[Drama 2021] Dr. Brain, Dr.브레인

[sweetroad]

I enjoyed the ride for sure.

 

Spoiler

This last episode, I thought it was funny that Dr Hong didn't know more about the bunker location and about the overall evil plan. Why did Sewon have to figure out the mystery - why couldn't Dr Hong fill him in?

 

Great that Sewon and Jaeyi "reconciled" at the end, and he could finally overcome Dr Myung. I kept expecting him to use his cat powers but it never happened, except maybe at the very end when he heard something.

 

And Dr Myung really did remind me of Emperor Palpatine, both in the desire to be immortal and the use of the Force. That made me laugh.

 

Of course, it's so wonderful he could save Doyoon. He definitely learned the meaning of sacrifice and engagement for the sake of a loved one.

 

@backstreetboysfan and @sadiesmith Would be interesting to see if Apple TV orders a 2nd season, though my expectations aren't high either.

 

[CarolynH]

What happened in the earlier episodes made sense after watching ep 6.  I remember thinking that the person had to be dead for the brain sync and Jaeyi wasn't.  But now Jaeyi dying led to Sewon finding their son made sense.  I appreciated that Jaeyi finally realized that Sewon loved her.  That was important to her and now she can rest in peace knowing that he loved her.  

lol @The_sweetroad-I also expected Sewon to use his cat power to fight Dr. Myung.  

Wasn't that spooky that Sewon saw Dr. Myung?

*****

I enjoyed the ride with all of you!  

[sadiesmith]

The New York Times published an interview with Director KJW. I had to laugh at this paragraph. Did no one proofread or what?

 

Why Dr. Brain Is More Subdued Than Sensational

 

By contrast, “Dr. Brain” often feels stylistically and emotionally subdued thanks to its withdrawn protagonist, a brain scientist named Sewon (Lee Sun-kyun) who has an overdeveloped amygdala and an underdeveloped hippopotamus. So while Sewon has an exceptional memory, he’s not very warm or ingratiating.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/10/arts/television/dr-brain-apple-tv-kim-jee-woon.html

 

[sweetroad]

3 hours ago, sadiesmith said:

underdeveloped hippopotamus.

 

Haha. These two words together paint a very funny picture. Throw LSK in the mix and it's even funnier.

 

I figured out something that had been bothering me. When Jaeyi was at Saera's Children's Clinic in Episode 6, I thought she had accompanied Doyoon there on one of his visits. But it must have been after Heejin had told her Doyoon was alive, that Heejin had seen him "that morning". Jaeyi must have gone back there to talk to them, already suspicious, and when Dr Hyun left her office Jaeyi could snoop around. Then she saw the secret chamber and discovered that her dead son really was alive. Immediately after that Sec Yoon tried to kill her. When I first watched it I didn't realize her visit to Saera must have been after Heejin said something.

 

I didn't anticipate so many brain syncs to happen in Dr Brain, though of course now it makes sense. It did make Sewon and Dr Hong say some pretty hilarious and fantastic lines though. And in the end Dr Hong was a good guy and loved his sunbae.

 

One question, though - Dr Myung is dead, right? So Sewon is just seeing him in his mind/ as a ghost?

[sweetroad]

This review from The Chicago Tribune puts things very well, especially the last paragraph.

 

'Dr. Brain’ review: Thanks for the memories! Brain-hacking is the key to this South Korean Apple TV+ mystery

 

By Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Nov 04, 2021 at 12:10 PM

 

It’s a whodunit. It’s a medical procedural. It’s science fiction. It’s film noir! It’s a bloodstained rendition of the old song “Thanks for the Memory”!

It’s all that and it’s called “Dr. Brain,” now on Apple TV+. With “Squid Game” now officially Netflix’s most-watched series — an ultraviolent, gorier “Hunger Games,” ideal for reduced-standards pandemic viewing, as was “The Tiger King” in early 2020 — Apple TV+ has hustled its own South Korean property into international circulation.

“Dr. Brain” comes from a webtoon, aka digital comic, and the six-part limited series will make new episodes available each Thursday. The story literalizes the idea of how we carry memories of others around with us, in a procedure (unauthorized; very hard to get insurance to cover it) involving hacking into people’s brains to access memories for the purposes of mystery-solving.

