Lee Jong Suk Is Developing His Bedside Manner

Lee Jong Suk is the latest k-drama actor to study medicine for long enough to play a convincing doctor. The actor will not just play any doctor in the upcoming drama "Doctor Stranger" but a genius doctor who is also a North Korean defector.

And that means he will have to memorize some complicated medical jargon and make it sound as if he understands every word.

In studying medical jargon and techniques he follows in the footpath of Joo Won and Moon Chae Won in "Good Doctor," Kim Hee Sun in "Faith: The Great Doctor" and Choi Jin Hyuk and Song Ji Hyo in "Emergency Couple."

Those actors all did a good job of looking the part and saying their lines, even if the jargon spoken in medical k-dramas often seems uninformed. Some medical k-dramas are so casual about their medical terminology that it seems as if the scriptwriters did not consult an actual doctor. Of the recent medical dramas, the one that may have best captured accurate medical jargon and provided the most realistic descriptions of medical conditions was "Emergency Couple."

To prepare for his role in  "Doctor Stranger," Lee Jong Suk could learn a thing or two from watching that drama. In "Doctor Stranger" he plays Park Hoon. He and his father were kidnapped and taken to North Korea when he was a child. When he lived in the north, he tended wealthy North Koreans and was known to be the best doctor there. He begins working at South Korea's top university but feels like an outsider. He will do whatever it takes to earn money to bring the girl he loves from the north.

Park Hae Jin, last seen in "You Who Came From The Stars," plays a doctor who graduated from Harvard. Jin Se Yeon, last seen in "Inspiring Generation," plays his girlfriend.

Lee Jong Suk has been taking lessons in surgical skills so that he looks convincing wielding a scalpel. He has also read the script several times so that he won't be tripped up by the complicated medical terms.

Stills from the drama show him in a white surgical coat standing before a picture of North Korean leader Kim Jung Un. He certainly looks the part in his white doctor's coat and it's easy enough to believe he is a genius. But will he able to deliver his lines with a confident voice?

Which k-drama actors do you think made the best k-drama doctors? What did you think of Joo Sang Wook in Medical Top Team, Ji Sung in "New Heart" or "So Ji Sub in "Cain and Abel?"

Or how about Park Gun Hyung in "I Do I Do?" Let us know.