Completed
PeachBlossomGoddess
28 people found this review helpful
Sep 26, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 3
Overall 8.5
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 8.0

Scorched earth.

This is an artfully related dark crime thriller about a long, life blood sucking and soul destroying quest for justice. A body in a suitcase, a bomb scare, an incriminating old photograph and a looming terrorist threat captures headlines and puts acclaimed investigator Yan Liang on the case. He quickly discovers that these events are linked to a decade old cold case. The narrative navigates three time periods and alternates skillfully between the original team on the case led by prosecutor Jiang Yang (Bai Yu) and the present investigation led by Yan Liang as both investigations proceed down a parallel path. This is done so seamlessly it is not at all confusing; indeed all of the characters, events and clues flow fluidly and clearly. The pallete is sparse and dark toned consistent with the title and tone of the drama.

While the mystery and suspense part of the drama is very well written and doesn't reveal itself too soon, this is really more of a character drama about Jiang Yang, a brilliant young prosecutor with a lot of fire in his belly. Without a doubt, this is Bai Yu's best acted role to date. His signature gigantic forehead was so well concealed I didn't recognize him for awhile. The way his Jiang Yang's indomitable idealistic youthful spirit is extinguished into a subdued, quiet desperation and almost but not quite defeated acceptance is one of the most moving and nuanced portrayals I have seen in a long time. He deserves to win awards for this role. I wish I could say the same for Liao Fan's Yan Liang but I was not wowed by his crime solving brilliance which is supposedly signified by pondering and obsessive ball bouncing. Despite some failed and misplaced attempts at humor, Yan Liang's present day team also lacks the rapport and chemistry that oozes out of Jiang Yang's "hot pot" team. Anchored by Bai Yu's powerful performance and a solid cast overall, there is still an unbalanced or somewhat lacking feeling. This is amplified by the fact that the adversary is just powerful with unlimited resources and tentacles everywhere. There is no well developed mastermind at work - all we see are a bunch of petty villains who employ rather crude tactics to suppress the truth.

The drama peaks at the end with the final reveal in a truly masterful and heart wrenching performance by Bai Yu. Yet I am left feeling unsatisfied; I am missing the satisfaction of a showdown and fitting consequences for the villains. Indeed the repercussions seem far worse for those who resort to scorched earth methods to uncover the truth. Thus to me, this is a dark drama - it far from glorifies the quest for the truth and justice. It leaves a lingering sense that it is far more worth while to just live a good and happy life.

This is an excellent watch but be warned, it is dark and sad. I don't consider it to be quite in the same league of the Bad Kids and give it an 8.5.

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Completed
Q I U
28 people found this review helpful
Sep 26, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 2
Overall 9.5
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 8.0

Best Light on Series for me....

So many people comparing it with Bad Kids so here is my opinion:

It is a well-executed drama with top-notch acting.
I won’t say it is better than Bad Kids because these two dramas give different vibes though written by the same author. But I’d say it deserves 9.2 on Douban and it is definitely worth your time.....

Story- 9/10
Story is like investigation+mystery, revealing clues in small doses in each episode
It didn’t use unnecessary twists like a good guy turning bad in the last moment...
Yet first few eps were a little bit confusing as multiple characters were introduced, but as the story continues, it gets better and better...
I love that every little thing,I didn’t understand in the early eps were all solved in the last few eps
The plot is heavy and you need to give full attention to the plot as it shows past and present days alternatively

Acting-10/10
Well, Actings in all Light on Series are top notch, and Long Night further proved it
Bai Yu’s acting in last few eps were brilliant and mind-blowing
Liao Fan acting is quite impressive as well
All Veteran actors did their best, I love the trio moments most, and how they helped each other

Others Aspects
In some parts, dubbing was a lil off but it is fine overall. Editing is good, far better than Crimson River.
I love how they show things like “Laws are sometimes useless, rich people doing whatever they want, and how corrupted some authorities are”

You know a drama is good when it makes you cry
I cried for at least 3 times, so it is def a good drama.

If you want a serious theme drama, this is definitely for you

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Completed
sony_t
9 people found this review helpful
Sep 26, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 8
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 7.5

How far will you go? How much will you risk?.... for justice

Is it a matter of satisfying ones curiosity or a quest for justice. A stubbornness not to let go or the conviction that justice should prevail..... What is it that will make someone fight tooth and nail to right a wrong for another man even at the risk of losing everything?

