my healers

A decades-old incident involving a group of five friends who ran an illegal pro-democracy broadcasting station during the Fifth Republic in South Korea brings together three different people—an illegal "night courier" with the codename "Healer" (Ji Chang-wook) who possesses top-notch fighting skills, a reporter from a second-rate tabloid news website (Park Min-young), and a famous journalist at a major broadcast station (Yoo Ji-tae).[9][10][11] While trying to uncover the truth from that 1992 incident and a series of present day murders, they grow into honest reporters who try to blur the lines of conflict between truth and reality, even if that means fighting media honchos.

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Ji Chang-wook as Seo Jung-hoo / Park Bong-soo / Healer

Park Si-jin as young Jung-hoo

Go Woo-rim as child Jung-hoo

Choi Jung-hu as toddler Jung-hoo

An illegal "night courier" who works under the alias "Healer". Renowned for being the best in his field, Jung-hoo is equipped not only with advanced technology and a trusty hacker sidekick, but also his superb fighting skills. He will perform any task except anything involving murder. His ultimate goal is to save money and buy an uninhabited island off the coast of Panama and to live there alone, but that changes after being given an order by his client, Kim Mun-ho, to find and protect a girl named Young-shin from the people who want her dead but he later falls in love with Young-shin.

Park Min-young as Chae Young-shin / Oh Ji-an

Kim So-yeon as young Young-shin

Shin Soo-yeon as 10-year-old Ji-an

Park Ji-so as 8-year-old Ji-an

Ku Geon-min as 5-year-old Ji-an

A strong-willed and quirky internet news reporter who dreams of becoming a legendary reporter. However, her dreams are put to the test when she finds out about her hidden past as the lost child Oh Ji-an. Due to her abusive past, Young-shin is traumatized and suffers from panic attacks whenever she sees violence. She later falls in love with her protector, Jung-hoo.

Yoo Ji-tae as Kim Moon-ho

Kim Seung-chan as young Moon-ho

Lee Woo-joo as child Moon-ho

A star reporter, and brother to Kim Moon-sik, the CEO of a large news company. His goal is to last each day and to find Oh Ji-an, a supposedly dead child whom he suspects to still be alive. He pays Jung-hoo (as "Healer") to find and protect Ji-an (now known as Young-shin) from the people that want her dead, out of guilt for not fully investigating the truth about a 1992 incident that ended in the tragic deaths of two out of five best friends, and the crippling of a third.

Kim Mi-kyung as Jo Min-ja, Hacker Ahjumma, a former detective specializing in cyber crimes.

Oh Kwang-rok as Ki Young-jae, Jung-hoo's teacher (and the first "Healer"), one of five friends from the past.

Choi Dong-gu as young Young-jae, Motorcycle rider and distractor during the illegal radio broadcasts.

Taemi as Kang Dae-yong, "Healer's" assistant.

Ji Il-joo as Seo Joon-seok, Jung-hoo's father, an engineer of the illegal radio station and later a photographer working with Oh Gil-han.

Lee Kyung-shim as Jung-hoo's mother

Song Ji-in as young Jung-hoo's mother

Park Sang-myun as Chae Chi-soo, Young-shin's adoptive father, a lawyer specializing in defending clients accused of burglary who also runs a café where he has employed many of his former clients.

Woo Hyun as Chul-min, a former convict and one of Chae Chi-soo's clients who now works at the café.

Park Won-sang as Jang Byung-se, head of "Someday News", an internet tabloid news site where Chae Young-shin works.

Choi Seung-kyung as Yeo Gi-ja, "Reporter Yeo" at "Someday News".

Park Sang-won as Kim Moon-sik, one of the initial five friends, now a highly successful CEO of a news agency.

Son Seung-won as young Moon-sik, driver of the truck from which the five friends ran their illegal radio station.

Do Ji-won as Choi Myung-hee, Young-shin's biological mother, living in the present with Kim Moon-sik and using a wheelchair.

Jung Hye-in as young Myung-hee, one of the lead reporters in the illegal radio station.

Woo Hee-jin as Kang Min-jae, news director at "ABS News", where Kim Moon-ho works at the start of the story and also his love interest.

Jang Sung-beom as Lee Jong-soo, Kim Moon-ho's assistant.

Park Sang-wook as Bae Sang-soo, head of a rival "night courier" agency.

