Amid the ongoing chaos in the medical community due to the residents‘ strike, Netflix’s new drama ‘Trauma Center’ will boldly debut on TV on the 24th. Despite the fact that other medical dramas have taken special measures such as postponing broadcasts due to the chaos, Netflix has chosen ‘Trauma Center’ as its first drama of the new year, attracting attention both inside and outside the broadcasting industry.

‘Trauma Center’, which stars Joo Ji-hoon, Choo Young-woo, Ha Young, Yoon Kyung-ho, and Jung Jae-kwang, tells the story of Baek Kang-hyeok (Joo Ji-hoon), a genius surgeon who has been on the battlefield, who is assigned to resuscitate the ineffective trauma team. Joo Ji-hoon leads the drama by playing Baek Kang-hyeok, who is obsessed with saving patients‘ lives, and Choo Young-woo and Ha-young play the roles of Baek Kang-hyeok’s ‘number 1 disciple’ Yang Jae-won and Jang Cheon-mi, a 5th-year nurse on the severe trauma team, respectively, and stay by Joo Ji-hoon‘s side.

The drama is based on the web novel ‘Severe Trauma Center: Golden Hour’ by Han San-i (Lee Nak-jun), an actual ENT specialist. The story is about the doctors’ struggle to save patients at the intensive care unit, but in order to preserve the original work‘s fantasy elements and spectacular scenes, the production team greatly increased the scale, including the introduction of a helicopter.

Director Lee Do-yoon, who directed the drama, acknowledged the various reactions to the medical community’s chaos, but drew the line, saying, “If you watch the drama, you‘ll know (the other parts).” The director said, “If ’Trauma Center‘ were a typical medical drama, I might have been cautious, but we’re a ‘medical action drama’ because it‘s full of cartoonish characters and a story that’s so different from reality,” and emphasized, “I hope people view it as a fantasy hero drama rather than trying to apply it to reality.”

Joo Ji-hoon also nodded in agreement with the opinion that his character Baek Kang-hyeok reminds him of Lee Guk-jong, the director of the Armed Forces Daejeon Hospital who led the Ajou University Regional Trauma Center, saying, “In fact, in Korea, when the words ‘Trauma Center’ are mentioned, the first person that comes to mind is Professor Lee Guk-jong, right?” However, he explained, “The drama is not a work that realistically deals with the lives of doctors like a documentary,” and “It was helpful to act with the professor‘s dedicated heart to saving people.”

Director Lee and Joo Ji-hoon also expressed confidence that “The ’Severe Trauma Center‘, which is like a prescription that contains laughter and tears, action and emotion, and even comedy, will be able to relieve your stuffy feelings.”


Reporter Yoo Ji-hye yjh0304@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.