Titles:外科风云 (Wai Ke Feng Yun) / Surgeons / Surgical Situation / The Surgeons
Cast:
- Jin Dong as Zhuang Shu
- Bai Bai He as Lu Chen Xi
- Li Jia Hang as Chen Shao Cong
- Lyric Lan as Yang Yu
- Ma Shao Hua as Fu Bo Wen
- He Du Juan as Chu Jun
- Liu Yi Jun as Yang Fan
- Yang Xin Ming as Zhong Xi Bei
- Chin Shih Chieh as Xiu Min Qi
- Gao Lu as Lin Huan
- Geng Le as Xue Luan
- Wilson Wang as Yang Zi Xuan
- Jin Kim as Fang Zhi Wei
- Wang Yong Quan as Lu Chen Xi’s stepfather
- Xue Shu Jie as Cheng Lu (Lu Chen Xi’s mother)
- Liu Lin as Zhang Shu Mei (Zhuang Shu’s mother)
- Tan Xi He as Lin Hao (Lin Huan’s adoptive father)
- Li Xiao Yan as Lin Huan’s adoptive mother
- Wu Xiao Yu as Liu Ling (patient)
- Xu Lu Yang as Lin Sen
- Si Yuan as Lin Wei (Lin Sen’s father)
- Mu Li Yan as Qiao He (Zhong Xi Bei’s wife)
- Liang Shi Ran as Zhang Qian (Chen Shao Cong’s ex-girlfriend)
- Hu Ge as Hu Ge
Directed by: Li Xue
Written by: Zhu Zhu
Plot (from Wiki):
The story originates from a medical malpractice many years ago that resulted in the death of a car accident victim; who has been successfully resuscitated but later died of drug allergy. Zhang Shumei, the nurse who was on duty that night, was forced to resign after being suspected of accidentally killing the patient. Her eight-year-old son, Zhuang Shu did not believe the accusation, and got into a fight at the hospital, causing him to be held up at the police station. Unable to pick up his four-year-old sister, Zhuang Shu later finds out that she was abducted while he was away. Traumatized by the false accusation and the abduction of her daughter, Zhang Shumei eventually committed suicide.
30 years later, Zhuang Shu returns to the hospital as a surgeon; intent on unraveling the secret behind his family’s misfortune while searching for his long-lost sister. He meets Lu Chenxi, a cardiac surgeon who is the daughter of the patient that died under Zhang Shumei’s care 30 years ago. Together, they investigate the mystery and fall in love in the process.
Review:
After Nirvana in Fire and The Disguiser, director Li Xue won a lifetime place in my heart. Surgeons is his third work in collaboration with Jin Dong and Liu Yi Jun (also Hu Ge, who makes a very brief special appearance in the show). Under this premise, Surgeons promises to become another must watch.
(SPOILERS) 30 years ago, a nurse at Renhe Hospital is fired due to a medical negligence which ended up killing a patient. Zhang Shu Mei, the aforesaid nurse, denies to have mistaken the patient’s medication, but no one believes her. This event brought many complications to her life. Her eight-year-old son, Xiao Bing, starts a fight with another kid who was discussing her mother’s negligence, and forgets to pick up her four-year-old sister (Nan Nan) from nursery. Nan Nan is kidnapped by human traders and they can’t find her anywhere. Zhang Shu Mei, unable to prove her innocence and find her daughter, hung herself, leaving Xiao Bing on his own.
Xiao Bing is adopted by an american (overseas chinese) doctor and had the chance to grew up in a good environment. However, he never forgot his mother’s misfortune. Now, he is a brilliant doctor under the name of Zhuang Shu(Jin Dong) and returns to Renhe Hospital accepting the invitation of an old friend, Yang Fan. He joins the chest surgical department and tries to stay as a good doctor while gathering evidence to prove her mother’s innocence.
What I love about Surgeons is that it dared to question the ethics of every character. Each medical case offered different chances for our characters to improve, learn new lessons and eventually, grow up.
The scenery isn’t stunning (it’s an hospital after all), but they took care of every detail. In China, public hospitals are usually full of people, patients everywhere waiting for their turn. They accurately presented this problem many times (how resources are frequently insufficient and very expensive), and it was a central matter after the natural disaster happened.
This kind of issues contributed to create different dilemmas. Our doctors had to choose between saving all the people they could (in bad conditions, with limited resources) or saving just a few guaranteeing the minimum medical quality requirements. Zhuang Shu, who comes from America, doesn’t really understand the imbalance of chinese hospital resources. When facing the natural disaster’s consequences, the hospital can’t afford to accept any patient more, but there are still tons of people out asking for help. Zhuang Shu decides to deny the entrance of more patients, because more people would cause infections to spread. He stays adamant even when he sees his missing sister in the entrance, begging for her stepdad’s life.
