Justice, pennies, and rules in OCN's Neighborhood Hero

46 December 30, 2015December 29, 2015

Justice, pennies, and rules in OCN’s Neighborhood Hero

by javabeans

I am really feelin’ the dryly funny vibe of these Neighborhood Hero teasers: The show has all the slick stylishness of OCN’s dark action dramas, but the fun spirit of a tongue-in-cheek caper. I love when a thing deflates its own ego for a laugh.

Here we’ve got several more teasers to round out the main cast, which comprises the unlikely team of crime-fighting vigilantes at the center, their associates, and their primary antagonist. We’ve already seen the show’s introductory teaser and character teasers for three of the leads: the retired black-ops agent played by Park Shi-hoo, the wannabe cop trying to get a job played by Lee Soo-hyuk, and the bar employee and writer hopeful played by Kwon Yuri.

The copy on Park Shi-hoo’s newly released character poster reads, “I feel like this is my work. Getting even.” Lee Soo-hyuk’s poster wonders, “Justice? A world where anybody can be employed?” And Yuri’s says, “Living is hard enough. Let’s not hang our heads!”

In this set of videos, we have Jo Sung-ha as a hardscrabble detective who pinches his pennies to make his meager paycheck stretch, who’s just about to dig into his lunch when he’s called on the job. He gets up with a sigh, and the caption tells us, “Making a living… is really hard.” On the way out, he’s guilted by the charity donation container and pulls out a handful of change and a small bill… and after considering the options, he drops in the coins, then pats himself on the back: “Good job, good job!” His character poster reads, “You be the cool detective. I’ll be the detective working to subsist.”

Then we have Jung Man-shik playing Park Shi-hoo’s rigidly principled sunbae, a former black ops agent and team leader at the intelligence service. In the teaser, he lines up his desk materials with precision, then glares fiercely at a piece of paper that dares to fall out of line. When he gets up to fix it, he knocks down a bunch of files on his desk and sort of awkwardly tries to right the mess, though his cool, badass moment is long gone.

Last but not least, we have Yoon Tae-young looking ominous in the role of an investment firm president who grew up in a poor neighborhood in New York and spent his youth as a street rat, part of an Asian gang, before transforming himself into a sharp businessman. In the video, he tears up a photo of Park Shi-hoo and warns, “Don’t disappoint me. Justice? Give it to the dogs!”

Neighborhood Hero airs as a Saturday-Sunday drama on OCN and begins its run on January 23.

Via TV Report

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1 Bili Bala Pabo Bara

December 30, 2015 at 8:46 AM

I'm not gonna lie, this looks kind of good, controversial actor and all.

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2 sunnyl

December 30, 2015 at 9:45 AM

I love the casts (though not sure about Yuri) and will be watching.
BTW can we have the news about JiSung winning the grand prize Please?

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unitedred

December 30, 2015 at 1:46 PM

I also really like the cast and unsure about Yuri. I like the setup of the drama about a group of unlikely vigilantes.

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3 Pyromaniac

December 30, 2015 at 11:14 AM

In the first photo it looks like Lee Soo-hyuk and Yuri are sitting on bar tables. Looks weird with their legs floating. Will see what first 2 episodes are like before committing

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4 redfox

December 30, 2015 at 11:43 AM

hmmm. I dunno, kind of difficul to understand what this is aiming at, but I sense irony in it.

Lee Soo Hyuk looks like Gwi had a puppy with a cocker spaniel who has all the evil chromosomes missing, but definitely inherited some of that hair.

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rinoak

December 30, 2015 at 12:21 PM

LOL Yes, yes he does.

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5 skelly

December 30, 2015 at 12:03 PM

Park Shi Hoo's poster says his work is "getting even"? Is this somehow meant ironically? Or are people supposed to laugh at the possibility that this is his real life point-of-view? The possibility makes me ill. And I like how he spent his time of reflection away from the business getting skin treatments and botox injections. Dude looks younger than springtime.

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PPasun

December 30, 2015 at 12:35 PM

So now he gets blamed for the poster wording picking which he probably had nothing to do with? Lay the blame where it belongs, but I think this is going too far.

Also, should he have come back to the dramaland after 2 years looking aged and tormented to make people happy? I am sure some would say, then, that he does not even have the basic respect as an actor toward his viewers, showing up looking unfit to play the main spy character. Would people have been happier if he played a character like one of those minor ones in drama Remember, accused of sexual harassment?

