The winds of change.
This slow paced suspense thriller by the director of The Bad Kids is told with such dry humor and irony that it initially conceals the story's intense, almost unbearable pathos. It is about how the irresistible force of the winds of change profoundly affects the lives of two generations of Hualin. Hualin is a fictional Northeastern town where the entire economy was built around a state owned enterprise, Huagang Steel, which is said to be modelled on either Angang Steel or Benxi Steel. The mill employs most of the town in some capacity and runs everything from its schools to its hospitals. This economic model collapsed in the late 1990s, displacing hundreds of thousands of workers across China. Towns like Hualin, where one enterprise comprised practically the entire economy were particularly hard hit.The drama opens in 2016, where the main protagonist Wang Xiang, an irascible old taxi driver helps his brother-in-law Gong Biao hunt down scammers who tried to knock off his taxi medallion. They rope in Ma Desheng, a retired disillusioned cop turned ballroom dancer to aid them. Their determined, bungling poking around results in a murder that Wang Xiang insists must be linked to a cold dismemberment case at the mill that they had investigated almost two decades ago. This takes them back to 1997/1998, which was a turning point in all three lives that they survived but never quite recovered from.
Fan Wei's portrayal of the older Wang Xiang's grief frozen expression and his glittering angry sad gaze is brilliant and evocative. I almost couldn't see Qin Hao in middle-aged Gong Biao, who still somehow manages to hang on to that optimism and naivete of youth. And Chen Minghao never fails to impress with his ability to combine comedy with tragedy - his ballroom dancing left me speechless! I enjoyed the chemistry and rapport of the older cast immensely. Only veteran actors of this caliber are able to stay in character and wear the passage of time and hardship through multi-decade transformations so effortlessly. In the present, they are shadows of their former selves, displaced by the reform and changes that swept across China as it opened up to change. I am surprised by how candid this drama is about how these economic reforms did not benefit everybody.
Back in 1997, the three friends are in their prime. Wang Xiang is the important train driver that transports raw materials to the mill; Gong Biao is a rare young college graduate groomed to advance in the mill's senior management; and Ma Desheng is a hot shot detective in charge of shocking murders that shook the town. The young Wang Yang sees the writing on the wall with respect to the mill's future and resists his father's efforts to help him secure a position there, seeking employment in the nascent and seedier private sector instead. There he becomes fast friends with Shen Mo and Fu Weijun. Unlike the older generation who are still in denial, this youthful trio are quicker to accept and adapt to the rapidly changing environment. The bond of their friendship is just as strong and as real as that of their elders. The younger cast impressively hold their own well up against the veterans. This has to be Li Gengxi's best, least petulant portrayal but I still find her to be the weakest link in the cast overall. While her performance was quite good, I did not like or empathise with her Shen Mo the way I felt compelled by and rooted for both Wang Yang (lLiu Yitei) and Fu Weijun (Jiang Qiming).
In terms of the mystery plot, it is very well designed with a few good twists but is overall straightforward and easy to understand. The clues are intriguing and well planted early on and an outline of what happened emerges at a slow but riveting pace. When all is revealed, everything fits together and makes sense. It is true that this drama is a much bigger story than the mystery itself but the unravelling of the case is the centrepiece that pulls the sub-plots and narrative that spans two decades together. It is a very dark story that unfolds during a time of inescapable change that everyone is helpless up against. At the same time, they go through some utterly devastating events. The passage of time doesn't dull anything; in fact to them decades later it is still as if it all happened just yesterday. Poor Wang Xiang and to a lesser extent, his buddies are in limbo, suspended in this dreadful, long autumn. The drama tries to end with closure followed by a positive epiphany; to move forward and not look back 往前走/wǎng qián zǒu. Yet I can't shake the overwhelming sense of how beautiful but quietly helpless and tragic this story is. Not everyone will be able to understand or relate to the late 1990s backdrop or enjoy the slow pace but for me this is the best drama I have watched this year (as of May 2023). I rate it 9.5/10:0.
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Suspense
The multiple timelines really brings everything together, and this is the first CDrama I watched that wasn't some happy and chill romantic comedy related to divorce or high school. Very dark, thrilling story, with everything coming together at the end, making it pretty hard to rewatch but amazing the first time around. The suspense is real, with amazing music and cinematography and actors that make the characters feel so realistic. I don't usually write reviews, but this piece of art really stuck to me and I rank it among the same tier as TV Shows such as Game of Thrones (earlier seasons), and it truly felt like an adventure watching it with my native chinese parents who understood it better than me most likely. Of course, there were some tiny plot points not explained in the end but they were not too important, and everything truly tied together and made the story bittersweet, as it truly was dark and sad with some hidden and obvious messages towards the end. WATCH IT 10/10Was this review helpful to you?
Riveting and redeeming
I loved this drama. The storytelling is top notch and the cast was well chosen. The veterans stood shone brightly, well supporter by a younger cast eager to prove their mettle. I enjoyed how the cast were honest and believable in their portrayals, without overacting or overbrooding. The direction was good and while some may feel the pace is slow, I would say it allows us to savour the plot and appreciate the witty and beautiful script. No wonder this drama is one of the highest ranking drama on Douban.Was this review helpful to you?
The season is long, but the wait is worth it.
The Long Season is a thriller drama that aired from the end of April to the 1st of May, establishing itself as the highest rated drama (9.4) in Douban this year. But what makes this drama so special? Many answers can arise to this question. The first is that The Long Season is not a conventional suspense/thriller drama, but a drama that also deals with family, human and even social issues. The second is that the drama is composed of a narrative that, although slow, provides layers that add richness to the drama.We are introduced to a father who, together with his brother-in-law and a retired investigator, are looking for the truth about his son's death and it is in this common thread that we find the third answer to the question that starts this review, which is the ability to move between different timelines that seek to show the before/during and after the key event that guides the narrative, and also the unexpected developments that follow.
Returning to the central plot, the search for the culprit / the truth behind one or more murders is not a new theme, but, as previously mentioned, the way the plot develops in The Long Season is different, as it is similar to the plays lined up dominoes that when one is pushed overthrows the others, the plot of The Long Season develops from the investigation of a case of "hit and run" by a taxi with a false license plate, from this point on the viewer is invited to immerse yourself in the father's search for who he believes is his son's murderer going back to events in the late 90's in which the protagonist Wang Xiang was just a train driver trying to keep his job until a murder case of a young girl changes everything.
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So well done, that it pains to watch
This drama it is so well done on all levels, the performance of all professionals it is so outstanding, that the end result for me was that I could take it in only in small doses. No binge watching for me. This is something to be savoured. But also something to be weary of: the subject matter is dark and its rendering touches one deeply. It reminded me my first watching of Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of "The Shining", with Jack Nicholson in the leading role. I was literally hiding behind the door frame and looked at the TV with one eye only, ready to take refuge behind the wall. I am a grown up now, no hiding behind walls for me. Just pretending to have chores to do, so that I can take in, in small doses, this beautifully crafted Chinese series. Also, among the great cast all around, it was great for me to recognize actress Liu Lin whom I first spotted in a support role in "The Story of Minglan" series, of 2018. There, she and many other so called support role actors, delivered to the hilt, to the point that there were more "main role" performances than the casting presumed to be.Was this review helpful to you?
