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Catch me if you can
Plot OutlineThe story takes place during the 1940s Second Sino-Japanese war, when the Japanese had already captured several cities in China and the China Communist Party (CCP) had to wage a campaign of sabotage and guerrilla warfare to counteract the expansion of Japanese influence in its territory.
The lead protagonist Chen Jiaping (played by Elvis Han) is an undercover agent serving the CCP, who goes by the codename of "Mei Hua Si". Days before his marriage registration to his girlfriend Zuo Shuang Tao aka GuoGuo (played by Guan Xiao Tong), Jiaping abruptly leaves behind GuoGuo in Wuhan for Shanghai to embark on his first assignment mission from the CCP. He plants himself as a manager within the Tai He trading company, a fake shell company hiding the intelligence station of the Japanese Garrison Headquarters in Shanghai.
Years later, he accidentally reunites into his ex-fiance at a train station whilst on a mission to track a CCP traitor's whereabouts. Little does Jiaping does not know that GuoGuo is also a covert operative of the Kuomintang military intelligence with the code name "Red Heart Five" and that she was there to assassinate Mr Yamashita, a Japanese opium drug trafficker, after receiving intel about his train arrival time.
The real Mr Yamashita was shrewd enough to conceal himself and manages escapes the gun shots fired by GuoGuo and her team. As GuoGuo tries to later flee from the scene, she gets tailed by Zhao An, a pro-Japanese employee at the Tai He trading company, who suspects that she is an anti-Japanese spy hired to plan Mr Yamashita's assassination. Zhao An also summons Jiaping for interrogation, as he finds his sudden appearance around the train station at the time of the assassination attempt highly suspicious. Jiaping quickly makes up an excuse to say he was there to pick up GuoGuo, his long-distance girlfriend who was arriving from Wuhan and GuoGuo tacitly plays along with Jiaping's narrative.
The extensive interrogation efforts by Zhao An fail to uncover any inconsistencies between Jiaping and GuoGuo's testimonies, so they are discharged from further questioning. Zhao An remains highly skeptical about their identities and continues to stalk and scrutinise them closely behind the scenes.
To prevent their own agendas and real undercover mission from being exposed, Jiaping and Zuo Shuang Tao realise they have little choice but to continue their ruse as a romantic couple. The rest of the drama follows Jiaping and Zuo Shuang Tao's never-ending attempts to conceal their identities from others and hoodwink their detractors by keeping up a continuous act of couple pretense, whilst gathering intel against the Japanese army to secretly taking down mercenary traitors one by one without blowing their own cover.
The Romance
Viewers who expect some instant sizzle between the Leads in this drama should be prepared to be disappointed. The romance in this drama is a slow buildup, largely driven by the self-imposed restraints of the male and female protagonists, who stoically deny themselves of any romance, for the sake of pursuing the greater good. Just like a poker game, "Mei Hua 4" and "Hearts of 5" keep each other guessing as to whether their affections for each other are actually real or just a mutually agreed staged pact. But eventually, the shrewd and patient hunk manages to woo over his frosty strong-willed princess, rekindle her affections for him and align her ideologies to his side.
Summary
Several scenes of how our Spy couple managed to foil their enemies schemes and cover up their tracks were so ridiculous that it left me laughing in stitches. If you can get past the veiled politics behind the historical portrayal of the Japanese, this drama is an action-packed, hilarious, cat-and-mouse hunt to watch.
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My life flew by as I watched this Drama
The storyline of this period costume drama revolves around the budding romance between Xiaoman (played by Liang Jie) and XiaoQian (played by Joseph Zeng) who overcome multiple hurdles, personalities, misunderstandings and socio-economic inequalities to finally get together and have a happy ending.Disappointingly, the first 30 episodes of this drama focuses so much on the ill-conceived misunderstandings between the main Male and Female Protagonist characters, so much that the side character's stories just bored and faded into the background for me.