The story starts with a man caught red handed with a body in a suitcase at a subway (the train station not the sandwich place) and made a bomb threat in an attempt to escape. Everyone saw it, he confessed to it... pretty open and shut. Or so it seemed. The case that had garnered the public’s attentions and was witnessed by many took a dramatic turn when the confessed criminal denied his crimes in an open court.

The drama revolves around a group of people trying to solve an unjust crime. Two sets:
1. These are the group of people tasked with solving the subway case. A detective known for solving hard-to-solve cases was brought on to investigate the crimes of the man who was caught with a body in a bag but withdrew his confession on his day of arraignment.
2. The second group are fighting to bring to light the wrongful death of a volunteer teacher.
Two sets of people, two different timelines. The drama centered about how these two groups intersect and how one group has to know more about the other in order to solve their own case.

I watch a lot of crime dramas. To say I have watched over a thousand episodes would not be an exaggeration. I have gotten to the point where I can pretty quickly see through the plot, that I now have little expectation of mysteries to surprise me. They rarely do. Instead whether I can see through the plot or not what I care more about now is how well the drama/show executed it. I dislike mediocrity in procedural dramas, and I tend to lose interest pretty quickly. This drama, however, kept me engaged to the very end. If you are someone who might see through the mystery fairly fast than stay for the execution. Each drama has its own unique way of telling a story and sometimes what matters more, what’s satisfying more, is not what the story is but how its told.

This drama was well written and well acted. The way this drama unfolded was by giving you bits and pieces and piquing your interest to finding out what comes next. Much like the torn pieces of photo you’ll come to see at the end of every episode, you can see the plot come together bit by bit by each passing episode until everything was nicely taped together at the end.

Although the overall drama is good, what caught my attention is Bai Yu’s performance. From the wide eyed brilliant and kind law graduate to the unwavering prosecutor to a broken man, Bai Yu’s performance has been excellent and moving. He gave an emotional performance and you can’t help but be moved by the character’s kindness, raise your hope with the characters conviction and determination, feel dejected and indignant at the character’s misfortunes. I could not help myself from shedding a few tears at his wretchedness.

At the end it may all seem unfair and unjust that the people who put everything on the line to bring the truth to light may end up sacrificing more than those who did the criming. But then again, isn’t it the same as reality? Justice doesn’t always mean fair.

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Completed
Wendy
7 people found this review helpful
Oct 1, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 10
Music 9.5
Rewatch Value 9.0
This review may contain spoilers

Best Light On Series!

I wasn't a huge fan of Bai Yu so I never thought of trying it. However, I saw a review on Youtube and I was like why not give it a shot, and then when I did, I had to binge through the whole thing in one day! It was just so good and the ending blew me away!
First of all, the story was very well-written. I think the drama is very realistic. The justice system in real life isn't very reliable. People like Jiang Yang and Zhu Wei who want to uphold justice are very rare and that's why they make this a very beautiful yet tragic story. Every episode, I couldn't wait to find out the whole truth. We only got to know how Jiang Yang died at the very end so for 12 whole episodes, I was like dying to get to the end. I always thought it would be someone killing him. I never thought he would kill himself. And the moment where they watched the video, I was just weeping my heart out. I was very impressed with all the actors, especially Bai Yu. I am very much used to idol dramas or should I say the normal dramas where you'd have to ignore a thousand flaws if you want to finish. And you have to because that's how most of the dramas are like nowadays. However, Light On Series such as The Bad Kids and The Long Night really sets a new scale for the drama world. The whole drama is just very well done. From casting to storytelling, every aspect was perfect. I really like how all the small details such as uniforms from the past and the tools/locations were very realistic to the time period in which the story was in. For example, there was a very old lunchbox that Jiang Yang's girlfriend Ai Ke brought to work. I remember seeing it when I was really tiny. Overall, I am very satisfied with the whole series and definitely look forward to more dramas with this quality in the drama world. This kind of standard shouldn't only for crime dramas but it should be the same for romance, xianxia, etc. In the end, I really want to recommend it to people who are hesitating to watch! It won't be a waste of your time for sure!

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Completed
homaKP
5 people found this review helpful
Feb 27, 2022
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 1.5
This review may contain spoilers

Could've been great, if the writer had put more thought into it.

