommend the watch, I've not regretted watching it in the slightest, though I don't rate it as one of the best they don't all have to be the best!

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I hope you're hungry for nothing

It's like you put every food that you ever loved into a one bowl and eat all of it at one sitting, you would think that it would taste good but no you puke at the end because mixing that amount of food is abviously gonna make you sick. This drama is like a mix of every fantasy romance drama that has ever been made so cliche, so predictable, so boring... If you're gonna make this psychopath murderer thing a big part of the storyline maybe not make it too on the nose, leave a little bit place for viewers to wonder this makes watching experience so boring beacause you can clearly figure out what's gonna happen next. Why would I wanna watch a show where I already know what's going to happen in it. No plot twist no nothing.
The chemistry between the main leads was undeniable I'll give you that but I kept expecting him to turn into a real human again when he comes back, so they can finish their love story with a proper ending at least in this lifetime but no that didn't happen. I almost thought he was going to have a breakthrough or something while talking to that man he had a deal with at the subway about being a real human but no that didn't happen either

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Cool premise but lost the plot

Around halfway through it becomes clear that the writers have no idea what they want to do with this show, so every two episodes is a useless conflict that creates unnecessary angst before the male lead resolves it with... plot armour? All intrigue built in the first few episodes slowly goes away as the plot becomes more and more ridiculous. All of the characters lose all of their interesting characterizations in favour of a trope-filled plot. And while I love a good trope, this show is all tropes no substance. The stakes don't feel real, and no matter how well the characters act, the writing is too bad for me to buy into the story.

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I’ve seen this film before

I think there’s definitely an audience for this out there — if you are a fan of fantasy mixed into real life and adult romance (think Goblin, Legend of the Blue Sea, My Love From the Star, those classics) I think you’d really enjoy this.

For me, it was just okay. I think I prefer my romance a little more down-to-earth and conversational; a lot of the more flashy scenes where they were saving each other didn’t really have a strong emotional impact on me and felt borrowed from the aforementioned classics, while the more domestic scenes where they were talking to each other or working together were stronger but not enough for these characters to set themselves apart from other dramas.

Additionally, and this is absolutely personal preference, I think I’m just not the biggest fan of linking saeguk and modern plots with the past lives and reincarnation premise. It’s been done to death (See Goblin, and most recently A Good Day To Be A Dog and The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract) and I just can’t find it in myself to care that much about their past story, since that’s all it is: past. Our non-immortal main characters have lived different experiences. I understand how it adds a level of angst to the leads (as if destiny works against them) as well as upping the stakes (from basic company politics, for example, to actual death) but it always just feels like a tangent.

With all that being said, this was just okay. I didn’t care that much for the modern plot about the company, but also didn’t really find the backstory to be all that memorable. The main characters are likable enough; Dohee is strong, and Guwon is a convincing demon that balances between being heartless and hilarious, but overall they’re both kind of cookie cutter characters.

This ended up being sort of “I started it so I might as well finish it” kind of show for me.

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