Acting wise, Joseph Zeng Shunxi nails the role of a really bad-tempered, spoilt and immature Prince who only becomes more selfless and shrewd towards the tail end of the drama when the inner palace's corruption conspiracy was being uncovered and exposed. I wish the scriptwriters spent more time developing the maturity of his character instead of only allowing his "maturity spurt" to take place in the last 3 episodes. I've watched Joseph act in Heavenly Sword Dragon Sabre (2019) and Hi Venus (2022) and I think that he is a really talented, versatile and expressive actor. So it's a real pity that the script limits his acting ability to a few emotionally-heavy scenes in this drama.
Liang Jie plays a Female Protagonist that too naive whiny and petty for my liking. By the end of the story, I am unconvinced that her character actually progresses in her maturity, despite her attaining her scholastic dreams of becoming a teacher at a distinguished academic institution while marrying the Commandery Prince in shining armour. This isn't Liang Jie's fault (I liked her in Hi Venus, where she plays a much more mature character) but just really poor script-writing that fails to bring the Female Protagonist character to maturity as they much as they did with the Male Protagonist. Also, I find it unrealistic that her character can get away with being blatantly rude to the Imperial aristocrats of those times. Eg yelling back at the Queen Consort, Slapping the Commandery Prince, Arguing with a Court official etc with a (scripted) lack of personal remorse and reflection.
I was left very unsatisfied with the main character's development and skipped through many scenes where I felt were just stuffed in there to lengthen the drama duration. Wish I had saved my time watching better dramas!
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When Letting it go, becomes the hardest and most beautiful thing to do
It's been a while since I've come across a complex character as shrewd and layered as Mei Chang Su in Nirvana in Fire, and an actor like Hu Ge who can pull off such a portrayal convincingly well. So when I read the synopsis of Mysterious Lotus Casebook, about how a disillusioned man, Li Xiang Yi, abandons his identity, relationships and past glory in order to discover the truth about the past, my curiosity was piqued and before I knew it, I binged through 40 episodes of this period costume investigative mystery drama.The drama is helmed by 3 male characters who come from significantly different backgrounds. Li Xiang Yi, the lead protagonist of the story, is a stray orphan with missing parents. He and his senior, Shan Gudao, another orphan, are picked up by a kind couple, who take them in and train them up in martial arts. Because of his gifted skills, Li Xiang Yi becomes crowned as Sigu sect's visionary leader despite his young age. His peer rival is Di Fei Sheng, a cold, apathetic leader of another pugilistic sect, the Jinyuan Alliance. Fang Duobing/Xiaobao, a Government official's adopted son, is born physically weak, frail and handicapped. He grows up within the sheltered and restricted confines of a wealthy powerful family that is known for manufacturing sophisticated weaponry and contraptions.
Di Fei Sheng grows up as an abandoned child enslaved by a cruel bandit who grooms slaves as personal assassins. He eventually becomes the head honcho of the Jinyuan Alliance, a rival pugilistic sect to the Sigu sect, known more for their ruthless skulduggery more than their charitable merits. Di Fei Sheng's sole aspiration in life is to is dethrone Li Xiang yi's number 1 martial arts status so that he can be recognised as the most skilled martial artist on the jianghu. Fang Duobing/Xiaobao, on the other hand, harbours his own aspirations of breaking into the pugilistic world and becoming recognised as a credible detective at the Bai Chuan Yuan agency. He has absolutely no interest in being caged into a moulded life of politics and arranged marriage, but instead has a fanatical obsession about Li Xiang Yi, his childhood idol, so much that he self-declares Li Xiang Yi to be his Shifu and himself to be Li Xiang Yi disciple.
The story starts with Li Xiang Yi fighting Di Fei Sheng out in the middle of a stormy sea, thinking he was the culprit behind the death and disappearance of his senior in the Sigu Sect, Shan Gudao. Li Xiangyi is heavily poisoned and ends up being defeated by Di Fei Sheng during this battle. His body is swept up along the sea currents and washed away on a faraway shore. His body is not found and his death is presumed to explain his 10 year disappearance.
