Shin Ha-kyun relives the glory days with his fellow Fifties Professionals
by solstices
Gearing up ahead of its premiere with an extended highlight reel, MBC’s latest action comedy Fifties Professionals is offering its titular experts a shot at redemption. A decade after a failed mission, our central trio find themselves entangled in its web all over again. Except they’re all in their fifties now, and all they wanted was to live peacefully and unassumingly…
The teaser opens with a look into the past. A retrieval mission takes center stage, for the item in question — nicknamed the Black Pearl — contains the republic’s top-secret documents within. Tensions between the North and South run high, and Heo Sung-tae (Good Boy) is ready to join the fray as the underworld gangster Kang Beom-ryong.
But he’s not the only one chasing after the Black Pearl. Shin Ha-kyun (The Auditors) steps into the elite shoes of the NIS’s best black agent Jung Ho-myung, while Oh Jung-se (We Are All Trying Here) hails from the other side as the North Korean special agent Bong Je-soon.
The problem? The powerful Han Kyung-wook, played by Kim Sang-kyung (Poong, the Joseon Psychiatrist 2), is not only the associate director of the NIS, but he also has the police, prosecution, and politicans in the palm of his hand. In order to prevent him from amassing an even greater monopoly for corrupt deeds, the Black Pearl must be secured.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t quite work out, and we catch up with our not-quite-heroes ten years later on Yeongseon Island. And Ho-myung has just been diagnosed with andropause. Oops. Making a humble living as a chef at a Chinese restaurant, Ho-myung laments that his days have been passing lethargically ever since marrying and settling down.
As for Je-soon, he’s inexplicably lost his memories. With no idea of his previous assignment, he’s been earning paltry pennies as an overworked steel factory worker. Last but not least, after Beom-ryong got ousted from the gang, he’s been making an honest living by running a convenience store. Oh, and he gets his very own damsel in distress moment too, hee.
With Kyung-wook on the rise and a casino set to gentrify the island, our trio find their paths converging once more to stop his nefarious schemes. Along the way, they’ll meet Kwon Yul (My Sweet Mobster) — yay! — as the hotel chairman Do Hyun-tae, who sponsors and launders money for Kyung-wook. Then there’s the reformed gangster Yoo In-gu, played by Hyun Bong-shik (Mad Concrete Dreams), who’s since become Kyung-wook’s right-hand man. And hilariously, it seems Hyun-tae drives him nuts. (Hyun-tae, in English: “Wow! It’s real?” In-gu: “Speak Korean!”
Joining the fray is Kim Shin-rok (Tastefully Yours) — double yay! — as the criminal prosecutor Kang Young-ae, whose righteous spirit spurs her to uphold justice in the face of corrupt chiefs and banal bureaucracy. Our heroes will have a long way to go in terms of teamwork, though, if Ho-myung driving off and leaving Beom-ryong in the dust is any indication. (Ho-myung: “What am I, a taxi driver?”)
Helmed by PD Han Dong-hwa (Shadow Detective, Navillera) with scripts penned by Jang Won-seob, Fifties Professionals is slated to premiere in just a few days on May 22.
Via MBC (1, 2)
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