Cloud Prison (2020)

Fascinating psycho thriller

This drama is shot in a very visual storyboarding style:- director has shot the various clips that made up the story, and put them on computer, and weibo, wechat accounts. We never really see the actors in front of the camera, but in videos taken from computer screens, mobile devices and cctv footage. FYI, the weibo accounts in the drama are real, you can search for the IDs and the content posted are exactly as what is seen in the drama. I have not checked on the wechat IDs....

As there isn't a summary posted yet, here's the brief storyline:- A novelist has written a bestselling crime-mystery novel, however he got the idea for the novel from elsewhere. And the person(s) who gave him the idea for the novel is/are out to exert justice/vengeance.

This is a short web drama of 9 episodes, each are about 20 mins long. There are 3 arcs:- 1) planning 2) cat and mouse 3) final showdown. My favorites are the planning, cat and mouse arcs. This is a first for me, to watch the mastermind research on the victims at his computer screen, and drew a mind map while he made his plans. Ep 1 was very fascinating to watch (even more so when I realized the weibo accounts are live). However, as the computer screens and weibo posts are in Chinese, this will be a challenge for foreigners to watch. Even if there are subs, the subbing team would need to create English captions at all the Chinese words..... near impossible?

The final arc.... well, it has some surprises. For me, I didn't like it. Can't really say more without giving the plot away. I wish the script could have focused more on 2nd arc, the cat and mouse arc was really exciting to watch! We see the actors racing against time in the wechat video calls, frantically trying to pin down the location with the clues that the mastermind gave....

A must-watch drama ヽ(^o^)ノ if you understand Chinese.

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