Actor Shin Ha-kyun plays Cha-il in The Auditors, creating a character that is part comic book avenger and might qualify as a modern day hero. When the character walks into a job interview at JU Construction, he explains bluntly why they need to hire him. His special skill is routing out corruption and favoritism in the corporate world. When he’s hired he’s merciless, battling the morally compromised and banishing those involved. He’s the consummate auditor, dedicated to pursuing justice.
When asked why he changed jobs so frequently in the past, he tells his interviewers that once he rids a company of rats it’s time to move on. Time to look for another company with rats. He may be just what JU Construction needs, so the president hires him. This makes him a threat to the company’s vice-president, played by Jin Goo, who wants to oust his brother, the president. Cha-il’s attitude doesn’t go over well with some of his superiors and it also doesn’t impress his staff. Because of his uncompromising approach he quickly makes an enemy of the audit team’s youngest and most optimistic member, Goo Han-su. Played by Lee Jung-ha (Moving, Victory), Han-su is as sunny as the pictures of beaches he pins to his wall for inspiration. He trusts everyone he’s worked with and that wasn’t always a good idea. Fellow team member Yoon Seo-Jin, played by Jo A-ram (Victory, Dr. Cha) tends to be more skeptical, and, despite a secret conflict of interest, she likes the way Cha-il works.
The first thing Cha-il does when hired is to reinvestigate a recent incident. Corruption in the construction industry is personal for him. He may look detached but he knows firsthand that skimming money from a construction project can result in safety measures not being properly funded and workers sustaining injuries. He wants to make sure it never happens again and, if it does, that those responsible are punished. Shin has one of the most expressive faces of any k-drama actor, as viewers might have noticed in Yonder or Beyond Evil, so it’s interesting to see him maintain an impassive mask as he brings Cha-il to life.
Director Kwon Young-il, who previously directed Wedding Impossible, Doom At Your Service and Search: WWW, has done a good job of pacing this drama, cutting and juxtaposing scenes in a way that maintains tension. By adding some corporate warfare and the odd car chase, he managed to make Cha-il and his team seem heroic. After all auditors do have to employ a lot of detective skills to catch criminals and there’s danger inherent in detective work, even if the clues lie in spreadsheets and calculators.
The Auditors is a drama about trust, in which Cha-il and Han-su may have something to teach each other. Should a person’s sense of trust be based on facts or instinct? Han-su’s instinct is to trust. Cha-il needs the facts. What’s trustworthy may lie somewhere in between. The Studio Dragon drama airs on tvN in South Korea and on Viki.com in the U.S.
