Fans of caper stories and people who love Korean history and cultural heritage will surely gravitate to Stealer: The Treasure Keeper.
Brimming with energy, it also features a formidable villain well-matched to the competent hero.
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Opening Week Rating:
Stealer: The Treasure Keeper Opening Week Story
Graduated top of her class at the police university Choi Min-woo’s (Lee Woo Joo) passion can sometimes become too excessive. Thus, she gets transferred to the Cultural Heritage Team of Seoul Metropolitan Police, a not-so-illustrious team of the Seoul police force.
Learning the ropes of the team’s job that involves the key players in cultural asset thievery, Min-woo got a substantial Cultural Heritage 101 lesson from the department’s team leader Jang Tae-in (Jo Han Chul).
She is then given the task of working with Hwang Dae-myung (Joo Won) of the Cultural Heritage Administration to retrieve the prized 1st volume of Jikji being held hostage by Choi Sung-chul for its immense value.
Bewildered at Dae-myung’s special treatment of an obviously wily man, Min-woo’s first impression of him is really not good. Unknown to her, Dae-myung has a secret identity. At work, he is famous for sneaking into sleep during office hours.
At night, he assumes the identity of the Cultural heritage thief, Skunk. Unlike the evil thieves though, he targets evil thieves and sends the cultural artifacts to Team Leader Jang who stores them in secret in a storage room in the station.
Little by little, Dae-myung together with his girlfriday Ms. Lee (Choi Hwa Jung) surveyed Mr. Choi’s house. On D-Day retrieving Jikji, Skunk managed to infiltrate the extremely protected house and secures the book.
“There is no future for the nation that has forgotten their history. There is no past for a nation that has lost its cultural assets.”
Planning their next adventure, Dae-myung agrees with Ms. Lee’s suggestion to rob a famous illegal artifact collector named Chairman Yang. However, before they could execute the plan, he was murdered along with his bodyguards by a mysterious man named Choi Huin-dal.
He was brought to the mansion discreetly because he was collecting Joseon coins which Chairman Yang has been gathering as well. The old guy thinks the man is a fool for coming alone. It turns out he is a lethal person skilled in fighting.
Remembering what his historian father told him about seven special coins that will lead to extraordinary treasure, Dae-myung visits Chairman Yang’s abode.
Simultaneously, Team Leader Jang is also there and saw him from the CCTV. At gunpoint, Dae-myung is cornered with not much room to escape the situation.
Stealer: The Treasure Keeper Opening Week Musings
Acquainting viewers with the characters, the premise and the dark side of cultural asset thievery, Stealer: The Treasure Keeper looks ready to prove how gold it can get.
What’s striking upfront is the promise of learning history and information about South Korean cultural heritage. As we all know the Koreans take pride in how they managed to preserve these assets well.
On the horizon, the search for the “Joseon seven coins” appears to be part of the culminating conflict. Joo Woo’s connection to the siblings who have one of the two that is remaining to be found would tangle her to the situation.
Dae-myung who learns this tale from his father, of course, is given to join the adventure.
Meanwhile, villain Huin-dal (Kim Jae Chul) is seen in the next episode preview to be working with Kim Young-soo (Lee Duk Hwa). It looks like new cooperation will happen between the Cultural Heritage Team and Dae-myung as well.
With such an energizing start and a plot that can offer a lot of unique stories, the series promises weekly amusement to the viewers.
Support Dae-myung and Skunk as he works on protecting cultural assets in Stealer: The Treasure Keeper every Wednesday and Thursday on tvN.
Photos: tvN Drama
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