10 years later, Li Xiang yi re-emerges as Li Lian Hua. Using this new name and persona, Li Lian Hua makes his living as a quack doctor capable of "curing" people from disease and death while he roams around freely with a pet dog in his triple-storeyed mobile caravan, growing and cooking his own vegetables. On the surface, he pretends to be a carefree hippie living in some kind of Howl's moving castle, occupied with the simple sustainable farm-to-table life. Under this cover, he lies low to stealthily gather clues about his senior's death while deliberately keeping a strategic distance from his Sigu sect members and girlfriend lover, all remnants of his former glory and past. He wants no interference during his own investigation because he is absolutely focused on finding his missing senior's remains and hellbent on tracking down the murderer behind his senior's death.
The trio's paths converge when Fang Duobing latches onto Li Lianhua to borrow his brain to help him crack unexplainable murder mystery cases happening across the city and Di Fei sheng realises that Li Xiangyi is actually Li Lian Hua. Each of the guys start out with their own motives and unexpectedly, form a bromance over their shared experiences of cracking several murder mystery cases as a team.
Each of the guys also start out in the dark, being woefully ignorant about different things. Fang Duobing has no idea that he is actually an adopted son and that Li Lian Hua is actually his childhood idol Li Xiang Yi in disguise. Li Xiang Yi has no idea who actually poisoned him and does not realise his senior Shan Gudao is actually still alive. Di Fei Sheng has no idea that the only reason why he defeated Li Xiang Yi out at sea was because Li Xiang Yi was already heavily poisoned before their epic showdown and his own Jinyuan alliance key members had already bought over by Shan Gudao. At the end of the story, they each come to their own revelation about the truths surrounding their biological lineage and backstory. More beautifully, each of the 3 male characters grow to accept each other as loyal comrades and trusted partners, as they each struggle to reconcile with the uncomfortable truths from their past and look past each others differences and prejudices.
This drama was highly enjoyable to watch as it has unexpectedly comedic moments whenever a misunderstanding arose between the 3 male leads. But most importantly, the script was coherent and sufficient clues were dropped during the earlier murder mysteries to help the viewers connect the dots as the overarching conspiracy surrounding Shan Gudao's disappearance following his death unfolds towards the end of the drama.
Sizzling romance and couple chemistry does not form the main appeal of this drama, which is quite refreshing for a change. Quite the contrary, we see plenty of unrequited romance from the 3 male leads. Li Xiangyi smothers the romantic longings of his former longtime girlfriend and his frenzy of girl fans in waiting, Fang Duo bing happily breaks off an engagement with a palace princess, Di Fei Sheng shirks off and eventually finishes off a his crazy sadistic female subordinate. The 3 main lead characters seem more interested in their accomplishing their own agendas and protecting the loyalty around their bromance. Thankfully, there are no tropey love triangles or wallflowers to defocus the drama from it's main storyline.
Li Xiang Yi/Li Lian Hua has become one of my favourite fictional characters amongst the Chinese costume period dramas because what truIy sets him apart from other wuxia heroes is his ability to deny himself of his ego, past grudges, ambitions and personal desires for the sake of others and let it all go to face a future full of unknowns. I feel like the show has ended in an incomplete way and I really hope there will be a season 2 in the making!
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China's Stealth Surveillance Security Forces: Silently Tracking & Watching you
THE PLOTMiao Fei (brilliantly portrayed by Dai Si), stars as the eldest daughter of Miao Huan Yang, a successful wealthy businessman who founded Ding Hua, a privately owned company that deals with valuable mineral ore using its proprietary artificial synthesis technology. Life looks plush and rosy for the her until she is confronted with news of her fiance's sudden suicide as well as her father's remand by the China National Security Agency for suspected trade manipulation activities. With all this sudden chaos and disruption, Miao Fei plunges into grief and becomes an unwillingly pawn for an unnamed Commercial Spy, who threatens to expose her father's past illicit deeds to the police. At the cusp of leaking the entire core data behind her Father's company's proprietary artificial synthesis technology to this Spy, Miao Fei decides to cooperate with the China National Security Special Ops team to induce the main mastermind behind a shady Criminal Organisation to come out of the dark. Under the operative "Storm Eye", the China National Security Ops team and Miao Fei eventually work together to piece the missing clues behind the bigger conspiracy linking her fiance's murder, Ding Hua's data theft and related illegal ore smuggling activities.
