Anime 50575 Huang Yan

Face on Lie was a very tense, fascinating series, my first donghua and a good introduction to the medium as it's an underappreciated gem.

The themes of the story are a bit on the nose but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Even though it was unsubtle with its messaging it was still consistently the animation equivalent to a page turner; I just couldn't stop watching to see what happened. You really come to care for Han Yuxi and want to see her make it through and get away from those trying to hurt and abuse her.

The animation was a bit of a hit ... and miss situation, when it looked good it looked really good but it did have a tendency to slip into some awkwardness here and there. Some character models were distracting in their proportions, like 2D designs not meant to be seen in three dimensions.

I'm going to have to put this up there with Link Click and Mo Dao Zu Shi as shining masterpieces of donghua. I was left after the end with that clammy empty feeling when all emotions are completely wrung out. This is criminally underrated at 6.72 at this time. I can only imagine it is due to a strong bias against donghua and against 3D CGI, and against adult drama in favor of pretty fight scenes. (The stats show a very anormal distribution. This is probably due to dishonest voting.) The visuals here are not the strong point, but I think people rate visuals too ... highly. The screenplay, story and direction is pretty much flawless.

The story remains tense and nail-biting over the entire series. Nearly every episode feels like a cliff-hanger, and the unease never really goes away even during the most peaceful or romantic parts. It doesn't feel cheap, because the direction is such that the tone is very consistent and there is a lot of foreshadowing. It is incredibly well-paced, always on edge. Though the episodes are short, there is enough development of characters and plot-lines that it does not feel rushed.

I love the character development on both the MC Han Yuxi and the doctor Ling Huantao. Han is at times timid and at times resolute, and it makes her feel like a full human, and makes her even more brave (bravery isn't the absence of fear, but when you are afraid and determined anyway). She grows as she faces challenges and through introspection. Doctor Ling is a complex character who can't be reduced into a hero or a villain.

The donghua is chock full of social commentary, without compromising the hero's story. Some parts are obvious as given in a speech by the MC, but some is up to the viewer's interpretation. Is Han living a lie by changing herself, or she asserting control of her own life? It's important to have a good view of yourself and not only look at what others see you as. But that doesn't mean you can completely ignore what others think.

The animation is not bad, but does detract from the overall quality of the work. Unfortunately, the 3D models aren't able to convey the same level of emotion through their movements as live-action. I'm not quite sure why they didn't make this a live-action, as it does feel more appropriate for this kind of work. Maybe filling a cast with similar looking beauties would have been hard. I think that the semi-realistic 3D style used here is definitely a better match for this story than some 2D bishoujo style, because the 3D style gives it a certain verisimilitude which makes the story feel more real and scary rather than fantastical. Some of the shading looks too plastic, and some of the backgrounds look too simple, which detracts a little. It doesn't look as good as something like Yuan Long. But it's leagues better than Berserk.

The soundtrack is amazing. The OP and ED play pieces of the same song, which is both extremely unnerving and exhilarating, and it is blended into the episode seamlessly such that the emotional effect of the story combines with the powerful song. A portion of the song will play during the episode. The story-boarding must have been very clever to reach that compatibility. Several other songs play, like a beautiful insert song "Love You", the soulful "茧", the powerful "來者是我". They stand alone well but also fit the theme of the story. Quite packed for a short series.

I initially wanted to watch this series two weeks ago but held it back for a while because I wanted to watch and review all the drama/thriller movies about some surgeon killing young girls to implant their skins on a relative of his who suffered some accident that I could find before this one series. Was it worth it? No, but not because of this show, but rather because most of those films were quite crappy.

Besides a somewhat similar premise though, Huang Yan goes in a completely different direction, as it starts with the main character having several surgeries done to her because of all ... the shit she was receiving for being ugly, and the surgeon that did them becoming obsessed with her because he can remake her as his wife that’s in a coma.
So, out of all the previous movies about the topic, La piel que habito is the one that has the most similar setup.

But that’s only the premise, as the series moves forward, it focuses mainly on the main character, as she becomes something of a voice against discrimination on the most watched television show of the moment, which is about women appearing in public after their surgeries are done.

I have to somewhat criticize the delivery of the message though, as what she says is contradicted by what she did, but at least it didn’t lead to a change of her personality, and the main character isn’t afraid to voice her opinion and confront people, and yet keeps finding trouble here and there.

Besides that, it’s interesting to see how the main character is treated despite her new appearance, and she learning that her change on the outside doesn’t mean that she’s going to become happier just because, and a lot of the series focuses on the mentality of the protagonist realizing and coming to terms with that, with a very good scene near the end where the “two of her” talk to each other.