Little bits of “Frankenstein,” “Altered States” and a hundred other predecessors float around the moat of the story. The “brain sync” sequences, in which our quietly obsessive brain scientist hero hacks into the noggin of his comatose wife or (my favorite) a dead cat, drip with visual possibilities. Creator and director Kim Jee-woonimagines each unauthorized neurological experiment a little differently, just as Martin Scorsese handled each boxing match in “Raging Bull” differently.

 

A brilliant but haunted brain researcher (Lee Sun-kyun) hacks into the memories of his loved ones to unravel a mystery in the South Korean miniseries "Dr. Brain," now streaming on Apple TV+. (Apple TV / HANDOUT)

 

The final two episodes of “Dr. Brain” may frustrate the give-it-to-me-straight-no-more-dream-sequences-please crowd, i.e., my fellow Americans. But as a genre mashup, and craftsmanship, the series is super-sleek, very violent and pretty sharp.

It’s also blithely unafraid of imperiling its child characters early and often, handing the key character a lifetime’s worth of internalized anguish in the first 20 minutes. After witnessing the brutal death of his mother, the specially gifted future brain researcher Sewon Koh (Lee Sun-kyun, the rich, cold father in “Parasite”) grows up to suffer even greater losses. His five-year-old son, who lies somewhere on the autism spectrum like his father, dies in a mysterious explosion. Sewon’s wife (Lee Yoo-Young) becomes another casualty of sorts. I’m keeping this vague, since the episodes drop weekly. The trailer, on the other hand, keeps few secrets regarding the foul play underneath it all, and the larger conspiracy bubbling in “Dr. Brain.”

A snarling private detective (Park Hee-soon) starts nosing into Sewon’s affairs, bringing up what Sewon has known all along: that his wife had an affair with another man. But is Sewon’s son truly dead? The series progresses from brain sync to brain sync, with Sewon mining the memories of his wife, and others, for clues to what really happened to his family.

 

Seo Ji-hye and Jo Bok-rae investigate a series of brutal murders in “Dr. Brain,” now on Apple TV+. - Original Credit: (Apple TV / HANDOUT)

 

As Sewon conducts more and more unauthorized procedures, his own mind becomes an unreliable blur of other people’s memories. He does, however, get a superpower or two for his trouble: The session with the dead cat leads to surprising feats of jumping and landing on his feet when he really needs it. Wisely, “Dr. Brain” doesn’t push that element of personality and physicality transference. Much of its action, and bleeding, relies less on science fiction and more on old-fashioned, guns-and-knives battles to the death. The director of “The Good, the Bad, the Weird” and “A Tale of Two Sisters” keeps the violence rough, fast and stylishly effective, and this side of relentless. Sewon has his own cerebral ways of crime solving, in every sense of that word; the police — Seo Ji-hye plays a wary detective who wonders if Sewon’s responsible for all the bodies piling up — have theirs.

 

“Just when you think you know a thing or two, you die,” says one prominent character (no spoilers!) who dreams of sustaining his legacy well into the future. “Dr. Brain” may think it’s saying something larger and more philosophically provocative than that (it isn’t), but it works without an extra dimension of meaning. I suppose that’s the value of punishing your protagonist, relentlessly: At some point the audience just wants the grief to abate, and if the story takes care of that, there you have it. Whole sections of “Dr. Brain” are silly as hell, but to paraphrase the old song: You might’ve been a headache. But you never were a bore.

‘Dr. Brain’ — 3 stars (out of four)

 

Source: https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/michael-phillips/sc-ent-dr-brain-apple-tv-review-20211104-odnplwo4bfdqzpsl3ftar5fyaq-story.html

 

 

[sadiesmith]

6 hours ago, the_sweetroad said:

I didn't anticipate so many brain syncs to happen in Dr Brain, though of course now it makes sense. It did make Sewon and Dr Hong say some pretty hilarious and fantastic lines though. And in the end Dr Hong was a good guy and loved his sunbae.

 

I really appreciated it when Sewon explained how he could endure so many brain syncs without completely losing himself, and it was because of his unique brain. I almost "forgot" about that fact. 

