Taiwanese actress Alice Ko, star of new show Copycat Killer, wants to try playing a murder victim

SINGAPORE – Taiwanese actress Alice Ko does not mind playing the victim – at least on the small screen.

In a video conference call with The Straits Times to promote her upcoming Taiwanese thriller series Copycat Killer – about a series of grisly murders – the 38-year-old was asked which role besides her own she would like to play in the drama.

“One of the murder victims,” she says, earning raised eyebrows from her castmates Wu Kang-jen, Tuo Tsung-hua and Hsia Teng-hung.

Ko (Someday Or One Day, 2019), whose role on Copycat Killer is that of a criminal psychologist, adds: “I think it’s very challenging both emotionally and physically. The actresses have to dirty their bodies and stomach the cold.“

Her explanation got the rest of the cast nodding.

Copycat Killer, which premieres on Netflix on Friday, is adapted from a famous Japanese crime novel of the same name by writer Miyuki Miyabe. It is set in the 1990s and follows dogged prosecutor Kuo Hsiao-chi’s (Wu) attempts to unmask a media-savvy serial killer known as Noh, who leaves a trail of bodies – women bound, tortured and killed – for the police to find.

Leading man Wu (The World Between Us, 2019) says: “It’s true that the actresses who play the victims have a tough job. We filmed in the cold, and they’re usually in skin-baring outfits and tied up, so we feel terrible even just looking at them because you know how tough it must be.”

The 40-year-old adds: “We just try to film fast and make no mistakes so they don’t have to do another take.”

The murder victims of the series are not the only elements of the show to make the cast queasy.

Tuo (Godspeed, 2016), who plays a veteran cop, reveals that many of Copycat Killer’s autopsy scenes were shot at a real autopsy laboratory.

“There were real human parts and organs around, so we came on set with a great sense of respect and we didn’t want to wander or joke around because you might open a door and there’s a cadaver there,” says the 60-year-old.

Aside from the harrowing homicides, much of the story also centres on the push-and-pull, cat-and-mouse game between the upright Kuo and Noh, who takes pleasure in taunting the authorities.

When asked if the mind games the killer plays on Kuo tired him out, Wu says what was more exhausting was making sure he did not trip up over the multiple threads of the story.

He explains: “All the murder cases are linked very tightly to one another, but we didn’t film all our scenes in order, so the actors had to be very alert while shooting. We had to be clear about things like, what are the clues we know at this point in the story, what is going to happen, what are the things we aren’t supposed to know yet?”

In the series, Noh’s crimes fascinate the public and become a media circus that the competitive Taiwan news industry of the 1990s sensationalises.

This is not unlike real-life true-crime stories, such as those of Jack The Ripper, the Zodiac Killer and the Boston Strangler, which have not only intrigued the public for decades, but also inspired many film and television adaptations.

On the appeal of such violent and dark tales, Ko says: “I think these stories allow audiences to see both the bright and dark sides of humanity. And there are many themes that can be explored through these murders – like how the media climate of the time is, how victims’ families cope with the aftermath.”

Hsia (Danger Zone, 2021), 31, who plays Ko’s younger brother and a cameraman at a TV station who gets entangled in the crimes, adds: “These stories appeal to me because I want to know what these perpetrators are thinking. It satisfies my curiosity to find out where the root of such evil lies.”

Copycat Killer premieres on Netflix on Friday.