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Perfect balance between romance and action.
I love how they added the perfect amount of romance to the drama, they didn't push it, instead they added mistery to it.The backstories where where unique and interestingly contrastring. They both came from a hard childhood, one holding a grudge, while the other is helping people from the goodness of his heart.
Giving the message to do what you can, don't linger in the past which you can't change, and live your live to the fullest
I will definitely give it a rewarch in the future !
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This show started great, I thought I was going to like it and even fall in love with it, but sadly, after the first 4 or 5 episodes, it was quite boring. It began with a lot of thrill and kept me on the edge of my seat, it had this kind of dark feel to it, which I love, but as the show progressed the atmosphere completely changed.
First let me talk about the characters: Honestly, I pretty much didn’t like any of the main characters. Let me explain.
Park Hoon: of course I love Lee Jongsuk and he did a great job acting but through most of the show I didn’t like Park Hoon. Lol please don’t attack me, let me explainnnn.
Park Hoon was charming and sweet, yes, and he began the show a very strong and likable character in my opinion, but as the show went on he was also impulsive and made a bunch of stupid a** decisions when it came to Jaehee, which frustrated me.
Jaehee: tbh Jin Seyeons acting wasn’t that great and she could have done better. She only had 2 different emotions and facial expressions the entire show and on top of that, I never could decide if I trusted her character or not. It would have been easier if Jaehee’s emotions were projected better. So yeah I didn’t like Jaehee.
Soohyun: 100 % amazing. This is the only character I could love from the very beginning and Kang Sora did an amazing job acting. Soohyun was very relatable and adorable and tbh the only reason I continued the show was to watch her and see her with Park Hoon, I HAD HARD SECOND LEAD SYNDROME FOR THIS GIRL AND I HIGHKEY WISH SHE HAD PARK HOON. PLS COMMENT IF YOU AGREE WITH ME.
Jae Joon: great actor, great performance, but obvi I didn’t like him because he was just an a**hole.
Besides the main roles I also didn’t like a lot of the support roles either, the only other role I liked was Chigyu, and maybe even Changyi.
But yeah once again this show started great and strong, but just kind of went downhill from about episode 5 maybe.
And don't get me started on the last episode. It was just all over the place, in my opinion, they could have made it much better. It's like they filmed enough scenes for 2 more episodes but decided they should just end it on episode 20 so they cut down a lot of the scenes and squished them into 60 mins.
Honestly, I don’t have much more to say. If you’re trying to decide whether to watch this drama or not, I wouldn’t say don’t watch it, but don’t have high expectations.
Would I rewatch this drama? Most definitely not.
But would I watch multiple ship videos of Park Hoon and Soohyun? YES.
*Sorry for any typos!
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STORY - IT'S BEAUTIFUL. I like how the story unfolds, how it progressed, and the way it ended. The story might be quite unrealistic, but they pulled it off greatly. I like the medical aspect, particularly the operating room scenes. Makes me wanna be a doctor too. :) I hated some parts of the drama, yes, specially the fact that the PM seems to control everyone but it doesn't even matter because the story is just so beautiful.
ACTING/CAST - Lee Jong Suk certainly delivers, as always. I love him so much. The female lead is just okay. She's forgettable. Soo Ra and Hae Jin are amazing too. Overall, I love how the characters delivered in this drama.
MUSIC - The OSTs are daebak!
REWATCH VALUE - Definitely on my rewatch list.
OVERALL - It's a really great drama. So beautiful. I give it 9/10. The only reason why it's not a 10 for me is because I feel like the female lead could have been better if it was another actress.
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I understand that this drama is not mainstream and there is enough things which one could find confusing or irritating but to me, getting past that and focusing on the positives, I did.
The medical and surgeries bit was very well done, the backstories of each character were interesting and the unwavering love between the leads carried the drama.
Looking at popular opinions, I know this drama is not supposed to be a drama one will like, but I loved it and when something appeals to your heart, you do not need to have a reason.
