Yeo Jung-woo and Nam Ha-neul are both having a terrible down-in-the-dumps day when they meet again on a rooftop. The Dr. Slump characters are faced with what seem like insurmountable obstacles and this meeting is not likely to improve things. They hated each other in high school.
Jung-woo, played by Park Hyung-sik, and Ha-neul, played by Park Shin-hye, both dreamed of becoming doctors, but upon realizing their goals, their medical careers did not go as planned. Jung-woo became a successful plastic surgeon, achieving recognition for his online medical advice, as “Dr. Login,” and also his philanthropic activities. Then a routine plastic surgery results in an improbable death and Jung-woo loses everything—his home, his practice, even the friendship of those who invested in his business. The last time he had to contend with a traumatic loss of self esteem was when he first met Ha-Neul.
He was the top student at his school before she transferred into his class. and it quickly became obvious that she was as smart, if not smarter, than he was. He was still drawn to her, but she had no time in her life for anything except studying. So, instead he became very competitive. Ha-neul’s intense study habits paid off landing her a spot in the most prestigious medical school, but her hyper-focus also led to her not taking proper care of herself. No matter how hard she works at her current hospital she suffers from the wrath of her abusive supervising professor. While filling out a form to assess her mental health she checks off the “always” box when asked how often she is miserable.
At the end of another hard day she heads home, to find Jung-woo, who is now so poor he has to rent a rooftop apartment. It’s a crazy quirk of fate, but what does it mean? Now that Jung-woo and Ha-neul are no longer competing for anything, can these former rivals be friends? Their early rivalry and later reaction to each other is comical, with both actors adept at hate-to-love stories, but it will be interesting to see how the drama approaches the subject of burnout, depression and, oh yes, the person who seems to be stalking Jung-woo.
When Jung-woo and Ha-neul first meet in this drama they’re wearing their high school uniforms and it’s not the first time Park Hyung-sik and Park Shin-hye have played high school classmates. They attended a prestigious high school in the 2013 drama hit The Heirs. Since then Park Shin-hye has appeared in the films The Call, Alive, The Beauty Inside and The Royal Tailor, and the dramas Sisyphus the Myth, Memories of Alhambra and Pinocchio. Park Hyung-sik, a former member of the k-pop band Z-EA, appeared in the dramas Strong Girl Bong Soon, Happiness, High Society, Our Blooming Youth and the film Juror 8.
Dr. Slump was written by Baek Sun-woo, who also wrote the script for the drama My Roommate Is A Gumiho. The JTBC drama was directed by Oh Hyun-Jong, who directed Find Me In Your Memory and Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo. It airs on Netflix.
Read the full article here