THE PROTAGONISTS
The China National Security Special Ops team are portrayed as the main beacon of hope and justice in this story. All security agents are trained to work silently in the background and surprise their unsuspecting targets, because their sophisticated surveillance monitoring system is able track any individual's location and identity from their gait and bug every single phone conversation where there is a signal. The main leads are An Jing (played by Yang Mi) and Ma Shang (played by Zhang Bin bin). The former ex-lovers are uncannily reunited in this "Storm Eye" operative and are forced to work together in order to penetrate the mystery enshrouding Dinghua's proprietary data leaks.
THE BADDIES (SPOILER ALERT)
The shady characters whom the viewers are made to suspect, are not the real criminals. Instead, they are portrayed as imperfect humans who are honest enough with themselves to admit that they will behave in less-than-honorable ways to pursue quick advantages and financial gains.
"Sleeper", the main mastermind behind the information theft of Dinghua's proprietary technology and murder of Miao Fei's fiance, appears to operate independently on his own terms outside the Underground Organisation. As his code name implies, he lies "sleeping" throughout most of the drama because he is very successful at manipulating people around him, while quietly advancing towards his goal: to access the coveted trade secrets of Dingua's proprietary artificial synthesis technology. I find Lawrence Wang's portrayal of this sinister psychopath convincing.
"Bat", is the commercial gun-for-hire. A mysterious man few words and of little-known origins, that "Bat" weaves in and out of the scenes to strike when he is being instructed to by his higher boss of the Underground Organisation, without having a clue who the highest boss is, or what their main agenda entails. As the show's tropey psychopath, he appears scary but is in reality, a wandering blind bat flying aimlessly in the dark. I find this character rather comedic.
ZHANG BB SHINES
I really enjoyed watching Zhang Bin bin's portrayal of Ma Shang as a suave, affable and quick-witted NSM agent and filial caring son. I thought that Yang Mi's portrayal of An Jing as a perfectionist workaholic was on point. As An
Jing's character is scripted to be highly capable NSM agent
who takes her job too seriously to have a social life, Yang Mi's lack of effusiveness or expression for most scenes seem suitable for an Ice-Queen that only shows one emotion (frustration) when things go awry and beyond her plans.
PREDICTABLY STRAIGHTFORWARD ROMANCE
Romance isn't the core focus of the plot. Your heart is more likely to flutter from the anticipation of the NSM nabbing a criminal than a romantic confession from the lead actors. Ma Shang's yearning for his old flame, An Jing, is believable as he appears to constantly take the initiative to woo an ice-queen who is too hung up on her past. There is only one romantic rival for An Jing's romance, but he eventually dies off as most sacrificial martyrs do. An Jing eventually warms up to Ma Shang only when the mysterious circumstances surrounding her late father's car accident and death starts to come to light and they track down the culprit. As with all happy endings, they rekindle their romance as the Storm Eye mission concludes.
CEREBRAL PIECING OF A PUZZLE
There isn't a lot of impressive fighting or chasing scenes in this drama, only a couple of physical brawls seen in the last few episodes. Most of the "action" lies in how the NSM agents piece the missing clues together through countless interrogation interviews, surveillance footage and insider inputs. But the clues are intricately spread out throughout the first few episodes, so the main conspiracy linking the proprietary data theft, planned murders and underground smuggling only make sense after the 10th episode. Overall, this drama gives a fairly realistic portrayal of how criminals and security agents operate and I like there is a happy decent ending.
