The Guardian

'Cute but cruel': the crime drama hailed a Chinese TV milestone

Hidden Corner has rapidly become one of the country’s most discussed and watched shows
Hidden Corner, based on the novel Bad Kids, follows three children in the aftermath of witnessing a murder in a delapidated coastal town in Guangdong province. Photograph: iQiyi

In the hit Chinese web series, Hidden Corner, a children’s song presages the show’s most violent moments.

“Under the blue, blue skies, in the silver river is a small white boat,” three young children sing tremulously, looking into a camera propped up on the mountainside where they have just hiked on a clear summer day. In the background, a man is taking a photo of his elderly in-laws posed against bright green foliage. He adjusts their legs and hands, pauses and then pushes them

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