A serial murderer is killing humanoids.
Notable Actors/Actresses
An Qiu confronts Cheng Nuo.
Notable Actors/Actresses
Song Wei Long: Cheng Nuo
Wen Qi: An Qiu
Director:
Chinese Title
仿生人間
仿生人間
Humanoid World
[Ep1] 1st Case (A Mother). The humanoid nanny replaced the biological mother Chen Xin Hui (Liu Lin) because her sole purpose is to take care of Fang Yuan (the son) and in the humanoid's eyes, Chen Jin Hui was an inferior mother, neglecting and abusing Fang Yuan. The son had witnessed the altercation, which resulted in the death of his biological mother, but he lied to protect the humanoid because he cannot lose another mother. AWWW :(. 
I get the humanoid, but if she didn't exist, this tragedy wouldn't happen. I'd take neglect (and being rich) any day over being traumatized by my mother murdering my other mother. And now I have no mother?!? Once I think about the alternatives, I'm kinda mad at the humanoid even if she was the nicer mom.
Recap Grade: C
First Impression: 3.3/5
First Impression: 3.3/5
Mini Recaps
Recaps are spoilery. I straight out give you the answer to the case in the first paragraph. The pictures are spoilers too. If you plan to watch, don't read the recaps first.
[Background] In the near future, humanoids (仿生人) will live with humans. They are genetically modified beings (from humans??? Robots?). The only difference with humans is that they exist for a sole purpose, a command that must be obeyed. However, humans became addicted and relied on these humanoids for emotional support. A ban has been placed. All humanoids are recalled. Our story starts five years after the ban. Humanoids live furtively and are traded in the black market. Our main characters are detectives for the Ming Mou Genome Institute to investigate/cleanse them. So what happens to the humanoids after they're "lawfully" arrested? Killed?
Overarching Case: Someone is killing humanoids? Shen Li (Lv Yu Lai) reaches the scene first and he's presumably attacked by the mastermind. Then he's found inside a burning shed, unconscious. Cheng Nuo (Song Wei Long) runs after the suspect. An Qiu (Wen Qi) looks between Chen Xin Hui (who's pinned to the wall, bleeding) and Shen Li. She saves Shen Li, but he's in a coma. He had a higher rate of recovery had they saved him earlier. Shen Li...is still Shen Li?? I suspect a switcharoo, but then again I don't even know if he was humanoid or human to begin with. And why did he want to quit anyway?
An Qiu: If you hadn't run away, he might not be lying here.Cheng Nuo: I ran away to catch the suspect.An Qiu: Really. Then did you catch the suspect. No.He's silent.An Qiu: To you, catching the suspect is more important than saving a life, is that correct?Cheng Nuo: If it was Shen Li, he would make the same decision.An Qiu: You're wrong. He would definitely choose to save you.
An Qiu has decided. She will apply to work for the Genome Institute like Shen Li had recommended.
[Ep2] 2nd Case (Lovers): Jin Yan (F) killed her husband Guan Xu (and turned him into art. Gross!). He was the one who cheated on her and wanted to kill her. It was self defence on her part. Afterwards she bought a humanoid (whether to disguise her husband's death or to find someone who loves her). Perhaps out of guilt, she sold him after just buying him. However, when she learns of his poor living conditions, she buys him back. Now they're caught by our detectives. The humanoid makes a false confession to protect her. That night, Jin Yan finally puts on her wedding band that the humanoid kept for her. The wedding band is Guan Xu's (the human), but putting it back on is for the humanoid. She loves him and is accepting that she loves a humanoid. She turns herself in. Cheng Nuo allows the humanoid to visit her. She confesses to him that the more he wanted her to be happy, the guiltier she felt. She was afraid to fall in love with him when he exists because of an artificial reason. He really is so sweet tho :'(
[Ep3] 3rd Case (Cheng Nuo's mother): One year ago, Cheng Nuo's mother, Zhang Ya (Liu Dan) committed suicide. She was a researcher. Lv Yan was her assistant, who disappeared the same night. Her last phone call was to Lv Yan. On that night, Cheng Nuo had an argument with her. He always felt neglected for her research. Out of spite, he told her that she should have had a humanoid son. Ou. Is Cheng Nuo human...oid? For the past year, Cheng Nuo has been obsessed with finding Lv Yan. With An Qiu's help, they locate him (and he has adopted three orphans). He tells Cheng Nuo that his mother was murdered. He doesn't know the murderer's motive except that it's related to their research that's focused on integrating humanoids with humans by removing their sole purpose. The murderer has also been killing all her research specimens/participants (humanoids). Only two humanoids are still alive, and so now we're looking for Li Yi (M).
Other news:
- Shen Li wakes up.
