[Taiwanese Drama 2020] Netflix Original - The Victims' Game 誰是被害者

[skibbies]

@lynne22 Thank you for the tag! I'm super late and only just finished this drama. It was definitely right up my alley, absolutely splendid! I was like the journalist, intrigued at first, but end up caring for the victims and moved by their stories. I really like how it started, drawing the audience in with the mystery, and you slowly discover that it's not as simple as it is, the mistaken identity is set up to hook both the audience and in story characters, which is nicely played. 

 

I was incredibly surprised and pleased by the detail with corpses and a lot of the places our protagonists visit, fair amount of them were very cluttered and lived in, they must have spent forever setting up everything. I loved that it bought more awareness regarding Asperger Syndrome and it wasn't glorified or maliciously portrayed, it was rather matter of factly and wasn't used as a gimmick, he end up with lots of troubles due to difficulties in communication, but it also explained how well he did his job.

 

The victims' various issues were pretty damn real, and I'm surprised by the various issues they sort of touched on, I did wish some of it might get bit more exploration. It's not overblown melodrama, they only sprinkled or gave hints here and there. but the way the drama handled it made a deeper impression, and it means that the audience doesn't lose focus from main focus (Xiao Meng) and won't be overly tired from repeated tragedy play. So much respect to the production team for handling such a delicate issue with grace, and I can feel how deeply trauma or depression/suicidal tendency have hurt the characters or probably some people who worked on the drama.

 

I'm very pleased with how the drama ended, there's fair bit of character development, but not so drastically that it comes off unrealistic. I do agree that I thought Captain Kuang's family would come into play, but I like to think that through working on this case and maybe subsequent reporting might have changed him a little so that he'll pay attention to his family more.

[JenL]

Like really, really super late to this drama, but loved it. I was hesitant for a long time to start because I'm pretty chicken and even though I like a good thriller, I don't deal well with gore! But surprisingly I got through this one ok and even though there a lot of gruesome deaths, I wasn't as traumatised as I thought I'd be. 

 

I really liked that the show brought light to how hard it can be to have Aspergers syndrome - I've know some people with it before and they can be hard to deal with socially because of the lack of understanding of social cues and emotions, but often they feel very lonely because of this. I thought Joseph Chang did an amazing job of acting as an individual with the syndrome, and I feel like he's going to be tough competition at the Golden Bell for Best Actor! I also thought there were really great subtle moments that you could pick up -  Fang Yi-jen really hates being touched, but that moment on the beach when his wife asked if they could keep trying/ not give up, he initiated the touch, which would have been very, very hard for him. That's why that moment meant so much to his wife. It's pretty sad that he left because he felt he wasn't able to be a good dad or husband.

 

Tiffany Hsu's character was so cool and I liked that she was the opposite. Although she's a reporter, she's not malicious and just out for a story. She's actually empathetic and able to read and understand people very well, so her role balanced out Joseph Chang's. And I really liked that she called the policemen out on their behaviour towards Fang Yi-jen. Even though it was implied she was sometimes offended by his logical-non emotional behaviour, she was smart enough to figure out why he was that way. Really liked her strong character!

 

On 5/18/2020 at 4:37 PM, caranita said:

 It's a police procedural, but it's also about people, how they deal with their past, how they're trying to fix their past. I didn't recognize Ruby Lin when she appeared for the first time, and all I can say is: wow, this is very different from her typical roles (which I know of), and I never thought she had that in her  

 

I think it was smart to make the show about both a suicide-murder cult because it allowed us to reflect on the individual's lives and varying societal issues as well as look for a 'bad guy' so to speak. Ruby Lin was amazing - I didn't recognise her at first, but then it hit me all at once and I had to check if it was her. Haha, very different from her very feminine roles.

 

On 5/20/2020 at 3:54 AM, tothestars said:

Just finished! Well the ending isnt scary and dark as i thought. It has a good ending though. I feel so bad for the rest police actors, their part were really monoton n plain.

 

Oh btw one thing why dont they show about Captain Kuan's family, i almost thought that his son will also included on the list. 

 

Ruby Lin's acting is so scary LOL, her makeup is so on point! Wow, and Hsiao Meng also very good. Well every lead and victims did a very god job. 

 

Now let's detox with watchng the light n colorful dramas LOL

 

Ruby was super scary and very good at doing crazy eyes!

 

On 6/19/2020 at 1:59 AM, skibbies said:

I'm very pleased with how the drama ended, there's fair bit of character development, but not so drastically that it comes off unrealistic. I do agree that I thought Captain Kuang's family would come into play, but I like to think that through working on this case and maybe subsequent reporting might have changed him a little so that he'll pay attention to his family more.

 

All in all, a nice ending! I enjoyed how the stories were tied up and how there was subtle developments. My one big disappointment with this series is that they didn't do anything with Captain Kuan's son. Like he wasn't a victim of the group (which would have made a good plot line), but they also didn't tie anything up with that story - did Captain Kuan learn to be a better father after observing these victim's and understanding their pain? Or after seeing Fang Yi-jen's mistake with his daughter? It seemed pointless to include scenes with the son if they weren't going to really involve him in the story on a deeper level.

[hyall]

Watching this now. Quite a good show. I really like the mix of Hokkein and Mandarin so much more natural. Scenes are also very much more visceral and has a quality to it that isn't overly polished. Crude, rough and very realistic.