A Review on the Unriddle Series

I wrote an essay on Infernal Affairs vs. The Departed (its remake) for a film module in university. While the comparison between Unriddle 1 and its sequel isn't so much between the original and it remake, it's inevitable that sequels always get compared back to its prequel. I got to say that Unriddle 2 had a really different feel and atmosphere to the first series. Let's try to tackle the 2 from a general overview, before going into some specific points.

As I just mentioned, if you were to watch any episode in Unriddle 2, you'll realise it has a much darker feel. Not only are the criminals more vicious (or the atmosphere appears so) but also the characters themselves. Right from the get-go, the first villain Asura was downright manipulative and vicious - forcing Dabao to pick which family member she would sacrifice, leaving her wracked with guilt at her choice.

Also, we observe that Rui En's character, Hu Xiaoman was a lot darker. In the first season, Da Bao would always use the phrase "bu ze shou duan" (using underhand methods) to describe Xiaoman as she apprehended criminals for their crimes... Basically the end justifying the means. I remember Xiaoman saying that she would only use such underhand methods TO criminals, and it gave the feel that her world was black and white in that aspect - that if you are guilty, she would use whatever method she could within the confines of the law to apprehend you. There was that black and white, meaning upholding justice meant following the law, upholding the code of law. But it seemed in season 2, the scriptwriters pushed the boundaries with this "bu ze shou duan" characteristic of hers, that now her sense of justice was no longer confined to the boundaries of the law, but it was above the law. It's like we imagine a box, and now her sense of justice is outside of the box. This of course leads to all sorts of problems... While I did have some trouble reconciling such a huge paradigm shift in her thinking, I suppose the bigger issue I had was what was the trigger for this? If it was explained then it's fine (it's a drama anyway, the whole point of a good show is a good storyline and ensuring that it flows, there has to be a logic in it, I think the audience knows that a drama can be dramatic, dramatised). But there seemed to be a gap between her character in Unriddle 1 to Unriddle 2.

Let's look further at her character. In Unriddle 1, Xiaoman who was as usual serious, yet well-liked by her subordinates. Easy example, her subordinates in season 1 referred to her as "Lao Da", a sort of endearing term to their boss, as contrasted to "Madam". It's slight, but it shows the difference in closeness to subordinates vs superiors. (Of course there are cop shows where the subordinates address their boss as Madam and still have a great team relationship, just refer to Forensic Heroes 3 and you'll get what I mean, but clearly it isn't so in this sequel)

Xiaoman with her team in Unriddle

The overall feel was that there was very little humour scenes in this show. While Xiaoman was utterly serious in the first, her interactions with De Wei (the eventual mastermind behind Yuze's kidnapping in season 1) and especially with her forensic pathologist friend (played by Pamelyn Chee) were more or less light-hearted. Which added a sense of normalcy to her life, i.e. her liking Yuze and discussing it with a friend just like what girls do in real life. It allows to audience to relate to Xiaoman because here we have a character who isn't totally out of this world. (Now it just got me thinking, of course Pamelyn's character may not have worked in season 2 with its dark theme, since in a sense her friend in the show was sort of replaced by Gao Jieyu. But it might have, if they opted for a less dark Unriddle 2). 

Light-hearted scenes like this added flavour to the show

Less dark Unriddle 2. Let's look at it from a scale of 1-10: 1 being the lightest and 10 being pitch black. I think Unriddle 2 is at least a 8, and Unriddle at a 3. Definitely a marked difference between the 2 to the naked eye. I'm okay with dark shows, I think it does provoke thought. I chose to write about Infernal Affairs in my essay for a film mod in uni, because I loved it. Infernal Affairs was thought-provoking, intense, and complicated. I watched it at least 3 times, because there's just so much depth to the show, a single screening of it wouldn't suffice. Unriddle 2 was dark, and I think a bit too dark and this was a bit too much because there was just not enough time to pack in the entire storyline. Here's where I go to pace...


It was too fast. Unriddle 1 had a nice pace to it, great flow between story lines, which wrapped up neatly in between the mini-stories. It seemed that Unriddle 2 was unravelling too quickly, without enough time for the audience to catch their breath. With darker themes, you need to give the audience space to breathe - when I breathe I mean time to ponder. Cinematographic-wise, the cut scenes adding to the pace as well. And overall, for a series which you come home to watch after work, there were hardly any bits where you could kick back and relax. It would definitely be a big plus to add in some humour. An example would be in Infernal Affairs 3, humour can come in the form of Kelly Chen and Tony Leung's characters. For those that aren't IA fans, it showed the treatment sessions between the mole (Tony Leung) and his psychiatrist (Kelly Chen). Giving insight to his psyche as a mole - pretending to be somebody else, yet craving some semblance of a normal relationship. It was fantastic, developing the character while doing it in light-hearted scenes. Like any good piece of music, there are peaks and troughs. These scenes were few and far between in the show. And even when there were, i.e. with Xiaoman and Lang, there was just too much suspicion for it to be truly light-hearted.


You may be thinking, AZ prefers Unriddle 1 to its sequel. My answer is maybe. The fact being sequels are impossibly hard to make, and for what it's worth I really laud the scriptwriters, director and all those involved for pushing the boundaries with this show. I don't watch a lot of channel 8 shows, but I bet Unriddle 2 would rank up there in terms of thought-provoking script-writing with wonderful acting to boot. The main characters were great, chemistry between Xiaoman and Dabao was evident, and they grew closer as partners in Unriddle 2. More so, the supporting actors were fantastic, I loved Xiang Yun's acting as she spoke to her estranged husband, she played the part of controlling her emotions so well, and it was a bag of emotions, with so much feelings to grapple. Other great characters was Fu Lelin, her speech was truly realistic, having heard how the deaf speak. So was the actress that played Yao Wanyi, very very good. I guess the sad part was all these fantastic supporting characters were killed off. And I would think if there's going to be an Unriddle 2, it has to be like the first installment - focus on a bunch of interesting cases, get back strong supporting actors, and of course with the 2 protagonists leading the way, working together to solve crime cases.


I think we hit an emotional high in Unriddle 2. Emotional high meaning tons of emotional scenes, just like this one which displayed Rui En's anguish (probably the peak of it all) as she saw her mum's lifeless body before her (for what must have been a gory sight). Take this multiplied by the other emotional scenes in Unriddle 2, it was an emotionally intense show.

Xiaoman's anguish as she saw her mum's lifeless body

I will leave you with this, a very different looking Xiaoman from the ending of Unriddle 2. Meeting the perpetrator of his grand criminal experiment in the name of science - Fang Rongge. I can't help but think she looks a bit like some superhero lady with her trench coat.

Ending of Unriddle 2