Dr Han her character was shady inconsistent i kept wondering how can someone like he,r she thinks she was manipulative in the name of protecting and she kept saying she is protecting and then she wants to be with her BF and then she wants to protect and be with her BF and then she does not want to be with him becoz of organ transplant, her character was confusing and all in all her character didn't bring out the true feeling which DR park was able to portray so this character left me confused. Her acting was not intense either its was below average. I think Kang So Ra, Lee Jung Sook and PArk Hae Jin were able to pull the entire drama as i still don't understand what was the mission from North Korea side that they wanted to collaborate with Prime Minister. Every now and then they will kidnap one character and making him/her face the gun point. Story line started great involving medical practice and politics but it kept going downward.
It was Lee Jong Suk and Park Hae Jin screen time which kept me going , writers did terrible job in writing this plot which had so much potential due to cast and acting talent.
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When you miss someone in a heartbeat...
I watched this drama several years ago.. It’s worth watching! I watch it like 5x I guess.. and never get bored to it. Whenever I miss some dramatic yet true love story.. I always find this drama to satisfy my wish :)First of all.. don’t read the points below if you don’t like medical drama at the beginning. Because this drama is focus on medical, with touch of romance and political influences.
Now here I give you some reasons why you will love this drama:
(1) Beautiful setting.
They did shooting in overseas and it’s totally mindblowing. They go all out with beautiful places selection. The visual effect may not be that perfect but still ok.
(2) Great acting.
I will become emotional everytime I see Park Hoon meet Jae Hee.. and everytime they are crying and yell to each other. I have no idea why so many people hate Jin Se Yeon acting skill. In fact.. she always being chosen as the main female lead in many historical, thriller and political melodrama. I hope the audience don’t judge her too fast. There must be a good reason why so many movie directors choose her from the casting as the main lead.
From my opinion.. she is pretty, she has a beautiful + sexy voice, and more over her acting may not be perfect.. but she can potray her character suit her best. Some people may think she has less expression / flat like a robot and whatsoever, but I disagree. I can tell she has a lot potential in her to be a successful actress.
(3) Heartbeat couple!
No matter how many people out there trying to ship Park Hoon with So Hyun.. I’m sorry but Hoon is a perfect match with Jae Hee. Why? because they love each other in time of sadness and happiness. It’s fate that they already together since childhood... they sacrifice so much to be together. It’s a true love that willing to die for each other or even sell their soul to the evil just to save each other.
Most important thing is no matter how good, funny and lovely the 2nd female lead here... the way Park Hoon keep choosing Jae Hee show us that First Love is actually can work, especially after the blood and tears that they have been through. I envy this couple.. they really try hard to make it to the very end and get their freedom to love and to live.
(4) Best song selections (drama ost)
We can’t deny the drama ost make the story more dramatic and so emotional. Great job in the music and song selections!
(5) Exciting Story Line & Plot Twist
Don’t judge too fast about the story. Slowly but sure.. you will understand what’s the reason behind every doctor competitions and some accidents that happened in the story.
(6) Meaningful
Why? because you will learn about the meaning of freedom, true love, and how to be selfless for the good shake of the others.
You will learn how evil can be good too as long as their loved ones can be happy.
But at the same time, you also realize that sometimes the good ones can be an evil too, and sacrifice everything for the safety and happiness of their loved ones.
The real doctor is the one who try their best to save people. But doctor is still human too.. so sometimes they have no better choice despite of doing what they hate for the goodness shake of others.
After all... I recommend you to try this drama if you love medical story with melodrama as the genre.
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"WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT!?" "I'M SO CONFUSED?" and "BUT I DON'T GET WHAT'S HAPPENING!"
The reasons for characters actions made no sense to me now and even tainted the actions characters chose in earlier brilliant episodes (like why was Jai Hee doing what she was for like 10 episodes?) It seemed like the writer had a bunch of brilliant ideas to start off the show but was then left with a bunch of questions they didn't know how to answer and ended up confusing themselves and therefore the viewers when writing the later episodes.
BUT and its a big but
those first 14 episodes were pretty much pure magic, at one point my nails had cut into my hand from the anxiety and excitement this show gave me.
Also it was my first Lee Jong Suk show (other than his tiny appearance in WLFKBJ which although it was only seconds made me really like him) and I have to say, I went into the show thinking he might’ve been a bit over hyped because he’s so pretty, but NO! He was honestly brilliant. He brought a lightness and charm to the character, which I think may have gotten a little lost in the darkness of the characters past for some other actors. He blew me away and my expectations were extremely high! I know I'll be excited when starting one of his dramas in the future.
