A Beautiful Mind (2016)

E' un po' ... come la storia di Pinocchio, da burattino di legno a bambino vero

Come drama ambientato nel settore ospedaliero ne ho visti di molto meglio (Dr Romantic, Hospital playlist, Poong, The Joseon Psychiatrist) ... la storia si perde a tratti e ho fatto fatica a capire dove andasse a parare. A "bocce ferme" la cosa che mi ha colpito è la storia del protagonista che a un certo punto della sua vita da genio/autistico in grado di fare interventi chirurgici impressionanti, ma che si percepisce non-umano, incontra qualcuno che senza chiacchiere, ma con un'umanità diversa, lo trasforma in un uomo vero. E' un po' ... come la storia di Pinocchio, da burattino di legno a bambino vero.
Ecco, io lo consiglio per questo motivo.
La storia racconta come sia possibile che un uomo fatto, geniale, ma solo e impaurito da sé stesso, venga a scoprire che il suo io è prezioso e degno di amore.

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La serie ha come punto di forza il personaggio maschile, punta di diamante in campo medico ma patologicamente incapace di provare emozioni o entrare in empatia con gli altri. Una figura singolare, insolita e interessante, interpretata da un attore altrettanto particolare come Jang Huyk, difficile da confondere tra le mille altre star del panorama coreano, per via della sua espressività caratteristica e abilità di interpretazione, che fanno di lui una presenza predominante nelle serie di cui è protagonista. Anche qui, appunto, non passa certo inosservato, conferendo quel tocco di singolarità che personalizza la serie rendendola a suo modo unica tra le tante serie ambientate in campo medico. Che invece pare priva di consistenza è la figura femminile, poco incisiva, quasi sempre sotto tono.
Il drama parte bene, il ritmo è incalzante e l'attenzione viene mantenuta ad alti livelli. Col passare degli episodi, però, sembra andare un po' alla deriva. Resta comunque una buona serie anche se, appunto, calante nello sviluppo della vicenda.

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Questo drama era uno spettacolo così bello! Ambientazione ospedaliera, quasi no romance e un protagonista che a tratti ricordava Dr House. Forse qualcosa è andato storto. In principio veniamo catapultati in una situazione molto particolare in cui il nostro ML è sotto accusa poichè sospettato di essere un serial killer all'interno dell'ospedale in cui lavora. Questo caso coinvolge inoltre una poliziotta, fatemi passare il termine, di quartiere che vuole risolvere il caso. Per un po' questo viene portato avanti ma presto il tutto quasi finisce nel dimenticatoio per dar maggior voce e spazio ad altri problemi all'interno dell'ospedale, oltre al comportamento particolare del protagonista e degli effetti che questo provoca alle persone intorno a lui inclusa la poliziotta. Il problema è che tutti i casi, interni o meno che siano non vengono mai davvero risolti, invero non nella maniera più consona. Il finale non mi ha convinta appieno, ma mi è piaciuta moltissimo l'evoluzione che ML ha avuto dall'inizio alla fine e anche il suo rapporto con FL. Ho letto critiche nei suoi confronti, invece per me questa sua ingenuità/stupidità si sposa bene con ML. Avrei voluto qualcosina in più e forse che mantenesse un po' il tono e l'andazzo dell'inizio drama ma ahimè così non è stato. Non è una brutta esecuzione, ma speravo in meglio.

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Overall this was a very interesting drama. Never would I have thought that someone would end up making a medical mystery drama that would be this well written. The concept really drew me in. One thing that I really enjoyed about this show was that it was never predictable. I never knew what was going to happen next in Beautiful Mind. It was really a shame that this show ended up airing at the same time as Doctors. As the ratings ended up being lower than Doctors. I believe 2 episodes were cut from this series as a result of low ratings. It went from being 16 episodes to 14 episodes. This caused the pacing at the very end of the story to be a fast-paced, but it was still well written nonetheless. One of the few Korean dramas that I wished was a few episodes longer.