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The Heart of Medicine takes a System, not a solo Saviour
This was an unexpected sleeper hit for me and I really enjoyed watching this medical drama. The Heart does not feature doctor as a perfectly heroic McDreamy clad in white-coat armour. Instead, we see a portrayal of different personalities in the specialist field of Cardiology, from Doctors to Nurses and Administrative staff, each with their own unique struggles and hidden backstories, working alongside each other in the setting of a distinguished hospital in the city.The White-coat Saviour
Within the Heart Centre, the central protagonist is Dr Zhou XiaoFeng (played convincingly by Mark Chao) , an introverted "block-of-ice" who is driven by a sense of perfectionism in everything he does. Under his superior Dr Bai Ji, XiaoFeng works a deputy director at Dongli hospital and is recognised by his colleagues and Head of Department for his reliability, intelligence and sensibility.
Things shake up for him when his bubbly step-sister, Fang XiaoRan (played by Mao Xiaotong), also a Doctor, gets transferred to the same hospital to work in the Intensive Care Unit. Despite their biological ties, XiaoFeng tried his best to avoid XiaoRan as much as he can, while Xiaoran makes no efforts to hide her bursting admiration and affection for her stepbrother in spite of her stepbrother's persistent coldness towards her. Viewers find out later why XiaoFeng seems to treats everyone in the department kindly except for XiaoRan. In her, he sees a shadow of his mother, Dr Fang ZhuQing (played by veteran Joan Chen), a renowned doctor and twice married divorcee, who abandoned him and his father to pursue her specialist training in Pediatric Cardiology when he was a teenager.
To make his life spicier, XiaoFeng also crosses paths with a new hot-headed colleague who gets transferred from another hospital to join the Dongli Hospital Heart Centre. Lin Yi is an impulsive but talented Cardiothoracic Surgeon. Laughably, the real reason behind Lin Yi's transfer is not due to the lack of capable surgeon at the Heart Centre but rather, upon the insistent recommendation of his mentor, Dr Cao, who feels that while Lin Yi's surgical skills are promisingly undeniable, his lack of social graces and emotional intelligence is hindering his career progression. In this new environment, Lin Yi soon finds himself interacting with more non-surgical colleagues outside his usual comfort zone. His arrogance and poor bedside manners soon grate on the nerves of patients and colleagues around him, including XiaoFeng and XiaoRan and this inevitably (repeatedly) lands him into hot soup and sticky situations.
The "Brains" of the Drama
The highlight of the drama lies in the extensive variety of critical cardiac conditions and common heart diseases (From Aortic Dissection, Cardiac Tamponade, Valve prolapse, Infective Endocarditis, Fetal Cardiac Defects etc) presented through the lens of each patient and their backstory. This script-writers do not dumb things down for the viewers by omitting the technical terminology or bypassing the chronological sequence of events surrounding the presentation of each cardiac disorder. Instead, we get to watch the events preceding the presentation of each condition before they land up in the Heart Centre and watch how each patient survives post-intervention during their ICU admission and long term outpatient care. So for pre-medical students who aspire to become healthcare professionals, this drama is invaluable! I would also argue that for lay people who are not interested in becoming Medical doctors, this drama is equally educational and insightful, because each case shines the spotlight on the various problems and challenges in the healthcare system. How a misdiagnosis can arise from an incomplete disclosure of a patient's past medical history, a doctor's negligence can be influenced by their underlying biases and beliefs, or how an ambitious doctor can push for unnecessary intervention for the sake of gaining more academic credit etc. The Heart shows how the public health service system can be abused and exploited by the plebeian, politician and prosecutor where there are loopholes and opportunities to tempt the weak-hearted. A sophisticated set-up is never spared from the honest mistakes made by well-meaning caregivers and medical professionals either. The greatest insight of this drama for its viewers is the realisation that healthcare is really a byproduct of a vast and complex multi-layered system, limited by inherent human weaknesses and subject to the unseen mysteries and uncontrollable forces of nature. Medicine need not always come in the form of an invasive operation, expensive drug or a walking knight with a stethoscope in shining armour.