 

15 hours ago, the_sweetroad said:

Of course, it's so wonderful he could save Doyoon. He definitely learned the meaning of sacrifice and engagement for the sake of a loved one.

 

Yes, it was satisfying to see. And I enjoyed the heck out of the scene where he and his wife sang to get Doyoon to come out of his hiding even though I was inwardly screaming that they did have time for that! I have a weakness for LSK singing, okay.  

 

10 hours ago, CarolynH said:

Wasn't that spooky that Sewon saw Dr. Myung?

 

It mimicked the time Lee Kang-mu first appeared to him after he found out that LKM had died. So yeah, I think Dr. Myung already died and now just lived inside Sewon's head. I wonder if this would influence Sewon towards evil behaviors in the future. 

[sweetroad]

7 hours ago, sadiesmith said:

Yes, it was satisfying to see. And I enjoyed the heck out of the scene where he and his wife sang to get Doyoon to come out of his hiding even though I was inwardly screaming that they did have time for that! I have a weakness for LSK singing, okay.  

 

Seriously - that was one of the most suspenseful scenes of all. I noticed how the colors changed in that scene and the show ended on a warm color palette. I liked how tender he was with a sleeping Doyoon at the end, too.

[sweetroad]

Newsweek has been digging Dr Brain, and here is their end-of-show review. LSK really hated acting in that helmet.

 

'Dr. Brain' Ending Explained: Creator Kim Jee-woon and Lee Sun-kyun on finale and Season 2

 

BY ROXY SIMONS ON 12/10/21 AT 7:00 AM EST

 

Dr. Brain came to its thrilling conclusion on Friday, December 10, with Dr. Koh Sewon (Lee Sun-kyun) finally discovering the mysteries behind his wife Jae-yi's (Lee Yoo-young) coma and his son Do-yoon's (Jung Si-on) disappearance.

The Apple TV+ show is the first K-Drama made for the streaming platform and it was released as part of its launch in South Korea.

Helmed by A Tale of Two Sisters director Kim Jee-woon, the sci-fi thriller follows brain scientist Sewon and his search for answers after building a machine that can sync his mind with the recently deceased, giving him access to their memories and abilities.

Kim and lead actor Lee spoke with Newsweek about the show's dramatic finale, which was full of numerous unexpected twists and a shocking cliffhanger.

The six-episode series ended with Sewon coming face-to-face, or should we say mind-to-mind, with Dr. Myung Tae-suk (Moon Sung-geun), the man responsible for first creating brain-sync technology.

 

Terminally-ill, Dr. Myung hatched a scheme to live forever by forcing his own psyche into Do-yoon's mind, erasing the young boy's existing self forever, and it was up to Sewon to save his son.

He does this by brain-syncing with both Dr. Myung and Do-yoon and forcing the former out by persuading the latter to trust him, and not the man trying to kill him.

Actor Lee admitted he "didn't expect" such a dramatic climax to the series whilst reflecting on how the finale blurred the lines between the real-world and the thoughts of Sewon, Dr. Myung and Do-yoon.

"It was something that I didn't expect at all, having this real-world and the psyche of so many people just kind of mixing together," Lee said. "So, I thought it was very interesting, and there's more room for the worldview to expand going forward."

He added: "It was kind of like a Metaverse as well, and I think there could be a new storyline in [it], you know? The brain of some other person [could be] like a parallel universe. So I thought it was very interesting."

Luckily for Sewon, his plan works and he is able to save his son while Dr. Myung dies from the impact of the triple brain-sync.

But Sewon's joy doesn't last long as he later discovers someone in his home, the disembodied psyche of Dr. Myung, who reaches out to grab him.

It's there, in that shocking moment, that the show ends, leaving many unanswered questions in its wake: Is Dr. Myung going to take over Sewon's mind? How was Do-yoon affected by the villain's machinations? Will Sewon continue to brain-sync with the dead to solve cases?

Will there be a Season 2 of Dr. Brain?
Lee claimed the cast and crew have hopes for there to be a second season, but that "nothing is set in stone" as yet.

