Doctor Stranger - SBS Korean Drama 2014

Doctor Stranger is about a man with a genius IQ follows in his father’s footsteps in more ways than one. Park Hoon (Lee Jong Suk) is raised in North Korea to become a doctor by his doctor father, who had defected to South Korea years ago and met his South Korean mother before being captured and returned to North Korea. After Hoon becomes an accomplished chest surgeon, he too defects to South Korea and goes to work in the prestigious Dongwoo University Hospital.

 
As he tries to adjust to his strange new life in South Korea, Hoon does his best to work alongside Han Jae Joon (Park Hae Jin), a Harvard graduate who first discovers Hoon’s talent, while catching the eye of Oh Soo Hyun (Kang So Ra), Jae Joon’s fiancée and the daughter of the hospital chairman. Anesthesiologist Song Jae Hee bears a strong resemblance to Han Seung Hee (both played by Jin Se Yeon), Hoon’s girlfriend back in the North whom he wants desperately to come join him. Can the genius doctor do what it takes to make a new life for himself and his love in the South? “Doctor Stranger” is a 2014 South Korean drama series directed by Jin Hyeok.



Even though we are less than halfway through the year, I do believe that the title for ‘most fucked up drama protagonist of 2014’ can be squarely awarded to Park Hoon.


 Cast: Main Character

• Lee Jong-suk - Park Hoon (a genius doctor, son of South Korean mother and North Korean defector)
  • Goo Seung-Hyun as young Park Hoon
• Jin Se-yeon - Song Jae-hee (Park Hoon's first love from North Korea) / Han Seung-hee (an anesthesiologist with secret identity and mission)
  • Kim Ji-Young as young Song Jae-hee
• Park Hae-jin - Han Jae-joon (Harvard's graduate doctor who discovered Park Hoon's talent)
• Kang So-ra - Oh Soo-hyun (daughter of Myungwoo Hospital's chairman. Jae-joon's fiancee)

Additional Cast Members:

• Cheon Ho-Jin - Prime Minister Jang Seok-Joo
• Jeon Kuk-Hwan - Oh Joon-Gyu (Soo-Hyun's father)
• Yoon Bo-Ra - Lee Chang-Yi
• Kim Yong-Geon - President Hang Chan-Sung
• Park Hae-Joon - Cha Jin-Soo
• Choi Jung-Woo - Moon Hyung-Wook
• Jung In-Gi - Kim Tae-Sool
• Cheon Ho-Jin - Jang Seok-Joo
• Jung In-Gi - Kim Tae-Sool
• Kim Ji-Young
• Kim Sang-Joong - Park Cheol (Park Hoon's father)
• Lee Il-Hwa - Park Hoon's mother
• Goo Seung-Hyun - Park Hoon (young)
• Seo Ji-Hee - Song Jae-Hee (young)

You know, it totally makes sense that he fixates on Jae Hee so much. Usually I wonder why on earth a drama hero becomes so obsessed with the heroine in some epic insane fashion. I mean, what turns an absolutely normal person into someone whose sole meaning of life becomes some fated woman. But not here. It makes perfect sense with Hoon - he has to because he is so broken and he has nothing else. He needs to cling to her, to the memory of her and hope of her, for his own soul and sanity. He’s been given only impossible choices and she is his light at the end of the tunnel.

I mean, this is a man who was forced to perform human experiments for five years at the behest of a brutal regime - if it wasn’t for the idea of Jae Hee, the mere hope of her somewhere - he’d have probably lost his mind long ago or, worse, surrendered his humanity entirely.