Park Eun-Bin Holds Power Over Life And Death In ‘Hyper Knife'

Forbes

20-03-2025

Yoon Chan-young and Park Eun-bin star in 'Hyper Knife.'
Gifted surgeon Jeong Se-ok is talented enough to perform a life-saving brain dissection. However, Se-ok, played by Park Eun-bin in the new Disney k-drama Hyper Knife, is also ruthless enough to randomly end a life.
Se-ok, who lost her medical license a while ago, performs illegal brain surgery in remote places, with the help of fellow doctor Han Hyun-oh, played by Park Eun-bin (Moving, Alchemy of Souls ), and helper Seo Young-joo, played by Yoon Chang-young (All of Us Are Dead, Hope or Dope).
Se-ok saves those she loves—or those who pay her well—but she's not afraid to kill those who threaten her or get in her way. After abandoning the Hippocratic Oath, she became so skilled at operating in the shadows that the police can't find any evidence of her illegal surgeries. She has a grudge against her former boss, neurosurgeon Choi Deok-hee, played by Sol Kyun-gu (A Normal Family, Phantom, Kill Boksoon), but he knows she's the only surgeon competent enough to help him with his own medical problem.
Medical k-dramas are rarely just about medicine. Sometimes there's a mystery to solve, sometimes there's romance to resolve and this year Trauma Code even incorporated heroic action scenes. Hyper Knife takes the medical k-drama in another direction. It's a noir thriller about a doctor who is also a killer. Does she care about the people she saves or is she just interested in the challenge provided by their surgeries? It's hard to tell.
Park Eun-bin plays a brilliant brain surgeon with some darker impulses.
Viewers who have seen Park Eun-bin play endearing characters in dramas such as Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Castaway or The King's Affection, will likely find her transformation impressive. Whatever character she's played in the past, her eyes sparkled and she conveyed a bright optimism. Her character's face in Hyper Knife is blank and dispassionate. Her eyes seem empty. She has no remorse when it comes to killing those she deems dangerous.
'Why do you keep trying to kill people,' a worried Young-joo asks Se-oh.
'Why cant I,' she answers. Why not? She dispenses her own brand of justice.
Director Kim Hyung-jun, who previously directed the political comedy My Fellow Citizens, opens the drama with an engagingly moody scene set in an empty Buddhist temple. The first episodes feature plenty of interesting and unsettling cinematic visuals. Blood pulses and gushes, staining surgeons' gowns. Cloyingly-sweet cherries slide off and discolor a slice of cheesecake. Cigarette embers burn in the dark and popsicles pointlessly drip red sticky liquid. Evidence is burned in a raging fire. A brain is neatly dissected. A throat is expertly slit.
Hyper Knife is a dark story driven by Park's chilling command of her character. There are many scenes in which viewers might want to look away, but never when Park's face is on the screen.
Hyper Knife airs on Disney+ internationally and on Hulu in the U.S.