Choi Bool-am passes his baton to Chief Detective Lee Je-hoon

by tccolb

An action-packed teaser has arrived for MBC’s investigative crime series Chief Detective 1958, announcing the grand return of our detective hero, played by Lee Je-hoon (Taxi Driver 2) in this new prequel.

The original series enjoyed a successfully long run on MBC between 1971-1989, with veteran actor Choi Bool-am (Goodbye to Goodbye) playing the now iconic title role. In the teaser, we’re thus graced with Choi’s presence as detective Park Young-han once again – in a special cameo role – taking a trip down memory lane where we meet his younger self (Lee Je-hoon) in 1958.

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In the captions we read that it was a barbaric period in Korean history, with society still in chaos from the raw aftermath of the Korean War. At this time, our spirited detective Park is just starting out his career in the big city of Seoul, teaming up with fellow cops Lee Dong-hwi (Big Bet), Choi Woo-sung (Melancholia), and Yoon Hyun-soo (A Good Day to Be a Dog) who share his indignation for injustice.

We then watch as Young-han gets emotionally invested, chasing down criminals in a dynamic sequence. As the team rallies together, the accompanying text screen promises us an investigative series about real people and real detectives. The teaser then comes to a close on Young-han’s confident declaration: “There is no one who can’t be caught in this world.”

As a side note, if anyone is curious, a segment of the classic series was uploaded by MBC here. A warning for those who may feel uncomfortable as the story includes capital punishment, but it’s super interesting to see how storytelling and cinematography have changed over the past half-century.

With production for the prequel led by filmmaker Kim Sung-hoon (Rampant, Confidential Assignment) and writer Kim Young-shin, MBC’s Chief Detective 1958 is slated to premiere on April 19.