A hidden gem. Great military drama
This has a chock-full of military propaganda, promoting love of country and loyalty, and I still thoroughly enjoyed it. You can see that this had a high budget with the gadgets shown. The warfare tactics kept me interested. There was barely any romance because the main focus was training soldiers into an elite force ready to fight terrorists but you still feel the chemistry between the leads. It was always there, simmering under the surface. I may not watch this again anytime soon but I'm still putting this on my rewatch list.Was this review helpful to you?
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Training Special Warfare should've been the title..
The plot of the show was really interesting at first, I'm really into it. I like the premise, girl power and all. The creator made a reasonable backstory for main characters to show the reasons for the decisions they've made.Then it gets a bit draggy. I mean the training part, it took too many episodes to my liking. At pisode 11, they're still training. Nothings happening but training.
Episode 17, and surprise surprise, they're still training. I had to remind my self that the title of this show was "Operation Special Warfare" and not "Training Special Warfare".
This elite team is supposed to fight against terrorists, but all they did up to this point is to train and fight each other. To prove themselves worthy over and over again.
Episode 19, finally had some terrorist action.. Episode 29, training again. The story gets on and on about the life of the soldiers revolving around training most of the time, then their pain and sacrifices.
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Best military females centered drama I've ever watched till now
I watched this drama at first for the male lead ,, he has so much charisma and physically appealingvery tall handsome leader who is really serious and has strong personality
I will tell you first what I thought about if before I watched it
I thought I would drop this drama in the middle because I'm not a fan of females centered dramas or much military dramas
I thought it would be boring or draggy or portray females as superwomen or worse as most modern chinese dramas do get the romantic entanglements and problems thrown at our faces
ALL WHAT I'VE THOUGHT WAS WRONG
This drama surprised me big time
It got me interested not from first few episodes but later on when the female lead became one of the special warfare unit blue lightening ,, and the military training began
WOAH!!! it was such a hard and amazing ride to watch them experience all that very tough not humanly possible training to get them to best physical strength and best psychological fitness
How they bond as female team after so much troubles ,, How they were treated from each others and from their male colleagues also how the female lead wasn't special from them at all and wasn't treated preferably from the male lead's side ,, it was the opposite ,,he treated her the worst at first half of the drama because he wanted her to quit
The female soldiers were tough and have so much determination to succeed and beat men at their own game but they didn't lose their femininity along the way ,, they didn't turn into super women or masculine women who act like tom boys or pretending to me males ,, they were girls in their private space ,, they giggled ,, got jealous ,, loved men and fought each other as group of girls do in any place in the world ,, they were tough soldiers in the field but they were normal girls in private ,, they understood their weaknesses and they tried to compensate for it with their brains and they won over males more than once as they should
I loved the growth of all the characters and slow paced romance it was in it's natural way of taking it slow
but may be it got a bit illogical sometimes and I didn't care one bit about the evil side ,, the terrorists ,, they were boring to watch ,, skipped all the evil side scenes LOL
this drama is such enjoyable watch
I recommended big time
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A action series which does not deserve a great actor like Vengo Gao
Action series with Vengo Gao as a captain of a Team of elite soldiers (Men & Women), to fight against terrorists. The storyline deals mainly with training, building cohesion, despite ultra-competitive and aggressive personalities.+ Very well played, with an indomitable captain role tailor-made for Vengo Gao
+ fairly convincing military aspect: training, weapons, methods, etc.
+ Very adapted OST, quite martial
BUT :
- TOO TOO many various training scenes (90% of screen time :)
- A lot, a lot (TOO much) of propaganda in favor of the Chinese army and nationalist slogans!
- slow storytelling!!!
- groups of terrorists who aren't credible for a penny (caricatures of the evil masterminds of James Bond, surrounded by girls, each more wicked than the other, super well-informed, etc.). Their motivations (having a monopoly on energy sources + money) are not convincing at all. They're supposed to be terrorists, not organized crime gangs!!
- the way the FL trauma resurfaces isn't believable either :) :) and the way she heals from it is laughable.
In short, I watched it until the end (2nd half watched with speed X 1.25 or 1.5) only for Vengo Gao, always magnificent and a great actor, but with great difficulty because the execution and the message of this drama are painful.
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Série d'action avec Vengo Gao en capitaine d'une Team de soldats d'élite Hommes / Femmes, pour lutter contre les terroristes. La storyline traite essentiellement de la constitution, de l'entrainement, de la construction de la cohésion, malgré des personnalités ultra compétitives et agressives (la moité au moins de la série).
+ Très bien joué, avec un rôle de capitaine indomptable taillé sur mesure pour Vengo Gao
+ aspect militaire assez convaincant : entrainements, armes, méthodes, etc.
+ OST très adaptés, assez martials
MAIS :
- TROP TROP de scènes de training divers (90% du temps d'écran :)
- Beaucoup, beaucoup (TROP) de propagande en faveur de l'armée chinoise et de slogans nationalistes !
- narration lente !!!
- des groupes de terroristes pas crédibles pour un sou (caricatures des evils de James Bond, entourés de girls +plus méchantes les unes que les autres, super bien renseignés, etc.). Leurs motivations (avoir le monopole des sources d'énergie + argent) ne tiennent pas la route.
- la manière dont le trauma de la FL ressurgit n'est pas crédible non plus :) :) et la façon dont elle en guérit est risible.
Bref, je l'ai regardé jusqu'au bout (2nd half watched with speed X 1.25 ou 1.5) uniquement pour Vengo Gao, toujours magnifique et super acteur, mais avec beaucoup de mal car le propos est pénible.
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Overall its a good show.
I think this is your typical military C-drama. ML is this super tough, no-nonsense type of guy. A guy who is supposed to be one of the best of the best. FL is your typical "go getter" she always has to be right about everything, and she is great at everything she does. Of course, she breaks down the walls of our ML and they fall for each other. BUT none of that is why I rated this what I did.THE LAST EPISODE!!! So, throughout this WHOLE show we are led to believe that the ML and FL are the best of the best, these 2 are head and shoulders above the rest. TRAINED MILITARY SOLDIERS who have been trained in hand-to-hand combat and all that other stuff. YET in the last episode BOTH are ML and FL have to fight the final boss. Now at no time in this show where we led to believe that the "final boss" was some superhuman, military trained fighter. She is literally just a woman in heels, yet she is kicking BOTH ML and FL asses!!! AT THE SAME TIME!! Again, were talking about 2 of the best throughout the whole show yet they can't handle this woman in heels. After that fight I had to take some points off.
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The cast is good and the performances meet the requirements of the drama.
The direction handled the drama well, there are some errors in editing, as well as some costume errors in the sequencing. Some exaggeration in certain scenes, but acceptable.
The soundtrack isn't bad.
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Great Action drama
Let me get this statement out of the way first: There is a lot a patriotic moments. I get it.It was great to see that both female and male roles were equal. There wasn't a male demeaning the female and there wasn't a mumbling, weak minded female. The Action was through the roof. My Eyes were glue to the tv The camaraderie among the soldiers, both male and females was tearing moments. There were some nail biting moments. The Cast were outstanding in every manner. I love a good action movie and this was it.
All the cool gadgets they used were fantastic. To know that world wide people are fighting terrorist was good to see. When they lost a team member it was heartbreaking, you felt the pain.
I will differently will be watching this again, I highly recommend for everyone to watch especially those who like action.
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