He was mild-tempered and responsible with his patients, willing to give understandable explanations and ease their pain. Towards his students, he was kind but strict (especially with Chu Jun, because she reminded him of his lost sister). The misfortune of his childhood left terrible scars, but they weren’t enough to erase his kindness. In the final episodes, he faces the greatest dilemma: Xiu Min Qi (the man who falsely accused her mother and provoked their familiar disaster), asks him to operate on his dying daughter. Zhuang Shu says he won’t operate on his daughter unless he publicly admit the truth.Zhuang Shu is the only qualified doctor to operate on the case of his daughter, but Xiu Min Qi still clings to his reputation, unwilling to accept his mistakes.
Facing such a shameless and immoral person, Zhuang Shu seems to give up on his duty as a doctor. He can’t forgive Xiu Min Qi and all the things he did, and he can’t bear how innocent he pretends to be when his flaws are so evident now. However, when the surgeon has already started and everyone thinks Zhuang Shu left, he returns in his doctor outfit, proving his morals are far more important than thrist for vengeance. Still, Zhuang Shu is diagnosed with clinical depression after this and went back to America. He stayed there for a long time and only returned to Renhe when at the end of the series, a very contagious disease spread and everyone’s help is needed.
Zhuang Shu’s experience in Renhe gave him a lot of things, but meeting Lu Chen Xi may be the most important one. Lu Chen Xi, portrayed by Bai Bai He, is a young and very talented doctor. Unlike Zhuang Shu, she is extremely impulsive, straightforward and quite hotheaded. This explosive personality often got her into trouble, receiving complaints from her patients and causing her to fall out with her superiors and students. When Fu Bo Wen (her mentor and Renhe’s director) retired, Lu Chen Xi was push from the chest surgical department into thecasualty one.
Meanwhile, Zhuang Shu found a shared flat to live and by chance his partner and landlady is no one else but Lu Chen Xi. By the same time, Lu Chen Xi invites her longtime friend (doctor Chen Shao Cong) to also live there. Like that, Zhuang Shu, Lu Chen Xi and Chen Shao Cong start living together.
Just after Zhuang Shu and Lu Chen Xi understood their feelings for each other, Lu Chen Xi was told the truth of their family’s history: her biological father was the patient whose death was associated to Zhang Shu Mei’s medical negligence. Therefore, in theory it was Zhuang Shu’s mother who caused Lu Chen Xi’s father to die. This revelation changed everything in their relationship, because even if Lu Chen Xi believed in Zhuang Shu’s words, there was no evidence that could prove Zhang Shu Mei’s innocence.
Fortunately, they overcame the bad patch and in the end, Zhuang Shu proposed to Lu Chen Xi, giving us a happy ending. Note: Hu Ge makes a very brief but funny appearance in this final, in which Zhuang Shu asks him to be called “big bro” (something which gives me lots of feels due toThe Disguiser)(◡‿◡✿).
Lu Chen Xi’s mother and stepfather are two beautiful sunshines. Her mother had a terrible car crash, making her sank into a coma (it was Zhuang Shu who saved her life). Lu Chen Xi’s stepfather stayed by her mother’s side all the time, reading to her and being sweet and lovely. Every time they appeared on screen I thought how fortunate was Lu Chen Xi to have such adorable parents. In addition, they were literally their relationship’s go-between, creating chances for them and encouraging Lu Chen Xi to stay together.
In this sense, Zhuang Shu and Lu Chen Xi must also thank Chen Shao Cong (Li Jia Han). As I said before, he started living with them in Lu Chen Xi’s shared flat. He was the perfect mediator when they argued (something that, by the way, happened frequently) and acted like a go-between along with Lu Chen Xi’s parents. My favourite moment was when he impatiently interjected (they wouldn’t let him sleep)in one of their quarrels, telling Lu Chen Xi that Zhuang Shu was acting like that because he saw her with her ex-boyfriend and was jealous.
Chen Shao Cong is also Renhe’s doctor, working in the casualty department. Like Lu Chen Xi to Fu Bo Wen, Chen Shao Cong is Zhong Xi Bei’s (the casualty department director) most talented student. However, Chen Shao Cong isn’t motivated to improve his skills or become a distinguished expert. He is a good and responsible doctor but is often too lazy. Falling in love with his co-worker, nurse Yang Yu, made him want to improve himself and desire to be promoted. In her, he finally found a reason to be a better man.
I think I loved Yang Yu‘s character since the very first moment. After finishing Surgeons, I loved her even more when I realized that her actress was no one else but Lyric Lan. Note: In this point, you must be asking yourself who the hell Lyric Lan is. If you had watched The Classic of Mountains and Seas, you may remember a very annoying and ridiculous girl who pretended to be a “bad guy” (Fu Er) ◔_◔. I didn’t recognize Lyric Lan in any moment of Surgeons, and later I was very surprised to discover she was the same actress who portrayed awful Fu Er. So, congrats to Lyric Lan for having found such a great role, allowing her to show her real skills.
