Reviews & Reccommendations

When the Devil Calls Your Name is a brilliant tvN 2019 K-Drama inspired by the 18th century German play Faust starring Jung Kyung Ho and Park Sung Woong as the Devil.

First off, it’s really an awesome drama. If you haven’t seen it, you really should go watch it over on Viki right now. Seriously, pause reading this and go over and watch it right now, if you don’t want to be spoiled.

If you don’t mind spoilers, then please join me for episode 1 of Here’s What I Would’ve Done…

Now, I know you’re thinking, “But, you just said it was brilliant. Why would you wanna change anything about it?”
Because, it was brilliant – for the first 14 episodes. It’s only the last 2 that I would change as those were, to be honest, a real mess.

The first 14 episodes followed Jung Kyung Ho, or as he will be referred to in this post as Devil Guy (even though he wasn’t the devil, he was the guy that sold his soul to the devil, but that’s just my nickname for him, ok!), an old washed up musician who sold his soul to the devil for youth, fame and fortune, but when the Devil, Park Sung Woong, comes to collect he tries to re-neg on the deal in any way that he can.

In the beginning, the Devil tells him that if he re-negs on the deal he will go back to his life before, where he is old, poor and alone, and that everyone who’s life he touched on account of the deal will revert back to their original paths as well. This freaks Devil guy out and he instead promises to find the Devil an A-grade soul to replace his.

That’s when the rest of the story really kicks off as he finds a young, talented, down on her luck, nice girl whom he believes has that A-grade soul that he’s after. He fosters her music career all the while trying to figure out how to get her to sign a soul contract.
But, something unexpected happens. He starts to like her. Not necessarily in that romantic way, (although there were some scenes that made me think…) but in that “this is a really nice person that I like as a human being” kind of way. So, he starts to try to think of new ways to wiggle out of his own wretched soul contract – but it’s all for naught.

I won’t spoil the rest of the plot – I’ll just jump right into what I would’ve done.

I would’ve ended the series where the only way out of the contract was for him to go back to being that poor, washed up, alone, has-been, that he had been before. The Devil had said that THAT was an option.

How inspiring would it have been to have the show end where he is able to change his past, undo this great mistake of selling his soul to the devil out of despair, and embrace his life as it was, saving the people that he cared about (spoiler alert he knew the A-grade girl back when he was an old washed up has-been) and living out the remainder of his days quietly and goodly, turning everyone that he met away from the empty temptations of the Devil. It would’ve turned it into Faust meets Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.

(incidentally this is my favorite version of A Christmas Carol from 1997 starring Tim Curry)

The show didn’t end that way. It kind’ve ended in a way that was like “so, yeah, you know even if you sell your soul, sometimes it can just come back to you.”

Oh, ok. Then – what was the point of all the pain, drama? Why did you put us, the audience, through the ringer if the solution in the end was just, “you know, someday you’ll be fine.”?

I still loved the show, it was brilliant – the first 14 episodes, the last 2, as I’ve said, were a mess. Therefore, in my opinion, the show would’ve been a lot better if the solution in the end had been to reverse the deal, give up all of the money, youth and fame, to live and die a normal life – a better life, as a better person.

Writer OUT

PS – The soundtrack is absolutely amazing! Here’s one of my favorite songs.

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“…that’s for the 2nd Mrs. De Winter!”

I just watched the 1940s Alfred Hitchcock version of Rebecca (after being amused by Michell and Webb’s, a British comedy duo, parody skit of the film – which can be found on YouTube) starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine and let me just say I LOVED IT!!!

I want to make this a proper review, but I don’t really know how to do that just yet. So, I think, if it’s alright with all of you, that I’m just going to rave and ramble a bit about what I liked most and my thoughts and such.

Firstly, I loved the romance between Mr. Olivier and Ms. Fontaine! Ms. Fontaine’s character, the 2nd Mrs. De Winter, made me IMMEDIATELY think of Bella Swan from Twilight. She was clumsy and simple and plain and totally did not believe that anyone could actually like her, especially not an amazing man like Mr. De Winter. Just like Bella.

In fact, there were more than a couple of scenes of the 2nd Mrs. De Winter knocking things over or clumsily bumping into doors or breaking things. It was actually one of the things that lead to their first luncheon date (she spilled a vase of flowers on her table at the hotel which made him notice her and go over to invite her to his table) that cascaded into their whirlwind week of romance! ❤

I am very convinced that Bella Swan was hugely inspired by the 2nd Mrs. De Winters. We know that Jane Eyre, which Joan Fontaine also starred in, was a point of inspiration to Stephanie Meyer and honestly the three characters, at least in they way they view themselves, are very similar. They’re just your average plain, simple, normal, clumsy (except Jane wasn’t very clumsy) girl that falls in love with the moody and broody older man.

But all of this only takes us through the first 30 or so minutes of the film. Once we get to the house, Manderely, much like Thornfield Hall, the place is full of restricted sections, questionable staff, and secrets. Most of the staff are happy to welcome their new mistress, even though she herself feels awkward about all of it, except for the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers. I feel like housekeepers, in theory, should be great! But unfortunately, more often then not in these old tales, they are far from it. Oh sure, they act like they’re helping, giving you invaluable information, etc, etc, but in actuality they’re hoping that you choke on a lemon and die.

Mrs. Danvers reminded me of old Miss Holloway from the 1944 version of The Uninvited. If you know, you know. And if you don’t know, then you really should go and watch The Uninvited, it’s a really scary ghost movie starring Ray Milland that kept me awake for ages as a little kid. Now, it still gives me the spooks but I love it!

Mrs. Danvers does not do much to help her new mistress at all – in fact she does her very best to get rid of the 2nd Mrs. De Winters and let’s just say that her and Bertha Mason had similar ideas and leave it at that.

I really don’t want to give away too much of the film anymore (even though it came out 81 years ago {that’s right 81 years ago!!}) so I’ll just wrap it up by saying…

I loved the lighting, the framing, the acting, the writing, the setting and the ending.

And I want to compliment Twilight for using classics such as Rebecca and Jane Eyre for its model. I now know that the major thing missing from the first Twilight book (and indeed the whole series) was an old, grand, spooky mansion. Because sure, the Cullen house was nice, but Manderely and Thornfield Hall it was not.

A Writers View

Where we look at things from A Writers Point of View

Here’s What I Would’ve Done!! When The Devil Calls Your Name (korean drama)

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Movie Review: Rebecca (1940s)

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