Shards of Her Review: This Taiwanese/Chinese mystery thriller (她和她的她) is directed by Cho Li and written by Yu-Fang Wen. It stars Wei-Ning Hsu as Lin Chen-hsi, Toby Lee as La Hao-ming, Chen-Ling Wen as Yang Chia-ying, Patty Pei-Yu Lee as Chen Chih-ling, Vins Yi-Zheng as Lin Yu-sheng, Ning Ding as Chiu Wan-fen, Yi-wen Chen as Hsieh Chih-chung, Alyssa Chia as Yen Sheng-hua and others. There are 9 episodes of 45-50 minutes each.
-Mild Spoilers-
(Trigger Warning: Sexual Abuse)
Shards of Her Review
In Netflix’s Shards of Her, we meet Lin Chen-hsi, a successful headhunter in her company. Lin is very dedicated and works hard to make a mark in the company, despite the challenges. While trying to escape an unfortunate situation, Lin Chen-hsi meets with an accident. She slips into a coma. However, when Lin wakes up, she finds herself in another reality.
In the new reality, Lin is living a different life. She isn’t working for any multinational company. A confused Lin has to deal with her past traumatic events again. What will be the conclusion of the painful situations she has to deal with (again) after the coma? Will she ever go back to her reality? We find answers in the end.
Shards of Her begins by giving us a glimpse of Lin Chen-hsi’s current state. She is often unhappy because of her colleague, who keeps harassing her. In the second episode, when she meets with an accident, things are not the same anymore. Instead of her life becoming better, it only gets agonising and baffling.
Lin has no memory due to her accident and coma. But as viewers, we are aware that she is in some other reality. But the show isn’t a sci-fi, multiversal thriller. There’s a serious reason why Lin’s life takes such a big turn. After her accident, Lin has to confront her past and speak the truth for herself and others to live a better life in the end.
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The accident and coma set the base for the main subject the makers want to tackle – sexual abuse. The scenes are daunting to watch. However, the show wastes so much time on a murder mystery. We have to keep watching through the bland investigation and riddles until every secret is pieced together.
Even though the murder/death was crucial to the plot, the execution could’ve been better. Just like Lin, I was wondering what was going on. The series loses its grip in episodes 4, 5, and 6. They only intrigue us with the cliffhanger ending in the end.
From episode 7, the show’s momentum picks up again as we finally get closer to the truth. Shards of Her on Netflix would’ve worked as an engaging, profound thriller with a solid screenplay and only 6 episodes. The series has no romance or hardly any joyful scenes. The subplots fail to build interest until we see them connecting with Lin Chen-hsi’s life.
Actor Wei-Ning Hsu has done a good job with her performance as Lin Chen-hsi. It was an exhausting and difficult part to play, considering her characters’ difficulties. At times, she has only a few dialogues. But the actor emotes well through her eyes and expressions. Actors Toby Lee and Patty Pei-Yu Lee also played their parts well.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Netflix’s latest Taiwanese/Chinese mystery thriller demands a lot of patience if you want to seek answers. It’s a serious subject, but the screenplay is bumpy, and the pace is painfully slow.
The show is now streaming on Netflix.
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