Presentation
Korean Title: 뷰티풀 마인드
Aired in: 2016 (14 episodes)
Channel: KBS2
Grade: 10/10
Actors: Jang Hyuk and Park So Dam
For more…
Jang Hyuk:
– Fated to Love You
– Tell Me What You Saw
– Voice
– My Country: The New Age
Park So Dam:
– Record of Youth
– Cinderella and the Four Knights
– My First Time
– Parasite (Movie)
Drama adapted from a foreign book:
– The Great Seducer (adaptation of de Laclos’ Dangerous Liaisons)
Analysis
Synopsis
Lee Young Oh is a neurosurgeon, who doesn’t have any emotions. His father is also a surgeon, but they have no connection whatsoever. One day, Young Oh becomes is suspected, he’s part of strange patient deaths. During the investigation, he meets Gye Jin Sang, an uptight police officer, who wants to resolve these mysterious deaths.
My Opinion (No Spoilers)
I loved this drama! I was actually surprised to see that it didn’t get very high ratings (on the contrary, the drama was supposed to be made up of 16 episodes and was shortened to 14), but the story and the characters really moved me.
All the ingredients were actually reunited to make a good drama: the cast with Jang Hyuk (Voice, My Country: The New Age, Tell Me What You Saw) and Park So Dam (the superstar of Parasite); the director Mo Wan Il (Misty, The World of the Married, Dream High 2) and the screenwriter Kim Tae Hee (Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Monstar).
Even though, it didn’t have the expected success, Beautiful Mind really got me by its suspense, fluttering romance and serious and grave themes.
Analysis (Spoiler Alert)
Who is the real monster? Beautiful Mind follows the live of neurosurgeon Lee Young Oh (Jang Hyuk), who suffers from alexithymia. It is a disease that prevents the patient to feel emotions such as empathy, pain, anger, love, sadness… He has always been like that since childhood and his father didn’t help either. Indeed, Young Oh doesn’t have any ties with him.
Thus, he lives a very solitary life, in which he is misunderstood and sometimes clumsy and clueless in many social situations. Moreover, he is very cold and distant, incapable of empathizing with patients.
By the end of the drama, we actually discover that Young Oh’s condition is not due to his biology but rather because of his education. Indeed, in the past, his father Lee Gun Myung (Heo Jun Ho) – who by the way reminded me of Heo Jun Ho’s character in Come and Hug Me – has been deceived by a colleague, who wanted to avenge himself. Therefore, his colleague made him believe that Young Oh was suffering from this disease. The news created a sort of rejection from Young Oh’s father towards him, to the point that he didn’t even try to teach him emotions or to help him understand the way the world was working. In reality, Gun Myung created himself his own son’s condition.
Of course, when Young Oh discovers it, he is truly shocked and moved, realizing that his life has been a living hell because of his father and his past deeds.
We thus wonder if either Young Oh is the cold monster everyone thinks he is, killing patients or on the contrary if his father is the cold one, who turned his son into this kind of emotionless person.
Still, apart from Young Oh and Gun Myung, the drama seems to point out towards another kind of monster, proving that they are different types among us. Indeed, Gun Myung’s colleague who avenged himself on an innocent child, is to be criticized. Same goes for the murderer responsible for the numerous deaths in the hospital.
I was really taken aback by all of this information, really wondering who in fact was more to blame. Young Oh has alexithymia, so can’t really be judged for his lack of emotions, Young Oh’s father was deceived and lied to, so he is only partially responsible for his son’s problems. To me, the colleague is the real monster (but I will let you be the judge of it!).
Rewriting Frankenstein: On a global scale, I think Beautiful Mind is a very clever adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Young Oh represents the creature, who doesn’t understand the world but he is trying, thanks to Gye Jin Sang (Park So Dam). Doctor Frankenstein for me is to be associated with the father, who denigrated is own creation and didn’t educate him.
The first title of the drama was supposed to be “Doctor Frankenstein” and as both father and son are doctors, it was really interesting to try to decipher the clues guiding us towards the real “monster” in the drama (even though neither of them is).
However, by the end of the drama, just like in the book, there is a sort of connection that establishes itself between the father and the son. Indeed, Gun Myung realizes that he has been deceived and has destroyed his son’s life, but seeing how he starts feeling for the first time, deeply moves him. He wants to get closer to him and try to make amend for his mistakes.
Fluttering romance: Because of the series of deaths that happen at the hospital, Young Oh gets to meet Gye Jin Sang, who is a police officer investigating the case. Thanks to this meeting, Young Oh’s life changes, as he starts developing feelings for her.
I was really smitten with the heart-warming and slow romance between the main characters (I would have loved seeing more though). Even if the pace of the romance is slow, and the drama finishes with only a beginning of relationship, seeing how Young Oh fights himself in order to open up to Jin Sang was really cute to see (another reference to Frankenstein of course). He does what he can to be accepted by his lover and I really liked how the link between them turned into a special bond in the end.
I sincerely really recommend that drama, that was really under-rated, in my opinion!
P.S.: Bernard Park singing “Dirt” the OST of the drama is so touching, right?
Once Upon a Drama 