Blending forbidden love and chilling revenge, “Had I Not Seen The Sun” explores irreversible human darkness, where dreams and reality collide.
From the award-winning creators behind “Someday or One Day,” Netflix’s new dark mystery romance series premieres in two parts — with part 1 debuting on November 13 and part 2 on December 11.
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Chiang Chi-cheng and Golden Bell winner Chien Chi-feng, “Had I Not Seen The Sun” stars Tseng Jing-hua, Moon Lee, Lyan Chen, Chiang Chi, Umin Boya, Yao Chun-yao, and Shih Chih-tian.
The story follows 25-year-old Li Jen-yao (Tseng Jing-hua), who shocks the nation when he confesses to being the Rainstorm Killer, responsible for the brutal deaths of his father and several high school classmates. While he recounts the grisly details of his crimes, his motives remain a mystery.
In prison, Jen-yao agrees to a single interview with aspiring documentarian Chou Pin-yu (Chiang Chi). But as their conversations deepen, Pin-yu begins to dream of a mysterious schoolgirl (Moon Lee) and of unsettling encounters with the killer himself.
These visions blur the line between past and present, reality and illusion — drawing Pin-yu into a haunting web of love, guilt, and redemption that connects her fate to Jen-yao’s and to the girl he once loved, Hsiao-tung.
The newly released teaser trailer captures this duality, opening with Hsiao-tung dancing ballet on a rooftop like a fragile butterfly as Jen-yao watches. “Moths are nocturnal. They mistake the light for the moon, circling endlessly, never realizing they are trapped in place,” he says — a reflection of his own tragic pursuit of forbidden light. The teaser ends with his transformation into a cold-blooded murderer, his piercing stare hinting at the darkness beneath his silence.
“’Had I Not Seen The Sun’ is a story built around the theme of ‘irreversibility,’” explained director-writer Chien. “Growing up, we were taught that wounds heal with time. Yet as we get older, we realize that many wounds are irreversible and cannot be healed. Through the series, we hope to encourage everyone to cherish the people and things around them, and to embrace every life that has been hurt.”
Tseng, who plays the Rainstorm Killer, said “the series transitions from campus youth romance into dark suspense.” He added that it portrays “emotional separation, as well as healing and forgiveness.”
The characters, he added, “will take the audience through emotional highs and lows, embodying both light and darkness.”
For her part, Moon Lee shared, “To me, ‘Had I Not Seen The Sun’ represents the warm and gentle sunlight after days of winter rain. This is also a project I’ve long, long been looking forward to, and I can’t wait to bring the audience into the story.”
Producer Ma emphasized the emotional depth of the story: “One of the highlights of ‘Had I Not Seen The Sun’ is the story itself — full of twists and turns, with never a dull moment. Watching the characters’ experiences and transformations naturally draws you in emotionally, making you laugh with their joy and ache with their pain. The cast delivers performances unlike anything they’ve shown before. I believe audiences, like us, will also fall in love with these characters, allowing the story to leave a lasting place in their hearts.”
“Had I Not Seen The Sun” premieres exclusively on Netflix in two parts — on November 13 and December 11.
This article was written with the help of AI, based on a Netflix Newsroom story, and was reviewed and edited by the Hallyu Dorama team.
