After her award-winning performance in ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo,’ Park Eun-bin has able to showcase her commitment to character and her vast range as an actress. In the new Disney+ series ‘Hyper Knife,’ she goes head-to-head with another incredible Korean talent, the film actor Sul Kyung-gu of movies like ‘Memoirs of a Murderer,’ the wildly fun ‘Kill Boksoon,’ and ‘The Moon’ with Exo member D.O. Park and Sul face off as former mentor and former student, two genius neurosurgeons whose past has forced them to a bloody path as they reconnect again at the start of the series.
Seeing the first two episodes, ‘Hype Knife’ is a dark tale where there are no heroes; or at least at the start. Park Eun-bin’s Jeong Seok and Sul Kyung-gu’s Choi Deok-Hee are people whose genius pushes them to a level of sociopathy. While the older Deok-Hee seems more capable of acting like an empathic human being among others, the younger Jeong Seok is impatient, impetuous, and self-absorbed. Both think they are better than everyone, but Jeong Seok is not afraid to verbalize it.
At the start of the series, Jeong Seok has already fallen from grace, removed from an operating room while finishing her surgery by Choi Deok-Hee, the two have a spat and her medical license is removed. The show opens with her doing an illegal, underground brain surgery on a gangster boss at an abandoned temple in the mountains. Deok-Hee, simultaneously, is conducting his own operation at a hospital but something’s off. Jeong Seok is at home in this rough environment. The make-shift operating room doesn’t disturb her at all. We’ve come to realise she loves the job; she loves being a surgeon. She’d do anything to continue to operate. The police are after her as a video of an extremely difficult procedure comes to light and as they bring the video to Choi Deok-Hee for confirmation, he knows the only person who could do it is Jeong Seok. He now tries to find her for his own purposes.
To say their meeting is explosive is an understatement. He needs something from her, but she wants him to suffer for what he did to her and with that, the game begins.
Park Eun-bin and Sul Kyung-gu are playing shades and textures of what appears to be the same character. One is a younger version, full of life, and a massive ego that refuses to bow down to anyone else’s authority. The other is just as arrogant but is tempered by age and wisdom and what appears to be a need to maintain a certain respectability. But they are both ruthless and brilliant and seeing them come head-to-head is going to be quite exiting.
It’s extremely exciting for me to see Park Eun-bin throw herself at a character like Jeong Seok. The role is feisty and completely amoral. She is unburdened by any sense of authority or social mores thus she’s a complete wildcard. What makes this character exciting for Park Eun-bin to play is how it contrasts so much with her small, petite frame and youthful beauty. But her eyes are dead except when she is hatching a plan or when she’s about to operate. Just by looking at her you think she can’t hurt a fly and then she does, and even more so. It’s so unexpected that if the show keeps utilizing this disconnect, it can make for some really great moments for the show.
Creating a moral center for the show is Jeong Seok’s assistant, Seo Young-joo (Yoon Chang Young). Yoon Chang Young is a great counterpoint for Jeong Seok and their rapport and banter is pretty interesting. I can’t wait to discover how she and he are connected and how his character will either bring her back from the dark side or if he will be sucked into her darkness. If the show manages to stay dark and gritty and pulls no punches, this is a show that can be as engaging as ‘Gangnam B-Side.’ With the talent involved, this has all the potential to be a fun and exciting show to invest in.
My Rating:
Don’t miss out on this gripping new thriller! Watch Hyper Knife now on Disney+ and witness Park Eun-bin and Sul Kyung-gu’s electrifying face-off.
