By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
May 16, 2018
Noh Ji-Wook (played by Ji Chang-Wook)
Eun Bong-Hee (played by Nam Ji-Hyun)
Ji Eun-Hyuk (played by Choi Tae-Joon)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
A legal thriller filled with comedy and romance, “Suspicious Partner” is an addictive K-Drama that will keep viewers engaged.
Don’t let the 40 episodes put you off. Each episode is less than half an hour long. And the plot is so engaging that the series ends much too quickly.
Noh Ji-Wook is a rising prosecutor with a reputation for suffering no fools. Eun Bong-Hee is a young attorney at the beginning of her career.
Their lives become intertwined when Bong-Hee is accused of murdering Hee-Joon — her cheating ex-boyfriend (rakishly portrayed by 2PM’s Chansung) — and Ji-Wook is assigned to put her behind bars.
Of course, Bong-Hee is innocent. While the circumstantial evidence is inconclusive, the fact that Hee-Jun was found dead in her apartment (and she has no alibi) doesn’t help her case. Ji-Wook puts his career on the line and lets her off. His boss — who happens to be the father of the deceased — fires him.
Ji-Wook ends up working at the law firm where his frenemy, Eun-Hyuk, is employed. It will soon become clear to anyone with eyes why Ji-Wook despises someone who was once his childhood best friend. But in the beginning, it is unclear why Eun-Hyuk would try so hard to be friendly to a man who is indifferent to him.
But back to Ji-Wook and Bong-Hee. Both come with baggage and a history of tragedy. Their fathers both perished in house fires. Ji-Wook wants to honor his father by being a noble prosecutor, just like his dad. Bong-Hee wants to become an attorney to put arsonists and other criminals in jail, but also to defend those who have been wrongly accused.
Because this is a K-Drama, we know that the two will become attracted to each other, but will wait a long time before becoming a couple. This isn’t a spoiler, because there’s no way you could think otherwise after watching Episode 1.
Just to get you in the right frame of mind for how long you’ll have to wait for them to get the ball rolling, romantically:
✅ They enjoy their first real kiss with each other in Episode 16.
✅ They won’t officially start dating until seven episodes later.
✅ And if you’re waiting for a proposal — which may or may not happen (ahem) — you’ll have to wait until the finale.
Villain or victim?
As Jung Hyun-Soo, a man accused of murdering a famous chef, actor Dong Ha is wonderful. Charismatic and convincing, he’s a scene stealer who can say just as much with his expression as he can his words. The viewer is left unsure about his guilt or innocence for a looooonnnnggg time.
Product placement:
ENOUGH with the product placement overkill. It was obnoxious enough in “Descendants of the Sun” and “Doctor Crush,” where the Subway sandwich chain received almost more screen time than some of the actors.
In “Suspicious Partner,” Papa John’s clearly paid good money for publicity, because it seemed to be featured heavily in every other episode. Honestly, the pizzas didn’t look any better than the ones they serve in the United States. (Sorry Papa John’s fans. I’m from Chicago and we’re particular about our pizza.)
I wish these K-Dramas would stop trying to make bland, American fast food look desirable. To paraphrase “Mean Girls” … Stop trying to make Papa John’s happen.
A few observations:
✅ Though I am a big proponent of not wearing shoes in the house, I am not used to watching glamorous characters walking around their home dressed in suits and slippers. One of the funniest scenes to me was when police entered Hyun-Soo’s home to look for evidence. He was more perturbed by the detectives entering his apartment without taking off their shoes than anything else.
✅ Also, I found it amusing that Ji-Wook’s hair changed depending on his job. When he worked as a prosecutor, he wore his hair slicked to the side. When he started his own law firm, he let his bangs flop down over his forehead.
✅ There are a few plot holes where it’s best to suspend your belief in reality to enjoy the drama. For instance, it’s highly unlikely that Ji-Wook, as a prosecutor, would fight against a former client (whom he had represented when he had his own law firm).
✅ Unlike so many K-Dramas where the female heroine is a martial arts expert, but can’t hold her own when she’s actually in danger — I’m looking at you, “Cinderella and the Four Knights“ — Bong-Hee is a fourth degree black belt in taekwondo, who utilizes her skills well. The one time she doesn’t use her abilities is when she has a hair-pulling session with another woman. Why? Maybe a sense of honor? Maybe a plot hole? I don’t know, but it didn’t bother me too much.
Airdates: The 40 episodes — each 30-minutes long — aired on SBS from May 10 to July 13, 2017.
Spoiler Alert:
Bong-Hee’s father actually saved Ji-Wook’s life. After rescuing him from the house fire, he goes back inside the flaming building to try to save Ji-Wook’s parents. He ends up perishing along with them. Because he was so little, Ji-Wook listened to the prosecuting attorney at the time, who convinced him that Mr. Eun was an arsonist and the man responsible for killing his parents.
Hyun-Soo was part of a group of seven teenage boys who gang raped a high school student. Though he, himself, didn’t participate in the crime, he watched and didn’t report it after the fact. Delusional that he is avenging her rape — and her eventual suicide — he goes on a killing spree to murder the other six.
Much is made of how creepy Hyun-Soo is, stalking his victims. And one of Bong-Hee’s friend’s is attacked by an ex-boyfriend, who says he won’t ever let her break up with him. But in episode 30, Ji-Wook tells Bong-Hee that he won’t ever let her go. It’s not meant to sound creepy, but it felt overly possessive. Bong-Hee has free will and if she doesn’t want to be in a relationship with him for whatever reason, he should respect that and let her go.
Ji-Wook thinks that Yoo-Jung cheated on him with their mutual friend, Eun-Hyuk. It turns out that they never consummated their afffair. When Eun-Hyuk asks her why she never told Ji-Wook that, she says because it doesn’t matter — because that’s where their affair was headed.
© 2018 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
It was a great drama though. Love Ji Chang Wook