Deirdre19
A piece of art disguised as a detective drama
Don’t be fooled by the moderate rating of this drama. It truly is a piece of art - just not what some people were expecting…
The marketing decision to promote this drama as a “bromance” certainly didn’t do it any favours, as the source material really did not offer much opportunity for any bromance and thus left viewers who specifically watched under this premise, sorely disappointed.
Watching this drama without any preconceptions or expectations is probably the best way to enjoy it. I initially just started watching it on a whim in order to see Zheng Ye Cheng in a modern setting (and with a dorky haircut) but for me it turned out to be a highly addictive show.
This drama isn’t the usual fast-paced detective/suspense drama - it has long sequences without any dialogue, artful use of modern architecture for highly atmospheric shots with the background music and OST perfectly complementing the visuals. The showdown in episode 18 is an absolute feast for the eyes which reminded me very much of French nouvel vague films.
The plot of the drama is a patchwork of elements from the three volumes of The Evil Hypnotist novels by Zhou Hao Hui. The fact that the protagonist in the novels is Luo Fei who works with a different hypnotist in each volume while the protagonist of the drama version is Lu FengPing (who only appeared in the last volume of the novel series), may explain some of the inconsistencies and strange behaviours of the lead characters.
The detective-hypnotist duo come across a number of strange cases that are somehow connected and despite solving these cases some mystery remains as it becomes clear that there is a dark mastermind pulling the threats. Both lead characters have their own issues tied to some events of the past, which prevent them from being honest with each other until nearly the end (episode 18) of the series. This gives the two lead actors ample opportunity to show their acting skills.
Zheng YeCheng delivers a very nuanced portrait of a traumatised person who can be cocky one moment and highly vulnerable the next. His face and his eyes literally speak volumes which made him the perfect choice for a production where dialogue was always less important than the visuals. So far I had only seen ZYC in historical roles where I admired his martial arts skills (and his looks, of course), but he really impressed me with his acting in this one.
Xin Yun Lai as the detective who analysis everything but rarely speaks had a tough role to master because there is a fine line between portraying a cold character and coming across like a piece of cardboard. There were some moments, when I saw him on the wrong side of that line, but overall his acting was pretty decent.
The main antagonist, played by James Yang, was one of these villains that I love to hate. Every time he was on screen I intensely disliked his character all the while admiring the actor playing this role. For me he was really the surprise discovery of this drama.
Even though the chief villain was impressive and (wonderfully deranged, in a way) the motivation and background stories of the villains was probably the weakest point of this drama. As it is a patchwork of elements from the three novels in the Evil Hypnotist series, a lot of changes had to be made to tie everything together somehow. Many of the flashbacks seemed to somewhat exonerate the main villain by giving us a glimpse of his tragic life before he turned bad which is quite a substantial deviation from the overall tone of the novel.
The theme of personal guilt over causing tragic events that runs through the first volume of the novels has been replaced by random events that turn people into victims which in my view deprives the drama of the psychological depth that it could have had otherwise.
This is a drama that I will certainly re-watch again and again, simply because of the artful production that makes it such a pleasure to watch.
The marketing decision to promote this drama as a “bromance” certainly didn’t do it any favours, as the source material really did not offer much opportunity for any bromance and thus left viewers who specifically watched under this premise, sorely disappointed.
Watching this drama without any preconceptions or expectations is probably the best way to enjoy it. I initially just started watching it on a whim in order to see Zheng Ye Cheng in a modern setting (and with a dorky haircut) but for me it turned out to be a highly addictive show.
This drama isn’t the usual fast-paced detective/suspense drama - it has long sequences without any dialogue, artful use of modern architecture for highly atmospheric shots with the background music and OST perfectly complementing the visuals. The showdown in episode 18 is an absolute feast for the eyes which reminded me very much of French nouvel vague films.
The plot of the drama is a patchwork of elements from the three volumes of The Evil Hypnotist novels by Zhou Hao Hui. The fact that the protagonist in the novels is Luo Fei who works with a different hypnotist in each volume while the protagonist of the drama version is Lu FengPing (who only appeared in the last volume of the novel series), may explain some of the inconsistencies and strange behaviours of the lead characters.
The detective-hypnotist duo come across a number of strange cases that are somehow connected and despite solving these cases some mystery remains as it becomes clear that there is a dark mastermind pulling the threats. Both lead characters have their own issues tied to some events of the past, which prevent them from being honest with each other until nearly the end (episode 18) of the series. This gives the two lead actors ample opportunity to show their acting skills.
Zheng YeCheng delivers a very nuanced portrait of a traumatised person who can be cocky one moment and highly vulnerable the next. His face and his eyes literally speak volumes which made him the perfect choice for a production where dialogue was always less important than the visuals. So far I had only seen ZYC in historical roles where I admired his martial arts skills (and his looks, of course), but he really impressed me with his acting in this one.
Xin Yun Lai as the detective who analysis everything but rarely speaks had a tough role to master because there is a fine line between portraying a cold character and coming across like a piece of cardboard. There were some moments, when I saw him on the wrong side of that line, but overall his acting was pretty decent.
The main antagonist, played by James Yang, was one of these villains that I love to hate. Every time he was on screen I intensely disliked his character all the while admiring the actor playing this role. For me he was really the surprise discovery of this drama.
Even though the chief villain was impressive and (wonderfully deranged, in a way) the motivation and background stories of the villains was probably the weakest point of this drama. As it is a patchwork of elements from the three novels in the Evil Hypnotist series, a lot of changes had to be made to tie everything together somehow. Many of the flashbacks seemed to somewhat exonerate the main villain by giving us a glimpse of his tragic life before he turned bad which is quite a substantial deviation from the overall tone of the novel.
The theme of personal guilt over causing tragic events that runs through the first volume of the novels has been replaced by random events that turn people into victims which in my view deprives the drama of the psychological depth that it could have had otherwise.
This is a drama that I will certainly re-watch again and again, simply because of the artful production that makes it such a pleasure to watch.
Was this review helpful to you?
