Grim Reapers in Tomorrow, Guardian The Lonely And Great God: The angels of death have swag to spare

For those who thrive on a diet of K-dramas — creatures like gumihos (nine-tailed fox), goblins (spiritual deities) and grim reapers are on the same plane as ghosts, werewolves, vampires and the supernatural lot that we are normally familiar with. But the Koreans sure prefer their gumihos and grim reapers. And here’s where the creativity knows no bounds — it’s as if they almost have fun devising a coherent workplace for grim reapers, cooking up professional rivalries and hierarchies and all within a modern context. Several shows have used the Grim Reaper — some in a romantic cutesy way, like The Universe’s Star, where the main lead dies and becomes the angel of death to save her K-pop idol. However, the most popular is Guardian: The Lonely God. It’s a serious profession.

In Guardian: The Lonely God, Lee Dong-wook immortalised himself as the Grim Reaper who sets about his work during the day, looking for the souls who are fated to die. He works with a bunch of fellow reapers, all clad in black suits, poring over lists of the damned while waiting at the bus stop. These Grim Reapers also have had turbulent pasts, as evident from Lee Dong-wook’s backstory that he remembers only later. This gruelling job is also a form of atoning for their sins that they have committed in their past lives.

After they encounter the unfortunate incidents, they converse with the victims in a room, comforting them about the suddenness of death. These moments are bittersweet and entrenched with pain as the victims don’t want to die, obviously. They have to leave behind everything that they love dearly and sometimes they don’t have the chance to say goodbye. But humans have a few more lives — they’ll be born again. Yet, the trauma of their previous life won’t haunt them anymore after they’re reincarnated, as they’re told to drink a special potion. It’s these scenes that brought the painfully realistic touch to Guardian—the quiet acceptance of death and the hope to be born again.

Of course, the Grim Reapers seem more human than humans themselves, as they have to deal with problems of rent and groceries. Lee Dong-wook’s Wang Yeo gets into constant fights with his roommate, Gong Yoo, a goblin, who has been cursed for years.

Lee Dong-wook in Guardian (Netflix)

In the recently concluded K-drama Tomorrow, the Grim Reaper work structure is more elaborate and detailed. It’s like watching a supernatural thriller that has elements of an office drama. The action takes place in a hellish world called the Jumadeung, and Kim See-hun’s Koo-ryeon, an edgy femme fatale, heads the Crisis Management team. She works with Park Joong-gil (Lee Soo-hyuk), the leader of this team who acts as a guide to the dead in Jumadeung. There is a solid structure; and there are proper official positions for reaper-ing, including an assistant manager and a director who ensures the grim work is carried out efficiently. There is a ‘Board’ too and if you break the rules, you are at risk of being fired, which means you go to hell. Literally.

Koo-ryeon is entrusted with the task of saving suicidal humans and showing them how precious life really is. But as established in the opening scene, she marches in, with coloured hair and swishing coat and doesn’t waste words. She walks in on a suicide pact and employs some rather dubious means to knock sense into them. It’s a far cry from the melancholic emotions of Guardian; but you know that she will mellow down with time. She has a terrible past, of course.

Rowoon’s Jun-woong is thrown into this world quite by accident — he had no intention of committing suicide, but after a hilarious mix-up with the grim reapers, he ends up in a coma. Koo-ryeon has to claim responsibility for him and signs him on contract. You know, the intern reaper. The episodes then follow their adventures and how they rescue people from their own demons. However, the real story lies in Joon-gil and Koo-ryeon’s intertwined and tragic pasts. It’s a tragic story of love and aching bitterness that hasn’t quite soothed over the years, despite numerous reincarnations. The director explains that while it takes one reincarnation for past memories to fade away, Joon-gil’s wounds were far more deep and he still carries them around with him — even if he cannot remember Ryeon. He remembers later and he even learns the reason why Ryeon became a Reaper in the first place. In a painful climactic scene, Ryeon breaks the rules; she almost reverses the good she has been doing for so long and there is an entire Board discussion on whether she will be sent back to hell. Wounds are somewhat healed by the end of the show, but not quite—and the show comes to a bittersweet and satisfying conclusion after the initial clunkiness.

What makes Tomorrow even more believable is that it convinces its audience that this world actually exists. You become acquainted with the rules that are conveyed to you without heavy exposition, to the point that you are certain that there are Grim Reapers roaming around Seoul, dressed in black.  It’s even more buyable that this organisation is under-staffed and under-funded.

The usage of modernised Grim Reapers works to the advantage of K-dramas and elevates the storytelling. Writers give full rein to their imagination and create fully-fledged professions for characters that are normally meant to be haunting spectres. These angels of death are more human than the human themselves, and have swag to spare.