"When we were shooting Season 1 we did talk about maybe a possible Season 2. We all said that it'd be nice if there is a Season 2, but we don't have anything planned out yet. So nothing is set in stone at [this] time.

"But, I guess Season 1 needs to be well received in order for us to really film Season 2, so I just hope people love it."

Of what he'd like to see in a forthcoming season if it was to be greenlit, he went on: "Season 1 was about families, Sewon's family, and I think Season 2 we have more room to manoeuvre, and I think the world view can be further expanded.

"For example, we just talked about, you know, [Sewon] having abilities after the brain scans. I mean, that could lead to like a superhero of some sort, right?

"So, I think there's a lot of different chances that we could take, and different routes that we could take, so I'm really looking forward to a possible Season 2."

The Parasite actor then joked: "One thing I hope is that the brain-syncing helmet will become more simpler, so it'll be easy for me to act in it!"

 

Director Kim added to Lee's sentiment regarding Season 1, explaining that he hadn't written the cliffhanger ending with the intention of making another season.

He explained: "I didn't direct that ending with a second season in mind. I just wanted to highlight the fact that although the story was over, in a sense... I wanted to add and end the series with a very intriguing note by intriguing the audience once again using a touch of extra [drama].

"So, they would go like, 'What's this? Is it another world? Have their memories been transferred to another database or something?'

 

"It could be good if we continue that with a Season 2, but I didn't do that specifically with a second season in mind.

"I just wanted to underscore the fact that the world of Dr. Brain and brain science was infinitely scalable and versatile, and I wanted to leave some room for interpretation."

https://www.newsweek.com/dr-brain-ending-explained-kim-jee-woon-lee-sun-kyun-interview-1656813

 

--

 

Another fun article by Newsweek, on the 5 wildest moments of the show:

 

https://www.newsweek.com/dr-brain-5-wildest-moments-apple-tv-plus-interview-1656926

 

 

[sadiesmith]

Here's a review by Pierce Conran, a journalist based in South Korea who knows a lot about Korean movies and the industry.

 

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-pop/k-drama/article/3159016/k-drama-review-dr-brain-apple-tvs-slick-sci-fi-action-noir

 

K-drama review: Dr Brain – Apple TV+’s slick sci-fi action noir series winds to thrilling finale

• Lee Sun-kyun, who appeared in Oscar-winning film Parasite, stars in this series from director Kim Jee-woon which is equal parts Mary Shelley and Philip K. RickRoll'D
• The story of a neuroscientist with autism, who taps into dead people’s brains to get their memories, Kim ramps up the emotional energy for an exciting ending.

 

Lee Jae-won (left) and Lee Sun-kyun in a scene from Dr Brain, Apple TV+’s slick sci-fi action noir series. Photo: Apple

 

This article contains spoilers.

4/5 stars

 

Kim Jee-woon’s mind-melding Dr Brain, Apple TV+’s first Korean show, comes to a strong and action-packed conclusion this week, capping off a season that has slalomed between thrillingly executed set pieces and occasional dramatic lulls.

 

Based on the webtoon of the same name, the show came out of the gate strong by presenting an intriguing sci-fi/noir mystery that was equal parts Mary Shelley and Philip K. RickRoll'D, but as this story of a neuroscientist engaging in “brainwave synchronisation” to untangle a web of murders unfolded, it soon settled into a more conventional path.

 

While the show’s sci-fi leanings turned out to be a touch superficial, the project is carried off with such visual aplomb by director Kim, who commands what appears to be a generous budget from Apple TV+, that its aesthetic delights largely make up for any narrative shortfalls.

 

Buried in his research despite these successive setbacks, his studies into brainwave synchronisation begin to bear fruit just as a man connected to his wife turns up dead.

 

He teams up with private investigator Lee Kangmu (Park Hee-soon) to look into this mysterious death as well as the disappearance of the dead man’s daughter, but the plot thickens when he learns of Kangmu’s death, which had happened several days before they teamed up.

 

Sewon’s first brain sync wasn’t conducted on a random corpse in a morgue, as he had been led to believe – it was that of Kangmu, and the procedure somehow made him absorb part of the investigator’s consciousness.

