Synopsis

What happens when a psychiatrist falls in love with a patient and slowly helps him heal himself by recovering his repressed memories? Slowly she begins to recover her own repressed memories as well and they both realize that their fates are deeply intertwined. 

Cha Do Hyun

Cha Do Hyun (Ji Sung) has been living in America for quite some time, but now he is coming back to Korea. The only problem, he must disguise the fact that he has D.I.D from his family.  D.I.D is dissociative identity disorder, a mental disorder in which a person forms multiple distinct personalities, typically in response to past trauma. Cha Do Hyun has 6 additional distinct personalities that he has split into. 

Shin Se Gi - A “badass” created to deal with the crippling sense of fear. He handles fear and tough decisions. He has “swag” and charm, but does not like authority and definitely does not handle being told “no” well. 

Perry Park - a bomb making, fun-loving drinker who wants to own a boat. He likes Hawaiian shirts, dancing, and making bombs. This is an embodiment of the lifestyle his father loved without the politics and the business, the freedom to choose what to do and where to go. 

Ahn Yo Sub - a 17-year-old who wants to commit suicide. He likes reading and listening to music. Like most 17-year-olds, he wears headphones around his neck. Do Hyun created Yo Sub when he was first 17 after his first attempt at suicide. 

Ahn Yo Na - a 17 year only girl who wants to do what many 17-year-old girls do…wear lipstick and dress pretty. She appears when Do Hyun is put in extremely stressful situations full of pressure. She is Ahn Yo Sub’s twin sister. 

Na Na - you don’t really meet Na Na until the end, but she appears and leaves an image of a bear wherever she appears, it is later determined that she is the embodiment of the bear, and not the girl playing with the bear. 

Mr. X - NaNa’s father. 

All of his personalities have a reason for their being and you learn more about each character throughout the story. Each piece is beautiful and unique in their own being. 

Cha Do Hyun has the experience of meeting Oh Ri Jin (Hwang Jung-eum) when she is going to Club Paradise to collect her escaped patient. The patient meets Cha Do Hyun first and convinces him that Oh Ri Jin is the patient and to hold onto her while she escapes the club. Oh Ri Jin flips him causing him to hit his head and he switches into Shin Se Gi. After beating up a biker for his jacket and earrings in the bathroom, Shin Se Gi runs into Oh Ri Jin outside and declares his love for her at precisely 10:00 pm. Shin Se Gi and the biker gang get into a huge fight because of the jacket, and she takes him to the hospital. It isn’t until they are at the hospital and Cha Do Hyun walks right past her that she realizes something is weird about his character.

Cha Do Hyun is the only living son of Joon Pyo, who is currently in a coma for an unknown reason. His grandmother makes him the Vice President of ID Entertainment at the company. However, his grandmother and mother do not know that he currently suffers from DID, so he looks for a secret psychiatrist/physician to help treat him. Luckily for him, the psychiatrist that treated him at John Hopkins has just relocated back to Korea and has several students, one of them is none other than first year, Oh Ri Jin. 

Oh Ri Jin decides to be his secret physician and moves in with him to help him find healing and treatment. While living with Cha Do Hyun she gets to experience all of his various personalities. She acts as his secretary at the company so she is able to be with him throughout the day and monitor any “switches” into the various personalities he may have, and try to keep him clear from his family. Along the path to his recovery, they both realize that they are in each other’s story. His story is also hers, and she too uncovers past memories that she forgot long ago from her early childhood. 

Breathtaking 

One of the most breathtaking moments of “Kill Me, Heal Me” is when Cha Do Hyun has a breakdown at work and switches into Ahn Yo Sub. Well, Oh Ri Jin cannot seem to find him and searches for him frantically. She finds him on the roof of a building where he has graffitied the most beautiful display of each character and their name, along with the phrase “Kill Me” in red spray paint. She convinces him not to commit suicide and screams for Cha Do Hyun, which brings him back. Cha Do Hyun admits that he could hear her calling for him and came out because of that call. On the way to the airport, she stops by the scene and clears the snow off the images of each person and uses white spray paint and changes “Kill Me” to “Heal Me”, hence the title. But this moment was so beautiful because you realize all the pain that Cha Do Hyun feels and what he really wants is to feel whole again.  He actually refers to himself as broken several times. This is why she decides to stay and work as his physician, so she can try to heal him. 

Love Triangle

There is also a love triangle between Cha Do Hyun, Oh Ri Jin, and her portrayed twin brother Oh Ri On (Park Seo Joon). When Oh Ri Jin was younger she was adopted to Oh Ri On’s family and portrayed as his twin sister. Unfortunately, though, Oh Ri On catches feelings for her and tries to shelter her and protect her from the dangers in her world and her nightmares by turning them into comical stories. Oh Ri On is a writer who goes by the pseudonym Omega.  He has used stories of his and her past and turned them into best-selling novels. He tells Cha Do Hyun about the story of “The Girl in the Basement,” a story about a boy and a girl who are both scared of the basement. Oh Ri On uses this story to try to intimidate Cha Do Hyun away from Oh Ri Jin. In the story, the little girl is scared of basements, and so the parents make the girl do errands in the basements to help her lose her fear. But because she is afraid, she asks her brother to go with her each time. He pretends to be scared of basements because she is scared and realizes it is because he loves her that he pretends to be scared and wants to hold her hand and be with her. 

Final verdict: MUST WATCH  

There are so many cool moments in this story that make “Kill Me, Heal Me” a MUST WATCH, if just to see Park Seo Joon get kissed by Ji Sung (Oppa)! The acting in this series is amazing! Ji Sung plays each character so brilliantly. He really makes you believe that he is each individual character from the body language, vocal intonation, and characterization. It is amazing. There are times you look at Cha Do Hyun and really see Ahn Yo Na, and watching him portray a 17-old girl is totally worth it in my book. “If you're handsome you’re my oppa.”  And I can’t even comment on how good the main leads go together because they are in several series together, their chemistry is amazing.  “Kill Me, Heal Me” has an all-star cast that includes the assistant, Ahn Gook, played by Choi Won Young, who also stars with Hwang Jung Eum in “Mystic Pop-Up Bar.” The story is one that will have you saying OH My Gosh. Also, the music in this story is amazing! It doesn’t have very many songs, but they are so good! Park Seo Joon even sings one of them for the OST. They match the flow and rhythm of the story perfectly, a great blend. It’s one of my favorites. This drama has it all - comedy, romance, a love triangle, a killer soundtrack, and even suspense. I can’t tell you to stop what you are doing because you are going to want to pick a weekend, so pick a good weekend and get ready to order some pizza or Chinese food and binge watch this 20-episode drama.  If you are anything like me, once you get started, it will be so hard to stop.

So there it is, our review of “Kill Me, Heal Me.”  What did you think?!  Thank you for joining us on this journey. 

Have a favorite K-drama you think we should review, comment down below!!  We look forward to seeing you back again next week!

Up next, “More Than Friends”