The "Heart" of the Drama
In case you think The Heart is all cerebral and devoid of any human emotion, it was the humbling maturation of the key characters that formed the real "pulse" for me. Pardon my use of the medical puns.Through the experiences of dealing with his own patients who fight on to live for their lives, XiaoFeng learns to let go of his past grievances and reconciles with his mother and forges a deeper bond with his stepsister. Lin Yi learns to live beyond his father and brother's deaths and not let the fear of inheriting a genetic and debilitating heart condition dictate his obsessive nature to be in control of every aspect of his life, including the care of his patients. The bright-spirited XiaoRan encounters her fair share of tribulation when she gets accidentally exposed to a HIV patient. The internal cardiologists learn to work alongside the cardiothoracic surgeons as allies instead of viewing them as opposing enemies. The story ends beautifully with the characters choosing to fully live in the present while embracing the unknowns in the future. Lin Yi and XiaoRan decide to give their relationship a chance at romance and Xiaofeng turns down a pay-rise at another prestigious hospital to pursue the next phase of his career to in a rural hospital that is short of experienced cardiologists. You could say, the 3 key doctors decided to go with their hearts in the end.
Summary
Being a healthcare professional myself, I like how this drama strived to show a pretty realistic and layered portrayal of Doctors and allied healthcare workers as flawed humans with noble ideals and aspirations. Not a bingeable-till-2am kind of drama but definitely an unforgettable one.
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How to outwit your frenemies & enemies and bag yourself a Prince
I choose to watch this drama thinking I was in for a lighthearted rom-com between 2 young actors, working as farmers labouring in some rural province of China. Turns out, it wasn't. The title is rather misleading. Although the setting starts off in a farm (a virtual computer game farm, to be precise), the story is really about how the female protagonist, the underdog stacked with the odds against her, schemes her way in order to survive and thrive. Her male lover is an undercover prince, who takes on the identity of a humble farm boy. He becomes her brainy side-kick and partner-in-crime.The Meta-context
Lian Man Er, portrayed as your average girl-next-door person, is invited to beta-test a company's new computer game that is set in a virtual Farm. Once the game begins, she is parachuted into a rural farming village as a player with a mission to earn 1000 taels of money. Every new character in the computer game is always introduced by their names, and every episode concludes with a total tally of money that Lian Man Er has earned or expended in her account.
Obstacle 1: The Heroine's Toxic Family
The bulk of the drama's storyline quickly becomes engulfed by the petty rivalry and silly squabbles between Lian Man Er's family members. The only saints in her family are her long-suffering parents, her cute little 7 year old brother and a mild-mannered weak cousin. The rest of her biological relatives, from her grandfather grandmother, aunties, uncles and cousins are portrayed as lazy, gluttony, dumb passive useless and scheming personalities who go all lengths to frustrate Lian Man Er's morale and diminish her hard-earned money pool to line their own pockets.
Obstacle 2: The Hero's Undercover Takedown
Shen Nuo, the Male lead of the drama, is an undercover spy sent from the palace sent to find evidence against a marquis, who is secretly accumulating wealth to mine weaponry to wage war against the Emperor. He is picked up by Man Er while on the run, and makes use of her hospitality to claim a resident status on her family's farm in order to keep a low profile and gather more intel about the marquis's secret plans. As an "ordinary plebeian" who makes a sudden appearance in town, he faces difficulty establishing links to the illegal business organisation that is funding the marquis's political rebellion.
Obstacle 3: The Couple's neverending obstacles and challenges
In order to earn money to fulfil her game mission, Lian Man Er has to constantly hatch multiple businesses, from selling roasted peanuts, then to selling fresh leafy greens, then to selling grape wine brandy and then setting up a restaurant in the city. Every one of her successful business plans is always met by competitor saboteurs and internal espionage, but Man Er and Shen Nuo have a very winsome way of working together to outwit their rivals and dissenters while achieving their own goals and bottomline. Their like-minded thinking and easy-going partnership is what builds their chemistry, and eventually the bud of romance.