And Park Hae Jin isn’t a actor I’ve heard much of before but his character became the stand out of the drama for me and the complexity and vulnerability he played Jae Joon with was so brilliant to watch. He was so subtle and real! I've been wanting to watch Cheese in the Trap for a while now and my love for him in this has given me a good reason to start it soon.
And on top of that all the female characters were all so bad ass and brilliant not just the main 2 (who I loved so so deeply) but all of them! They were all so strong and crazy inspirational and I find that to be so rare for ALL female characters in a drama. I'm going to take a special moment to praise Jai Hee (because everyone loves Quack and fairly so) but Jai Hee was equally as brilliant for me and the pain and inner struggle she carried was portrayed perfectly and I wouldn't have changed her performance in any way. I strongly disagree with all you haters!!!
The love story of this drama wasn't something I expected I would enjoy because we didn't see the falling in love part of it and I find for me to like a love story I've gotta see them fall in love or I'll usually feel nothing for them, but in this drama there were some genuine moments where I teared up and I "awwed" and whilst they wont ever be my favourite kdrama couple I did really enjoy watching them.
The surgical scenes: I'M SPEECHLESS, THEY WERE EVERYTHING, I LOVE LOVE LOVED THEM! (and this is coming from someone who isn't a big surgical show fan) - round of applause for the director especially for those.
This show is tense and dramatic and wonderful and FULL OF PLOT HOLES, but the reason the plot holes annoyed me so much is because 3/4's of this drama were on there way to this being one of my favourite dramas and that is why I cant bring myself to rate this show any higher OR LOWER than I have.
I would say give it a go, I don't regret starting this drama because of how good it gets, but if you get the urge to turn it off after 5 episodes or so, do that because that's the best it gets. It drives me crazy knowing how good this show could have been, but I guess still enjoyed it. Thank you Doctor Stranger for a pretty good time!
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Amazing balance of comedy drama and suspense but....
Loved my boy Lee Jong Suk in this, it was brilliant as always with the right amount of emotion/drama, comedy and suspense. But I have to admit that the chemistry between Park Hoon and Oh Soon Hyun was so electric from the first episode together that I can't deny I was rooting for their relationship the whole WAY through. However as is the usual trope from Kdramas, he ended up with his childhood love. But I did hope that for one minute maybe they could've have had a romantic relationship and let my OTP thrive for a little bit because they were sooooo cute together!Was this review helpful to you?
From really good to not the worst
Started really good, then it felt endless with the back and forth. I love LJS but the 2 female leads kept getting on my nerves. This could have been soo good if the writing handnt gone downhill after the first few episodes. I still watched it to the end because it does draw you in but it still left me like, eh. Also, too many loose ends...so no closure. 16 episodes I feel is never enough so when I realized this drama had 20, I figured it would really develop the story and not rush everything in the last episode.Was this review helpful to you?
Good
I watch this for Lee Jongsuk after being obsessed by his acting in I Hear Your Voice. Didn't disappoint at all, i think he got eyes for good project or maybe it's his acting that make every show bearable to watch but anyway this is my second korean drama that i can finished back in 2014. The acting, plot, and story was good. It has a good flow too which make it a binge worth drama.I also fall for Park Haejin here but not to the point i follow all his other project like i did with Lee Jongsuk.
The music was again not memorable but didn't sound annoying during the show.
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Ignore de political stuff & njoy it instead !!
After watching this, I felt like there wasn't enough justice made on de unfolding of events. Especially on de last part. It leaves a big question mark 4 me.De love stories were not dat much captivating on my part since I could not find de chemistry tbh, 4 de leads & 4 de support leads. I focused more on de unfolding of events.LJS as Park Hoon was de highlight of de show. Park Hoon is eccentric (wid a matching hairstyle), playful & a genius. He’s been trained well by his father & is a great heart surgeon. While dis show isn’t as compelling as other shows starring LJS , it is still good enough in terms of characters. If LJS wasn’t de lead & some1else played Park Hoon, I don’t think I would hve liked de show as much. De mystery and thrilling underlying plotlines related to politics and disagreement between South Korea and North Korea were pretty unncessary & foolish.
//VERDICT // Go 4 de show if u really like Lee Jong-Suk & wanna see more of him. Otherwise, just skip it. Other than the romance, the drama is about political corruption, revenge, secret assassinations and medical drama.
I liked the “is she Jae-Hee or is she Seung-Hee?” debate I had throughout the show. Oh Soo-Hyun, on the other hand, was a really good lead. I really liked her.I pretty much hated Han Seung-Hee & did not care about her at all.The plot holes were annoying as heck.