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skelly

December 30, 2015 at 12:43 PM

I don't care who came up with the "clever" wording - of course it isn't PSH, this is Marketing's job - but it is cringingly tone-deaf nonetheless.

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PPasun

December 30, 2015 at 1:31 PM

Even though JB translated it as "getting even," the more direct translation is "paying as good as you get," meaning an eye for an eye kind of thing. His character's idea of justice may be that. How is that cringingly tone-deaf?

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Trinity 🍆

December 30, 2015 at 3:14 PM

Skelly is working off the translation they were given which was 'getting even'. Either way, if Skelly thinks it's cringe-worthy then it's cringe worthy. You and others may not agree but that's doesn't change their opinion.

PPasun

December 30, 2015 at 3:36 PM

@ TrinPie I was not trying to change his/her opinion. I was genuinely curious where from the poster line s/he got this cringeworthy double entendre. "Getting even," by the way, is a fine translation of this line and still, I don't get it. Does s/he mean that from that line an average viewer will think that PSH may plot to get even with his accuser?

6 Dahlia

December 30, 2015 at 12:09 PM

I wish the lead actor was someone else.

Series looks great aside that.

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7 AJ

December 30, 2015 at 1:01 PM

This drama was not under my radar but after seeing the teaser, photos etc..it really looks great! I am totally looking forward to the first episode!

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8 fanjing

December 30, 2015 at 1:46 PM

I don't understand all the flack PSH is getting. Wasn't it shown that he was blackmailed and the whole controversy was a setup to get his money? Am I missing something?

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Dahlia

December 30, 2015 at 2:00 PM

He sued the victim and two of her associates for blackmail and slander, but later dropped the suit after he and the victim settled. If there was more, I haven't heard of it.

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Dahlia

December 30, 2015 at 2:02 PM

My bad, it was the victim, her friend(?), and his ex CEO he sued.

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9 Dahlia

December 30, 2015 at 2:07 PM

My bad, it was the victim, her friend(?), and his ex CEO he sued.

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10 mira

December 30, 2015 at 2:10 PM

I am here for the comments. *gets popcorn

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Ek Ladhki Thi

December 30, 2015 at 6:38 PM

Lol me too. I'm here for the "Park Shi-hoo should be drawn and quartered" comments. I'm not a fan of Park Shi-hoo, I'm really into this show for Lee Soo-hyuk oppa, but I'm a firm believer in forgiveness and giving people a second chance especially since he wasn't convicted and there's some evidence to support the fact that he was blackmailed regardless of whether he was guilty or not. I hope this show is good, at least for the sake of everyone else who is working so hard for the show.

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koreampuff

December 30, 2015 at 7:02 PM

Same. Okay. Sorry, but it's the first time I've seen comments on Dramabeans get so accusative and judgmental like how many of Korean netizens are. The comments I saw on the previous post for Neighborhood Hero was so.... explosively bitter as if these people commenting knew the situation PSH was in first hand and was 100% secure in knowing that he was a guilty jackass. And here I was, a Korean who until now always thought global fans were less accusative, obsessive, and judgmental than Korean fans and respected global fans for exactly that trait... I get that Korea could be pretty corrupt, and maybe PSH is guilty. Maybe this is one of those tragic cases where money and power beats justice. But it can equally not be that kind of case. It's not unheard of for celebrities and famous people to be targeted and specifically put into situations that will ensnare them in scandals that has juicy payoffs for those who concoct the situations. As bad as some of the rich in Korea are, some of the poor are pretty twisted also. However, accusations are accusations, and I strongly feel that if the case was settled, the plaintiff (NOT victim - PSH was not indicted), even if she was telling the truth, chose to take a settlement and give up the right for justice. I'm strongly rooted for innocent until charged, no matter how shady an individual can be.... I won't throw mud at someone unless they've been indicted and charged for a wrong... idk call me a believer of the law, because despite how many flaws the law can have, ultimately, there's nothing more fair or consistent yet that can take the place of law. I'm not some rabid and defensive PSH fan, I could care less about him. But the whole sense of justice I've been seeing in the comments on Dramabeans left a bad aftertaste in my mouth that Dramabeans has never given me before. Dramabeans has always been a site where I saw a beautiful exchange of passion for Korean drama and culture, with a respect for varying opinions and tastes. I guess seeing so much negative backlash that I personally feel is legally not grounded just didn't fit with what I've grown to respect this site for. I hope we can have more of positive objective things to discuss on this site as we always have even into the new year. Done with everything I wanted to say - hope everyone has a warm and happy new year!