Hong Seung-jin as Yo-yo, employed by Bae Sang-soo.

Jo Han-chul as Yoon Dong-won, a detective specializing in cyber crimes, formerly Jo Min-ja's hoobae.

Oh Jong-hyuk as Oh Gil-han, Young-shin's biological father, one of the lead reporters in the illegal radio station and a regular reporter after the fall of the Fifth Republic.

Jung Gyu-soo as Oh Tae-won, Moon-sik's secretary and agent of "The Elder".

Kim Ri-na as Joo Yeon-hee, an actress who turns to Chae Young-shin and her father for help.

Choi Jong-won as Park Jung-dae, "The Elder", a shadowy figure operating behind the scenes and the CEO of Omega Holdings formerly known as Omega Venture Capital I232

December 8, 2014

Healer: Episode 1

by javabeans

We're off to a brisk start with Healer, which I was looking forward to mostly for the writer (Song Ji-nah of Sandglass, Legend, Story of a Man) and secondarily for the cast (though a cast is never enough on its own to entice me). I was most curious to see what the tone would actually be, because there were enough disparate elements in the descriptions to keep me guessing—would it be a multigenerational melodrama? A conspiracy-driven thriller? A fun action romp? And while we often get dramas throwing at us an excess of genre modifiers that feel too scattered to work well (spy-action-medical-political-thriller-romance, for instance, or comedy-paranormal-historical-court-intrigue), I actually think Healer lives up to its promo descriptions, and keeps things moving smoothly, while hinting at a lot more depth beneath the surface.

EPISODE 1

A large, deserted building. The site looks abandoned, but deep inside the industrial space lies a spiffy hi-tech lair, lined with expensive computers and state-of-the-art gadgets. Somebody's turned a dusty concrete box into a veritable bachelor pad.

Inside it, a young, fit man plays a game of virtual tennis (and gets his butt kicked by his computer opponent). We aren't given a formal introduction yet, but for convenience's sake let's call him by name: SEO JUNG-HOO (Ji Chang-wook).

Jung-hoo ignores his cell phone, and moments later his tennis game gets hacked and a cartoon squiggle bursts in. A woman's voice cuts in, cackling and chiding "oppa" not to ignore her calls, while he reminds her not to hack into his stuff.

Jung-hoo snaps to attention when "Ajumma" mentions a new job, although he's skeptical at her description of it being "really simple"—nothing Ajumma's called simple has ever been simple. She retorts that meeting a contact and taking a package is easy-peasy, and gets him going on the gig.

Jung-hoo pauses to look up at the wall-sized screen sporting the image of a beautiful island, his narration telling us that he dreams of buying a deserted island off of Panama. But for now, work.

The hand-off point is in a subway station, and Jung-hoo keeps a low profile as he scopes out the scene. Decked out with an in-ear line to his hacker partner—she's JO MIN-JA (played by Kim Mi-kyung)—he notes the security cameras in his sightline, and Min-ja deftly hacks into the system to divert the footage.

Jung-hoo easily spots several suit-wearing goons stationed around the platform—they're likely to become complications. Deciding this job is too much hassle for the meager payday, he turns to leave, only to have Min-ja remind them that they need the cash and that their market is crowding with competition. Jung-hoo turns back with a sigh.

First, they have to figure out who these guys are, and Jung-hoo sidles up to one goon and distracts him with images of bikini-clad women on his phone. While the goon drools, Jung-hoo surreptitiously swipes the guy's cell phone and calls Min-ja with it, then slips the phone back.

With that information Min-ja is able to figure out who those suits work for, and it's one of their competitors, Double S, to whom they've lost some clients: "They think they're a Gangnam department store and we're the neighborhood market."

When the subway car arrives carrying his new client, Jung-hoo makes sure to get to him before the rivals do, and quietly grabs the contact's arm and asks, "You came to meet the Healer?" He pulls the man back onto the train, but not soon enough; the rivals spot them and jump onto the car, and soon Jung-hoo finds himself trapped with goons closing in on both sides.

In an apartment building, a young woman gets into the elevator with a deliveryman and comments that the top package is hers. She takes it from the deliveryman—and then darts into a stairwell to don a delivery vest herself, using the package as an excuse to knock on a different apartment. Sneaky.

