by Brian Hioe
語言:
English
Photo credit: Zero Day Attack/Facebook
FOR ALL THE enthusiasm around the release of Zero Day Attack, the first two episodes prove a mixed bag. This can be attributed to that the TV series is an anthology, with a different director for each episode. But two episodes in, Zero Day Attack has strong potential to improve–or sink into the murk.
The first episode of Zero Day Attack is unfortunately not the strongest, following president-elect Wang Ming-fang of a KMT-analogue party, who is the current mayor of Taipei. Elected as president on a mandate promising peace with China, before the presidential transition of power from the outgoing DPP to the KMT, China launches a blockade of Taiwan under the pretext of searching for a downed warplane.
Finding that her party members are all too willing to accommodate to China, or worse, are actively acting as a fifth column, Wang breaks from her own party to unexpectedly side with outgoing president Song Chong-ren of the DPP-analogue party. This takes place after Wang’s son is kidnapped by a political aide of hers, seemingly acting on China’s behest.
But Wang is a more clever manipulator than she lets on, and the episode ultimately closes on the note of questioning what her plans are. American-educated and with shades of Hsiao Bi-khim and Chiang Wan-an, Wang proves a complex character. Yet the episode is hampered by poor acting from Wang’s son, a Taiwanese American character who somehow speaks Mandarin with an American accent and English with a Taiwanese accent. Likewise, it is this first episode that must do the heavy lifting for the series in terms of worldbuilding while seeking to draw viewers in, which is ultimately to its detriment.
Photo credit: Zero Day Attack/Facebook
The second episode, following a working-class young man nicknamed Snake Legs, proves far stronger. In focusing on Snake Legs and his struggles to carve out a life with his pregnant girlfriend, the second episode eschews the plot dump of the first episode in favor of a humanistic and sympathetic character study. Driven by his desperation to make a future for his family, Snake Legs eventually becomes part of a violent pro-unification fifth column group.
It is this second episode where Zero Day Attack truly starts to shine. Snake Legs manages to be a likeable character to the presumably largely pan-Green audience of Zero Day Attack, while still ending up driven to acts of political violence. This proves quite the accomplishment, showing that Zero Day Attack may be capable of great subtlety and nuance in its narrative.
It is to be seen where Zero Day Attack goes next. There is still much room for the narrative to flounder. But, against claims by the KMT that the work is a DPP-funded propaganda work, Zero Day Attack has signaled that it has a strong interest in depicting and understanding the motives of the pan-Blue camp–often in a highly sympathetic light. Likewise, the depiction of the scenario for a Chinese blockade of Taiwan has clearly had a great deal of thought behind it, as evidenced in the politically complex scenario of a blockade that occurs during a transition of presidential power and the depiction of fifth column groups as seeking to stir up conflict in a manner that muddles easy distinctions between friend and enemy in wartime.
If it succeeds, Zero Day Attack will be one to watch in the history of Taiwanese television, as a work that both reflects and seeks to intervene in present-day political reality. After all, one of the aims of the show is to serve as a clarion call to the public to be more realistic about the possibility of war. If it does not, it will simply go the way of many Taiwanese dramas before it.