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ko

December 30, 2015 at 7:17 PM

I’m not some rabid and defensive PSH fan, I could care less about him. You sure?

Dramabeans has always been a site where I saw a beautiful exchange of passion for Korean drama and culture, with a respect for varying opinions and tastes.

So know now, not liking/supporting a rapist is bad?

You sound like a rabid fan, sorry.

We aren't talking about selling drungs, drunk driving - we are talking about rape.

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NaijaNoona

December 30, 2015 at 8:40 PM

"Innocent until proven guilty" is a legal standard, and applicable in a court of law, not on a blog or in comments' sections. Courts are highly artificial spaces in which lawyers, judges, juries, etc are expected to draw conclusions based on a defined set of rules and a limited set of facts and assertions that are deemed admissible. No one outside a court of law is obligated to use "legally grounded" thinking to draw conclusions about criminal allegations, and it's actually unreasonable to expect people to do so outside a legal context, given that the kinds of legal standards you refer to are by design very high standards for conviction. It's especially unreasonable when it comes to cases of sexual violence, where few reported crimes ever go to trial, and where it is next to impossible to get a conviction in the small fraction of cases that do go to trial (most of all if the victim and assailant knew each other). Allegations of rape are very rarely false. The notion that people who come forward have something to gain from making accusations of rape is basically the opposite of reality, especially in a case like this where a rookie actress named a senior, popular actor as her attacker. The process of reporting a sexual crime, and going through the process of having it tried is often as traumatic for victims as the crime itself. It's a horrible process with very slim chance of any real return or of even a little "justice."

Saying that the woman who came forward in this case passed up her chance for justice suggests to me that someone doesn't understand that the legal process in many countries routinely and systematically delivers the opposite of justice to victims who pursue legal action against perpetrators. Frankly monetary compensation for suffering violence and having to live with the aftermath of it is the *least* a rapist can be expected to do—and the vast majority of rapists never face even that little punishment.

All of that to say, the real world is a very different place than a court of law. In the real world, someone who says they were raped is almost always someone who was in fact raped, and in cases of acquaintance rape mistaken identification not terribly likely (unlikely when the attacker is a stranger, where things like line-ups and other methods of identifying suspects are notoriously unreliable). All of that to say, the chances that Park Shi Hoo and his unnamed friend are not, in fact, rapists are exceedingly slim. Believing this woman, other women, and other people who come forward is not only reasonable, it's far more supported by what we know about sexual violence and how cultures all over the world stigmatize victims of sexual violence.

Like the idea of believing the best of people and keeping an open mind or whatever is a nice one, but in this case, Park Shi Hoo almost certainly did what he was accused of. It's up to people to decide how to think of him, and if they can stomach the thought of watching...

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NaijaNoona

December 30, 2015 at 8:42 PM

Sorry, meant to say: "In cases of acquaintance rape mistaken identification is not terribly likely (unlike when the attacker is a stranger, where things like line-ups and other methods of identifying suspects are notoriously unreliable)."

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NaijaNoona

December 30, 2015 at 8:45 PM

It’s up to people to decide how to think of Park Shi Hoo, and if they can stomach the thought of watching him with the thought that he might be a rapist. But it's not unreasonable, obsessive, or judgmental for people to conclude that he *is* a rapist. It's the more likely situation, by a whole lot. Uncomfortable, perhaps, but true.

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fab

December 31, 2015 at 3:40 AM

Exactly. He can go on with his life and career, and by no means get stones thrown at him. But it's disgusting to dismiss the woman's accusations because of the ridiculous notion that a settlement likely proves his innocence, just because it's not a conviction by a court . Like you said, most victims don't get any compensation at all, not because they're untruthful, sadly the law is simply not on their side.

Kween Ramyeon

December 30, 2015 at 10:31 PM

Koreampuff, nicely said. Happy new year to you too!

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KDaddict?JCW

December 31, 2015 at 3:03 AM

@koreampuff,
Thank you so much. Happy New Year to you too!

All I know is that I wasn't there in his apt that night, so it's a case of "he said, she said".

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Chocobana

December 31, 2015 at 5:27 AM

@koreampuff - I always thought the same about international fans, how they're less judgmental compared to their Korean counterparts. It's very scary how things get out of hand at the merest hint of a wrongdoing/scandal by a famous actor or actress.

I was a big fan of PSH but now I'm not sure. I still appreciate him as a very talented actor ('The Princess's Man' cinched the deal for me) but there's still that element of doubt.