She makes up a few lies about requiring signatures to deliver mail, and the resident reluctantly opens the door to sign. That's when our fake-deliverer clutches at her heart and makes a big dramatic gesture of reaching for pills, asking for water.

When the woman complies, our faker hurriedly grabs her phone to snap a few photos of the entryway, then makes a lame excuse to the woman for why the delivery is for the wrong person. The woman doesn't buy it since she's a celebrity ("Don't you know who I am?") and our faker beats a hasty retreat, her cover blown.

But she's gotten what she came for, as it turns out she's actually a reporter, CHAE YOUNG-SHIN (Park Min-young). She puts in a call to her editor; she works for a low-rent tabloid operation, as we can surmise from the way her editor tries to fashion a juicy headline out of her photo of men's shoes in the celebrity's entryway. He complains that it's too weak to use as proof of liaison, and not worthy of a scoop.

Young-shin heads to the parking garage looking for more to the story, which is where she nearly gets plowed down by a convertible as it parks. She heads over indignantly to give the driver a piece of her mind, but he's foaming at the mouth over a subway snafu, and Young-shin's ears perk up when he blames this on "the Healer."

Spidey senses tingling, she eavesdrops as the driver picks up a photograph and asks for a confirmation of the Healer's appearance. He throws the photo in the backseat, and in an split-second of pure guts (or foolishness), Young-shin snatches the picture before the driver screeches off.

Next we jump to a charged protest site outside the corporation Samhan Group, where ex-workers and their families protest illegal layoffs. Reporters swarm the site, among them a grave-looking Serious Journalist, KIM MOON-HO (Yoo Ji-tae). He's recognizable and respected, and maybe even a bit of a maverick; the other reporters stand around waiting for the official press conference, but Moon-ho heads right into the thick of things to talk with the protesters.

He interviews a distraught old woman who begs him to save her son, who's laid up in the hospital after self-immolating in protest. Moon-hoo leaves a colleague to handle the press conference and immediately heads to the hospital, where he finds the son in a ghastly state, burned from head to toe.

The man has written out his story in case a reporter should come, and Moon-ho reads: "Please tell our story. Nobody will listen to what we have to say." There's something in Moon-ho's demeanor that assures us that he will treat this with dignity and fairness, and he apologizes for coming so late.

But back to the subway. For now, Healer Jung-hoo is safe enough, with the goons waiting for their moment. Min-ja hacks into security at the next subway stop and sees the fresh influx of gangster types arriving and stationing themselves right at the doors. Meanwhile the client is quaking in his shoes about to pee himself, and Jung-hoo tells him calmly to trust him.

As the train approaches the station, Jung-hoo instructs his client to jump at the count of three. "One… two…" And screeeeeech! The train jerks to a stop in the middle of the tracks, and Jung-hoo counts, "Three!"

The doors don't open. "Three!" He repeats. This time the doors do open… behind him, on the wrong side of the tracks. Pwahaha.

"Seriously, Ajumma!" Healer gripes. Min-ja goes whoopsie and corrects her mistake, and then Jung-hoo and his client leap out the correct set of doors, onto the tracks below, while the goons are locked out by closing doors.

As they jog down the tunnel, Jung-hoo asks for "the goods" to confirm that they're genuine, but the client fearfully begs Jung-hoo to save him first. This goes against his policy and time's ticking, with the Double S goons now in the tunnel, continuing the chase. The client clutches his briefcase whimpering that they'll kill him, and the gang is coming at them mighty quickly…

Jung-hoo asks Min-ja for a hand, and she sends the subway train along, losing their light source. The tunnel goes dark and from there, it's simple enough for Jung-hoo to employ his super-fly hand-to-hand moves to pick them off one at a time. All the while, Min-ja counts down the remaining seconds till the next train passes through…

With less than a minute to spare, Jung-hoo tries to tell his opponent to pause to clear out his buddies before continuing the fight, which sounds as silly as you think if not for the very real train heading their way. By the time the lights appear around the bend, he's only got seconds to figure a way out of this.

Jung-hoo breaks free of his hold and knocks out his opponent, only to have the burly guy land on top of him, pinning him to the tracks. Oh shit oh shit! Mooooooove.

The train zooms by, and then a long tense pause as we peer down the tunnel. Are those bodies dead, or just out for the count? And then, Jung-hoo stirs from the pile, having shoved himself and the goon off the tracks at the last second. He gasps that this job is so not worth the price tag.

