Police University ~ What Did Dr. Jonas Salk Say?

“Police University” is a Korean drama TV series released in 2021, with 16 episodes, and categorized as Crime, Mystery, Romance, Comedy, and Idol Drama.

♦ If You Steal From the Bad Guys, It’s OK

In “Police University”, an interesting question is posed: “If you steal from bad guys, that’s OK. Right?” WRONG! Two young men ~ Kang Sun-Ho and his adoptive brother ~ learned the moral of this story very quickly. They would have learned it the hard way if their father had not got down on his knees and pleaded with the police officers for mercy.

Yes, the two young men committed a crime. But their hearts were in the right place. Their father was in a car accident and when he was taken to the hospital the doctors discovered that he had cancer. The young men were told that the operation would cost $7000. They decided to hack an illegal gambling website and steal the money to pay for the surgery.

But stealing is wrong, even if you steal from bad guys, for a noble cause, and the bad guys can’t report the theft to the police. If only, the police had not also been tracking the same illegal gambling website at the same time.

Detective Yoo Dong-Man had been investigating an illegal gambling operation but always lacked enough evidence to shut them down. This time he was sure he was going to catch them. But just when he thought he would be able to trace the gambling money to the bank account, the money disappeared!

WHAT?? Somebody hacked the illegal gambling site and intercepted the money! Now the police have no proof for a case that they have been working on for years. WHO DID THIS?

The detective figured out who the hackers were and Kang Sun-Ho and his adoptive brother were taken to the police station to be booked. They would be facing criminal charges and … they might as well forget about their future once this black mark was on their record.

Their father came to the police station and begged, promising that they would never do such a thing again. Yoo Dong-Man was angry, but also sympathetic toward the father, and decided not to arrest them. They were let go and he told them he never wanted to see their faces again.

But guess what? He saw Kang Sun-Ho AGAIN!

Guess where he saw him? He was applying for admission to KNPU, Korean National Police University, and was in the process of being interviewed.

What on earth??? As soon as Yoo Dong-Man saw him, he yelled at him and told him to leave. Fortunately, Yoo Dong-Man was not the only person conducting the interview. The other interviewers disagreed and they approved his admission.

But Yoo Dong-Man was determined to give Kang Sun-Ho a hard time. The detective planned to make things so difficult that Sun-Ho would quit. But the new university student was equally determined to succeed.

Yoo Dong-Man told him that even though he was not arrested and had no criminal record, he had still committed a crime and was not worthy to become a police officer.  But Kang Sun-Ho countered him with a quote by Dr. Jonas Salk: “Life is an error-making and an error-correcting process …”

Kang Sun-Ho said he was going to correct his mistakes by being the best student at the university and an outstanding police officer once he graduated.

♦ Do You Have a Dream? Uumm …?? … Not Really.

Kang Sun-Ho was very good with computers. But as for his dream? When he was asked the question by one of his school counselors he could not answer. So the counselor recommended he apply to attend KNPU.

Sun-Ho figured he might as well follow the counselor’s advice since he had not planned out his future. But what caused him to make the decision final was Oh Kang-Hee. He overheard her say that she had a dream. To accomplish her dream she needed to attend KNPU.

When he heard her say that, he decided that her dream was his dream too. They were both admitted and started attending KNPU together. Their friendship ultimately developed into romance.

Meanwhile, Detective/Professor Yoo Dong-Man was doing everything he could to get Sun-Ho to quit until … Until what?

Yoo Dong-Man had been working with an external party, i.e. someone who did not work for the police. This person was a genius with computers and that person had been helping him with his investigation into the illegal gambling operation. However, he only knew this person by the name “Yoon”.

For several days, Dong-Man had been trying to reach the mysterious “Yoon” but the guy was not responding to his messages. Dong-Man had a fellow detective who worked with him at the police station and he told him that he finally learned the true identity of “Yoon”.

WHO IS YOON?? Yoon is none other than Kang Sun-Ho. Oh, the irony! The person he said was not worthy to do police work had been working with the police all along. Oh dear. Was Yoo Dong-Man going to have to eat “humble pie”?

Main Characters:

• Kang Sun-Ho (Jin Young, “Miss Granny”, “Love in the Moonlight”)
• Oh Kang-Hee (Krystal aka Jung Soo-Jung, “The Bride of Habaek”, “My Lovely Girl”)
• Yoo Dong-Man (Cha Tae-Hyun, “Brain Works”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 7.2 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 7.9 out of 10 stars
• Dramabeans: 6.9 out of 10 stars
• Viki viewers rated this movie 9.3 out of 10 stars

My personal rating is the same as the Viki viewers.

Ever since I watched American movies like “Hackers” and “War Games”, movies and TV shows about hackers usually make my watchlist. Several Korean dramas dealing with hacking are on my list. “Police University” is one of them.  If you watch this series, I think you will agree with my rating.

LINKS OF INTEREST:

• “Police University” Ends On Steady Ratings + “High Class” Continues 4-Episode Personal Best Streak | Soompi
• Good Ol’ Review: KBS’ “Police University” a Fun, Poignant and Refreshing Look at Justice and Bonds | DryedMangoez.com
• [K-Drama Review] Did the Plan of ‘Police University’ to Capture Both Romance and Crime Thriller Work? | MyMusicTaste
• Police University Is Surprisingly And Satisfyingly Good | hallyureviews
• Police University – A Fun and Exciting Drama | A Fangirl’s Heart | Entertainment and Lifestyle Blog

TRAILERS/TEASERS:

Viu Singapore. “[Trailer] Police University Ft. Cha Tae Hyun, Jung Soo Jung, Jinyoung | Coming to Viu on 10 Aug.” YouTube Video. YouTube, August 8, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GzMW4poppk.‌