Jin

The medical field and the legal field are two fascinating fields for me. I do not know which to choose and I am quite content with playing around academically, taking varied courses of course.

When I read that Jin was about a present-day doctor going back in the past to the Joseon era, I was seriously interested. I wish I could see something like this in Naija films, even US sef. I learned that there was a Japanese version, and I plan to watch that soon. So, I delved into Dr. Jin.

After being exposed to ER, House, Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy, I am familiar with fictional medical shows, particularly the makeup for the blood and gore. I was not grossed out by the surgery in Jin, although it seemed like everyone needed some form of brain surgery, and neither was I too impressed. It did not look real but the actors were believable and I could let the unimpressive makeup go. Besides, I was watching the drama to see what how he would get his tools and how he would make medicine.

Soju, a strong liquor, made for a good disinfectant, which is scary considering the heavy drinking culture in South Korea. Jin was able to work with a blacksmith to create tools and it was impressive to see materials made for scenes. 

But...the characters. Dear goodness the characters. 

Jin went back in time and met guy and girl. Girl looks like his current girlfriend, who is in the hospital following an accident, and guy would be the father of the next king. Jin is drawn to the girl because he feels he should protect this obvious ancestor of his girlfriend's. Girl is basically betrothed to this guy, her brother's best friend/brother, who cannot tell that she's just not into him. He pines and pines while being the bastard son of his family. Everyone makes a point to call him the bastard son, it's like his first name. Together they deal with politics and corruption all to protect their nation.

One female would not stop crying. It was a running joke among viki commentators that it was in her contract to cry every 5 minutes. As an actress Park Min Young is solid. She is a good actress but I fear she is being typecast. She was in City Hunter and she annoyed me in that role as well. Now City Hunter did not rely too much on the "love rhombus" (stolen from a viki commentator, thanks :D) between Park Min Young and Lee Minho's characters, but her character was known for getting in the way of the action scenes. It was embarrassing to watch as a female, and it is why I absolutely love Girl K, absolutely, hands down, forever will...even if Han Groo (and I still know her name without google) decides to play some stereotypical female roles. She was a BAMF (Bad-Ass-Mother-Fucker) and it was oh so refreshing to see. In Jin, Park Min Young was not entirely annoying, no that position was held by the main character, Jin. He had the most hilarious fainting spells, and he does not listen. He also feels that it is his responsibility to protect Girl. He saves her brother's life by operating on him and she's intrigued by the idea of being a doctor. She wanted to be a doctor and she achieved that. She makes her own decisions but the men, rather man, in her life just cannot stand that she will not listen to him because....drumroll...she may die. Yes, her character was just oh darn special that she had to live under his thumb or face the natural life cycle of death.

The gisaeng, Choon Hong played by Lee So Yeong, was fabulous. Gisaengs are female entertainers and they were privy to everything that went on especially on the political scale. Now she tells Jin to not go about changing history. Guess what he does? Invent penicillin and calls it...penicillin. Sorry Fleming, South Korea got it first sahn. Let's just apply some logic in this. I know, I know, there is no logic in kdramaland, same as no side vision or cell phones when your loved one runs away. Penicillin was a BAMF, it cured everything. Until some microorganisms started getting resistant and then it proved fruitless. Now penicillin was made decades after Jin supposedly made his and everyone wanted a piece. In addition to robbing Fleming of his achievement, sorry Alex, he singlehandedly sped up the resistance of microorganisms to penicillin. That is bad. That is worse than Sena and her boo's plotting in Rooftop prince. That is worse than all the evil mothers in kdramas put together. It means that in the 21st century, MRSA would be the least of our problems. But fortunately there is no logic in kdramaland and the future only has a few cases of penicillin-resistant microorganisms. 

And the operating rooms...I was hoping for a greater emphasis on cleanliness. I am surprised no surgery got infected with the amount of wading in and out and constant interruptions "touch him/her and I will kill you". Speaking of threats, so many folks were offering their lives to the Queen Dowager (oldest woman in the royal family) to prove their loyalty. You have no idea how many times I shouted at the poor woman to do it. Come on, off with his head, you know you want to say it.