Kim Ji-won's Doctor X Turns a Medical Case Into a Reckoning With 5·18

Within a day of the sixth episode of SBS's Doctor X: Age of the White Mafia airing on the 24th, a petition titled "Petition Regarding Halting the Broadcast of SBS's Doctor X" appeared on the National Assembly's electronic petition site. The episode, starring Kim Ji-won as surgeon Kye Su-jung, built its story around a survivor of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement who still carries a bullet in his skull.

It is not the first time a Korean drama has drawn political objection for touching a contested chapter of modern history, and the response here followed that familiar pattern quickly. The broader context is that the series adapts a Japanese original, a point the petitioner raised directly.

The episode: a bullet, a brother and a helicopter

The hour opened in Kye's past, during an overseas posting. Held by foreign soldiers and close to death, she was approached by a child who asked whether she was "Doctor X" and begged her to save his brother, who had a bullet lodged in his head. That memory set up the present-day case.

Back in Seoul, Gu Seo Hospital is running a deficit and faces closure by its foundation. Representatives of a victims' group, the Mongnyeonhoe, asked the hospital to remove the bullet from Oh Sang-beom, a survivor who was shot in the head during the 1980 uprising. The surgery carried a high risk of death or a vegetative state, and there was little test data on the patient. The group argued the bullet itself could serve as evidence that soldiers fired on civilians from helicopters, and the drama suggests political interests were also behind the proposal.

Hospital director Bu Seung-gwon (Son Hyun-joo) refused at first, then was pressed into accepting when the group pointed to the hospital's finances. He staged a conference of all staff in which Kye volunteered, with Jang Hui-suk (Lee Jung-eun) recognizing the maneuver but pushing Kye forward anyway for the success fee.

Oh Sang-beom's choice

Kye, Jang, Park Tae-gyeong (Kim Woo-seok) and Professor Jo Won-jin (Lee Jin-hee) traveled to Gwangju to meet him. Flashbacks showed the massacre in some detail. Oh, who was 12 when his brother died, has lived with guilt, severe pain and tremors for decades, and he does not speak.

Tests in Seoul showed that he sees his brother. Kye noticed he always sat at the edge of a bench, eyes turned to the empty side, and told him that surgery could reduce those hallucinations and with them the chance of seeing his brother. After hesitating, Oh refused the operation.

That night he climbed to the hospital roof. At the same moment, a helicopter brought in Ji Du-seok, a fictional former president evoking Chun Doo-hwan, who had collapsed unconscious. The light and noise of the landing triggered Oh's trauma, and he nearly fell before Park and Jo caught him. Oh then reached toward the stretcher carrying the ex-president and cried out. The episode ended with Kye running toward the hospital, shouting "Please!", with the child from her past overlaid on Oh.

The petition

The petitioner argues that the 5·18 material had no connection to the rest of the story and calls it a politically charged subject unsuited to a medical drama. The text says the Japanese original focused on the doctor's individual skill and that the Korean additions look like a forced fit to express a political position. It concludes that any drama that is not explicitly political should stay neutral, and asks for a review of the production process and a halt to broadcast.

The petition reached the 100 supporters needed for pre-publication review within a day. Agreement is temporarily restricted, and the review can take up to seven days.

The drama has been performing strongly in the ratings, and the next episode will show whether the controversy changes how it handles the story, or how many viewers tune in to see Kye's response.