Netflix drama Copycat Killer: Taiwanese whodunit about a media-savvy murderer, starring Wu Kang-ren, Alice Ko and Ruby Lin, keeps viewers guessing
- Set in 1990s Taipei, murder mystery Copycat Killer, about a manipulative killer and an upright prosecutor, is based on a novel by Japanese author Miyuki Miyabe
- The starry cast is a big draw for this thriller with soap opera elements, and with its twists and turns it’s hard to know where, or how well, the series will end
In Taipei circa 1997, someone is murdering young women. Such is the premise of Copycat Killer, the latest star-studded Taiwanese drama series on Netflix.
Adapted from a novel by prolific Japanese author Miyuki Miyabe, the show is produced by Greener Grass Production, the team behind The Victims’ Game – the first Chinese-language series to date to be brought back for a second season by the streaming platform.
The 10-episode series opens with a masked killer known as “Noh” sending a videotape of himself to all of the city’s news networks, goading top prosecutor Kuo Hsiao-chi (Wu) into a deadly game of cat and mouse. Before any further explanation is given, we jump back in time eight weeks to witness Kuo in action.
In the opening minutes of the first episode, he exonerates a teenage murder suspect by playing a video game for two weeks straight and then, in the midst of a high-profile crackdown on organised crime, busts one of his superiors at Songyan Prosecutor’s Office for colluding with the triads on an upcoming land deal.
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The media relishes the controversy, especially sensationalist news network TNB and its formidable lead anchor Ya-chi (Lin).
All these cases are put on the back burner, however, with the discovery of a severed hand, found gift-wrapped in a public park. The hand appears to a woman’s and features distinctive markings on its dislocated thumb.
The case brings together Kuo and veteran detective Lin Shang-yong (Tou), who is unimpressed by the former’s recent attention-grabbing heroics. The discovery also attracts the attention of intrepid reporter Lu Yan-chen (Chiang).
The hand’s markings remind Kuo of a case from two years earlier, in which the female murder victim exhibited similar wounds after being restrained with thumb cuffs. The suspected culprit was successfully incarcerated. Is this, then, the work of a copycat killer or was the wrong man put away?
As reports of more missing young women begin to fill the front pages of local tabloid newspapers, the pressure mounts on Kuo and Lin to crack the case. When the killer starts reaching out to his victims’ family members and blackmails them into appearing on Ya-chi’s prime-time TNB news show, the case escalates into a full-blown media circus.
Copycat Killer is not the first adaptation of Miyabe’s work. Her novels have been brought to the big screen in Japanese films such as 2000’s Pyrokinesis and 2015’s two-part thriller Solomon’s Perjury, and in the 2012 South Korean thriller Helpless, which was based on her bestseller All She Was Worth.
Should Copycat Killer prove successful for Netflix, there is a mountain of material to be mined in the future – and based on the streaming platform’s track record, there is every reason to believe that the show, which is equal parts lurid thriller and sappy soap opera, will find an audience despite its rather wayward and ramshackle execution.
The big draw for audiences, at least in Taiwan and other regional markets, is the starry cast, who, to their credit, embrace the pulpy material with unbridled enthusiasm.
Wu is perfectly cast as the white knight prosecutor, willing to go toe to toe with his corrupt superiors while harbouring demons of his own.
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Lin is clearly having a blast, channelling Faye Dunaway in Network for her outrageously competitive, ratings-hungry news anchor.
Chiang represents the more morally conscious side of reporting, and finds herself drawn into a potential romantic relationship with Kuo which may or may not put her at loggerheads with Ko’s character – a criminal psychologist and Kuo’s old flame whose work keeps her in the picture.
Other characters are given short shrift amid the increasingly improbable twists and turns of Ma Ko-ming’s script, not least Tou’s career cop, who does a complete about- face, from seasoned flatfoot to hysterical liability, the moment his own daughter (Ally Chiu) goes missing.
The killer’s identity is also fairly obvious from the moment the character first appears on screen, and is actually unmasked by the end of the fourth episode in a fanfare of truly preposterous motivations.
Ahead of the show’s release on March 31, Netflix only granted critics access to the first five episodes, so it remains to be seen whether Copycat Killer will work its way to a satisfying conclusion. Based on what has been revealed so far, what comes next is anyone’s guess.
Copycat Killer will start streaming on Netflix on March 31.
