Dramedy The Fiery Priest is on a promo roll—it just released another teaser and a couple stills of Honey Lee ( Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People ). I’m still not too sure about the premise, but the experienced cast is more than fantastic at both comedy and drama.
Kim Nam-gil (Live Up to Your Name) stars as the titular priest who becomes involved with an incompetent investigator, played by Kim Sung-kyun (Untouchable), to find the truth behind a murder case. Honey Lee also plays an investigator, but one that begins to frustrate the Kim Nam-gil-Kim Sung-kyun duo, by blocking them at every turn.
According to an interview with Honey Lee, she chose this drama because she felt like the characters were alive: “My character Park Kyung-sun was interesting, and the story of the drama was funny. I want to create a good drama together with the PD, writer, cast, and staff.”
Park Kyung-sun’s life centers around success, almost to a fault, and she’s direct about it. But of course, she has her clumsy moments, and she’s a warm person at heart. Honey Lee described the character as a hot-cold bath.
It was revealed that the PD debated a long time who to cast because Park Kyung-sun is a character that could easily be hated. But he wanted to get someone who was lovable to showcase the complexity of the character, and he deliberately chose Honey Lee for her lovely and healthy image.
The trailer starts out with Kim Nam-gil raging at an older priest, played by Jung Dong-hwan (About Time). He asks if the older priest really thinks the world will change. He wants to take action and express anger when it needs to be expressed. Then, there are interspersed scenes of violence, showing the corruption of the world leading to suffering.
The copy reads: “A tale of a city of screams… the fiery priest will come.”
In the background, the older priest’s health is being discussed, and the consensus is that the priest needs to heal. But the older priest is insistent that they need to begin changing the world from their current perspective and place. And then we hear Kim Nam-gil’s shout of pain, and it seems the older priest has died because we see a casket being lowered into the ground.
A parishioner asks Kim Nam-gil to take revenge on those who did “bad things” to the older priest, hinting at some foul play behind his death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8go7G-ehdR0
A neon light flashes, “They messed with the wrong person.” And we’re introduced to the other characters that will be on our motley team. Kim Sung-kyun, playing an “idiot investigator,” is dumbfounded that Kim Nam-gil wants to cooperate with him. It’s because Kim Sung-kyun has been given a special assignment. Ulterior motives behind his assignment are shown in the next shot, as his superior tells him to make a bungle of the case.
Then there’s Honey Lee who is shown to be an ambitious but sometimes rash investigator, blocking Kim Nam-gil. She tells him: “If you get caught again, it’ll be the end.” I laughed when she snuck into his sermon to keep tabs on his whereabouts, while her narration said: “Do you have an allergy to staying out of trouble?”
But it seems like Kim Nam-gil isn’t going to be stopping anytime soon because he replies, “Don’t get in my way, because I’m in this until the end.” We also see a shot of rookie actress Geum Sae-rok (Marry Me Now) who seems to be one tough cookie, as she lets down a kick in front of Kim Sung-kyun.
Brought to us by Chief Kim writer Park Jae-bum and Whisper PD Lee Myung-woo, Friday-Saturday drama Hot-blooded Priest will begin airing on February 15 on SBS.
