“Doctor Cha” (닥터 차정숙)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
June 4, 2023

☆☆☆☆
Cha Jeong-suk (played by Uhm Jung-hwa)
Seo In-ho (played by Kim Byung-chul)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

The following review includes some spoilers.

“Doctor Cha” has a lot going on, addressing infidelity, adoption, a Ponzi scheme, the value of a stay-at-home mother, and the true meaning of friendship. Jeong-suk (Uhm Jung-hwa) is her family’s doormat. Once a promising resident who had better grades in medical school than her husband, In-ho (Kim Byung-chul), she quit working to raise their two children.

Though she is just as educated as her husband, she is treated by her family as little more than a maid and a personal assistant. While her mother-in-law treats herself to the most expensive designer handbags and clothes, Jeong-suk sticks to affordable clothing. Even though she is a successful doctor’s wife, the only high-end clothes Jeong-suk wears are her mother-in-law’s hand-me-downs.

Meanwhile, all isn’t well on the home front. She and In-ho haven’t shared the same bedroom in 10 years. When she tries to touch him, he recoils. It isn’t that he doesn’t want affection, but rather that he’s getting it from another woman.

Seung-hee (Myung Se-bin) was his campus sweetheart. But when he got Jeong-suk pregnant during a class trip, he broke up with Seung-hee and married Jeong-suk. Things got complicated when the former college couple rekindled their romance and had a full-blown affair that resulted in a child. Jeong-suk was already pregnant. The two women gave birth to In-ho’s daughters around the same time.

When Jeong-suk decides to return to work again, she finds herself at the same hospital as her husband…and Seung-hee, who is also a physician.

What ensues next is a series of misunderstandings, secret romances, an attractive second male lead who has a crush on Jeong-suk, and life’s general messiness that doesn’t abate with age.

As the series progressed, it was infuriatingly obvious that the showrunners were trying to make In-ho a viable option for Jeong-suk to accept back into her life. This was after he had betrayed her and his family for years. I kept thinking, “If you let him worm his way back into your life, everything you’ve worked for may as well be thrown away.” The only reason he even tried to placate her was because he realized she was no longer going to be his to boss around. It’s abundantly clear that In-ho finds absolutely zero worth in the years his wife stayed home to take care of their children, his mother-in-law and him.

In-ho says repeatedly that Jeong-suk contributed nothing to his fortune and therefore shouldn’t get half his assets during a divorce. He has no idea what it takes to run a household or how much time is involved in addressing all of the children’s (and his ridiculous mother’s) needs that extend way beyond feeding them three meals a day. Not that any of them are grateful for the meals anyhow, given the lack of appreciation they show. While it might not equal a doctor’s salary, a stay-at-home mom’s net worth is much, much more than anyone gives her credit for.

The Adoption Element: Early on viewers learn that Roy Kim (Min Woo-hyuk) is actually Roy Kimberly, a transracial adoptee who had grown up in the United States with his white parents. Once again, a K-drama offers no explanation as to how this man became fluent not only in conversational Korean, but in Korean medical terminology. No wonder some South Koreans wrongfully expect adoptees who return to their birth country to be fluent in Korean. K-dramas have presented this false narrative forever that ethnic Koreans of course can speak Korean — even if they grew up in foreign countries where it was never spoken. (There’s more about the adoption element in the Spoiler Alert below.)

Age discrepancy: I know that this is a fictional series, but come on! The lead actress Uhm Jun-hwa is 53 years old. So who do they cast to portray her mother? Kim Mi-kyung, who is 59. Maybe casting directors view any actress over the age of 40 as nothing but a mother figure, but this is ridiculous. The two actors look more like sisters or best friends than mother and daughter. And before someone chirps in to say I’m being ageist, no, I most certainly am not. What I am saying is that if the creatives were dead set on hiring either Uhm (or Kim), they should’ve cast an actress who was age appropriate for the other role, even if there was only a 15-year age difference.

 Airdates: Sixteen hour-long episodes aired on JTBC  from April 15 to June 4, 2023. (I watched it on Netflix.)

Spoiler Alert: When Roy is reunited with his birth family, he learns that his birth mother died years ago. In Episode 14, his birth father has nothing nice to say about her. The entitled man tells Roy that it’s a good thing he had been adopted, because if he grew up with his mother, he would’ve been poor. His words indicate that he knew of her pregnancy but had no plans to help her raise their son. Roy was her problem, not his. He belittles the dead woman, oblivious to the fact that her son is shellshocked and heartbroken.

His half siblings get straight to the point. The reason they had searched for him is because … their father has leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. They want him to be the donor. Yeah, no. There are three siblings sitting right there who could donate and it’s highly unlikely that none of them are a match. They just don’t want to. Why should Roy, who is a virtual stranger to this man, donate his bone marrow?

It’s clear that none of them view him as a relative, but rather as a stranger who they could take advantage of.

Sigh.

But he ended up donating his bone marrow to this man anyhow, not out of love or duty, but because he felt he should as a doctor whose job it is to save lives. That’s what he says, anyhow. He also tells Jeong-suk that what all of this made him realize is that his adoptive parents are his real parents, and he doesn’t feel that longing for his birth family anymore.

The bone marrow storyline parallels Jeong-suk’s realization that her husband views her more as a possession than anything else. Early in the series, she needed a liver transplant. Her husband was compatible, but refused to donate part of his liver.  And her mother-in-law also refused to allow her son to do what was necessary to keep his wife alive. Ultimately, it was thanks to an anonymous donor that Jeong-suk didn’t die.

But when she is in need of a second liver transplant, both Roy and In-ho vie to be the one to donate theirs to her. This time, In-ho seemed sincere in wanting her to survive. That it took this long, though, doesn’t provide much room for a redemption arc.

They divorce, and In-ho tells her, “I’m sorry, and thank you for everything. You lacked nothing as either my wife or as our children’s mother.” And that statement shows that as much of a self-centered jerk as he was, he finally realized what he had lost. But it’s too late. While it was sad for him to lose her, it was the beginning of some growth for him and freedom for her.

In the end, Roy confessed that he liked her, but she turned him down. Three years down the road, he is seen with his own girlfriend. And Jeong-suk has opened her own medical practice that’s on the second floor of the healthy cafe she also owns.

Rather than ricocheting from one man to another, Jeong-suk finally made the most important choice. She chose herself.

© 2023 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved