Under the Skin is a crime drama that revolves around two main characters Shen Yi (Tan Jian Ci) and Du Cheng (Jin Shi Jia) and how they solve cases together. Shen Yi was an art professor but he joins Criminal investigation Detachment of Beijiang as a forensic artist and helps them with his great observation skills and his professional art skills. Captain Du Cheng bears a grudge against Shen Yi as he once drew a portrait for his undercover friend who later died.

The balanced tension between these two where one carries guilt and the other carries a past grudge was visible right from the beginning but since this combo was tied together by circumstances it was gonna be fun watching how the latter story progresses. Their bond that develops over time and the trust that comes along as they solve mysteries together is the precious part.

Favorite lines from the drama »»»
—"Humans give intriguing expressions when they're alive but once they're dead, their face becomes so dull"
—"Dead men are expressive too. Sometimes it's even reliable than a living person"

A major highlight of the drama are "portraits". If not for this drama, I could've never expected art is this deep and they can actually recover faces with such less hints. I appreciate the amount of art and portraits in this drama. It made things more realistic and reasonable. It's about the details that makes this drama more interesting.

This has a total of 10 cases including 9 cases of the present and 1 case from past 7 years ago which are intriguing, unpredictable and unique. The best part is that their stories will not disappoint you at all.

Acting — Tan Jianci as the invincible portraitist is the perfect actor for this role. His minute expressions everytime he is drawing or sketching is just flawless. The way he acts as if he is observing things looks so real and he is like totally into his character. Jin Shijia is also good acting as the cool leader of the team. Even all those guest actors who acted only for 2-3 episodes when their case was going on were so on point. I was touched by some of their stories and no doubt their acting played an important part.

Okay so overall, I enjoyed the drama totally. I was looking forward to the revelation of all those cases and I liked the stories in them. The acting is perfect and I recommend this thriller mystery drama that has little sprinkles of bromance along.