Story: [9/10] I really liked the concept of a medical mystery. As it really adds another layer to what may be a typical medical show. You are seeing the doctors take care of patients in a stressful situation as in most other medical dramas. At the same time you have a group of murders going on that continues to keep you curious. These murders add a layer of complexity to the drama. The surgeries and the mystery together pretty much keeps you on the edge of your seat for most of the drama. The main characters are also very well written. The characters do not stay flat and act the same the whole time. The characters learn from the events in the series and some of them grow more as a person. I didn't give this show a 10 for two reasons. The first is because the shows pace ended up being sped up because of 2 episodes getting axed. I feel like the extra episodes could have answered a lot more questions and made the show and the pacing better. The second reason is because I feel like the ending was slightly flat. The show had so much action that each and every single episode (okay maybe not every single one) seemed like the climax. However at the same time, it also made me feel like the ending didn't have much as an impact as I would see in other endings. Hence I couldn't really give it a 10 for the story. Of course that's just my own opinion though. Although I did give the show a 9 for being very action-packed and having good character development.

Acting/Cast: [8.5/10] There's nothing much that I can say about the acting and cast. For the most part no one really stood out to me other the Dr. Lee Yeong Oh. I thought that his acting was really good and that he portrayed his character really well.

Music: [8.5/10] Music is pretty likable. It uses an array of different tunes for different situations.

Overall I recommend you watch the series. This season was very good in general. Beautiful Mind was definitely the dark horse of this season and it ended up proving that it was worth my time. It was a 14 hour well spent :)! I suggest you watch it too if you haven't already.

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Forget the cheesiness and the cliches....
If you are into serious acting and are looking for a real good story this will exceed your expectations! A roller-coster ride of emotions and a series that takes medical drama to a whole new level! Also unlike majority of the dramas out there, but like good old wine this gets better with time.

Story~
The actual plot is simple enough (even more so if you are used to Korean Melodramas :p). But it's the storytelling that gives the show an entirely different dimension! This is the most well wriiten drama I have come accross! The crew worked hard on the material and it shows thoughout the drama.
Underneath the suspence and thrill this drama explores how people have both sides to them- the good and the bad. Every person has his or her own difficult circumstances and does their best to cope with it. In the process they fight their prejudices and beliefs, or succumb to them and fight the righteous....
One lie leads to another... evil breeds more evil... and over time there is no road back. During the course of this one track 'difficult journey' people tend to forget its purpose. .
When truth comes up against better opportunities or even the greater good it's truth that always fights a loosing battle..... or maybe not?

I felt this drama to have many layers to it and if you are patient enough you may find a Beautifully Different understanding of this.

Cast~
The series boasts an incredible cast and everyone seems to have their moment...
The entire series is quite heavily built upon the acting of the Dr. Lee Young Oh and Jang Hyuk just shattered the roof with his quality and showed why he is one of the best 'Actors' out there! With KDramas being mostly about preety faces these days, this series came to me as a huge relief!

It's interesting to see that the supporting and guest actors getting considerable screentime and even the debuters are surprisingly good actors! I intially felt the female lead to be a bit stagnant but she too turns up nicely as the series progresses.

Music~
Bernard Park's 'Dirt' is on repeat on my phone! :D
I am not a talented judge of music per say. This had the right music for the right scene.
However the Title Track always seemed to up your emotions for the scene! That felt Beautiful!

Re-watch Value~
Over the course of the last few weeks I have gone back and watched the previous episodes a lot. And will surely rewatch the entire series again.

Overall~
The story tends to speed up at the end but the crew managed to wrap it up Beautifully despite 'the unfortunate peril' (the true villain of the series - you know who)
Anyway, this for me is by far the best drama for me this year.
Highly recommened for patient, mature audience willing to try something different. I guarantee you that you wont be dissapointed.

Good Luck n God Bless!

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“Beautiful Mind” is probably the most underrated drama this year. It’s an hidden gem, I guarantee you. It tells the story of a world-renowned neurosurgeon, Dr. Lee Young Oh, who is unable to feel empathy, and his involvement with the mysterious deaths in the hospital he works in. Gye Jin Sung is a policewoman who upholds onto her principles strongly and starts investigating him.

