Does a compassionate doctor comfort you? A doctor without emotions would argue otherwise. While others' judgments are clouded around him, Lee Young-O (Jang Hyuk) is able to work consciously without worry, panic or fear to save patients' lives—and when you're a brain surgeon, that matters. Despite this significant advantage in his field, Lee Young-O must keep his inner reality a secret, or else not only will he be fired, but he will probably lose his practicing license, being seen as an immoral, bad doctor when he's worked his whole life to prove he is otherwise.
Artistry and Craft
I started to watch this drama to give the actor Jang Hyuk of the K-drama My Country another shot after my previous less-than-optimal experience with his drama, Money Flower. I found that Jang Hyuk's acting was great again this time, and combined with a more compelling storyline, it was a much more enjoyable and, even at times, a more moving K-drama. That being said, there are some things that could have been improved upon.
This drama was about average in terms of its filming, nothing out of the ordinary for a drama shot in 2016, with flat and wide-angle shots mixed in with sharp scene changes with flowy dramatic music I found choppy and distracting in the beginning at times. A Beautiful Mind was also really slow to start off with; I only hung on because I had heard some really great things about it. Thankfully, the pacing picked up and made the drama overall an enjoyable experience. Like I mentioned in my Money Flower review, I may just not be into melodramas, as usually they tend to be slower, only gaining momentum in the K-dramas last two-thirds.
Earlier in the drama, some of the characters were very frustrating, specifically the female lead and the male lead, and the way that they made errors and mistakes. But as I continued watching, I realized this was most definitely on purpose in order to show what personal growth and emotional growth look like, and how it usually comes through the struggle of failure. ★★★.5
Themes and Messages
A Beautiful Mind explores the messiness of relationships: the way we hurt and hurt others, the way we forget, and the way we let go of relationships.
Virtue is explored, and what it means to be virtuous, this is done by questioning critically if emotions are inherently virtuous. I found this to be really interesting, as in oftentimes emotions are seen to be inherently good things (especially in K-dramas). This line of questioning results in what makes someone virtuous, claiming that it is the actions of a person rather than what they feel that matters. I tend to partially agree and disagree with this philosophy, as I think both matter as well as intentions, but it was interesting to see a K-drama that was ever so slightly critical of its own genre.
Beautiful Mind, although a melodrama, focuses on healing and personal growth— an element that is not seen a lot in melodramas, but that I absolutely adored. Even some of the villains are reframed as antagonists, as messy humans who make mistakes, and if willing to admit mistakes, can grow from them, which I also really appreciated. Human pain is also explored, and how it can drive brokenness, with brokenness almost being seen as a disease that infects and ends relationships. This pain is also shown to be effective for self-growth, using regret as a tool to learn and grow.
The show also explores the cost of deception and the cost of running from justice, and how if we run from justice, it keeps us in our brokenness, unable to grow out of it because of the focus of covering it up. It also explores the cost of doing wrong, deceiving yourself, and making excuses; it shows how your "perfect world" can collapse and that the past doesn't disappear. ★★★★.5
Final Thoughts
Beautiful Mind is extremely compassionate for a melodrama, showing how it understands the human struggle between right and wrong, selflessness and selfishness. Overall, I really liked this K-drama for its themes and messages, and would recommend it to anyone wanting an interesting and unique melodrama to watch who has the patience and time for a slower start. I rate this K-drama a 4 out of 5 stars.
Content Discretion:
Medical content and graphic medical content, death and grief, domestic trauma and child abuse, corruption, emotional manipulation and substance abuse.
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