Kim Ji-won Returns After Two Years With SBS Medical Noir 'Doctor X'

Actress Kim Ji-won is returning to the small screen after two years, this time as a rogue genius surgeon at the center of a new SBS medical noir.

Kim leads the new SBS Friday-Saturday drama "Doctor X: Era of the White Mafia," set to premiere next month on Oct. 9 at 9:50 p.m. KST. The series follows Kye Su-jeong, a surgeon known as the "madwoman of the operating room," who uses her flawless surgical skill to take on entrenched corruption inside a major hospital. It marks the first medical entry in SBS's so-called "cider universe," a run of hit dramas that includes "Manager Kim" (Kim Bujang), "Taxi Driver," "The Fiery Priest" and "Judge from Hell."

The project reunites director Lee Jung-lim, known for "VIP," "Revenant" (Akgwi) and "You Killed Me" (Dangsini Jugyeotda), with rising screenwriter Pyeon Seong-geun. Kim Ji-won plays Kye Su-jeong opposite Lee Jung-eun as Jang Hee-suk, Son Hyun-joo as Boo Seung-kwon and Kim Woo-seok as Park Tae-kyung.

Kim said the gap between how Kye Su-jeong looks on the surface and who she turns out to be up close is what pulled her back to work. "The distance between the outside image of Kye Su-jeong and what you find when you keep looking at her was really appealing, and I wanted to bring that out," she said.

She pushed back a little on the "genius" label attached to her character. "Kye Su-jeong is someone who has exiled herself into the dark and clung only to her surgical craft," she said, using the Korean term 'sulgi', which refers to a doctor's hands-on skill or surgical art. "From the outside, the title 'genius surgeon' fits her. But once I saw the road she has walked, she felt less like a genius and more like someone who has done her absolute best with a desperate heart."

Kim said the character is also a departure from the usual medical-drama lead in how she carries a sense of duty. "In medical shows, a sense of justice and duty is what the leads usually share. Kye Su-jeong expresses it differently," she said. "She has poured almost all of her ability into her surgical skill, so she's a little clumsy in social and emotional areas." She added, "Watching a Kye Su-jeong who has perfect technique but not much social sense actually made me laugh sometimes. I tried to bring out that contrast of light and shadow."

Because Kye Su-jeong is written as a "dark hero" surgeon obsessed with the operating table, Kim said she put extra work into the surgery scenes. "I learned the specific procedures I needed from our medical adviser and gave myself enough time to get comfortable with them," she said. "Kye Su-jeong's brilliance isn't just in the surgeries. It's tied into the story too, so I tried to carry that same energy into the acting."

Kim also spoke about working with director Lee Jung-lim for the first time. "I really enjoyed her earlier work, so I was curious," she said. "She's done a lot of intense pieces, so I thought her directing might be blunt and forceful. In reality, she doesn't settle on an answer in advance. She's the kind of director who breathes with the actors on set and builds the scene with you. That's a delicate style." She added, "I brought a lot of my own analysis into that space, and I really remember the process of building the character withinn her direction."

On co-star Lee Jung-eun, who plays Jang Hee-suk in what the show has previewed as a strong female friendship, Kim was warm. "For Kye Su-jeong, Jang Hee-suk is a fence around her. Sometimes a boss, sometimes an aunt, sometimes a friend. Lee was that for me too," she said. "It was a set where I learned about both the responsibility and the joy of acting at the same time." She also teased that Jang Hee-suk has "one huge action scene" that viewers can look forward to.

Kim thanked the wider cast, which includes Son Hyun-joo, Kim Woo-seok, Lee Jin-hee, Kim Young-min, Lee Sung-wook, Heo Jun-seok, Kim Young-ah and Kwon Seung-woo. "Because of them, Kye Su-jeong and 'Doctor X' felt more layered and more colorful," she said. "It was a precious set where I learned a lot personally."

In closing, she pointed viewers toward the show's central hook. "The idea itself, a doctor dispatched from a medical staffing agency, is going to be a fresh angle to watch," she said. "As you follow the stories Kye Su-jeong builds inside Guseo University Hospital after being sent in from the agency, you'll meet a lot of different threads: each character's choices, regrets, desires and pain."

"Doctor X: Era of the White Mafia" premieres next month on the Oct. 9 at 9:50 p.m. KST on SBS.