Sungkyunkwan Scandal

This historical drama has it all– gender bending, a masked crusader, corrupt officials, a little romance, and even a murder mystery to solve.

Plus, it has spunky heroine written all over it in spades.  It was a hoot to watch from start to finish. What’s not to love?

Park Min Young plays Kim Yoon Hee, a girl who disguises herself as a her ill brother in order to take scribing jobs from the local book merchant.  She gets paid the most for writing study guides for the Sungkyunkwan University where young men have to pass an entrance exam and then go study to become officials.  Most of the young men are sons of wealthy or prestigious families, so the family honor as well as their grades ride on these exams.  Her father was actually a professor there once, but he died while she was still very young.  She learned many things by sitting outside the door of the room where he was teaching her brother, when she was supposed to be learning how to be a “lady”.  When her father died though, her family fell on hard times– especially since her brother became chronically ill.

During the time period the show is set, women are not allowed a formal education or to attend the Sunkyunkwan. Any girl found inside the Sunkyunkwan can be put to death.   She’s never even thought of going there herself, until she agrees to write a “cheat sheet” that will pay for her brother’s medicines for some of the spoiled rich kids.  This goes horribly wrong, and she manages to get herself tangled up with the Lee Seon Joon (Park Yoo Chun), son of a powerful noble.  He is notorious for being stupidly upright and arrogant.  He is against lying, cheating, and stealing in all its forms, and he won’t look the other way no matter what the extenuating circumstances might be.  Hes absolutely bent on showing the the miscreant boy Yoon Hee is disguised as that he can provide for his family through upright means…. and he kind of traps Yoon Hee into sitting for  the Sungkyunkwan entrance exams.

That’s really only the start of her problems though, because if she enters the doors of Sunkyunkwan, she has to live the rest of her life as a man.  If anyone finds out her secret, they can all be severely punished and she can be killed.  But Seon Joon is absolutely right about one thing– the stipend given to Sungkyunkwan students will provide for her family.

She almost leaves town instead of entering, but at the last minute her brother convinces her she’ll be happier if she goes, even if that means that she lives his life, and he ends up a shut-in at home, because he can’t go any where anyway.   But this means she’s trying to fit in on an all male campus.  She lucks out in that one of her roommates is Lee Seon Joon, who’s already firmly convinced she’s a guy, but her other roommate Moon Jae Shin, played by Yoo Ah In, is known as Geol Oh or “Crazy Horse” the school delinquent and a political rival of Lee Seon Joon.  Strangely, Geol Oh hangs around with the school playboy, Goo Yong Ha, played by Song Joong Ki.  Yoon Hee has run into Yong Ha while running around town in her disguise before; he was the one person she was hoping not to meet.  He isn’t quite convinced by her disguise and has called her out for being much too pretty for a guy before.

Yoon Hee just wants to get through her classes without being found out, but unconsciously starts breaking some hearts along the way when she accidentally rescues the top Ginsaeng, Cho Sun played by Kim Min Seo, from an embarrassing and potentially harmful situation.  She also picks up an enemy that way, since Lee Seon’s main rival, Ha In Soo (Jeon Tae Soo) has been trying to win Cho Sun’s affections for years.  He already doesn’t like Yoon Hee because she’s always hanging out with Seon Joon, but the fact that Cho Sun obviously prefers Yoon Hee is the straw that really starts him down the path to crazy time.  He starts a one man vendetta to politically discredit and humiliate both Yoon Hee and Seon Joon.

The show is really complex socially and politically, so it’s hard to go into more detail here without giving out some pretty large spoilers, but ultimately it’s a really well rounded show and a lot of fun. Very highly recommended.

Please support the Korean cast and crew by watching SungKyunkwan Scandal at official sites. You can find it here:

DramaFever

Hulu

 SungKyunkwan Scandal  aired on KBS in Korea on and has 20 episodes.

