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

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.

Taerok works alongside the gutsy investigator Lee Sung-a (Kyung Soo-jin, Mouse) and his superior assigns them a new recruit to train, the excitable Song Kyung-chan (Lee Hak-joo), who has been making YouTube videos about his training to become a detective.

The Geumo police force has been dealing with a wave of drug crime, and police chief Seo Gwang-su (Kim Hong-pa) brings in the sharp Kook Jinhan (Jin Goo) as chief inspector.

This rankles Taerok, who met Jinhan earlier in the day when the latter – without revealing who he was – helped a winded Taerok chase down a suspect.

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Taerok’s impression of Jinhan takes another hit when the new chief inspector, in an address to the unit, implores those who may be unfit for active duty to take a desk job instead.

Taerok’s sour disposition stems partly from his history with the department.

He used to be closer with his colleagues, including section chief Woo Hyunseok (Kim Tae-hoon), but while he remained dedicated to meting out justice, corruption seeped through the force over time and compromised his former friends.

One night, Taerok and Hyunseok meet in their old hang-out, but they are unable to resolve their differences. Things get complicated when Hyunseok winds up dead the next morning, with Taerok’s wallet and ID beside his body.

Taerok, pegged as the main suspect, deals with a series of calls from a mysterious stranger who admits to framing him for Hyunseok’s death and promises more bodies unless he reveals the truth about a past case that was closed using fabricated evidence.

Shadow Detective, with its buzzing police precinct, grungy alleys and hardy characters, is suffused with a lived-in, hard-boiled atmosphere where crime and dark secrets lurk around every corner.

The tone is amplified by the story’s sense of lost time and corrupted morals. We are thrown into a world already past redemption, but there is a sense that some of these characters – who chose money over relationships – came from somewhere brighter and time has darkened the waters for everyone.

Taerok has his own issues to sort out, notably with his daughter, and he has to walk around with an injury to symbolise his less-than sterling ethics.

Early in the show, Taerok accidentally cuts his nose, forcing him to report for work with a big tissue sticking out of his nostril. Incidentally, next month’s Disney+ series Connect also features a detective with a Kleenex up his nose.

The show provides a great showcase for veteran actor Lee Sung-min, who brings a method-like focus to Taerok. He commands the screen, tangoing with his fellow actors rather than stealing the scene and compelling each and every member of the supporting cast to rise to his level of brooding intensity.

Lee has been playing grunting middle-aged police officers and their ilk for years but in his fifties has added a layer of grit to these characters, which makes Taerok feel fresh despite his familiar roots.

The actor often challenges himself in transformative roles, as in his memorable portrayal of South Korean President Park Chung-hee in the political thriller The Man Standing Next.

This week he is in Korean cinemas in the new revenge film Remember alongside Nam Joo-hyuk, playing an 80-year-old man carrying out a decades-old vendetta, and he will be seen opposite Song Joong-ki next month in the hotly anticipated Reborn Rich.

Directing is Han Dong-hwa, who was responsible for the heart-warming and earthy drama Navillera, one of last year’s most unexpected K-drama delights.

Han ably controls the tone and pace of the story, crafting a moody sandbox for the show’s terrific, though admittedly male-heavy, cast to play in.

Shadow Detective has great style and a committed lead performance from Lee. Time will tell if, after its compelling pair of opening episodes, it has any other tricks up its sleeve or if it will stick to a familiar narrative path.

Still, even if it does get conventional, there is plenty on display here to stick with it till the end.

Shadow Detective is streaming on Disney+.