How Accurate Are Surgery Scenes In K-Dramas? Actress Lee Sung Kyung Weighs In

Medical K-Dramas are some of the most common in the industry as well as also the most difficult to film. In Episode 26 of Suchwita with BTS‘s Suga, actress Lee Sung Kyung detailed what it’s really like filming surgery scenes.

She was part of the main cast of Dr. Romantic 2 (2022) and Dr. Romantic 3 (2023) and thus had many experiences to back her up.

She first confirmed Suga’s suspicion that it is very tiring to film surgeries. The team makes it a point to be as accurate as possible and thus spend hours working on perfecting each scene with the help of real practitioners.

Suga: I heard that filming surgery scenes is really physically exhausting.

Lee Sung Kyung: All day. Actual surgeons come in.

They try to make the sets and patients as close to reality as possible. The dummies that they use are so detailed that they mimic the exact organs of the human body.

We use a dummy that looks just like a human body. If you cut open the chest, you see the pericardium, and the cardiac skeleton. It’s exactly the same.

— Lee Sung Kyung

Not only are the models true-to-life, but so are their functions. The filmmakers make sure that even their heartbeat is set to the correct rhythm.

[The heartbeat is] reproduced exactly the same way. The nerves, blood vessels, blood It’s all made to look exactly the same.

— Lee Sung Kyung

Because of how detailed the surgical scenes are, it takes them a while to shoot. The team has to constantly change the dummies to reflect the part of the surgery the actors are filming. As such, it “takes a long time” to shoot.

They film the hands first  We film the insert cuts then cut the body open then change the dummy. We set it up all over again then start after the cutting scene. It takes a long time.

— Lee Sung Kyung

Check out the full video below to learn more about Lee Sung Kyung and her acting experiences.