[비즈한국] The long Lunar New Year holiday is here, a time to be with family after a long while. While they are our cherished and beloved family, as adults who no longer live together, it can sometimes be difficult to find conversation topics or activities everyone can enjoy. Given the current political climate, there’s even a risk that if someone brings up a sensitive political issue, voices could be raised or a cold, unpleasant silence might follow. If you are looking for content that the whole family can comfortably enjoy together, why not try the Netflix original 'Severe Trauma Center,' released on January 24th? Though it is a medical drama, it leans closer to a fantasy action piece, making it a fun and lighthearted watch that won't offend anyone.
'Severe Trauma Center' depicts the journey of surgeon Baek Kang-hyuk (Ju Ji-hoon), known as the 'Hand of God' for his experience on the battlefield, as he joins the severe trauma team at Hankook University Hospital and transforms it into the best center of its kind. Based on the web novel 'Severe Trauma Center: Golden Hour' by former doctor turned author 'Hansania,' the story is already well-known through its webtoon adaptation of the same name. Like the 2012 MBC drama 'Golden Time,' it is set against the backdrop of the realities of South Korea's severe trauma medicine, but it offers a completely different tone and a unique kind of fun. Above all, it is relentless. You can get a sense of the drama's tone from the very first scene: watch Baek Kang-hyuk ride a motorcycle across a foreign battlefield where shells are falling, risking his life to reach a hospital in need of antibiotics. He’s a doctor, but he puts special agents in action movies to shame.
Baek Kang-hyuk is brought to the Hankook University Hospital severe trauma team by Minister of Health and Welfare Kang Myung-hee (Kim Sun-young). There, he forms a 'Severe Trauma Dream Team' with fellow proctology fellow Yang Jae-won (Choo Young-woo), senior nurse of 5 years Cheon Jang-mi (Ha Young), and anesthesiology resident Park Kyung-won (Jung Jae-kwang). Watching Baek Kang-hyuk race fearlessly to save patients—leaping from a medical helicopter in bad weather or drilling into a patient's skull inside a shaking ambulance—is incredibly refreshing.
That this drama takes on the elements of a 'medical action' series is entirely thanks to the character of Baek Kang-hyuk. Furthermore, he isn't just skilled; he speaks his mind bluntly to everyone, from the Minister who appointed him to the hospital director or the chief of staff. This gives viewers, exhausted by reality, a sense of catharsis. Yet, he isn't a doctor who stubbornly pursues ideals and principles to an annoying degree. As a trauma specialist who must make quick decisions in urgent situations, he sometimes cleverly manipulates powerful figures and the media or responds to them in a tailored way. He is simply overflowing with magnetic traits.
The relationships between the characters are also interesting. Beyond the mentor-mentee chemistry of Baek Kang-hyuk and Yang Jae-won, the dynamic between Baek and Cheon Jang-mi—who bicker but respect each other—is delightful, and the subtle rivalry between Yang Jae-won and Park Kyung-won over earning Baek's approval is amusing. Most of all, the Tom-and-Jerry-like bromance(?) between Baek Kang-hyuk and the proctology department head Han Yu-rim (Yoon Kyung-ho), who starts as a villain and eventually gets entangled due to certain events, stands out. 'Severe Trauma Center' has a high comedy hit rate, and a large part of that comes from the Baek-Han duo. Additionally, supporting actors like Minister Kang Myung-hee, hospital director Choi Jo-eun (Kim Eui-sung), and chief of staff Hong Jae-hoon (Kim Won-hae) play their roles effectively.
The passionate performances of the actors who have stepped into perfectly tailored roles also shine. It is a successful combination of Ju Ji-hoon, who worked like an ox in 2024 with three dramas—'Blood Free,' 'Love Your Enemy,' and 'Light Shop'—and Choo Young-woo, who ascended as a romantic lead for this era with 'The Tale of Lady Ok.' Ha Young, who plays the hot-blooded nurse Cheon Jang-mi, drew attention as the nun with a tattoo in 'Extraordinary Attorney Woo' and has now perfectly pulled off a charming role. And what can be said about Yoon Kyung-ho as Han Yu-rim? Seeing him go from a villain to someone helplessly drawn to Baek Kang-hyuk is incredibly cute.
While it is a medical action drama that provides cartoonish thrills, it also features numerous scenes that point out the harsh realities of the Korean medical and severe trauma sectors. Issues like budget shortages, staff shortages, and the reality that the more lives a trauma center saves, the more financial deficit it incurs, are depicted quite poignantly. Scenes where hospital directors and professors discuss the hospital's most profitable departments—ranking the funeral home first and parking lot second—while criticizing the deficit-prone trauma team, or scenes where the medical staff hopes trauma patients won't come to the hospital because every helicopter flight costs so much, invite deep reflection as they overlap with reality. It is, in effect, a refreshing denunciation of the tragic reality of "emergency room hopping" where patients who could be saved end up dying.
'Severe Trauma Center' is an 8-episode series, with each episode running around 50 minutes, so you can easily finish it over the holiday by setting aside about 7 hours. There’s no useless romance to be found, so it charges forward relentlessly. May your whole family enjoy watching it with peace of mind.
Who is the writer Jung Soo-jin?
She has worked at various magazines, reporting and writing about film, travel, and popular culture. While she doesn't want to fall behind on trends, she has become an "old soul" who predicts only obvious clichés in the next scene while watching the latest dramas. She is trying to regain her lost sense by drifting through the vast OTT world, and her current wish is for a unified OTT subscription plan.