Loved the amazing capable cops in Reset? Well then, you'd want to check this out.
In ep 1 my reaction was: Wow ok, that's some tightly written and paced plot and character design. And it never loses the intrigue and keep you on your toes ALL the time. That's rare gem right here, for now I'll give it 8/10.In ep 2: It's really really good but it doesn’t pull me in/doesn’t hold me tethered to anything so I'd keep watching like Reset did, so I might drop it? Since it seems to be a case-by-case drama, I'll drop it after this first case is done.
In ep 4: I'm in love with this cop. He's so nice and amazing and look at all those fond small smiles like a proud dad awww. Forget all I said above, this is a 9.5/10 now and GIMME MORE!
By ep 10: Yes, the same quality is maintained. Show is witty, and manages to fit in tiny moments of mundane humor and heart into any given opportunity as well.
Plus, a good crime thriller would have reasonably matched Criminal/Police sides, and here sometimes the thieves are SO good I almost wanted them to win.? That was quite the polarising but entertaining viewing experience for me.
So everyone, give this a try. Especially if you appreciated the police aspect of Reset. (If you don't know what Reset is, well now you know to check it out. Two birds one stone.)
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Intense crime case storytelling
I even became Youku membership in order to watch this ahead of time. You just cannot stop once you start.The drama tells a story about a police officer (Luo Jian) and a Law student in his final year (Zhuang Wen Jie) in their effort in catch crime syndicate behind lots of ancient relic theft. Every episode is full of suspense since each case is linked with each other. Everything just come into a circle in the very end.
The character development, especially for Zhuang Wen Jie is very nicely done. He lost his parents early in his childhood and bullied in school because his father was a thief. How he survive until adulthood with a somewhat sane mental is already a very high achievement. Thus, I am very much understand why Wang Jun Kai portrayed this character as someone who seems indifferent and emotionless. With that kind of growing up environment, indifferent will be a kind of defense mechanism. Only, because of Wang Jun Kai inexperience, he failed to give more layers to Zhuang Wen Jie indifference. But, the acting can still be considered good enough.
The main character, Luo Jian, played by Zhang Yi is also very heartwarming. I like seeing how he is so protective toward Zhuang Wen Jie. With more episode going in, we will see his past deeper and deeper. Zhang Yi acting is great here. I will certainly take not of this actor in the future.
The ending is great! That smile in the end by Zhuang Wen Jie .... I don't think he ever smile in all previous episodes, making the last smile somewhat more meaningful. I hope we will get season 2 somehow since the ending just hinting more mystery.
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It's okay, but things need to be fixed here and there.
Story:- The plot kinda jumps around too much, and it's a lot to take in. I think it needs improvements on pacing, since it can be quite confusing for audiences.
- Some things just don't make sense, like how Zhuang Wenjie can just walk out of the hospital before being discharged. It's not like he's going to a place that's authorized by the hospital, he's just casually WALKING OUT TO THE FREAKING SNACK STORE. No hospital would allow that lmao.
- It's nice to see that at least they incorporated all the fancy new tech we have and tried to work on character development, otherwise I literally would've quit halfway through the show.
- The first half is decently paced, but the last four episodes are just a huge brain dump. It squeezes everything together and makes it hard to take in all the new information, let alone put it together.
Music:
- A lot of people here seem to have lower ratings for the music. I, however, as a musician myself (and no I don't goof off for 20 minutes per day. I have 11 years of experience with both musical study and AP music theory.), think that the music suits the story decently. I especially like the theme that plays in the last episode when Luo Jian leaves Zhuang Wenjie, potentially forever.
Characters:
- Luo Jian is my favorite. Hands down. He's patient, reasonable, actually has a brain ( w o w . ), and really seems to be the only character that isn't overly exaggerated based on their role. He's also a great friend / parental figure to Wenjie. If anyone was gonna adopt him as a kid it would've been Luo Jian. Zhang Yi is also a great actor for him :]
- Oh my GOD I have so much to say about Zhuang Wenjie. He is the ultimate fat frick Mary Sue. He absolutely follows the meme of “I’M HALF ANGEL HALF DEMON AND EVERYBODY HATES ME AND BULLIES ME AND MY MOM GAVE ME THIS NECKLACE BEFORE SHE DIED AND SHE WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO LOVED ME AND I CRY EVERY DAY CAUSE EVERYBODY BULLIES ME AND I HAVE SCARS ALL OVER MYSELF CAUSE EVERYBODY HATES ME AND I HAVE A BRACELET THAT UNLOCKS ALL THE SECRETS OF MY FAMILY AND I’M SECRETLY A PRINCESS." He's good-looking, ultra-smart, seems to be able to do any freaking thing he touches without any prior experience, has a boohoo tragic backstory, and has--yeah, that necklace from his dead mom or whatever it is. He's just too fake.
Overall, the show's just okay. It needs improvements, and really, I'd prefer if the team took much longer to make it and worked on story & character improvements more so that the show would fare better. But for some reason, I just kept watching it even if it had those flaws. Now that's the magic of funky shows.
