Park Eun Bin as Jeong Se Ok in Hyper Knife | Photo courtesy of Disney+

Park Eun Bin has portrayed an attorney (Extraordinary Attorney Woo), a pro baseball team's operation manager (Hot Stove League), an assistant detective (The Ghost Detective), and a judge (Judge vs. Judge)—she even served as a king (The King's Affection)! Now, this talented, versatile actress takes on another profession, a neurosurgeon, in the upcoming Hyper Knife, the first-ever Disney+ Original medical thriller series.

It's Park Eun Bin's first medical drama, and it's not just any medical drama—it also has elements of a crime thriller. And if you think you've already seen the best from this child star-turned-leading lady, this series may just make you think otherwise because of her razor-sharp acting skills. Hyper Knife seems like a career-defining project for Park Eun Bin, with the series' picaresque nature; in Filipino, her character is what we can call bida-kontrabida (a protagonist who's also a villain).

Photo courtesy of Disney+

In the eight-episode Hyper Knife, Park Eun Bin plays Jeong Se Ok, an antisocial, genius neurosurgeon with unparalleled skills. Se Ok is stripped of her medical license after an incident in the operating room, involving her mentor, neurosurgeon Choi Deok Hee (portrayed by Sul Kyung Gu). However, her obsession with performing operations and honing her skills leads to her taking on illegal surgeries and carrying out back-alley operations. 

Pride and moral conflict set in as she is challenged to perform a nearly impossible operation while she is overwhelmed by the idea of revenge against the man who changed the course of her future. 

"She [Jeong Se Ok] is consumed by her obsession with the human brain," Park Eun Bin said of her character during Hyper Knife's press conference. "And she is making herself devastated by this obsession. She's a prodigy. She's a genius neurosurgeon, but she sometimes finds it hard to control her feelings. She's fearless. She is uncontrollable. She's like a loose cannonball. And sometimes, she's almost childish. She's very simple-minded. She has this one obsession. And she is a very transparent person in that sense." 

Photo courtesy of Disney+

This first Disney+ Original is also a first for Park Eun Bin in several ways. "This is truly a character that I haven't played before. A genre that I have not experienced yet," she shared about her first foray into the medical drama genre. "So, when I first read the script, I was deeply intrigued by the story and the character. And together with Deok Hee, my character, Se Ok, would see the raw faces of herself and Deok Hee himself. And this is my first time working together with Kyung Gu. And all the scenes that I portrayed together with him were just full of dopamine for me. An explosion of dopamine for me." 

Aside from the crazy personality of Park Eun Bin's character, what's also worth looking forward to is how her mentor-mentee relationship turns into an unexpected rivalry with Sul Kyung Gu's Choi Deok Hee—they're both intense but on different levels. Both are self-centered, self-righteous geniuses. Park Eun Bin pointed out, "It's truly a character dynamic-driven series. So the chemistry between the characters is extremely important and how we convey those dynamics are very important." 

And so, complimenting her co-actor and senior, she said, "He gave me a lot of energy. I could work off of his energy. And I don't know how the viewers will see it, but as an actor myself, I was very honored to be able to work opposite Kyung Gu."

Sul Kyung Gu feels the same way, and during the show's press conference, he revealed that Park Eun Bin playing the lead character was a factor in his decision to do this project. "I had so much expectations for her, and I was excited to be working alongside her. So, she is basically the reason why I chose this project," he said.

Photo courtesy of Disney+

Meanwhile, for Park Eun Bin, the deciding factor was really the intriguing plot line that just piqued her curiosity from the moment she read Hyper Knife's script while she was shooting her previous drama, Castaway Diva. 

"Just reading about the character hooked me right away. I think I was almost just drawn to it instantly," Park Eun Bin said, sharing a glimpse of her selection process. "I am not the type of person who takes on huge leaps and who takes huge challenges. I've been saying this all along, but I don't think people believe me, but I really am someone like that. I just am someone who is drawn to projects that I feel like I can do a good job in. And so I don't think that it was a difficult choice that I had to make."

Hyper Knife's director, Kim Jung Hyun, also did not doubt that Park Eun Bin could pull off and nail this character although it's something she hasn't done yet. He recalled, "On set, I would monitor her performing. And I just said to myself, 'Wow, she's crazy. She's crazy. She's doing so well.'" The director teased that if viewers think she's already crazy in the first two episodes, wait until the story leads her to "explode in later episodes."

Normally, lead characters are designed in a way that will make viewers root for them. But that's not the reaction Park Eun Bin expects from people and she said she won't ask them to root for Jeong Se Ok, too. 

"It might be difficult for you to relate to her," Park Eun Bin stated. "But at the end of the show, you might feel like, 'Okay, there might be a person like this.' So, that's the level of how I want to persuade the viewers about this character. I don't want you to root for her. I don't want you to totally understand her and relate to her because she is a psychopath. But I just want you to know that there could be people like this in the world. And let's think about what vice and virtue [are]. So, those are the food for thought, I guess."

Check out the gallery below for photos from Hyper Knife's press conference:

With two episodes set for release every Wednesday from March 19 through April 9, stream "Hyper Knife" exclusively on Disney+.

Photos courtesy of Disney+