K-Drama Review: Kokdu: Season of Deity | Viki Original Series
How long does a season of deity last? 99 days. During that time, Kokdu, a cruel angry death god, needs to find a woman, win her heart, and she must say the words “I love you”.
Kokdu is a really mean and nasty death god, who is being punished because he incurred the wrath of the Creator. The only way he can be freed from this punishment is if a woman who knows how awful he is, still falls in love with him, faults and all. Like the fairy tale, “Beauty and the Beast”? Eh! Sort of.
Kokdu Was Once a Human
Before he became a vengeful, hateful, angry, merciless, really mean, and nasty god, he was a human named Oh-hyeon. He was a handsome warrior in Silla, one of the three kingdoms in ancient Korea. He lost his life because he loved Seol Hui, a woman who had been gifted as a concubine to another man. The plan was for the two of them to run away together. Their plan was discovered and he was killed. Seol Hui decided that she did not want to live without him and so she committed suicide. In the afterlife, he was always angry and he refused to obey any commands received from the Creator. For him, there was no punishment that could be worse than what he had already experienced in the land of the living.
The Punishment of a God is Worse
At least the punishment a human receives when they’re in the land of the living does not last forever. But the Creator teaches Kokdu that the punishment a death god receives is far more painful because it can go on and on, forever and ever. Kokdu’s punishment was that he had to visit the mortal world every 99 years to punish wicked humans, and to search for the woman whose name he had forgotten. He would know if he had finally found her when they kiss because the memories would return. But it wasn’t enough to find her. She had to fall in love with him and say the words “I love you”. Only then will his painful agonizing punishment end.
But that’s not so easy. Oh-hyeon, the brave warrior was easy to love. Kokdu, the death god, is not very lovable. Kokdu knows it’s not that easy because he’s been trying to find that woman for 500 years.
Kokdu can only be in the mortal world for a “season”, i.e. a certain number of days. 99 days to be precise. That time period is called the season of Kokdu or the season of deity.
He has two assistants: Gak Shin, the god of rumors, and Ok Shin, the god of greed. They are responsible for finding a body for him to enter so that he can appear to be like a human while in the world during his “season”. They have been with him throughout the centuries.
Even though the people he kills are wicked and deserve divine punishment, he does not enjoy serving as a grim reaper. Every 99 years, when he is reincarnated he hopes he can find the woman who will finally set him free.
Kokdu is Reincarnated as Doctor Do Jin-woo
- Kim Jung-hyun plays Kokdu / Oh-hyeon / Doctor Do Jin-woo.
Doctor Do Jin-woo looks like a person who has everything to live for. He is healthy, young, handsome, and a successful surgeon who works at the prestigious Pilseong Hospital. But looks can be deceiving. Both Gak Shin and Ok Shin know that Jin-woo will soon depart from the land of the living. That’s why they chose his body for Kokdu to possess during the season of deity.
Doctor Han Gye-jeol is Seol Hui Reincarnated
- Im Soo-hyang plays Seol Hui / Doctor Han Gye-jeol.
Jin-woo wants to expose medical malpractice being commited by the Chairman of Pilseong Hospital. Doctor Han Gye-jeol is an ER doctor and her skills as a medical professional are outstanding. However, she is having difficulty getting a job at any hospital because she graduated from the lowest-ranking medical school in the country. Jin-woo helps her get a job at the hospital. But she does not realize tht he has an ulterior motive. Jin-woo wants Gye-jeol to help him expose the Chairman’s crimes.
She agrees to help but on the day she was supposed to testify, he is murdered. First, she sees Jin-woo fall to his death. Then, she “thinks” she sees Jin-woo get up and walk away. Only the being who got up and walked away was Kokdu, in the body of Jin-woo. The season of deity has begun.
Kokdu Finds Han Gye-jeol Irresistible
Believing that Jin-woo is still alive, Gye-jeol searches for him. When she “thinks” that she has found him, she is confused by his behavior. He does not seem to know her. As a rational-thinking doctor, she reasons that he must be suffering from amnesia and decides to help him regain his memories. Kokdu would like to refuse her “help”, but there is something about Gye-jeol. For reasons he does not understand, this woman is kind of … irresistible.
During their first encounter, he recalls a memory. But it’s not Jin-woo’s memory. It’s Oh-hyeon’s memory from hundreds of years ago when he was with Seol Hui. That’s not all. There is something else that is strange about Gye-jeol. Kokdu obeys her. He does whatever she tells him to do and he doesn’t know WHY.
Doctor Han Gye-jeol does not know it when she and Kokdu first meet. However, as their relationship develops she will come to realize that she is Seol Hui reincarnated. Although she learns her identity from her previous life, that does not automatically guarantee that she will fall in love with Kokdu.
Kokdu has 99 days to win her heart and get her to say “I love you”.
Viewership Ratings
Kokdu: Season of Deity is a 2023 Viki Original and an audience of 7000+ viewers gave this series 8.9 out of 10 stars. I agree.
What I liked the most about this series was the scenery. WOW! Soompi.com agrees with me. In their article titled “5 Reasons To Watch Supernatural K-Drama ‘Kokdu: Season Of Deity’”, their number 5 reason was the gorgeous scenery.
This series does not rate 10 out of 10 stars, but I hope Viki will continue releasing original content. They’ve come a long way since they released their first original series, “Dramaworld” in 2016.
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