To me, what really made this drama one of my favourites on my currently watching list is the one and only Dr. Lee Young Oh. Thank you Jang Hyuk for the incredible acting, I got chills! This character is what made me so excited to watch a new episode week after week. I just wanted to see more of him and try to decipher is mind, which is indeed a “Beautiful Mind”. I won’t even lie: emotionally damaged characters are my favourite kind of characters. The psychological aspect of this story is just brilliant.

I’ve read a lot of negative comments about how Gye Jin Sung is a clueless, stupid and annoying character but I couldn’t disagree more! It’s true she lets herself be carried away by her emotions and makes decisions impulsively but I guess that’s exactly how she’s supposed to be, so we can see the contrast between her and Dr. Lee Young Oh. Even though they’re completely different, the romance wasn’t forced. They needed each other so they could both find a balance between “brain and heart” and become better characters. Park So Dam did a really good job with her character. I’ve only watched her once in “Because It’s The First Time” and she didn’t impress me much. However, she surprised in this drama.

A big shoutout to all of the cast. The chemistry between all the actors was pretty good. (Power Rangers doctors, thank you for the laughs!)

All the episodes were really interesting and the story never dragged. The only negative thing I have to point out is about the research on regenerative medicine. Sometimes the scenes related to this were kind of repetitive and boring but they turned out better over the episodes.

The OST suited the mood of each scene wonderfully. Every time “Dirt” by Bernard Park played my heart ached for Dr. Lee Young Oh even more. God, how I love this song! It conveys so many emotions, it really touches your heart in a special place. All of the other instrumental songs were extremely appropriate to the tense atmosphere.

I recommend this drama to anyone who loves psychological and medical dramas. I promise you won’t waste your time. Don’t give up on this just because it ended earlier than planned. I don’t know how the ending would be if there were two more episodes but I can say that I’m pretty satisfied with how things were wrapped up!

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This is a hard one to review, considering the fact that I am not a hospital drama fan, but I am so surprised that this drama was cut short. Of all the hospital dramas I have seen, this one was one of the most interesting. I was also intrigued by the idea of a love story with a sociopath as the main lead, but I have a feeling that's exactly what turned people away.

The most impressive part of this show is Jang Hyuk as Dr. Lee Yeong Oh. I've only seen him in Fated to Love You (which I LOVED), but he is completely unrecognizable compared to that role. His portrayal of a doctor who lacks empathy surprisingly tugged at my emotions. He was so good that it was impossible not to sympathize with his character. His approach to each case sometimes was reminiscent of the show "House", but I did find his character to be very unique. His performance alone would make me recommend this drama.

He is matched with Park So Dam as Gye Jin Sung. She was very cute, and played her role well, but I wasn't that impressed to be honest. In the beginning her character is written to be annoying, but that eventually turns into an awkwardness that is endearing. She also has pretty good chemistry with Jang Hyuk, and some really cute scenes, but there's no strong spark between them. Part of me wonders if a more mature actress would have made a better match for a strong character like Dr. Lee. It also may be too hard for some romance fans to root for the way the male lead uses Jin Sung. It didn't bother me, but I can see how some viewers may not like how gullible, and easy she is.

The supporting cast is also strong, especially the main hospital staff. Some of the "bad guys" are a little too cliché for me, or not interesting enough to mention. Still, I think the cast is the strongest part of this show, they just didn't have a good enough story to support them.

The story was interesting at first, but I think it honestly became too complicated. The amount of betrayal, and corruption kept increasing, and I stopped being able to completely follow who was bad, and why. There was also a major personality change for one of the main characters which made that character less interesting to me. Then there was the complicated father son relationship, which was one of the most interesting parts of the show for me, but that story, and the romance story, were too often overshadowed by the hospital corruption plot which bored me. In spite my feelings about hospital dramas, I liked how the patient stories served to reveal new things about Dr. Lee, and I thought those stories were done well. I wish the overall drama focused more on that, and Dr. Lee, then maybe I would have liked it more.

