South Korea has been called the plastic surgery capital of the world since the nation’s surgeons perform 24 percent of the globe’s plastic surgeries. So, it’s not surprising that the Korean drama Face Me is set in a high-end plastic surgery clinic. What is surprising—and interesting—is how many crimes in this drama might require plastic surgery expertise to solve them.
The drama’s protagonist Dr. Cha Jeong-woo is a gifted plastic surgeon skilled at helping patients get closer to physical perfection. A plastic surgery practice can offer both cosmetic improvements and reconstructive surgeries, but Jeong-woo, played by Lee Min-ki, does not do reconstructive surgery. Such surgeries are often associated with some form of trauma and he’s experienced enough trauma in his own past. His need to maintain a sense of control over his life, to avoid reminders of the past, leaves him distant and detached.
However, life is unpredictable and it only takes one unplanned patient consultation to involve him in a crime and ultimately change his priorities. A patient asks him to change her face so she doesn’t look like herself and he refuses what seems like a drastic request. She doesn’t explain that she’s trying to escape an abusive ex-boyfriend. Jeong-woo gets involved in saving her and teams up with a very enthusiastic detective Lee Min-hyung, played by Han Ji-hyun. It’s an unlikely partnership, but their collaboration provides the basic premise of Face Me, which marries a medical drama with a police procedural. Face Me also explores the notion that some scars are so deep they cannot be surgically corrected. Jeong-woo’s scars may be hard to detect but they are painful.
To improve the public image of his plastic surgery clinic, Jeong-woo is asked to team up with Min-hyung to solve some crimes that plastic surgery might factor into. When the two team up, they will hopefully grow close enough for Jeong-woo to share his past trauma and face up to its effect on his life.
To provide comic relief the KBS drama also stars Lee Yi-kyung, who played the comically awful husband in Marry My Husband, as another surgeon at Jeong-woo’s clinic, while Jeon Bae-su, who played a psychiatric ward nurse in Daily Dose of Sunshine, plays Jeong-woo’s mentor.
Earlier this year Han Ji-hyun played a web novelist in the romantic comedy No Gain No Love, but she can also be seen in the dramas Cheer Up and all three seasons of The Penthouse. Lee Min-ki appeared in the dramas Liberation Notes, Lies Within, and Because This is My First Life.
Face Me airs on Viki.com.