The Romance
Lian Man Er meets her prince-charming in a forest when he is severely injured and on the run. Out of compassion or perhaps his sheer good looks, she takes him (a complete stranger) in and allows him to stay on the farm when he agrees to help her breakaway from an arranged marriage. Shen Nuo continues to hang around the farm to help Man Er & her family, contributing more of his brains than actual hard work. Their budding romance experiences a short disruption when Shen Nuo abruptly disappears from the village without a proper farewell because he is unable to disclose his mission to Man Er and her family. When he abruptly reappears back on the farm and finally reveals his true identity and agenda, Man Er accepts him without much resistance and readily assists him in his undercover mission. The only rival for Man Er's affections is her goody-two-shoes kind-hearted neighbour, Youheng, who silently yearns for Man Er from afar, as most wallflowers are scripted to do. Thankfully, there is no other toxic romantic-rival to make the story defocused from its existing sub-plots.
The (Virtual) Happy Ending
An abducted family member gets rescued by Man Er, the mastermind enabling the illegal ore-mining scheme gets nabbed by Shen Nuo, the villagers get to return to their homeland and Lian Man Er's toxic family members magically morph into angelic souls who forgive each other's past transgressions over a heartwarming family reunion dinner. Shen Nuo disappears to return back to the Capital and returns years later to reunite with Man Er on the farm, promising a more committed relationship in the near distant future. But why not now, we wonder? All seems well.
The Reality
Man Er is brought back to reality once she completes her game mission and is sad to leave behind the virtual farm village world. The last scene is intentionally left ambiguous and open-ended: Will Man Er ever meet her prince-charming Shen Nuo in real life? I am left feeling utterly unsatisfied with such an incomplete ending.
The Bad Parts
The biggest weakness of this drama is it's setting. Most of the story revolves around how a Heroine meets her Hero and how they overcome their struggles and outwit their enemies together. But their relationship and romance (as the Title suggests) has no closure. Instead, we find out from the bonus special episode that Shen Nuo is actually the CEO heading the gaming company. Does this mean that he controlled the game settings all this while he was also a player in the game? What was the whole point of the game challenge? Will they ever continue to build their romance and live happily ever after after the computer game ends? The ending was so ambiguous and unsatisfactory because it did not answer these key questions, it makes the computer game meta-context feel pointless and irrelevant for me. This drama could have just focused on the Farm instead of trying to add a computer meta-context setting to make the story feel different.
The second issue with the drama is that I found many of Lian Man Er's family members scripted to be so unbearably toxic and grew tired of their petty politicking and fast-forwarded many of those scenes. I wish this drama could cut back on the toxic family squabbles and give more screen time to the key plot.
Which is the 3rd issue I have with the drama. The illegal ore mining scheme is stuffed across the last few episodes and the actual mastermind villain behind the supposed political rebellion does not even make an appearance in the show. Instead all we see are his cronies, the leader heading a powerful network of businessmen, deploying their wealth and resources to execute the illegal ore-mining business.
The Good Parts
This drama is a mini-masterclass about politicking your way out of sticky situations, whether it be a toxic family or unfavorable business and living conditions. The female protagonist does this very successfully with her smarts, sass and big sunny smile. Personally for me, Man Er and Shen Nuo's couple chemistry whenever they had level-headed strategic discussions on how to deal with different challenges were the real gems of this show. They would make fantastic MBA professors. So perhaps the title of this drama could have been Slaying it on a farm, albeit a virtual gaming one.
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Stay true to You and You will become your own Hero
A Quick SummaryHeroes is a story told from the perspective of a young, bright-spirited orphan called Wang Xiaoshi (played by Zeng Shunxi), who grows up in the outskirts of the city, under the tutelage of his Shifu. After being endowed with a special Retainment sword by his Shifu, Wang Xiaoshi (WXS) aka "Little Rock" is instructed to venture onto the mainland and personally hand over a locked Jade box to a person named Su Mengzhen (SMZ). WXS has no idea what the locked Jade box contains but he dutifully sets about to accomplish this mission. When Little Rock steps onto the mainland fresh off the boat, the action and adventures begin. He tries to drop codenames to find the whereabouts of Su Mengzhen, but finds himself landing right in the storm of a power conflict between 2 pugilistic sects that dominated the scene - House of Sunset Drizzle (HSD) and Six Half Hall (SHH). Both sects run by their own ideologies and are constant competition with one another for fame, money and power. The defected members of HSD (the sect whom which Su belongs to) tries to steal the Jade box off Wang Xiaoshi, while members from the opposing sect, SHH, are also chasing him for the Jade box. On the run, Wang Xiaoshi meets 2 other characters; a feisty, hot-headed aristocrat called Wen Rou ~WR (played by Yang Chao Yue) and an ambitious and lone fighter called Bai Chou Fei ~ BCF (played by Liu Yu Ning).
