The Best Asian Sci-fi Drama I've seen so far
I don't usually write reviews since I'm not a good writer but seeing as no one else has written one, I'll give it a try. I guess this drama made that much of an impression on me!Story - it begins with a former cop and his reporter friend getting on a train that has a potential suspect in the murder of the cop's wife, a researcher in AI, along with families and friends going on vacation. Suddenly, the train is diverted from its original destination and ends up in a mysterious, deserted city. There, as they face hunger, the undead, betrayal, and other dangers, the passengers struggle to survive and trust each other as they try to find the author of their misfortune...
Okay, it doesn't sound very original, does it? It sounds like a mish-mash of The Maze Runner, Lost, and The Walking Dead. I'd argue that's a good thing; while those are classics in their own right, the latter two ran of steam and turned into messes. In contrast, all 24 episodes of this drama were captivating and well-written. Usually, I don't like watching long dramas, which is why I don't watch a lot of Chinese dramas, but this one kept glued to my seat throughout. It's evident that a lot of thought and preparation went into the story. Themes of artificial intelligence, greed, redemption, loss, love were explored with a deft touch, with just the right amount of suspense and mystery to keep you guessing and pressing "the play next button."
Acting/Cast - honestly, the main leads (the cop and the AI scientist) didn't really stand out to me that much. They were the archetypical "good guys" who didn't have that many flaws and always did the right thing. Amelie Xue as the scientist with mommy issues was definitely good in this, as was the ML who played the guilt-ridden cop with lots of emotional baggage, and both of had serviceable chemistry with each other. However, it was characters like Chen Li, Mo Li, the mute guy, Dr. Qin, Nana who really stood out to me because they seemed the most like real people to me. The character development was off the charts! They make a lot of mistakes and a lot of ruthless decisions at the start and you initially hate these people for how selfish they are, how they're concerned only about their own survival or how much they value money over their fellow humans, etc. but as the drama goes along, their motivations are fully fleshed out and you really empathized with them. You see them grow as people and try their best to take care of each, fall in love or form stronger friendships. Amazing work from those actors, they really sold me on their roles.
Music - Nothing that stood out. The rock songs they played at the end of each episode were kinda generic and the sound effects were typical horror movie sounds.
Rewatch value - I'd say around 8.5 because on a watch you'll get a lot of the clues you missed the first time.
Overall/Conclusion:
Asian sci-fi movies and dramas like "Wandering Earth" are usually cringy and just bad or straight up amazing (Train, Train to Busan, Kingdom). This one falls closer to the latter end of the spectrum. The plot might not sound the most original but it's definitely well written and well-acted. I would definitely recommend if you are into mystery, suspense, survival, crime and light romance genres.
P.S. be sure to stay after the credits for stingers which help with your own theories about the drama's main mystery :)
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This review may contain spoilers
This one feels like I'm watching "Survivor" tv series or eating mixed nuts. You try to sample everything until you got fed up with everything. I think the creator of the show is overly ambitious..Started off with an almost paranormal mystery feels. Then it turned into a survival drama. Then turned into a Sci-Fi crime drama.
ML is searching for justice for his wife, FL is searching for the truth about her mother. Another character was a mother which depended with a man all her life with a teenage daughter with a lot of angst. Another one, is a married couple on the verge of divorce. See.. mixed nuts right?
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This review may contain spoilers
Bats and zombies in a ghost town
This drama was already promising at 24 episodes, but it should have been 16 episodes. Repetitive flashbacks were extraneous. I don't think we needed to be reminded of these scenes, The ghost town where it was staged was either a deserted war-torn or flooded town, or some ugly CGI. The bats vanished fast in the early episodes, and the zombies must have gone to sleep. I am surprised that the stranded travelers did not explore the town for supplies or better accommodations. They just stayed in the hotel, run down in some places. The store where Er found the sneakers had clothing hanging in the shop, although they should have rot in twenty years. Was the train track sealed off on both ends, or where they just lazy, to try to escape from the bats and zombies who took a snoozefest? The blue ocean, which I am sure was CGI, was the prettiest view. The production quality was bad in many episodes. Extreme closeups with a bland expression do not constitute acting skills.After bingewatching the first 16 episodes in the last three days (in October 2023), I skipped to the final episode. The timid teacher was the the mastermind. LOL I don't think I missed anything important. This was my Halloween entertainment.
Final rating: 55
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Better than a lot of western series of similar genre.
I must say this is better than a lot of western series of similar genre. This drama is very fast paced, so much happening in every episode and I didn't feel bored any moment. I liked the concept and the mix of themes although the plot being predictable many times the development can keep us interested.The acting is good but unfortunately the dubbing drag the dramatic moments down taking away most of its weight.
In terms of acting the highlight to me is Dai Xu, he impressed me a lot! The first I saw him was on A Dream of Splendor where he plays a dumb man-child and seeing he on Last one Standing just blowed my mind, he is a excellent actor. And his character is far more interesting than the ML because of the duality. ML is just plain good, lawful good and this become irritating sometimes. I prefer more ambiguous characters.
Things that I found problematic
- the unnecessary repetition of the same flashbacks over and over
- the romance was cringy and seemed forced. I didn't ship ML and FL even for a second LOL
- they spent 4 months eating few little pieces of that biscuit a day and still there was almost any fight for food and anyone seemed physically affect by all this time of malnutrition. The hungry factor and competition for food is one of the most powerful causes of human degradation. Here I think it was underused.
- well, this is a cdrama so because of government regulamentations of course it will have moral lessons on good and evil and how the good always prevail, how human beings are inherently good and the humanity has flaws but is amazing because of love and hope and yada yada yada
- the CGI is funny XD
My conclusion:
Its sad to see how this drama is so little-known and altough the flaws it is very entertaining and a total watch worthy for the sci-fi, survival, "zombie" fans.
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