There are times when you want to watch a lighthearted police drama, especially one that takes place in an era when police work depended more on intuition, contacts and persuasion than on technology. A new South Korean series that begins its story in 1958 has that happy vibe.
CHIEF DETECTIVE 1958: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Initial shot: An older man coughs as he puts on his shoes, looks at photos of his retirement from the police at the Jongnam police station, picks up his cane, and leaves his shop.
The essence: Park Yeong-han (Choi Bool-am) goes to the local market and receives a warm greeting from the rice cake shop. He brings food to Jongnam Station, where he is greeted warmly. His grandson is now a detective there and Yeong-han catches him as he races to arrest some gang members.
Yeong-han looks at pictures of himself and the group of detectives he worked with in 1963 and remembers how he got there.
In 1958, Park Yeong-han (Lee Je-hoon) was working as a police detective in the rural village of Hwangchun; His main mission is to catch cattle rustlers. He takes the task seriously, because cows are the main source of income for many of the village’s farmers. But he has to disguise himself as a tramp while he walks through the local cattle market, because his reputation precedes him; His photo has appeared in the local newspapers many times and he is now called the “Grim Reaper” of the city.
After watching him and the rest of the detectives in action as they arrest an overly well-dressed cattle thief, we discover that he is being transferred to Jongnam Station in Seoul. When he appears there, he finds the area of Investigation Unit One and its captain, Yu Dae-cheon (Choi Deok-moon). Apparently, Yu is a difficult captain to work with, and he brought Yeong-han on board because he heard about his cases in Hwangchun and believes he can help. But he does warn Yeong-han that his mission, going after organizations like the Dongdaemun gang, will cause him more pain than anything else he’s ever done.
He sees this immediately when Yu sends him to the market to arrest Dongdaemun’s second-in-command, Sal Mo-sa (Kang In-kwon), nicknamed Viper, for assaulting a store owner. Because he is outnumbered, he gets creative and buys snakes from a soup shop and lets them out where Viper and his crew are having lunch. But Yeong-han finds out what his boss was talking about when the boss, who is in the pocket of Dongdaemun leader Lee Jung-jae (Kim Young-seong), orders Yeong-han to let Viper go.
That’s when Yeong-han realizes that he has to find people who have the sense of duty and ethics that both he and his boss have. He meets Kim Sang-sun (Lee Dong-hwi), a Unit Two detective who is ridiculed as a “mad dog”, especially since he does not kowtow to gangsters, even under orders. At the market, Yeong-han sees a civilian, Jo Gyeong-hwan (Choi Woo-sung), take on half a dozen gangsters in the market and knows he can help.
What shows will it remind you of? Chief Detective 1958 It is a prequel to the series chief inspector. The series certainly has the vibe of a more light-hearted version. perry mason (the HBO series, not the Raymond Burr series).
Our opinion: We are inclined to see Chief Detective 1958 as a less serious police drama and more of a light drama about personalities. It certainly feels that way, as we see Yeong-han building a team around him that will start as a ragtag team and end as one of the best research units at Jongnam Station.
The first episode sets up the situation for most of the players, but it seems like the show will take its time to really move the story forward, with the Unit One group coming together and learning how to deal with the gangs on the open front. police corruption.
Is the story a bit exaggerated? Sure. The characters are pretty broad and there are a lot of silly moments. But it’s not so bad to have a silly police drama, especially one that takes place 65 years ago, when detectives couldn’t rely on technology to solve cases or find evidence that could make people confess or betray someone else. It’ll be interesting to see what Unit One does once they’re reunited, even if some of the methods they use are a little crazy.
Sex and skin: None.
Parting Shot: Yeong-han and Sang-sun confront Unit Two while making a deal with a Dongdaemun agent, and Sang-sun apparently turns on Yeong-han by knocking him out with the butt of a shotgun.
Sleeping star: We like Lee Dong-hwi as Sang-sun, especially when he sleeps inside a cabinet to get away from his colleagues.
Most pilot line: Like many East Asian series, there are musical cues conveying that “this is a joyful time!”, which is style in that part of the world, but completely distracting.
Our call: TRANSMIT IT. Yeah, Chief Detective 1958 It’s a little silly, but sometimes you want a little silly, mixed with some fun action sequences, in your cop shows.
Joel Keller@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but make no mistake: he’s a couch potato. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and other places.
