I may be anemic to Lee Jong Seok – har har, can’t help but crack a vampire-related joke when it comes to him – but I’m definitely checking out Doctor Stranger when it arrives in early May on SBS. It’s going up against Big Man on KBS with Kang Ji Hwan, who is one of my all-time favorite leading men, but I’m keeping an open mind between the two dramas in terms of which story will be more interesting. Triangle with Lee Bum Soo, Jaejoong, and Im Shi Wan is also joining that time slot but that one I’ll watch on the back-burner since it’s so long. I was so underwhelmed with Big Man’s first video teaser it’s not even funny but I was actually pleasantly surprised by Doctor Stranger’s first teaser which arrived yesterday. Right off the bat I see PD Jin Hyuk‘s directorial flourish all over, skewing more towards his City Hunter action-packed style as this drama also seems more of an intense thriller rather than a medical story.

The first teaser shows Lee Jong Seok’s character, a South Korean-born child who was raised in North Korea and becomes a surgeon for the regime, trying to make a last-ditch effort to escape. The overseas shoot in Budapest, Hungary is featured prominently in the teaser along with Lee Jong Seok already angsting like there is no tomorrow. We only get glimpses of second lead Park Hae Jin (the main reason I’m checking this drama out) and second female lead Kang Sora. The kicker in the plot synopsis for female lead Jin Se Yeon is that she plays two characters, a North Korean girl who is Lee Jong Seok’s sweetheart, and then later a South Korean oriental medicine doctor who was trained in China. Don’t ask if the two characters are twins or merely dopplegangers, or why this drama has to dip into that particular well in the first place. At least Jin Se Yeon looks as bloodless as Lee Jong Seok in the teaser, maybe they are meant to be as an onscreen couple. Continue reading →