 

Lee Yoo-young in a still from Dr Brain. Photo: Apple

 

The murders, as well as a rash of subsequent violent crimes, are all connected to a pair of vicious mercenaries – played with devilish intensity by Uhm Tae-gu and Lee Joo-won – carrying out the dirty work of a shadowy organisation.

 

As Sewon delves deeper into the conspiracy, he begins to give credence to his wife’s ravings about their son still being alive, which he had previously dismissed.

 

The organisation is a group of scientists engaged in murky brain research on children with highly developed minds, and at the top of the chain Sewon discovers a figure from his past, Myung Taesuk (Moon Sung-keun), the neuroscientist who marvelled at Sewon’s brain when he was a child, adopted him and helped rein in his antisocial tendencies.Taesuk, with the help of his dapper, cane-wielding personal secretary Yoon (Yoo Teo) and a gaggle of slavishly devoted scientists, want to expand on Sewon’s brain sync technology so that he may achieve immortality before succumbing to the cancer that riddles his body.

 

Each of Dr Brain’s six episodes finds Sewon delving deeper into the mystery of his son’s disappearance as he masters the unusual skills afforded by his repeated brain syncs, whether on corpses, comatose patients or, at one point, a dead cat.

 

The show’s fluorescent colour palette, which teems with deep, glowing purples and is accented by inventive light sources, merges beautifully with the story’s sci-fi elements, while a propulsive, bass-heavy soundtrack from composer Mowg (Burning) and fluid editing from Yang Jin-mo (Parasite) make Sewon’s journey into the recesses of the mind a hypnotic one.

 

Some of the investigation segments feel dragged out, particularly as we start to understand enough of the story to perceive what the next few steps will be but have to wait for the characters to catch up with what we’ve figured out. Episode five in particular is weighed down by this kind of exposition.

 

The other low points in the series are its dramatic interludes, including bright flashbacks to Sewon’s happy family life.

 

Given the occasionally awkward tone struck by these domestic scenes, it comes as an unexpected but very welcome surprise that the emotional beats of the climactic episode are extremely effective. With ample room for bombastic action scenes in a secret underground facility, the finale is particularly exciting.

 

The science gets very hokey in episode six, but with energy coursing through the facility’s endless concrete corridors, a compact visual motif that recurs in Kim’s films, and an emotional undercurrent centered on Sewon that succeeds against the odds, it’s hard to get hung up on the why of it all.

 

There’s something about characters finishing their journeys in deep and dark places, whether it’s a villain’s lair in a James Bond film or the abandoned train tunnel in Netflix’s D.P., that generates marvellous catharsis, and Kim hones in that emotional energy to bring his sci-fi-mystery to a thrilling close.

 

In its final moments, the show teases a loose thread that could easily be spun out into a second season, but even if that never happened Dr Brain succeeds as six slick and self-contained episodes of must-watch TV.

 

Lee Sun-kyun in a still from Dr Brain. Photo: Apple

[sadiesmith]

Dr. Brain review: Scientifically absurd but strangely entertaining

HUMANS 8 December 2021

By Josh Bell

 

When Dr Sewon Koh uploads memories from dead people, he doesn’t always like what he sees

Courtesy of Apple

 

WITH a name like Dr Brain, the title character of the first South Korean-language series from Apple TV+ sounds like he should be a second-string Marvel superhero. Yet while Dr Sewon Koh (Parasite‘s Lee Sun-kyun) does have superhuman powers of a kind, he isn’t a superhero, and no one actually calls him Dr Brain.

 

The series is an adaptation of a South Korean webtoon in which a neuroscientist develops a way to mine the brains of dead people for their memories, which he can weave into his own. Despite the somewhat absurd premise, this adaptation plays it mostly straight, keeping its story grounded in character drama and sci-fi. 

 

Sewon is a talented and eccentric neuroscientist who has devoted his life to understanding how brains work. He develops a technology called brain syncing, which connects two brains through a silly-looking contraption made of wires, dials and blinking lights that are supposed to have something to do with quantum entanglement. The details are hazy, but series director and co-writer Kim Jee-woon presents it all with due reverence.