P.S I lub dis ---2 ppl cant have de same heartbeat. But ours is the same, Jae-Hee.
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What was that?
There’s nothing more disappointing to me then when the bad guys, who’ve caused unnecessary pain and agony to other lives with no remorse, just get their hands slapped.I felt the couples were paired wrong. I couldn’t root for either couple. I wanted Water Bottle and Quack to get together😂
Thank goodness for the comic relief from Dr. Moon, Chang YI and Kim Chi gyu otherwise I probably wouldn’t have been able to watch all 20 episodes.
The medical aspect was excellent. The politics sucked. It’s kind of disheartening if doctors really behave this way.
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eternally blackmailed
A strong and intense beginning, then... it all went downhill.To prevent a war between North and South Korea, a doctor was sent to North Korea to rescue a head of state, so that the United States wouldn't attack and start a war.
His son was kidnapped and forced to stay with his father in North Korea. South Korea denied them repatriation.
As time passed, the son also became a skilled surgeon.
Honestly, I don't know how he survived in this environment. He had a girlfriend who was forcibly taken by the authorities and locked up in a concentration camp. After many years of searching, he finally found her. His father allowed himself to be killed to allow his son to be free to make his own choices, and he, seizing the opportunity, fled with her to Hungary.
When he managed to return to South Korea, he was able to work in the same hospital where his father had worked to avenge him. Challenge after challenge...
There are so many things I can't explain:
- Do the female doctors work in 12-inch heels?
- Is it that easy to watch the surgeries live? It's like turning on the TV and connecting.
- Everything revolves around this fake competition to determine which of the two best doctors will perform the prime minister's heart surgery? Patients used as pawns. Terrible.
- What a shitty plan! To become president, the Prime Minister
is staging this whole charade? He's holding the doctor's mother hostage for decades just to force him to perform heart surgery on the president? Without killing him, but keeping him in a coma?
- This villain who was shot in the head by a professional killer is back? How is that possible?
- The president's behavior isn't what you'd expect.
- In the last episode, the North korean girl gets shot and falls off the bridge? I could understand they wanting to recall the previous time she'd fallen, but here she would have collapsed and not been thrown from the bridge.
-then the end... no comment.
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For those who want to feel anger while being charmed by Lee Jung Suk att his cutest
This is a drama that will have you saying wtf and how can they be so stupid and how the h*** is that person still alive??? So if you are looking for something that makes any sense please look somewhere else… While watching this drama I kept on wanting to yell at the people (mostly men) in this series, what the f**** is wrong with you!!! Just admit to your wrong doings, learn from your mistakes, apologies and move on with your lives/ just move out of the way and let them do their job… So I guess this is one of those dramas that truly brings out your inner anger, so if you are in the mood to get angry, this is definitely the drama for you!I honestly do not know if it is the female leads acting, dialog, character or all of the above that where really really bad, but bad was it… And no matter what was behind it, she was not the least bit lovable and probably had more chemistry (if any) with the villain then the male lead, and considering the male lead is Cutie Lee (Lee Jong Suk) that should otherwise be impossible but look we found someone to fit that description. I´m honestly impressed over this, so it may actually have been intentional if so why?
While the first female lead is boring, the second female leas is bubbling with emotions, she is sweet, loving and cooperative and has this amazing chemistry with Cutie Lee and is truly enjoyable to watch.
The second male lead fits the part perfectly he has great character growth but is definitely one of the people who frustrated me the most and brought out my inner anger.
Cutie Lee (Lee Jong Suk) has an adorable character, he is bad ass, sweet, funny and really shows cutie Lee at his sweetest, well styled, well smiled and just completely charming in every single way. He is what makes this drama not only bearable but worth a watch!
To conclude this, this drama has a great mixture of truly interesting, intense, boring and just plain strange plots. So I can’t say it’s bad but it´s not good either but if you feel like getting angry while being charmed by Cutie Lee then its definitely worth a watch (and if you get to board, just skip ahead).
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Can't stand
Oh my gosh i can't stand watch this drama. A little too cruel for me. At first i think i can stand watch this in the name of curiousity to find out is Song Jae Hee really Han Seung Hee or not. But turn out i really can't stand it & i just jump it to the end to find out the ending.Although i can't stand to watch the episode until the end, i have to admit this is one of best drama i've watch.
In this drama we can really see & feel that love is really not just happiness or promise or about other bullshit. But love sometimes really need prove & the power of faith. Never i've found in any other drama that have love like Park Hoon love for Han Seung Hee.
