Priest: The Korean Drama That Brings Exorcism Into the Hospital
At South Catholic Hospital, doctors are dealing with patients who have symptoms that medicine cannot explain.
Doctor Ham Eun-ho finds herself caught up in a series of supernatural events involving two Catholic priests, Oh Soo-min and Moon Ki-sun. The priests belong to an unofficial exorcist group called 634 Regia, and they work to protect people from evil spirits.
That is the setup for Priest, a 2018 OCN drama that brings medical drama and Catholic exorcism together. The series stars Yeon Woo-jin, Jung Yu-mi, and Park Yong-woo.
A Doctor and Two Exorcists
The three main characters approach the supernatural from very different backgrounds.
Oh Soo-min, played by Yeon Woo-jin, became an exorcist after losing his mother to a demonic possession. He was trained by Father Moon Ki-sun, played by Park Yong-woo, and became part of 634 Regia, an unofficial group that performs exorcisms.
Ham Eun-ho, played by Jung Yu-mi, works as a doctor at South Catholic Hospital. Her medical training gives her a completely different way of looking at the strange cases appearing around her.
Their differences become especially important when patients begin showing symptoms that cannot easily be explained.
When Medicine Meets Exorcism
The hospital setting gives Priest its central concept.
The drama follows supernatural incidents taking place at a Catholic hospital, with doctors and exorcists working together to save patients. OCN described the series as a “medical exorcism” drama, combining the medical and exorcism genres within the same story.
Eun-ho approaches her patients through medicine and evidence. Soo-min and Ki-sun recognize signs of possession and use Catholic rituals to confront them.
Neither side has all the answers.
That tension gives the hospital scenes another layer. A patient’s condition can lead to questions about both their physical health and the possibility of something supernatural.
Soo-min’s Connection to 634 Regia
Soo-min’s personal history is closely tied to the work he does.
His mother was possessed by an evil spirit and died after she was unable to receive an exorcism. That experience led him to train under Moon Ki-sun and eventually become an exorcist himself.
His work with 634 Regia also puts him in situations where the stakes are personal. The group exists outside the normal structures of the Catholic Church, and its members perform exorcisms to protect people from supernatural threats.
For Soo-min, the work comes with memories of what happened to his mother and a determination to prevent other families from experiencing the same loss.
The Horror Comes From Losing Someone
When Priest was introduced in 2018, director Kim Jong-hyun described the series as being less concerned with frightening audiences through evil itself and more interested in the fear of losing someone you love.
That idea runs through the drama’s supernatural storyline.
The exorcisms provide the horror, but the characters have personal reasons for taking those risks. Soo-min’s history with his mother is one example, while the relationships between the doctors, priests, patients, and their families give the supernatural cases an emotional dimension.
The result is a story where saving someone from possession can be just as important as understanding what caused it.
A Different Kind of Korean Horror Drama
Priest arrived shortly after OCN’s The Guest, another 2018 supernatural series centered on exorcism.
The two dramas approach the subject differently. The Guest draws heavily from Korean shamanism, while Priest takes its inspiration from Catholic exorcism and Western supernatural horror. The production team specifically highlighted that distinction when discussing the series.
That makes Priest a useful watch for viewers interested in Korean supernatural dramas but looking for a Catholic setting and a medical storyline.
Watch Priest
Priest originally aired from November 24, 2018, to January 20, 2019, with 16 episodes. Amasian TV currently lists all 16 episodes with English captions.
The cast includes Yeon Woo-jin, Jung Yu-mi, and Park Yong-woo.
If you like Korean dramas involving exorcism, supernatural mysteries, hospitals, and horror, Priest brings those elements together through the story of a doctor and two priests trying to protect their patients from forces they cannot treat with medicine alone.
The Liar and His Lover: A K-Drama Where Music and Romance Collide
Kang Han-gyeol makes his living writing music for Crude Play, one of Korea’s popular idol bands. He keeps his identity as the band’s composer hidden from the public and spends most of his time working behind the scenes.
Then he meets Yoon So-rim, a high school student with a voice that immediately catches his attention. So-rim has been singing with her two childhood friends for years, and the three eventually get the chance to pursue music professionally.
That meeting sets up The Liar and His Lover, a 2017 Korean drama about first love, songwriting, and the complicated world behind the music industry.
Han-gyeol and So-rim
Han-gyeol has spent years working with Crude Play. He previously played bass for the group before leaving shortly before its debut, eventually becoming the composer behind many of the band’s songs.
So-rim first meets him without knowing about his connection to Crude Play. Han-gyeol also keeps parts of his own life from her, creating a relationship built around information that neither of them fully understands at first.
So-rim’s feelings for him grow while she continues pursuing her own musical ambitions.
The relationship also becomes more complicated as their careers begin to overlap.
MUSH&Co. Enters the Music Industry
So-rim and her friends eventually form MUSH&Co., giving them the opportunity to turn the music they have made together into a career.
Their introduction to the industry changes their lives quickly. Recording, performances, management, and expectations from the people around them become part of their daily routine.
Han-gyeol has experience with this world from a very different position. His work involves composing and producing songs, while So-rim is learning what it means to perform them in front of an audience.
Their different experiences with music become an important part of the story.
Crude Play’s Story
Crude Play has its own problems running alongside So-rim’s career.