First of all, the thriller genre tag is a total bait. This was just a mystery. Aside from that, the show could be huge. The idea's unique and strong and the acting and directing was great. I picked it up because of its douban rating and the combination of mystery/thriller which I love.
Yet I kept thinking why this (which instantly gave me pleasant vibes of "Signal" + "For N") was taking me so long to finish. In the end I realized I kept losing focus or feeling bored during the past story line, which was unfortunately 2/3 of the entire story.
I found the plot realistic in all the wrong parts and pretty unrealistic in the others. I mean, a person highly educated in law, buying an autopsy report with money publicly from the source himself? That's just so unrealistic and dumb. What's the use of illegally obtained evidence anyway?
The corrupt side are willing to kill so many people in flashy ways just to dump some evidence? Why make such a big scene? Just put all the blame on someone and get rid of the evidence cleanly.

Then when it comes to characters, suddenly they're so realistically average brained, it's boringly predictable. They take suspects to the same station lead by someone they know is involved. Twice. They clumsil clumsily loose evidence. Get easily provoked.

Another problem was captain Ren. She started explosive and for the first time I found a female team leader charming. Then she was almost completely sidelined and had no influence on the story. Not sure what the point of her was. Just to have a female in the police team? Either her or Yan Liang. They should've chosen only one.

The wallet scene was a masterpiece, though. I just know it's gonna stay with me from this drama.

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Completed
baekhyunniee
6 people found this review helpful
Sep 20, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 10
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 6.0

9.2 Rating on Douban!?

Decided to try this drama after seeing its super high rating on Douban. I usually take Douban's ratings with a grain of salt since it could be skewed, so I went into this drama with skepticism and low expectations. And to my lovely surprise, this drama surprised me with good things!

It's a pretty fast paced and suspenseful drama that keeps you guessing on what's going to happen next. They edited it super smoothly to intertwine flashbacks from the year 2000 and 2003 with the present timeline (year 2010) to show three different perspectives from Detective Yan Liang, Prosecutor Jiang Yang, and Hou Gui Ping. The truth revealed at the end will definitely shock you and break your heart :'(

Every leading actor does an amazing job that leaves me with absolutely no complaints. Bai Yu got me bawling at one certain scene too and his acting overall got my heart hurting. I am so glad the production team managed to cast him as Jiang Yang. The friendship between Jiang Yang, Zhu Wei, and the forensic doctor guy is really touching. The music is also very good, creating suspense in all the right scenes.

I have to give a warning though- there will be many frustrating moments when the bad guys play dirty. The ending was a little bittersweet in my opinion. After all... the good guys (Jiang Yang and Zhu Wei especially) had to sacrifice so, so much to reveal the truth and get justice.

Do give this a shot if you love crime dramas!

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Completed
Kotori
5 people found this review helpful
Jan 10, 2021
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers

Mystery Storytelling at its Brilliance with minor short-comings

The Long Night is a Mystery/Crime drama with its ups and downs, its tears and teeth clenching moment. A drama with its short-comings but one I would recommend.

1. "Sleepness Night": 5/5★★★★★
The second most talk-about mystery drama this year is "the Long Night," written by the same author of "the Bad Kids." Though both are very dim dramas showing society's dark side, it is very different from "the bad kids." In terms of storytelling, the long night has more typical crime-solving mystery elements: righteous detectives searching for the truth by uncovering villains' evil doings. Therefore, this drama knowingly steers the viewers into what it wants them to feel in certain moments. And it does this brilliantly. The investigations unfold in two, almost three, parallel periods, but the events flow seamlessly into each other without causing a lot of confusion. Though the ending and the main villains are quickly revealed in the drama, the show still kept viewers at the edge of their seats by slowly uncovering the story of our first main detective, Jiang Yang, and his "hotpot friends" who helped him along the way. Using pieces of a photo, a piece of clear evidence, the viewer only knows what crime the villains commit to all the bloodshed towards the drama's end. Finally, there is the reveal of why and how Jiang Yang's body was disposed of in the subway that showed us the real tragedy of this character. Speaking of storytelling for mystery, this is best in class.

2. "Emotional Rollercoaster": 5/5★★★★★
Jiang Yang's tragic life story is the highlight of this drama. It shows his almost decade fight to serve justice to someone he hasn't even met and present the villains what they deserve. And we all know that his struggle was not fruitful. The reality destroyed a motivated and bright young man, his career, his family, and eventually his life. This really brought me to tears. There are moments in this drama when I doubt whether this kind of character would ever exist in real life. But there is a brilliant dialogue between Yan Liang and Zhu Wei at the water bottle factory that perfectly explained why Jiang Yang and his friends never stopped fighting. Big applause to the actor Bai Yu's performance, who depicted Jiang Yang's multi-dimensional personality perfectly.