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Park Hoon- He strangest doctor on Earth. He keeps losing his girlfriend every now and then. Stalks a girl who looks like his (assumed dead) girlfriend.
Likes: Dressing inappropriately for work.
Dislikes: Being on time.
Song Jae-hee- The mysterious lady. You won't get to understand anything from her facial expressions.
Likes: Keeping a blank, expressionless face.
Dislikes: Showing emotions on her face.
Oh Soo-hyun- The daughter of the chairman who falls for Park Hoon and becomes a borderline obsessed lover.
Likes: Obsessing over Park Hun.
Dislikes: When someone says to her Hoon has a girlfriend so stop obsessing over him.
Han Jae-joon- Comparingly saner than the other characters. Spends a lot of time to set his hair (his hair is always perfect).
Likes: Building doll-houses.
Dislikes: Possibly everyone walking on this planet.
The best thing about this show is 'slow-motion doctor walk'. And, I loved seeing Park Hun and Han Jae-joon grabbing each other's collars every now and then. I was hoping they will pull the hair of each other or will exchange punches. Sadly, that did not happen.
Acting- Lee Jung-suk and Park Hae-jin were good, however not at their best. Kang So-ra was good too. I will not even talk about Jin Se-yeon.
Rewatch Value: Nope!
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In my personal opinion, Doctor Stranger is nothing but an overrated drama. Yes, it does have a great main story but anything else other than that was a "filler". It had lots of potential. It had great actors. But I think they wasted the opportunity. The drama was off to a good start. It was strong enough to make me watch the next episodes. But when the scenes in South Korea came, the story was starting to slowly depreciate. They started a"competition" to know who will operate on the Prime Minister (later on it was revealed to be the President) but they never performed the heart operation in the end.
I think they the character of Park Hae Jin deserved more. The way he found out who Park Hun really was and the way he revealed his true identity was anti climactic. I think the writers and the director could've gotten more out of his character.
For Lee Jongsuk's character, His acting here wasn't superb but it was okay. I don;t know why but I just got a little annoyed to how careless his character was, he was just purely blinded by love. Yes, it was sweet at first but then it got annoying somewhere. Especially, when he just started shouting at everyone who doesn't agree with him.
However, I think the biggest blackhole of this drama was the female lead. Yes, Jin Seyeon. Throughout the drama, her eyes were literally dead. It was like she was just reading her script all the way. They could've replaced her with a robot and people wouldn't notice the difference. Her character was suppose to be the strongest out of them all, heck she was the one who was conceptualizing the plan and manipulating the people to help execute her plans but all of those were wasted. I wished her acting was more dynamic. I think is also the first time I have wished that the male lead end up with the second female lead. They have better chemistry and they were just more fun to watch.
Lastly, one character in which they could've used better was the chief body guard. Except for Park Hun giving him a lollipop when he was young we don't know anything else on why he's helping Park Hun. It can't merely be a "soft spot", what he did was too big for a mere soft spot for Hun. Wished they could've given him a better backstory.
One thing, I did enjoy here is that even though the head of the hospital doesn't like Park Hun, he never tried to kill any patient for his advantage. He was letting his doctors do their job and just hope for his preferred outcome to happen. He never did outright try to kill anyone just like in other medical dramas.
All in all, I really think this was overrated. Will I watch it again? No. Will I recommend it to anyone? Not really.
PS: We never really did figure out what happened to Mr. Lim? He just vanished with Cha Sujin.
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Forever My Doctor Stranger: A Love That Beats As One
I rewatched Doctor Stranger again after such a long time.Let me first talk about the positive side of this drama. I can honestly say I still have not moved on from it. This is my Shayla, my romance empire.
The first two episodes are truly LEGENDARY.
When I was a child, I watched this drama without thinking too much and just felt deeply hooked by Jaehee and Hoon’s love story from the very start. Only after rewatching it now did I realize that their love actually teaches us what true love really means.
