Inspector Koo is a 12-episode television series from South Korea. It ran from October to December of 2021.
It is a loose remake of Killing Eve. Koo Kyung-yi (Lee Young-ae) is, as the series begins, a gamer who lives in a filthy apartment and plays shooting games online. She is approached by Na Je-hee, an insurance fraud investigator, because as it turns out, the unkempt, seemingly barely functional Kyung-yi is a highly skilled detective.
Je-hee has a suspicious case of a man who is missing and presumed dead. Kim Min-gyu, a factory worker at a coastal fishing town, disappeared without a trace while on his morning walk, and his widow has received a payout of 1.2 billion won. Je-hee theorizes that Min-gyu may have killed himself for the insurance money, but Kyung-yi becomes convinced that Min-gyu isn't really dead. She investigates, uncovers a report of a series of mysterious deaths of workers at the factory, and eventually finds a surprising connection to her own past as a police officer and her pursuit of a sociopathic college student, Son Yi-kyung.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Kyung-yi, who can't function if she doesn't get alcohol from time to time. In episode 6 she and Je-hee are having to pass through a security checkpoint, and the guard's want detects two flasks hidden on Kyung-yi's person.
- Alone in a Crowd: Demonstrated in episode 2 when Yi-kyung, The Sociopath who has a subtly off-putting manner, is energetically dancing in a disco—and a space clears around her, for no particular reason.
- And the Adventure Continues: The last episode ends with the gang putting together their own private detective agency.
- Animated Credits Opening: Every episode opens with a cartoon in anime-style where one woman chases another woman around. Episodes also end with a spin on the cartoon that usually has something to do with the episode just completed.
- As You Know: The relationship between Yi-kyung and her aunt Jung-yeon is explained in episode 2 by the former saying "Please respect your niece's privacy!"
- Bait-and-Switch: It is implied through a series of Match Cuts in the first episode that the creepy college student and Koo Kyung-yi are the same person, like in one scene where Kyung-yi looking down on an intersection from a rooftop cuts to the college girl doing the same in a flashback. It's not until the end of the episode that it's revealed that the murderous college girl is a separate character from Kyung-yi, who was the police detective investigating her.
- Bland-Name Product:
- Episode 2 has Kyung-yi using internet search engine "Woegle".
- In episode 6 Santa does a reverse image search on one of the creepy dolls and finds the image posted on a website called "Witter".
- Body in a Breadbox: Subverted in episode 10. A body in a moving box is delivered to Geon-wook's apartment. All the men freak out, but Kyung-yi doesn't, because she can tell the person inside the box isn't dead. It's the reporter, who Yi-kyung drugged before stuffing him in the box.
- Brand X: In episode 6 a person is sent a plane ticket to Manila on "Wings Air".
- Call-Back: Several in the last episode.
- Earlier in the series Je-hee tells the others she hid a sensitive memory stick in her refrigerator, because she says that's the safest place in the house. In the last episode Kyung-soo saves himself and Sung-tae from the bomb by diving into a freezer. When an astonished Je-hee opens the lid he reminds her that she said refrigerators were the safest place.
- When Kyung-yi and Yi-kyung meet (again) for the first time, Yi-kyung pulls Kyung-yi into a particular spot in the auditorium where the sun shines in the afternoon. She turns her face up and bathes in the warmth. In her last scene in the last episode, Yi-kyung cuts a meeting with her lawyer short so she can rush back to her prison cell and enjoy the brief moment where the sun shines through the bars and onto her face.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Just the smell of soju causes Santa to pass out in episode 2.
- Comforting Comforter: In episode 4 Santa drapes a blanket around Kyung-yi, since the latter is bent over her computer working and won't leave the office.
- Credits Gag: The last scene of the series has the first client of the Koo Detective Agency come to the door. The client is played by Lee Young-ae, the same actress who starred in the series as Kyung-yi...but all glammed up with makeup and a flattering hairstyle as opposed to the dirty, disheveled look she sported as Kyung-yi throughout the series. Her appearance as the new client at the end is accompanied by a credit saying "Guest Appearance By Lee Young-ae."
- Dramatic Gun Cock: Yi-kyung does this in the last episode as she points the gun at Santa.
- Drowning Pit: Episode 4 ends with Je-hee and Kyung-soo locked into a shipping container, which is on a beach where the tide is rising quite rapidly, and filling the shipping container.
- Drunken Master: In episode 1 Kyung-yi is barely conscious after she's forced out of her apartment, until Je-hee has her chug a beer, after which she perks right up. In episode 2 she does soju shots in an effort to think better.
- Dutch Angle: Played for a gag in episode 2 when a Dutch angle is used to show Kyung-yi's fear when she has to...walk across her apartment to the fridge.
- Faking the Dead: Sure enough, Min-gyu isn't really dead, he's been hiding in a shed next to the family home. Although he becomes dead when Yi-kyung blows him up.
