The highly anticipated K-drama Death’s Game Part 1 debuted this Friday, December 15, 2023, on TVING and Amazon Prime Video. Based on a well-known webtoon of the same title by Ggulchan and Lee Won-Sik, the new thriller series follows the riveting story of a man named Choi Yi-Jae, who ends his own life. The story begins to unfold when he comes face-to-face with Death herself after his demise and Death punishes him with twelve reincarnations, where he untimely dies every time.
Ha Byung-hoon is both the director and writer of the TVING series. Seo In-Guk plays the main character Choi Yi-Jae in Death’s Game, while Park So-Dam portrays the pivotal role of Death. Part 1 of the series has a stirring and emotionally heavy ending. It shows the lead character Yi-Jae going through a world full of pain after his death, especially as his seventh reincarnation. So without further ado, let’s dive right in and find out how the first part of the K-drama ends.
Death’s Game Part 1 Ending: Is Choi Yi-Jae able to avoid death as his seventh reincarnation?
The first part of Death’s Game begins on a striking note with the main character, Choi Yi-Jae, taking his own life after failing to endure the long-going pain of failure in life. However, his pain does not end there, as he has to live a total of twelve different lives, where he ultimately succumbs to an untimely and painful death. This is a punishment he receives from Death herself for committing such a big sin as ending his own life. However, Death informs him that if he can survive in any one of his twelve lives, he can fully live that life.
Throughout the first three episodes, Choi Yi-Jae is reincarnated as six very different individuals, including Taekang Group’s second son Park Jin-Tae, a fearless sports athlete named Song Jae-Seop, and a problem solver at a secret organization Lee Ju-Hun, an imprisoned aspiring martial art player, Jo Tae-Sang, a bullied high school student; Kwon Hyuk-Soo and even an abused baby. Choi Yi-Jae loses his chance to survive in all of these six lives. He can not survive for more than a few days in these six reincarnations.
However, when he is reincarnated as a popular model named Jang Geon-Woo (Lee Do-Hyun) in his seventh life, everything feels different, and a ray of hope is seen for Choi Yi-Jae’s survival. In this life, Geon-Woo also ends up meeting Yi-Jae’s true love, Lee Ji-Su, who has now become an acclaimed novelist. After having several conversations with her in this life, Yi-Jae realizes that it was a huge mistake to give up on his own life. He regrets his decision to end his life.
In his seventh reincarnation, he also meets his real mother from his first life. Seeing her in so much pain, he again regrets his choice to end his life. Later on, he starts spending more time with Ji-Su and sharing his real reincarnation stories with her as an idea for his book. However, when he realizes that he can lose Ji-Su in this life too, he tells her all the truths about his life, death, and reincarnation. He apologizes to her for making her go through so much pain.
At that moment, it seems like everything has begun to go well for him. But at the very end of episode 4, which is also the end of Death’s Game Part 1, a red car hits both him and Ji-Su, killing Ji-Su immediately. The first son of the Taekang Group, Park Tae-Woo, is the driver. When he finds Yi-Jae’s seventh reincarnation, Geon-Woo, alive at the accident spot, he does not hesitate to kill him. Thus, Choi Yi-Jae dies even in his seventh life. Death’s Game, Part 1, ends with him back in the dark pit with Death. In a fit of rage, he ends up shooting Death.
Watch Part 1 of Death’s Game on Prime Video and TVING.