My Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars
Park Eun-bin can do anything. She’s a versatile actor with a very broad range. She handles the characters she plays with care, as she proved when she famously played autistic lawyer Woo Young-woo in “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”.
As an aside, I’m still hoping we get a second season. I need more of that Park Eun-bin/Kang Te-oh chemistry.
In “Hyper Knife” she does a complete 180 degree turn in the role of Jung Se-ok, a brilliant, cocky neurosurgeon. The previews portray her as someone who performs “unnecessary surgeries”. That’s not entirely accurate. After being removed and blacklisted from the medical community by her mentor, Choi Deok-hee (played brilliantly by Sul Kyung-gu), she becomes a sort of mercenary brain surgeon, performing illegal surgeries for people whom legitimate doctors have given up on. The more salient point, though, is that she’s a serial killer. She effortlessly and without remorse murders those who threaten her livelihood or that she sees as a problem.
The story kicks into gear when Deok-hee shows up unexpectedly and asks her to perform surgery on him. He’s developed a rare form of brain tumor that is fatal unless removed, and he believes she is the only person who can do it successfully. Most of the series focuses on Se-ok’s refusal to do the surgery, and Deok-hee’s efforts to force her into it, as well as Se-ok trying to get him to admit he’s a killer, just like she is. My review will remain spoiler-free, but I’ll say that the back and forth between these two, whether they’re on screen together or not, is very suspenseful and entertaining.
At 8 episodes there’s not an ounce of fat on this script. It moves quickly and with intention, slowly peeling back the layers of Deok-hee and his relationship with Se-ok. The ending leaves a bit of mystery (who was that masked man?) and keeps the door open for a second season, but personally I’m satisfied with how they wrapped things up. I’m not the type of person that needs every question answered. “Hyper Knife” is a complete story as is.
“Hyper Knife” gets my highest praise. It is equal to, yet completely opposite Park Eun-bin’s performance in “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”.
