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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Poong, The Joseon Psychiatrist" Episode 5

As expected, Poong and Eun-woo are able to apprehend the real murderer just barely in time to avert Man-bok's execution. The criticisms I made in my last review about this storyline still hold, and no real new information comes to light to justify the way this pretty simple story has been dragged out. I did like Mr. Gye attempting to bribe the executioner into stalling for time, and his sneaking around to secretly give food to the needy to protect his reputation as a mean tightwad was also cute.

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The bulk of the runtime is focused on a new plot, though, which is intriguingly ambiguous. A boy from a wealthy family is brought to Mr. Gye's clinic with alarming yet very strange symptoms. His body is covered in extreme bruises. He complains of severe dehydration. That is, when he's conscious, as the boy keeps wandering about as if he was sleepwalking. Then there's the abrupt temporary loss of his hearing.

Poong successfully contrives to go the kid's home but this proves to be of little help. He's the son of a concubine, with two resentful older half-brothers and a father who's angry that said half-brothers aren't doing better in their educational pursuits. Is the kid being abused? Maybe- but there are too many inexplicable symptoms to be consistent with this diagnosis. Additionally, no one in the household has a clear motive to abuse him at all.

I'm suspicious of his mother personally, the very pregnant concubine. But there's nothing much to speculate on. The cause of the boy's malady is almost certainly some exotic plant. The main immediately interesting part of the story is how the characters react to the situation. Poong is overly nosy, and is presented more as being socially obtuse than morally upright. Now that we know Mr. Gye really is a great guy at heart, the impression given is that he's thinking more long-term.

There's also a lot of great character interactions in general off of the set-up. Poong strongly asserts that he doesn't think anyone should have concubines. In the episode's best gag, Eun-woo fixates on this statement long after Poong has put his mind back to trying to solve the mystery. We also get confirmation that Detective Jo does have a crush on Eun-woo, and even attempted to marry her- without telling her, it seems. Much like Detective Jo's current work detail, there's likely more important context than is being let on.

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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