Trouble-making investigators gather at MSS drama

From left, actors Son Hyeon-joo, Yoon Hae-yeong and Oh Man-seok

By Kwon Mee-yoo

A CSI world with an anarchic comic twist? Trouble-making crime investigators will be chasing after serial murderers this week on local television.

"Drama Special - Special Task Force MSS" is part of a KBS Drama Special, filled with new challenges for directors making short series consisting of four or eight episodes. The Drama Special originally was composed of weekly one-act dramas, but the station is trying something new this time.

"MSS" stands for "musosok", which means "independent" in Korean. In other words, the officers of MSS are removed from their original positions and sent to a special unit to prevent further troubles. However, they once again join to solve murder cases.

No Cheol-gi (Oh Man-seok) is a fabulous troublemaker police officer who turns off a whole building's power supply just to catch a pickpocket. Oh said he is enjoying playing the character of No as he is a fun and unique investigator.

"Appearing on such one-act dramas or short series is a meaningful experience for me, too", Oh said during an on-spot interview at KBS Suwon Studio last week. "'MSS' is a group of minorities, but they solve the case which the major ones can't. One-act drama can bring diversity to Korean dramas like the minorities of MSS".

He teams up with Hwang Jun-seong, played by actor Son Hyeon-joo, a paranoiac police officer who insists the suicides or accidental deaths of criminals released from prison are actually victims of a serial killer.

Son does his best to portray the single-minded investigator chasing the serial killer - he wears the worn-out jumper of the character all the time and doesn't even have time to wash it like real detectives.

Vivian Lee (Yoon Hae-yeong) leads the MSS. She is thrown out from her original team because she was always one step behind due to family affairs. At MSS, she plays an important role rounding up reports, though often late.

The story begins with the death of a molester who got out from prison one month ago. Other police officers think he just killed himself, but Hwang thinks differently. No shows an interest in Hwang's plot and they end up pursuing a serial killer who murders criminals.

Kang Byeong-taek, producer of the drama, said he would like to produce the second season of the drama about this time next year.

"This is a crime investigation story and we heard many guesses on the ending of the drama. That's why we will tighten up security for the script of the last episode", Kang said.

The show airs at 11:15 p.m. Sunday on KBS.