- Faux Fluency: From the supposedly American cops in the long episode 5 flashback involving the death of Yi-kyung's parents. The cop who says "there's nothing we can do" in a thick Eastern European accent stands out.
- Flashback: A series of flashbacks in the first episode shows a rather creepy college student investigating who killed some stray cats that she and her friends were looking after. It's implied that the creepy college student is Kyung-yi, until the last flashback reveals that the college girl tried to murder the cat-killer (it was the janitor) and that Kyung-mi was the cop who investigated the case.
- Many others throughout the series. An episode 2 flashback reveals that Kyung-yi's late husband, Seong-woo, was one of the teachers at Yi-kyung's school.
- Insurance Fraud: Je-hee's job is to uncover this. She hires Kyung-yi in the first episode to investigate a life insurance payout, and sure enough it was a case of Faking the Dead.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Done deliberately by Director Sook in episode 2. Sook, who has figured out that there is a serial killer out there and is hiring Kyung-yi to catch that killer, says of the Serial Killer, "We call it K."
- Kubrick Stare: Yi-kyung does this at the end of episode 11 when she unwraps the bandages on the person in the wheelchair and realizes that it is Inspector Koo, not Director Sook as she had thought. This expression of rage is particularly effective since for almost the entire series Yi-kyung projects an air of peppy, smiling cheerfulness, despite being a sociopathic serial killer.
- Life Meter: Played for a gag in episode 2. Kyung-yi the Drunken Master and video game fiend was nearly comatose, until she chugged a beer, whereupon a Life Meter graphic shot up to the top.
- Match Cut:
- Episode 3 has Je-hee's father picking up and cuddling his granddaughter, Je-hee's daughter—cut to Director Sook the charity director cuddling a small child for press photos.
- Episode 9 has Yi-kyung flat on her back after having fallen from an electrified fence—cut to Kyung-yi flat on her back, having fallen into a net near the bottom of the dumpster cylinder.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Koo's investigation into a case of insurance fraud uncovers a serial murder case.
- Model Planning: In episode 7 the gang uses a model of the upcoming robotics showcase to ponder how Yi-kyung plans to kill Ko Dam at the robotics showcase, and how they can stop her. They even have a little toy robot with Ko Dam's picture on it.
- Mood Dissonance: Yi-kyung is a sociopath who murders out of a deep-seated need to kill—but she is also a cheerful, high-energy Genki Girl who is all about big smiles and a positive attitude. This just serves to make her villainy all the more chilling. In one scene she's strung up a reporter with wire, leaving the man standing straight up and just barely able to not strangle to death. Yi-kyung then plays a karaoke K-pop tune and insists that the man sing, which he does.
- Murder by Inaction: How Joon-hyun met his death in the backstory, as revealed by an Episode 10 flashback. An intoxicated Joon-hyun fell off Hyun-tae's yacht, and Hyun-tae watched him drown instead of throwing a life preserver.
- Mustache Vandalism: In episode 6 many of the pictures of employees in the office of KD Peace Lab have been defaced with unflattering drawings and words, indicating how the office is a hostile work environment.
- Never Found the Body: The fact that Min-gyu's body was never found is what causes Je-hee to start an investigation. Naturally it's because he isn't dead.
- Not My Driver: In episode 2, a taxi cab is whisking a depressed, dirty Kyung-yi away when Kyung-yi realizes that she never told the taxi driver a destination. It's a relatively harmless example in this case, as the fake taxi driver is only taking her to Director Yong Sook.
- Offstage Villainy: The gardener at Director Sook's mansion is apparently running some sort of horrifying torture/murder chamber in the basement. When Yi-kyung is briefly held there, the words "Just kill me" and "Help" are written in blood on the wall, and when Yi-kyung regains consciousness on the floor (she was drugged) she finds a human tooth stuck to her cheek. The gardener is in the middle of setting up an Electric Torture rig when Yi-kyung bashes him with a brick and makes her escape.
- Once More, with Clarity: Once it's revealed that Kyung-yi sprung an elaborate trap on Yi-kyung, scenes that led up to that moment are replayed to show what was really going on. For example, the chemical attack on Director Sook was faked by Kyung-yi and the gang, with Director Sook's cooperation, so that Sook could get her head wrapped up in bandages which in turn allowed Kyung-yi to wrap her head up in bandages so she could impersonate Sook. Similarly, the scene where Kyung-soo angrily stalks out of the pizza place, looking like he was defecting from the team, was staged for Yi-kyung, whom Kyung-Soo and Kyung-yi knew were watching.
- Parking Garage:
- Santa's radar pings when Yi-kyung walks past him in a parking garage in episode 4—she is dressed like a garbagewoman but she smells of perfume. A long foot chase ensues but eventually Yi-kyung gets away.