From beginning to end, Hoon only loves Jaehee.
Jaehee is his love, his soulmate, his family, his life force, his compass, and his home. That is why the time he spends without her, he feels like a stranger. And it is the same for Jaehee. To her, Hoon is her love, her soulmate, her beautiful dream, her life force, and her home.
Since the moment they realized their hearts beat in the same rhythm, they knew they were each other’s destination. That is why they would do anything and sacrifice so much for one another.
I am glad that in the end, after all the endless challenges and hardships, they finally find their way back home to each other.
Lee Jong Suk and Jin Se Yeon’s chemistry and acting are what made me hold on until the end. I still melt for all their happy moments 😭❤️.
Special mention to Lee Jong Suk’s brilliant portrayal of Hoon. I can say for sure that his Hoon is the most handsome, attractive, and charismatic version of him ever. I love the friendly haha-hihi Hoon who looks super cool during surgery chef’s kiss.
Many criticize Jin Se Yeon’s acting here, but to me, her acting is okay though. Not the best, but definitely not something that disturbed my experience watching the drama. She really suits the first-love vibe with her long hair actually. A white moonlight that a man can’t forget. Especially the scene where she got shot and fell from the bridge *that’s chef’s kiss*.
Also, the best part is the OST. Honestly, K-dramas these days still can’t compete with old K-drama OSTs. This drama is one of them. It’s truly legendary. I can listen to the OST 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, without ever feeling bored. Every time I hear the song, especially “Stranger” by Bobby Kim, I feel like I want to cry my lungs out😭💔. It’s just so sad for no reason. It’s such a magical song for me.
Now let’s talk about the bad side.
Yes, the best part is definitely only the first two episodes. The drama had such huge potential. I can see that both the writer and the director had a lot of ideas and wanted to make it big, but they ended up just messing around and achieving nothing 😔.
They tried to combine action, medical, politics, revenge, melodrama, and romantic comedy all in one story. It was ambitious, but they failed big time. None of those genres were executed perfectly.
I also really hated how they turned the romance into a love triangle. It was unnecessary.
They turned it into a couple war between two ships just for popularity, because at that time “husband-hunting” and “endgame-couple guessing” were trendy. But that choice ruined the emotional focus of the story.
No matter what people said, I have always been on Team Jaehee and Hoon.
There is no point in making such a long and painful love story just for Hoon to suddenly move on and fall for a so-called new and better girlfriend. If they wanted that, they should have just killed Jaehee from the beginning and let Hoon move on early.
Hoon had no motivation to join Myungwoo Hospital or move the story forward if not for Jaehee. If he had known she was dead from the start, he probably would have died too. After losing his father and Jaehee, he had no reason, no motivation, and no life force left to live. The only reason he worked so hard every day was because he believed Jaehee was still alive in North Korea.
So imagine making such a loyal man who sacrificed everything for his love suddenly betray her and move on to another girl when his original girlfriend comes back. What a joke.
That is why I can never empathize with people who shipped the Quack couple. To me, that ship was like cheering for betrayal. They supported a man abandoning his true love just to chase something new and better. But true love is never about finding the best one. It is about finding someone who makes you feel perfectly at home.
And that is exactly what Jaehee is to Hoon, and Hoon to Jaehee.
They are both strangers in a foreign land who found home in each other. No one understands Hoon better than Jaehee, and vice versa. It is just sad that the drama did not explore their backstory deeper. Because of that, many viewers could not fully understand how deep their bond truly was.
I also feel really sad about how poorly the drama treated Jaehee’s character.
She had so much potential. A North Korean and Japanese spy and doctor could have had such a rich, layered story. But we barely knew anything about her.
Why did she want to become a doctor?
Why was her family arrested?
Why was her Japanese family stuck in North Korea?
How did she even survive after drowning in the Budapest river?