3. "Natural and intelligent Storytelling.": 4/5★★★★☆
This is one aspect at which I would deduct one point is the crime itself. The drama focused on mystery-solving but forgot to reality check a few of the story's key elements. Though I did not expect a mastermind level of crime, I felt that every wall that Jiang Yang's team hit was all very crude and almost repetitive. They use the same villain or the same method, and it is just not very well-though through. Therefore, it was also surprising why Jiang Yang's team could not pre-empt some of these actions. As if nothing could have prevented Yang Liang's tragic death. In contrast, the investigation conducted by detective Yan Liang's team went relatively smoothly without any significant interruptions by the villain. I could find ten ways how the villains could have prevented the pieces of photos from being slowly revealed by the newspaper. But all in all, storytelling has been brilliant in solving the mystery and building the tension.

4. "Loveable supporting Roles.": 4/5★★★★☆
The show has a great supporting cast who all did a great job in depicting their roles. My favorites were the entire extended "hot pot team," whose actors all did a marvelous job.
A few roles were not very deep and slightly tool-like, e.g., Yan Liang's team, including his partner Ren Yue Lin. The drama tried in some scenes to evoke the viewer's emotions but did not successfully achieve that. Also, the entire villain team was evil, but nothing more than that. For example, I would love to know what goes through the policeman Li Jiang Go's mind when he continued to betray the career he has spent his life performing. The same goes for "Yellow Hair", who was brilliant as the gangster. What happened to him at the end? I do not support the drama spending useless time on characters who are not important to the main plot, but some important ones could have been more three-dimensional.

5. "Proper Pacing.": 5/5★★★★★
With only 12 episodes, the pace was quick, the turns unexpected, and the events impactful.

6. "Technicalities": 4/5★★★★☆
Overall the show is well executed in terms of technical aspects. Two elements that could be improved: I am not sure if I can remember the show's BGM, and the lighting of the entire drama can be a bit too dark sometimes.

7. "Solid Finale": 4/5★★★★☆
*****Spoilers******
Like my critique in point number 3, I find the drama had a "too perfect ending". On the surface, Detective Yan Liang used his brilliance to solve the mystery of the subway and helped to clear Jiang Yang's name. But in reality, the true villains were only caught because the third witness came to light (who might have been able to turn the case if she did that in the first place). The subway mystery would have come to light in any case as this was performed by the "good guys". Also, I wouldn't say I liked how Chinese "censorship" cleared the police's name as they realize they have to punish the evil and honor the braves, such as our main lead. The last dialogue between the police's directors felt staged. All villain's punishments were written as text on the screen so quickly you cannot read the description, and the audience is left with a feeling of unbalancing and slight dissatisfaction.

Despite some critiques, I would still highly recommend this drama to anyone who likes good mystery/crime drama.

------------------------------
Kotori's drama review seven criteria definition:

After having watched many dramas and also written several reviews. I have detected that I rate dramas based on specific patterns. I formulated those into seven criteria.
1. "Sleepless Nights.": how much I have the urge to binge-watch this drama.
2. "Emotional Rollercoaster": the degree of how much my heart was moving from the acting, scenes, and story development (e.g., in pain, pounding, fluster etc.). The degree on how much I care about the fate of the main leads.
3. "Natural and intelligent Storytelling.": how logically the story was able to proceed and the roles are acting within their characters. I don't have a thousand question marks when watching the drama. The feeling that the makers take us viewers seriously and that we do not always think that this looks fake.
4. "Loveable supporting Roles.": how much I love and care about supporting characters. They are not merely tools to help the main characters but are 3-dimensional and have the proper motivation behind their actions.
5. "Proper Pacing.": how well the drama is pacing and not watered down to fill the number of episodes.
6. "Technicalities": professional camera works and shots, fight scenes, color grading, lighting, editing, music, sets, costumes, use of CGI etc. I try to grade this in relation to the drama budget, so a low-budget drama can equally get a high score when used at the right place
7. "Solid Finale": how properly the drama builds dramatic and finishes with a satisfactory ending. I have just watched too many dramas that start to lose their grip around half or 2/3rd of its way.

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Completed
Uhm Taro
4 people found this review helpful
Feb 26, 2022
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers

Emotionally Exhausting


Hey, so this is my first-ever review, and I'm putting it out there because I really think more folks should check out this drama. Hopefully, what I'm sharing is helpful, and it convinces you to give it a shot.

I'll mostly talk about Bai Yu's character, Jiang Yang.

