Writer: Jun Noh
Director: Joanna Rosenfeld
Reviewer: Christine Stanton
“Melodramatic“
2 / 5
Eric Lee has written another successful bestselling book, touring the country for press events and readings. Not normally known for genre fiction, he has surprised his fan-base, with a juicy story about murder and adultery that has his readers gripped to the very last page. But how much of this has been imagined vs taken from lived experiences?
The show jumps straight into the storyline, with Eric (Jun Noh) arriving at his old friend May’s (Marina Hata) house with the hope of catching up after all the years they’ve spent apart. They exchange pleasantries and start discussing the death of her late husband, her new relationship, his sexuality and the quick success of his writing career. There is a lot to unpack in a very short space of time, and without the necessary context or better introduction to the characters it’s quite hard to connect with their story and understand the depths to some of their heavily laden conversations. This is also apparent with the numerous themes that are packed into the short storyline – the homophobia Eric experienced being from an East Asian background, the influence of the church on their ideologies and of course – the mystery behind the death, all of which are crammed rather than incorporated into the 60-minute runtime.
The atmosphere throughout is suitably suspenseful and mysterious, with lots of pensive looks into the distance and loaded silences, but the vagueness surrounding the mystery dilutes the intrigue somewhat, with too much focus being put on other areas of the narrative – the main storyline of the murder and cheating scandal becomes somewhat buried in comparison. The acting style is very melodramatic, with lots of over-the-top reactions and telenovela style outbursts that clash with the otherwise muted and slow-burn style psychological storyline. Toning it down slightly and equally building into the suspense better (as well as removing some of the key plot points from the marketing blurb) would help the two styles work together better, without it being so contrasting. The conclusion itself is quite abrupt and over very quickly, which equally doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the show, and would be more enjoyable with a bit more focus to the end scenes.
The foundation for an intriguing psychological thriller is there – but work needs to be done to tighten up the content and focus on the overall storyline to help it take hold better.
Runs Until 6th August 2024
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