Sob a Pele (2022)

More than skin deep

Composite art, image modification (age progression), facial (post mortem) reconstruction - the 3 main disciplines of forensic art. These are the 3 main elements that’s used in identification, assessment and resolutions of the cases in Under the Skin through the gifted Artist Shen Yi and his reliable partner Detective Du Cheng.

And they are used masterfully in UTS.

Truth to be told, Under the Skin was a difficult series for me to sit through. Not because the story is crappy. On the contrary, it is often because of the disturbingly humane reasons of the perpetrators when revealed why they did what they do. UTS highlights the social issues that’s plaguing our current society - gender equality, view of beauty in society, bullying and feelings of outcasts, human trafficking, identity fraud, abuse, rape, organised criminal, and of course murders. All heavy topics. All too real. All grey. All more than skin deep. The cases may have concluded, however, the underlying social issues that spark the cases…not so.

Besides the heavy utilisation on forensic art in solving the cases, one of the things that stood out about UTS was Shen Yi’s character, as the gifted artist. Usually, gifted characters are stereotyped to be eccentric because they are gifted with a special ability that normal people can’t understand, pun intended. Like Sherlock Holmes. I appreciate that UTS made Shen Yi a gentle, calm, smart introvert who relates well with others. And often, he shows an empathy to the perpetrators in ways that others can’t. Through Shen Yi’s eyes, he helps bring out the humanity side of the cases.

One fun fact that was brought out by this show is the amazing ability that certain gifted people have. I thought UTS exaggerated the ability of Shen Yi in facial reconstruction with the little information he had to go by. (Age progression technique is popularised by app in recent years, so more “believable”.) And through others’ reviews and comments, I got educated on a real world person who has this ability - a retired Chinese police forensic artist Lin Yu Hui who can sketch image of a person based on few clues. He helped solved a high profile murder case in US back in 2017 and now establishes his own studio to draw portraits of missing people, usually children, and martyrs. Inspiring and admirable.

Another fun fact is the various arts and stories behind them where Shen Yi used to teach the university students. More than art, they symbolise the messages that Shen Yi / UTS wants to relay to the students / audiences. Such as the female artist who drew Judith and Holofernes and gifting the portrait of Marie Curie to one of the perpetrators.

All in all, the forensic art aspect of UTS is like garlic and onion in Chinese dishes. On its own, garlic and onion can be rather blend and not something we will have as the main dish. With other dishes though, they bring out the flavours and make for appetising meal.

Not sure why I use food analogy to describe a crime fiction story. Long analogy short, UTS is a story that peels into the complexity of social issues through forensic art.

Leia Mais

woahhh it's really good

story:
this is not a common storyline, and i'm pretty sure the director/screenwriters came up with this one and it's not based off of a book (i think). the cases were really interesting, and it was like a giant case going on during the whole entire drama, with smaller ones in each episode. also they left us off on a cliffhanger and i saw on 微博热搜 that they're filming season 2? sooo i'm excited!

acting/cast:
the acting was pretty good imo, crying scenes were great, just overall good actors. i didn't really recognize anyone in this drama before watching it, so i had no previous knowledge. however, 檀健次 had become really popular from this, and douyin's about him were all over my fyp, so i decided to watch this, nonetheless i was not disappointed!! his acting is really good, and he's also super talented? the other cast were also really good

music:
i think 檀健次 sang the ending song? not sure tho, i don't really pay attention to modern drama osts, i'm more of a historical ost person. but the songs were decent

rewatch value:
i don't really rewatch dramas, unless they're like 封神, so i wouldn't really take this rating into consideration.

overall:
good drama! stoked for season 2 :)

Leia Mais

Lacking some romance BUT it's fine! We got a good story with good acting!

What I really liked about this drama is that every actor here acted very naturally and professional in their roles. The leads as well didn't do too much out of character, just nice for Shen Yi's slightly oddball yet mysterious personality pairing with Du Cheng's initial headstrong character. I'm really thankful this drama didn't portray criminals like they are psychopaths like some recent dramas of the same genre. I really appreciate that the scriptwriter kept criminals' behavior and motives realistic and logical which many dramas really lacked these days...