[EDIT: Help the more I rewatch this the more silly this shows seems]
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A really interesting watch
As someone who loves crime shows without romance, this is perfect for me. I really enjoyed watching this show. I couldn't wait to watch the next episode after I finish the airing one.PROS
1. Character Development - Through the course of the show, we can see how Wenjie's character grows as he experiences different things.
2. Acting - All the actors did a brilliant job portraying their characters.
3. The mysteries - They crimes and investigations were gripping and fast-paced. It was not dragged out.
4. The crimes and character development is the main focus of show. There is virtually no romance, except of hinted lines.
5. The contrast of characters - The characters are different in their morals, decisions, and thoughts. This made the show more contrasting and interesting. It was much better than having all the people on one side think similarly.
Cons
The only thing I disliked about this is predictability of the villain. It was really obvious who the villain was. It was weird that the ultra-smart and attentive Wenjie didn't notice anything or get suspicious.
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Excellent layered plot, high tech theft and genius ML
If you love mystery and investigation drama, this is for you! The storyline and script was top notch, I never know layer plot can be this interesting and excellent, every case every plot connected to each other like a riddle. At the beginning, you might feel these case isn't related but EVERYTHING actually related to one another. Each episode always left deep impression that make me watch non-stop and hard to wait for new update. High technology theft is scary guys, they show very vividly especially Wenjie our ML genius seem know what criminal thinking, what they will do next and his thinking to solve every mystery is highly great. Captain Luo on other hand, he trust Wenjie, slowly and solve together. Captain Luo ofc have own charisma as police and father figure or friend of Wenjie.Mystery inside mystery, congrats to scripwriter and whole team, cast and director for produce this incredible drama. Do we will get season 2??? The ending was chef kiss, very satisfying!
S2 Please? Not the ending have put marks like that.
The acting? To me all are good, idk why ppl said he is bad but Junkai potrayed Wenjie character very good as a loner, genius and wish to gain loved from his circle. Ofc his acting might be not great but is good.
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Genuine thoughts of the drama!
Great story considering it's a completely original script! And I really hope China can produce more of these quality original scripts and not solely focus on IP adaptations...So for the good parts that I like is the fact that all these cases are somehow interlinked with each other under one big conspiracy. All actors here also acted relatively well and close to their characters, Wang Jun Kai's acting did improved over these years though I would appreciate if he can have more natural portrayal of minor emotional changes when met with sudden situations that caught the character off guard... Zhang Yi definitely have no problems with his acting, perfectly shown his character's growth from a reckless and immature rookie policeman to a matured man with responsibilities!
For some parts that I didn't find it realistic would be the fact that Zhuang Wen Jie being so naive on believing "harmless" people approaching him... Like he is born from a thieve family of generations and being wit and alert of their surrounding dangers would honestly be already an natural born instinct... Yet he trusted the villain so easily with just a few words that can't be crossed-check. And the whole time, both Zhuang wen jie and Luo Jian actually didn't quite trust each other even though they kept saying it. Like as a policeman, they are actually taught how to tackle people who are distrustful of police which obviously Luo Jian didn't use his skills properly instead kept making zhuang wen jie doubt his intentions...
And for most the story, actually it's not zhuang wen jie working with the police to crack the cases but rather him always getting caught in between the thieves and police and ended up struggling internally which side to believe and help.
For the viewers who are confused by the ending message, the dad is most probably not dead and has been actually hiding to see which path his son has chosen to walk. This drama series is supposedly a three-part series from what the producer had claimed which is why there is so many loose ends in this drama but I'm not sure if we would be able to see the other two parts air given how volatile the Chinese entertainment industry is.
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Watch this due to my boredom watching usual romance drama. Although there're some things that make me frustrated but this is really one good police drama.Zhuang Wen Jie (WJ) really makes me frustated. I really want to several times slap his face. He is naive where his not supposed to be & distrusted to someone you should trust.... Yeah I understand his family background really make him can't trust Luo Jian as a police & instead he just trust his dad old friend who clearly involve in his dad death. Where is you logic boy.... Haia....
Luo Jian himself really have one of the best Detective insting. Almost every insting he has toward everything in this drama is eventually come true. And his relationship with WJ make me think there's a little bit spark there... Haha...
This drama from the first case until the last one all interconnected together into one big case. I really like how they connected everything. And the ending, hoho, really give us feeling exciting about the future.... Really hope this drama have another season....
