"yes, I'm the healer. you don't need to know my real name."
wow I can't believe I'm finally reviewing a korean series. I mean, unlike most of my friends, it's hard for me to start watching a certain series and stick to it 'til the end because I get bored really, really easily. so yeah you can say that the number of korean series I've watched in the past year is less than the number of EXO or even BTS members, LOL.
but then about a month ago suddenly I had this urge to watch a series, anything good. thus I asked for my friends' recommendations and most of them answered healer. sooo here I am, finishing the whole episode in only 4 days, booyah!
spoiler alert!
the story begins with an introduction of who healer is and what he does. his real name is seo junghoo (ji changwook) but of course his identity is his biggest secret. basically he is a "night errand guy" or "night courier" with amazing skills of fighting, sneaking, stealing hearts, etc. with the help of his awesome hacker ahjumma partner, he takes jobs from clients, which mostly involve taking and delivering secret packages, and receive a large amount of payment after the job is done. it is said that he is the hottest best player in the industry so only those who have enough money can hire his service, or in other words those who can afford it.
junghoo has been working as healer for 8 years since he was 20. he lives by himself and his biggest dream is to buy an inhabitated island and live there after he has enough money to do so. actually his character remains mysterious for the first episodes but then we gradually aware of his past and learn why he seems has no fondness for other people.
he then meets chae youngshin (park minyoung), an online entertainment tabloid reporter, through a mission requested by his latest client, a renowned reporter named kim moonho (yoo jitae). short story, junghoo has to disguise himself as park bongsoo and work in the same office as youngshin before eventually falls in love with her. at first I was convinced that a love triangle would be formed between the 3 of them but turned out that I was wrong.
now let's enter the core of the story.
it all started years ago when a certain group of 5 persons (4 dudes and 1 girl) were still living happily as close friends. their dream was to become reporters, and doing sort of secret broadcasts had become their routine activity. unfortunately something terrible happened in 1992, causing the death of 2 of them which were seo joonseok, junghoo's father, and his friend, oh gilhan. reports said that seo joonseok killed oh gilhan before committing suicide himself. and the worst thing is later revealed that oh gilhan is actually youngshin's father and her real name is oh jian. she was declared dead in 1992 while in fact she was still alive and later adopted by chae chisoo, his foster father. she has no memories of her childhood as oh jian, though.
sensing there's something odd with the case, junghoo determines to find out the truth behind his father and youngshin's father's death with the help of youngshin and also moonho. moonho himself was like the closest person to the 5 friends in question since his brother, kim moonsik, was one of them.
basically that is the main storyline of this series. its genre, as you can tell, is action romance just like athena: goddess of war and city hunter. I don't watch city hunter so I can't really compare healer to it, but athena is one of my favorite and now I'm not even sure if I like it more than healer. plot-wise I think athena is better and a bit more complicated which in my opinion is a plus point for action genre, meanwhile healer is a bit too cheesy tbh. it's not necessarily a bad thing, I mean it's okay to combine romance and action and comedy altogether but somehow it ended up cheesy at some point.
don't get me wrong, I totally enjoyed watching healer. I remember how I nearly skipped lunch for 2 days just so I could have more time to watch the next episode. the plot itself is actually good, I like it. but if I'm being completely honest here, the main reason why I love healer is the healer himself aka ji changwook. dude's too hot to handle and basically watching every single episode consists of fangirling hard over him. if you watch the series then you'll understand what I mean.
oh and one important thing that still bothers me is the ending of this series.
the protagonists get their happy ending, of course, and I'm happy for them. but the ending is ... too abrupt? too instant? too bland? too easy?
they have spent more than 20 years to chase and bring the main villain (who is described as a very powerful and slick enemy that has caused so many deaths and misfortunes) down and it takes only a not-so-impressive action scene at the airport to end everything. I was literally "what? just like that? what the hell?" it feels like you're in a very exciting ride at an amusement park and you're totally expecting an awesome stunt near the end of the ride but then you only get a boring slide.
and not to mention they didn't completely wrap everything up. no mention about whatever happened to kim moonsik, or further relationship between youngshin and her real mother. it left me hanging and I don't like it somehow.
but overall I think healer is a very interesting and entertaining series. regardless of its boring ending, of course. I give it a 7.5 out of 10.
but then about a month ago suddenly I had this urge to watch a series, anything good. thus I asked for my friends' recommendations and most of them answered healer. sooo here I am, finishing the whole episode in only 4 days, booyah!
