Lee Bo Young and Kang Tae Oh are teaming up for ENA's upcoming family court drama Divorce Investigator Hong Mal Geum. The casting was confirmed on October 6 for the network's new Monday–Tuesday series, pairing one of K-drama's most trusted leads with the breakout star of Extraordinary Attorney Woo.
ENA confirmed the casting of Lee Bo Young and Kang Tae Oh on October 6, as first reported by Korean outlet Newsen. Divorce Investigator Hong Mal Geum (literal translation) is billed as a human-comedy legal family drama directed by Kim Dae-jin of Doctor Cha and written by Park Jung-hee, Choi Min-ji, and Wang Young-hee. The series is planned by KT Studio Genie and produced by Box Media and Mink Entertainment, and is slated to air in the first half of 2027.
Lee Bo Young takes the lead as Hong Mal Geum, a single mother of three who becomes a family court investigator after going through a divorce of her own. Raised in a divorced household, Hong Mal Geum raises her children alone until she passes the trainee investigator exam through a recruitment track for psychology majors. A family court investigator — or gasa-josagwan — is a specialized public official attached to the family court who directly investigates domestic cases such as divorce, adoption, guardianship, child abuse, and juvenile offenses. Armed with a strong sense of justice and a determination to hold onto the civil servant position that keeps her three kids' lives stable, she dives headfirst into cases where hidden family conflicts and broken relationships wait to be uncovered.
Kang Tae Oh plays Charles Kim, a lawyer with a 100 percent win rate who has never lost sight of what matters most to him: money. Draped in designer labels and fond of supercars, Charles Kim chases victories rather than any sense of duty or honor that the legal profession might demand. His history with Hong Mal Geum is anything but friendly — he once defended her ex-husband, who had moved on to another woman, and secured such a favorable outcome for the at-fault party that Hong Mal Geum walked away from the divorce empty-handed. When the two cross paths again, with her now in a position to investigate the very kinds of family cases he once exploited, their reunion becomes the drama's central point of tension.
The production team expressed strong confidence in the pairing. In a statement shared with Newsen, the team said the meeting of Lee Bo Young and Kang Tae Oh "is in itself more than reassuring," and that the two actors' portrayals of Hong Mal Geum and Charles Kim "will exceed viewers' expectations." They added that the cheerful energy created by the two strong-willed characters clashing, alongside unexpected cases and a steady stream of family episodes, will give viewers a series they can laugh along with — and then find quietly moving — keeping them waiting for the next story.
Lee Bo Young has built a reputation for choosing projects that reward trust, headlining hits such as My Daughter Seo-young, I Hear Your Voice — which peaked at a 24.1 percent rating — Mine, and Agency. Kang Tae Oh became a national phenomenon as the kindhearted Jun-ho in Extraordinary Attorney Woo, which still stands as ENA's highest-rated drama of all time at 17.5 percent, and has since shown a romantic leading-man side in Moon River. The new role marks a sharp turn for him: a brazen, money-obsessed attorney who wins without conscience or guilt, a far cry from the warm-hearted image that made him a household name.
Divorce Investigator Hong Mal Geum will air on ENA in the first half of 2027, also streaming in Korea on Genie TV. A North American streaming platform has not been announced yet.
Sources: ENA, Naver
