The Writings of John Ryan Sullivan

It’s possible Dr. Brain escaped your attention when it was released. It came out during Covid, on Apple TV and received little to no publicity. Directed by Kim Jee-woon (The Good, The Bad and The Weird/I Saw The Devil) Dr. Brain is adapted from a web comic of the same name.

I watched Dr. Brain when it first released and had a mixed reaction to it. This past week I rewatched the show and found myself surprised at a number of things. Perhaps the most shocking surprise was the ending. For some reason I recalled an entirely different, upsetting ending. Another surprise was the general conceit.

Prior to last week I would have summarized the show as, “man with irregular brain develops a technology that allows him to synchronize his brain with other people’s. When an unusual event occurs he uses this technology to solve a mystery.” Which I think is a decent summary of the show and is quite intriguing.

I think that summary leaves out a good deal as well, which this rewatching made clear to me. The main character, Se-won, is a neuroscientist developing a technology to harness quantum entanglement between two brains. As the story progresses we come to understand why he is working on this technology and also why he is uniquely qualified to do so.

While I won’t spoil the first plot point I will address the second: he has a special brain. Se-won has an unusual brain structure that seems to be a cinematic reconfiguring of Autism that makes emotions inaccessible to him but also allows him to have impressive powers of recall. After a childhood accident he is adopted by a brain scientist who nurtures and studies Se-won.

In present day Se-won finds himself in desperate circumstances and skips several years of clinical trials to test his ‘brain synch’ technology on human subjects. Really just one subject, himself. He’s not completely unethical though and like all good mad scientists he starts by using a corpse for his experiment.

What I wish to share about Dr. Brain is that the premise is largely original – in so far as the technology creates unusual and interesting cinematic situations I have not seen before. Rewatching the show made clear to me how many of these moments and concepts I took for granted on my first viewing.

One example of this is depending on the status of the other brain (alive/dead/comatose) Se-won has a different experience (and lasting repercussions) of the ‘brain sync’. Which is where the exciting parts of this story take place.

Dr. Brain is an interesting show which has elements of Frankenstein and Fight Club. I particularly enjoy the performance from Lee Sun-kyun as Se-won. Are there parts that I blocked out in-between viewings? Yes, largely involving the police and their investigation. Somehow this show nails my favorite things about science fiction (if you explain the premise matter-of-factly then whatever it is can exist and work in your world – see An American Pickle for a great example of this) and fails at the mundane things (how police officers behave and investigate crimes).

As a whole the show works and is interesting. I certainly haven’t seen this story told in this way before. I think I am reeling, in part, because this is the third show/movie I’ve rewatched recently and had an entirely different experience of. It’s disconcerting to say the least and makes me less confident in making bold declarative statements about anything (and makes me question my own brain and how ‘special’ it may be.