 

Sewon decides that he must be the first human test subject for his invention. So he tasks his assistant with procuring a fresh body from the morgue and hooks himself up to the dead man’s brain.

 

As we soon discover, Sewon’s motivation for uploading other people’s memories isn’t solely scientific curiosity. He also comes overburdened with a tragic backstory, which began when his mother was killed in a road accident when he was a child. Then, years later, he saw his young son die in a house fire and his wife fall into a coma after a suicide attempt – a condition in which she remains.

 

The incidents with his wife and son occurred under mysterious circumstances, and soon after Sewon’s first brain sync, he is visited by a private investigator who is also looking for answers about those tragedies. The police soon show up, too, and Dr. Brain morphs into a murder mystery, as Sewon uses his skills to uncover a shadowy conspiracy that is targeting him and his family.

 

However, the more brains that Sewon syncs with, the more his mind fractures, as bits of the personalities and skills of the subjects take hold in his own brain. At one point, he hooks himself up to his family’s dead cat, which may have witnessed a murder. From then on, he possesses cat-like abilities, allowing him to quickly climb a tree, see better in the dark and land on his feet when jumping from a building. It is an appealingly goofy touch in a series that sometimes takes itself too seriously, given its somewhat outlandish premise.

 

Kim, who is best known outside South Korea for mind-bending thrillers A Tale of Two Sisters and I Saw the Devil (as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie The Last Stand), directs Dr. Brain as a mix of mundane police procedural and bizarre head trip.

 

The middle portion of the six-episode series drags a little, as it focuses more on crime solving and less on brain syncing. But Kim reliably returns to the surreal imagery of Sewon’s visions, regardless of whether he is hooked up to another brain or just receiving some crucial piece of insight. The director also stages some exciting action sequences, including a chase through a mall and a close-quarters fight in an empty cargo transport.

 

Dr. Brain isn’t quite as out there as fans of Kim’s best-known films might hope for (or as its faintly ridiculous set-up might suggest), but it is still an entertainingly off-kilter take on a murder mystery, with a protagonist who is admirably committed to his own strange ideas.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25233640-400-dr-brain-review-scientifically-absurd-but-strangely-entertaining/g/#ixzz7FBvxvrx3

[larus]

Dr Brain: Interviews with Kim Jee-woon, Lee Sun-kyun, Lee Jae-won, Seo Ji-hye, Lee Yoo-young and Park Hee-soon

 

 

With Parasite‘s Oscar win and the mind-blowing success of Netflix’s Squid Game having put South Korean content firmly on the world’s radar in a way never seen before, Apple TV+ are now here with their very own Korean-language drama: Dr Brain.

The sci-fi thriller is based on a Korean webtoon of the same name and follows Sewon (Lee Sun-kyun), a dedicated brain scientist who, after the loss of his family, ploughs himself into working obsessively on a project to sync brain waves between people, enabling him to access the thoughts and memories of other people – even the dead – in order to solve the mystery of their deaths. After successfully testing rats, he takes the brave decision to turn the new technology on himself, setting in motion a rather sinister set of implications.

The Upcoming had the pleasure of chatting with the director and cast to discuss the series ahead of its launch.

Lee Sun-kyun spoke to us about his character of Sewon, who is incapable of experiencing emotion fully, and how although Dr Brain has a heavy dose of noir thriller, it’s also a touching drama about a man trying to save his family.

 

 

Lee Jae-won and Seo Ji-hye explained a bit about their characters, Namil Hong, Sewon’s colleague, and Lieutenant Choi, and why they wanted to work with the director on Apple TV+’s first Korean-language series.

Lee Yoo-young, who plays Jaeyi Jung, Sewon’s wife, and Park Hee-soon, who plays Kangmu Lee, a private investigator, also reflected on their respective roles in the series and how there have always been extraordinary creators in Korea but there haven’t been the opportunities to show their work to the world.