The writers did do a good job of ending the show early without it feeling too rushed. I don't even think that having 2 extra episodes would have necessarily been any better. I prefer that a show be cut short rather than dragged out with nothing new to add.

Overall I liked this show, but the start was much stronger than the finish. I don't really see myself watching it again, but I certainly don't regret watching. Like I said before, the main character is interesting enough that I would recommend watching this, but don't expect an epic romance, or an amazing thriller. In spite of my moderate review, I do agree that this show is underrated. I've seen much worse shows have much more popularity, so don't let the fact that it's unpopular fool you!

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Beautiful Mind is a gem of a show, that was sadly underrated by viewers in SK and thus ended up being cut by 2 episodes, which showed, but the writer managed to pull most plot lines together in ways that worked.

It is about a character who literally is incapable of empathising with others, which sounds like many drama heroes who just need a girl to open up their heart, and nominally this drama works the same, but the way it is done is so refreshingly different that it feels interesting and actually worthwile. It is also about the question of what makes us monsters and who really is a monster when it comes down to it. It is also the rare medical drama whose science is not completely out of the realm of possibility and the attention to detail by the writing and the set design plus the fact that the medical cases are used to deepen our understanding of the characters and further their journey makes it stand out even more.

Led by Jang Hyuk, who truly delivered a standout performance, the whole cast is fantastic. Almost every character gets a moment to shine, or grow and it was a delight to watch Jang Hyuk's character interact with everyone else. It felt like he really elevated everyone's performance even more.

Of course I'd be remiss not to mention the love-story, and Jang Hyuk and Park So Dam had a delightfully easy chemistry, which wasn't exactly sizzling but that would not have worked with these characters anyway. And while the initial episodes were a bit rough on Park So Dam's character, once that got smoothed out, she became one of my favourite female characters I've seen this year, able to see Jang Hyuk's character and connect with him in ways no other character did or could before and Park So Dam played her with a sparkling brightness and inherent steadfastedness that it was easy to see why Jang Hyuk's character was drawn to her.

The other big relationship that needs to be mentioned is between that of Lee Young Oh (Jang Hyuk) and his father, portrayed by Heo Joon Ho. Their scenes were always crackling with tension and the two of them had such a complicated relationship and Heo Joon Ho really played his character in an understated way, that gave every look and every movement so much meaning that it was a joy to watch and when the two of them were together even more so.

All in all a great drama that can't be quite perfect due to the slightly rough beginning and the shortening of the number of episodes and thus some plotlines being dropped out of necessity, but nothing that I greatly missed.

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This is soooo... amazing drama .if you like to watvh the drama with doctors and mysteries happening at the hospital you definetly have to watch it .
If you are a type of girl who love the male lead who dont care about others then this drama is definetly for you......he take pride on his skills.
He had a problem in frontaal lobe due to which doctors said that he would be unable to feel any emotions .but his only father help him to learn body language so that he could communicate with the other people .
The drama starts with him as a doctor .he doesnt care about patients .he has no sympathy.he do what he wants to do.he works in the same hospital as his father but he doesnt even care about his father.on the other hand there is a police officer ,ofcourse she is the female lead ,who is really ambitious about her work .she is a traffic polce officer but she wants to be in crime division.later in the drama during solving different cases they both meet frequently in the hospital .also because the patients were dying one by one who had the same hear problem .then they both together solve mystery .throghout the story doctor lee is just too incredible he is perfect.he is more genius then anyother surgeon .
The only thing he dint learn was the gestures of love .so he wasnt aware of it .but after many events he realizes his affection towards officer gey just because she thinks of him differently.everybody in the hospital calls him a pshycopath afterits is revealed in the hospital that he is unable to feel any emotion .but she helps him to sympathize the patients and love.
Thats all i could tell .but this drama isnt so straight forward as i described .its is much more complicated and has a lot of suspenss and love .

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