Ghost Doctor (Korean: 고스트 닥터) Is a 2022 fantasy K-Drama starring Rain, Kim Bum, Uee and Son Na-eun.
Dr. Cha Young-min is a brilliant but abrasive heart surgeon who shows little concern towards his colleagues and patients. After agreeing to perform a particularly risky surgery on a high-profile patient, he is involved in a suspicious traffic accident and falls into a coma. In this state, he finds that he has become an invisible, intangible “coma ghost”, haunting the hospital where he used to work, with only the ghosts of some of his comatose patients for company.
Enter Koh Seung-tak, a first-year intern who also happens to be the grandson and heir apparent of the head of the hospital board. Upon their first meeting, Young-min develops an intense dislike towards Seung-tak, who appears to be a spoiled, lazy brat who got ahead in life thanks to his connections. Post-coma, however, Young-min finds out that he can possess Seung-tak’s body and use it to continue performing operations. Together, they go on to untangle the conspiracy that led to Young-min’s accident, as well as his falling out with the love of his life years earlier.
The series provides examples of:
- Almighty Janitor: Played with. Tess likes to assume this role while possessing the body of the janitor Ms. Kim, but he is really a senior doctor and one of the hospital’s founders.
- Ambition Is Evil: Ahn Tae-hyun comes from a humble background and is willing to commit serious crimes and betray his oath as a doctor to advance his career, especially since he feels his mentor Cha Young-min looks down on him. This turns out to have been All for Nothing, since he loses his position anyway when the scheme goes awry, and it turns out Dr. Cha was secretly trying to help him receive his promotion from the start.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Why Se-jin left Young-min and ran off to America without a word: her evil brother threatened to have him crippled to get to her, and she decided that it was better that he hates her than lose his ability to practice medicine.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Seung-tak was considered one by his classmates, since he excelled in all theoretical parts of his studies but more or less refused to do any practical work. The real reason for this was not laziness, though.
- Bromantic Comedy: Two handsome guys who can’t stand each other are forced to share a body and learn to understand and (platonically) love each other.
- Cain and Abel:
- Half-siblings Jang Min-ho and Jang Se-jin, respectively.
- Han Seung-won and Koh Seung-tak display this dynamic, even though they are cousins and not brothers. There is a lot of family squabbling involved about who gets to inherit their grandfather's position in the hospital, and Seung-won is more than willing to have people murdered for this.
- The Dandy: Dr. Cha is very into fancy suits, not to mention the gold-rimmed glasses he apparently dons only as a fashion accessory.
- Death Amnesia: A variation. Former coma ghosts who wake up usually don’t remember anything of their time outside their body. Except Cha Young-min; this is not really explained beyond “Heaven’s will”.
- Dr. Jerk: Cha Young-min, big time (until Character Development sets in). Flashbacks show that he is a bit of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who really does care about his patients.
- Education Mama: Bo-mi’s mother, who pressured her so hard into getting her PhD that Bo-mi ended up collapsing from overexertion. After waking up from her coma, Bo-mi finally finds the willpower to stand up to her.
- Gold Digger: Male version with Bo-mi’s fiancé, who cheats on her and is only interested in her family’s money.
- Go Out with a Smile: CEO Jang departs this world laughing like a child while playing board games with Tess.
- Grandma's Recipe: Kook-chan has Seung-tak deliver to his wife the recipe for his celebrated walnut snacks. This helps her save their business, which was in decline since Kook-chan went into coma.
- Gratuitous English: Crops up here and there, especially with Tess’ insistence on using the English term “Ghost” instead of the Korean “Gwisin” to describe coma ghosts.
- Greek Chorus: The three coma ghosts initially serve as this before getting their own sub-plots.
- Hate Sink: While Ahn Tae-hyun is a conflicted Anti-Villain and Han Seung-won displays at least some intelligence and complexity, Jang Min-ho is dumb, spoiled, rude, violent, lacks any capacity for remorse or empathy and acts on petty and selfish reasons only. He also has an absolutely terrible taste in clothes.
- Heroic BSoD: Seung-tak suffers one after witnessing up close a patient die on the table (and his spirit fading). It sends him into a 10-Minute Retirement.
- Hopeless Suitor: Seung-won apparently harbors a minor crush on Jang Se-jin, but nothing comes of it (especially after she discovers his involvement in her father’s death).
- Insufferable Genius: Cha Young-min knows that he’s a genius surgeon, and never lets anyone forget it.
- I See Dead People: Koh Seung-tak, since a Near-Death Experience he had as a child.
- Like Father, Like Son: In this case, “Like Grandfather, Like Granddaughter”. Soo-jung is determined to follow in her late grandfather’s footsteps and become a great heart surgeon, despite her mother’s objections.
- Littlest Cancer Patient: Seung-jo. He survives.
- Medical Drama: Naturally.
- Mentor in Sour Armor: Young-min eventually becomes one for Seung-tak.
- Note to Self: Young-min leaves one on Seung-tak’s phone right before his surgery, fearing that his living self will forget everything that happened and revert to his Dr. Jerk ways. This turns out to be unnecessary.
- The Only One: Apparently, about half the heart surgeries in the hospital can only be handled by Cha Young-min. One wonders what happens if he ever goes on vacation.
- Open-Minded Parent: Seung-tak’s mother ends up telling him that she cares more about his happiness and personal fulfilment than about his medical career.
- Patricide: When Jang Min-ho discovers his father has only one year left to live, he decides to speed things up a bit in order to get his hands on the inheritance faster.
- Spoiled Sweet: Seung-tak is a rich, spoiled kid with a tendency to throw money around to make people like him. He is also kind and good-natured, and truly cares about the happiness of people around him.
- Taken Off Life Support: Se-jin has to do this to her father, much to her heartbreak.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid:
- Flashbacks show that Young-min used to be a lot nicer as a medical student, before Se-jin’s seeming abandonment embittered him.
- Seung-tak says in the finale that this was the case for Seung-won, and expresses hope that his cousin could become this person again after paying his debt to society.
- Waiting for a Break: Coma ghost Choi Hoon-gil was working as a deliveryman while trying for acting jobs, despite coming from a wealthy family.
- Willing Channeler: Seung-tak, after reaching an understanding with Young-min, comes to largely rely on him in everyday medical work.