So for some parts I really didn't like is how they lack some realistic details when inspecting the crime sites... Such as the need for wearing gloves yet no SHOE COVERS when entering the victims' place... I was like "huh? seriously surely they must be kidding right..." A lot of the times, both the leads also didn't wear masks nor gloves when handling the dead bodies when the forensic was wearing it... I mean I kinda got distracted while being engrossed in the episode.

But overall this drama is one of the really good crime suspense production as compared to many released recently! Not mentioned I had quite a crushed on Shen Yi's charm that makes people open up to him and the desire to friends with such person XD Tan Jian Ci is really a rare actor that portrays his characters so well that made it charming and unique for every characters given the fact that he wasn't even professionally trained!

Leia Mais

8.5/10

This drama is quite different from the other crime investigation drama (at least for me). It's from the perspective of a criminal sketch artist and how he sees and analyses the cases. It was interesting. And not to mention, that it gave quite a heartfelt moment. The acting and cinematography were perfect. Only the plot felt a bit lacking.

Acting 10/10
Cinematography 10/10
OST 10/10
Chemistry 10/10 (The chemistry between Shen Yi and Du Cheng was seriously so good.)

Episode 16-18 made me so nervous. I felt like I was more anxious than the characters ?
Overall, this is a very good drama. I'll rewatch it someday.

Leia Mais

Highly recommend!!

This is probably the best show I have seen this year and maybe in the past couple of years also. I was engaged throughout the whole show. With the shows that have been coming out, very few have I seen where I just watch from beginning to end without the need to fast-forward, but I watched every second of this show. I loved the plot and the characters and I kept feeling myself wanting to be physically sucked in to the show and be a part of what was happening. I've never vibed so hard with a show. Both Shen Yi and Du Cheng's personalities contain parts of mine and I really love how they were portrayed. The only reason it didn't get a full 10 stars is because there's one thing I can't for the life of me figure out. Either my mind wandered when they explained it or it never got explained. Also if there's never a second season or like bonus episodes to explain that ending, I might go insane. I want so much more of this!!

Leia Mais

Typical but done very well

The story here is the typical two main male characters who does not get along due to past incident happened to end up working together to solve crimes.
As crimes are solve, it also allowed for each other to settle and clarify their anger and frustrations with each other.
I wasnt invested jn this series at the start but as tje story got more mysterious and intriguing, I ended up binge watching it.
The role portrayal is good, wardrobe was in queue, location fits, direction and flow of story is good.
If you are not a fan of detective story this might not be for you but i suggest to give it a try til episode 3.

Leia Mais

Pretty paintings and crime

DISCLAIMER: My opinion, that's all!

The concept of this drama reminded me very much of many US shows, police procedurals in which they usually pair up a gruff but extremely honest policeman and a quirky highly intelligent civilian (mostly mathematicians or psychology professors or some such profession) who comes up with the right remark/discovery at a crucial moment thereby solving the case gaining admiration by everyone!
It is the same here: this time an art history professor and highly skilled painter is brought in to help with investigations. At first there is animosity between him and the detective but that quickly vanished when the painter skilfully solves the case in the nick of time, impressing the detective who becomes his main fan.
I was actually a bit disappointed that the conflict was resolved so quickly: I hoped for the tension to last a bit longer. From episode three onwards, we were on the full bromance(not chines censors' one though which it could have been seeing the physical differences between two characters who looked like they just came out of a shounen ai manhua!LOL).
Once their relationship was firmly established, we were treated to a series of "case of the week" episodes featuring different stories: murders, scams, suicides (the slightly GL overtone one did not sit well with me: it sent the very wrong message!)
Over these 20 episodes we did not find much about the main characters: their past and their families are barely mentioned.
And this is where the plot holes come in: the detective comes from a well off family but was caught being a delinquent in a gang fight. Painter looks like he was a homeless kid, taken in by a kind art teacher but still living as a rebel? He was nearly drowned to death (who saved him the first time?) and forgot the face of the woman who asked him for a sketch (that too: why did she have a photo of a 3yr old to find someone easily found 30 years later?I must have missed the explanation!LOL). A psychologist told him he needed to have another near death experience to jog his memory but he had had another such event just a few days previously and nothing happened to his memory. As the plot progressed, the painter got to have many new capabilities: highly observant, highly knowledgable in anatomy, highly competent in psychology (the way he manipulated the computer baron was amazing and of course chess master and extremely talented painter.Makes you wonder how the police managed to catch anyone before he joined with his drawing skills.
Last but not least, the police is painted in such a positive light; everyone is nice, honest, competent, trustworthy and cheerfull, supporting each other for the greater good! Amazing!

