Drama Rec: The Evidence Tells (消失的痕迹)
Oct. 7th, 2023 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aurumcalendula posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
baihe_media(I posted versions of this to my journal and c_ent, but I figured I should include it here too.)
The Evidence Tells (消失的痕迹) is a police procedural with two female leads (well there's technically a male lead too, but the women get the most focus).
Finally returning to work after being devastated by an undercover operation gone bad (and the death of a colleague she was close to) police captain Bai Lu meets medical examiner Gu Yu who is a suspect in a murder. And a symbol at the crime scene indications that the murder might have links to the ill-fated operation.
(here's a subtitled trailer)
What I like about it:
I love Bai Lu and Gu Yu's chemistry! I particularly like Bai Lu's costuming (I think she looks very dashing). I really like the cinematography and choreography (I love the walkway right scene in Case 1) and the cases feel well written imho. I think we get a good feel for the rest of the team too, even with how short the series is.
About the ending:
Highlight for spoilers! *It doesn't end on a cliffhanger (other than a bit of 'and the adventure continues'), but I really hope there's another season at some point.*
It's a somewhat shorter drama than I'd expected (there's 32 episodes, but they're each ~21 minutes long) and there's six cases in total.
Case 1: ep. 1 - 7
Case 2: ep. 7 - 11
Case 3: ep. 11 - 16
Case 4: ep. 16 - 22
Case 5: ep. 22 - 27
Case 6: ep. 27 - 32
Potential caveats:
I think the cases feels pretty standard for a murder mystery show w/r/t how graphic/gruesome they are, with the exception of Case 2 (episodes 10 and 11 in particular).
Highlight for spoilers! *A character is tortured (flogged, cut with knives, and impaled with a hook) and raped.
You see more characters' reactions than what's happening but it's still disturbing imho.
There's some footage of it on a computer screen in episode ten from 5:45 - 5:56 and 10:35 - 10: 49, 10:54 - 11, 11:04 - 11:09. The footage is shown on a tv in episode eleven from 2:53 - 2:57, 3:15 - 3:22.
In episode ten there's also a flashback sequence of the character remembering what happened to them that starts at 16:00 and ends at 18:59.*
(off the top of my head, other content notes throughout the series include Highlight for spoilers! *apparent drug use, attempted suicide, chronic and terminal illnesses (HIV/AIDS, cancer), death by hanging, death of a child, domestic abuse, gaslighting, genre-typical violence, medical experimentation, poisoning, severed limbs being discovered* - I can let you know what applies to which episode/case)
Also I'm not sure how I feel about how physical and mental disabilities are handled in cases Highlight for spoilers! *1, 4, and 5.*
And a heads up that the English subs are mtl - they're clearer than say MangoTV's tend to be, but they's still not great. Bai Lu's name gets translated as White leader a lot. Also there's some weird repetitions and I think some stuff gets translated as romanized Cantonese, Japanese, or Korean when it's not supposed to be.
(Would it be possible to have a review or rec tag for dramas?)
c_ent, but I figured I should include it here too.)
The Evidence Tells (消失的痕迹) is a police procedural with two female leads (well there's technically a male lead too, but the women get the most focus).
Finally returning to work after being devastated by an undercover operation gone bad (and the death of a colleague she was close to) police captain Bai Lu meets medical examiner Gu Yu who is a suspect in a murder. And a symbol at the crime scene indications that the murder might have links to the ill-fated operation.
(here's a subtitled trailer)
What I like about it:
I love Bai Lu and Gu Yu's chemistry! I particularly like Bai Lu's costuming (I think she looks very dashing). I really like the cinematography and choreography (I love the walkway right scene in Case 1) and the cases feel well written imho. I think we get a good feel for the rest of the team too, even with how short the series is.
About the ending:
Highlight for spoilers! *It doesn't end on a cliffhanger (other than a bit of 'and the adventure continues'), but I really hope there's another season at some point.*
It's a somewhat shorter drama than I'd expected (there's 32 episodes, but they're each ~21 minutes long) and there's six cases in total.
Case 1: ep. 1 - 7
Case 2: ep. 7 - 11
Case 3: ep. 11 - 16
Case 4: ep. 16 - 22
Case 5: ep. 22 - 27
Case 6: ep. 27 - 32
Potential caveats:
I think the cases feels pretty standard for a murder mystery show w/r/t how graphic/gruesome they are, with the exception of Case 2 (episodes 10 and 11 in particular).
Highlight for spoilers! *A character is tortured (flogged, cut with knives, and impaled with a hook) and raped.
You see more characters' reactions than what's happening but it's still disturbing imho.
There's some footage of it on a computer screen in episode ten from 5:45 - 5:56 and 10:35 - 10: 49, 10:54 - 11, 11:04 - 11:09. The footage is shown on a tv in episode eleven from 2:53 - 2:57, 3:15 - 3:22.
In episode ten there's also a flashback sequence of the character remembering what happened to them that starts at 16:00 and ends at 18:59.*
(off the top of my head, other content notes throughout the series include Highlight for spoilers! *apparent drug use, attempted suicide, chronic and terminal illnesses (HIV/AIDS, cancer), death by hanging, death of a child, domestic abuse, gaslighting, genre-typical violence, medical experimentation, poisoning, severed limbs being discovered* - I can let you know what applies to which episode/case)
Also I'm not sure how I feel about how physical and mental disabilities are handled in cases Highlight for spoilers! *1, 4, and 5.*
And a heads up that the English subs are mtl - they're clearer than say MangoTV's tend to be, but they's still not great. Bai Lu's name gets translated as White leader a lot. Also there's some weird repetitions and I think some stuff gets translated as romanized Cantonese, Japanese, or Korean when it's not supposed to be.
(Would it be possible to have a review or rec tag for dramas?)
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