Broadcasting station


Soonpoong Clinic started on March 2, 1998 and aired until December 1, 2000 in SBS(broadcasting station). It is a sitcom that deals with the daily lives of the people of Soonpoong Clinic with a total of 682 episodes.[1] It shows the daily lives of Soonpoong Clinic people.

production crew

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Production

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Byungwook Kim, Byungdae Joo, Inseop Yoon[2]

Screenplay

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Hyunjin Jeon, Jinyoung Jung, Euichan Kim, Heeseung Yang, Jaejung Song, Eunjung Seo, Seokcheol Ma, Dongik Shin, Joongwan Wan, Gyeongju Kim, Sookyung Jo[2]

Character Introduction

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Midal's family

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Jimyeong Oh

He is the director of Soonpoong Clinic. Oh Ji-myeong has a very loud voice and often scratches his face. He also stumbles when he is excited. Although he usually appears authoritative, he is a romanticist enough to prepare events such as dominoes and puzzles.

Yongnyeo Seonwoo

Sunwoo has a low educational background. She is so emotional that she cries every day after watching TV dramas. There is a complex about the wives of a well-educated and well-informed husband's friends.

Younggyu Park

Oh Ji-myeong's son-in-law and Mi-sun's husband. He got a job as an English instructor at an academy after a long unemployed life. He is obsessed with food because of his habit of survival.

Misun Oh

Oh Ji-myeong's eldest daughter and Park Young-gyu's wife. She married her tutor, Young-gyu, and came back to her parents' house after living in a rented house.

Midal Park

Young gyu and Mi Sun's daughter. A tomboy. She's obsessed with food like heredity.

Tae-ran Oh

Oh Ji-myeong's second daughter, a doctor, has an innocent and kind personality for her age.

Soyeon Oh

Oh Ji-myeong's third daughter and doctor.

Hyekyo Oh

Oh Ji-myeong's youngest daughter. She is simple and clumsy.

Euichan's family

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Chanwoo Kim

Soonpoong Clinic's doctor and Euichan's father. He is the landlord of room 201 and lives with Euichan and Ohjoong. He is good at playing pranks.

Euichan Kim

Chanwoo's son. Euichan has never seen his mother since his parents divorced. He is a mature and smart kid.

Ohjoong Kwon

Scenarist. He was Soyeon's boyfriend and later dated Youngran. Ohjoong usually takes care of the housework and murmurs to himself when he is angry. He's under a lot of stress because his income is unstable.

Changhoon Lee

Soonpoong Clinic's doctor and Hyekyo's boyfriend. Basically whimsical and playful, but pure and nice. He's calm about happy things and sad things.

Hospital staff

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Inbong Pyo

Nurse. He is deeply saddened after breaking up with Jinyoung. Later, Inbong goes out with Jeonghee and marries her. Delicate and full of sensitivity.

Jinyoung Jang

She dated Inbong but later went to another hospital.

Sunmi Song

Sunmi uses human psychology. She has a crush on Chanwoo.

Youngran Heo

Youngran is usually expressionless and indifferent to the world. She likes Ohjoong and bread, and is excellent in many ways. The children are afraid of her.

Jeonghee Jang

Chief nurse. Jeonghee marries Inbong and is bitter enemies with Jimyeong. She doesn't have much sense of humor.[3]


Background

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Producer Kim Byung-wook said in an interview, "I wanted to give viewers strength with laughter during the IMF economic crisis." Although it is a sitcom, it focuses on giving sympathy with laughter. There are a lot of unemployed heads of household, so he has created character that can represent them to be comforted.[4]

In the 1970s and 1980s, Korea and Southeast Asia developed rapidly. In the 1990s, a lot of foreign capital entered Asia. Financial institutions borrowed foreign capital to buy bills issued by companies, and debt to foreign countries increased. At this time, when the company that issued the bill went bankrupt, the financial institutions that bought the bill also suffered. In 1997, Southeast Asian economies began to suffer, with foreign investors beginning to reap the capital they lent or invested in. They took capital because they felt insecure about our economy. As foreign capital was withdrawn, South Korea's foreign exchange shrank rapidly. The Government have called on the IMF for emergency funding. At this time, many companies were shut down and companies were handed over to foreign capitalists at a bargain price. As a result, the number of unemployed people increased significantly. As the government significantly increased card issuance and use to boost consumption, so did the number of credit delinquents who failed to pay back the credit card.[5]

Features as a sitcom

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Production process

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Laughter of the audience

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It is the 'third party' s laughter' that makes the sitcom the most sitcom-like. This is a traditional American sitcom production method, and Korean sitcoms have accepted it. Laughter can have three effects.

