JIN Episode 1

I just watched the first episode of the Korean version of Dr. Jin. Its a bit messy. I kept seeing other comments about how the original Japanese version was so much better. I've only seen one other Japanese show and that was Ouran High School Host Club. Time to try another one.

Brain surgeon Dr. Jin is working the night shift when an unidentified man is brought into the hospital. Scans show he has a brain tumor. Jin gets right to work (and it is just as grossly graphic as the Korean version) and cuts into the man's brain. Surprisingly, the tumor is in the shape of a baby fetus. Yuck. Jin puts the fetus in a jar on a shelf.

Another young doctor and nurse get to have a conversation that tells the audience about the history of Dr. Jin. A few years back he was about to get married to his girlfriend, Tomonaga, when it is discovered she has a brain tumor in a very dangerous place to operate on. Jin is willing to attempt the surgery despite other experts telling him not to. He manages to remove the tumor, but during the surgery he makes a mistake that puts his girlfriend into a vegetative coma. Way to go, Jin.

After a visit with his girlfriend in a coma, Jin goes up to the roof to recall the day before the surgery when he and Tomonaga both expressed their fears about tomorrow. Then we get a shot of the Creepy Baby in a Jar. Then we go see the man Creepy Baby came out of. (Father of Creepy Baby?) He appears to be regaining consciousness. Also, his head is swathed in bandages so we don't get to see what he looks like.

Two men I'm going to assume are police officers ask Dr. Jin about Father of Creepy Baby. The man has no ID on him. All Jin can tell them is the man appears to have been attacked by a sharp metal object (sword, maybe?), he has multiple bruises, and that he had a strange baby tumor in his head. We keep getting shots of Creepy Baby in a Jar. Ah, stop that! Suddenly Jin grabs his own head in pain, then shakes it off.

Later that evening Jin looks like he's trying to get comfortable on a couch. He's talking with another doctor about Creepy Baby and getting a biopsy on it. Other Doctor says Jin could write a paper on it and be a big hit. Jin just laughs it off. Ever since he put his girlfriend in a coma, he's been reluctant to be all that he can be in the medical field. After giving Jin an old picture of Jin and Coma-girl, Other Doctor leaves. There's a quick shot of Creepy Baby. Jin grabs his head. Behind him on the wall there appears a shadow scurrying by. Ah, is Creepy Baby on the loose?!

Dr. Jin goes down to the pathology department where Creepy Baby in a Jar is kept. He's holding the jar up to his face. Suddenly Creepy Baby opens it eyes. OMG! OMG! This is nightmare-inducing! Jin is just as shaken as I am, yet when he looks again, Creepy Baby's eyes are closed. Another doctor comes to tell Jin that Father of Creepy Baby has disappeared. Jin turns the lights out and leaves. We see the shadow again. Oh, it's Daddy who is the shadow from earlier. As everyone starts searching for the missing patient they find evidence that the medicine shelves have been raided.

Jin finds Daddy on the fire escape and tries to get his patient to come inside. That's when he notices that Daddy has a bag of medical supplies and a jar of Creepy Baby. Jin grabs his head again. Daddy says, "I must go back to that world" and tries to get away. Jin and Daddy struggle. Jin manages to get the bag of medical supplies away but Creepy Baby in a Jar goes flying through the air. Jin reaches out to grab it and he starts rolling down the stairs and into a time warp.

When Jin comes to he finds himself on the ground in a forest. Taking a pen light from his pocket he searches around, managing to find the bag of medical supplies, but no Creepy Baby in a Jar. As he looks around he sees torches in the distance and people shouting. Jin starts running towards them, asking for help. When he gets closer he discovers a handful of samurai are sword fighting. Has he stumbled upon a movie set, he wonders. Then he gets splashed with real blood. Nope, this ain't no movie set. That's when the other samurais notice Jin.

They can't have any witnesses so one samurai goes to kill Jin when a good samurai, Tachibana Kyoutaro, saves Jin and tells him to run away. Unfortunately Tachibana receives a head wound. Another samurai starts to slash Jin when Jin flashes on his pen light and scares the samurai. The voices of other people coming scare the bad samurai away. Dr. Jin examines Tachibana, who begs Jin not to let him die or his mother and sister will be thrown out on the streets. The group of men who were coming are (I think) from the Mito clan and know Tachibana. When they see Jin's hospital uniform they assume he some kind of Dutch doctor. Jin orders them to carry Tachibana home. Jin must perform surgery in the next hour or it will be too late.

