# The Skyscraper (摩天大楼)
**The Skyscraper** (*摩天大楼*, also known in English as *A Murderous Affair in Horizon Tower*) is a 16-episode Chinese suspense web drama broadcast on [Tencent Video](https://www.edgepedia.org/tencent-video) in 2020, adapted from the 2015 novel of the same name by the Taiwanese writer Chen Xue (陈雪). The story follows the mysterious death of Zhong Meibao, the young manager of a coffee shop in a luxury high-rise, as two detectives interview the building's residents, each of whom supplies a different and self-serving account of the truth.[1](https://wetv.vip/zh-cn/play/6ygrmch0xcd8rkw-%E6%91%A9%E5%A4%A9%E5%A4%A7%E6%A5%BC?appid=coop_direct_msite_WSA2022Y) • [2](https://m.thepaper.cn/baijiahao_8974498) It was one of the high-profile Chinese suspense dramas of 2020 and drew attention for combining a Rashomon-style mystery with an examination of the pressures women face in contemporary Chinese society.[3](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/0827/c419388-31838627.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Format | 16 episodes, mainland China, 2020; genres listed as suspense, crime, and romance[1](https://wetv.vip/zh-cn/play/6ygrmch0xcd8rkw-%E6%91%A9%E5%A4%A9%E5%A4%A7%E6%A5%BC?appid=coop_direct_msite_WSA2022Y) |
| Directors | Chen Zhengdao, Xu Zhaoren, and Wu Zhongtian[4](https://ycpai.ycwb.com/ycppad/content/2020-09/02/content_1118280.html) |
| Main cast | Guo Tao as detective Zhong Jingguo, Yang Zishan as detective Yang Ruisen, Yang Ying (Angelababy) as the victim Zhong Meibao[4](https://ycpai.ycwb.com/ycppad/content/2020-09/02/content_1118280.html) • [5](https://www.tvmao.com/drama/YW4pY2Fg) |
| Source | Chen Xue's 2015 novel, set in Shuanghe, New Taipei City[2](https://m.thepaper.cn/baijiahao_8974498) |
| Premiere | 19 August 2020 on Tencent Video[6](https://tech.sina.com.cn/roll/2020-09-01/doc-iivhuipp1925631.shtml) |
| Douban score | 8.0 on release, rising to 8.2, then settling at 8.1 after the finale[6](https://tech.sina.com.cn/roll/2020-09-01/doc-iivhuipp1925631.shtml) • [7](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_9013328) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and structure
The drama opens with the death of Zhong Meibao in her apartment after the building suffers a blackout; the room shows no signs of forced entry, and the forensic finding is death from carbon monoxide poisoning after head trauma.[8](https://ent.sina.com.cn/v/m/2020-08-27/doc-iivhvpwy3336326.shtml) The suspects, all residents of the tower, include the property manager, a real estate agent, a middle-class architect, a novelist, and office workers, and the investigation exposes the good and evil within one building as a portrait of urban life.[1](https://wetv.vip/zh-cn/play/6ygrmch0xcd8rkw-%E6%91%A9%E5%A4%A9%E5%A4%A7%E6%A5%BC?appid=coop_direct_msite_WSA2022Y)
**Narrative structure.** The series adopts a Rashomon-style, unit-based structure in which every person connected to the death tells their own story, so that each suspect's image is repeatedly broken down and rebuilt as the truth is peeled back.[3](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/0827/c419388-31838627.html) *People's Daily* noted that viewers sift the truth from the differing accounts of eight people involved in the case, and that the building itself serves as a stage for the many faces of urban society.[9](https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbwap/html/2020-09/18/nw.D110000renmrb_20200918_5-20.htm) One reviewer described the form as a two-episodes-per-suspect unit drama, with shifting viewpoints forming a branching maze around the case.[10](https://static.nfnews.com/content/202008/22/c3933499.html) A later academic treatment described the structure as borrowing the narrative models of *Citizen Kane* and *Rashomon*, with ten key figures introduced within the first four minutes.