Jejoongwon / The Hospital DVD

Jejoongwon / The Hospital DVD

SBS's 2010 medical period drama revolves around the doctors of Jejoongwon, the first modern hospital of Joseon Korea. Appearing in his first drama in four years, Korean Wave star Park Yong Woo (Terms of Endearment) plays a doctor of humble origins who goes on to become Korea's first surgeon. Han Hye Jin (Jumong) and Yeon Jung Hoon (East of Eden) join him among Korea's pioneering generation of Western doctors.

Scripted by the screenwriter of The Great White Tower, Jejoongwon is a fascinating look at the development of Western medicine in turn of the century Korea, and the doctors whose personal and professional challenges are mirrored by the historical and social turbulence of the times. Hwang Jung (Park Yong Woo) grew up in a poor family under the expectation that he would become a butcher like his father. But the death of his mother, who was unable to get treatment because of her low social status, drives him to walk a different path and pursue Western medicine. Rising above the challenges, he enters Jejoongwon where his colleagues include Do Yang (Yeon Jung Hoon), who left his noble status behind to join the hospital, and Seok Ran (Han Hye Jin), a hospital interpreter who later becomes Korea's first female doctor in Western medicine.