Spoiler

 

 

 

https://www.theupcoming.co.uk/2021/12/07/dr-brain-interviews-with-kim-jee-woon-lee-sun-kyun-lee-jae-won-seo-ji-hye-lee-yoo-young-and-park-hee-soon/

 

 

 

 

[sadiesmith]

Another review: https://www.avclub.com/parasite-s-lee-sun-kyun-leads-the-engrossing-apple-tv-p-1847963947

 

Parasite’s Lee Sun-kyun leads the engrossing Apple TV Plus original Dr. Brain

The compelling new sci-fi/mystery hybrid hails from I Saw The Devil director Kim Jee-woon

By Saloni Gajjar

 

 

The first Korean-language drama to debut on Apple TV+, Dr. Brain is an intriguing blend of imaginative science fiction and mystery. The show’s strongest facet is its protagonist, Dr. Sewon Koh (played by Parasite’s Lee Sun-kyun, who is quickly established as a former child prodigy with a traumatic past. He has an eidetic memory and strong math skills, but is unable to express any feelings. Lee, the series lead, must carry scenes without emoting heavily, yet the actor’s talent and charisma still shine through. His evocative work sets up the wild ride Sewon takes in season one.

 

A prominent brain scientist, Sewon is reeling from the disappearance of his gifted young son, Doyoon (Jeong Si-on). His wife Jaeyi (Lee You-young) is in a coma. He then becomes the prime suspect in the murder of Junki Lim (Kim Ju-hun), Jaeyi’s apparent lover. (All in all, not a great month for Sewon.) Determined to figure out the cause behind all these events, Sewon tests a machine he developed that can conduct “brain syncs”—essentially transferring memories and traits from a dead person’s mind into his own.

 

Based on a popular webtoon of the same name (by Hong Jac-ga), Dr. Brain plays with the fascinating ways in which the mind manipulates perception, identity, and reality. Who wouldn’t want to access their loved ones’ thoughts, or even those of strangers they’ve crossed paths with, to learn what impression they’re really making? And at what cost? These are moral and ethical dilemmas of epic proportions, but neither Sewon nor the gripping show have time to question them in depth—this is a swiftly moving thriller, after all.

 

The memories and attributes Sewon is now able to access become a kind of superpower that’s both a blessing and curse. Though he’s quickly able to solve a complex case, Sewon starts to lose his grip on reality. The first five (out of six) Dr. Brain episodes are tightly paced: The action, multiple twists, and futuristic technology infuse the story with adrenaline. The ending of episode two, “Mind Games,” cements Dr. Brain’s commitment to its mind-tricking themes, and emphasizes the dangerous potential of the brain syncing invention.

 

Sewon gets help in his mission from various sources, including: sarcastic private investigator Kangmu Lee (Park Hee-soon); Lieutenant Choi (Seo Ji-hye), the police detective hunting for Junki Lim’s killer; and Namil Hong (Lee Jae-won), a fellow brain researcher who works at his lab. But all three have their own agendas, as well. Sewon is also being chased by goons as he races to save his family, unknowingly stumbling into a massive, nefarious scheme.

 

A sweeping mystery and sci-fi hybrid like this one can get bogged down if the unique ideas aren’t fully developed or are used simply as convenient plot devices. It can often seem like Dr. Brain is juggling too many brain syncs and crimes—murders, kidnapping, arson, corruption, fatal accidents. But the writing seamlessly weaves the threads and characters together. Dr. Brain is so compelling, it doesn’t necessarily matter that the final answers to all the twists aren’t very surprising or complicated.

Series creator and director Kim Jee-woon immerses viewers in Sewon’s world, both real and cerebral, with the help of stunning cinematography. Every frame is utilized to bring the show to life, from ethereal slow-motion shots to Sewon briefly imagining a monster; from bright city lights to the changing color palettes that establish the character perspective Sewon is exploring in any given moment.

 

As a result of the many memories soon living inside him, Sewon undergoes personality shifts and starts to open up. This advancement allows Lee to eventually display his character’s vulnerabilities, especially in the last couple of episodes. The show’s pace considerably slows down for the 70-minute finale, almost jarringly so. Most of the action and twists come to a halt once the cards are on the table.

 

That last outing, “A Certain Smell,” gives Lee and the other actors space to revel in emotions they hadn’t been able to explore previously. It’s interesting to witness, but Dr. Brain draws out its inevitable conclusion much longer than needed, thereby squandering some of the goodwill the season garners. Still, the source material transforms into a reliable first original for Apple TV+ as it launches in South Korea. With the success of K-dramas—as well as Netflix’s Squid Game still topping viewing charts—there’s no better time for Dr. Brain to leave its mark.

