MBC’s upcoming medical drama Hospital Ship has found its leads in Ha Ji-won (The Time I’ve Loved You) and CN Blue’s Kang Min-hyuk (Entertainer), who are in final negotiations to headline. Ha Ji-won was attached to the project early on while the search was a bit longer to find her leading man; an offer went out to Choi Jin-hyuk, but he ended up declining. It seems like a big jump in age and image for the hero to go from Choi Jin-hyuk to Kang Min-hyuk, especially since they were co-stars in Heirs where Choi Jin-hyuk played the older brother and Kang Min-hyuk was one of the high school kids. But I suppose now they could age the character down to be more of the puppy rookie doctor? I would believe that.
The warm human drama is about a medical ship that travels around to service tiny rural islands where there are no hospitals, and will focus on the growth of the young doctors who work there. Ha Ji-won has been cast to play a surgeon who boards the ship to run away from her life after her family faces public ruin. Kang Min-hyuk will play a doctor of internal medicine with a warm heart and a particularly strong sense of empathy—he’s able to read how others feel before they tell him, and knows how to comfort them.
I generally like Kang Min-hyuk and have liked his previous characters, though that’s when he’s usually playing idols or students, which fits with the image I have of him in my head. I wonder how he’ll do as an adult in a leading role, and whether this drama intends to have a noona romance between the leads. I can see him pulling off romance—heck, I rooted for him and Hyeri in Entertainer—but the show will have to do some convincing if he’s going to play a doctor who’s not still an intern.
Hospital Ship will be directed by PD Park Jae-bum of daily drama Begin Again and legal drama A New Leaf, and written by Yoon Seon-joo of Secret Door and Hwang Jin-yi. It’s scheduled to air on Wednesdays and Thursdays in August following Man Who Dies to Live, which comes after Ruler–Master of the Mask.