  • It makes viewers feel as if they are on a stage where comedy is taking place.
  • By making laughter sound before viewers, it encourages them to immerse themselves in the situation where comedy is taking place.
  • When a public recording is made, the actor gets excited and heightens the dramatic atmosphere.

On the one hand, it is said to be similar to the role of a drummer in Pansori, Korea.[6]

way a script is written

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In general, Korean dramas are usually written by one writer, whereas at the Soonpoong Clinic, more than 5 writers write. This can be confirmed in the ending credit.

Usually, the primary communication elements of television are image and sound, and dialogue is only a means of secondary communication. However, sitcom is replacing primary communication with ambassadors. So the amount of dialogue is large and specific. Also, different narratives appear in each episode. For this reason, sitcom writers need more consideration than regular dramas and choose a collaborative system that jointly writes scripts.[6]

Structure of a story

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Unfolding method

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Horace Newcomb, a professor of broadcasting at Texas State University in the United States, compared the sitcom to a curious, adventurous boy who goes out of the woods on a different path, knowing that there is a path. It is said that the following four devices are needed for the dramatic structure of the sitcom. This is a device that can also be seen in the soonpoong clinic.

  • Set the basic situation of who leaves the forest when and why.
  • Set up crises and obstacles that complicate the protagonist's path
  • Be confused by crises and obstacles.
  • Make a device that relieves confusion and get it done quickly

In sitcoms, a person always faces a problem and The story unfolds around solving problems. At the end of the story, the problem is solved. These problems within sitcoms always begin with fixed characters. In other words, sitcoms are series focused on episodes about characters who appear regularly.[6]

Character

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Except for child actors, most characters use their real names. This reminds viewers of the original image of the actor, and makes it possible to laugh at the appearance of the actor playing a different role than this image. Also, if an actor is famous, it is easier to reach the audience with his fame. In other words, the use of real names as characters' names in the play is mainly aimed at increasing comedic effects.

There is no villain in a sitcom. It's all good, friendly and normal people with personalities. Villains such as robbers, thugs, thieves, etc. seem to be somewhat lacking and ridiculous rather than cruel or vicious in some ways. Also, the characters have a universal personality, but each has a different personality. Because the main character's personality is common, his failure and success have the effect of identifying each viewer as if it were his or her own work. The characters in the sitcom are friendly characters that you can easily meet in real life. Viewers can easily find their roles on TV and feel as if they are looking at themselves in the mirror. This allows sitcoms to gain a diverse audience.[6]

Induction of laughter

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Soonpoong Clinic does not require viewers to laugh because of abnormal verbal behavior or behavior while the story is unfolding. They just play their part in their own place, just as they normally do. Not solving the conflict, but seriously drawing the perspective of the protagonist in the episode looking at a certain phenomenon or event becomes the factor that induces laughter.[6]

Ideologie

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Soonpoong clinic has the characteristics of solidifying dominant ideology. Even if Oh ji-myeong does childish actions and forces him to behave, he is the most powerful in homes and hospitals. In addition, it can be seen that most of the female characters fix the femininity of women and draw negative images compared to men by showing roles in charge of housework or male assistants. Most of the people who went to work in society were men, and the few women who worked showed the image that love and men were more important than work. Most of the female characters tend to rely on men rather than social success or doing their job.[7]

  1. ^ "순풍산부인과". SBS (in Korean). Retrieved 2021-04-06.
  2. ^ a b "순풍산부인과". SBS (in Korean). Retrieved 2021-04-06.
  3. ^ "순풍산부인과". SBS (in Korean). Retrieved 2021-04-06.
  4. ^ Nam, Jieun. "1998 and 2020... 'Soonpoong clinic' that still comforts us". hangyeole.
  5. ^ "IMF 경제 위기". terms.naver.com (in Korean). Retrieved 2021-05-02.
  6. ^ a b c d e Wooyeol Song, A comparative study on the characteristics of TV "Sitcom": focusing on 'soonpoong clininc' and 'Friends', Hanyang University Master's Degree thesis, 1999
  7. ^ Kim Young-sung, Korean Family Sitcom Research, Master's Degree thesis at Chungnam National University, 2008, pp 80-81