Dr. Brain Episode 1 Review: South Korea Again Demonstrates Its Narrative Genius On Apple TV + With a Mind-Blowing Sci-Fi Thriller

Director: Kim Jee Woon

Starring: Yoo-Young Lee, Hee-soon Park, Moon Seong-Geun

Streaming Platform: Apple Tv+

Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and half star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Long before Parasites and Squid Game conquered the West with their golden statuettes and stratospheric audiences, the South Korean audiovisual industry had already proven on numerous occasions to be at the forefront of the medium; displaying narratives as unique, brilliant and surprising as the personalities, styles and sensibilities of authors that are difficult to imitate.

If I had to look back and choose the feature film that caught me with no escape in the South Korean film networks , that would be ‘I found the devil’ ; a huge thriller signed by a Kim Jee-woon whom I have not lost track of, and who has exhibited his talent in such disparate titles as ‘ A bittersweet life ‘ , ‘ The good, the bad and the rare ‘ or the arrogance’ The empire of shadows’. Three years after ‘Illang: The Wolf Squad’ Kim has made the leap to the small screen with ‘Dr. Brain‘ ; an adaptation of Hongjacga’s eponymous webtoon that condenses into its six millimeter chapters one of the freest, most mind-blowing and addictive television productions of the year . An impeccable technical and artistic display that, to no one’s surprise, once again shows the gallery the power of the Asian country.

Dr. Brain Review: Story

The first sequences of Dr. Brain take us to the 90s, to introduce us to what will be the protagonist of the series: little Sewon is a curious, intelligent child, but unable to socially relate to his peers. We see proof of this in a small school accident, we will have confirmation to follow as the child grows and continues to develop his intellectual abilities at the expense of social ones, making his management by the mother problematic to say the least and leading to drama.

As an adult, Dr. Sewon Koh is an accomplished and brilliant neuroscientist, who has channeled his curiosity and intelligence into revolutionary research on the brain and the possibility of exploiting the electrical impulses at the base of its functioning to access memories but also cure some specific pathologies. His research also goes in the direction of what he calls brain synchronizations, a frontier that he will find himself using when tragedy returns to mark his life, in a desperate attempt to understand what happened to his family.

Review and Analysis

‘Dr. Brain ‘is a new example of how prolific the world of the webtoon is – South Korean digital comics presented in a single vertical format image and intended to be consumed on mobile devices – when serving as source material for television and K series. -the most varied dramas and examples like ‘Itaewon Class’, ‘What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim?’, or exercises of a purer genre like ‘Sweet Home’ or ‘Rugal’ confirm this.

In the present case, we find a crazy cocktail of genres in which the thriller, science fiction, police, terror and melodrama coexist with an indisputable success in different proportions under a tremendously balanced tone that makes the self-awareness your best weapon promoting and making effective a suspension of disbelief more necessary than ever.

Although the premise and starting point of ‘Dr. Brain‘ does not seem as original as they should – including devices that allow the connection between brains of different individuals -, the series squeezes every last drop of South Korean genius to twist plots and concepts. In this way, a festival of impossible twists and explosive cliffhangers is served on a tray the kind that invite you to end each episode by screaming at the screen.

Although it is strictly necessary to make certain concessions and let yourself be carried away to fully enjoy an exercise in impeccable suspense, but not as cohesive as it should – a lesser evil – the production succeeds in its mission of leaving you nailed in the seat playing with the information and allowing you to believe that you are one step ahead to break the schemes completely over and over again in a narrative crescendo that culminates in a largely satisfying end of the party loaded with wild action and great emotion.

Wrapping this concentrated gift in six tight hours we find the realization of a comfortable and solvent Kim Jee-woon both in the most relaxed passages and in the most experimental sections and set pieces and the interpretations of a fantastic cast in which Lee Sun stands out. -kyun – essential in films like ‘Parasites’ or the brutal ‘A Hard Day’ – and a Seo Ji-hye who makes it clear once again how good the roles of a cold and implacable woman suit her after falling in love with half the world with her Seo Dan in ‘Crash Landing on You’.

The Final Words

In closing the Dr. Brain review, we can only reiterate the satisfaction with the way Apple is developing content for its streaming platform and the impact that the KIM Jee-woon series has both from its first bars. The effectiveness with which the author stages the most tense and evocative sequences is striking, even in a story that develops its protagonist and lets himself go to a more properly investigative structure. Dr. Brain is a creepy detective story that strikes the viewer with its visual care and traps it in its narrative mechanisms.

What Worked

• The evocative force of the images staged by KIM Jee-woon.
• The ability to properly exploit both the potential of the protagonist and those of the fruit of his scientific work.
• The balance between tension and curiosity for the protagonist’s investigation of the drama of his past.

What Didn’t Worked

• The timing and rhythm of the story are not hectic and could discourage the audience less accustomed to this type of story, in which the atmosphere and the care of the staging are preponderant.