- Cheng Nuo might be tripping in love with An Qiu.
- Who's that voice calling An Qiu?
[Ep4] 4th Case (Daughter): Infertile parents bought a humanoid to be their daughter. The parents used the kidnap story of Huang Cong'er (another existing human child) to fabricate why they suddenly have a child who returned after seven years.
But An Qiu has these fragmented memories of the place they found Lv Yan.
[Ep5] 4th Case cont'd (Daughter): Huang family bought Huang Cong'er from her original "parents". She was abused by them. However, these original parents had been threatening the adoptive parents. If they don't give them money, they'll turn them in for possessing a humanoid. Even Huang Cong'er was threatened. These sordid turds. You're giving us humans a bad look! This is all revealed, and now Huang Cong'er has been turned into the authorities. She's separated from her real parents. Awwwww. All these humanoid tragedies.
[Ep6] Cheng Nuo asks An Qiu about her private life because he doesn't seem to know what else she does other than work. An Qiu flinches. It's as if she doesn't know how to answer him.
Li Yi is murdered. There's another corpse next to him: Yin Tian Hong. Both are the humanoids our detectives were looking for. Their clues end here. But wait, Yin Tian Hong is still alive! He's in ICU, unable to speak though. Cheng Nuo has a meltdown. He bellows at An Qiu for not understanding how desperate he is (because that's the end to investigating his mother's murder). She hollers back. Of course they care about different matters. Because what she cares about is him. The prelude of romance. She calms him down and they investigate Li Yi's death.
The twist: Yin Tian Hong wasn't the second victim. He is Li Yi's murderer.
He's twisted. Killing to Yin Tian Hong is a game.
An Qiu catches a glimpse of Yin Tian Hong, but actually, she's caught by him. He injects a needle in her. Her pupil changes colour. SHE'S A HUMANOID. And she didn't know it. The prelude to romance is in danger.
[Ep7] Yin Tian Hong doesn't hurt An Qiu. He only tells her to meet him the day after to reveal the truth about them.
During the day, An Qiu and Cheng Nuo investigate Yin Tian Hong. He had worked for Meng Xiang (Entertainment) Club. But after a homicide, the club shut down. But why is there a guard still? The victim is Luo Su who is a humanoid. She should be the first victim of Yin Tian Hong's serial murder. Our detectives interview an old employee (Tang Ming). However, she testifies that Yin Tian Hong and Luo Su shouldn't know each other. Luo Su quit because she was sick. Months later, Yin Tian Hong worked there.
An Qiu: I don't know if Luo Su betrayed you. But killing her cannot save her. And it cannot save you.
An Qiu's past is revealed. Her real name was An Qing. She had a brother: An Yang. They were made for infertile parents. Their purpose was to love their family. The parents abandoned them though and so they could only love each other. Wouldn't they still love their parents though? But even that they couldn't do anymore because An Yang died during the escape from the Genome Institute. It was Cheng Nuo who led the mission. Yin Tian Hong says Cheng Nuo killed An Yang.
Cheng Nuo is onto An Qiu's identity. Is that her file in his mother's belongings? Is An Qiu his mother's specimen XJ099?
[Ep8] Cheng Nuo's only friend is getting married. However, Sun Yao (the friend) is a humanoid smuggler. Cheng Nuo covers his friend (not cool, man), except when his fiancée (Xu Yi Nian) is a humanoid and another division is aware of it, it's out of Cheng Nuo's (selective corrupted) hands. Sun Yao had predicted the arrest, and ordered Xu Yi Nian to escape, but she came back for him. But wait. Her command is to obey her master's orders. How did she disobey?
Another question: Why did Shen Yi hire An Qiu for help? So creepy.
[Ep9] Xu Yi Nian refuses to see Sun Yao because that will be their last. She's holding back tears as she's detained by the Genome Institute. They may never see each other again.
Cheng Nuo confirms An Qiu is a humanoid, but he's no longer the Cheng Nuo he was in Ep1. He burns the evidence and wants to help her leave. Xu Yi Nian and Sun Yao 2.0. To him, An Qiu is different from other humanoids. Every part of her is different because she is important to him. He already lost someone important. He can't lose another. However, An Qiu wants to stay. She wants to find out about her identity. She knows nothing about herself. She takes him to the refugee camp where her brother was arrested. Cheng Nuo avoids answering that he was part of the mission until she confronts him. We see the flashback. It was inertia's fault!. The car swerved back and forth, and he was holding a knife and then by pure inertia, the knife landed in An Yang's stomach.
[Ep10] Cheng Nuo remembers the final detail: Yin Tian Hong gave him the extraneous shove that ultimately killed An Yang. Yin Tian Hong remembers this too, but twisted the truth to convert An Qiu to his side.
