Doctors: Saving Grace

This drama is everything I wanted and more. For once, I get to see Park Shin Hye play a character different from her previous roles. Here, she is a delinquent who gets a chance to change her future because she met the right kind of teacher. She plays Hye-Jung, a young adult who lived aimlessly and fought often. She lost her mother at a young age and her father abandons her to her grandmother because he feels like he can’t deal with her unruliness. Hye-Jung ends up transferring to a rural school.   At first, she does not even want to attend and uses the money her grandmother gave her to go clubbing. However, her grandmother showed her patience and love which slowly motivated her to go to school. Before even registering at the school, she butts heads with her homeroom teacher, Hong Ji-Hong. He believed her to be a delinquent and did not want to be bothered with her. Unfortunately, he is her next door neighbor and its a small town. However, they slowly warm up to each other after they manage a emergency situation together. A pregnant woman had passed out on the street which spurred Hong into action immediately. He was originally a surgeon who due to a tragic table death, decided to become a teacher instead. Through his quick actions, he was able to save the lady. This gave Hye-Jung the motivation to change her way of life and decide to become a doctor as well. She begins making friends at school, including the cute daughter of the principle, and top student Seo Woo. Seo Woo was the daughter of a hospital vice-president and had her future path decided as a hopeful inheritor of the hospital. She studied well and ended up tutoring Hye-Jung. Hye-Jung, who had a high IQ, grasped concepts quickly and ended up getting scores even higher than Seo Woo. Teacher Hong was impressed by her development and became like a mentor to Hye-Jung. Seo Woo, who had a crush on Teacher Hong became extremely jealous and began to spread rumors about the two having a unsavory relationship. This situation heated up to the point where the board of teachers became involved. Hye-Jung tried to convince Seo Woo to drop the case, but the situation only became worse.

Wow, wow, wow. I found that Park Shin Hye did not use a stunt double for all her fighting scenes which really impressed me. Her choreography looked very realistic and the character’s personality is very different than her roles before. She plays prickly, broody, and badass surprisingly well when I previously only saw her in squeaky Candy type roles. Mix in a gangster like Ji Soo who tries to pursue to Hye Jung (who, by the way, refuses to even acknowledge him) is even more fun. It is great seeing her try to be her own person and not taking any nonsense from someone else. While the age gap of Teacher Hong and Hye Jung may feel a little squicky right now, I feel like it will feel more comfortable when the drama transitions into their older roles. They have an nice mentor like relationship going on right now. As for Lee Sung Kyung as Seo Woo, I enjoy her non-crazy like character and how she is playing the calm and collected top student in her school.Overall, I am very interested in this drama and hope to see the high school part be played out longer.