[PREVIEW] KBS TV series "Brain"

Still image for TV series "Brain" [KBS]

Main cast
Shin Ha-kyun - as Lee Kang-hoon, Jung Jin-young - as Kim Sang-hul, Choi Jung-won - as Yoon Ji-hye, Jo Dong-hyeok - as Seo Jun-seok

In brief
Lee Kang-hoon is a leading neurologist. He lives as a doctor with ambition for success due to the trauma he suffered from having led a tough childhood due to poverty. On the other hand, Seo Jun-seok, who was born with everything into a rich family, is rivals with Kang-hoon as both doctor and man, the latter due to their junior Yoon Ji-hye. Then one day, a patient is rushed to the emergency room from excessive bleeding and despite Jun-seok's suggestion that they request cerebrovascular surgery expert Kim Sang-chul to perform the surgery, Kang-hoon moves forward to do the surgery alone.

Preview
"Brain" is about human brains that has never been dealt with in a Korean drama. But brain science is only a subject matter for the show and what it really strives to talk about is humans' hearts. Like actor Jang Jin-young said, "Humans are beings that live with their hearts but it is their brains that move the heart" so the main philosophy to "Brain" will be that treating the brain will be the same as treating the illness one's heart suffers from. Along with this, the show will depict on the process of how Lee Kang-hoon, overcome with the ambition for sucess due to his trauma from being poor, becomes a proper doctor. And neurologist Kim Sang-chul will be the one that changes him after constantly coming into conflict with him. This was seen in a video with highlights from the drama showing Kang-hoon saying, "I hope you know that I never give a wrong diagnosis" and Sang-chul saying, "There is no such thing as a wrong diagnosis." Sang-chul actually spent his younger days similar to that of Kang-hoon's but is someone who transformed into a doctor whose heart moves for the people after experiencing an incident through which he had to answer the fundamental question of, "Why did I try to become a doctor?" Then what "Brain" has to be able to answer convincingly is this: In a time when everyone wants success, what is the reason we must live with decent character and not get swayed by our desire for success?

To see or not to see

To see?
"Genre dramas need to be realistic to a certain point to be believable visually," (Producer Yoo Hyun-ki) so "Brain" too put in a lot of effort to make the brain surgery scenes seem realistic. Screenwriter Yoon Kyung-ah spent two months with residents of a hospital for research and a team of assistant writers are now at the hospital doing research into its residents, nurses and patients. On set, a professor of neurosurgery and a head nurse with 27 years of experience checks into every detail, including everyone's each and every hand movement. Of course, "there may be somewhat dramatically exaggerated parts" since after all, it is a drama, but it shows that they will not create scenes that are absurd. They are also planning to minimize the unfamiliarity viewers will feel over brain science by translating the mostly English medical terms into Korean.

Not to see? The setup that Kang-hoon is a doctor looking only for success makes him similar to Jang Jun-hyuk (Kim Myung-min) from MBC's "White Castle." That is why Shin Ha-kyun, returning to the small screen for the first time in eight years, will play a role that is more important than ever. "The main point is to make people think that people don't change because they have a special past or trauma but that they can change like so for success" (Shin Ha-kyun) so he needs to make people pity and sympathize with Kang-hoon. Fortunately, while Kang-hoon may be someone that asks back, "Can you make it in this industry with just skills?" he is also someone that has enough principle to say, "I will choose the wings that suit me by getting where I can on my own" when a woman tells him that she will give him wings. So what sort of doctor will Shin Ha-kyun give birth to by adding what sort of expressions to this sort of character?

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