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James Marsh

2.5/5 stars
Lead cast: Tseng Jing-hua, Moon Lee
Netflix’s latest Taiwanese drama series, Had I Not Seen the Sun, follows a convicted serial killer (played by Tseng Jing-hua) who agrees to a documentary interview after years of speculation surrounding his motives.
Chen Chi-chiang plays Pin-yu, the young crew member who manages to persuade the killer Li Jen-yao to open up, while Moon Lee and Lyan Cheng co-star as pivotal characters from his tumultuous youth.


It has been nine years since teenager Jen-yao embarked on a frenzied killing spree, butchering several of his classmates in a series of grisly attacks that prompted the media to dub him “The Rainstorm Killer”.
He turned himself in and was convicted soon afterwards, but Jen-yao never revealed his motive.
Now it is 2023, and documentarians Ta Wei (Umin Boya) and Chien Yi (Sonia Yuan) have been trying in vain to secure an interview with the murderer, that is, until their timid assistant Pin-yu asks.
Surprisingly, her request is accepted immediately, and from her very first meeting with Jen-yao, sparks fly through the safety glass.
Not everything is going well for Pin-yu. She recently moved into a new flat, discovering later that the previous tenant was a young woman who “died up the mountain”.
She soon begins to experience nightmares, in which she is pursued by a hooded killer, as well as lucid visions of this same girl (Lee).
Pin-yu confides in her best friend, Mu Shen (Cheng), who provides emotional support but neglects to reveal that she actually knew Jen-yao at school.

Had I Not Seen the Sun soon begins to show its hand. While it may initially present as a serial killer mystery thriller, the show is far more invested in being a teenage drama, as four students from wildly different backgrounds are thrown together and torn apart repeatedly under increasingly volatile circumstances.
The series will air on Netflix in two batches, with the first 10 episodes premiering on November 13, followed by the remainder of the series on December 11.
The bulk of this first instalment takes place in 2007, while Jen-yao, Hsiao-tung (Lee), and Mu Shen (who in 2007 was known as Yun-chen), are classmates at a fiercely strict military-run high school in Taichung.
Jen-yao’s home life is perpetually disruptive. His father (Chris Lung) is an abusive drunk who beats his wife (Ann Lee) and is deep in debt to local gangster Big K (Yao Chun-yao). This causes Jen-yao to clash violently with his parents, as well as Big K.

He is also bullied at school by Ouyang Ti (Shih Chih-tian), son of a shady politician who also happens to be Big K’s boss.
Ouyang has his eye on Hsiao-tung, a beautiful, high-achieving student who is training to become a ballerina. One day, she takes pity on Jen-yao and shares her lunch with him, sparking a friendship that soon becomes a romance.
This not only angers Ouyang but also upsets Yun-chen, who is secretly attracted to Hsiao-tung. She tries to warn Hsiao-tung away from Jen-yao, suggesting that he is bad news, but only succeeds in encouraging Hsiao-tung further.
Over the course of 10 episodes, show creators Chien Chi-feng, Chiang Chi-cheng and Lin Hsin-huei construct a narrative of adolescent hardship and emotional turmoil that might go some way towards justifying Jen-yao’s homicidal actions.

Blackmail, extortion, drug abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault and good old-fashioned beatings are all introduced to stoke the fires of motivation, driving a number of characters to the brink in an escalating maelstrom of worst-case scenarios.
Added to all of this is the increasingly bizarre series of events being experienced by Pin-yu in the present, which are veering into full-blown supernatural territory – a baffling departure from even the most preposterous events unfolding during the show’s lengthy flashbacks.
This “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to storytelling is par for the course with Taiwanese thrillers such as this one, as seemingly superfluous supporting characters hijack the narrative with alarming regularity, while almost everybody harbours vital secrets that are only revealed at the last possible moment.
Tseng makes for a suitably tortured and dreamy protagonist, whether staring forlornly into the evening rain or taking yet another crippling beating from his numerous enemies.

Lee makes for a convincingly virtuous romantic interest, while Chen feels poised to take Pin-yu spiralling over the edge in the episodes still to come, as her character must contend with the advances of both an incarcerated psychopath and a spectral presence from beyond the grave.
Almost nothing that unspools in Had I Not Seen the Sun makes much logical sense, but the show delivers just enough sporadic flourishes of violence, drama, romance and genuine intrigue between the long stretches of teen-drama tedium to keep committed viewers on the hook for now.
Had I Not Seen the Sun is streaming on Netflix.


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Moon Lee as Chiang Hsiao-tung (left) and Tseng Jing-hua as serial killer Li Jen-yao in a still from Had I Not Seen the Sun. Photo: Netflix

Umin Boya (left) as Ta Wei and Chen Chi-chiang as Pin-yu in a still from Had I Not Seen the Sun. Photo: Netflix

Moon Lee (left) as Hsiao-tung and Tseng Jing-hua as Li Jen-yao in a still from Had I Not Seen the Sun. Photo: Netflix

Lyan Cheng as Mu Shen/Yun-chen in a still from Had I Not Seen the Sun. Photo: Netflix

Tseng Jing-hua in a still from Had I Not Seen the Sun. Photo: Netflix

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In this Taiwanese Netflix romance, a serial killer is interviewed nine years after his crimes by a reporter who is plagued by nightmares


In this Taiwanese Netflix romance, a serial killer is interviewed nine years after his crimes by a reporter who is plagued by nightmares.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}In this Taiwanese Netflix romance, a serial killer is interviewed nine years after his crimes by a reporter who is plagued by nightmares

In this Taiwanese Netflix romance, a serial killer is interviewed nine years after his crimes by a reporter who is plagued by nightmares