Kdrama Review – Doom At Your Service Main Characters Introduction

Doom at your Service

The introduction of the character in the first episode opens up to Tak Dong-Kyung (Park Bo-young) being told by her doctor that she has glioblastoma.  Her doctor, Dr Jung Dang-myun,  tells her that she need to do a biopsy and treatment, though there is risk.  Asking if biopsy arrangements can be done on weekend, she tells her doctor that she will not be able to take leave from her work on other days.  Surprise by her reaction, Dr Jung tells her that if she gets treated after biopsy she can maybe extend her lifespan to a year but there is also risk of death on the table if she goes for surgery.  Otherwise if she does not get treated, she will only have three months to live.  Dong-kyung smiles and replied okay.  She then takes out an envelope which is an event planning report for Doctor Jung Dang Myun who is also a writer under “Dr Yeomna” and tells him not to forget to finish his writing on time. This also introduced Dong-kyung as working in a publishing company. Dr Jung was caught by surprise on her lack of emotions and reaction to the bad news.

Dong-kyung who has lost both of her parents at a young age shows no emotions to many of her life events. Her character is one that suppresses her feelings and emotions and does not share them with anyone. Not knowing how to cry has been her habit since she was young. At the funeral of her parents when she was ten years old, Dong-kyung seeing her brother Sun-kyung crying, puts on a smile on her face to comfort her brother. Since then, she has learn to swallow her tears. This scene was later reflected in the later episodes where Dong-kyung has crossed path with Myul-mung (Seo In-guk) at the funeral. Myul-mang later narrates to her that he remembers her at the funeral when she was young as Dong-kyung was the only person that he has ever seen who smile at funerals.

As Dong-kyung makes her way out at the doctor’s room and into the hospital corridor, thinking about what her doctor said, she stumbled upon Myul-mang (Seo In-guk) dressed in white suit.  Staring at him intently, Myul-mang acknowledges that he is handsome to look at but does not have much time and walks off.

This is the first time they met with Dong-kyun as an adult. In reality, both has crossed path at the funeral where Dong-kyun parents has died and where Myul-mung was seen weeping at someone’s funeral. The recollection of them meeting was triggered by the deity who gave Dong-kyun a nudge to the past. When Dong-kyun later narrates to Myul-mang how she remembers seeing him when she was a child, he was surprise that he was being remembered since nobody really remembers ‘doom’. It also explains that Myul-mang changes his looks to different people all the time and hence nobody actually knows what his actual look is.

The hospital scene was chaotic with many accident victims being pushed in.  Myul-mang was seen waiting for a particular patient, which is the suspect that causes harm to all the victims.  The suspect tries to kill himself at the scene.  As a nurse walks up and notices Myul-mang without a name tag, starts to question who he is.  Myul-mang touches her sleeve and instruct her to close the curtain and to not let anyone in except the police.  The nurse oblige with a smile and said “Yes, doctor.”   The suspect, who has slit his own neck hoping to die, was commanded by Myul-mang to open his eyes.  Myul-mang tells him that he is in control  of doom and death and that the suspect has taken his spot. Myul-mang tells him that he will not face the doom today that he deserves and with that,Myul-mang closes the wound on the suspect’s neck and let him live.  Myul-mang tells him that there are things that are worse than being dead – and that is call life.  When the time is right Myul-mang tells him that he will come for him. 

The scene moves on to a young girl standing at the hospital rooftop looking out to the garden. Myul-mang approaches her and ask why would a deity do what she likes with the world and ask if she is bored staying in the hospital. The deity ask him to try staying at the hospital as a patient and it is never boring. She elaborates that she is like a garden -where she plants, water and wait with all her heart. Myul-mang asks is she is responsible for the accident that just happened. The deity replied that even though she plants and water the seeds, some don’t get to sprout, some bloom late, some will wilt away quickly, some will be medicinal and some will be poisonous. She added that some plants will kill everything around them but that doesn’t mean that she is responsible for it. Myul-mang tells her she should choose to plant good seeds and throw the bad ones away. The deity replied that even though you are the gardener, it does not mean that you own the garden. Myul-mang then ask her what is him in this garden and how long he has to be that way. The deity replied that he is the butterfly for the flowers in the garden and it will be forever that way. Disgusted, Myung-mal tells her that she is too cruel, especially for a birthday boy. The deity chided how can he have a birthday when he is not human and that he has never been born. Myul-mang stood in silence. The deity ask him to leave and tells him to become someone’s wish since today being his birthday is the only day that he can get his wish. Myul-mang swears and mumbled it is time for the flower to wilt away.

The flowers in the garden represents human and although the deity plants them, they have no control how the flowers will bloom.  This represent the deity being the gardener does not mean she owns the garden.   Myul-mang which represents doom will always be there in human lives.  He is represented as the butterfly who will come for the flowers.  I thought that was a clever description of the presence of celestial being in human lives and not everything is controlled by the deity.   Where there is life, there is also death and doom.  Myul-mang having to live forever in loneliness since he is doom wishes to end the world so that he too can cease to exist.

That was an introduction of what Myul-mang character is. Everything he touches is mishaps, death and misfortune. He narrates that even when he breathes, lights a fire, bad things will happen as he is doom. In one of the episodes, Dong-kyun asks Myul-mang what will happen if he chooses not to do anything. Myul-mang tells her that all hell will break lose and that he must play his part in doom. He narrates that there is no life without death and that everything you gain is from things that you lose. Another narration of doom is reflecting how all the flowers in the garden wilted and dry up when he steps in. As he shows Dong-kyun the vision of the garden turning black and white, Dong-kyun walks into his vision and the wilted flowers starts to bloom. I would say this is the narrative of how she brings life to his doom and Myul-mung was surprise with the blooming flowers.

Review by: E Beul-lin
Credit : Viu