With the assistance of Wen Rou's connections, Wang Xiaoshi and Bai Choufei eventually meet the famed Su Mengzhen in the middle of a HSD sect civil war and pass him the Jade box. The Jade Box isn't the centrepiece of the entire drama story, it simply contains a slip of paper naming Su to be the next sect leader of HSD. Su Mengzhen, the shrewd leader, is taken by the courage, chivalry and talents of the two young voluntary messengers and quickly offers them an opportunity to join the HSD sect as and become his sworn brothers. They form the new trio musketeers of the story, and this is where the drama gets a little messy and confusing. Instead of viewing the drama through the lens of the eternal optimist Wang Xiaoshi (as the opening episodes suggested), the viewers get introduced to many characters, each with their own agendas, backstory and transformation arc.
The Overarching Plot
The title of the drama suggests that the Scriptwriter wants the viewers to rethink how they would define someone as a hero as no character in the drama is morally perfect without flaws or blemish. Through the various situations each character experiences through the drama, we can see how each one of them end up wrestling with their ideologies and values of what it means to be true to themselves. Some characters end up in a tragic down spiral (Bai Chou Fei), some reach an endpoint of their game and giving up striving (Su Mengzhen, Lei Sun), some wisen up and mature for the better (Wang Xiaoshi, Wen Rou, Lei Chun) while some make silent sacrifices that remain unknown to many (Di Fei Sheng, Zhu Xiaoyao).
Some Weaknesses in the Storyline of the Plot
There are several subplots mostly in the script which should not have been omitted so that the audience isn't left feeling underwhelmed and short-changed enough to fill the gaps with their own imagination. Examples include the final takedown of evildoer Fan Yingkan by silent hero Di Feijing, the backstory of how Wang Xiao shi's famous father actually died, the much needed maturity for Wen Rou to grow into in order to become a worthy life partner for the main protagonist Wang Xiaoshi other than just being a socially convenient connection to Su Mengzhen etc
Also, I felt that the filmmakers should have focused more scenes either on the spontaneous light-hearted friendship of WXS, BCF and WR or sworn brotherhood between the 3 young leaders of HSD- SMZ, WXS and BCF. The friendship and brotherhood felt too shallow as it was formed too quickly over too few scenes for my liking.
My 2 Cents
Overall, I did enjoy watching this drama for its action sequences, cinematography and good looking acting talents. But I do feel that despite the heavy investment in the exquisite costumes, scenic locations, set design and martial arts choreography, this drama could have been done much better. I do hope that the producers can consider making a sequel to this Wuxia drama as there is potential for some of the characters to develop their own unique story arcs.
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Wasted Talent
I decided to drop this drama after watching the 6th episode as I was bored out of my mind. Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of Wu Lei having watched his previous dramas in Nirvana in Fire, The Long Ballad, Nothing But you and Love like the Galaxy, but even my fondness for him was not enough to sustain my interest in such a flat storyline.What kept me going past the 1st episode was my anticipation and hope that the story would pick up and offer something more complex and interesting, but sadly what I see so far is more scenes of OCD-stalkerish Lin Yiyang with major hangups and a bruised ego finding solace in the warmth of a shy, impressionable, sheltered Yin Guo. The only thing that seems to progress is their deepening level of physical intimacy, from cold-staring, knee-bumping, head-stroking, hugging, full on kissing etc. The other characters appear rather insignificant because most of the screen and script time is taken up mostly by the relationship between these 2 characters. I know it's primarily meant to be a sweet romance drama, but honestly I was hoping for something more sophisticated than regular plain vanilla. After all, it's Wu Lei!
Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels disappointed with this drama so far..
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