Good performance from Deng Lun

I really think Deng Lun is a good actor and it's great to see him in something that isn't a traditional costume drama. I don't have a lot of familiarity with Chinese history and had to look up the Red Flag Canal and Wu Zutai, both of whom are interesting figures to me as someone unfamiliar with the case. Wu Zutai is presented as a martyr - for the purposes of this drama he's shown as a man ready to get his hands dirty, who places the good of the worker over the good of himself and those are admirable qualities but (and spoiler here for a historical event 60+ years ago) he did die in the course of a fairly bloody infrastructure project that ultimately cost 80 or so additional lives. He seems an odd choice for a depiction of Chinese greatness. Production wise this carries some of the same standard issues as the rest of the series that I've seen so far -- that sort of sepia overtone, very declarative acting and a lacking of context that cannot be solved in under 30 minutes of runtime. If you're interested in Deng Lun specifically, I think this is a solid representation of his work.

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