Doctor K (1999) User Reviews

Taken for what it is this is actually a good film thanks to a good cast who make their characters real

[dbborroughs · 7/10 · 14 April 2009]

Korean medical tale with supernatural overtones.

Young doctor who keeps mostly to himself, and has seemingly unnatural abilities, begins to thaw when he meets a young girl with a brain tumor.

Better than you think its going to be drama has a great cast a seemingly realistic sense of medical procedure going for it. Of course there are certain gimmes in the tale (ie. the supernatural stuff) but at the same time the characters are such that you're willing to go anywhere this tale takes you. You like the people which in a film like this is all you really need. I picked this up as a vcd for a dollar, and I liked it good enough that if I can find a cheap DVD copy I'd pick it up.

Worth a look.

Interesting, but flawed film

[hofnarr · 8/10 · 27 March 2000]

If you're at all familiar with Lars von Trier's THE KINGDOM, that will give you an idea of what this film is like. If not, think of a mix of ER with THE X FILES, and you'll have an idea. I enjoyed the film, but it never seemed to decide what it really wanted to be - it was nominated for an international fantasy film award, and that aspect is definitely there.

Just a few things that struck me as peculiar:

1. The film began with a flashback by one of the main characters, although at the end there seemed no real reason to set it up this way - it was established early in the film that Min (Dr. K) and a female medical student were good friends.

2. Min (a 4th year medical student) seemed to be doing a lot of neurosurgery for a medical student - strange that all the bad cases came in when none of the regular doctors were around / available. But none of the patients he treated (3 or 4 acknowledged in the film) died - in fact, they all recovered even though the chief neurosurgeon said he wouldn't have touched them. Of course, for the plot/story line this had to be worked out but there wasn't much of an explanation for how Min was able to do this repeatedly (he got called on the carpet once).

3. The soundtrack - sometimes it served its purpose in the background. Other times melodious chiming tunes which drew incredible attention to themselves wafted through the theatre. Maybe there's a difference in Korean sensitivity in music, but I found it a little cloying.

But it was fun - kept my interest - the opening credit sequence and the medical techniques used in the film seemed very professional. If you're into medical drama and/or alternative medicine and/or paranormal events, you might want to give this a look.