Abyss | What Does Your Soul Look Like? Netflix Kdrama Series

Abyss is a Netflix Original K-Drama series released in 2019. Most people believe they have souls. But what does your soul look like? This Korean drama series is definitely “original”. Abyss puts a delightfully interesting spin on the concept of one’s inner beauty.

What If You Died and Were Reborn Looking Like Your Soul

Most people assume that their souls are like a vapor or a ghostly apparition. They imagine that the apparition would look the same as your physical appearance. Otherwise, how would you recognize yourself?

Let’s suppose your physical appearance is somewhat unattractive by the world’s standard for beauty or handsomeness. However, your soul looks beautiful. But nobody can see your soul. Suppose your fiancée canceled the wedding by sending you a message that she could not stand the thought of eating and sleeping with such an ugly person for the rest of her life. Clearly, you would be devastated. Would you feel crushed enough to contemplate suicide? Probably.

Now suppose when you decided to jump off a building to commit suicide, you changed your mind and ended up dangling trying to hold on. Eventually, you lose your grip and fall to your death. Before death, you were not considered physically attractive but people who knew you would all agree that you had a beautiful soul. You died, you were reborn, and your physical appearance after rebirth looks nothing at all like how you looked before you died. You have a beautiful soul and when you were reborn, your physical appearance takes on the appearance of your beautiful soul. In other words, people can now see your inner beauty, physically on the outside and you are “crazy handsome”. Women and men, even your own mother, are stunned by your dazzling good looks!

That’s what happened to Cha Min (played by Ahn Hyo-seop, “Business Proposal”). But he is not the only one who gets reborn.

Two Deaths – An Unintentional Suicide and a Murder

For 20 years Cha Min yearned to be in a loving relationship, but gave up on the girls of his dreams, Go Se-yeon (played by Park Bo-young). He decided to marry Jang Hee-jin (played by Han So-hee, “100 Days My Prince”).

Jang Hee-jin has a history of leaving her men before they get to the altar. She never intends to marry them. Her only purpose for winning Cha Min’s heart is to get at his money. But before wedding bells could ring she runs away and sends him a message telling him that he’s just too ugly to live with.

Of course, he’s heartbroken and blames Go Se-yeon because she is the one who introduced them to each other. He calls her a few moments before he dies to let her know how hurt he is, but she brushes him off by saying he shouldn’t blame her if the relationship did not work out. Besides, she’s busy! If only she had known he was going to die she probably would have been more considerate and sympathetic.

But she wasn’t lying when she said she was busy. Go Se-yeon is a Public Prosecutor and she’s was investigating a serial killer. She followed up on a lead by meeting with a doctor who works in the ER (Emergency Room) at a hospital. Later that night, she could not have predicted that she was also going to die. She was murdered.

Meanwhile, Jang Hee-jin who thought she was just going to fly off into the sunset, gets abducted from the airport.

Within a short span of time, two deaths occur – an unintentional suicide and a murder. Plus a woman disappears. Did she die too?

What’s an Abyss?

Cha Min’s death was ruled an “accident” so two beings from the Other World bring him back to life. Even they are sort of confused by his new look. Usually, when they bring a person back to life, the person looks like how they looked before they died. That’s because their physical body and their soul both look the same. But every now and then …

Cha min is reborn looking like … the most handsome man on the planet! His soul is drop-dead gorgeous! (Excuse the pun.) Who knew that was what he looked like on the inside? It goes without saying, after he gets over the initial shock, that he is quite pleased with his looks.

But wait! There’s more. The two beings from the Other World give him a shiny marble that glows and changes colors. The marble is called Abyss. It has the power to bring people back to life. There are rules regarding its use, but Cha Min is the owner and can decide to use the Abyss when he deems it necessary.

The Murder Victim and the Murderer Are Both Brought Back to Life

Since Go Se-yeon has always been an important part of his life, CHa Min tries to meet with her. While walking through an alley near her apartment he stumbles upon a dead man. He panics, calls emergency for an ambulance, and pulls out the Abyss. He does not know how to use it, so when the man does not revive instantly, he thinks maybe he did not use it properly. When the ambulance arrives he leads the medical people to where he found the dead man, but the body is no longer there. Evidently, the Abyss worked!

But while he was spending time trying to revive a complete stranger, the woman of his dreams was being murdered. He goes to Se-yeon’s apartment and calls her name from the street. When the lights in her apartment get turned off, he leaves intending to come back later. But later was too late! The next day he learns that she was murdered and it is very likely he was standing on the streets in front of her apartment when it happened. He goes to her funeral and uses the Abyss to bring her back to life.

Before her death, everyone thought Go Se-yeon was drop-dead gorgeous! But when she is brought back to life she looks like … a plain Jane. It seems her soul on the inside was not as beautiful as she looked on the outside. She is not exactly pleased with her new looks but she figures out a way to use those looks to her advantage. Since she no longer looks the same she can investigate without anybody recognizing her as the late Prosecutor Go Se-yeon.

What is More Important?

Go Se-yeon and Cha Min start working together to solve her murder.  It turns out she was another one of the serial killer’s victims.  There are a lot of twisted relationships that complicate the unraveling of these killings.  Can they capture the culprit and bring him to justice?  Because that’s important!

But even more important … How can they maintain their relationships with the people they knew and loved before they were reborn when those people do not recognize them? (O.o)

Viewership and Rating

Abyss is 16 episodes and is categorized under several genres: fantasy, crime drama, murder mystery, thriller, and romance. Fans of Ahn Hyo-seop will love his character. This South Korean actor has been starring in TV and web series since 2015. He is the male lead in the fantasy, “Lovers of the Red Sky”, a 2021 Viki Original Series; and also in the time-travel K-drama, “A Time Called You”, a 2023 Netflix series.

Various reviewers did not want to give Abyss a high rating.

• Some viewers thought there were too many scenes with the actors eating at Subway (the American multinational fast food restaurant franchise).
• Some thought the fantasy elements could have been handled better, such as, how that orb work and what the different orb colors meant.
• Some people thought the ending was awful! (No spoilers.)

These complaints are valid, but overall, the series was enjoyable. Most viewers thought the cast was terrific! The IMDb rating for Abyss is 7.1 out of 10 stars. I agree.