Si Teng (2021)

A Fresh Breath of Air (no more c-drama cliches)

Rattan introduces not only a new type of genre (science fiction/fantasy) but completely new character dynamics. We truly have a strong female lead here, someone whose backstory and motive drives the whole plot. In fact, the male lead is more a side character who simply accompanies her on her journey after her revival. Some people might be put off by the foreignness of the drama, the fact that there are no old tropes, and I implore those people to spend a couple more episodes watching before coming to a conclusion. At least make it to the halfway point before giving a critical rating.

For those who are confused about what the plot is, or feel there is no plot, the drama is also of the mystery genre. Over half of the 30-episodes are focused around discovering who the female lead is and why she does what she does. When the audience finally does discover all the information, the second half of the drama leads the audience to a much faster paced plot where Si Teng meets her goal and deals with the obstacles (or rather people) that arise as well as her budding feelings for Qin Fang.

Even if you're not here for the mystery plot, there's still much to savor from the drama: the beautiful scenery, Si Teng's stunning wardrobe, and the adorable slow-burn romance. A lot of the scenery is very uncommon in Chinese dramas, where instead of the old traditional architecture or modern skyscrapers, they filmed in Xinjiang and remote places like Shangri-la City.

ACTING/PRODUCTION:

The main actors, Jing Tian (role Si Teng), Zhang Binbin (role Qin Fang) and Zhang Yichi (role Yan Furui) are all great at their craft and the interactions all feel very natural. Even the child actors for Wa Fang and young Si Teng act very well. If there are complaints about acting from second leads, I do want to remind that the production team for Rattan doesn't have the extensive budget of other dramas like Eternal Love or Ashes of Love, so please be more lenient. In fact, Bai Jin is even acted by the director himself. Even so, the team went through a lot to get good scenes i.e. for the first scene when Qin Fang revives Si Teng, they filmed at a very high altitude, where it's very cold and they had to bring oxygen tanks.

Not to mention, the two leads have great chemistry. Their off-screen interactions are absolutely adorable. When they first appeared in public together to promote the drama, they looked so happy together that the search Jing Tian and Zhang Binbin acting like newly-wed couple was one of the top 5 searches on Weibo that week. There's also a Happy Camp episode coming out soon if you want to see more of them together!

Interestingly, Rattan was a surprise drama, no one expecting the popularity that it currently has. On Douban (the Goodreads of Chinese cinematography), not only does it have a 7.8 rating, it boasts 140k reviewers (most dramas have around 60k and a 6.5 rating; anything over 7.5 is extremely impressive and rare). All of these are testimonies to the greatness Rattan is.

CONS:

Personally, the main issue I have is that the plot can be very confusing, which knocked down the overall rating from 10 stars to 9. The drama is based off of a novel written by Wei Yu and so sometimes knowledge on text doesn't translate well visually without narration. Especially near the end, where it picks up pace, it can get very confusing what is happening and why it has occurred. I feel like more time could've been taken to go over these scenes and the backstory. There are also some unanswered questions like: did Qin Fang ever realize who Shan Zhigang was? Why does Bai Jin hide the fact that he has powers and what exactly is even his role? etc. I didn't mind as much since I could get the general gist, but I can understand how that may be frustrating to others. The drama may have benefited from extra episodes or cutting out whole sections of plot, instead of following the novel religiously (like the last 2 episodes were kinda unnecessary and made me much more confused).

ENDING:

Finally, about the ending, some of you are worried about it having a sad ending. The director actually filmed two endings. The one in episode 30 is more "sad", i.e. Qin Fang and Si Teng don't end up together in the traditional sense (I still don't think its sad though, it has a nice cause and effect circular nature to it), but there's also a special, which provides another ending, which people have enjoyed much more, where Qin Fang and Si Teng do end up together, so no need to have qualms about that if you don't like tragedy.

CONCLUSION:

WATCH THE DRAMA. Whether or not it ends up following your preferences, I believe the freshness of the plot/setting/characters are all worth a try.

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