Park Hae Jin will go from a devoted love-sick swain in You From Another Star to a genius doctor with a secret? I dig that, and he totally deserves the upgrade. I’m thoroughly enjoying Park Hae Jin’s supporting turn in YFAS playing Lee Hwi Kyung, the man-child who has a one-track Cheon Song Yi type of mind, though truth be told I don’t blame him since Song Yi is just that magnetic of a lure. It’s pretty fun to watch him nail the role and even more amusing to think that he was actually going to play older brother sociopath Lee Jae Kyung (and even started filming in that role!) when Choi Min (who was supposed to play Hwi Kyung) bowed out due to an injury and Park Hae Jin had to quickly switch roles. The rest is history as Shin Sung Rok erased his longstanding schlubby nice guy onscreen persona for playing the hammiest villain in K-dramas in a long time. Park Hae Jin was probably asked to switch roles with SBS offering up a nice compensation and it’s in the form of the lead role in the upcoming Dr. Stranger. That drama has a two male lead structure and Park Hae Jin has been confirmed as one of the leads. He’ll be playing Han Jae Joon, a Harvard-trained cardiothoracic surgeon who returns to Korea to work at a local hospital. If Lee Jong Seok accepts the other male lead role, he’ll be playing Park Hoon, the titular Dr. Stranger in the title, another genius surgeon but he’s not from a prestigious university as much as he’s an escapee from North Korea. In talks to round out the cast as the female lead is Park Min Young who would be making her drama return in two years since the much maligned Dr. Jin. I’m assuming she’s also going to play a doctor and make this a hospital themed drama. It’s really the production team that is the powerhouse incentive for me to check this out – writing is the screenwriter Park Jin Woo behind The Kingdom of the Wind, Conspiracy in the Court, and Snow Flower, while PD Jin Hyuk of The Master’s Sun, City Hunter, Prosecutor Princess fame will be directing.
Dr. Stranger is scheduled to take over the SBS Mon-Tues timeslot – right now it’s Warm Words airing which will be followed in February by Lee Bo Young‘s God’s Gift – 14 Days and Dr. Stranger will take over in April after that. If Lee Jong Seok accepts then he’ll be doing a drama right after his noona Lee Bo Young, who we all remember their pairing struck ratings gold last year for SBS with I Hear Your Voice. Hopefully he gets rid of the blond hair by then, I can’t imagine how he’ll convince me he’s a North Korean genius surgeon when he’s got bleached blond hair which he’s sporting for promotions for his current movie Hot-blooded Youth.
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If one started medical drama everyone else on the plante follows! in no particular order: Good doctor, top medical team, Emergency couple ( which I totally know nothing about) and now Dr stranger! Goodness, so many white coats! if only I love medical dramas I would enjoy it but I don't! this one though seems quite catchy since the moment I knew Park Hae Jin confirmed his casting. But I seriously can't dig LJS. Usually I wouldn't care who's the 1 or 2 lead but this one I'm quite irritated about, splitting the lead thing! Hmm maybe if it's someone other than LJS.
planet*
Nah, this isn't a medical drama trend. Medical dramas have been around forever and there is always 3-5 per year.
On the upside, emergency couple is proving a cute/fun watch, and more about the romance/bickering and less focus on the doctoring. lets hope this continues.
I don't exactly love Park Min Young or Lee Jong Suk, but I hope they take these roles to prove themselves. PMY tends to play the same sort of goody-two shoes heroines and LJS is always the kick-ass high school puppy. Maybe this drama do some wonders for them.
All I really care about though is Park Hae Jin though!!!! So cute!!!
It would be very nice to see Park Min Young back in dramaland! Will definitely check it out if she joins!
Love both the boys and park min young is ok so I'll be watching this if they are all signed up... But does park hae Jin ever take a break he went from filming 2 Chinese dramas back to back this summer/fall to filming star and now this will be in like another month right after finishing star, guess the guy really likes working
Lee Jong Suk should be reason enough for me to give this a pass, along with the trite suffering little genius boy shtick (which is what we get when actors in their prime are just not interested in doing dramas anymore) but I'll check it out for Park Jin Woo, I guess.
Hahaha, I do get the feeling as well that characters are written for the young boys because it's harder to lure the establish actors in their prime back to TV. Of course that doesn't discount SJS, LBS, LSK, etc who recently did dramas. But charisma-laden hot older guys are still not doing as many dramas as they used to. Bummer.
Btw, are you still watching Miss Korea?
You're not wrong, koala - a lot of the older and established A-listers of Chungmuro seem to be giving dramas a pass, unless they're written by highly experienced star writers (SJS and the Hong sisters, Jo In-sung and Noh Hee-kyung, Gong Hyo-jin and both the aforementioned writer teams) or teams they've worked with before (Lee Sun-kyun with the Pasta/Miss Korea team).
I'm amazed Jeon Ji-hyun made a drama comeback in this climate, but it's paying off in spades for her so clearly something went right.
I looove medical dramas but on the other hand I am not crazy with any of the names above.I will give it a try though.
Unni does this mean you might watch it even if Lee Jong Seok accepts?? Also I am hoping he gets rid of the hair soon too, though he might have already as he was sporting brown/red hair in this week's episode of Running Man (not sure when it filmed). It sounds like it could be a cool premise medical dramas aren't usually my thing but once in awhile they're pretty good. Here's hoping this is a good one! Also I really want to see hot blooded youth it looks pretty hilarious!
I dunno. I'm really so anemic towards LJS but the premise and the screenwriter does merit a peek.
I'm really not a fan of LJS and him playing a doctor is equal to a kid playing husband. But then again, he's better off not doing high school roles forever.
PMY - I haven't seen her in anything since City hunter and that has been forever ago. She doesn't really have chemistry with her leading men and the closest to anything decent she had was with LMH. I did have an inkling she'd be offered an SBS drama since she changed agencies though.
Dunno how this will do against MBC's never ending stock of sageuks but I'm interested to find out.
I have recently discovered Park Hae-jin and his beautiful full smile, I liked Park Min-young in City Hunter but I'm not a big fan of Lee Jong-seok. I wanted to gouge my eyes out by the 5th episode of IHYV and I only made it that far because of Kim So-hyun and Lawyer Oska, had to make do with recaps.
I loved Park Hae Jin since East of Eden. He and Han Ji Hye really improved towards the end of that drama. I'm glad that You From Another Star has increased his popularity in Korea since I know he was doing C-dramas for quite awhile until returned with My Daughter Seo Young. Hwi Kwing is so lovable because of his innocent portrayal. I'm not a big fan of medical dramas but definitely will check this drama out for him.
The cast seems rather mixed to me at the moment. I can't imagine Park Min Young having chemistry with either of them at the moment. But I'm sure she'll take on this role to reunite with the City Hunter PD.