The new drama from Heirs writer, Kim Eun-sook, premiered last week and it is everything a Kim Eun-sook drama should be.
Instant attraction, check.
Explosive chemistry between leads, check.
Cheesy, cringe-worthy dialogue, check.
Exotic locations, check.
OST that becomes an earworm, check and check.
The story centers around two couples, Yoo Si-jin (played by Song Joong-ki) and Kang Mo-yeon (played by Song Hye-gyo), and Seo Dae-young (played by Jin Gu) and Yoon Myeong-ju (played by Kim Ji-won).
Si-jin and Dae-young are soldiers in the Korean army, Mo-yeon is a regular doctor and Myeong-ju is an army doctor.
It all started when Si-jin and Dae-young were on leave from the army and they run into a pickpocket who is being chased. Dae-young and Si-jin stop the thief’s getaway on a motorbike by firing pellets at him. When he falls off the bike, the two men go to help him dress his wounds and send him to the ER. Unknowingly to them, the thief pickpockets Dae-young’s cellphone. They only discover this later when they are sitting in a cafe and Myeong-ju calls Si-jin because she can’t get through to Dae-young. Dae-young and Myeong-ju are in the middle of a break-up due to her father opposing their relationship. Her father is the Commander and Myeong-ju outranks Dae-young (she’s a lieutenant and he’s a major sergeant).
In the ER, Mo-yeon confiscates the cellphone when the thief tries to run away twice. She gets a call from ‘Big Boss’ and assumes it must be the gangsters who roughed her patients up. Big Boss is Si-jin’s nickname though. Mo-yeon is also in the middle of contending against the hospital director’s daughter for a fellowship.
When the men arrive at the hospital to find the thief, they realize that he has already run away again. Si-jin calls up Dae-young’s phone and Mo-yeon answers. He takes one look at her and is instantly smitten. He tries to get her attention but she doesn’t mind him because she thinks he’s a gangster. She tells them that she tried to cure her patient but he ran away twice and so they have to pay for consultation fees. Dae-young and Si-jin are asked to leave because Mo-yeon has to attend to a patient so they go outside to try to find the thief. He hadn’t gotten far since he was really injured but he is being beaten by gangsters behind the hospital because he’s trying to leave the life behind but he can’t afford the exit fees. Si-jin says they need not get involved but Dae-young refuses, he knows what the kid must be going through since he once suffered the same himself. Dae-young offers the gangsters his wallet and all the money in it for the thief’s ransom, if they can take the wallet from him that is. They try, but Dae-young quickly thrashes two of them at once. Si-jin tells them to take out all their weapons and then cowers behind Dae-young when they do. He’s being cheeky though since they easily beat up all the gangsters, Dae-young smacking them around with his wallet and Si-jin knocking their heads together.
While all this is going on, Myeong-ju arrives at the ER worried about Dae-young since she had gotten a call that the owner of the cellphone was in the hospital. She runs into Mo-yeon, who turns out to be her medical school senior. They aren’t enemies but there is no love lost between them. According to Mo-yeon, Myeong-ju had stolen her crush back in school. The men bring back the thief, whose name is Ki-beom, and ask Mo-yeon to take care of him. She says she’s going to report them to the police and Si-jin knocks the phone out of her hand and tries to tell her that he’s a soldier not a gangster. Myeong-ju and Dae-young run into each other and Myeong-ju is upset that she hasn’t been able to reach him all this time, he tells her that they’re over and Myeong-ju cries. Si-jin brings Mo-yeon over to Myeong-ju and asks that she confirms that they are indeed soldiers but Myeong-ju is still feeling hurt so she says that they’re dishonourable soldiers and walks away.
Si-jin has no choice but to request that they view the CCTV evidence of what happened and Mo-yeon adorably fangirls and cheers as Si-jin in the video beats up the gangsters. She apologizes afterwards for misunderstanding him and he says it’s fine as long as she treats his wound. He pulls up his shirt to reveal a stab wound he had gotten before, the stitches have ripped open because of the fight with the gangsters and she agrees to stitch him up. He gets all flirty and asks if he can come back to the hospital to see her again and she tells him that disinfection doesn’t really need a doctor’s attention. He tells her that he needs her not her medical skills, “Doctors don’t have boyfriends since they are always so busy, right?” She smiles back at him and replies “Soldiers don’t have girlfriends since it’s so dangerous.” She agrees to go out with him.
