Tomorrow

Now that I'm done with Summer Strike, I thought I'd go for something totally different. So I started Tomorrow, which has Rowoon and Grim Reapers (sort of). And...I wound up being so busy that it's now days later and I'm actually finished with episode 5. So. Let's get this written up before I'm finished with it. I generally like to have a beginning and then an end wrap up.

Right-o. So, Rowoon plays Choi Jun-Woong, a young dude who's having trouble getting a job. More or less by accident, he has a run in with a team of grim reapers when he's trying to save a guy who wants to jump off a bridge. They aren't normal grim reapers though; they are the Risk Management Team and are supposed to save potential suicide victims. At any rate, he accidentally winds up going off the bridge with the guy and winds up in a coma. 

He's given a choice by the Jade Emperor (played by the inimitable Kim Hae-Sook, which I have seen in many things...but recently-ish in Start Up) to either stay in a coma for 3 YEARS or work for just 6 months for the Jumadeung (Korean version of...I dunno...afterlife?...actually, just asked ChatGPT and it says: In Korean folklore, Jumadeung is a bridge that connects the world of the living to the afterlife. It is believed that when a person dies, their spirit must cross the Jumadeung in order to reach the afterlife. The bridge is said to be guarded by a deity who judges the souls of the deceased and decides whether they are worthy of crossing the bridge or not.).

So of course he takes that deal. In a fair few ways, this reminds me of The Uncanny Counter, except they are trying to save people from taking their own lives rather than hunting down evil.

The rest of the RM team are Kim Hee-Seon playing Koo Ryeon and Yun Ji-On playing Lim Ryung-Gu. I've seen clips of her before (mostly from Angry Mom), though I've not really watched anything she's played a major part in. Same for him -- he's just had some bit parts in things I've watched. They aren't necessarily excited to have Jun-Woong on board. 

He's...well, he's sort of the classic Rowoon character. At least, of the things I've seen him in. He's pretty affable, a bit awkward, kind of a puppy and he always means well. 

The other divisions of the Jumadeung seem to have a serious chip on their shoulder for the RM Team, including Mr. Grim up there in the picture -- he's the head of the team that "escorts" the dead on. So, the classic grim reaper shtick. And Koo Ryeon used to work for him. Lee Soo-Hyuk playing Lim Ryung-Gu. He looks really familiar to me, but the only thing that stood out on the list that I've seen is Hello, Me! and he was a small part in that. Anyway, he plays forbidding well.

The show seems fairly episodic, built around the people they are trying to help, though they split it so that it takes more than one episode to solve any given case. At first, I thought it was going to be more comic than not BUT there's definitely some grim bits. Honestly, if you didn't have someone like Rowoon with the smile and goofiness, the show would be too heavy. Especially when one of their cases is his best friend, who is partly suicidal because Jun-Woong is in a coma.

Anyway, I am enjoying it thus far. There's lots of hints of future tension and I somehow think all the characters are going to be more tied together than it would originally appear; the Jade Emperor has things up her sleeve. However, at the same time, I have to admit that I'm kind of wanting to watch something light to alternate with. Not sure if I will or not. The last thing that I picked that I thought was going to be light and fluffy was Summer Strike and that had w-a-y more angst than I thought it would.

I do also want to give a shout out to Kim Chil-Doo -- born in 1955, he's a worker in the Jumadeung and by heavens, he's got a great face. And, looking at his list of credits, he didn't even start acting until 2020! I don't think he's actually said a single word so far in the show but I frickin' love him. Looks like he started as a rookie model in 2018 after a hard knock life of selling fruit and running a failing restaurant. More power to him.