Kim Ji-won Is Back 2 Years After Queen of Tears, and She Cut Her Hair for the Role

Kim Ji-won steps back onto primetime TV on October 9, two full years after she captivated audiences as Hong Hae-in in Queen of Tears. Her next project is Doctor X: Era of the White Mafia, an SBS Friday-Saturday drama that follows Gye Su-jeong, a surgeon of almost supernatural skill who refuses both failure and compromise as she takes on the corrupt systems rotting her hospital from the inside.

The first teaser, released on the 7th, opens with Su-jeong pulling on a surgical mask and announcing, "I will perform the operation", a line delivered with the kind of cold certainty that tells you this character does not make offers twice. It is a noticeable tonal shift from the emotional richness of Queen of Tears, and clearly a deliberate one.

A new look for a new character

The most immediately striking change is physical. Kim Ji-won, who wore her hair long throughout Queen of Tears, cut it short for the role. In the teaser, Su-jeong strides through a corridor of white-coated doctors in a black leather coat, her expression giving nothing away. The image is doing a lot of work: outsider energy, clinical confidence, a character who operates by her own rules and does not particularly care who notices.

The teaser introduces the key supporting players. Jang Hee-sook (played by Lee Jeong-eun), who runs a medical staffing agency, describes Su-jeong as "the top ace at our agency, surgeon Gye Su-jeong." Park Tae-gyeong (Kim Woo-seok) watches Su-jeong operate and lands on the most concise possible verdict: "She looked like a god. Or a monster."

Su-jeong herself, in the teaser's closing line, is even more direct: "I don't fail."

The team behind the show

Director Lee Jeong-lim, whose credits include VIP, Gyeongseong Creature, and You Are the Murderer, is at the helm, working alongside writer Pyeon Seong-geun. The cast also includes Son Hyun-joo as hospital director Bu Seung-gwon, whose dynamic with both Su-jeong and Jang Hee-sook looks set to be one of the drama's central tensions.

The premise sits firmly in medical noir territory: a gifted surgeon navigating institutional corruption, with enough moral ambiguity in the supporting cast to suggest that not every white coat signals a good person. Given the creative team's track record with genre work, the tonal ambition feels well-placed.

Doctor X: Era of the White Mafia premieres October 9 at 9:50 p.m. KST on SBS.