The paintings and the drawings were beautiful: in the last scene we are shown sketches of characters from the cases they solved and each sketch is in a different style! There are some really pretty pictures! The painter who did these for the drama production is a very talented individual!

I must admit that as much as I enjoyed this at start, I was getting bored with it by the end. It is not half bad, a fun watch but I just have trouble getting used to c dramas. Again I had the impression they first filmed everything, edited everything in a block then chopped it up into 40min pieces: sometimes the episode would end mid-sentence. They should really learn how to make a cliffhanger cliffhangy!

Leia Mais

This was amazing! I was drawn in from the very first episode and I just couldn’t. stop. watching! I burned through this drama in just a few days, that rarely happens to me. But it was so compelling, the stories, the acting, the cinematography, the music… It was the full package!

My favorite part was definitely the deep friendship and trust that developed between Shen Yi & Du Cheng. Du Cheng started as Shen Yi’s, well, enemy is a strong word but definitely as someone who did not like Shen Yi all that much. And by the end, he laid down his life and his future in Shen Yi’s hands with absolute, unhesitant trust. It was truly a thing of beauty.

Also, what I loved was that both Shen Yi & Du Cheng were very, but very smart people, each in his own right. That Du Cheng wasn’t just Shen Yi’s plus one, his caretaker, the way these dramas about gifted individuals sometimes go.

Interesting, at least for me, was that one of the tensest moments of the whole drama was the speed chess game between Shen Yi and the main bad guy, that cat and mouse game where you didn’t know who was the cat and who the mouse. It reminded me so much of the amazing poker game scene between Bond and Le Chiffre in Casino Royale!

And then the ending! The set-up for something more! I really truly hope that there actually will be S2, that it won’t fall under the table like the sequels to SCI or When a Snail Falls in Love. That would irk me!

Overall, a fantastic, amazing, captivating drama!

Leia Mais

Good story but a bit too fast paced

The story itself is interesting with some veteran actors. 20 short episodes that could've been longer if they spend more on character development or spent more time on the supporting actors. There were quite a few potentially interesting supporting characters but they hardly had any screen time.

Shen Yi (Artist) & Du Cheng started off as enemies but a bit too quickly Du Cheng's 7 years worth of anger towards him resolved?? ..... It felt rather instant so the subsequent bromance wasn't strong. It still worked well enough for the story line as it focused mainly on cases. Each case went by fast w/o many twists. It would've been better if they slow the pace down a bit.

The last 2 episode circles back to the original murder from 7 years ago to resolve unanswered questions.

Overall a great crime drama well worth the time for any viewers that enjoys this genre!

Leia Mais

─ ‍artistic approach to the crime cases

I had watched many crime thriller dramas that focuses on talented detectives in the police station setting. Yet, Under the Skin is one of the unique ones that deliver a new approach to this genre. Before I started the drama, I had high expectations because I only saw positive reviews about it. After watching it, I definitely agree that it deserves all the compliments.

The story is actually quite captivating even from the premise. Overall, it is an interesting and binge worthy story ─ ‍ not with just cases as some of them might appear familiar but the way they deliver it from the eyes of a genius artist. It also has a smooth pace, doesn't drag the story unnecessarily. In fact, it is one of its charms that they know exactly where to conclude the cases and move to the next one.

Dynamics and acting are absolutely amazing ─ ‍you don't feel awkward or think any character doesn't belong there. They all have their roles and perfectly showcases it.

I also think the ending is satisfying and mysterious enough to set the vibe for the second season. This being said, I'm definitely looking forward to the next season and what they prepared with cases and characters.

link to edits : https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxplWeBw3y5jgUu8espv5dPINyq2-V6RY&si=D4q8INvgXiU5lMQK

Leia Mais