The drama did not show her emotional journey, her struggles, or her point of view. Instead, they gave way too much focus to the Quack character, who was supposed to be a contrast to Hoon’s love for Jaehee and just the hospital director’s daughter. Yet we got all her family drama, her struggles as a doctor, how she fell for Hoon, how she tried to move on from him, and more, which did not even help the main story.
They showed her crying again and again, which honestly got annoying, but it worked to make viewers sympathize with her. In reality, she was a wishy-washy character who jumped between Jaejoon and Hoon and then went back to Jaejoon after Hoon rejected her. It was so unfair to Jaehee, the most incomplete and poorly written character among the four leads.
I also hated how the writing made Hoon and Jaehee’s reunion moments so confusing.
When Hoon hugged Jaehee, it should have been a fluttering, emotional moment just for them. But they ruined it by adding a parallel scene with Quack hugging Hoon too, as if to start a new love line. It ruined the emotion and made people misinterpret Hoon’s feelings.
When Hoon drunkenly said he wished Quack was Jaehee, viewers also misunderstood that scene. What he meant was not that he wished Quack as a person was Jaehee. He meant he wished Jaehee as a doctor could be like Quack, passionate, focused, and living as a doctor again.
It ties perfectly with the drama’s poster. Jaehee was the only one not wearing a doctor’s gown. It symbolized that she never truly lived as a doctor throughout the story. From beginning to end, she was a woman who loved her man so deeply that she was ready to sacrifice everything for him. Her only motivation to live was Hoon.
That is why Hoon hoped she could also live for herself, to have a purpose as a doctor, not just as his lover.
As for Jaehee’s personality change after reuniting in South Korea, I think it is the writer and director’s fault for not showing enough of her emotional struggles. From her point of view, she was constantly juggling everything, finishing her mission, hiding her identity, protecting Hoon, competing with Quack, handling patients, and getting involved in political conspiracies, all while being emotionally torn apart.
She understood Hoon more than anyone.
She knew many of her choices were not what he wanted, but she had no other choice. Behind the scenes, she was always fighting for him and trying to give him better options while keeping him safe. Poor Jaehee had to bear everything alone.
After their reunion, some viewers said Jaehee changed and never smiled as sincerely as she did back in North Korea. But at the very end, when everything was finally settled, her genuine smile returned.
Ironically, Hoon once said he fell in love with her because of her smile. “She is good at smiling, good at smiling, good at smiling.”
Even though she stopped smiling, even though her personality changed, Hoon still loved her because she is Jaehee.
No hairstyle, no personality shift, no misunderstanding could change that.
From start to finish, there was never any room for Quack.
Even when Jaehee did things Hoon did not like, hid things from him, or made choices that caused him pain, nothing ever changed his love for her.
She is the only one who could truly make him happy, the only one who could make his playful personality turn serious.
Only after Jaehee returned did Hoon start dreaming again, to become a doctor, to find his mother, to think about the future.
And no love is greater than Jaehee’s love for Hoon.
She still loved him and wanted to see him even after knowing he killed her father to save her life. In reality, no one could do that.
Jaehee’s love is defined by faith. She always believed in Hoon.
No matter how many times he disappointed her, failed his plans, chose patients over her, or was misunderstood by others, she always believed in him. She was his true support system.
Remember when everyone got angry at Hoon for using the Saver procedure? Quack impatiently woke the patient up and caused more trouble, but Jaehee calmly monitored the patient, analyzed the condition, and only asked Hoon to act when it was safe. She always believed in his skills and used her mind to help him. That is real support.
Another thing I hate is how the story trapped itself in its own setup.
Because Hoon had to act neutral toward Seunghee in front of others, they never looked close. But why could they not at least live in the same house?
Why did they make Jaehee live with Quack instead?
Because of this, we got robbed many of potential Hoon-Jaehee relationship development scenes 😭💔.
They were already engaged. Hoon even gave Jaehee a proposal ring, and the drama completely forgot about it. It should have ended with Hoon and Jaehee getting married 😭💔.
