Black Forceps (2018)

I accidentally came across this drama and fell in love with it in an instant and waited impatiently for more episodes to come. The last ep is not out yet, but I wanted to express my thoughts regarding this amazing drama.

This drama is based on a novel and portrays the things happening in a cardiovascular department.

If you are a fan of heroes, you will love this drama as we have a super human doctor who can save any patient by his demonic surgery skills, which seems almost impossible in reality. So, if you expect more of a realistic medical drama, you may not like it, but however, except for the portrayal of a god like doctor who is impossible to exist , all the other things in this drama are realistic as they are happening in reality in the medical field of Japan. Also, I have to say that Nino's ad libs in this drama are awesome. If you are a fan of Nino, you will definitely love this drama and will fall in love with him again and again. His portrayal of Dr. Tokai is really awesome and I wouldn't have enjoyed the drama this crazily if another actor played Dr. Tokai's role. All the actors in this drama are awesome and even the doctor who gave advices for this drama have praised them in his medical commentaries for the drama. I really love the innocent Dr. Sera, bratty nurse Nekota, enigmatic medical coordinator Kinoshita and all the other characters who are either hilarious or annoying.

I have watched all the episodes that have aired so far multiple times. I am drawn to arrogant and cool Tokai sensei who is great in using both scalpel and newest technology in operations and stops at nothing to save lives. The other thing I love is his smirk which really kills me every time he appears on screen.

I am curious about the mystery going on in this drama which has also been able to add depth to it. One can really enjoy this drama except for the hospital politics going on.

Black Pean is so dramatic, and also a bit mysterious as it will let you keep guessing on what will happen next, specially during the surgeries. I also have to say that this is not every one's cup of tea and more like a medical drama combined with mystery and a fantasy doctor. Well, that's my opinion.

Highly recommend this drama for Nino's fans and also for those who love to enjoy watching operations and of course for those who enjoy dramas with a super hero.

This is a drama that I really enjoy these days and hoping for a season 2. So, I would give 10/10 for this.

Edit- Watched the last episode too, even though I am not 100% satisfied with the ending , I loved the drama a lot and the cast too. I will really miss Tokai sensei

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Disclaimer: very pessimistic, contains spoilers

There were 3 main problems with this drama in my opinion.

1. Unrealistic plot
2. Very dramatic directing
3. Way too predictable

I understand having fictitious characters with out-worldly skills and brains, but in that case you cannot make the side characters or antagonists stupid. The gap between the characters is so unbelievably wide that you don't even understand why they're competing. They're not even in the same league! I don't mind Tokai and Saeki being portrayed as characters that are better surgeons that any other character, but they made the other doctors, especially the antagonists, look so stupid that you have no idea how they got their license. Also how were ALL the doctors always watching their surgeries? There is no way there was no other surgery or patient in the hospital at the same time. It just made no sense. I also don't like how Tokai has never let a patient die on the table. I understand they want to make it seem like he has demonic surgery skills, and this is a work of fiction, but there is a difference between fiction and fantasy. Doctors are humans, and patients are also humans who will eventually die. He can be a skilled surgeon with a LOW mortality rate, but not a NO mortality rate because that's implying that he would simply not enter the OR if the patient's condition is beyond saving. I guess this is because he was never the leading surgeon, but still, in a medical drama with human characters, mortality should be portrayed at least once.

The acting was also very dramatic, to which I think is due to the director's requests, considering how much they stared into the camera which is unusual in acting. It's funny that Tokai always has so much time to talk and demand money when the patient is supposedly in critical condition and bleeding dry on the operation table. The tone of the entire drama felt theatrical and dramatic, adding to how unrealistic the drama was.

Because of how stupid they made the side characters, and how repetitive the pattern of each episode was, you don't even get nervous when the patient is supposedly dying anymore. You know that things will go south in the OR, but Tokai will walk in and say 邪魔, demand money and then save the patient. Honestly, other than the forceps x-ray, you can predict the pattern of the rest of the drama just from watching 2 or 3 episodes.

Enough complaining, I just have one thing I liked in this drama. I enjoyed Sera's development. His character felt like a story-narrator considering how little backstory and screen time he has compared to Tokai and Saeki, but the way he improved naturally and unknowingly simply by working with Tokai was nice to see, and his interactions with the nurse (I forgot her name) was kind of cute. I only watched the whole thing because I was challenging myself to watch a medical J-drama with Korean subtitles.

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