In Hyper Knife, now streaming on Hulu, two experts in neurosurgery find their lives on an unexpected collision course. The days are over where Jung Se-ok (Park Eun-bin) would call herself the protégé of respected surgeon Choi Deok-hee (Sul Kyung-gu). But when he resurfaces in her life to demand her help, Se-ok sees an opportunity. So, is Hyper Knife a medical drama or a psychodrama? Well, probably much more of the latter. Directed by Kim Jung-hyun, written by Kim Sun-hee, and also starring Yoon Chan-young (All of Us Are Dead) and Park Byung-eun (Kingdom), season 1 of the series rolls out weekly on Hulu.
HYPER KNIFE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: In the rain and dark, as they smoke cigarettes, two mob-type toughs watch an ambulance arrive as part of a larger convoy.
The Gist: The ambulance contains their boss, a gangster with a brain tumor that is killing him. And in the convoy is Jung Se-ok (Park Eun-bin), a brilliant, cocky neurosurgeon. Well, she was once a neurosurgeon. Jung lost her medical license. Which is why she’s here, in an abandoned hotel commandeered by criminals, leading an improvised medical team in an makeshift operating room as she hovers over an imperiled underworld figure and prepares to cut into his skull. As Se-ok scrubs in, we catch a glimpse of the tattoo at the base of her neck. Two brains face each other, but only one is depicted in bright colors.
Elsewhere, in an actual hospital, Dr. Choi Deok-hee (Sul Kyung-gu) conducts a surgery similar to what we saw Jung Se-ok perform. He is exacting, he is respected – there is a packed observation level in his operating room – and he is very harsh with his team. When a police detective visits his office with questions about difficult procedures on the brain being performed in underground surgeries, Choi knows there is only one person in all of South Korea – besides him, of course – who could do it. But Dr. Choi holds off on immediately telling the cops about Jung Se-ok, his former student and protégé.
Se-ok no longer has a license to practice medicine. But she does have a license to tell off the gangsters who hired her, and to not take any shit from anyone else, especially a nosy nurse with questions about her past. In short, Jung Se-ok is content to live colorfully outside the lines, and take the occasional black market medical job to keep her surgical skills sharp. She might not ever have thought of Choi Deok-hee again, outside her vengeful memories of what he did to her career. But when he suddenly shows up at her place, it’s with a proposition that both intrigues and repels her. He requires her formidable ability and unique tact in an OR, the only venue where she really feels alive. But she also hates Choi with the heat of a million suns. If she agrees to help him, that help will almost certainly be in conjunction with a healthy dose of payback.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Whether she’s playing an autistic lawyer in Extraordinary Attorney Woo or appearing in the charming period series The King’s Affection, Hyper Knife star Park Eun-bin is no stranger to Netflix.
Our Take: Watching Hyper Knife, we had to give ourselves permission to root for Jung Se-ok. Because while she is a rock star in the operating room, she is unapologetically abrasive as a person, and combined with a few other revealed tidbits about her personality, it’s pretty clear Se-ok is only looking out for #1. But before any judgement is passed on all of that, we also learn about how far Choi Deok-hee will travel to be the most arrogant man alive. He too is abrasive with those around him; he too is convinced of his own genius. In Hyper Knife, as these two are thrown back together, we might continue to be on Team Se-ok. But it depends on what these driven but occasionally despicable people end up doing to each other.
To us, it’s the potential in these outcomes that makes Hyper Knife more of a psychodrama than a medical drama. While the series is fixated on the leading edges of modern medicine and the highly skilled people who thrive in a life-and-death environment, it’s also really interested in the cognitive flipside of what makes them tick. Where is the line between treatment and torture? If a doctor can save a life, can he or she also use their ability to take a life? As Jung Se-ok and Choi Deok-hee circle each other – and as Park Eun-bin and Sul Kyung-gu play off each other’s intensity as actors – we want to see who emerges. Because the metaphorical scalpels have already sliced into who each of them are as people, and what lies beneath is obsessive and messy.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Jung Se-ok laughs bitterly as she remembers how Dr. Choi Deok-hee purposely trampled on her burgeoning career as a surgeon.
Sleeper Star: Maybe Se-ok’s three rambunctious rottweilers? There is an interesting little scene in Hyper Knife where Choi notes his former student’s affection for the animals. “A dangerous breed,” his colleague says. “Just like her,” Dr. Choi adds.
Most Pilot-y Line: Another acquaintance of Dr. Choi’s points out the similarities between him and Jung Se-ok. “You two have so much in common, even a little craziness. I guess all geniuses are like that…”
Our Call: Stream It! In the Korean series Hyper Knife, there is an emerging battle of wills between two people with longstanding animus. It turns out they need each other. But there is no guarantee they won’t once again hurt each other.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.
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