Confirmed: Jo Hyun Jae returns to drama land as Cha Jae Hoon in “Housewife Detective”

Jo Hyun Jae is now officially part of the cast of the drama “Housewife Detective”. He plays passionate/hot-blooded prosecutor Cha Jae Hoon. 

“Housewife Detective” is a comic drama that will tell the  life of struggling single mom Myung Yoo Jin/Eugene who, to make a living, accidentally becomes an assistant to a detective.

Jo Hyun Jae as Cha Jae Hoon will be a prosecutor who is full of charm but is so busy investigating complicated cases that he doesn’t even have time to shave. He is a graduate of the Judicial Research and Training Institute and a martial arts expert. He vigorously pursues people who have broken the law no matter what it takes.

Also officially joining the drama is actress Hong Su Ah. She plays Park Min Joo, a young lady who grew up with a ‘금수저/geumsujeo/gold spoon’ (similar to the English expression of ‘silver spoon’, which means that she is rich) but with a warm heart. Her mother is the president of a prestigious foundation. Min Joo and Jae Hoon will have a sad story (sad love story?).

The role of Eugene has yet to be cast, although reports say that the role has been offered to actress Park Jin Hee. Her agency said that they are currently reviewing the proposal. The drama has no broadcaster and broadcast date yet, but according to reports, the drama will be completely pre-produced and will be released simultaneously in Korea and overseas.

Source 1 Source 2

Editor:

In my previous post about this drama, I translated JHJ’s role of “검사/geomsa” to prosecutor. I based my translation from this site (wikipedia) and Jenny Park’s translation.

검사(檢事, prosecutor)는 범죄자에 대하여 법원에 기소 및 공소유지를 담당한다.

English translation: Geomsa (jian shi, prosecutor) responsible for maintaining public order by prosecuting criminals in court.

검사 = geomsa (Korean)
檢事 = jian shi/inspector (Chinese)

However, this dramabeans article translated JHJ’s role as investigator/detective. So I searched around some more to explain the difference in translations.

All sites I visited translated geomsa as either inspector or prosecutor, but never detective. Even the Chinese sites translated JHJ’s role as that of an inspector/prosecutor. Detective in Korean is either tamjeong or myeongtamjeong. So, for now I will continue translating geomsa to prosecutor until we have a better idea of JHJ’s role.

But, hot damn! JHJ sporting a scruffy look in a drama! And he is a martial arts expert. Will he get to do some action scenes? Looking forward to see how JHJ gives life to this character. Oh, and the drama is said to be a comedy! I hope JHJ gets to do funny stuff like he did at the beginning of King’s Daughter.

Some fans expressed concern about writer Park Eun Young, who wrote the currently airing Hwarang, which is pre-produced like Housewife Detective. The fans said that the writing in Hwarang is a mess and the drama has very low viewer rating.

I did some research on writer Park Eun Young. He/she has some movie credits to his/her name. He/she served as co-writer (together with Jang Min Seok) for the movie Maundy Thursday/Our Happy Time, which won Best Screenplay in the 2006 Chunsa Film Art Awards. He/she also wrote the screenplay for Miss Gold-digger (2007).

Well, all we can do now is hope and pray that JHJ has made the right choice and that the writer has improved since he/she wrote Hwarang.

Update: Based on this new Dramabeans article, actress Jang Nara is more likely to take on the role of Eugene instead of Park Jin Hee. I like Jang Nara since Story of a Bright Girl, and I think she is really good in comedic roles. The article also confirms that JHJ’s role is that of a prosecutor who graduated top of his class at the Judicial Research and Training Institute (it is a law school in S. Korea).