Han-gyeol’s history with the group continues to affect his relationship with the members, particularly Seo Chan-young, who took over as bassist after Han-gyeol left.
The band’s public image also becomes increasingly difficult to maintain as problems inside the group begin to surface. Later episodes bring the group’s relationships and professional choices into sharper focus, including a controversy surrounding live performances and the band’s use of substitute musicians.
This gives the drama another storyline beyond Han-gyeol and So-rim’s relationship.
Joy’s Music Is Part of the Drama
Joy, who makes her acting debut as So-rim, also performs several songs for the drama.
One of the notable tracks is “Yeowooya,” a cover of The Classic’s 1995 song. The song is performed by So-rim and was released as part of the drama’s soundtrack.
Joy also performs “I’m OK” with Lee Hyun-woo, who plays Han-gyeol. The soundtrack gives the two characters another way to express their relationship as the story develops.
The music is closely tied to So-rim’s character and her development as a singer, making the OST an important part of the series.
Based on a Japanese Manga
The Liar and His Lover is based on Kotomi Aoki’s manga Kanojo wa Uso o Aishisugiteru.
The manga began publication in 2009 and was previously adapted into a Japanese live-action film in 2013. The Korean drama brings the story into the Korean music industry while keeping the central relationship between a secretive musician and a young singer.
16 Episodes of Romance and Music
The Liar and His Lover originally aired in 2017 and has 16 episodes. Amasian TV currently lists all 16 episodes with English captions.
The cast includes Lee Hyun-woo, Joy, Song Kang, Sung Joo, Lee Jung-jin, Choi Min-soo, and Jang Ki-yong.
For viewers interested in K-dramas about music, the series brings together romance, songwriting, idol groups, and the work that happens behind a stage performance.
Watch The Liar and His Lover
The Liar and His Lover follows Han-gyeol and So-rim as their relationship develops alongside their growing involvement in the music ind
Circle: The Korean Sci-Fi Mystery That Connects Two Worlds
Some Korean dramas give you one mystery to solve. Circle: Two Worlds Connected gives you two.
The 2017 tvN drama follows two stories separated by 20 years. In 2017, university student Kim Woo-jin becomes involved in a strange series of events surrounding an alien and a mysterious death. In 2037, veteran detective Kim Joon-hyuk investigates a murder inside Smart Earth, a futuristic city where crime has supposedly been eliminated.
What makes Circle interesting is that these aren’t simply two separate timelines. The drama deliberately builds them as connected pieces of the same mystery.
Two Stories, One Mystery
The first half of Circle takes place in 2017, where Woo-jin is a university student studying neuroscience. His twin brother, Kim Beom-gyoon, becomes obsessed with an alien conspiracy after a series of unexplained events, eventually pulling Woo-jin into the investigation.
Then the drama jumps forward to 2037.
Twenty years later, Kim Joon-hyuk, played by Kim Kang-woo, is a detective in General Earth. He enters Smart Earth after its supposedly crime-free society experiences a mysterious murder. Instead of simply solving the case, Joon-hyuk becomes increasingly interested in the company behind Smart Earth and what is really happening inside the futuristic city.
That setup gives Circle its central hook: how does a mystery from 2017 connect to a murder in 2037?
The Drama’s Unusual “Double Track” Format
One of the most interesting things about Circle is actually its structure.
Rather than using a conventional time-travel story, the drama tells its two stories within the same episode. tvN described the format as a “double-track” drama: one part follows the 2017 story, while the other follows events in 2037. The two narratives are separated by time but connected through their characters and technology.
That makes the audience pay attention to details in both timelines.
A clue introduced in one story can change how you look at something happening in the other. Characters also take on different roles as the story moves between the two periods, creating another layer to the mystery.
It’s less about watching the past eventually become the future and more about putting two halves of a puzzle together at the same time.
What Happens When Technology Can Control Emotion?
The 2037 storyline is where Circle moves beyond a straightforward mystery.
Smart Earth is built around the idea that people’s emotions can be controlled. Its society is designed to reduce the things that cause unhappiness, crime, and conflict. On paper, it sounds almost utopian.
But the drama asks a much more uncomfortable question: if you could eliminate negative emotions, would you actually be happier?
tvN’s own description of the series frames this as one of its central ideas. The drama imagines a society where human emotions are controlled and asks what that would mean for happiness and, ultimately, what makes people human.
That gives the sci-fi elements some weight beyond futuristic technology and alien mysteries. Circle is interested in whether removing pain also means removing something essential from human experience.
A K-Drama Built Around Questions
Circle works best when you don’t know exactly where the mystery is going.
The drama keeps introducing questions around the alien, Woo-jin’s missing brother, Smart Earth, lost memories, and the people behind the technology connecting the two worlds. Even the official episode descriptions repeatedly shift the characters’ understanding of what happened and who they can trust.
That makes it a good choice for viewers who enjoy Korean dramas where the mystery itself is part of the experience.
And with only 12 episodes, Circle doesn’t require the kind of long commitment that comes with many Korean dramas. Amasian TV currently lists all 12 episodes of Circle: Two Worlds Connected.
Watch Circle: Two Worlds Connected
If you’re looking for a Korean drama that mixes science fiction, mystery, crime, aliens, futuristic technology, and questions about human emotion, Circle takes an unusual approach.
Instead of slowly building toward a single future timeline, it gives you two stories at once and asks you to figure out how they fit together.