Click to viewspoiler alert!
the story begins with an introduction of who healer is and what he does. his real name is seo junghoo (ji changwook) but of course his identity is his biggest secret. basically he is a "night errand guy" or "night courier" with amazing skills of fighting, sneaking, stealing hearts, etc. with the help of his awesome hacker ahjumma partner, he takes jobs from clients, which mostly involve taking and delivering secret packages, and receive a large amount of payment after the job is done. it is said that he is the hottest best player in the industry so only those who have enough money can hire his service, or in other words those who can afford it.
junghoo has been working as healer for 8 years since he was 20. he lives by himself and his biggest dream is to buy an inhabitated island and live there after he has enough money to do so. actually his character remains mysterious for the first episodes but then we gradually aware of his past and learn why he seems has no fondness for other people.
he then meets chae youngshin (park minyoung), an online entertainment tabloid reporter, through a mission requested by his latest client, a renowned reporter named kim moonho (yoo jitae). short story, junghoo has to disguise himself as park bongsoo and work in the same office as youngshin before eventually falls in love with her. at first I was convinced that a love triangle would be formed between the 3 of them but turned out that I was wrong.
now let's enter the core of the story.
it all started years ago when a certain group of 5 persons (4 dudes and 1 girl) were still living happily as close friends. their dream was to become reporters, and doing sort of secret broadcasts had become their routine activity. unfortunately something terrible happened in 1992, causing the death of 2 of them which were seo joonseok, junghoo's father, and his friend, oh gilhan. reports said that seo joonseok killed oh gilhan before committing suicide himself. and the worst thing is later revealed that oh gilhan is actually youngshin's father and her real name is oh jian. she was declared dead in 1992 while in fact she was still alive and later adopted by chae chisoo, his foster father. she has no memories of her childhood as oh jian, though.
sensing there's something odd with the case, junghoo determines to find out the truth behind his father and youngshin's father's death with the help of youngshin and also moonho. moonho himself was like the closest person to the 5 friends in question since his brother, kim moonsik, was one of them.
basically that is the main storyline of this series. its genre, as you can tell, is action romance just like athena: goddess of war and city hunter. I don't watch city hunter so I can't really compare healer to it, but athena is one of my favorite and now I'm not even sure if I like it more than healer. plot-wise I think athena is better and a bit more complicated which in my opinion is a plus point for action genre, meanwhile healer is a bit too cheesy tbh. it's not necessarily a bad thing, I mean it's okay to combine romance and action and comedy altogether but somehow it ended up cheesy at some point.
don't get me wrong, I totally enjoyed watching healer. I remember how I nearly skipped lunch for 2 days just so I could have more time to watch the next episode. the plot itself is actually good, I like it. but if I'm being completely honest here, the main reason why I love healer is the healer himself aka ji changwook. dude's too hot to handle and basically watching every single episode consists of fangirling hard over him. if you watch the series then you'll understand what I mean.
oh and one important thing that still bothers me is the ending of this series.
the protagonists get their happy ending, of course, and I'm happy for them. but the ending is ... too abrupt? too instant? too bland? too easy?
they have spent more than 20 years to chase and bring the main villain (who is described as a very powerful and slick enemy that has caused so many deaths and misfortunes) down and it takes only a not-so-impressive action scene at the airport to end everything. I was literally "what? just like that? what the hell?" it feels like you're in a very exciting ride at an amusement park and you're totally expecting an awesome stunt near the end of the ride but then you only get a boring slide.
and not to mention they didn't completely wrap everything up. no mention about whatever happened to kim moonsik, or further relationship between youngshin and her real mother. it left me hanging and I don't like it somehow.
but overall I think healer is a very interesting and entertaining series. regardless of its boring ending, of course. I give it a 7.5 out of 10.