There's no way for us fans to completely make sure whether the rape did happen or not. Like another commenter said, it's a case of 'he said, she said'. I'm sure the people closest to PSH would be able to make up their minds on whether he's the kind of person to do such a thing or not, but we fans don't even know him that closely. We can't be completely sure of what he did or not. You can also say, in that vein, that we don't have the right to judge him.

So I end up feeling very tentative about him, even when I try to think of the whole thing positively (with the whole conflicting statements made by both parties). Whether PSH is innocent or guilty, his image and reputation took a strong hit. I think people will always have this doubt.

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Table122000

December 31, 2015 at 8:51 AM

I agree that the true issue here is "can a person hate the artist but still love his art for art's sake?" It is a difficult question. Actually what bothers me the most about PSH is his attitude towards women as shown by this case. He felt it was perfectly acceptable to have sex with a drunk woman and not only that but it was perfectly acceptable to "take turns" with his friend in having sex with this drunk woman. I personally find this attitude repugnant. That women are "playthings", not human beings. Can I overlook it to enjoy his talent as an actor? Because I do believe he is talented. Can I watch his show, giving it ratings, thereby giving him money, de facto condoning his actions and beliefs, knowing his attitude toward women? For me, I don't think I can. For others, they can overlook an actor's personal beliefs and actions to enjoy their performances and support them. And they will be watching and supporting PSH.

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11 KompaktneHaare

December 30, 2015 at 3:42 PM

This looks my kind of hilarious.

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12 ko

December 30, 2015 at 7:20 PM

I always laugh when PSH fans try everything to defend him and talk as if ~~ I'm not his fan but ~~ if you are not his fan then why you talk like he and his media play talked between the rape scandal? Just PSH fans and people who followed his scandal know.

Since I liked his works before his scandal, and my fav drama was princess man I followed this entire scandal, from both sides.

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Vayne

December 30, 2015 at 8:26 PM

Just curious then. What did you think of the kakao messages between Miss A and B that made it seem like they were only interested in getting money from him and their intentions for a media play of their own?

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13 whitewire

December 30, 2015 at 7:24 PM

This is an elite ensemble. Gotta watch this.

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14 Nathan

December 30, 2015 at 7:26 PM

I've been following PSH's work since Illjimae and so far I like his work. I like him as an actor, so I'll be watching this.

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15 Quiet Thought

December 30, 2015 at 8:24 PM

One of the people into the poster has legs. One of the people in that poster has legs. Sorry. But I keep noticing that.

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themugen123

December 31, 2015 at 7:29 PM

huh?

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16 Thea

December 30, 2015 at 8:43 PM

I will say again.if the other cast could give they profesional work and just concern about this drama not PSH dark past so I will give them change. I will be a professional viewer who just watch this drama because the story not the cast. I will watch 2 episode, if it good I will continue watch.

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17 iris

December 30, 2015 at 10:42 PM

This looks fantastic! Just what I'd expect from OCN.
I am totally looking forward to this drama. Great cast too!

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18 gaeinalee

December 31, 2015 at 8:43 AM

Whoaaa... I didn't expect this. The casts, the preview! I'll be rooting for lovely ahjusshi JSH, and LSY for sure.. ^^

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19 dfwkimchi

December 31, 2015 at 8:53 AM

I always thought the premise of this drama series had potential - interesting mix of characters.

The character posters do add to the funny/irony vibe to the series.

Will watch to see if the show lives up to potential when it starts!

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Ana

December 31, 2015 at 3:41 PM

I think it will be a good drama. The cast is excellent¡¡¡ PSH, a controversial actor, maybe, an excellent actor, sure. I will enjoy their performance as actors and will not judge any of them for their personal lifes. I am not God.

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themugen123

December 31, 2015 at 7:23 PM

Amen.

Also that hat sure gets around!

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20 Negin

January 1, 2016 at 3:36 PM

everything about this drama from the cast to the story is promising...some thing different from the spoiled rom-com kdrama.
I'll definitely watch this

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21 flower

January 3, 2016 at 5:03 PM

I choose Signal than this drama, mainly because i can't stand watching PSH on my screen !!!

Lee jae hoon and Kim hye soo fighthing..

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22 Diana

January 14, 2016 at 2:51 PM

As an international viewer, I was shocked to know Park Shi Hoo was accused of allegedly raping a young actress. However, presumption of innocence is a legal right of the accused one. Park Shi Hoo was not charged with any crime. The case was closed. I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He is a talented actor. I would like to watch his performance. I am very happy to see that he is coming back to the screen.

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Neighborhood Hero