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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Poong, The Joseon Psychiatrist" Episode 2

Eun-woo (played by Kim Hyang-gi) is the third main character of "Poong, the Joseon Psychiatrist" and while she was introduced in the first episode, these appearances were too brief to leave too much of an impression. We know that Eun-woo is weirdly enthusiastic about autopsies, and has such a positive attitude she gets on Poong's case urging him not to kill himself. So it's a bit of a shock that Eun-woo spends most of her screentime here trying to kill herself.

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"Poong, the Joseon Psychiatrist" is depicting archaic Korean customs regarding widows- and doing a pretty good job of it too. Eun-woo never actually met her husband, and I suspected throughout most of this episode that he might have died before the wedding even happened. Nevertheless, Eun-woo is now effectively considered the property of her husband's household. Which naturally begs the question of why it seems like her mother-in-law wants to kill her, but I won't spoil that particular plot hook.

What is worth spoiling is that I have mistakenly been calling Se-yeob by the nickname of Poong, despite the fact that he doesn't actually have that nickname yet. That particular plot hook happens here. The crazy grannie played by Jeon Guk-hyang who lives at Mr. Gye's home keeps calling him Poong because he reminds her of her son. Incidentally, the actual Poong is played by Lee Sang-yi, although it appears like he was also given that title as a nickname.

The granny doesn't seem to have an actual name. The script just calls her Hal-mang, a Korean form of endearment for grandmothers. Interestingly, the granny doesn't seem to be related to Mr. Gye at all, begging the question of whether anyone at his house is a blood relative. The boy Jang-goon sticks out as another likely abandoned sick person Mr. Gye might have just adopted, since he's obviously autistic. As an apothecary, Mr. Gye has use for an autistic kid.

Mr. Gye stands out as my most favorite character in "Poong, the Joseon Psychiatrist" just because he's so vague and enigmatic. Despite constantly acting like a con artist, when we look at his actual behavior, Mr. Gye seems like a really great guy, encouraging all the people around him to be their best. This isn't to say the rest of the drama is bad- Kim Min-jae-I and Kim Hyang-gi in the leading roles have great chemistry, and we get a great glimpse of what's to come at the night market.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Poong, the Joseon Psychiatrist" is directed by Park Won-gook, written by Choi Min-ho-II, Lee Bom-I, Park Seul-gi-I, and features Kim Min-jae-I, Kim Hyang-gi, Kim Sang-kyung, Ahn Chang-hwan, Jeon Guk-hyang, Yeon Bo-ra. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2022/08/01~Now airing, Mon, Tue 22:30 on tvN.

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