Time Slip Dr. Jin

Time Slip Dr. Jin is another fantasy time-travel series where a modern physician is transported to Korea’s past.  This time though, the doctor is a brain surgeon played by Song Seung Hun.  Dr. Jin Hyuk’s brilliant at what he does, but he lacks a sense of compassion.   His girlfriend, Yoo Mi Na played by Park Min Young, who’s also a doctor, has a very soft heart. She goes out of her way to volunteer her services at a clinic for those less fortunate, but he really doesn’t understand why.  When he refuses to operate on the father of one of her patients because “he’s too far gone already,” they get in a serious fight that results in her getting into a very bad car accident.

He’s haunted by that argument, not only because it caused her to get in the accident in the first place, but because he isn’t willing to admit for a second that she’s “too far gone” and might not survive the surgery.  She does barely manage to pull through, but she lapses into a coma state and no one knows if or when she’ll wake back up.  After the surgery, he’s trying to get some alone time to work through all of his overwrought emotions, when he surprises one of his previous patients who’s trying to jump off the roof with a bunch of medical supplies.

Assuming that the man must still be out of his head– since he’s recently had brain surgery, and all– Dr. Jin tries to keep that patient from jumping, but falls off the hospital roof himself.  When he wakes up, he gets embroiled in a sword fight, and is forced to run for his life.  Dr. Jin falls off a cliff, and is just barely rescued by Prince Lee Ha Eung played by Lee Bum Soo, who Jin mistakes for a travelling merchant.  Taking pity on the mad-man, Prince Ha Eung tells him he’s somehow landed in the Joseon era, before continuing on his way.  Already the black sheep of the royal family, the prince is not willing to risk his neck for a crazy person.

Even worse for Dr. Jin, the local authorities, led by Kim Kyung Tak (played by Hero Jae Joong) assume he was associated with bandits they were fighting and put out a warrant and reward for his arrest.  Now he’s on the run in 1800’s Korea, with no money, no friends, and no idea how to get back.  While Jin’s trying to hide from the patrols, he runs into a young man with a dangerous head wound.  Concerned that the young man will die without treatment, he forgets about his predicament for a bit and asks the way to the young man’s house.  Jin’s totally shocked when the young man’s sister looks exactly like Mi Na.   Her brother is in a bad way though, so he immediately starts to try to convince them to allow him to operate.   He saves the young man’s life, but his methods are gruesome, and Mi Na’s look-alike turns him in to Kyung Tak– who, as it turns out is her fiance, anyway.   Jin ends up in jail with no idea how to prove his innocence.

Now, I’ve stated in a previous review that I actually slightly prefer Faith (another time travelling doctor series that came out the same year), but this show has unique strengths as well.   First off, they have Dr. Jin stick to what he knows for the most part, which means that he is trying to perform brain surgeries. This is both a plus and a minus, because it does mean you have to be willing to watch him open someone’s skull with a chisel and hammer.  He didn’t actually bring “fancy” tools like a bone saw with him.  So in that regard his 1800’s surgeries are uncomfortably graphic and squirm-worthy.

Secondly, other than the initial time travelling incident, this show is much less of a fantasy.  There’s no one who can shoot fire out of their hands, and no magic going on.  Other than one possible soothsayer, there’s nothing overtly supernatural going on at all, other than the fact that Dr. Jin is there in the first place.

Thirdly, it actually deals with some of the widespread diseases of the time, such as Cholera, so that again feels very realistic.

Lastly, in this show, Dr. Jin’s actions can actually can change the flow of history.  He saves people who wouldn’t have normally been saved, and there are far-reaching (and sometimes horrible) consequences.  He ends up having to ask himself whether he’s actually doing good by saving lives, or if he’s just endangering more lives by throwing historical events off course.

The supporting cast in this show is also absolutely excellent, even if I can’t go through them all here without giving out some serious spoilers, including Lee So Yeon, Jin Yi Han, Kim Eung Soo, and Jung Eun Pyo.

Still highly recommended, and a lot of fun to watch with many plot twists and turns as well.

Please support the Korean cast and crew by watching Time Slip Dr. Jin at official sites. You can find it here:

DramaFever

Time Slip Dr. Jin aired in Korea on MBC.