Now for some rich people. Inside his palatial estate, a media mogul takes a conference call with other media honchos. He's KIM MOON-SHIK (Park Sang-won), the chairman of Jeil Newspaper, and they're discussing how to handle the story of the mass layoffs at Samhan Group. Or spinning it, more like, landing upon a business-friendly angle that takes the blame off the corporation. Oh, something tells me we're in for some family strife over this, as Moon-shik is the older brother to our righteous star reporter Moon-ho.

Then Moon-shik hears from his secretary that "the item" has been transferred, having survived the attempt to intercept it. He guesses correctly who was behind that attempt—Moon-ho. Omo. Things just got more interesting.

Double S is reputed to be top-of-the-line, but even so, they weren't able to outwit the solo Healer. He's never been identified, and one of his hallmarks is discretion, in that he never asks for his clients' identities.

Jung-hoo takes his nervous client away to safety to complete the transaction, but the man is so scared that he begs for one more consideration—that they send him to America, which he can't do on his own without being caught. He adds that Jeil News should be able to manage it, and an email gets sent over to chairman Moon-shik.

That means, however, that the client knows that Jeil is involved, and Jeil doesn't like being thus exposed. Moon-shik files away the Healer's name and decides that this must be directly discussed with the Old Man; they can't risk anything going awry.

At the broadcast station, Moon-ho gets bad news from his boss, news desk chief KANG MIN-JAE (Woo Hee-jin), with whom he is very friendly and speaks to in banmal. They'll be cutting the interview with the burned protester, and he entreats her to help him honor his promise to the man.

Min-jae understands how he feels but she's also got higher-ups to report to, so she settles on a compromise to allow Moon-ho to mention meeting the man, but glossing it over in a pleasant fashion. Something tells me he's not going to let that be the final word.

Ah, and as the newscast prepares for broadcast, we see that the honchos who'd called in with Jeil's Moon-shik are executives at this station. Min-jae gives Moon-ho the extra warning that they're here to see his broadcast. "Don't cause trouble," she says.

At home, Young-shin makes kimchi with her father, chatting about her latest lead on the top-secret mercenary called the Healer. She knows that these kinds of services are employed by the rich and powerful to do their dirty work for them, and smells a top story, as well as all the riches she'll rake in by writing a bestselling exposé.

Young-shin wheedles Dad in her best aegyo voice to lend her the money to contract the Healer's services (in the vicinity of 10 grand), and he harrumphs that he'll do it when she brings home a marriageable young man. She picks up a cabbage head and "introduces" him to Dad, which is super cute for the way Dad just plays along like she's marrying Mr. Cabbage Head.

But then it's time for the evening news, and Young-shin leaps up to catch the broadcast featuring Moon-ho. From the way she grins up moonily at her television, I'm guessing she's a big fan.

Moon-ho goes off-script during the live broadcast to tell the man's story, to Min-jae's chagrin. Moon-ho gets particularly scathing, turning the criticism inward, saying that the man self-immolated because nobody would listen to his story otherwise. He acknowledges that truth—he didn't interview the man until he burned himself, nor did the station care for the plight of the workers—and states that the man's extreme act was driven first and foremost by "we the reporters."

And Young-shin's admiration of Moon-ho just balloons up in response—not to date him, but to be him. She explains to us that she wasn't so great in her studies, went to a mediocre university, and failed all the entrance exams for the major papers, which explains why she's toiling away at such a dinky tabloid. Still, she's confident in her drive and passion.

Next, we meet an elegant woman in a wheelchair, looking fondly at old photographs of her daughter and of herself with four university friends (a photo that's been spotted a few times now). She's CHOI MYUNG-HEE (Do Ji-won), and she sets out a lavish spread with those photos at the center—a memorial, perhaps.

She's joined by her husband, Chairman Kim Moon-shik, in a child's room that's been preserved. He grows sad-eyed at the friends' photo, but agrees that it's appropriate since their bygone friend was the father of the deceased daughter. Oy, these relationships seem pretty complicated. I mean, in a good way ultimately, but right now I'm just trying to keep 'em all straight.