Dae-young pays Ki-beom’s bills and Ki-beom is grateful, he asks Dae-young how he managed to get away from the gangsters and Dae-young tells him that he went away to somewhere they couldn’t follow him i.e. the army.
A few days later, Si-jin calls Mo-yeon up and while they’re talking about his health, he casually slips in an invitation for a movie which she agrees to. He goes to meet her at the hospital and while he waits, he sees on the news that UN officials have been kidnapped. He gets a call from his superior and he has to leave immediately. Just when it seems like he and Mo-yeon are going to miss each other (he’s getting on an elevator, she’s getting off), he calls her and asks her to meet him on the roof of the hospital. She arrives and so does an helicopter, here to take Si-jin to his mission. He takes her by the shoulders and apologizes for leaving her, he asks to reschedule their date and when Mo-yeon seems to hesitate, he tells her that he needs her answer immediately since he doesn’t have much time. “Do you wanna or no?” He asks. She nods firmly, “Sure thing.” She replies and he smiles, gets into the helicopter and leaves.
Mo-yeon is off-duty finally, so she leaves to get ready for her date with Si-jin, only he arrives early and totally sees the mess that she is. He takes her home and waits while she gets ready. When she’s done, they have dinner and they flirt back and forth, she’s saying things like “don’t touch the candle, I calculated how to strategically place it so I’m lit up beautifully.” I can’t even understand how she can say that with a straight face. Afterwards, they go to the movie they didn’t get to see before, but just before the movie starts, Si-jin is called away again. Mo-yeon tells him to leave that she’ll just watch the movie on her own, but as soon as he does she gets a call from her hospital junior who tells her that they picked the hospital director’s daughter over her for the fellowship and she is rightfully angry. She can’t stomach any more of the gloating of the girl and they get into a hair-grabbing, face-scratching cat fight. The other doctors have to pull them off each other and the girl tells her to memorize a script since she has to go on TV in her place the next day. Mo-yeon retires to an empty corridor and tries to memorize the script but she’s crying and that makes it difficult for her.
Commander Yoon informs the men that he is giving them a two week break before sending them on an eight month ‘holiday’ i.e. a regular ol’ mission not a dangerous frontline one. Si-jin watches Mo-yeon on TV and is so proud of her. Later that night, they meet in front of her house. They head to a cafe to talk and he apologizes for leaving her on their date. She says she wants an explanation not an apology but he can’t tell her anything because of national secrets. She explains how different their ideologies are and figures it possibly won’t work out between them so they have no choice but to stop before they even start. Si-jin can’t argue with that so they go their separate ways.
We go to eight months later, the men have been transferred to Urk (a fictional war-torn country) and Mo-yeon is now a very well-known TV doctor and a favourite among the VIP patients at the hospital. She returns to the rooftop and reminisces about Si-jin, while on the other side of the world, Si-jin tries to shovel and gets hurt because the handle breaks off. He laughs that he actually got hurt from shoveling this time since Mo-yeon had said how impossible that was before.
The hospital is abuzz because everyone is talking about volunteering for a peace-keeping mission to Urk as part of the Doctors-without-Borders team. Mo-yeon is propositioned by the hospital chairman so she beats him with her purse. Later she agonizes to her friend and hopes she doesn’t get fired. The chairman doesn’t fire her but sends her to Urk as punishment. At the airport in Urk, Mo-yeon takes a call from the chairman who tells her it’s not too late to beg for forgiveness, she says out-loud that she’s quitting when she returns to Korea and goes on to let everyone know just how much of a slimeball he is. She hangs up and a plane lands, out steps Si-jin and his troop and Si-jin just walks past her.
Blogger’s Note
I’m already in love with this show. I was worried about a few things before I started watching, things like how Kim Ji-won would look next to Jin Gu since she’s actually a lot younger than him in real life, or if I’d be able to like Song Hye-gyo’s character since I really didn’t like her acting in her previous drama. I had no worries about the writer since I’ve loved most of her work. I’m pleased to say that so far, descendants of the sun does not disappoint. It’s beautifully directed and all the actors are doing their very best in portraying their characters. The awesome chemistry between all the actors is also an added bonus. Here’s to hoping that it continues to be good until the very end and if not, I’m pulling a captain of the titanic and going down with this ship.
My Favourite Things 