The Legendary Doctor - Hur Jun (Part I) (To Be Continued) (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region 3

Along with writer Shin Bong Seung, Lee was responsible for changing the genre in the early eighties, when the landmark 500 Years of Joseon moved away from chronicles and melodramas and started focusing on real history. This time Lee's approach was the opposite. He reckoned the reason why sageuk were so unpopular simply had to do with the fact younger viewers had no reason to watch them. Would a high school student be interested in middle-aged men with wigs and mustaches long enough to ski on? Lee took the emphasis off history, and started focusing on the people. The protagonist of his story wasn't a king, a formidable warrior, or a politician. He was a simple man who rose to stardom thanks to determination and talent. Lee's answer to success was success itself - the success story of Hur Jun.

Hur Jun was born in Yangcheon on 1546, the first year of King Myeongjong's reign. Son of local magistrate Hur Ron and his concubine Lady Kim, Jun shared the fate of many other "seoja", illegitimate sons of nobles and their concubines enjoying the same kind of treatment as commoners. That didn't only mean the scorn of nobles and magistrates, but also the near impossibility of escaping from such a situation, as Joseon commoners and seoja couldn't take the all-important state exam. Hur Jun and his mother moved to Sangcheon, where he started learning medical treatment under Yoo Eui Tae who would become his mentor. From the beginning Hur showed an innate talent for medicine, along with the determination of someone who had no crossroads ahead, as this was the only way he could escape his situation.

The first sign that Hur would become a legend was when, at the age of 24, he cured minister Yoo Hee Chun and his wife, who was facing sure death in the words of many esteemed doctors. Stories of his tremendous talent, surpassing that of his mentor and many prestigious doctors, started following Hur Jun like a shadow, eventually leading to his entering the palace as a court physician. Perhaps Hur's greatest achievement is the compilation of the Dongeuibogam, the quintessential book in Korean traditional medicine. Back then Joseon was mostly basing their treatment methods on Ming Dynasty theory, but Hur's work, which took sixteen long years in the midst of the Seven Years War, put the focus back on herbs easily accessible to anyone in the peninsula, and simplified everything by writing in hangeul (the Korean alphabet), instead of hanja (Chinese characters) which gave nobles the monopoly over knowledge for hundreds of years.

Because Hur Jun needed to be much more than a simple story about a common man becoming the most legendary physician in Korean history, Lee needed someone who could realistically portray all the details and society built around Hur Jun's world. His choice was young writer Choi Wan Gyu, who a few years earlier admirably represented the world of doctors in the masterpiece General Hospital. Choi did so well with doctors in the nineties, he seemed the perfect choice to write a sageuk about a doctor from the 16th century. Hur Jun wasn't a completely new story, as it was subject of other dramas in the seventies and early nineties. The key here was that all these dramas came from the same pen, Lee Eun Seung, who wrote the novel Dongeuibogam from which the 1990 drama of the same title was produced, and also the basic text of this new version of Hur Jun.

The influence of Lee's masterful novel is clear. The level of detail and the set of values remind of contemporary medical dramas, yet there's that historical foundation always looming subtly in the background, never too intrusive nor superficial. This, of course, was the reason Hur Jun was so successful. It looked and smelled like a sageuk, but there was none of that huge weight and stoic atmosphere of traditional shows of the genre. You didn't necessarily need a strong background knowledge to enjoy the series, as its plot development wasn't much different from coming-of-age dramas, with the hero slowly coming to terms with his talent and all the responsibilities coming with it. Of course one of the reasons for the show's success is the tight script and refreshing directorial style, but you couldn't possibly leave out the biggest reason - Chun Kwang Ryul, playing Hur Jun.

Chun had been one of the industry's most underrated actors up to then, with no particular big hits in his palmares save for General Hospital, although his acting had always been top notch. It was a little bit of risk casting him in the leading role, but it paid off handsomely. With a majestic performance, peeling off all the layers of cliches the genre stamped on sageuk acting over the years, Chun instantly became a star, with the show becoming the most successful sageuk of all time. Hur Jun completely changed the genre, mixing the old (historical backround) with the new (focus on success stories and personal growth over historical events) to create a new sub-genre called fusion sageuk. If today you see shows like Jumong, Hwang Jin Yi, Emperor of the Sea, and Damo, here's the pioneer, the drama that started it all.

It's been several years since Hur Jun recorded ratings of over 60%, becoming a legendary show. And looking back, only a few fusion sageuk were really able to improve on this pioneering show's achievement, namely Sang Do a few years later and 2007's incredible Hanseong's Sad Song. Even today Hur Jun still holds its place as one of the most remarkable sageuk of all time, and one of the most important Korean dramas of the last twenty years.

by X