Jang Nara up to become a Housewife Detective

by javabeans

Ah, interesting casting change: Jang Nara (One More Happy Ending) is now up for the upcoming slice-of-life comedic drama Housewife Detective, which was just the other day announced as Park Jin-hee’s (Memory) potential next project. Reports have since clarified that Park’s connection to the drama was overstated, and that she was merely one possibility out of several.

According to the latest reports, Jang Nara has been offered the role of Myung Yoo-jin, the leading lady who starts out as a housewife who’s a single mom and has endured a life of hardship. By chance, she encounters a self-professed “genius detective” and becomes his assistant detective, and the two set out to solve various cases together. No need to roll your eyes at “genius,” because it looks like the show is being ironic with the term; the guy calls himself a private eye, but really, his office is more like a glorified errand service.

Jo Hyun-jae (Yong-pal) and Hong Su-ah (King’s Dream) were reported previously as being in contention to join the cast, and have now confirmed. Jo will play a hot-blooded prosecutor, Cha Jae-hoon, who is so busy working on violent crimes cases that he doesn’t even have time to shave. (Scruffy Jo Hyun-jae, sign me up.) A martial arts expert who graduated at the top of his class at the Judicial Research and Training Institute, Cha Jae-hoon will do whatever it takes to apprehend lawbreakers, throwing himself into his cases whole-heartedly.

Jo Hyun-jae, Hong Su-ah

Hong Su-ah’s character, Park Mi-joo, was born with a golden spoon in her mouth, with a mother who’s the board chairman of a prestigious foundation, but has a warm heart that doesn’t allow her to turn a blind eye to the less fortunate. Despite being privileged and upper-class, she doesn’t have a trace of snootiness and is in search of true love, which leads her to an ardent but sad connection with prosecutor Jae-hoon.

2PM’s Chansung (Ms. Temper and Nam Jung-ki) was previously reported as being in the mix, and while I haven’t found character info for him, process of elimination suggests that he would be up to play the detective role. Which I can totally see, if the detective will be the cute, smart-assy, kinda greasy type.

I like Park Jin-hee and would have been happy to see her take on a comedic detective drama, but now that you put Jang Nara in my head, I would love to see her as a feisty housewife who learns how to solve cases. She was awesomely fierce in I Remember You as a dogged cop, and made me believe she could take on baddies despite being her tiny, sweet appearance. Will be keeping an eye out for updates on this one!

Housewife Detective will be written by Park Eun-young, who wrote the films Maundy Thursday and Miss Gold Digger, and Park Hee-kwon, of films Flu and No Mercy. That’s an interesting mix, since one writes human dramas and rom-coms, while the other writes thrillers, but perhaps that’ll serve the drama well in mixing light with dark. Directing is PD Han Chul-soo of dramas My Little Baby, Can Love Equal Money, and Bottom of the 9th with 2 Outs. Housewife Detective is being planned as a pre-produced show and doesn’t yet have a broadcaster, but aims to broadcast sometime this year.

Via Sports Donga

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