[TF Focus] 'Love Doctor' Meets Youth in 'Ahn Pan-seok's Melodrama'

The posthumous work of director Ahn Pan-seok, who passed away last AugustChoo Young-Woo&Kim So-hyun, the awkward but honest love of youthFirst broadcast on October 5th... A total of 12 episodesENA's new Monday-Tuesday drama 'Love Doctor', starring actors Choo Young-Woo and Kim So-hyun, will premiere on October 5th. The work is particularly drawing attention as it is the posthumous work of director Ahn Pan-seok. /KT Studio Genie[THE FACT|Reporter Kim Saet-byeol] The melodrama that director Ahn Pan-seok presented last before his passing will meet viewers. He, who had built his own world of melodrama through realistic relationships and delicate emotional lines, challenged "youth melodrama" by lowering the age range of the protagonists unlike before. Attention is focused on what color Ahn Pan-seok's romance will take when it meets two youths, Choo Young-Woo and Kim So-hyun.ENA's new Monday-Tuesday drama 'Love Doctor' (written by Min Hyo-jung, directed by Ahn Pan-seok), which premieres today (5th), tells the story of Park Min-jae (Choo Young-Woo), a doctoral student who was a swimming athlete in high school but lost a leg due to illness, and Im Yu-jin (Kim So-hyun), a master's student who, after losing her career path, embarks on a new one. Set in a robot research lab, it depicts the romance between the two and the diverse daily lives of graduate students.Above all, 'Love Doctor' is drawing attention as the new and posthumous work of director Ahn Pan-seok, who passed away last August. Director Ahn Pan-seok showed his unique melodramatic color by delicately capturing the subtle emotions and changes in relationships between characters in works such as 'Something in the Rain', 'One Spring Night', 'Secret Love Affair', and 'Graduation'. This time, he tells a love story again through the work "youth melodrama."The script was written by Min Hyo-jung, who previously wrote 'Rooftop Cat' and 'Full House'. A key point to watch is how director Ahn Pan-seok, in his own way, brought to the screen the story of youth completed by writer Min Hyo-jung, who has returned to scriptwriting after a long time.Ahn Pan-seok's melodramas have been loved for their approach of following the characters' emotions without rushing. By slowly building up the emotions hidden in each character's words, gaze, and silence, he depicted realistic relationships where love alone does not solve everything. Therefore, the age range of the characters in the works he chose was mostly those who had experienced a certain amount of life. He added depth to the melodrama by focusing on the relationships of characters who bore not only expectations for love but also realistic worries and responsibilities.Therefore, expectations were raised early on when director Ahn Pan-seok chose a work that prominently featured "youth" this time.'Love Doctor' follows the story of two youths who are awkward in love. However, just because they are "youths" does not mean it only shows a purely innocent romance. It depicts the process of two people, who were contemplating studies, careers, wounds, and the future in the space of a graduate school, being shaken by the emotion of love.ENA's new Monday-Tuesday drama 'Love Doctor', starring actors Choo Young-Woo and Kim So-hyun, will premiere on October 5th. The work is particularly drawing attention as it is the posthumous work of director Ahn Pan-seok. /KT Studio GenieThe youths in 'Love Doctor' are those who have not yet fully decided on their life's direction. Park Min-jae lost his left leg due to osteosarcoma and lost his life's goal, but he found a new path through robotics. After entering the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Seoul National University after four attempts, he appears calm on the outside but harbors both expectations and fears about love, to the extent that "dating" is on his bucket list.Im Yu-jin also did not have a smooth youth. Although she majored in clothing, she changed her career path due to an incident at school, and then became fascinated with robotics, entering the master's program in mechanical engineering. As she has entered an unfamiliar environment, she has many concerns, but she is a character who approaches someone she likes without hesitation and honestly.The setting where two people with such different personalities meet in a robot research lab and fall in love is a point that makes us look forward to the chemistry between the two actors. The temperature difference created when Min-jae, who cautiously explores his feelings, meets Yu-jin, who does not hide her emotions, is expected to be the driving force behind their relationship.The two, who did not attach special meaning to each other, begin to notice each other at some point, and as everyday conversations and encounters repeat, their feelings naturally deepen. Since the process of each person permeating the other at their own pace is important, rather than one person unilaterally leading the relationship, the actors' delicate chemistry is expected to determine the persuasiveness of the work.The combination of Choo Young-Woo and Kim So-hyun itself is also interesting. Choo Young-Woo has recently been meticulously building the emotional lines of characters across various genres, and Kim So-hyun has been persuasively expressing the emotions of characters centered on their relationship with their co-stars in romance genres. Both actors are expected to show changes according to the situation rather than excessively pushing the characters' emotions within the work.Ultimately, the point of observation for 'Love Doctor' lies in the meeting of youth's love and director Ahn Pan-seok's direction that captures it. The focus is on how director Ahn Pan-seok expressed the story of youth written by writer Min Hyo-jung with his unique delicate gaze, and how Choo Young-Woo and Kim So-hyun, at the center of it, completed the emotions of the two people with their chemistry.Attention is drawn to whether 'Love Doctor', Ahn Pan-seok's last work and new challenge, can show a different emotional texture beyond the familiar grammar of melodrama.'Love Doctor', consisting of a total of 12 episodes, will premiere on ENA at 10 PM on the 5th and will be available on Genie TV and Disney+.sstar1204@tf.co.kr[Entertainment Department | ssent@tf.co.kr]