Black ~ Grim Reaper No. 444 Broke the Rules

By cmoneyspinner - December 6, 2024

“Black” is a Korean drama series released in 2017, with 18 episodes, and categorized as Fantasy, Supernatural, Crime, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense; and streaming on OnDemandKorea.

SUMMARY: A young woman has always had the ability to see death, i.e. the dark shadows that appear behind a person just before they die. A grim reaper possesses the body of a detective who was murdered and who was also her first love, which is why she can not understand his strange behavior. Eventually, she will realize that she is dealing with a supernatural being who is being punished because he broke the laws of the underworld. But by that time their relationship bonds will have become stronger. What can they do? They are from different worlds.

♦ Is It a Curse or a Gift?

In “Black”, Kang Ha-Ram believes that she has been cursed ever since she was a little girl. Her father tried to convince her that she was not a bad girl. However, realizing that the dark shadows she saw frightened her, he gave her a pair of shades to wear. The dark lenses would make it look like the dark shadows were not there because she couldn’t see them as long as she wore the shades. So she wore shades almost everywhere, whether indoors or outdoors, whether day or night.

Most people thought she was strange, except … a young boy she knew when she was growing up named Joonie who told her that she had a gift, not a curse. He said there were many ways she could use her ability to see death and help others. He also said when he grew up he was going to be a detective. They got separated because he went to live somewhere else. Joonie was her first love, although he probably didn’t think of her that way. When he grew up he did become a detective but he had a different name. He was Han Moo-Gang and he was also in a relationship.

When Kang Ha-Ram and Han Moo-Gang crossed paths again as adults, he was a detective working on solving violent crimes and she was having difficulty holding down jobs because people thought her behavior was strange. She couldn’t help it. If she saw the dark shadows, she tried to warn the person but they thought she was crazy. One time she was on an airplane and made such a fuss they took her off the plane. But what she wanted was for them to not allow the plane to take off. Once again, nobody listened to her warning and the plane went down killing all who were on board.

She was arrested under suspicion of being a terrorist. But later they found out that the plane had a mechanical problem and it was an accident, not an act of terrorism. By this time, Han Moo-Gang was aware that she had a gift. He approached and tried to convince her that she could stop crimes before they happened IF they worked together. So she tried to work with him on an assignment. They thought they were successful until she realized they had arrested the wrong person. She foresaw a hostage situation and they thought they had prevented it. When she realized they had arrested the wrong man it was too late because the man had now taken Han Moo-Gang as his hostage. Han Moo-Gang was killed in that situation but it wasn’t the man who killed him. There was corruption in the police department and they used the situation to kill him and pretend it was an accidental shooting.

♦ Is He Dead or Alive?

Han Moo-Gang was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead. But the strangest thing happened. He got up off the slab in the morgue and walked out of the hospital. How could this be? He was surely dead! But he’s walking around as if nothing happened to him at all. Kang Ha-Ram also saw him and she’s just as baffled as everyone else. What nobody knows is … that’s not Han Moo-Gang. That’s Black! Who? Black aka Grim Reaper No. 444. Detective Han Moo-Gang is possessed by Black, a Grim Reaper. Buy why?

Grim reapers often come to collect human souls but they must follow the rules of the underworld. One of those rules is that they should never look into the eyes of a human who is in love. Black broke that rule. There was a recently married couple driving happily on their way to their honeymoon. They had a head-on collision with a truck. As the grim reaper stood outside of the car waiting to collect the two souls, the bride had not yet perished. Of course, she did not see the Grim Reaper. She was looking at her beloved husband who had just died with love in her eyes. Black looked directly into her eyes before she also died. Uh oh!! He broke the rules.

Black is now in the human world and needs to possess a body. The body he picked was Detective Han Moo-Gang. Black is a little disoriented and confused because he’s never really stayed in the human world, so his behavior is strange. For example, he thinks nothing of a naked body and exposes his “jewels” without realizing that it makes others uncomfortable because he has no modesty. Also, he had no idea food tasted so good!

Kang Ha-Ram tries to follow Black around because she thinks he is Han Moo-Gang aka “Joonie”. As time passes she will realize his identity and he will also realize the identity of the man whose body he possessed. Together they will uncover the truth behind Han Moo-Gang’s unjust death. They can be partners for justice but can they be lovers?

Main Characters:

Black / Han Moo-Gang (played by Song Seung-Heon, “The Player 1 and 2”, “Black Knight”)
Kang Ha-Ram (played by Go Ara, “The Childe”, “Haechi”, “The Magician”, “Hwarang: Poet Warrior Youth”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

IMDb: 7.8 out of 10 stars
My Drama List: 8 out of 10 stars
Google users shared a public rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars

My personal rating is the same as the Google users.

This series likely flew under the radar. However, “Black” was not disappointing at all. My only disappointment was that I had to watch it with ads on OnDemandKorea. But I’m still glad that I found it on a streaming platform available to the US audience. The lead characters had great chemistry. Although many reviewers claimed that the series had a bad ending. But that’s a common complaint about most Korean dramas when a supernatural being from the underworld crosses over and enters the human world. A lot of time scriptwriters don’t know how to end it. I feel that way about a lot of K-dramas in this genre. I wasn’t that crazy about how the ending of “The Judge From Hell”. But then … (???) … I couldn’t think of an alternative ending either. LOL.