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kretuzerwilhelmxiii

kretuzerwilhelmxiii

Detention taiwanese drama review
Completed
Detention
1 people found this review helpful
by kretuzerwilhelmxiii
May 17, 2022
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.0
Story 10.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 5.0
This review may contain spoilers

I looked for copper, I found gold

Disclaimer: I never played Detention game, which this series is an adaptation/sequel of and to.

At its heart, it's a drama/tragedy/romance. If you are expecting a spooky horror, it's not it. The scary moments are very few, and quite amateurish. But where the true horror lies is in exposing what assholes humans can be to each other.

The story follows two timelines.

First is the one in 1960's, where the action of the game takes place. There some students and teachers organize an illegal book club, and get violently persecuted in return.
The second timeline, where we're gonna spend most of the series, is in 1990's, and follows a schizophrenic transfer student who hopes that writing poetry will bring her broken family back together. Over the course of that, she gets possessed by a ghost from the past, and enters a risque romance with her teacher.

Both timelines are intervened with flashbacks and parallels.

This is not a particularly light or optimistic story. It's a romance, but a toxic and tragic one, not what most people associate with that genre.

The direction, scenography, and actors did their job well. This is especially true for Huang Guan Zhi, who did a great job of playing an awkward but well-meaning teen. Considering that this show was his debut, I think this actor has great talent.

Shoutout to the ending song too, it was one of the rare moments when I didn't skip credits just so I could listen to it.

Note: Netflix version of the show is using wade-giles instead of pinyn for eng sub transcription of Chinese names. For what reason, I dunno, but it made watching it a bit confusing.
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