DR. K

Draw 100 milligrams of “E.R.,” add a tissue culture of “The X Files,” and inject into a Far East “General Hospital,” and you have the prescription for Kyung-Taek Kwak's occult “medical mystery.” In a modern, big-city hospital, an extraordinary physician, Dr. Kang Ki-Min of the neurological surgery department, is the last line of defense against death. When standard surgical techniques fail, Min's seem capable of restoring the vital signs of even the most hopeless cases of brain traumas and tumors. Pyo Ji-Soo, an anesthesiologist and old classmate of Min's, watches and wonders, her professional envy slowly turning to a love for this strange, quiet man who can subdue psychotics with a stare, sleeps underwater, and suffers seizures in secret. Oh-Seh-Yeon, a female patient dying of cancer, also falls under Min's spell, and both women uncover the truth behind his paranormal abilities. In the midst of high-tech imaging equipment and sterile operating clinics of the late 20th Century, Min is a somewhat reluctant conduit for the age-old shamanist healing power of his Asian ancestors ? forces that defy accepted science. But is it a gift or a curse? Leave your skepticism at the nurses' station and get prepped, because the doctor is in. Diagnosis: mystic. (In Korean with English subtitles.)