Synopsis from CJ ENM: Dong-kyung has been working hard ever since her parents passed away. Her life seems to get stable after working as an web novel editor for 6 years, but one day she gets diagnosed with a brain cancer. She blames her unlucky life and wishes to curse everything to disappear, which unintentionally calls Myul Mang, a messenger between humans and gods, to appear. He says that he can grant her wishes. As her last hope, she makes a contract with Myul Mang for hundred days to live as how she wants, risking her everything.

We all have to directly confront death and dying in our lifetime, and understanding and preparing for it is essential, preferably before we get to that moment. Memento mori seems to have become a common theme in our discourse even before COVID, but even more so now. We can read books on dying (like The Four Last Things)… or we can ponder/discuss death in the context of a Korean romcom. Lots of lessons to be learned here whether we’re accompanying someone who’s dying, or pondering our own mortality.

Besides K dramas being mostly wholesome, they’re also a good opportunity to exercise apologetics muscles. Korean script writers excel at asking important questions, though their stories often resort to syncretism and present wrong or conflicting answers. Doom at Your Service is brilliant: cleverly written, exquisitely acted, beautifully filmed, and engaging. Wrong ideas on God, death, and suffering notwithstanding, one can still enjoy it without delving too deeply. But if you like to overthink dramas especially through a Catholic lens, then this post’s for you.

Like something from Dickens, Austen or Lewis, DAYS is multi-layered and takes a bit of reading between the lines, even mind-mapping, and you “get” more as you rewatch. I had to look at two different translations and consult with my daughter (who speaks/reads/writes Korean) to make sure I understood things well, specifically the terms of “the contract”.

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The Leads

Tak Dong Kyung (Park Bo Young)

Our heroine is completely down on her luck. The drama opens with her having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. From her physical health, her work, and her love life, it’s one hit after another. At the end of the day she can’t take it anymore and drunkenly wishes Doom on the world. 

Myul Mang/Doom (Seo In Guk)

Enter the embodiment of Doom who has heard her and is eager to fulfill her wish, offering her a contract, which she agrees to under duress (the Truck of Doom aka TOD).

The Terms of the Contract:

1. Since she was given three months to live by her doctor if she decides against high-risk surgery (she does), Doom is offering her 100 days pain free. 

2. In exchange, she promises to doom the world before she dies. 

• The finer points: she cannot wish to live
• they seal the deal with a red string bracelet on her wrist
• she recharges by holding his hand every night before midnight

(There is a secondary love story within the drama which I’m choosing not to focus on despite its occasional parallels to the main storyline.)

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Of course this is a fantasy drama, so “God” and “Doom” can be the writer wants them to be. In that sense, there is nothing wrong per se with how they are portrayed. But since we’re looking at this through a Catholic POV, we need to define/clarify terms. I think that the many ambiguities in the characterization of “God” and “Doom” caused much of the confusion experienced by some viewers and affected how they enjoyed the drama.

1. God’s Identity. 

Per Doom at Your Service	Per Catholic Belief/Teaching
God was created by humans.	Who Created God? A more involved explanation from New Advent
God dies over and over again. This is a pagan belief, or a misunderstanding of Catholic theology. We don’t believe that Jesus dies repeatedly.	Does Christ Die Again at Mass? We do believe that Jesus died for us, ONCE AND FOR ALL: Why Did Jesus Die on the Cross?
“God” is a sickly young woman who is constantly suffering and dying for our sins. (aka Dora the Destroyer to Viki viewers LOL)	Is God a He or a She? Re God dying, see above
In the drama, there are times when the goddess seems to be interfering with MM and DK and times when she seems to just leave them alone. Hence the confusion among commenters who either see God as puppet master or someone who doesn’t care, or who actually can be evil.	Catholics have an entirely different view of God: we don’t see His motives as opaque because He explains Himself to us in His Word. Also, since God is all-knowing, He knows our past, present, and future, and He is able to pull good even out of our bad choices. This is called the Divine Economy of Salvation. God cannot be evil because He is all good, though He does allow evil to happen, because He has given man free will. The Economy, in This World and the Next Catholic View of “Fate” Catholic View of “Destiny” Catholic Teaching on Free Will Catholic Understanding of Predestination What is Predestination?

