Healer | K-Drama | Don’t Mess With the Baby Bears

Healer is a K-drama series that was released in 2014. Even though it is almost 10 years since its release Korean drama fans on social sites around the web are still buzzing about it. No doubt it’s because of the three (3) main characters. As soon as you meet them, you instantly become their cheerleader.

Healer can be categorized as a suspense/thriller, action, and romantic comedy. It is so popular that the story will be adapted into a webtoon version.

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Two Baby Bears and an Uncle

There are 3 main characters in this exciting series.

• Kim Mun-ho (played by Yoo Ji-tae) is a TV reporter who tells the truth. He works for a well-known news media company that his brother owns. His brother tries to control what he reports. But once the broadcast is live and he speaking directly to the listening viewers, it’s too late for his words to be “censored”.
• Chae Young-shin / Oh Ji-an (played by Park Min-young) is a young inexperienced reporter who works for an Internet news company. Reporter Kim Mun-ho is her role model and she dreams of being just like him. She was adopted and believes her real parents are dead. Her father died but her real mother is still alive. Her mother and Kim Mun-ho were told that she died. However, when Kim Mun-ho discovered that her grave was empty, he starts searching for her.
• Seo Jung-hu / Park Bong-soo / Code Name: Healer (played by Ji Chang-wook) ~ Healer is the code name for a courier/errand guy who does “special jobs”. His clients don’t know his identity and he does not know who they are. The job is to deliver the person or package and receive payment for delivery. This means he does not know that Kim Mun-ho hired him to collect Chae Young-shin’s DNA so that he could confirm the mother/daughter relationship. It also means Kim Mun-ho does not know Healer’s identity.

Actually, Kim Mun-ho does know Chae Young-shin and Healer, i.e. the “two baby bears”. He knows their real names are Oh Ji-an and Seo Jung-hu, and also knows their parents. They have no memory of him, but he used to babysit them for their parents. Their relationship was close and he was more like an “uncle”.

Who Are the Mama Bears and Papa Bears?

In the 1980s, there was an idealistic pro-democracy group of 5 college kids called the Pirate Broadcast Team. They were 4 men and a woman who wanted to report THE TRUTH to the public about matters that the “farmers” wanted to be kept hidden. The “farmers” are puppeteers who operate a type of shadow government. They place certain people in political offices and businesses and they take orders from “The Elder”. The farmers were dangerous but the Pirates were fearless.

The mama bears and the papa bears are 2 couples who each had a child: one couple had a boy and the other couple had a girl. One day the farmers sent people to eliminate the Pirate Broadcast Team. That’s the truth.

But the official report said one male member killed the other male member and then committed suicide. That eliminated the 2 papa bears.

What happened to the 2 mama bears?

• One mama bear was badly injured and ended up in a wheelchair.
• The other mama bear was so afraid for her son’s safety that she cut ties and left him with his grandmother.

What about the 2 remaining male members of the Team?

• One male member went to jail.
• One male member sold his soul to “The Elder”.

They closed the case as a murder-suicide because he provided false testimony.  Then he married his friend’s wife and led her to believe her daughter was dead.

After the Team member was released from prison, he confronted his friend who had betrayed them and warned him: “Don’t mess with the baby bears!”

Viewership and Ratings

There were 3 main characters, but without a doubt, Ji Chang-wook was the star of this show. He is a very versatile actor. In Healer, he is very athletic, and a skilled martial artist who is almost like Superman. He even disguises himself as a timid mild-mannered reporter named Park Bong-soo, similar to Clark Kent (Superman’s disguise). By contrast, in The Sound of Magic (2022) he plays a mysterious magician who can convince any unbeliever to believe in magic. Plus he sings! From an action star to a musical? If you want to watch him in a historical period drama, he played a lead role in Empress Ki (2013). That’s versatility.

Healer is 20 episodes, currently streaming on Viki.com. Over 86,000 viewers in this audience have given the series a rating of 9.7 out of 10 stars. I agree.

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