9/10 is my rating. This is a 2022 South Korean legal fantasy drama with 16, 60 minute episodes.

First I will provide a synopsis then review

Synopsis

Kim Hui-u (Lee Joon-gi) is a naive but determined young prosecutor when he takes on a corrupt but powerful politician, Cho Tae-San (Lee Heun-young), and is killed for his effort. The Grim Reaper, Han Ji-Hyun (Cha Joo-young) gives Hee-woo a chance to go back 15 years to re-do the portions of his life that lead up to his showdown with the corrupt politician. She offers a second chance provided he does things different and makes it hell on earth for Cho Tae-seob. This is a justice and revenge drama with a thread of romance.

Review

The first portion of the drama shows where Hui-u dies then goes back and redoes school and helps people (utilizing his knowledge of future events) who he will later need as allies. That part drags a little and I got a bit bored. It picked up when he was back to being a prosecutor and taking down criminals at the lowest echelons of Tae-seob‘s criminal organization. I thought it was funny when he was okay with repeating everything except his time in the military. His horror that he had to repeat that portion was brought up several times. He was such a gentleman and so cool with the way he helped people that he had multiple girls vying for his attention.

Lee Joon-gi is one of my favorite male actors. The roles he picks are usually justice based on there is a lot of martial arts elements since he is such an amazing martial artist. He seems to like story lines where good overcomes evil in some way and justice prevails. As someone who hates bullies, loves to see the good guy win, and wants to see criminals brought to justice the roles he chooses checks all the boxes for me. So if I see he is in something that is the first thing that draws my interest. I like his acting and I know he chooses really good roles.

I so thoroughly enjoyed this series that I would highly recommend it, might even read the webtoon even knowing it may be a repeat of the story but just to get additional insight if there is any. I will definitely watch a second season because I am already missing Hui-u he was that compelling of a character. He had super hero status in my opinion. I loved the music, it was iconic and you knew something was going down whenever it started playing. A couple of the songs will be added to my playlist.

Spoilers*
I looked at the webtoon for this and reading the first few chapters it seems the story follows really closely. I really like dramas that are webtoon based because it is like they were already pre-screened for being really good, well developed and interesting story lines.

This show has it all, it has action scenes, good versus evil, supernatural elements, legal drama and a little bit of romance sprinkled in. Romance is definitely not a central theme and it felt a little abrupt the romance line that came in at nearly the end. But, it was also set up for a 2nd season with a whole new set of villains.

I found it a little disappointing that Tae-sob committed suicide and wasn't led away in handcuffs. It felt like he won in being able to pick how he exited. I liked that the grim reaper was saved by Hui-u and that he said, when she got out of jail, he would help her get her life on track. Her brother was irredeemable and I was glad they didn't try to make it so all his murders were forgotten. They never fully explained what happened with her and her brother and how her brother was so brain washed by Tae-sob but that was a minor element. Tae-sob said something that made it sound like he was aware Hui-u had a past life but they never further expanded on that which makes me curious to read the webtoon and see if that is expanded on more.

#AgainMyLife
#GrimReaper
#ChaJooYoung
#LeeJoongi
#LeeHoonYoung