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Pierce Conran

This article contains spoilers.
1/5 stars
Lead cast: Kim Yoo-jung, Song Kang
Latest Nielsen rating: 3.5 per cent


Following two months of ardent romance and fantastical struggles – and millions of outfit changes for stars Kim Yoo-jung and Song Kang – My Demon culminated in a big Christmas finale.
That is an odd holiday to end on for a show airing its finale episode in late January. But it felt like an appropriate endpoint to this spectacularly manufactured and unusually trying K-drama.
My Demon midseason recap: hackneyed fantasy romcom K-drama on Netflix
Crass commerce and odious opportunism ripple throughout this product. To call it anything else seems misleading – the closest it came to being a show was as a fashion show.
We are used to seeing South Korea’s unique style of in-drama product placement, during which stories pause so that characters can eat, drink or douse themselves with whatever that week’s sponsors are.
My Demon took this to this nth degree, to the point that it felt like the story was unfolding in little snatches between the ads, rather than the other way around.

Commerce aside, the Christmas climax also felt fitting, as it highlighted the sheer overkill of My Demon’s trite tropes. By January we are all so thoroughly burned out on Christmas that the last thing we want are more carols and Christmas trees.
Fantasy romcoms are a staple of Korean dramas and they have been especially prominent of late. My Demon boils down the familiar elements of the genre into its most aggressively unoriginal essence. It force-feeds us lukewarm leftovers even though we are still full to bursting from the holiday feasts.
Then there is the series’ perplexing engagement with religion. First it reinterprets the Christian notion of a Grim Reaper – in K-dramas there can be more than one grim reaper – and later branches out into historical cases of religious persecution.

In the obligatory period flashbacks to the past lives of Do-hee (Kim) and Gu-won (Song) – when they were courtesan Wolsim and dashing nobleman Seo Yi-sun in the Joseon era (1392-1910) in Korea – we learn that they bonded over their Christian faith, which at the time was anathema to the rank and file of Joseon.
Believers are beheaded by the government and Wolsim is found out partly thanks to the cross necklace given to her by Yi-sun – the same symbol that forms the tattoo that gives Gu-won his powers. Do-hee is executed and a heartbroken Gu-won kills himself.
Meanwhile, in the present My Demon introduces us to God, played by Cha Chung-hwa, who disguises herself as a homeless woman and spends a lot of her time drinking and gambling.
12 of the best new Korean drama series to watch in January 2024
Narratively, the show progressed in a predictable line. Gu-won and Do-hee get together, their union eventually providing the catalyst for Gu-won to regain his powers.
Then we go back to the flashback of the tragic romance of their past selves, while back in the present the thwarted corporate villain – Mirae Group’s Noh Suk-min (Kim Tae-soon) – poses the final obstacle, and both leads make the ultimate sacrifice out of love.
Do-hee does so first, needlessly taking a bullet for the immortal Gu-won. Gu-won saves her, which triggers his own demise. But after only a few scenes featuring a morbidly depressed Do-hee, God takes pity on them and brings Gu-won back.

With Do-hee and Gu-won reunited the story ends on a perfunctory happily-ever-after note. Only how could it? Gu-won is still an immortal being and, relative to his viewpoint, Do-hee will age and die in the blink of an eye.
The show chose not to invent a way for Gu-won to become mortal, but rather than embrace the implicit tragedy of their circumstances, it plods on and bows out with a disingenuous smile.
These are all predictable beats that we have seen a thousand times before in K-dramas. In effect, writer Choi Ah-il is giving the audience all the elements that they want, but without bothering to thread them together into a coherent story.

Of course, the story is largely an excuse to thrust two handsome leads together for long periods of time, and on that count it succeeds.
Unfortunately, Do-hee and Gu-won feel like such a plastic couple that they might have worked better as jokey side characters in Barbie. This is not so much an indictment of the actors as it is what they were given to work with – Kim remains one of the most compelling young actresses working in Korea today.
Even worse were the legions of truly horrible supporting characters that made up this mass-produced mess.
My Demon is streaming on Netflix.


