Dumbed down version of Gone Girl

Premise is interesting enough and it starts off fairly strongly. Then the story becomes more and more outlandish... and then everything is revealed and explained down to the very last detail. Why??? Do the filmmakers think the audience are 5 year old kiddos? I would have appreciated for more details to be omitted and the audience be free to come up with their own conclusions for some plot points... and this is coming from someone who hates unexplained endings.

Acting wise it is decent, Zhu Yi Long is great and so are Ni Ni and Janice Man. Would have loved to see more of Huang Zi Qi but her role was quite small in the show. Unfortunately the side characters aren't great and broke the immersion a little. Cinematography wasn't good, plenty of zoom ins and closeup shots that are reminiscent of Indian drama serials lol.

Overall was a really meh movie that was somehow vaguely entertaining but at the same time quite forgettable.

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Outlandish plot

The premise was interesting and I thought this would be right up my alley but unfortunately not. First episode started off strong (albeit violently) and my only gripe was the constant time skips that happened in quick succession. Second episode was going well until a barrage of new characters were introduced and I gave up trying to reconcile the adult versions with their kid counterparts. The whole in utero "psychopath test" was starting to annoy me because it seemed way too implausible and far fetched. Maybe if you're able to suspend disbelief but I honestly couldn't. I wouldn't have minded if the show decided to go into the ethics of the whole nature vs nurture debate based on this premise but it decided to veer sharply into sci-fi territory with brain surgeries and whatnot. I threw in the towel at this point since I was watching Beyond Evil at the same time and did not have the time and patience to keep up with the various plot developments of 2 different shows. When I saw the showrunners release a special episode just to clarify the relationships between the characters I realized I made the right choice. It is most definitely NOT a good thing if a show has to dedicate special episodes to make it less confusing to viewers. On the bright side, the acting was excellent, even the kid actors were great.

Conclusion: Watch only if you enjoy brain workouts. If you're looking for a casual serial killer thriller this is not the show for you.

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Kind of boring

So... not sure if I'm just dumb or skipped around too much but I don't quite understand some parts of this show. The gist of plot is about how the Japanese/Nationalist government tries to find a Communist spy within their midst with the codename "Ghost". In order to do so, they decided to lock 5 suspects together in a mansion (lol) and basically "interrogate" (torture) them. None of the characters know who "Ghost" is (except for "Ghost" of course) and can only make educated guesses on who the "Ghost" really is. Hence, what results is a lot of talking, gossiping, and plotting to try and tease out the identity of the "Ghost". This does not make for entertaining viewing when the characters spend chunks of time sitting around a table monologuing and trying to manipulate each other. 38 episodes of this gets old real fast and I had to fast forward so much because I was losing interest. I get that this is a espionage thriller but this is wayyyy too much scheming and talking for a drama. Doesn't help that there is an average of 3 flashbacks per episode to show the backstory of the characters and that is just too many flashbacks come on... Some plot points made zero sense as well. Also, the CGI was horrifically bad and the props looked extremely low budget.

The 2 female characters are Mary Sues. Li Ning Yu especially so with her being beautiful, extremely intelligent, a top rated cryptographer who also coincidentally has 0 flaws. Her relationship with the other female character Gu Xiao Meng was confusing (to me) as she seemed to treat Gu coldly then suddenly revert to being warm and vice versa. It was strange. Chinese social media shipped them together but I don't get it. Censorship like what happened in A couple of Mirrors? Who knows. Actress playing Gu also overacts a fair bit which is cringey.

Conclusion: Plot seems more suited for a movie. Strong propaganda overtones as well considering the time period this drama is set in.

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I'd rather watch paint dry

One word: Boring.

I'm not sure what this drama wanted to achieve. It was slow, cliched (the infamous kdrama meeting as children trope and chaebol patriarch with secret lovechild trope) and I'm not sure what the point of this show was? I skipped around because it was SO SLOW and the only good thing was the nice scenery of Greece. This show is touted as "healing" by some reviews but I felt anything but that. In fact I felt annoyed because nothing was happening. Also the ending sucked apparently from what I read but I can't confirm this as I was wasn't willing to stick around and find out. At least the acting was decent.

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