Park Hyung-sik and Park Shin-hye to Romance in ‘Doctor Slump’

Park Hyung-sik and Park Shin-hye had concrete roles in the iconic star-studded teen romance drama The Heirs, also called The Inheritors (2013). There, they weren’t in love, but in the upcoming medical romantic-comedy drama Doctor Slump (2024), they are.

Love begets profound consequences, knowing that it is one of the most crucial experiences of living. It may come knocking on your door unannounced, perhaps in despair, and if it does, it could be a new lease on life. That is the way love works. That’s also what Doctor Slump‘s deeper significance is.

Planned for a January 27 release, Doctor Slump follows Yeo Jeong-woo (Park Hyung-sik) and Nam Ha-neul (Park Shin-hye). When their bright careers take a turn for the worse, landing them in a rut, meeting each other changes things for the better.

Jung-woo flourished academically all through, attending Korea’s best medical school before pursuing a career as an acclaimed plastic surgeon. An unforeseen clinical crisis, however, brings his otherwise smooth life to the brink. He comes across Ha-neul at the time, a former rival.

Ha-neul, on the flip side, practices anesthesiology. She grew into an accomplished doctor, having been erudite since the beginning. But uneasy lies the head that wears the crown; success falls short of providing her with real fulfillment. She merely works and studies; her life is just too regimented; she has no free time. As the grind gets harder, Ha-neul seeks to break free and change her life. This is when she meets Jung-Woo.

The fortuitous encounter signals the beginning of a new chapter—a moment of clarity in their lives at an hour when they are in dire straits with the situation at hand. It also flings them together in a rooftop room, where they begin to spend hours in tandem.

It’s intriguing how fierce competition between individuals of similar status may breed animosity and even attraction. In an intense cutthroat context, two sides are ready to eliminate whatever comes their way to winning. What’s fascinating about this is that conflict and circumstance frequently draw both individuals closer. In Doctor Slump, this holds for Jeong-woo and Ha-neul.

Despite their past rivalry, the recent events have an uplifting impact on their relationship; they get increasingly attached over time, empathizing with each other and in stages feeling something, the irreplaceable “love” that will inevitably lift them out of the “slump” and bring about healing.

The announcement of Park Hyung-sik and Park Shin-hye starring in the drama invariably caught the eye much ahead of its release. Doctor Slump, in my mind, will unfurl a love story wrapped in gratifying moments, as, needless to say, “romance” is one of the actors’ forte.