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature, namely, His eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.

Romans 1:20

2. Doom’s identity. 

Doom was a bit difficult to pin down immediately. He looks like he could be anything “bad”: death, dying, misfortune, accidents, crime, nothingness, any type of suffering. He’s retribution, but at the same time he’s also just “bad luck”. But he has the ability, the will, and the power to grant people’s wishes, including good ones (like DK’s wish to go to the beach). At one point “God” says he was created to be someone’s hope, which could be interpreted several different ways (I’ll leave this to the viewer to figure out). 

Perspective matters a lot. In Catholic thought, all suffering has meaning and can be redemptive, depending on what we do with it. We can suffer badly, or we can suffer well. We also believe the bad things that happen to us are consequences of original sin. God allows suffering but for a greater purpose.

• On coming doom: Essential Catholic Teachings on End Times
• Doom as punishment for humans’ sins: Does God Punish Us For Our Sins?
• The Limits of Forgiveness
• Doom as Humans’ Hope vs Death in Catholic Teaching
• There’s a woman in the drama prophesying about the end of the world. Doom sets her straight, telling her there’s no next world. Catholics believe in eternity/heaven. 
• In Episode 3 of the drama, “God” tells Tak Dong Kyung that there’s a meaning to everything and that you don’t really see what’s beautiful until you get to the end. This comes close enough to the Catholic understanding of redemptive suffering.

3. Man’s Identity

Catholics believe that we are created in God’s image.

The Book of Genesis would be a good place to start, as well as this podcast from Fr. John Riccardo: Episode 4: Created: Your Image of God Is Too Small

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The pleasant surprise with DAYS is that you get a message about what love truly is that’s as close as you can get to Catholic belief — a rarity in today’s usual shows and movies, and especially in Hollywood. Even though the drama is equal parts reality and fantasy, the viewer will find much to relate to in terms of the human experience, particularly as the main leads make their way through the stages of grief. There’s even a short scene where they pray at what looks like a Catholic church (the tabernacle seems to be on a side altar with a sanctuary lamp).

I love that Dong Kyung (DK) is a strong female character throughout the series. She’s independent, tough as nails, and has a take charge personality. But she has no dream or ambition or money, has a misogynist pig for a boss, no love life, and is victimized by random people. Despite this, kindness often comes naturally to her, even towards people who take advantage of her or who have hurt her (her brother, her ex-bf’s pregnant wife). It’s ironic that in that rare moment of selfishness when she wishes doom on the world, it’s Doom/Myul Mang (MM) who hears her; her wish is his ultimate self-actualization, because while he can doom the world, he needs a human to wish it. 

He has taken advantage of her moment of vulnerability, when she realized that she was afraid of pain and death. She only realizes the implications of her choice when she asks the next day if there’s a penalty for breach of contract. Doom informs her that yes, of course there is: if she dies without dooming the world, the doom is transferred elsewhere… and someone else dies: the person she loves the most at that moment. She gets to live.

What a dilemma for our heroine! She complains about the unfairness of it, so Doom gives her another chance to choose, now that she’s seen the fine print. However, her fear of pain and death drives her to make the same choice, and the contract remains valid.

The next few episodes peel the layers off these two characters as their traits, motivations, and worldviews are revealed, and as DK tries to find and exploit the loophole that doesn’t cost her anything. The loophole of course is that — as was obvious to most viewers — if she ends up loving Doom then he’s the one who dies, fulfilling his own death wish. Though one is human and the other a supernatural being, both are tired of simply existing.

