The Victim's Game (Netflix Taiwan) S01: B

Another amazing Asian thriller. I discovered it the same day I came across Extracurricular but I just got time to watch it. It was released at the end of April and I still don't know if this is meant to be a miniseries or if they are waiting for Netflix to give them another season.

Fang Yi-Jen (played by Hsiao-chuan Chang) is a forensic officer working for Taipei's police. Although he is the best at what he does, he doesn't have much respect from his fellow officers, specially Chao Cheng-Kuan (played by Shih-Sian Wang. Kuan is the lead detective on a very elaborated murder and he always seems annoyed whenever Fang corrects him or invalidates a theory about the case with the proof he's analysing. Fang Yi-Jen is in the autism spectrum, which doesn't help him when making new friends or socializing, the rest of the officers joke about that, but it does help him to be the best at his job.

The victim seems to be Su Ko-Yin a has been singer, the body is found at the singer's apartment inside her bathtub. Looks like a no brainer until Fang tells them that the body seems to be from a man, not a woman.

One of the officers tips about the murder to Hsu Hai-Yin (played by Wei-Ning Hsu) a reporter trying to find her next hit piece. She also starts looking very carefully at the case, she knows she has something that her boss would love.

After finding a second murder victim Fang believes that the murders are connected, but Kuan is not quite sure of it. Hsu and Fang soon find themselves working together, even though Fang is not very sociable, still Hsu is patient enough to follow the leads he gives her and complement each other with their discoveries. She is after the story and he is after the murderer, but in the end they both are after the truth.

The script is amazing and the performances from both Hsiao and Wei-Ning are great. Specially Hsiao who is heart breaking on his role. The story has a very good pace and takes you clue by clue to the murder and once we find who might be the series transforms from a thriller to a drama in the blink of an eye.

You can always count on Asian dramas to tell very sensitive subjects in their series and change the tone of a show, pushed by that delicate material and somehow deliver an amazing story, that would start a conversation.

Is a short series with a very explicit conclusion in its core story, but at the end they open some lines to play with the idea of having a second season. I honestly don't see why that shouldn't happen. They showed us very compelling characters that I would follow more of their investigations.

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In Extracurricular they showed us a prostitution ring operated by a high school student. Here in The Victim's Game Fang discovers that they are not murders but in fact a chain of assisted suicide. Someone out there is helping people fulfill their last wish and then help them suicide. If that doesn't start a very heated conversation I don't know what else could. From a thriller this immediately transforms into a drama as soon as they realize this, and Hsu understands that by writing those articles she is helping fulfill those wishes. Then comes the killer to try and sell us the idea that is not doing anything wrong, but actually helping the deceased.

I would have said that Asia specifically China and Japan have a high suicide rate, this making the story specifically more relevant, since is being produced in Taiwan, who actually still is fighting to be independent from China. But Europe has more countries on the top 10 than Asia. Actually 6 of those countries used to belong to the soviet union. Suicide is a taboo topic in America the series 13 Reasons Why was both praised and criticized for this. Since Asian cultures tend to be more conservatives it really amazes me how they touch this topics that are certainly not easy ones, and still get thru the controversy and don't take your mind away much from the story you are watching.

As much as The Woods this is a story that might work better if you watch nightly episodes, to give you some time to process the chapter you just saw and talk about it, if you are not watching it alone. But also the best thing about thrillers is making your own theories and see how similar they are to the series actual facts.