[11](https://www.fx361.com/page/2022/0314/10136103.shtml)
## The novel and the adaptation
Chen Xue published the novel in 2015, with the story set in Shuanghe, New Taipei City, an area she had lived in. She has said the inspiration came in 2003, when she moved into a high-rise community full of rented studio apartments and felt it resembled a miniature of the city.[2](https://m.thepaper.cn/baijiahao_8974498) In interviews she described the book as less a detective novel than a study of how one person's unnatural death connects and changes everyone around her, and as her own move from family scandal and personal history toward thinking about the social roots of evil.[12](https://news.sina.cn/gn/2020-08-26/detail-iivhuipp0808186.d.html)
The adaptation changed the book considerably. The novel divides the story into four parts and removed the police investigators from the finished draft; the web drama instead added two detectives, Zhong Jingguo (Guo Tao), an experienced but seemingly careless captain, and Yang Ruisen (Yang Zishan), a junior officer whose questioning drives the plot, and condensed the story into 16 episodes at a faster pace.[2](https://m.thepaper.cn/baijiahao_8974498) The novel's open, literary ending was replaced with an explicit identification of the killer; Chen Xue said before filming began that she was happy for the production team to change it, and later said she liked the drama's ending as warm and moving.[13](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_9007184) • [12](https://news.sina.cn/gn/2020-08-26/detail-iivhuipp0808186.d.html) Two episodes, 6 and 7, use anime sequences to depict the novelist Wu Mingyue's work and Zhong Meibao's childhood abuse.[14](https://dianyingblog.wordpress.com/2020/11/02/a-murderous-affair-in-horizon-tower-%E6%91%A9%E5%A4%A9%E5%A4%A7%E6%A5%BC-2020/)
## Themes and reception
Beyond the mystery, the drama dwells on harms women encounter in family, workplace, and society. Reviewers singled out the detective captain's instant assumption that a beautiful woman's death must be a crime of passion, the slut-shaming the victim receives after her death, the architect's wife whose talented father supports only her husband's career, and the mother Zhong Jie, who endures repeated domestic violence.[15](https://www.jiemian.com/article/4914700.html) • [3](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/0827/c419388-31838627.html) The core of the mystery touches child sexual abuse, domestic violence, and psychological manipulation, and *Qilu Evening News* reported that viewers described the show as leaving a suffocating, depressive feeling rather than conventional entertainment.[8](https://ent.sina.com.cn/v/m/2020-08-27/doc-iivhvpwy3336326.shtml) The drama's resolution, as Chen Xue framed it, is not gender antagonism but mutual rescue among women, in pairs such as Wu Mingyue and Zhong Meibao.[15](https://www.jiemian.com/article/4914700.html) The director Chen Zhengdao summarized the intent by saying the show is not about who killed Zhong Meibao, but that there should be no next Zhong Meibao in the world.[2](https://m.thepaper.cn/baijiahao_8974498)
**Ratings and comparisons.** The Douban score rose from 8.0 at release to 8.2, unusual among Chinese dramas that typically decline, and about 80 percent of raters gave four stars or more; the Zhihu score held at 8.6.[6](https://tech.sina.com.cn/roll/2020-09-01/doc-iivhuipp1925631.shtml) After the finale's chain of reversals drew criticism for plot holes, the score eased to 8.1, with nearly 100,000 users having rated it by early September.