But at the end of the day, I still truly love this drama because of Hoon and Jaehee.
All the struggles and conflicts they went through only made their love grow stronger. Through hardship, they learned how to protect, fight, guide, defend, compromise, and even let go for love.
They learned what true love really is ❤️.
I like to think that after all these years, eleven years later, Hoon and Jaehee are already married, living happily with their children in a small village, loving each other and living their best life every single day.
I will start missing them again soon, and when I do, I will rewatch this beautiful story all over again 🥺♥️.
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Dieses Drama ist ein Krampf...
Es ist wirklich anstrengend gewesen, die vollen 20 Episoden durch zu halten. Die Geschichte ist so holprig und teilweise unsinnig. Die Geschichtsstränge fügen sich absolut nicht zusammen. Nichts harmoniert hier miteinander. Es gibt zwei Arten von Geschichten, die in ein Drama gepackt wurden. Einmal die Storyline mit Nordkorea, Flüchtling und Politisch brisant und dann der Krankenhaus quark mit Rache am Direktor. Aber rein gar nichts davon, ist stimmig oder fügt sich gut zusammen. Die Musik ist so anstrengend und schlecht, sowie unpassend. Die Schauspieler die eigentlich Paare bilden, haben null...wirklich absolut null Chemie. Ist auch egal auf welches man hier schaut. Die FL (Dr.Han) ist unsagbar unsympathisch. Viele Handlungen sind völlig irrational und unsinnig. Die vorletzte und letzte Folge, sind spannend...bis das Ende naht. Dann ist es einfach nur noch Stumpfsinnig und Platt. Völlig sinnfrei geraten sie in eine Situation die einem Dejavu gleicht. Es macht aber wirklich gar keinen Sinn, wie es dazu kam. Alles in allem, ist die Serie eine krasse Zeitverschwendung. Unglaublich viele Filler Folgen, ziehen das Übel unnötig in die Länge. So unrund war ein Drama schon lange nicht mehr. Schade.Was this review helpful to you?
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Great Acting, Interesting Aspects but overall underwhelming
7.5/10 is my rating. Park Cheol (Kim Sang-joong) was a well known cardiac surgeon in South Korea. Dr. Park was asked to go to North Korea to perform life saving surgery on the Nation's leader. As a single father, Cheol decided to take his young son Park Hoon (Lee Jong-suk) unaware that it would be a one way trip. While spending the remaining of his growing years in North Korea, Park Hoon trained first under his father and later at a prestigious North Korean medical school to become a cardiothoracic surgeon. It was at medical school that he met Song Jae-hee (Jin See-yon) and eventually asked her to marry him. Tragic struck the young couple when Jae-hee's father was accused of spying and the entire family was sent to a concentration camp. The elites in North Korea soon discovered Hoon's genius in his field and sent him to a medical center performing highly unethical surgeries to advance medical science. Having no choice but to do as asked Hoon remained there until one day Jae-Hee and her other were brought in and he was directed to do the unthinkable. Hoon's father sacrificed himself to help the young couple escape but they became separated - Hoon made it to South Korea but Jae-hee was either dead or back in North Korea. Hoon spent all of his time and money trying to locate his lost love. A series of circumstances lead Hoon to work at Myungwoo University Hospital as a surgeon and he happened across a doctor at another hospital that looked exactly like Jae-hee but claimed not to know Hoon. This doctor, Han Seung-hee (Jin See-yon) is an anesthesiologist and she winds up working at Myungwoo University Hospital as well. Hoon is confused as to whether or not this woman is his lost girlfriend and his colleague, Oh Soo-hyun (Kang So-ra) falls for the genius doctor while trying to help him sort out the mystery.Spoilers* I loved the character played by Lee Jong-suk of the joking but far from carefree Doctor Park. His genius in the operating theater was highly entertaining. It was easy to understand why all the main female characters would have fallen for him as he was charismatic and challenged them to be their best while encouraging and believing in them. Learning about North Korea from the aspect of someone that was under the control of the the government was a different slice of life than what is seen from a more elite perspective like in "Crash Landing on You". The fact that he was forced to do so many horrendous things and the constant fear for life and safety was in line with what refugees and those that have escaped have indicated is very common for the people there. I loved the relationship between Hoon and his father. I never felt that