[sweetroad]

 

Nice to see Dr Brain make this list:

15 International Series to Binge-Watch Over the Holiday Season

An Italian mafia drama, a look inside the lives of Jewish people in 1950s Turkey and the best new Korean series to stream over the holiday season.

 

By Scott Roxborough, December 21, 2021 6:00am

 

....... (skipped unrelated)

 

 

Coming hot off Netflix’s mega-success with Squid Game, Apple’s Korean series premiere is similarly high-concept and dives deep into genre storytelling with a horror twist. The plot sees the titular Dr. Brain, a neuroscientist with autism (played by Parasite’s Lee Sun-kyun) who invents a machine that can sync brain waves, enabling a recipient to absorb the memories of a deceased donor. Struggling to cope with the death of his young son, and already perplexed by the world of emotion, Dr. Brain tries his invention out on himself, setting off a Frankenstein-style noir horror story in which Dr. Brain is both scientist and monster.

 

Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/15-international-series-binge-watch-holidays-1235053246/

[sweetroad]

Recently-released interview with PDnim and Lee Sun-Kyun promoting how Dr Brain used Dolby in the show.

 

 

[sadiesmith]

On 12/23/2021 at 12:04 PM, the_sweetroad said:

Nice to see Dr Brain make this list:

 

Yes, nice to see someone promoting it. I had been planning to watch The Silent Sea, another high budget sci-fi with a tremendous cast, but after reading some reviews, including the one by Pierce Conran, I am not sure I will anytime soon. It seems to be suffering from a few similar things as Dr. Brain, mainly the lack of character developments and pacing issues. It's only 8 episodes, yet it feels slow, they say. The genre is one that has a lot of room for growth.

 

Two more articles:

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3156338/apple-tv-korean-horror-series-dr-brains-director-and-cast

 

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2021/12/10/dr-brain-season-2-has-apple-tv-renewed-the-korean-drama-series/

 

 

[sweetroad]

4 hours ago, sadiesmith said:

I had been planning to watch The Silent Sea, another high budget sci-fi with a tremendous cast, but after reading some reviews, including the one by Pierce Conran, I am not sure I will anytime soon.

 

From what I've heard it's well-done but the ending left a lot of people wanting.

 

Thanks for posting the two articles. I liked seeing this very special twitter account cited in the 2nd article.

 

 

 

 

 

It would be great if they renewed it for a second season... but if Dr Brain really went out quietly I'd be surprised if another season happened.

 

[sadiesmith]

On 1/10/2022 at 5:56 AM, the_sweetroad said:

It would be great if they renewed it for a second season... but if Dr Brain really went out quietly I'd be surprised if another season happened.

 

Okay, is this happening for real or what?

 

https://news.jtbc.joins.com/html/604/NB12044604.html

[backstreetboysfan]

Apple TV+ Korea drama DrBrain reportedly will produce season 2, S1 cast will join the new season but it will be directed by other director instead of KimJeeWoon. The script hasn’t been completed, filming schedule is also undecided.

 

 

 

[sweetroad]

6 hours ago, sadiesmith said:

Okay, is this happening for real or what?

 

https://news.jtbc.joins.com/html/604/NB12044604.html

 

4 hours ago, backstreetboysfan said:

Apple TV+ Korea drama DrBrain reportedly will produce season 2, S1 cast will join the new season but it will be directed by other director instead of KimJeeWoon. The script hasn’t been completed, filming schedule is also undecided.

 

No way! That would be great!

 

Now I've been searching for news from Apple TV+ itself. I feel like I'll really believe it when Apple actually announces it. Haven't found anything yet...except Apple just announced the release date for Pachinko.

[backstreetboysfan]

5 minutes ago, the_sweetroad said:

 

 

No way! That would be great!

 

Now I've been searching for news from Apple TV+ itself. I feel like I'll really believe it when Apple actually announces it. Haven't found anything yet...except Apple just announced the release date for Pachinko. 

Yeah I so get that but let's hope it is true!.