[7](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_9013328) It outperformed the same season's rival suspense dramas *Very Perilous* (豆瓣 6.1) and *White Moonlight* (6.7) on Douban, though its heat lagged behind its ratings: by the finale, 139,000 users had marked it as watched against 756,000 for the summer's hit *The Bad Kids*.[6](https://tech.sina.com.cn/roll/2020-09-01/doc-iivhuipp1925631.shtml) • [16](https://www.jiemian.com/article/4965272.html) *People's Daily* praised its narrative craft and social concerns while finding the final revelation hard to sustain logically.[9](https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbwap/html/2020-09/18/nw.D110000renmrb_20200918_5-20.htm) On 1 September 2020 the actress [Zhang Ziyi](https://www.edgepedia.org/zhang-ziyi) posted that the storytelling method was distinctive and clear despite multiple threads, and that Angelababy's performance as Meibao was sincere and natural, drawing a skeptical reaction from some viewers but helping drive the drama's hot searches.[4](https://ycpai.ycwb.com/ycppad/content/2020-09/02/content_1118280.html) • [16](https://www.jiemian.com/article/4965272.html)
The drama is also counted as a leading work of the "she suspense" (她悬疑) subgenre, in which Chinese streaming platforms combined mystery with women-centered stories; a 2022 academic study credited it with charting a distinctive path for the type through its narrative structure, character design, and audiovisual language.[11](https://www.fx361.com/page/2022/0314/10136103.shtml) A 2020 industry report named it the year's highest-rated female suspense drama and Tencent's standout suspense title.[17](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_10562330)
## References
1. [摩天大楼 (drama page), WeTV](https://wetv.vip/zh-cn/play/6ygrmch0xcd8rkw-%E6%91%A9%E5%A4%A9%E5%A4%A7%E6%A5%BC?appid=coop_direct_msite_WSA2022Y)
2. [《摩天大楼》原作者陈雪：网剧改编很切合当代社会情境, 澎湃新闻·湃客 (2020-09-01)](https://m.thepaper.cn/baijiahao_8974498)
3. [《摩天大楼》：精彩反转外，更为女性发声, 文汇报 via 中国作家网 (2020-08-27)](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/0827/c419388-31838627.html)
4. [《摩天大楼》赢了口碑，章子怡点赞Angelababy演技, 羊城派 (2020-09-02)](https://ycpai.ycwb.com/ycppad/content/2020-09/02/content_1118280.html)
5. [摩天大楼剧情介绍, 电视猫](https://www.tvmao.com/drama/YW4pY2Fg)
6. [《摩天大楼》为何赢了口碑却输了人气？, 界面新闻 via 新浪 (2020-09-01)](https://tech.sina.com.cn/roll/2020-09-01/doc-iivhuipp1925631.shtml)
7. [《摩天大楼》不火怎么了？, 澎湃新闻·湃客 (2020-09-04)](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_9013328)
8. [《摩天大楼》获非常规评价 悬疑剧竟拍出"致郁感", 齐鲁晚报 via 新浪娱乐 (2020-08-27)](https://ent.sina.com.cn/v/m/2020-08-27/doc-iivhvpwy3336326.shtml)
9. [现实关怀 扣人心弦（看台人语）, 人民日报 (2020-09-18)](https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbwap/html/2020-09/18/nw.D110000renmrb_20200918_5-20.htm)
10. [命案开局，结尾泪崩，这国剧8分值得, 南方+ (2020-08-22)](https://static.nfnews.com/content/202008/22/c3933499.html)
11. [论"她悬疑"网络剧《摩天大楼》的创新表达, 宋婷, 《艺术广角》2022年第1期, 参考网 (2022-03-14)](https://www.fx361.com/page/2022/0314/10136103.shtml)
12. [专访｜《摩天大楼》陈雪：无论贫富，我们都逃不开原生家庭的影响, 新京报 via 新浪 (2020-08-26)](https://news.sina.cn/gn/2020-08-26/detail-iivhuipp0808186.d.html)
13. [《摩天大楼》诞生记：女性悬疑背后，视频的多重创新, 澎湃新闻·湃客 (2020-09)](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_9007184)
14. [A Murderous Affair in Horizon Tower [摩天大楼] (2020), dianyingblog (2020-11-02)](https://dianyingblog.wordpress.com/2020/11/02/a-murderous-affair-in-horizon-tower-%E6%91%A9%E5%A4%A9%E5%A4%A7%E6%A5%BC-2020/)
15. [《摩天大楼》原著作者陈雪:网剧改编很切合当代社会情境, 界面新闻·JMedia (2020-09-01)](https://www.jiemian.com/article/4914700.html)
16. [《摩天大楼》收官，AB贡献多个热搜，但"她悬疑"离大爆还差在哪？, 界面新闻·JMedia (2020-09-10)](https://www.jiemian.com/article/4965272.html)
17. [《2020年悬疑剧报告》预告版首发, 澎湃新闻·湃客 (2020)](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_10562330)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › East Asian web and streaming serials › Titles My to So*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license