strongly about the relationship between Jae-hee and Hoon in North Korea it felt like we got a flash of seeing them in love and planning to marry and then she was taken away and he has to make the horrible decision of what to do with her and her father when they are brought from the concentration camp to the medical facility where they have been forcing him to do experimental surgeries on living patients. Then there is the first scene where they attempt escape and are chased down by the North Koreans and are on the bridge, she gets shot, and he winds up letting go and she falls into the water and he is unsure if she died or not. Later he is in South Korea doing small odd jobs to get enough money to get intel on her and perhaps get her smuggled out. He has a "friend" that he is working with who is a beautiful girl that calls him Hyung and treats him like an older brother. But you never get the full story of how they came to be together you just know they are very close. At that point I thought they would fill that story in later but they never fully did. The only chemistry and believable relationship to me was that between Hoon and Doctor Oh. He calls her Quack but spends a lot of time encouraging and mentoring her as a surgeon. There are many scenes where the two are shown "flirting" and laughing with each other. Jae-Hae even looks on several times noticing the two enjoying each other's company. This led me to think there would be some kind of twist. Perhaps Jae-Hae was actually dead and the Doctor that works at Hoon's hospital is an imposter who was trained and given plastic surgery to look like Jae-Hae. That would have been an interesting twist and would have enabled Hoon to pursue Dr. Oh. They spent a lot of time making the viewer observe the developing relationship between Dr. Park and Dr. Oh so much that most would not care about that old relationship between Jae-Hae and Dr. Park or Dr. Oh and her fiancé. I also was not a fan of the competition for the right to do surgery on the "Prime Minister". I could not see legitimate doctors feeling okay about that sort of competition which treated patients as objects. It was a way to show Dr. Park's humanity and aptitude for being a doctor despite the horrible things he was forced to do in his training in North Korea. However, I did not find the competition as interesting as I would have found just really complex medical cases. In the end of the show I was really disappointed that each couple wound up with the person they had started with. To stray that far from a relationship just does not speak deep and enduring love to me. I did not feel as though I had anything invested in either relationship. I also did not like how the two very talented surgeons were no longer practicing in that specialized field. It seemed as though Dr. Park was working at some kind of farm country clinic and Dr. Han or Chief Han whom he had competed with - returned to the US and was working as a legal assistant. I could not see doctors who had trained for so many years and had such passion and talent for the surgical practice, giving it up that easily. Overall I liked aspects of this show and really the acting carried it. If it hadn't been for such a phenomenal cast I would not have finished watching it as there were so many problems with the plot I would have lost interest. If someone is really into medical dramas - probably still worth the watch. It is also a good one to watch for more insight on North Korean life. For romance I think it falls very short. There is some suspense as you wonder who will wind up with whom and what the real game afoot is but the twist winds up being that there is no twist. It was predictable that the operation was really on the President and not the Prime Minister and it was not a huge surprise that Jae-Hae was really herself.
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Anyways, the medical side of the drama was really cool to watch, though it was nothing particularly unique. I really liked all the characters and the OST was really good and catchy. I found myself humming it when I wasn't even watching the drama.
I will say, the first 2 episodes nearly kill your heart and could be a tragic movie on it's own, so be prepared.
Because of Doctor Stranger, I have gained a sincere curiosity in North Korean life, politics in North Korea, and defector stories. Some of the things that happen in Doctor Stranger really upset me because they were just THAT messed up, but things turned out well, so it wasn't so bad.
Also, Lee Jung Suk is a phenomenal actor - portraying such seriousness AND happy, silly moments all in the same character without seeming unrealistic is a real talent!
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