Friday 5 February 2016

Vampire Prosecutor - Korean Drama with Fangs! #FanFriday 16


Welcome to Fan Fridays 16 and another chance for me to share with you some of my geeky nature. Today is about a recent discovery of mine that I just have to share. :)

Vampire Prosecutor
Korean Drama with Fangs!

So I have recently begun to try out Asian drama as well as Asian films, which I have been a fan of for a long time, and I am so glad I started down this road. Some of them just fit me to a tee :). Vampire Prosecutor is a South Korean television show staring Yeon Jung-hoon as Min Tae-yeon a prosecutor who leads a team that solve the most bizarre murders.

Seven years ago Tae-yeon was investigating a series of murders and caught up with the perpetrator, only to nearly be killed and ultimately turned into a vampire. He is still trying to solve that crime and he uses his vampire powers to solve other cases. These powers all revolve around blood:
  • At a crime scene he can trace back where blood evidence came from and how the crime occurred.
  • If he drinks the blood of the victim he experiences their death and sees what they saw.
Of course this leads to questions about his investigation technique.

Yoo Jung-In and Min Tae-yeon
The only person in the know is detective Hwang Soon-bom (Lee Won-jong) who runs interference for Tae-yeon when necessary. The other two members of the team are Yoo Jung-in (Lee Young-ah) a rookie prosecutor and Choi Dong-man (Kim Joo-young) their intern. Trouble arises as Jung-in starts to question Tae-yeon's methods, even though they keep bringing in the bad guys.

From the first episode of this I was hooked - I love it. This is a police procedural, like CSI, but with a vampire as the lead investigator. The team solve murders and the crimes are whodunnits just like your average cop show, but with an extra edge that makes it for me.

The characters are great too.

Tae-yeon tries to be all aloof with most of his team, keeping himself emotionally unavailable because of his secret and yet they begin to get to him. He had to care about them.

Soon-bom is loud and a forthright detective with a side of funny. He sometimes plays the fool, but there is a brain working away in his head.

Yoo Jung-In and Hwang Soon-bom
I have to admit I found Jung-in a little annoying to begin with, but she has really grown on me, just as her character has grown. She's a good investigator and keeps Tae-yeon on his toes.

Dong-man is underpaid and often overworked and something of a dork, but also highly entertaining.

The vampire effects are beautiful and understated and, yes, I'm not going to lie, incredibly sexy. These are my kinds of vampires.

If I could get my hands on the DVDs of this I would, but unfortunately Amazon UK only seem to have season 1 and that is ridiculously expensive. If you're in the US you can see both on Amazon Video with a DramaFever Instant add on (and there is a 7 day free trial period if you feel like main-lineing it) and while s1 is also ridiculous on DVD, s2 is a reasonable price.

Do you have any Asian drama recommendations?

8 comments:

  1. they totally need a season three of this show! gah!

    as for recommendations: i will happily give you lots and lots!

    sungkyunkwan scandal -- historical romantic comedy
    scholar who walks the night -- historical vamps
    ghost (phantom) -- cyber crime
    master's sun -- same mc as in ghost comtemporary romantic comedy
    playful kiss -- high school highjinks
    faith (the great doctor) -- historical drama
    chuno -- historical drama
    you're beautiful -- contemorary romantic comedy
    city hunter -- action
    iljimae -- historical drama
    sensory couple -- romantic drama
    secret garden -- dramedy
    coffee prince -- contemporary
    who are you -- cop drama not the other one (has same dude as coffee prince)
    i hear your voice -- contemporary
    boys over flowers -- korean and japanese romantic dramedy

    those are ones i've seen and liked a lot.

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    1. They really, really do! Such a good show.
      Thank you so much for all the recs, I've found a couple of those already, like Scholar Who Walks in the Night (bet you couldn't have guessed that one :)) and City Hunter, but definitely not the rest.

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    2. They run the genre gambit. But quite a few have a bit of Other spice added to the mix.

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    3. Ooo! Totally forgot dr. Jin! That one was interesting. And something (can't remember) fortune happy life. That one is Chinese, but it was good. Um, fated to love you Korean is better than the Chinese one, but still couldn't finish it. Not that it was bad but just rips my heart out 3/4 of the way through and I can't get to the happy ending.

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    4. I noticed, thank you, when I read their descriptions online :) Awesome. I wish more western dramas has such Other spice ::g::

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    5. I think I am with you on the ripping heart out bit :)

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    6. Dr. Stranger, arang and the magistrate, and rooftop prince.

      Sorry, was skimming through dramafever to find something to watch and saw those.

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