The best moments happen when they push each other’s buttons, with DK constantly throwing MM off — especially with one sudden act of seemingly instinctive altruism, challenging his prejudices against humans. The snark and bickering back and forth are amusing AND deep, sometimes brutally honest; you might want to hit the pause and/or rewind button a number of times to let things sink in. DK invites MM to observe and think beyond the surface, since being able to read people’s minds has rendered him insensitive to the nuances of human emotions and thoughts. (It made me think of social media where we judge each other based on a few sentences without truly hearing the person behind the screen.) Several painful exchanges have to happen before they come to understand and appreciate each other’s presence. DK’s kindness disarms MM who insists he has no capacity to be kind to anyone, so it’s a delight watching his facade of apathy fade away.

Some viewers have complained that the romance in the story was rushed, but I disagree. The contract’s terms of agreement threw love into the mix early on, so it was obvious that was the bridge that needed to be crossed: from that initial self-serving encounter when their view of each other was utilitarian, to finding out what love really means. Two intense scenes — one where DK attempts suicide, and one where MM shows DK that he can’t be killed, both shake them and force them to look at each other and see what is truly at stake.

DK is clear-sighted about the dichotomies of life, MM less so. It’s her view of the world that he eventually learns to share and that changes him: the necessity and the balance of winter/spring, light/dark, hate/love, forgiveness/resentment, life/death, beginning/ending, fortune/misfortune, sickness/healing… DK speaks poignantly about how these things come to us, sometimes with the same face. (Isn’t this true with all relationships?) 

Some of my big takeaways from this drama:

• Stating the obvious, but life is short. Don’t waste it on things that don’t matter. Say the things that need saying now. Do the things that need doing now.
• Death is not the end.
• Life rarely goes according to plan. Pain is unavoidable.
• Love is self sacrifice.
• How you die is as important as how you live.
• Sometimes all you have are sucky choices, but what you need to do is pray, make the choice, and hope that God brings something good out of it.

DK and MM’s antagonistic behaviors cease as wounds get exposed and they begin to see each other’s pain. Pride and selfishness slowly give way to openness, gratitude, humility, and ultimately self-sacrifice. They start bringing out the best in each other, and find love transforming them. But as in the real world, love is a double-edged sword — it cannot bring joy without bringing pain as well. So while they resist its pull because of the fear of pain, they find themselves falling anyway… aaaaand the tables are turned, because this really wasn’t what they were bargaining for. 

The puzzle pieces take a while to solve, even though the solution at the beginning is clear… but they keep us guessing throughout how exactly the characters will get there. There are a few of the usual K drama tropes, but they are also playfully mocked to hilarious results (the scenes where DK asks MM to create the usual falling-in-love scenarios with her). I loved the strong symbolism in the rain and garden scenes, overdone/contrived in other dramas, but raw and powerfully meaningful in this one.

The biggest appeal to me as a Catholic is that we get one of the best character developments I’ve seen in K-Drama: MyulMang becomes a Christ-like figure, and decides to die/dissipate/disappear to save Dong Kyung whom he loves, and the world that Dong Kyung loves. The buildup to that moment makes the 14+ hours prior worth it — MM finally wants to live, but chooses to die anyway for her sake. What is love if not self-sacrifice? And since God is love, what is His ultimate plan for every creature but love?

We are given a happy ending as MM reappears as a human, memories intact, and DK has a new lease on life. On earth we don’t get these “rewards for good behavior”, but we do have heaven/eternity to hope for after the crosses of life here, because we believe in the Resurrection.

…because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:18

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Favorite Quotes:

Transient things are generally beautiful. – Myul Mang

You don’t need time. You need courage. – Dong Kyung

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Additional musings that don’t really belong anywhere up there:

• No comments about Kevin as I forwarded those scenes. I just couldn’t watch that weird dialogue of him speaking English and them speaking Korean and just talking past each other. And sorry, but the acting was bleh.
• Koreans seem to love Pinocchio — I’ve seen references to it in a few dramas, and again in this one.
• One thing I kinda wanna go back to and research — the books that Doom reads.