- Mr. Kim, Sook's enforcer, confronts Je-hee in episode 10 in a parking garage, cutting her off and demanding to know why she didn't reveal that Kyung-yi is alive. Je-hee plays it off, telling Mr. Kim that he's the one in trouble for bungling the murder.
- The Pig-Pen: Kyung-yi. When Je-hee comes to fetch her in episode 1, Kyung-yi's apartment is covered in filth and garbage, her computer is full of roaches, and Kyung-yi herself is so dirty that flies are buzzing around her. In episode 2, she thinks nothing of diving into a dumpster and then ambling home. Of course, the show eventually reveals that Kyung-yi's lack of personal hygiene is part of a sort of collapse of personality that took place after her husband's suicide.
- In episode 6 Kyung-yi's hair is attracting flies, and Santa feels compelled to spray her. Later in the same episode he forces her to take a shower.
- At the end of the series, when Kyung-soo shows up at the apartment to set up the private detective agency, it is again covered in garbage. A little bit later, when Kyung-yi comes over to Santa's place to give him a business card, she has to pull out a bunch of snack wrappers before she finds the card buried deep in her pocket.
- Power Hair: Je-hee the hard-charging career woman has the short bob with hard edges that hard-charging career women are supposed to have.
- Punk in the Trunk:
- Kyung-yi is cooperative enough to get in the trunk of Mr. Kim's car herself in episode 9. But she's irritated at the Knockout Gas that apparently fills the trunk after it's closed.
Kyung-yi: This is so cliche!- In episode 11 this is how Kyung-yi and Je-hee deliver Hyun-tae, the wastrel and sociopath, to his mother Director Sook. Sook is so infuriated with him that she briefly shuts him back in the trunk.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Episode 3 finds Je-hee having to beg not to be fired after the Faking the Dead case from episode 1 ends up with NT Insurance having to pay out anyway (the victim having been killed for real in an explosion). She keeps her job—but she and her team have to go to the basement.
- Riddle for the Ages: In the last episode, Yi-kyung says that Santa was the secret girlfriend of the drowned girl back in school, and that he was the one with her that day and kept silent, and if he'd told the truth then Kyung-yi's husband would never have come under suspicion and would never have killed himself. Near the end, Kyung-soo tells Kyung-yi that he scoured through yearbook phots and school records and can't find any evidence that it's true...but that it doesn't matter because they know Santa now and trust him as a good person and friend.
- Shout-Out: In episode 10 the journalist is sheltered in a tiny room belonging to one of Kyung-yi's computer buddies, and given a plate of dumplings. He sarcastically asks if he'll have to stay there fifteen years and eat a live octopus when he leaves. That is the plot of classic Korean thriller Oldboy.
- The Shut-In: It's not clear just how long Kyung-yi has been in her filthy apartment, but it's been long enough that she has forgotten the passcode to open her door.
- Significant Name: It is noted that Kyung-yi, the protagonist and the relentlessly dedicated detective, and Yi-kyung, The Sociopath and Serial Killer, have names that are mirror-images of each other.
- Sleeping Dummy: Yi-kyung escapes from the dungeon in episode 10 by bundling up clothes and blankets to make it look like she's in bed. When the gardener/jailer opens the cell door, she bashes him on the head with a brick.
- Spit Take: In episode 11, Director Sook does that Korean kneel-and-beg thing where she promises to let Kyung-yi do anything she wants as long as Kyung-yi protects her son from being murdered. Mr. Kim, Director Sook's main enforcer, does an epic spit take with his drink when he sees his hardass boss do this.
- Taking the Bullet: In episode 12 the ever-loyal Geon-wook dives in front of Yi-kyung and takes a bullet meant for her.
- Thanking the Viewer:
- Done as a gag in episode 9 when Mr. Kim puts Kyung-yi in a barrel and rolls her down a hill into a ravine. The show cuts to video game graphics of the barrel, and then a graphic saying "Game Over. Thank You For Watching Inspector Koo."
- Done for real, but again in video game style, at the end of the series, with a graphic that says "Thank You For Playing."
- Video Credits: The series ends with video credits of all the main players, ending with Lee Young-ae's as she winks at the camera.
- Villain Killer: Yi-kyung kills bad people—criminals and general baddies—not out of a sense of justice, but to slake her thirst to kill.
- In episode 6, Yi-kyung has Kyung-yi cornered, but the latter reminds the former that Yi-kyung can't kill her, because Kyung-yi hasn't done anything wrong.
- This rule gets shakier in later episodes when Yi-kyung gets more unhinged after her aunt's death. In one episode she kills a woman for being drunk and disorderly at a cafe (and throwing a shoe into Yi-kyung's soup).
- The Voiceless: "Santa", Kyung-yi's video game friend who becomes her sidekick and driver when she starts investigating again. Although able to talk he almost never does; when he needs to say something he uses a voice app on his phone. (In one episode, when he's alone, he's cheerfully singing. In another, he speaks when he has to impersonate a security guard.)
