AlternativePerspective
This review may contain spoilers
China's Stealth Surveillance Security Forces: Silently Tracking & Watching you
THE PLOT
Miao Fei (brilliantly portrayed by Dai Si), stars as the eldest daughter of Miao Huan Yang, a successful wealthy businessman who founded Ding Hua, a privately owned company that deals with valuable mineral ore using its proprietary artificial synthesis technology. Life looks plush and rosy for the her until she is confronted with news of her fiance's sudden suicide as well as her father's remand by the China National Security Agency for suspected trade manipulation activities. With all this sudden chaos and disruption, Miao Fei plunges into grief and becomes an unwillingly pawn for an unnamed Commercial Spy, who threatens to expose her father's past illicit deeds to the police. At the cusp of leaking the entire core data behind her Father's company's proprietary artificial synthesis technology to this Spy, Miao Fei decides to cooperate with the China National Security Special Ops team to induce the main mastermind behind a shady Criminal Organisation to come out of the dark. Under the operative "Storm Eye", the China National Security Ops team and Miao Fei eventually work together to piece the missing clues behind the bigger conspiracy linking her fiance's murder, Ding Hua's data theft and related illegal ore smuggling activities.
THE PROTAGONISTS
The China National Security Special Ops team are portrayed as the main beacon of hope and justice in this story. All security agents are trained to work silently in the background and surprise their unsuspecting targets, because their sophisticated surveillance monitoring system is able track any individual's location and identity from their gait and bug every single phone conversation where there is a signal. The main leads are An Jing (played by Yang Mi) and Ma Shang (played by Zhang Bin bin). The former ex-lovers are uncannily reunited in this "Storm Eye" operative and are forced to work together in order to penetrate the mystery enshrouding Dinghua's proprietary data leaks.
THE BADDIES (SPOILER ALERT)
The shady characters whom the viewers are made to suspect, are not the real criminals. Instead, they are portrayed as imperfect humans who are honest enough with themselves to admit that they will behave in less-than-honorable ways to pursue quick advantages and financial gains.
"Sleeper", the main mastermind behind the information theft of Dinghua's proprietary technology and murder of Miao Fei's fiance, appears to operate independently on his own terms outside the Underground Organisation. As his code name implies, he lies "sleeping" throughout most of the drama because he is very successful at manipulating people around him, while quietly advancing towards his goal: to access the coveted trade secrets of Dingua's proprietary artificial synthesis technology. I find Lawrence Wang's portrayal of this sinister psychopath convincing.
"Bat", is the commercial gun-for-hire. A mysterious man few words and of little-known origins, that "Bat" weaves in and out of the scenes to strike when he is being instructed to by his higher boss of the Underground Organisation, without having a clue who the highest boss is, or what their main agenda entails. As the show's tropey psychopath, he appears scary but is in reality, a wandering blind bat flying aimlessly in the dark. I find this character rather comedic.
ZHANG BB SHINES
I really enjoyed watching Zhang Bin bin's portrayal of Ma Shang as a suave, affable and quick-witted NSM agent and filial caring son. I thought that Yang Mi's portrayal of An Jing as a perfectionist workaholic was on point. As An
Jing's character is scripted to be highly capable NSM agent
who takes her job too seriously to have a social life, Yang Mi's lack of effusiveness or expression for most scenes seem suitable for an Ice-Queen that only shows one emotion (frustration) when things go awry and beyond her plans.
PREDICTABLY STRAIGHTFORWARD ROMANCE
Romance isn't the core focus of the plot. Your heart is more likely to flutter from the anticipation of the NSM nabbing a criminal than a romantic confession from the lead actors. Ma Shang's yearning for his old flame, An Jing, is believable as he appears to constantly take the initiative to woo an ice-queen who is too hung up on her past. There is only one romantic rival for An Jing's romance, but he eventually dies off as most sacrificial martyrs do. An Jing eventually warms up to Ma Shang only when the mysterious circumstances surrounding her late father's car accident and death starts to come to light and they track down the culprit. As with all happy endings, they rekindle their romance as the Storm Eye mission concludes.
CEREBRAL PIECING OF A PUZZLE
There isn't a lot of impressive fighting or chasing scenes in this drama, only a couple of physical brawls seen in the last few episodes. Most of the "action" lies in how the NSM agents piece the missing clues together through countless interrogation interviews, surveillance footage and insider inputs. But the clues are intricately spread out throughout the first few episodes, so the main conspiracy linking the proprietary data theft, planned murders and underground smuggling only make sense after the 10th episode. Overall, this drama gives a fairly realistic portrayal of how criminals and security agents operate and I like there is a happy decent ending.
