What a view | Asian remake of popular Scandinavian noir The Bridge: lack of chemistry leads to troubled waters for the seen-before show
Produced by HBO Asia and Viu, The Bridge unites a Malaysian and Singaporean crime-fighting duo as they attempt to solve the mystery of the body left on the Tuas Bridge, but the results don’t look promising
Late night: a body is found on a bridge. The victim has been murdered, it seems. The bridge is part of an international highway and links two countries, and the body has been placed at the centre of the bridge, straddling the border … but wait! As the victim is being removed the body turns out to be not one, but two halves of two victims! The hunt for the killer is on and the chasing pack is led by a detective from each country, one male, one female, an odd couple with contrasting work ethics and outlooks on life, the Mulder and Scully of crime-fighting combos.
Oh, hang on … where have we heard all this before? We’ve heard it in Sweden-Denmark; the United States-Mexico; Austria-Germany; Estonia-Russia; and Britain-France, where it cunningly became The Tunnel. “It” is now the bilingual Singaporean-Malaysian version of The Bridge, well into its 10-episode run on HBO and Now TV (channel 115), with instalments released at 10pm on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Bront Palarae represents Malaysia as semi-slob Detective Megat Jamil, who succeeds in endlessly annoying Singapore’s by-the-book Detective Serena Teo, uptight, work obsessed and played by Rebecca Lim. The predictable repulsion is instant – but the anticipated personal chemistry and sexual tension that are de rigueur in such partnerships couldn’t power a Christmas party popper. Perhaps they bloom in future episodes.
The financial reasons for making a cover version of a big hit may be obvious, but their artistic equivalents are harder to identify. In a time of more or less instant access to shows from around the globe, and when viewers have seen it all before – literally in this case – the aim must be to improve on previous iterations of a show. This might prove beyond the Tuas Bridge.
It’s not just that Palarae and Lim ignite on screen like a damp dishcloth, but the storylines of murder, people smuggling, dodgy land deals, money laundering, lazy journalism and everyday social iniquities are met with amateur dramatics-standard acting.
Made in conjunction with fellow video-on-demand company Viu – which cheekily bills The Bridge a “Viu original series” – this version is also missing the louring Scandinavian gloom that was so integral to the genuine original. Maybe it’s a weather thing.