EPISODE 1 RECAP
As the drama begins, we see a woman (Wu Jinyan) wearing all red, running across a forest.
Her husband, who is dressed all in white, chases after her while weird music plays in the background. Is this supposed to be romantic or creepy? I’m confused.
Next, we see them sleeping on a bed.
But when the woman wakes up, she finds in horror that it isn’t her husband who’s with her.
Her in-laws happen to walk into the room at this time. Uh-huh, definitely, absolutely, not a setup at all.
The woman is accused of adultery, obviously, and is condemned to death.
As she is locked up, her husband comes to see her with an axe in his hand. This makes me think of that introductory scene in Yanxi where the female lead breaks open her sister’s coffin with an axe.
The husband promises to help her escape. But what do you know, the jerk drugs her and throws her into a ditch with the full intention of burying her alive.
After some pathetic weeping, he strikes her with a shovel and starts burying her.
OK… But like, if you could use drugs, why not just poison her? You would still be able to shock her one last time with the 180 change but it would save you the whole digging and give her less chance to escape, no? And the fact that you hit her with a weapon tells me you don’t care whether her body gets inspected or not, so why take the long route?
However, as the husband rides away after the job is done, we see an arm shooting out from the ground. Like a zombie movie.
The wife survives, in case you haven’t gotten that yet.
The next time we see her, she is washed ashore some river somewhere, looking as clean and pretty as ever.
As she contemplates suicide, two young girls save her. One of them feels particularly strongly about women who are belittled and wronged. After two minutes, they become besties.
But these two girls come from a brutal school of which the headmistress is more or less a witch who flogs them for just about anything.
One day, one of the girls — Jiangli — sneaks out to see the almost-dead wife. Jiangli gets caught and beaten so badly that she dies. I would be shocked but I’ve just seen somebody dig their way out of a grave like a mummy, so…
The betrayed wife uses this chance to plan her future. She blackmails the headmistress and takes the dead girl’s identity. Now she has a new life and will probably plot her revenge soon.
COMMENTS
If I had known Yu Zheng is the producer of this drama, I would’ve approached it with more caution. Or… you know, not approached it at all. Yu Zheng has been putting out many dramas with the same setup: a woman getting betrayed by the people around her and becoming a girlboss who strikes back with no mercy. In fact, The Double begins in almost the same fashion as Legend of Haolan, another drama Yu Zheng was involved in.
Even though it’s understandable that these dramas are catered to a specific audience who enjoy them, one wonders why Yu Zheng, a director with many years of experience already, has not moved on from this phase.
Anyway, now that I have seen some of this drama, might as well talk about it.
It’s another “I am a strong woman for whom the plot bends” drama. It’s full of shock factors for the sake of shock, and it constantly switches from dark to fluffy to downright disturbing in a matter of minutes. There’s so much going on in one single episode that at times it feels like the drama is trying to confuse you on purpose. The premise is simple, as you can see from the recap: this woman who is wronged and has friends who are also betrayed will trample on the world’s prejudice and brutality and show’em what she’s made of. And why shouldn’t she? With a plot armor that thick.
Even though the male lead does appear briefly, there isn’t enough information on him for a discussion yet. The acting seems solid on his part. Well, as solid as it can be for a dude who descends from the sky during a criminal investigation. About Wu Jinyan, she is not a bad actress, but so far she’s been stuck playing the same kind of role so it’s hard to tell whether she has more range than shown. Is she good in here? She could be. I would be able to tell if the plot stopped throwing twists at me for one minute and allowed me time to observe her acting.
Now, do I recommend this drama? I cannot, due to the fact that I can’t decide what this drama is trying to be. If you are looking for a serious crime/revenge drama, you may find the plot holes too distracting. If you’re looking for a fluffy, hopeful romance with some badassery from the female lead to watch for fun, the zombie vibe may be too much.
So… you watch it and decide.
I think of this as a Chinese historical makjang. Over the top in every way with cliffhangers to keep you hanging on. I enjoyed it until I didin’t. At the end, I did a lot of fast forwarding.