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Netflix K-drama review: My Demon – Kim Yoo-jung and Song Kang can’t save manufactured and lazily scripted misfire

Kim Yoo-jung in a still from “My Demon”. As good an actress as she is, Kim and co-star Song Kang cannot save the Netflix K-drama, which comes to a unsatisfactory end after two months of peddling viewers trite tropes and endless product placement.

Song Kang in a still from “My Demon”.

Cha Chung-hwa as God, disguised as a homeless woman, in a still from “My Demon”.

Kim Tae-hoon as corporate villain Noh Suk-min in a still from “My Demon”.

Song Kang (left) as Gu-won and Kim Yoo-jung as Do-hee in a still from “My Demon”.

Who is Lee Dong-wook, star of K-dramas A Shop for Killers and Tale of the Nine Tailed and a household name for the best part of 20 years?

Lee Dong-wook in a still from “A Shop for Killers”.

Korean actor Lee Dong-wook. Lee has been a household K-drama name since the 2000s.  Photo: Instagram/@leedongwook_official

Lee Dong-wook in a still from “My Girl” (2005).

Lee Dong-wook in a still from “Guardian: The Lonely and Great God” (2016).

Lee Dong-wook in a still from “Tale of the Nine Tailed” (2020).

Lee Dong-wook in a still from “Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938”.

Lee Dong-wook in a still from “The Recipe” (2010).

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Shin Hyun-been and Jung Woo-sung in a still from Disney+ K-drama “Tell Me That You Love Me”.

Shin Hyun-been (left) and Jung Woo-sung in a still from Disney+ K-drama “Tell Me That You Love Me”.

Shin Hyun-been as Jung Mo-eun in a still from “Tell Me That You Love Me”.

Jung Woo-sung as Cha Jin-woo in a still from “Tell Me That You Love Me”.

Jung Woo-sung as Jin-woo and Shin Hyun-been as Mo-eun in a still from “Tell Me That You Love Me”.

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Lee Dong-wook (left) and Kim Hye-jun in a still from “A Shop for Killers”. Photo: Disney+

Lee Dong-wook as hitman Jeong Jinman in a still from “A Shop for Killers”, a stylish action-mystery series on Disney+ that co-stars Kim Hye-jun. Photo: Disney+

Kim Hye-jun as Jeong Jian in a still from “A Shop for Killers”. Photo: Disney+

Seo Hyun-woo as Lee Sung-zo in a still from “A Shop for Killers”. Photo: Disney+.

Lee Dong-wook (left) as Jeong Jinman and Kim Hye-jun as Jeong Jian in a still from “A Shop for Killers”. Photo: Disney+.

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Lee Young-ae as orchestra conductor and violinist Cha Se-eum in a still from Disney+ Korean drama series “Maestra: Strings of Truth”.

Kim Young-jae as husband Kim Phil in a still from “Maestra: Strings of Truth”.

Hwang Bo-reum-byeol as violinist Luna Lee in a still from “Maestra: Strings of Truth”.

Lee Moo-saeng as investor Yoo Jung-jae in a still from “Maestra: Strings of Truth”.

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Lee Hanee in a still from “Knight Flower”.

Lee Hanee as Yeo-hwa in a still from “Knight Flower”. Lee stars as a widow with a secret life as a nighttime vigilante in the era of the Joseon dynasty’s rule over Korea. 

Lee Jong-won as officer Soo-ho in a still from “Knight Flower”.

Lee Hanee as Yeo-hwa in a still from “Knight Flower”.

Lee Hanee (left) and Lee Jong-won as Yeo-hwa and Soo-ho in a still from “Knight Flower”.

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Seeing the finale of K-drama My Demon feels like being force-fed tired Christmas leftovers – the show has been too much of the same thing and we are sick of it
Product placement abounds to the extent this has felt more like a series of adverts than a drama, and the story ends in the most unsatisfactory way possible


Lead actors Kim Yoo-jung and Song Kang do their best, but they cannot save Netflix K-drama My Demon, which comes to an unsatisfactory end after two months of constant product placement and trite tropes.


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Review | Netflix K-drama review: My Demon – Kim Yoo-jung and Song Kang can’t save manufactured and lazily scripted misfire