Once there, Jin and Tachibana's sister, Saki, basically ransack the house looking for tools and stuff to be used for brain surgery. Then Jin starts stripping. Dude! Oh wait, he's just getting out of his bloody clothes and into cleaner, more time-appropriate clothes. Still, you just don't start stripping in front of a girl you just met.

Jin starts unpacking the medical bag to see what he's got to work with. Turns out Daddy of Creepy Baby did a pretty good job. (Just as with the Korean version, I think Daddy Creepy is actually Dr. Jin himself. Of course that means Dr. Jin operated on himself. Whadya mean, Einstein says that's impossible? Screw you.) Saki brings the boiled tools Jin asked for. Basically they're carpenter tools, hammers and chisels and stuff. Just as Jin is about to begin Tachibana's mother storms into the "operating room". She's not 100% on board with this whole surgery thing and warns Jin that if he kills her son she'll kill him. Fine, he says. In return she must never tell anyone what happens in this room. Then we get another long, bloody surgery sequence that I can't watch. Lets just skip over this and get to the part where the surgery is all over and Tachibana is nicely bandaged up.

Jin says Tachibana should recover in three days. (Really? You can recover from brain surgery in three days?) Mama Tachibana is as skeptical as I am and insists that Jin stay for those three days. As Saki is preparing him a room she explains her mother's hostility. Four years ago their father had come down with cholera. They'd gone to a Dutch doctor for treatment but Father died anyway.

The next day Jin tries to make sense of what has happened to him. He learns from Saki that he is in Edo (Tokyo) and the year is 1862. But when the Tachibana family start asking him questions, Jin pretends he fell in the forest and a blow to the head prevents him from remembering some things. Mama Tachibana is not happy with this. Now that her son has regained consciousness and appears to be recovering, she wants to get rid of Jin. As man of the house Tachibana pulls rank and insists Jin is welcomed to stay. Mama T then scolds her son that he was attacked in the first place because he's been hanging out with the wrong kind of people. People who lean more to Western ways and modern ideas. Mama T is not to be messed with.

Geez Louise with cottage cheese, how long is this one episode???

Dr. Jin overhears this conversation and he decides to leave on his own. He returns to the forest where he first appears. If he can find the Creepy Baby in a Jar perhaps that will get him back home. He sees a river nearby and recognizes it as the same river his modern day hospital is built next to. He stands on the edge of a cliff, wondering if he falls again if he'll return to his own time. Suddenly an uncouth samurai tackles Jin to the ground, telling him not to rush to his death. Jin assures the man he wasn't about to commit suicide. Jin asks the man his name because for some reason the samurai seems familiar, but the man is called away. Jin starts to chase after him and ends up in a busy market place.

A young boy is about to be trampled when his heroic mother throws herself in the way, the horse's hoof coming down on her head. Good thing there's a time-traveling brain surgeon nearby. There are going to be soooooo many head injuries in this program. Jin sends for his surgical tools still at the Tachibana house. Saki packs them up and rushes to where Jin is, offering to act his assistant. Unfortunately during her hurried packing she failed to include the anesthesia and to go back and get it would take too long. Looks like the injured woman is just gonna have to bite the bullet.

And then I just skip a bit more because really this episode has gone on too frickin' long! The woman survives her surgery and Mama T has a change of heart and allows Dr. Jin to stay at the Tachibana home. That night as he's looking at the picture of him and his girlfriend he notices something different. The first time she was making a peace sign with her right hand. But now in the picture she's making it with her left.

Meanwhile on the other side of town a man is informing the courtesan Nokaze (who looks like Jin's coma-girl in the future) about a mysterious man in town with miraculous healing powers. Nokaze seems to know more about the situation than she fully reveals at the moment. She's called to the tea house so she and her entourage head out to the red light district. Why is she walking that way? Is that how geishas walk? Other stuff happens but by this time I've totally lost interest because I feel like I've been watching this for six hours. I'm exhausted.