Top notch political commentary
It's really hard to rate this.
As a drama, it drags a bit and sometimes the story is a little stilted and messy, and the teacher-student romance is uncomfortable but overall it's still decent.
As a piece of political commentary, however, it's fantastic. I think where this drama really shines is in how it weaves together the supernatural into that political commentary. And this is really the lens through which you should watch the drama. The romance itself is not the focus. Rather, the romance is simply an outcome of actions taken by characters who start to feel like pawns trapped in the heaviness of their cultural backdrop. Even the characters do not really feel like full characters, but rather like outcomes of the country's politics.
I felt like I'd never watched a show that was so intelligent and nuanced about its political statements (and I felt this about the movie as well, which I enjoyed less). It's simultaneously very explicit yet a lot of things are unsaid — and it manages to make a really powerful statement. I genuinely think that this is a drama you should watch only AFTER you do some reading on Taiwan's period of White Terror because it will make the characters' motivations make so much more sense.
As a drama, it drags a bit and sometimes the story is a little stilted and messy, and the teacher-student romance is uncomfortable but overall it's still decent.
As a piece of political commentary, however, it's fantastic. I think where this drama really shines is in how it weaves together the supernatural into that political commentary. And this is really the lens through which you should watch the drama. The romance itself is not the focus. Rather, the romance is simply an outcome of actions taken by characters who start to feel like pawns trapped in the heaviness of their cultural backdrop. Even the characters do not really feel like full characters, but rather like outcomes of the country's politics.
I felt like I'd never watched a show that was so intelligent and nuanced about its political statements (and I felt this about the movie as well, which I enjoyed less). It's simultaneously very explicit yet a lot of things are unsaid — and it manages to make a really powerful statement. I genuinely think that this is a drama you should watch only AFTER you do some reading on Taiwan's period of White Terror because it will make the characters' motivations make so much more sense.
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