Violethale
Georgia
This review may contain spoilers
The true punishment in Death’s “game”
I’ve seen a lot of comments about this show’s narrow minded approach towards suicide and I felt the need to write a review.
Based on my interpretation, Death’s game isn’t aiming to explore suicide as a whole but it rather hones in on one suicide in particular; Choi Yi Jae’s. Not due to the fact that he committed it in the first place but his frame of mind, reason and attitude not just towards death herself, but also life.
Choi Yi Jae is ultimately a proud and selfish character, not just in life, but also death. His narrow minded views on life and what it meant ultimately led him to the decision to commit suicide. While there are various reasons why one might kill him/herself, his’ is ultimately selfish and reckless. He didn’t truly aim to die, death was just ultimately the easiest way out of his present circumstances which he aimed to escape and for this reason, death punishes him.
I believe that with all the numerous and creative ways which he died, The true punishment was not death itself but the slow and painful realization of what death was trying to teach him. One of the first things we are shown is Choi Yi Jae’s desire to live and that under different, “better” circumstances he was willing to fight hard for his survival. Death aims to open his narrow mind and give him a sort of bird’s eye view on life and death through the lives of these 12 very different people. He is able to see how his choice affected the people he left behind, and how he did in fact have reasons to live, reasons he took for granted, but only when the his loved one dies does he realize the true punishment was not these deaths itself but the regret and pain he feels as he slowly looses himself in between all these lives and realizes that he did in fact have an opportunity because what at that time felt like everything to him was only in fact a small part of his life and there was a greater more precious and meaningful part of it that he had completely missed out on in that one single act of recklessness because you only ever truly have one life and one chance. There ARE no do overs.
That being said, I believe that the ending would have been better if he wasn’t given the chance to go back after reaching the full realization at the end of the 12 lives so as to emphasize the fact that you only have ONE chance.
Based on my interpretation, Death’s game isn’t aiming to explore suicide as a whole but it rather hones in on one suicide in particular; Choi Yi Jae’s. Not due to the fact that he committed it in the first place but his frame of mind, reason and attitude not just towards death herself, but also life.
Choi Yi Jae is ultimately a proud and selfish character, not just in life, but also death. His narrow minded views on life and what it meant ultimately led him to the decision to commit suicide. While there are various reasons why one might kill him/herself, his’ is ultimately selfish and reckless. He didn’t truly aim to die, death was just ultimately the easiest way out of his present circumstances which he aimed to escape and for this reason, death punishes him.
I believe that with all the numerous and creative ways which he died, The true punishment was not death itself but the slow and painful realization of what death was trying to teach him. One of the first things we are shown is Choi Yi Jae’s desire to live and that under different, “better” circumstances he was willing to fight hard for his survival. Death aims to open his narrow mind and give him a sort of bird’s eye view on life and death through the lives of these 12 very different people. He is able to see how his choice affected the people he left behind, and how he did in fact have reasons to live, reasons he took for granted, but only when the his loved one dies does he realize the true punishment was not these deaths itself but the regret and pain he feels as he slowly looses himself in between all these lives and realizes that he did in fact have an opportunity because what at that time felt like everything to him was only in fact a small part of his life and there was a greater more precious and meaningful part of it that he had completely missed out on in that one single act of recklessness because you only ever truly have one life and one chance. There ARE no do overs.
That being said, I believe that the ending would have been better if he wasn’t given the chance to go back after reaching the full realization at the end of the 12 lives so as to emphasize the fact that you only have ONE chance.
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