Okay, this drama hit me hard. The story, camera work, and the acting were seriously good. The storyline was heart-wrenching, yet in a profoundly moving manner. It showed how there are very few people committed to upholding the law. In the end, justice prevailed, albeit at an immense cost.


Bai Yu's performance really touched me, especially in that wallet scene. This drama truly immersed me in all the highs and lows that Jiang Yang's character experienced. I'll be honest; I had a cathartic emotional release around episode 10. While everyone is vociferously proclaiming "HOU GUI PING WAS WRONGED," there's a deafening silence on the injustice suffered by Jiang Yang, and that's truly heart-wrenching. He sacrificed everything, even his life, for the sake of justice. Thankfully, Jiang had Zhu and Chen by his side during the most challenging moments when everything was unraveling, both literally and metaphorically.

In conclusion, I highly recommend watching it. "The Long Night" is a hidden gem; it was so captivating that I ended up binge-watching the entire series in a single day.

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Completed
Hikari no Naka
4 people found this review helpful
Sep 29, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 9.0

The best one among Light On series

The long-awaited The Long Night is finally broadcasted after long delay due to popularity of The Bad Kids. And I'm glad that it finally got to be aired since this drama is excellent and worthy of praise. Many people has compared it to The Bad Kids (which is inevitable) and in my personal opinion, I like it better than The Bad Kids therefore I gave it higher rating.

STORY
In terms of the story, I think The Long Night is more straightforward compared to Bad Kids. It is about people who tried to seek justice, came across so many obstacles along the way and the many sacrifices they had to make for their belief. The plot is very compact and there is no unnecessary scene that does not contribute to move the plot forward. The story involved three parallel timelines, and the director did excellent job in showing that clearly to the audience so that they won't get confused. However, I still feel that the director could have done a better job in increasing the suspense and tension since the story actually provides many opportunities for it. As much as I enjoy it, it still a bit lack of the gripping suspense that I usually feel when watching American or Korean crime drama. Nevertheless, the young director (Chen Yifu) did an excellent job directing this drama.

ACTING
Needless to say that all the actors in the Light On series are very capable, including those in The Long Night. Liao Fan is a veteran actor and there is no question about his acting skill. All the actors, main and supporting roles, did excellent job in their respective roles. However, the highlight of this drama is Bai Yu's role, Jiang Yang. He is the most tragic character in the story, losing everything in order to uphold his belief. I love Bai Yu from his previous role as Zhao Yunlan in Guardian, but Jiang Yang is a whole new level of acting. He perfectly shows the transformation of Jiang Yang, from the sunny boy with bright future to the depressed and broken middle-aged man. I am still heartbroken after watching the last few episodes.
I also like the three hotpot brothers a lot, I can feel their strong bond and their willingness to support and sacrifice for each other as they share the same common values. I also like Captain Ren who is the Head of Special Investigation Unit very much, it is really good to have a very capable and strong female role who is as qualified as the other male counterparts.

In the end, I think what makes this drama scored very high in Douban (9.1 as of current and rated by over 250k viewers), besides the directing and acting, is the lesson learned from this story. How much are you willing to sacrifice to seek and uphold justice? How far are you willing to go in order to shed light on the truth?

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Completed
XiaoQing
3 people found this review helpful
Dec 7, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 8.5

Highly recommended to those who are looking for more grounded, bleak and R-rated stories

This is my first Light on Series drama, so I can't compare it to any other and I'm reviewing it as a standalone work. I liked this drama so much that I'm going to check out the others soon.

The Long Night follows two different timelines spanning a decade, revolving around a series of interconnected crimes.
The present-day (2010) timeline sees detectives Yan Liang, Ren Yueting and others deal with a puzzling murder case that has its roots in another case from the previous decade, that saw procurator Jiang Yang trying to right the wrongs done to a friend. The second timeline follows Jiang Yang himself and his story. The two timelines come together in the end, culminating in a spectacular finale, with plenty of shocking turns and emotional moments.

This is a bleak story about injustices and a group of people determined to stand up for those who were wronged. It's also a story about those people's faith in their ideals and their dedication to pursue justice by (ab)using the law and the judicial system as a means to do it.

The bleakness of the reality depicted is reflected in the grim and washed out visuals and the joyless, unembellished environments. The theme of "longing for a ray of sunlight" is strong throughout the story and comes from the words of the characters themselves. But for the majority of this story, there is no sunlight for them. Only cloudy skies and darkness.

One of the strongest points of this drama is definitely the acting, which is solid on all fronts. The cast is phenomenal. The realism of the sets, which are accurate to the time period(s) and adjust to the passing of the years, draws you into the story. This drama has a movie-quality look overall.

