Don't go looking where you don't belong

Interlaced Scenes is an unusual crime drama that managed to scratch a very deep and persistent itch. Rarely do I find a mystery thriller that offers only a dash of grittiness rather than the whole shaker. The main character is not some gruff, self-sabotaging genius on the warpath for justice, and the villain is no moustache twirler calibrated to piss you off. Instead, nuanced characters with rich interiority live in a world often saturated with warm, natural light. There are scenes of dreariness, of course, but the contrast allowed some genuinely beautiful moments to shine through from the muck. When I look back, those are the moments that I will remember.

SYNOPSIS

Veteran detective Jiang Guang Ming is hastily summoned back from desk duty to shore up a murder case awaiting trial. While she investigates several loose ends including the missing murder weapon and a runaway dog, rookie Shi Luo becomes obsessed with the eerie resemblance between the crime scene and the opening pages of a best-selling mystery novel. As past facts unravel, the author gradually turns from a wild lead to a likely suspect.

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Minor spoiler of first 8 episodes below...
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The blurring of fact and fiction is interesting enough of a hook for driving suspense, but about half way through the drama the brutal whodunnit is suddenly resolved and the investigation transitions into a missing-person case. Murder fades into context, and the hook lingers only as a few unanswered questions. Even the detectives themselves find the development rather anticlimactic.

Here is where the drama makes a daring turn, in my opinion, from generic crime thriller into meta commentary. Not in a cynical, fourth-wall-breaking kind of way, but with frank discussions about how empathy is more than just words, how desire for approval poisons the psyche, and how stories of crime obscure the countless societal failings that led to those abhorrent acts of desperation.

While the storytelling can be masterful at keeping viewers in suspense, I found that the drama's best moments were when it dropped the guise of a mystery thriller altogether. Thanks to strong performances by the veteran cast, the narrative never loses momentum even as the truth becomes apparent in the final arc. Instead, the release of tension gives space for those seeds of turmoil planted within each character to flower into nobility or violence.

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Face the sun

Link Click is the little drama that punches way above its weight class. It is probably my favourite drama of 2024 so far, narrowly edging out other strong offerings like Joy of Life 2 and The Legend of Shen Li. Considering its relatively low budget and niche genre, that is no easy feat. What really makes it stand out is the quality screenplay that weaves the dazzling array of themes and elements into a cohesive whole. Easy banter flows seamlessly into subtle gestures of vulnerability; classic literature references permeate key points of suspense and catharsis.

The exact rules and mechanisms of the supernatural is unimportant as it is mainly used as a vehicle for episodic storytelling. Almost all the stories are incredibly poignant, with themes ranging from despair and regret to forgiveness and courage. In this aspect I would compare Link Click to Reset (2022) and the Taiwanese drama Oh No! Here Comes Trouble (2023).

SYNOPSIS

Lu Guang seeks out Cheng Xiao Shi, a gamer kid with a hero complex, as his new partner. Together they would form a duo called 时光代理人 ("Time Agent"), capable of returning to the moment a photograph was taken. Initially armed only with the cardinal rule to never alter critical events for fear of destroying the world, Cheng Xiao Shi begins exploring this new power. The Time Agents take on a series of cases that will test their individual wits, their budding friendship, and their moral resolve.

In terms of acting, Jiang Long as Cheng Xiao Shi and Bu Guan Jin as Qiao Ling does most of the emotional heavy lifting. Bi Wen Jun is decent, but the rest of the cast is just too good. Each instance of body swapping was executed to perfection, and every side character in the past and present lived and breathed to their own inner light.

It is plain to see that, much like the character Liu Ye would have done, this drama was crafted with deep compassion, and with a keen eye for the magical amongst the mundane.

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