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The feeling of being put between a rock and a hard place
Okay, so I found this drama in Desire Catcher's recommendation lists, and I thought the premise is quite intriguing given its genre for a suspense thriller drama. To be honest, I'm not supposed to watch any dramas until In Between airs because I've got a lot of tasks going on right now (monthly quiz and so on). However, because of this interesting premise, I was tempted to jump back to the drama world and here we go to the review...The story tells about Luo Jian and Zhuang Wenjie who cooperate with each other to solve numerous cases linked to a mysterious mastermind. Actually, we are supposed to have an enemies-to-partners trope given the leads' identity - one is an experienced yet lowkey detective while the other one is a genius aka straight-A student who comes from a family of thieves for 3 generations (big whoop, right?). So, as we dig more into the plot, we are told that Zhuang Wenjie unintentionally involves himself in a painting robbery case, claiming that it is his late mother's most favorite painting. At first, he and Detective Luo don't seem to have a good start, but later on, he begins to acknowledge Detective Luo as his life mentor. Somehow, the villains happen to discover of Zhuang Wenjie's existence and make him their puppet because of his very special identity as Zhuang Yaobai's son (his father was one of the best thieves back before he married Wenjie's mother). Caught amidst the conflict between the police and the thieves, Wenjie has to make a choice for himself - to uphold the justice and law or to unravel the conspiracy behind his father's death 10 years ago.
In the beginning, the plot hooks me from the get-go, and I immediately binged up to 10 episodes. However, the plot starts to go downhill after Ding Shenghuo (one of Zhuang Yaobai's acquaintance) is arrested. The remaining villains are bland for me including Monsieur, the ultimate villain behind all of these crimes. I skipped nearly all of the scenes while trying to piece up everything by envisaging here and there. Also, the writer seemed to have toned down Wenjie's character by making him into a super freaking dumb boy. Come on dude, you shouldn't listen to those thieves' words and just stay still just like how Detective Luo tells him to do - he even doesn't know that he's in cahoots with Monsieur himself, who claims to be his father's senior. Born into a family of thieves has granted him a sense of vigilant and alertness, but why don't you use it in front of Monsieur and instead treat everything as if nothing happened at all (if you just listened to Detective Luo, things wouldn't do haywire, and your life probably wouldn't be in danger since the police is handling the case)? However, I must say that he's good when it comes to deception, better than me of course (it's shown when he keeps making excuses and lies to his friends).
Zhang Yi steals the show's limelight and showcases his acting talent seamlessly as the kind yet wise Detective Luo whereas Karry Wang of TFBOYS is still overshadowed by Zhang Yi's character despite him having more significance and depth. The supporting characters have done their parts well and I'm surprised to see that Fan Shiran is also participating in this drama (still can't get over her toxic character in Dashing Youth lol).
I don't pay much attention to the songs and BGMs so it is a pass to me.
Overall, an eight out of ten. If you're a fan of suspense thriller drama with complicated characters, give it a go. But I do have to warn you that the second half may not be as captivating as the first one. Good luck and happy watching!
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Heists!
I ate this show up. After a handful of episodes, I decided it was the best cdrama I've seen. Mostly because this has some elements that are Very Specific to my interests (heists, thieves, family drama) so obviously, I loved it.Also compared to other cdramas the pacing in this show was the best I've seen (again I've only seen a few). It had really tight storytelling that kept my interest throughout the whole series, though some of the cop stuff got a little boring (I get it! You don't have to keep going through your deductive reasoning again!).
I also really loved the characters. Especially Wenjie. I liked how smart he was and how, while he was still struggling with morals, he ended up making the right choice in the end. His relationship with Captain Luo was also really nice. I'm a big fan of father/son or mentor/mentee relationships.
Also season 2 when????
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Way to kill a show w/ new character introduction midway
Introduction of Su Yue pretty much killed the ENTIRE show.The story started out interesting. Karry Wang wasn't extraordinary but pulled off the young character well enough. The policeman played by Zhang Yi on the other hand was definitely a veteran actor.
The mystery surrounding the father's death is the most interesting part and it continued to be good until Su Yue, female lead cop enters the scene. She pretty much killed the drama's vibe in 2 episodes. I literally can't stand any lines that came out of her mouth. They did tune down her character down but obviously the damage has been done.
Ep 23 on it finally regained its luster so still worth watching overall.
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The cast & whole drama
It started with good story line and i start comfortable with the cast, till ep 15. That su ying so annoying. From excited to watch more make me no mood to continue it. I keep skip at that su ying n her team part. Too much control n arrogant. But glad that was just a while, just from ep 15-16 maybe.. sometime there is a scene that drags on, and makes me angry like I want to help speed up their movement..and there is also the part where the police like to rushing accused, hahaha haih feel like want to slap him..But overall this drama is great, the way criminals manipulate others by gaining their trust first then dropping them slowly, not hurting physically but mentally & psychologically.. main lead also good, genius one?Was this review helpful to you?
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detective drama with a kid partner but went down hill the second half of it
It started really strong start and it had so much potential but the plot went downhill from half of the dramaconnecting all the crimes in the laziest way possible and working the detective work very slowly to the point of boredom
the trust between the kid and the detective had so much potential for some kind of adopting a genius detective but they didn't
they ended it by leaving the kid alone a gain
I loved the angsty parts of it and somewhat thrill that the kid made for the drama but didn't like How things turned in the last few episodes
It's enjoyable watch don't get me wrong but you will skip a little towards the finale
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