XiaoQing
This review may contain spoilers
A true gem of a drama that turned out to be much more emotionally impactful than I expected
Premise: I'm totally unfamiliar with the manga/anime so I will only talk about this drama as its own thing. Spoilers ahead.
Qi Hun might speak in different ways to different people. Some might see it mainly as a story about friendship, others as a story about following your dreams and finding your passions, others as a coming-of-age tale, others just as a sports manga adaptation. It’s definitely all of these things, but for me, Qi Hun is first and foremost a story that teaches you about loss and how to deal with it.
Because the drama peaks when Chu Ying disappears, with everything that’s happened before leading to and being in service to that moment, that leaves behind a heart-wrenching void I could only start to process at end of the next 3 episodes of mourning.
I’ve seen some people criticizing the final episodes saying they spent too much time on Shi Guang grieving. But for me, those episodes were sorely needed. If you look at this story as a reflection on loss, you cannot dismiss the healing process with just a couple of scenes. You need to painfully go through the grief so that the reason to live on that you’ll find during that process is truly meaningful. The final, joyful episode 36, which has such a different tone from the previous ones, only works if the 4 episodes before it exist. Shi Guang finally finds in Yu Liang not a substitute for Chu Ying but a new stage of happiness that's only possible thanks to his previous journey with Chu Ying by his side.
The loss this drama is about is first and foremost Shi Guang losing Chu Ying after spending half of his life together, but is also simply losing a Go match and finding the strength to win the next one. Most of the characters are losers each in their own way, as they all lose something important at some point in the story: Hong He, Gu Yu, Shen Yilang, Bai Xiaoxiao, Fang Xu, Yu Liang… each of them has to deal with losing something and overcoming it.
I don’t want to spend too many words on the technical aspects of this drama because the emotional impact it had on me overshadows everything else. It's not a perfect drama quality-wise but it’s solid in every department, from the acting/casting, to the sets, to the direction, editing etc.
I especially love the chemistry the actor playing Shi Guang has with the actors playing Chu Ying and Yu Liang. I think they're the perfect choices for those roles. The child actors shine too.
My main complaint lies with the pacing/writing of the second third of the drama (around episodes 12 to 24) that I think could have been handled better and sometimes felt filler-y. That part felt a bit like a downgrade compared to the very strong first part.
In conclusion, I went into Qi Hun thinking it was mainly a successful sports manga adaptation, but for me it turned out to be a different thing entirely. It also helped me deal with my personal losses and appreciate some things in my own life, and it will forever hold a special place in my heart for that.
Qi Hun might speak in different ways to different people. Some might see it mainly as a story about friendship, others as a story about following your dreams and finding your passions, others as a coming-of-age tale, others just as a sports manga adaptation. It’s definitely all of these things, but for me, Qi Hun is first and foremost a story that teaches you about loss and how to deal with it.
Because the drama peaks when Chu Ying disappears, with everything that’s happened before leading to and being in service to that moment, that leaves behind a heart-wrenching void I could only start to process at end of the next 3 episodes of mourning.
I’ve seen some people criticizing the final episodes saying they spent too much time on Shi Guang grieving. But for me, those episodes were sorely needed. If you look at this story as a reflection on loss, you cannot dismiss the healing process with just a couple of scenes. You need to painfully go through the grief so that the reason to live on that you’ll find during that process is truly meaningful. The final, joyful episode 36, which has such a different tone from the previous ones, only works if the 4 episodes before it exist. Shi Guang finally finds in Yu Liang not a substitute for Chu Ying but a new stage of happiness that's only possible thanks to his previous journey with Chu Ying by his side.
The loss this drama is about is first and foremost Shi Guang losing Chu Ying after spending half of his life together, but is also simply losing a Go match and finding the strength to win the next one. Most of the characters are losers each in their own way, as they all lose something important at some point in the story: Hong He, Gu Yu, Shen Yilang, Bai Xiaoxiao, Fang Xu, Yu Liang… each of them has to deal with losing something and overcoming it.
I don’t want to spend too many words on the technical aspects of this drama because the emotional impact it had on me overshadows everything else. It's not a perfect drama quality-wise but it’s solid in every department, from the acting/casting, to the sets, to the direction, editing etc.
I especially love the chemistry the actor playing Shi Guang has with the actors playing Chu Ying and Yu Liang. I think they're the perfect choices for those roles. The child actors shine too.
My main complaint lies with the pacing/writing of the second third of the drama (around episodes 12 to 24) that I think could have been handled better and sometimes felt filler-y. That part felt a bit like a downgrade compared to the very strong first part.
In conclusion, I went into Qi Hun thinking it was mainly a successful sports manga adaptation, but for me it turned out to be a different thing entirely. It also helped me deal with my personal losses and appreciate some things in my own life, and it will forever hold a special place in my heart for that.
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