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| Image of the drama’s promotional poster from the drama’s official website (JTBC), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
JTBC’s recent medical drama Doctor Cha (닥터 차정숙) is the heartwarming story of fortysomething stay-at-home mom Cha Jeong-suk (played by Uhm Jung-hwa) who decides to resume her medical training and pursue her career as a doctor two decades after giving up her studies to take care of her children. That main plot alone would have been interesting enough to draw in viewers, and the leads give excellent performances, especially Kim Byung-chul as Dr. Cha’s hilariously pathetic cheating husband. But, in my opinion, what made the drama so successful was that it focused on Dr. Cha’s family broadly, developing even the supporting characters in a way that highlighted the sense of family. It’s Dr. Cha’s decision to resume her training that sets the events in motion, but over the course of 16 episodes, each member of her circle gets enough screen time to show what they are going through and how they are growing as people because of the challenges they are facing. At the end of the story, their family dynamic looks quite different than it did at the beginning, but the characters are still unmistakably that: a family.
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| Dr. Cha spent over two decades as a stay-at-home mom, but after a health crisis, she realizes that she wants to do something different, for her own personal fulfillment and happiness. Her decision to resume her medical training takes her family by surprise, and she faces opposition from most of them. Photo taken from the drama’s official website (JTBC), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
After she got married, Dr. Cha became the perfect daughter-in-law, attentively taking care of her in-laws while being very involved in her children’s education. Her mother-in-law, Kwak Ae-sim, seems to both expect and take for granted everything that Dr. Cha does for the family, and she does not react well when Dr. Cha decides to pursue work outside the home. What I found interesting was Mrs. Kwak’s relationship with Dr. Cha’s mother, Oh Deok-rye. Mrs. Kwak tends to be selfish, snobby and demanding, while Mrs. Oh is very down-to-earth, calm and patient. The two move in very different social circles, and you couldn’t call them friends, but due to their children’s marriage, they have had a family connection for over two decades, and they treat each other respectfully. Over the course of the 16 episodes, we see how they take care of each other in little ways, like when Mrs. Kwak is diagnosed with thyroid cancer and must undergo surgery. Everyone else in the family (who are all doctors) acts like her situation is no big deal, because the cancer is very treatable and the operation simple. Mrs. Kwak is, understandably, upset about her situation and she feels like no one is taking it seriously. When Mrs. Oh visits her in the hospital and brings her food, she is extremely grateful that someone saw that she was in distress and offered her support. When Mrs. Kwak later faces another crisis and doesn’t know where to turn, she seeks out Mrs. Oh, instinctively knowing that she can be counted on. Mrs. Oh gives Mrs. Kwak honest advice about how to change her behaviour so that she and the rest of her family can live happier lives.
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| Park Joon-geum plays Dr. Cha’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Kwak, who goes through various crises during the story. Photo taken from the drama’s official website (JTBC), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
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| Kim Mi-kyung plays Dr. Cha’s mother, Mrs. Oh, who notices when her fellow mother-in-law Mrs. Kwak is in distress and makes sure she knows there is someone there for her. Photo taken from the drama’s official website (JTBC), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
Dr. Cha’s family includes not only the older generation, but the younger one as well, and her future daughter-in-law is another character who conveys the sense of family in this drama. Although she is not yet officially a member of the family–the couple hasn’t even publicly announced their relationship yet–Jeon So-ra shows that she can be counted on to be there for both her boyfriend and his mother, Dr. Cha. Without changing her brusque personality or saying things she doesn’t mean because that’s what people expect to hear, she finds a way to relate to Dr. Cha’s family. The relationship between the two women will be very different from Dr. Cha’s relationship with her mother-in-law Mrs. Kwak, but they have understanding and compassion for each other, a solid foundation on which to build over the years.
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| Jo Ah-ram plays Dr. Cha’s coworker and future daughter-in-law, Jeon So-ra. In this scene, So-ra shows that she understands that Dr. Cha is going through a difficult time, and she takes her for a drive so that she can get her mind off of her troubles. Photo taken from the drama’s official website (JTBC), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
I called Doctor Cha a medical drama, but it is also, and perhaps primarily, a family drama–one whose characters face challenges, reexamine their relationships, and find news ways of being a family.
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