Short Review to: A Murderous Affair in Horizon Tower 摩天大楼無劇透吐槽
Just finished watching this web series at 3:30 AM this morning! (It's Monday, I know, I'm off to a great start this week) Thought I'd write a quick review about it since I haven't finished any more books recently. I never wrote any film/series reviews that's over a tweet's length, but I am very biased against bad acting. So please bear with me with my inadequate vocabulary, run-on sentences, and poor grammar.
I don't consider myself a detective story aficionado, but I always find myself drawn towards fiction works of this nature (yes, and I'm also doing an Agatha Christie novel marathon too). This series didn't caught my eye until I found out it's about investigating a strange death in a high-scale resident building. It is based on the novel of the same name by Taiwanese author Chen Xue (not sure if it's translated into English, but the original traditional Chinese version ebook is available to purchase on Readmoo and simplified Chinese version ebook can be purchased on Douban and WeRead). I was a bit hesitant to watch this series at first, because of Angelababy's reputation of stiff acting one of the cast members was not a good actor in my opinion. Turns out, even though she still is the weakest link among the cast, it did not stop this show being enjoyable. The plot is very straightforward: victim was found dead in her own apartment on 20th floor of an upscale residence building, a montage of different residents of the same residential area was shown minding their own business, accompanied by a piano solo performed by a young pianist. Those residents are later identified as suspects and we learned about their side of story and alibi. As suspicion zeroes in on one person from the victim's past, the whole picture is complete and only then we were informed of the reason behind those strange behaviors from the suspects.
What's keeping the audience at edge of their seat is that how the suspects deliver their stories. From the first episode you will learn that a first-person perspective story cannot be taken as the truth unless there are other stories backing it up. Each and every one of the suspects twisted and fabricated information during their questioning, towards the end even the supposed villain has his version of story that subverted everyone else's and has hard evidence to back it up.
One thing I really appreciate this show is setting the mood with its ending theme song "You & I" by Aila Gato and Philip Halloun. It really set the mood right, and the singer has a beautiful and powerful voice.
- provided courtesy of iTunes
Is this series a detective masterpiece? No. It has too many logical fallacies and flaws. There are too many bits and pieces the series could have discussed and expanded to make it a wonderful show but they missed. Then it ends up being a show with feminism slogan/ideas sprinkled here and there throughout but doesn't really explore into them. You have this seasoned detective with his rookie apprentice who just got into this branch of PD as a cliche duo. The old guy spits out slightly politically incorrect sentiments but is a softie deep down inside. The rookie corrects her mentor on multiple occasions but in the end, nothing changes. Not the characters, and definitely not the audience.
Is this series worth watching? Yes, it does keep you putting together the whole picture until the last 3-ish episodes, and all pieces are not put together until the final episode. That's good enough for me as far as watchability goes.
Bottom line, I think this is a 7/10 show. Glad to see Chinese dramas starting to explore around feminism issues, but still has (plenty) room for improvement.
某人总结我喜欢看破案和侦探题材的作品，大概是真的吧。不过刑侦类的我看得的确不太多，主要还是不太喜欢看警察们坐在那儿叨叨。这部剧表面刑侦而且还有某烂片保证的女星，意外地让我熬了几天夜看完了。趁着还没忘记情节，赶紧来吐个槽。真不是因为半个月没写博客而又没读完什么书而不安。
本剧是根据陈雪的同名小说改编的，电子书在豆瓣阅读和讀墨上都能买，有微信阅读无限卡的也能在微信阅读上免费读。我看了一下开头，感觉run-on sentence对我来说有点点挑战耐心，以及在豆瓣友邻中评分并不是很高，所以也就pass掉不打算读了。
剧情呢，一上来是中规中矩的被害人死在家中，负责的小警察根据屋内能找到的线索一一传讯嫌疑人。嫌疑人们各有各的不在场证明各有各的backstory。每个人的故事都有能证实其他人故事中的点，却又有说不上来的怪异和并不明原因地有隐瞒。每个人第一视角叙述出来的故事真假掺半亦真亦假时真时假，有时候搞不清谁在说真话谁在说假话，甚至还有时会觉得他们印象中的被害人其实是个腹黑最后会不会有反转她才是大魔王毕竟有朋友一开始跟我说Angelababy是本色出演。随着一个接一个嫌疑人的故事被拼在一起，某个看似死者被害时并不在场的人和他的故事被托出水面，揭开了一个残酷的事实。（感觉自己像是在写宣传文案）
本剧的配乐还是很不错的。第一集开头的蒙太奇配着钢琴独奏，以及除了最后一集外每集的片尾曲You & I，跟本剧的想要营造的氛围非常搭！而且片尾曲女声也非常非常好听，有力量，有带出了那种稍微有点伤感绝望的味道。
当然前面夸了这么多接下来挑刺儿还是得挑的。剧里有那么多那么多次机会深入探讨女权，但不知道是因为资金紧凑拍不了那么多还是审核不过关不让拍，感觉说到一个点一下子就带过去了。浅尝辄止。比如说李茉莉前面说她父亲重男轻女，即使自己再努力也得不到认可；丈夫直接抄她的设计名利双收，她只能回归家庭做阔太太。这个挺好的一引发思考的点，结果讲完再也就没提了？？到头来，该有偏见的还是有偏见，该回归家庭的还是回归家庭。与其说本剧是想通过剧情传达女权思想引发社会反思，不如说是想通过生硬嵌入的女权台词得到一小部分对女权认识不全面的观众的五星好评。
总结一下呢，就是缺点是有的，而且很明显，深究不起；但瑕不掩瑜，本剧观看性还是蛮强的。有想深度探讨女性问题和对未成年加害的犯罪的态度但眼高手低（不过也有可能是审核的锅）。最终结论是虽不是神剧但还是可以看的。演员里刘丹、焦刚演技真心出彩；倪虹洁可可爱爱演技也好棒（喝醉和刘丹对手戏绝对是本剧亮点），感觉外表跟祝无双时期变化不大；还有年轻一辈里比较喜欢马小媛的气质和这里的角色，希望以后能看到她更多的影视作品。
