A Writers View

I know what you’re thinking – “Huh? What’s feel good to die? Isn’t she a little toooo obsessed with a Christmas Carol over here?” And, I’m not, but I can see how you might think that. If you didn’t think that then just forget about this and let’s move on.

Feel Good To Die is a 2018 (it came out around Christmas time – ha!) KBS2 drama starring Baek Jin Hee and Kang Ji Hwan.

Baek Jin Hee, a regular office employee, ends up stuck in a ‘time loop’ repeating the same day over and over again Groundhog Day style till she can successfully reform her abrasive boss Team Leader Baek, played by Kang Ji Hwan.

Apart from it being delightful and absolutely HILARIOUS it is also A Christmas Carol.

I’m going to assume we all know the plot of A Christmas Carol and just jump right into the role assignments.

In the Dickens novel we have Scrooge, the mean old miser, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, the Cratchet family (and Scrooge’s friends) and Old Marley’s Ghost.

In Feel Good To Die Scrooge is – you guessed it, Team Leader Baek, Kang Ji Hwan. He’s not angry or bitter or evil or anything so you might not immediately make the connection, but he is rude, condescending and completely oblivious to other peoples thoughts, feelings and lives – oh and he doesn’t take responsibility for anything.

Enter the Ghost of Christmas Past in Baek Jin Hee. Baek Jin Hee is the one stuck in the time loop, literally stuck in the past, forced to experiencing the same events over and over again till a significant change is made to break the loop. There are so many fun episodes where they show her struggling to break the loop and she does and then there’s another loop and another and it goes on and on. The only way to break the loop is to change herself and her boss Team Leader Baek.

We get the Ghost of Christmas Present in the body of Gong Myung. He’s a super positive, secret grandson of the CEO, always ready to do the right thing kinda guy. He reminds me a lot of Scrooges nephew too. He’s constantly telling Baek Jin Hee and Team Leader Baek to be in the present, work in the present, fix things in the present. It can’t get any clearer than that.

The Ghost of Christmas Future is the one the started it all by wishing for the death of her ex-boss Team Leader Baek. Unfortunately I’m having a hard time finding her name, but I’ll find a picture of her. She fell into a coma after refusing to leave her building as it was burning as she saw no point – to anything anymore. They hardly show us her face throughout all of it, every camera angle is just so that it’s hard to see her. It’s so hard to see her cause I can’t find any pictures of her or her scenes! So, here’s a fire gif to give you an idea.

The Cratchet’s would be any and all of the employees on Team Leader Baek’s team and througout the whole company, and the Ghost of Marley would be the bosses and his old colleague.

I was surprised by how much I really loved this drama and by how well they were able to do A Christmas Carol without making me even really realize till the end that it WAS A Christmas Carol!

So, if you’ve ever thought to yourself, “man, I’d really like to watch a Christmas Carol, but I wish it was more modern and Korean with time travel!” then Feel Good to Die is the drama for you!! It is currently available to stream on (you guessed it) Viki.com.

Ciao! 🙂