la cecile

This is the best cdrama of 2025. Technically? Directing, cinematography, acting are all top tier. Writing is great too (tho Tong Yulan's plot armor lowkey bothered me lol). And the SOUND DESIGN 👏👏👏👏👏 this might actually be the best sound design in any cdrama hands down.

I love how this drama actually respects the victims. It doesn't glorify their suffering or torture for shock value. The pain stays in your imagination as the viewer. This drama also shows how fascism turns ordinary people into killing machines for "the emperor" and how it destroys the humanity of both victims AND perpetrators.

I usually don't like films or dramas with this kind of theme bc most of them fall into that narrow nationalistic narrative. So yeah, it's refreshing to watch an anti fascist drama, especially right now when fascism is literally rising again all over the world.

I understand Arakawa's feelings. Frustrated with the system he is a part of, alienated for not fully belonging to any group, tired of watching cruelty normalized while people act like it's normal, unsure whether his small acts of decency even matter in the grand scheme of things.