Moon-shik calls his brother to wonder why he isn't here yet, but Moon-ho's in a heavy mood and says he won't be able to make it. Moon-shik guesses that it's because he got chewed out for making yet another live broadcast incident, and the brothers laugh about how nothing ever happens without hyung knowing.

It's particularly interesting given what we know about them outmaneuvering each other behind each other's backs, since they seem so affable to each other directly. Moon-shik ends the call with a warm "You know I'm always on your side," to which Moon-ho angrily flings off his headset.

Then Moon-ho calls a friend to inquire about test results yet again—and for the third time, the DNA has proved the two people unrelated. The friend wonders who he's looking for, and Moon-ho just replies, "Someone I have to find."

As he comes home to his spacious, empty apartment, Moon-ho thinks heavily that another day has passed in his life where every day feels like a homework assignment to be solved. He takes an apologetic call from the Double S Guard company for the failed task, and guesses that the job was interrupted by the Healer, "because I had initially intended to hire him." Looks like he'll be going there next… if he can beat out the competition, that is.

Moon-ho dismantles his coffee table to reveal that it's a functional chest, and inside is a briefcase housing dozens of cassette tapes and a note that reads "HEALER." The tapes date back to 1980, and he narrates that two points of time in his life are connected by a tough thread: 1980 and 1992. Every time he tries to move forward, he returns instead to those times.

He takes out that old photo of the five friends, growing emotional as it takes him back to being a young boy:

November 1980. Moon-ho rides shotgun in an old truck, his brother driving and listening to an underground radio broadcast. A young Myung-hee broadcasts from a cramped space with her (boy?)friend, talking about news and criticizing the media in that fearless way that idealistic students have.

The broadcast is enough of a problem that the police are busy trying to track its source and move out with sirens blaring. A friend on a motorcycle signals to Moon-shik, and ah! The pirate broadcast is originating from the back of the truck. The friends get the signal to cut out, and they quickly sign off.

The cops spot the antenna mounted on the truck and start to chase, while their motorcycle buddy does his part in running interference and heading off the police cars. The chase gets increasingly perilous, until finally the motorcyclist pulls off the awning covering the truckbed and flings it onto the cop's windshield, ending the chase.

They make it out today, and drink to the successful escape. That's when young Moon-ho picks up a camera, and the friends suggest taking a photograph together. Moon-shik is the most concerned of the five—he's rather dark, whereas his friends are freewheeling and ebullient—and I'm sensing more to the story than a mere love triangle between his old friend and his current wife.

In the present day, Moon-shik and Myung-hee hold the memorial, and Myung-hee grows teary as she asks her dead husband to look after their daughter. Moon-shik lends her his literal shoulder to cry on.

Moon-ho writes an email while narrating for us, "My time is caught on the past, and so, I had no tomorrow. If I find that child, perhaps I might have a tomorrow." We see him writing another request for help, and it's addressed to the Healer.

The Healer, meanwhile, sits down for to a dinner for one and keeps his eye on his goal of retiring to a private island. His plan sounds both outlandish and entirely feasible, given the way he's thinking out the details of all the supplies he'd need. He grimaces at a phone call from Ajumma Min-ja, and when he ignores her call (c'mon, do you not learn?), she hacks into his system to check on the latest request.

Jung-hoo retorts that he's already tracked down three girls for the client, but Min-ja reminds him that they were all false leads. This time, though, she thinks she's got a good possibility for a girl adopted twenty years ago who fits the bill. Plus, it's an appealing option since they'll get paid for the DNA sample regardless of whether it's a match.

Jung-hoo isn't hopping to get on the job, but he realizes that he's still got to make more money before his dreams of island paradise are realized.

And then we cut to Young-shin, who explains her second dream being to locate her birth parents. She loves her naggy dad, but is curious to know who her parents were, ask why they abandoned her, and to meet them once. Just to know.

In the morning, Young-shin runs along the sidewalk and thinks to herself that both her dreams seem distant and unattainable, but she'll be keeping the faith. She'll work hard, and if it happens, it'll be her fate.

As she barrels along to the bus stop, we see through the Healer's fancy info-glasses that Young-shin is the one he's looking for. His reports find that she's curiously absent from social media accounts ("She can't be normal!"), and her face gets positively matched by the computer software as she makes it onto the bus.

"Bingo!" he thinks, as he boards the bus after her. The bus lurches, and she falls, quite literally, into his arms.