Finally, this review won't be complete if I didn't mention the small flaws that are the reason I'm not giving it a 10/10 score. I think some of the flashback sequences in the early-to-mid episodes weren't as strong as the present-day ones and dragged a little. In those episodes, I didn't find Jiang Yang's story as fascinating to follow as the present-day lead Yan Liang's, so I sometimes fast-forwarded through the flashbacks. I also think the present-day storyline is enriched by supporting characters Iike Ren Yueting, Zhang Xiaoqian and Gu Yiming while the past storyline has weaker supporting characters. However, this changes as the past storyline moves closer to the present and the two stories become more and more intertwined.

I don't think I'm going to rewatch this drama any time soon. I see it as a one-time, very depressing yet so enthralling must-see experience that is best enjoyed once. And the mind-blowing effect of the reveals only works once, after all.

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Completed
Kate Flower Award1
3 people found this review helpful
Jul 17, 2022
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 9.0

Life so hard it feels like an endless night.

Stellar performance with a well executed story presented in three different timelines. While the show was not perfect with the execution, the strong points kept me interested enough to finish and give quite a high rating.

The Long Night has quite a number of positive aspects. Starting with a well written criminal case that does not lead to many unexplained events and plot holes. While the case was quite complex, as it connected many events throughout the years, it never felt ridiculously over the top. It was big enough it did not feel boring nor mundane, but realistic enough for me to believe it could happen in real life.

Then we have the amazing cast and the characters they portrayed. Not gonna lie, Bai Yu stole the show for me. The emotional impact his character had on me by the last episode was something I did not expect at all - especially since we know (to some extent) what kind of end he will face in episode 1. That one scene in the last episode literally made me hold my breath and I could not move a millimeter until it was over.

Jiang Yang, Chen Ming Zhang and Zhu Wei were the trio I especially enjoyed and their striving for justice and truth was both heartwarming and heartbreaking.

Another aspect that amazed me were well presented transitions between all the years and time lines. They clearly indicated what year specific scenes take place in and how they relate to the current situation. This type of plot could easily be confusing, but they managed to present it in an easy to follow manner. The transitions between two timelines with the use of voice recorded were ones that I especially enjoyed.

The issue I had with the drama was how they tried to evenly use the screen time for two timelines. As the result, for quite some time, I was not that invested in any. Logically speaking, I knew the case was extremely interesting, but I could not get myself to feel that much curiosity. For me, they should have established one (present) timeline first, and only after that slowly expanded on the past stories, but this mix and max as we progressed was a bit too much storytelling wise.

What’s more, the first few episodes led me to believe this will be a mystery driven show with unusual investigation that will have the intriguing cooperation between the police and journalist, to uncover the truth behind the murder case, that has it’s beginning years ago and involves far more people than anyone could have predicted. But shortly after it started to look like any other investigation show, and all the fun and refreshing additions were forgotten.

That said, you know how dramas usually have mediocre last episodes, when they had a good start? This ain’t that. Last 4 episodes were extremely thrilling and got me on the edge of my seat. Truth to be told, only then I started to feel the severity of what was going on and how it affected the characters. It was easier to tap into the emotional connection. The last episode was especially dark, and I had to take a few breaks while watching.

Overall, a solid watch. I feel like this is one of the rare cases in which the rewatch would actually improve the entertainment value. Knowing the whole picture would make me appreciate all the detailed connections between the cases and scenes.

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Completed
Wen Rui Xuan
3 people found this review helpful
Sep 9, 2021
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 8.0

Simple Story Turn Into Crime Masterpiece

A death that looked as if it was an accident. One person who plays with power and money causes many others to suffer. But, once an honest man tries to unravel the mystery, he gets bumped here and there. And, his whole life fell apart, even his life was at stake.
12 episodes are just right. Not dragging. What I love most about this drama is the many different characters, but bound by one noble goal and willingness to sacrifice. They bounded together not because they know the victims, but because they're fought for injustice.
I read a review for this drama somewhere, it says the drama is good when you cry while watching, and the reviewer was indeed cried when watching episodes 11-12. But, I couldn't cry, because I was too angry about the injustice, so I want to punish those villains with my own hands (but of course this is just a metaphor, ain't such a punisher).
You really have to watch this drama because this is a crime masterpiece. Bai Yu's performance here was top grade.
I was expected better dubbings and sound, but for the great story and performances of each actor/actress, I could be tolerant.

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The Long Night (2020) poster

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