This particular element leads to explore the themes of television industry and social media and how rumours about someone could be fabricated and believed by many people, possibly ruining their lives, and although nothing as extreme happens to the protagonist, it’s interesting to see the hardships she faces and how all of it helps in fleshing her out and completing her character arc.

The pacing is very good, the episodes are between ten and fifteen minutes long and yet the show uses its short runtime effectively by constantly moving the plot forward and exploring its themes and fleshing out the main character. Unfortunately, it also means that some of them are inferior than the others because events and characters’ apparitions together in one same place don’t happen very organically.

Something that it’s criticized about this show it’s the way it presents its messages and themes, and although I can see that, I won’t criticize the writing on that regard that much, since every bit of information is presented through flashbacks, dialogues, internal monologues and people talking on television, sending a message, doing exactly what they intended to do, so overall I find the script being excused for the way it explores its themes, and I don’t find the exposition awkward despite the handling of them being a bit in your face.

What I am going to criticize the writing for, is the way that things play out, as the starting points or resolutions of the conflicts always have to do with someone having a hidden camera or microphone to fabric something about the protagonist or expose someone when they are lying, which feels samey and repetitive, on top of the series not properly showing up the setup of those scenarios.

Besides that, there is also another problem regarding the other characters of the show, which is them essentially existing only as extensions of the main character or the themes. Although the plastic surgeon is somewhat explored to show why and how he came to be the way he is, not enough focus is given to him, he doesn’t really develop nor has a cathartic resolution. There is also the other ex-boyfriend of the protagonist, who is easily the worst aspect of the series because of how little and rushed immersion he is given and for how cartoonilishly evil he is presented. It’s a bigger problem because the plot had the chance of getting rid of him at a certain point, but kept getting him back just to antagonize the lead girl.

The same thing can be said about all the secondary cast, they don’t have an agenda and exist only as antagonists or support, effectively being a representation of the themes and messages and plot devices, but nothing beyond that, and they can all be summarized with one quick description.

Now, there are anime that focus mostly on their protagonists which I rated very highly, most of them among my favourites, which had the same issue, and sometimes I did bring the rating down because of that, or in the cases I didn’t, it was because the focus on their main characters was even better than here, and because the theme explorations and overall plots were far more complicated and meaningful as a whole.

The final issue is the resolution, which although solid and overall good for the main character and her arc, and also not idealistic to the point of resolving everything happily just because, it didn’t give a good enough closure to the other plot points, leaving them in a rather ambiguous situation, what happened with the ex, exactly? What about the plastic surgeon and his mother? What about his wife in a vegetative state? The show gives you an idea of what could happen regarding them, but not something that feels really concrete and complete.

As far as presentation goes, I’m giving a little bit of an extra point to the visuals, despite having the same plastic and fake looking look and limited motions and inexpressive facial expressions that lots of CGI donghua have. The reason why I’m willing to do that it’s because at the end of the day it does serve a narrative purpose, since the visuals end up representing clearly the lie of the title and the superficial views of the public within the show, as the script intended to do. The backgrounds are good for the most part, but don’t stand out much because the perspective is usually focused on the faces of the characters. There are also some visual metaphors to portray the emotions and visualize the inner monologues of the characters, so the directing is pretty good in that regard, it’s just that the quality of the CGI held those moments back from being as good as the team behind the series clearly intended them to be.

The atmosphere is good for the most part, not because of the voice acting, which is appropriate but nothing beyond that, and not because of the sound effects, which are fairly simple and weak for a 2022 production, but because of the soundtrack, which is effective in sounding either sad or sinister, even for the opening and ending songs, something that reminded me of the only good aspects that Aiyou de Mishi had.

Despite its issues and it not being as good as I expected it to be, I found Huang Yan to be a pretty good and rather unique and memorable show within the medium of, well, let’s not say anime, but Asian animation as a whole. Compared to the live action movies with similar premises I watched, it’s better than most of them, even the one that started it all, so I consider it a worthy one time watch, despite how unknown it is and how little rewatch value it has.


Kinda similar stuff

-Les Yeux sans visage (1960 French movie that started the surgeon drama/thriller premise, very basic in plot and writing but for its time solid in atmosphere, visuals and drama).

-La piel que habito (2011 Spanish movie and the most solid plastic surgeon drama/thriller out of the live action ones, the plot is basic but overall good for how twisted and interconnected the characters are, and the resolution is pretty great).

-Beauty Water (Aeni movie about a main girl bullied for being ugly that changes her whole body with a, well, beauty water, and she also kinda starts a relationship with someone after that, it takes a completely different direction beyond that point, but it’s the only somewhat similar thing to this donghua in Asian animation that I know of).