Advertisement

Disney+ K-drama Shadow Detective: Lee Sung-min commands moody and involving investigative drama

  • Lee Sung-min is stellar as a veteran detective embroiled in a case connected to his past in Shadow Detective, which is set in a grungy, fictional port town
  • Lee commands the screen, tangoing with his fellow actors rather than stealing the scene and compelling the cast to rise to his level of brooding intensity

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
Lee Sung-min in a still from Shadow Detective, a moody and involving investigative drama on Disney+.

Korean thrillers, with their shady morals and inky black shadows, have long been a driving force of the country’s film industry. But Korean cinema is not what it used to be – thrillers are struggling at the box office, and their creators are abandoning the big screen in favour of the small one.

The highly cinematic Shadow Detective, now streaming on Disney+, is anchored by a barnstorming performance from Lee Sung-min as a detective on the decline who is fighting his way through a case connected to his past.

The series offers many delights for fans of investigative thrillers.

The story is set in Geumo, a fictional port town which seems to get very little sunlight and is overrun by criminals and world-weary police.

Kim Taerok (Lee) is a veteran detective in the local police force who lives in destitution, renting a room in a gosiwon – a low-income dwelling where people share bathrooms and kitchens.

He is also taking medication for his faltering memory, though his colleagues are as yet unaware of this.

Advertisement