Chief Wan Guo Feng says Zhang Ya's experiments were cruel to the humanoids. He threatened to stop funding her research, and so she found new investors. Wan Guo Feng believes her obsession with her research was for Cheng Nuo. Their relationship was strained. She wanted to make a humanoid partner who will always be loyal to Cheng Nuo after she's gone. An Qiu! Ok, but isn't that kinda twisted? Why spend so much time and effort to make a humanoid partner when mother can, I dunno, be a mother??? You know, the thing he actually wants??
Yin Tian Hong releases the hidden camera of Cheng Nuo's confession to undermine the public's trust in the Genome Institute.
Cheng Nuo finds Tang Ming again. She had lied. She's not an employee, but the boss. She's shocked when she hears from him that Luo Su betrayed Yin Tian Hong.
Yin Tian Hong prepares another live broadcast. He prompts An Qiu to avenge her brother and kill Cheng Nuo. He closes his eyes, ready for death.
[Ep11] An Qiu drops the knife. She can't do it. Is it because someone changed her programming? Yin Tian Hong expresses disappointment in her. But he really should be disappointed with himself. Luo Su never betrayed Yin Tian Hong. Her initial command is to be loyal to the club as it was the boss who created her. She begged Tang Ming to let Yin Tian Hong quit (because of all his injuries), and so she staged the humiliation. Her love for him overrides her loyalty to the club.
Yin Tian Hong is a coward. Too cowardly to trust, and too cowardly to kill humans that he's killing humanoids. He's even too cowardly to die alone and takes An Qiu hostage when the police have surrounded them. He asks to kill her and end her days of lies and betrayal. Just die by yourself dude. The officer shoots with his laser sniper skills and Yin Tian Hong dies. It's the same place he killed Luo Su.
An Qiu is detained. Cheng Nuo desperately buys time for her by telling Chief Wan Guo Feng that she's his mother's specimen, and potentially the last clue to his mother's murder. Wan Guo Feng suspiciously gives him time to find evidence.
Cheng Nuo returns to his mother's lab. There's a key lying there. In the full, full garbage can, there's a letter from a psychological clinic. You're telling me Cheng Nuo was so desperate to investigate his mother's death that he overlooked all of this evidence that's just lying in her lab??!?! Maybe Zhang Ya didn't have depression because at the psychological clinic is her own office. There's tapes of her counselling session with An Qiu. An Qiu was the perfect candidate because her sole obsession has expired.
[Ep12] Three years ago, it was Wan Guo Feng who conducted cruel research on both humanoids and humans. Zhang Ya wanted to quit working with him. During their altercation, she falls off the roof because these people like meeting at high places. You can't even run from high places. Why go there.
Cheng Nuo's obsession with the research took root when his daughter died from a preventable car accident. His wife blames him. He blames himself too. Yin Tian Hong was part of the batch that were abused by his experiments. Cheng Nuo beats him up, but leaves him breathing by the woods. He's got to save An Qiu.
An Qiu is locked in the cabin. She couldn't escape from the fire. By the time Cheng Nuo reaches her, the cabin is engulfed in flames. He chooses to save her over himself as he pushes her into the refrigerator while he stays outside face-to-face with the raging fire and thick smoke.
And they don't die.
Ending voiceover message: Humanoids should not have been invented. But what about Case 2 ML and FL. Do they reunite?! Hello! And is Huang Cong'er reunited with her parents?
The end.
Remarks
[First Impression (Ep1-4)] I can't tell who's human. A little freaky, and very intriguing.
The story is about humanoids, genetically modified beings (robots?) that can take on any human appearance. There's a serial murderer killing these humanoids that the government actually wants to eliminate anyway. Surprise, surprise, ML and FL's past seem to be involved.
The romance between Song Wei Long and Wen Qi's character is innocuous. It didn't have to be there, and it didn't have to start at Ep3, but it's clear in his murky eyes that he's experiencing the first sign of love already.
The cases are particularly emotional when there's a blur between right and wrong, victims and criminals, and humans and humanoids, which is what I really appreciated in A Murderous Affair in Horizon Tower (except they were all humans there).
[Cast&Crew] I mention AMAIHT because it's the same director team, and in them, I trust. I'm not vouching that it will rock your world, but from the first few episodes, I'm vibing with the cases and its discourse of human love in all shapes and forms.
First case was an impressive act from Liu Lin.
I doubt anyone knows Lv Yu Lai (Shen Li), but I think his face is so interesting. I can never tell if he's suspicious. You think he's suspicious, and then he's good. He's a really good actor, and I think this team knows how to use him effectively.
[Ending] Happy.
[Review & Rating]
Recommendations
| "Sci-fi" | Thriller | Random |
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