Re-watch...? No thank you. See Park Hoon struggle and sacrifice once is enough ^_^
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Doctor Stranger has been one of the most hyped up dramas of 2014, with everyone oozing their love for the drama and its leading male star Lee Jong Suk. I’ll be the first to admit that yes indeed he is a handsome actor and yes indeed he can act well, but just because amazing actors are in the drama doesn’t mean that the drama always turns out to be the best ever. The last two Lee Jong Suk dramas I’ve watched were both hyped up, however, I don’t feel all that excited about them as most people do. Doctor Stranger was a good medical drama, but the rest of the plot line wasn’t worth all that, in my opinion. I was more excited about the surgeries than anything in this drama really and found myself either dozing off and blanking out during the rest. When I watch a medical drama, I do embrace all the political drama that goes on in the hospital, but for some reason this story just didn’t really grip me, and I felt as though all that had happened, for what was executed by the drama could have been done in a shorter time frame, and didn’t really need to be dragged on and on. But that happens in a lot of 20 plus dramas, sometimes they don’t need to be that long but they stretch them out. The whole North Korean refugee thing really didn’t come that much into play, in a personality and social circumstance type of way as they made you believe in the plot line and in the first few episodes. It seemed that they got over that rather quickly, though myself wouldn’t have seen it as much drama in the first place, however, I am not a South Korean citizen so I don’t have those types of feelings towards North Korean people. The romance left me wanting more, and for the first time, I had second leading female syndrome instead of second leading male, which is always cool I suppose. I just didn’t find myself emotionally attached to these characters are that interested in their stories which is a bummer, and has seemed to happen to me too often in this 2014 season of Korean dramas. I need more, I need real character development and I found that the writing in this drama didn’t give it all to me, what could have came from this drama, with better writing, less fillers, and more character development and not just sudden “Oh I’ve changed my personality or my ideas” would of did this drama a lot better I think, then again I’m just giving my personal thoughts so you don’t have to take that to heart.
One thing that this drama had going for it, was the big cast with the amazing actors and actresses in it, for the most part, that is. Lee Jong Suk as I have said a million times before is a great actor. I think he can portray his characters well, and he can give an emotional performance throughout it. He can be funny and goofy at times and give us seriousness when needed, and I really appreciate him for that. He isn’t just a pretty face that girls and guys alike can squeal over, he actually has talent and I admire him for that. However, our leading female, Jin Se Yeon isn’t my favorite actress of all time. Her acting style is not just for me, and half the time I don’t believe the emotion that she is portraying. I don’t think she was up to par with the rest of the cast, however that being said I think she has greatly improved since the last time I’ve watched her in a drama, and that’s something to be proud of. I just found that maybe if they had a different actress in her place, the emotional scenes between her and Lee Jong Suk and their situations would have been more powerful to me. It was nice to see Park Hae Jin again, even if he wasn’t the lovable second leading male character like he was in You Who Came From The Stars. This time he was serious and wasn’t there for comic relief, his performance was great. I found myself entranced in his performance, he did a 360 from the last time I watched him and it really showed me the diversity he has as an actor. I hope to see more of him in the future. This was also my first time seeing Kan So Ra, she hasn’t been in that many dramas, and I can say I was somewhat impressed by her. I thought she did a great job with her role and portrayed the emotions well, I did find her crying a little fake, somewhere between the pretty cry and the real emotional ugly cry that people actually do in real life, and I’m hoping that she can pull from the whole pretty cry and embrace the ugly cry which is more realistic to me, then I think she would be a pretty awesome actress. I also want to lastly comment on Cheon Ho Jin. He played a rather bad man this time around, from the last drama, and every time I see him as a great old man who is so kind and sweet my heart melts, but when he plays an “evil” character I find myself scared of him. He is an amazing actor, and his entire speech he gives in episode 19, at the end, was fantastic and showed how great of an actor he is. I really enjoyed his performance the most, and I love watching him in dramas, and I would say that he is the actor that brought this drama to life for me.
Overall, I thought the drama was pretty good but not as great as everyone led me to believe with all the hype, though I never believed that in the first place. I enjoy medical dramas, and from the medical perspective of the show, I enjoyed that the most, the rest of the story were just plain okay to me. It didn’t grip me like it should have, but the actors and actresses brought it along. The plot could have been really great to me, if it was just taken a few steps forward and really pushed, but just didn’t have the pizazz that I was expecting or looking for, leaving me uninterested and rather bored of it, however the actors and actresses got me along through the parts that weren’t about surgeries with their amazing acting skill. I say this drama was pretty good, and I would recommend it, it’s just not the big amazing deal that people made it out to seem, in my opinion. So if you’re just a little bit interested in the drama, I say hey why not go for it, what do you have to lose?
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