25
118
7
PeachBlossomGoddess
Hong Kong
Cop out.
Despite a strong start, Who is the Murderer? deflates into yet another over-hyped and ultimately mediocre production in the 2021 Mist Theatre (soon to be known as Miss Theatre) lineup. This kind of simple and straightforward plot around the hunt for a long hidden serial killer relies heavily on good execution to impress. I don't know if it is an indictment of the competence of the Chinese police force but practically every Chinese crime thriller revolves around a stone cold case and the lamentably long road to justice.
The lives of the three main characters collide when young Xiamu's foster mother is murdered by a serial killer. A fatal moment of weakness by then newbie cop Leng Xiaobing enables the murderer to escape with collateral damage. Teenage Shen Yu's father disappears without a trace after appearing near the scene of the crime. Seventeen years later, the revival of this cold case entangles Shen Yu, Xia Mu and Xiaobing, united by the scars from the past yet divided by different and at times conflicting agendas. Without a doubt all three leads deliver stellar performances as characters who all experience a shattering personal loss from this common event which shapes them in very different ways. Overall I found Xiao Yang's portrayal of the gruffly amiable but subtly guilt ridden Leng Xiaobing most natural and convincing. While both Zhao Liying and Dong Zijian delivered intense and very well acted portrayals of Shen Yu and Xia Mu, they erred on the melodramatic side with excessive posing.
One of the big issues with this drama is that the suspense does not arise from the plot itself but is heavily contrived, induced by background music that accompanies angsty and heavy dark posturing by both Xia Mu and Shen Yu that goes absolutely nowhere. While compellingly acted Xia Mu's PTSD is out of proportion to the trauma he experienced and after a lot of build up and suggestive behavior, this character just gets side-lined and he is bafflingly short changed in the final showdown even though he is on the scene. While Zhao Liying's impressive portrayal of the cold, creepily inscrutable and sociopathic Shen Yu exceeded my expectations, the plot again simply fails to rise to the occasion when it comes to her story either even though she hogs the final confrontation. At the end, I feel both characters led me on a merry chase, teasing with suggestive dialogues and actions that ultimately never fully plays out. It is very frustrating because this setup and the story could have gone down many more intriguing paths with thrilling and shocking outcomes but after setting it all up, the writer pulls a much bigger cop out on us than Xiaobing's pivotal gun shy moment.
Reminiscent of The Pavilion, the plot gets hijacked by character explorations that not only don't advance the plot, they distract from it with artificially induced suspense. This led to my greatest disappointment in the way the murderer is introduced and revealed. It completely violates the unspoken bargain of giving the viewer a sporting chance of identifying the murderer. The murderer falls far short of that lurking evil presence that creates an aura of danger around the main characters and their motive is a big yawn. This does not by any stretch of the imagination qualify as a whodunit, it is at best literally a spoiler homonym of a whodidit. Bottom line, this is little more than a very unremarkable investigative crime thriller so if you were looking forward to playing armchair detective, look elsewhere. The further extension of the mundane plot with non substantive filler episodes that introduce unnecessary characters further irritated me when I would have preferred to better understand what happened to Xia Mu's foster mother as well as Shen Yu's father. The fact that the only character I cared about was Xiaobing's (hot cop) friend at the beginning says it all about how big a fail this is.
I can only rate this a generous 7.0 out of 10. I waited to write this review because right after the ending, my very incensed mother was leaning on me not to rate this better than a 5.0.
The lives of the three main characters collide when young Xiamu's foster mother is murdered by a serial killer. A fatal moment of weakness by then newbie cop Leng Xiaobing enables the murderer to escape with collateral damage. Teenage Shen Yu's father disappears without a trace after appearing near the scene of the crime. Seventeen years later, the revival of this cold case entangles Shen Yu, Xia Mu and Xiaobing, united by the scars from the past yet divided by different and at times conflicting agendas. Without a doubt all three leads deliver stellar performances as characters who all experience a shattering personal loss from this common event which shapes them in very different ways. Overall I found Xiao Yang's portrayal of the gruffly amiable but subtly guilt ridden Leng Xiaobing most natural and convincing. While both Zhao Liying and Dong Zijian delivered intense and very well acted portrayals of Shen Yu and Xia Mu, they erred on the melodramatic side with excessive posing.
One of the big issues with this drama is that the suspense does not arise from the plot itself but is heavily contrived, induced by background music that accompanies angsty and heavy dark posturing by both Xia Mu and Shen Yu that goes absolutely nowhere. While compellingly acted Xia Mu's PTSD is out of proportion to the trauma he experienced and after a lot of build up and suggestive behavior, this character just gets side-lined and he is bafflingly short changed in the final showdown even though he is on the scene. While Zhao Liying's impressive portrayal of the cold, creepily inscrutable and sociopathic Shen Yu exceeded my expectations, the plot again simply fails to rise to the occasion when it comes to her story either even though she hogs the final confrontation. At the end, I feel both characters led me on a merry chase, teasing with suggestive dialogues and actions that ultimately never fully plays out. It is very frustrating because this setup and the story could have gone down many more intriguing paths with thrilling and shocking outcomes but after setting it all up, the writer pulls a much bigger cop out on us than Xiaobing's pivotal gun shy moment.
Reminiscent of The Pavilion, the plot gets hijacked by character explorations that not only don't advance the plot, they distract from it with artificially induced suspense. This led to my greatest disappointment in the way the murderer is introduced and revealed. It completely violates the unspoken bargain of giving the viewer a sporting chance of identifying the murderer. The murderer falls far short of that lurking evil presence that creates an aura of danger around the main characters and their motive is a big yawn. This does not by any stretch of the imagination qualify as a whodunit, it is at best literally a spoiler homonym of a whodidit. Bottom line, this is little more than a very unremarkable investigative crime thriller so if you were looking forward to playing armchair detective, look elsewhere. The further extension of the mundane plot with non substantive filler episodes that introduce unnecessary characters further irritated me when I would have preferred to better understand what happened to Xia Mu's foster mother as well as Shen Yu's father. The fact that the only character I cared about was Xiaobing's (hot cop) friend at the beginning says it all about how big a fail this is.
I can only rate this a generous 7.0 out of 10. I waited to write this review because right after the ending, my very incensed mother was leaning on me not to rate this better than a 5.0.
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