Miao Fei (brilliantly portrayed by Dai Si), stars as the eldest daughter of Miao Huan Yang, a successful wealthy businessman who founded Ding Hua, a privately owned company that deals with valuable mineral ore using its proprietary artificial synthesis technology. Life looks plush and rosy for the her until she is confronted with news of her fiance's sudden suicide as well as her father's remand by the China National Security Agency for suspected trade manipulation activities. With all this sudden chaos and disruption, Miao Fei plunges into grief and becomes an unwillingly pawn for an unnamed Commercial Spy, who threatens to expose her father's past illicit deeds to the police. At the cusp of leaking the entire core data behind her Father's company's proprietary artificial synthesis technology to this Spy, Miao Fei decides to cooperate with the China National Security Special Ops team to induce the main mastermind behind a shady Criminal Organisation to come out of the dark. Under the operative "Storm Eye", the China National Security Ops team and Miao Fei eventually work together to piece the missing clues behind the bigger conspiracy linking her fiance's murder, Ding Hua's data theft and related illegal ore smuggling activities.
THE PROTAGONISTS
The China National Security Special Ops team are portrayed as the main beacon of hope and justice in this story. All security agents are trained to work silently in the background and surprise their unsuspecting targets, because their sophisticated surveillance monitoring system is able track any individual's location and identity from their gait and bug every single phone conversation where there is a signal. The main leads are An Jing (played by Yang Mi) and Ma Shang (played by Zhang Bin bin). The former ex-lovers are uncannily reunited in this "Storm Eye" operative and are forced to work together in order to penetrate the mystery enshrouding Dinghua's proprietary data leaks.
THE BADDIES (SPOILER ALERT)
The shady characters whom the viewers are made to suspect, are not the real criminals. Instead, they are portrayed as imperfect humans who are honest enough with themselves to admit that they will behave in less-than-honorable ways to pursue quick advantages and financial gains.
"Sleeper", the main mastermind behind the information theft of Dinghua's proprietary technology and murder of Miao Fei's fiance, appears to operate independently on his own terms outside the Underground Organisation. As his code name implies, he lies "sleeping" throughout most of the drama because he is very successful at manipulating people around him, while quietly advancing towards his goal: to access the coveted trade secrets of Dingua's proprietary artificial synthesis technology. I find Lawrence Wang's portrayal of this sinister psychopath convincing.
"Bat", is the commercial gun-for-hire. A mysterious man few words and of little-known origins, that "Bat" weaves in and out of the scenes to strike when he is being instructed to by his higher boss of the Underground Organisation, without having a clue who the highest boss is, or what their main agenda entails. As the show's tropey psychopath, he appears scary but is in reality, a wandering blind bat flying aimlessly in the dark. I find this character rather comedic.
ZHANG BB SHINES
I really enjoyed watching Zhang Bin bin's portrayal of Ma Shang as a suave, affable and quick-witted NSM agent and filial caring son. I thought that Yang Mi's portrayal of An Jing as a perfectionist workaholic was on point. As An
Jing's character is scripted to be highly capable NSM agent
who takes her job too seriously to have a social life, Yang Mi's lack of effusiveness or expression for most scenes seem suitable for an Ice-Queen that only shows one emotion (frustration) when things go awry and beyond her plans.
PREDICTABLY STRAIGHTFORWARD ROMANCE
Romance isn't the core focus of the plot. Your heart is more likely to flutter from the anticipation of the NSM nabbing a criminal than a romantic confession from the lead actors. Ma Shang's yearning for his old flame, An Jing, is believable as he appears to constantly take the initiative to woo an ice-queen who is too hung up on her past. There is only one romantic rival for An Jing's romance, but he eventually dies off as most sacrificial martyrs do. An Jing eventually warms up to Ma Shang only when the mysterious circumstances surrounding her late father's car accident and death starts to come to light and they track down the culprit. As with all happy endings, they rekindle their romance as the Storm Eye mission concludes.
CEREBRAL PIECING OF A PUZZLE
There isn't a lot of impressive fighting or chasing scenes in this drama, only a couple of physical brawls seen in the last few episodes. Most of the "action" lies in how the NSM agents piece the missing clues together through countless interrogation interviews, surveillance footage and insider inputs. But the clues are intricately spread out throughout the first few episodes, so the main conspiracy linking the proprietary data theft, planned murders and underground smuggling only make sense after the 10th episode. Overall, this drama gives a fairly realistic portrayal of how criminals and security agents operate and I like there is a happy decent ending.
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