This South Korean drama has conquered the world with its sincerity and love. It will immerse you into a world full of mysteries of the past, intrigues of the present, and a foggy future.
General Information
The drama “Kill Me, Heal Me” (kor. 킬미힐미) was presented on January 7, 2015, on the Christmas Eve on the Korean channel MBC. The duration of each episode is about 60 minutes.
Screenwriter – Jin Soo-wan is known for the following films: “Chicago Typewriter”, “The Moon Embracing The Sun”, “School” (1999), “Snow Flower”, “My 19-Year-Old Sister in Law”, and “Scandal in Old Seoul”, “Wonderful Life”.
“Kill Me, Heal Me” was directed by Kim Jin-man and Kim Dae-jin (“Hotel King”, “Less than Evil”, “The Rebel”, etc.).
The drama is multifaceted, as are its characters. That’s why it combines several genres – comedy, romance, drama, and psychology. Even the K-drama’s title has a psychological connotation: Instead of trying to kill yourself when you have no strength to fight, ask to be healed. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
The plot
The drama is about a life story of a young psychiatrist, Oh Ri-jin, and her unusual patient Cha Do-hyun, who suffers from dissociative identity disorder (ed. The phenomenon of multiple personalities). He started suffering from this disease because of a child injury after the fire. However, the visible signs of Do-hyun’s illness appeared at 17. He hides the fact of his illness from his family and surrounding people. That’s why he can only find support by communicating with his secretary Ahn, and a psychiatrist.
Characters
Cha Do-hyun
Cha Do-hyun also known as Cha Joon-young, is an illegitimate son and the only legal heir to a conglomerate in South Korea. He lost his grandfather and stepmother due to the accident, but it allowed his father to take the place of the company’s president.
On the day of celebrating his father’s new position, a large fire broke out in the Chas’ house. As a result, Do-hyun lost his memory, and his father fell into a coma. The company came under Do-hyun’s grandmother’s control.
Do-hyun doesn’t have a close bond with his family, so he is determined to hide the diagnosis. His cousin and uncle are eager to give Do-hyun the sack, and his girlfriend found a more promising boyfriend for the marriage. His grandmother holds a grudge against her grandson over a case with her father, and she greatly desires to have everything under control.
Oh Ri-jin
She is a novice psychiatrist at a local psychiatric hospital. At first glance, Ri-jin is a petite and fragile woman, but her loud voice and big heart show her energy.
Oh Ri-jin becomes Cha Do-hyun’s psychiatrist. After a while, she gets to know all man’s personalities, becoming attached to each one.
Oh Ri-on
He’s Oh Ri-jin’s older twin brother. He seems to be an incapable son of the Oh family, but it turns out that he is a famous Omega writer.
In one of the episodes, he confesses Do-hyun saying that if their fate had been different, he would have been Oh Ri-jin’s boyfriend, and Do-hyun would have been her brother.
Cha Ki-joon
He is Cha Do-hyun’s main competitor to inherit the family’s company. President of the subsidiary Seungjin Group ID Entertainment.
Cha Ki-joon is a confident and competent leader who always gets what he wants. Suspecting Cha Do-hyun’s misconduct, he launched an investigation and found out about his rival’s dissociative identity disorder.
Han Chae-yeon
Han Chae-yeon is Do-hyun’s childhood friend and his first love. She became Ki-joon’s official bride, which meant enormous support in the upcoming election of the company’s chairman.
Secretary Ahn
He is Cha Do Hyun’s assistant who has been working with the protagonist for many years. He also links Do-hyun with the company and his family.
Cha Do-hyun’s personalities
Shin Se-gi (28 y.o)
He is Cha Do-hyun’s peer, and he doesn’t like someone saying his name because he knows the secret of lost memories. He is brutal and cruel, so this personality shows up when Do-hyun is abused or angry. The critical thing to mention is that Se-gi never shows cruelty to women or children. In one of the episodes, Cha Do-hyun asked Secretary Ahn to hit him with all his might in order to call Shin Se-gi in.
Shin Se-gi absorbed all the pain the main character has; that’s why he is the most robust personality.
Perry Park (40 y.o)
Perry loves fishing, alcohol, and explosives. Despite his foreign name, he doesn’t speak any foreign languages. However, he speaks the Jeolla dialect (used in the provinces of Jeollanam-do, Jeollabuk-do in South Korea, and the city of Gwangju).
This person represents the father of the protagonist. When Mr. Cha left the house and changed his name, he began to live freely with his new beloved and their son. He dreams of having a boat, “Ferry Park” and traveling by it.
Ahn Yo-seob (17 y.o)
He is a teenager who suffers from suicidal tendencies. Yo-seob is an introvert, and he is the complete opposite of his twin sister – Ahn Yo-na. He is smart, interested in painting, and loves classical music.
Ahn Yo-na (17 y.o)
Yo-na is a sociable and open-minded girl who falls in love quickly. Sometimes she uses dirty words. Ahn Yo-na and Ri-jin often fight and argue, but at the same time, deeply in soul, they are like sisters.
This personality appears when Cha Do-hyun is in a state of stress and wants to run away.
Na-na (7 y.o)
For a long time, everyone thought that the personality’s name was Nana. However, it became evident that it was a teddy bear’s name.
This personality has recently appeared, so it isn’t shown up frequently. According to Shin Se-gi, Na-na appeared when Do-hyun was 7. From then on, she fell into a long sleep until she met Oh Ri-jin. Na-na represents a girl in the basement with whom the main character was playing as a child.
Mr. X
Mr. X is the last personality of Cha Do Hyun. The man wears a mantle and a cylinder and holds a cane in his hands. According to Do-hyun, he looks like a magician. Mr. X embodies Na-na’s biological father, who died from an illness long ago.
About the K-drama
The leading roles were offered to Lee Seung-gi and Lim Ji-yeon, but they declined the offer due to workloads in other projects. At that time, Lee Seung-gi was busy promoting the film “Love Forecast”, and Lim Ji-yeon was starring in “Treacherous Retainer”.
Now, recollecting all the moments from the K-drama, it’s hard to imagine anyone else in place of Ji Sung and Hwang Jung-eum. It seems that no one would be able to play seven characters with entirely different personalities and a loud psychiatrist with a gentle heart.
In 2017, the Chinese TV channel Tencent attempted and released a remake called “Seven versions of me” (Chinese: 柒个我).
In 2015, Ji Sung and Park Seo-joon won Best Couple (Ahn Yo-na and Oh Ri-on) at the MBC Drama Awards.
The actress Hwang Jung-eum (Oh Ri-jin) and Ji Sung (Cha Do-hyun) have another common project – “Secret”. She also starred with Choi Won-young (Secretary Ahn) in “Mystic Pop-up Bar”, and with Park Seo-joon (Oh Ri-on) in “She Was Pretty”.
In conclusion
The K-drama “Kill Me, Heal Me” is an excellent example of a South Korean TV series you can proudly recommend to people unfamiliar with Korean culture. After all, many fans admitted that their path into the world of Asian cinematography started with this K-drama.
Author Marina Shults, English translation by Anastasiia Malakhova
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