I wasn’t sure of my interest level in tvN’s upcoming Forest of Secrets until they cast Jo Seung-woo (God’s Gift—14 Days) and Bae Doo-na (Tunnel), and then I knew I would have to check it out despite feeling a bit of legal-thriller fatigue these days. The main cast is featured in the group poster above, looking sharp and accompanied by a tagline that reads, “An orchestrated truth, everyone is a suspect with a motive.”
The upcoming pre-produced drama pairs Jo Seung-woo’s emotionless prosecutor character in an alliance with Bae Doo-na’s warm-hearted detective. Together, they’ll investigate the murder of an influential figure known to sponsor prosecutors, and fight back against the seedy underbelly of the prosecutors’ office looking to cover it up. The writer and director of Forest of Secrets recently explained that the title of the show was a reference to the prosecutors’ office, which is a place not easily accessible to outsiders. They described this drama as a journey the two leads make through the lies to discover the “forest’s” innermost secrets.
Well, if they’re going for shady prosecutors, the latest teaser definitely portrays the supporting cast that way, even in the split-second glimpses we get of them. However, I should note that no one looks shadier than Jo Seung-woo, ’cause it looks to me like he’s killing someone in their own home, and pretty gruesomely at that. A chyron in the teaser reads, “The culprit’s true target, hidden behind corruption.”
The writer, Lee Soo-yeon, also explained her decision to make Jo Seung-woo’s character cold and devoid of feelings, saying that while emotions are what makes us human, they also give way to greed and selfishness. Through Forest of Secrets, she wanted to portray the gap between justice and injustice, and the price of walking steadily towards the truth without shortcuts. And in order to do that, she needed a character who wouldn’t waver in his search for the truth due to greed, and so created the emotionless prosecutor role.
We get a better look at our main cast via the individual posters released for each character, with accompanying taglines to give us a brief introduction to each. Jo Seung-woo’s reads, “The law, free of any emotion, is my life’s guideline.” Bae Doo-na is the lone non-prosecutor among our main players, and her tagline says, “I have pride as a member of the police, I will not compromise.”
The following three prosecutors round out our main characters: First, we have Yoo Jae-myung (Strong Woman Do Bong-soon), whose side on this fight seems pretty clear: “Public servants should be neither too dirty nor too clean!” The loyalties of Lee Jun-hyuk (Naked Fireman) and Shin Hye-sun’s (Legend of the Blue Sea) characters are more ambiguous. His tagline says, “If I can survive, I would even give up my liver,” while hers reads, “I’ve been waiting for this day. Why do you think I became a prosecutor!?”
Forest of Secrets will premiere on tvN on June 10. It follows Chicago Typewriter, which ends its run this week, but will shift one day over to air on Saturdays and Sundays. Let the conspiracies begin!