Yang Yu is a strong female figure. She takes care of his mother, who is ill and can’t hardly move. They live in deprivation and Yang Yu must work really hard in order to bring through the situation. In the hospital, she is kind and efficient, willing to help everyone. I believe she had feelings towards Chen Shao Cong for a while, but it got more evident after he broke up with his last girlfriend. Nevertheless, and even when Chen Shao Cong began corresponding to his love, Yang Yu was insecure. She had to consider her mother’s situation and Chen Shao Cong’s lazy personality couldn’t assure a stable future for her. Knowing this, Chen Shao Cong starts working in a project to be promoted and that’s when Yang Yu finally accepts to be with him.
It tore me apart when Zhong Xi Bei died in an accident and Chen Shao Cong blamed himself, falling into depression. He acted like he didn’t care about anything, growing apart from Yang Yu, but she stayed adamant by his side. Deep down, Chen Shao Cong thought he didn’t deserve Yang Yu anymore. When he eventually suggest to break up, Lyric Lan and Li Jia Han portrayed one of my favourite scenes in the series: Yang Yu nods, visibly furious, and just when you think she is accepting Chen Shao Cong’s break up, she approaches and slaps him. Chen Shao Cong is too confused to react, but Yang Yu tells him that they are breaking up because they are marrying. When Chen Shao Cong tries to reject her, she slaps him again, making clear she would continue slapping him until he recover his common sense and be sincere. The whole scene was both funny and dramatic.
Another awesome scene was the arc of the woman who abandoned his newborn. Chen Shao Cong and Yang Yu ran through the whole city, searching in the public toilets for that baby. Yang Yu couldn’t run anymore and Chen Shao Cong was left alone looking for the newborn. She cried when after some time, she saw Chen Shao Cong running towards her carrying the baby. The same night, she confessed she was pregnant and before this happened, she doubted about having an abortion (because they were too young and their economic situation wasn’t the best). However, after seeing Chen Shao Cong saving the baby, she knew he would be an amazing father and decided to keep the child. Chen Shao Cong answered by only saying he couldn’t imagine that the child he saved was actually hisಥ_ಥ
As for Lin Huan (Gao Lu), Zhuang Shu’s sister, she was kidnapped and later abandoned after getting ill. A kind-hearted couple picked her up and took care of her. When she recovered, she couldn’t remember anything about her past and the couple made her believe she was their real daughter. Zhuang Shu actually found her many years ago, but didn’t want to ruin their life by telling her the truth. When Lin Huan’s stepfather went into Renhe, Zhuang Shu did the surgeon that saved his life. Still, her stepfather became infected and eventually died. Lin Huan is sure that his father died for being exposed to a HIV patient and denounces the hospital, starting a legal procedure against Renhe and Zhuang Shu.
She never gets to know her real relationship with Zhuang Shu, but her stepmother recognizes him as Lin Huan’s brother. Maybe since the beginning we were expecting her to find the truth, but Surgeons chooses to let her stay unaware of everything (perhaps ignorance is bliss).
Chu Jun (He Du Juan) was one of Lu Chen Xi’s practice students. She was said to have pulled the strings in order to enter Renhe, and so, Lu Chen Xi has some prejudices towards her. In addition to this, Chu Jun isn’t talented and usually questions her own capacity. Her real talent is drawing, something she uses to cheer up her patients and Zhuang Shu, who becomes her teacher after Lu Chen Xi. Zhuang Shu’s kindness and patience makes her fall in love, but she is rejected because he already fell for Lu Chen Xi. In the end, Chu Jun finds her real vocation: she wants to improve herself and be a good doctor, not to impress Zhuang Shu but to save lives and help people. It’s interesting and somehow poignant to see her character development and how she grew up with every experience and mistake.
The awesome Liu Yi Jun plays the role of Yang Fan, a very ambitious doctor who becomes Renhe’s new director after Fu Bo Wen’s retirement. His actions can be immoral (making deals with medical companies to sell products to his patients, threatening Fu Bo Wen and using Zhuang Shu’s past in his favor…) but we also see his good side when he protects his son (Yang Zi Xuan) and does his duty as a doctor.
Something similar happens with Xiu Min Qi (Chin Shih Chieh). He may be Surgeon’s antagonistic, but in spite of his mistakes and his refusal to admit the truth, he ended up dying in order to save a patient. If only he could have understood before that the end doesn’t justify the means…
Conclusion:
Surgeons dares to show both sides of the coin: the best and the worst of all its characters. Throughout different medical cases, the moral and ethics are challenged. We know what’s right and what’s wrong, but when we get to know the reasons behind some character’s decisions, our judgment can be altered. In other words, not everything is black or white.
I think the conclusion we take from the series is simple but difficult to accomplish: when facing temptations or doubting about your path, remain true to yourself; alwaysstay hungry, stay foolish. The plot is brilliantly written and every actor did his part stunningly.Besides, the soundtrack and scenography reminds me of Li Xue’s previous works: sober, dramatic and intense.
All in all, as expected, director Li Xue never disappoints and Surgeons is surely another must watch.
- Plot: 20/20
- Cast: 20/20
- OST: 10/10
- Scenography: 9/10
- Costume: 9.5/10
- Overall: 9.8/10
