11 December 2021 | New Scientist | 33Secrets of the dead
A brilliant scientist finds a way to mine memories from beyond
the grave, but it comes at a cost, finds Josh BellTV
Dr. Brain
Apple TV+
WITH a name like Dr Brain, the
title character of the first South
Korean-language series from
Apple TV+ sounds like he should
be a second-string Marvel
superhero. Yet while Dr Sewon
Koh (Parasite’s Lee Sun-kyun)
does have superhuman powers
of a kind, he isn’t a superhero, and
no one actually calls him Dr Brain.
The series is an adaptation of
a South Korean webtoon in which
a neuroscientist develops a way
to mine the brains of dead people
for their memories, which he can
weave into his own. Despite the
somewhat absurd premise, this
adaptation plays it mostly straight,
keeping its story grounded in
character drama and sci-fi.
Sewon is a talented and eccentric
neuroscientist who has devoted his
life to understanding how brains
work. He develops a technology
called brain syncing, which connects
two brains through a silly-looking
contraption made of wires, dials
and blinking lights that are
supposed to have something
to do with quantum entanglement.
The details are hazy, but series
director and co-writer Kim
Jee-woon presents it all with
due reverence.
Sewon decides that he must
be the first human test subject
for his invention. So he tasks his
assistant with procuring a fresh
body from the morgue and hooks
himself up to the dead man’s brain.
As we soon discover, Sewon‘s
motivation for uploading other
people’s memories isn’t solely
scientific curiosity. He also comes
overburdened with a tragic
backstory, which began when his
mother was killed in a road accident
when he was a child. Then, years
later, he saw his young son die in
a house fire and his wife fall into
a coma after a suicide attempt –
a condition in which she remains.
The incidents with his wife and
son occurred under mysterious
circumstances, and soon after
Sewon’s first brain sync, he is visited
by a private investigator who is also
looking for answers about those
tragedies. The police soon show
up, too, and Dr. Brain morphs intoa murder mystery, as Sewon uses
his skills to uncover a shadowy
conspiracy that is targeting him
and his family.
However, the more brains
that Sewon syncs with, the more
his mind fractures, as bits of the
personalities and skills of the
subjects take hold in his own brain.
At one point, he hooks himself up
to his family’s dead cat, which may
have witnessed a murder. From
then on, he possesses cat-like
abilities, allowing him to quickly
climb a tree, see better in the
dark and land on his feet when
jumping from a building. It is an
appealingly goofy touch in a series
that sometimes takes itself too
seriously, given its somewhat
outlandish premise.
Kim, who is best known outside
South Korea for mind-bending
thrillers A Tale of Two Sisters and
I Saw the Devil (as well as Arnold
Schwarzenegger action movie
The Last Stand), directs Dr. Brain
as a mix of mundane police
procedural and bizarre head trip.
The middle portion of the
six-episode series drags a little,
as it focuses more on crime solving
and less on brain syncing. But Kim
reliably returns to the surreal
imagery of Sewon’s visions,
regardless of whether he is hooked
up to another brain or just receiving
some crucial piece of insight. The
director also stages some exciting
action sequences, including a chase
through a mall and a close-quarters
fight in an empty cargo transport.
Dr. Brain isn’t quite as out there
as fans of Kim’s best-known films
might hope for (or as its faintly
ridiculous set-up might suggest),
but it is still an entertainingly
off-kilter take on a murder
mystery, with a protagonist
who is admirably committed
to his own strange ideas. ❚Josh Bell is a writer based in Las VegasWhen Dr Sewon Koh uploads
memories from dead people, he
doesn’t always like what he seesCOURTE
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