Pride and Prejudice 2014 - Episode 1

"Pride and Prejudice" is a Korean drama about a group of prosecutors fighting against injustice. Sounds cliche, which is why I did not intend to watch it at first. But I decided to give it a try when I read that it has been topping the ratings in its time slot, and I'm glad I did.

The first five minutes of the drama got me hooked. Han Yeol-moo (Baek Jin-hee) is staring at Koo Dong-chi (Choi Jin-Hyuk) flirting with another woman from afar. Yeol-moo is visibly disturbed by what she sees. Before the traffic light turns red, she quickly crosses the road and walks past Dong-chi. He catches up with her and asks, "You haven't forgotten me?" She replies, "How could I forget you?"

They start bantering as they walk into an office building, and we learn that they knew each other from before but have not met for five years. This is Yeol-moo's first day at work. She says that she applied to be an apprentice at the place where Dong-chi works as a prosecutor to take revenge. Dong-chi says that she is the one who did wrong, not him. She wants him to act as if they didn't know each other, and he agrees.

Yeol-moo soon meets the other members of her prosecution team. Moon Hee-man (Choi Min-soo) is the arrogant department head who wants results. Lee Jang-won (Choi Woo-sik) is the young prosecutor who makes the sexist statement that he hates female prosecutors who use boyfriends or pregnancy as an excuse to skip work. Prosecutor Yoo Gwang-mi (Jung Hye-seong) is the other woman in the team, who declares she doesn't like prosecutors, especially female ones. Kang Soo (Lee Tae-hwan) is the quiet and cool investigator.    

A new case comes to Dong-chi, Yeol-moo and Kang Soo. The owner of a small stationery shop, Kwon Dae-young is accused of being a flasher. He insists that he was in his shop and sold hula-hoops to a customer when the crime happened. He pulls down his pants to prove that he has a mole on his inner thigh, which the victim did not see on the flasher. He is released when the customer who bought the hula-hoops is found together with the receipt. The customer is an elementary school teacher Kang Moo-sung.

During investigation, Dong-chi makes Yeol-moo run from the crime scene to the stationery shop. The crime happened at 10:23:17 while the time-stamp on the receipt is 10:23:47. This means if Dae-young committed the crime, he only had 30 seconds to run back to the shop, remove his helmet, wear his pants and sell the hula-hoops, which is pretty impossible.

Out of nowhere, Dong-chi reveals to Kang Soo that he and Yeol-moo used to date. When Yeol-moo gets teary-eyed, he insensitively asks, "Why are you being so melodramatic?" I wonder what happened between the two of them five years ago.

They have permission to investigate inside the stationery shop. Kang Soo finds some plasters in the trash bin while Dong-chi takes off his pants and starts taking photos of himself. Later, while they are questioning the alibi Moo-sung, Yeol-moo returns to the shop and finds a little girl, Ho-jung there. Ho-jung displays signs of a sexual assault victim and Yeol-moo sends her home. However, she soon goes missing.

Dong-chi deduces that Moo-sung sexually assaulted his student Ho-jung in the shop, the day Dae-young indecently exposed himself. They become each other's alibi to cover each other's track. The prosecution team trail Moo-sung and find Ho-jung. Now they need to prove that Dae-young is the flasher in order to prosecute both him and Moo-sung.

Dae-young is being interrogated in a room. Yeol-moo deduces that Dae-young was able to commit his crime in 30 seconds because he wasn't wearing pants behind the cashier counter. Kang Soo infers that the plasters he found were used by Dae-young to cover his mole, which is why the victim did not see a mole on the flasher's thigh. Dong-chi produces the definitive evidence - Dae-young's chair in the shop leaves a mark on the thigh when one sits too long on it. Dong-chi sat on it and took pictures of the mark on his own thigh. He compares it with the picture of the flasher's thigh taken by the victim and finds the same mark.

Dae-young goes crazy and exposes himself in front of Yeol-moo. Kang Soo suavely moves to shield her. Some sparks fly between them, and Dong-chi doesn't seem too happy about it. I predict there will be a love triangle, and to complicate things, Kang Soo and Dong-chi are actually housemates and close friends.

"Pride and Prejudice" is an enjoyable drama to watch. I like the chemistry between Dong-chi and Yeol-moo. I also find the way Kang Soo protects Yeol-moo romantic. I will continue watching just to see how their relationships unfold.