Forensic art is so fascinating! Shen Yi (Tan Jian Ci) can draw age progression forwards and backwards (三歲畫老). He can use skulls to draw faces, and faces to draw skulls. He can draw biological parents from a child’s features alone (which is cool on paper but I don’t buy the accuracy of this no matter how much scientific jargon the show throws at me).
Since the show is a combination of art, crime, and psychology, there are some really neat facts, especially in the beginning. For example, the pearl in “Girl with a Pearl Earring” painting is not a pearl but an illusion of light; humans are the only mammals who have obviously visible eye whites and the amount of eye white can be an indicator of fear. The most interesting art related fact I picked up was the analysis of Jacques-Louis David’s “Death of Marat”. The show pits David as an early forensic artist but a counterexample. He abused his skills to distort the truth in his artwork. (Are there more dramas that do this? Genuinely asking.)
Drama has zero romance, the BG kind at least. In my opinion, this is most definitely meant to be a BL, slight BL, the subtle kind (e.g. in Ep18 Du Cheng says, “You (Shen Yi) are my hidden trump card”). I’m not a BL fan and I’m not moved by the relationship between the boys, like at all. I guess it will take a lot of amazing chemistry to move a casual fan like me.
The cases generally revolve around the vulnerable sector, covering topics like domestic violence, exploitation of appearance-based insecurities, internalized homophobia, scams targeted at seniors, sexual harassment, etc. Oftentimes the culprit is the real victim of society. The drama will empathize with the culprit’s actions, the ones who have suffered injustice, and oppression. Their actions are wrong, but they deserve compassion and there needs to be a change in society to protect their vulnerability.
I appreciate the moral messages and sympathize with the victims/culprits (the ones who deserve it), but as a
crime drama, based on just the cases, this doesn’t stand out. The cases don’t grip me. The criminals aren’t hard to guess, but at the same time I don’t think Show meant it to be hard. At times I also feel taken out of the solving process when show is reliant on Shen Yi to explain the scene
after the fact (particularly for the last case).
The elements that elevate this crime drama for me is the forensic art perspective, the artworks, and the camera language. I also highly appreciate that the drama isn’t full of twists for the purpose of twists. It’s a compact detective series with a humanistic approach.
P.S. In the poster, Shen Yi drew Du Cheng when he was a child (it’s so Jin Shi Jia, lol). Shen Yi also drew a bird from the egg Du Cheng is holding. Remember, our forensic artist can draw age progression forwards and backwards.
P.P.S. I didn’t realize Tan Jian Ci was so short. Or is Jin Shi Jia just humongous?
Random Recommendation: MIU 404 [J(2020)]
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