A Masterpiece Reborn: The Taiwanese Adaptation of Miyuki Miyabe's 'Copycat Killer'

A Daunting Masterpiece Brought to the Screen

Miyuki Miyabe's Copycat is a masterpiece considered a "must-read" for any fan of mystery novels in Korea. While it is highly praised for its massive scale and meticulous psychological descriptions, it is true that many hesitate to start reading it due to the overwhelming thickness and sheer volume of its three books. Even as someone who enjoys mystery novels, I kept putting off the challenge because of the burden of dedicating so much time to it. I had completely forgotten about it in the corner of my mind until, unexpectedly, I encountered this colossal narrative through a drama produced in Taiwan.

An Immersive Adaptation to 1990s Taipei

When I first came across this drama on Netflix, I had no idea it was a Taiwanese adaptation of Miyuki Miyabe's famous Copycat. I started watching it drawn to the humid and heavy thriller atmosphere unique to Taiwan. However, as the show progressed, familiar yet chilling crime patterns emerged, reminding me of the original work's framework. Shifting the stage from Tokyo, Japan, to Taipei, Taiwan in the 1990s, the adaptation seamlessly blended the narrative with the social and historical background of Taiwanese society, which was highly impressive. The ability to visually follow this massive story on screen rather than turning the pages of a thick book was a huge draw.

Clarifying the Title: 'Copycat Killer'

One minor thing to clarify here is the title of the drama. The "Imitation Game" you mentioned is actually the title of a movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch about the British mathematician Alan Turing. The exact English and official Korean Netflix title for this drama is Copycat Killer. In Taiwan, the original title uses the Chinese characters for "Copycat" (模仿犯 - Mo Bang Fan), just like the novel. For international viewers, the English title Copycat Killer intuitively conveys the characteristics of the thriller genre dealing with a serial killer's copycat crimes. The eerie feeling evoked by the title perfectly represents the dark atmosphere underlying the entire drama.

Wu Kang-ren's Flawless Transformation

Another highlight of this work is the appearance of many familiar faces for those who enjoy Taiwanese dramas. In particular, the acting transformation of actor Wu Kang-ren, who plays the protagonist, Prosecutor Kuo Hsiao-chi, stands out. Having mostly shown soft or quirky sides in various romances or modern dramas, he takes on the most serious and expressionless role in this work, firmly holding the heavy center of the narrative. His signature deep gaze and dry yet sharp facial expressions perfectly match the character of an upright prosecutor seeking to uncover the truth of the case.

A Prosecutor Who Runs in the Field

An interesting point is that Prosecutor Kuo Hsiao-chi's work style is quite different from the authoritative prosecutors we often see in Korean dramas who only flip through documents at their desks. Instead, he is a "man of action" who runs around the field and shares the joys and sorrows with the detectives. His attitude toward a juvenile crime case in Episode 1 is very memorable. To open the boy's tightly closed heart and figure out his motive, Kuo stays up all night in his office playing the boy's favorite RPG (a classic game like Final Fantasy, reflecting the era) until he clears it. The scene where he praises the boy and builds a bond by saying, "It took me a week, but you beat it in a day," shows how deeply he tries to approach the essence of the case and human psychology.

The Brain Battle Begins

Prosecutor Kuo Hsiao-chi is a character with a bit of a "crazy" streak and a straightforward style who never lets go once he bites. Because he only pursues truth and justice, the order or hierarchy within a corrupt organization means nothing to him. He even shows his uncompromising resolve by ruthlessly arresting his direct senior prosecutor from the same department on the spot for corruption. Before this uncompromising man, a bizarre serial murder case occurs, cleverly mimicking and mocking unresolved crimes of the past. The breathtaking brain battle between the prosecutor trying to prove that law and justice are alive and the psychopathic killer trying to use the world as his stage begins in earnest.

Alice Ko's Intellectual Charm

Another major reason for choosing to watch this drama is probably the appearance of actress Alice Ko (Ko Chia-yen), who has a solid fan base in Korea from Someday or One Day. Up to the first four episodes, the screen time for her character, criminal psychologist Hu Yun-hui, is smaller than expected, which might feel a bit disappointing. However, there is no need to be discouraged. As the drama heads into the middle and later halves, her professional role in analyzing and profiling the serial killer's psychology acts as a crucial key to solving the case. Alice Ko's signature calm yet intellectual charm greatly contributes to tuning the tension of the show.

The Media as a Puppet and Accomplice

Another agent of violence treated as significantly as the serial murders in this drama is the "media." Taiwan has a smaller population than Korea, but it has a social background where yellow journalism—engaging in provocative and sensational reporting—has been quite extreme since the past. The killer accurately grasps and exploits this nature of the media. Blinded by ratings and exclusive scoops, the broadcasting stations become frantic about stimulating the public's voyeurism rather than uncovering the truth, blowing the case out of proportion. Eventually, the media is reduced to a puppet moving according to the killer's script and another accomplice.

The Heartbreaking Psychological Warfare

The most heartbreaking episode that shows how cleverly the killer manipulates the eyes of the media and the public is the story of the grandfather with the kidnapped granddaughter. The killer calls the grandfather and makes the devastating demand that he crawl on all fours and bark like a dog in the middle of a busy downtown street. The sight of the grandfather willingly throwing away his human dignity to save his granddaughter tears the viewers' hearts to shreds. His desperate cry to the dispatched police to just leave him alone evokes a terrible sadness. The reason the killer forced this meaningless sadism was not simple mockery. It was a meticulous psychological warfare to sneakily leave the granddaughter's videotape and underwear in front of his house while everyone's attention and police manpower were focused on the grandfather.

A Triumphant Evolution of Taiwanese Genre Dramas

While the drama and the novel share the same overall framework, they show a significant difference in the protagonist's perspective. If the main narrator and protagonist of the original novel is an ordinary high school boy witness (Shinichi), the Taiwanese drama amalgamated several characters from the original work to create the original prosecutor character "Kuo Hsiao-chi" and placed him at the forefront of the play. In Japan, previous film adaptations received harsh criticism while drama specials were well-received, but this Taiwanese version of Copycat Killer remains an example of an excellent genre evolution for Taiwanese dramas, which traditionally showed strength mainly in romance. Proving its value as a well-made mystery thriller by ranking high in several Asian countries immediately after its Netflix release, I hope you watch this work to the end and fully enjoy the thrill of its meticulous psychological warfare.