lexin_chang
Complex, compelling, heartbreaking spy thriller
The Wind Blows From Longxi is an intelligent drama, full of intelligent characters, and it assumes that its viewers will be equally intelligent and able to follow its complex plot.
It is not a show for casual viewers. It starts off with no exposition. For a non-Chinese audience or in fact, for anyone without prior knowledge of the Three Kingdoms and figures like Zhuge Liang, it might be off putting. But your patience will be rewarded if you hang in there, especially in the second half of the show.
The show is worth it for the plot only. As PeachBlossomGoddess pointed out, the scenario is so well-written that by the time shocking twists occur, eveything falls into place and clicks into your mind. How many spies could there really be? How could this guy make such mistakes? How could this fall into this person’s hands? What’s the ultimate goal here? Million questions popped up as we watched, and the show always delivered brilliantly.
Beyond the plot, the meticulous production and top-notch acting elevated a show that could end up being too dry and cerebral. Chen Kun’s Chen Gong and Bai Yu’s Xun Xu are stellar. The brotherhood between them is the emotional anchor of the show. You can tell you’re watching great actors when you you see them playing spies pretending to be someone they’re not, and their ambiguous performance makes you guess who they are truly — like the multilayered plot, these are mutilayered performances by actors who play roles within roles within roles. I bawled a lot in the last episode, which meant for me that not only did the show manage to keep me engaged intellectually through and through, it also emotionally gut-punched me!
Unlike many Chinese shows, it’s relatively short at 24 episodes, and once it reaches the end, it didn’t need to rush through anything, all characters’ arcs make sense, and the plot threads are wrapped up neatly.
It’s my second Ma Boyong’s show after Under the Miscrocope, which with The Wind Blows From Longxi shares themes such as politics, morality, loyalty, sacrifice… I loved that in the end, this was not a clear-cut good vs evil battle, and yet, it also let the integrity and dignity of its main characters shine.
A nearly perfect show, particularly once the story lifts off after the first few episodes, and one of the few I’m tempted to rewatch with the emotional rollercoaster of hindsight.
It is not a show for casual viewers. It starts off with no exposition. For a non-Chinese audience or in fact, for anyone without prior knowledge of the Three Kingdoms and figures like Zhuge Liang, it might be off putting. But your patience will be rewarded if you hang in there, especially in the second half of the show.
The show is worth it for the plot only. As PeachBlossomGoddess pointed out, the scenario is so well-written that by the time shocking twists occur, eveything falls into place and clicks into your mind. How many spies could there really be? How could this guy make such mistakes? How could this fall into this person’s hands? What’s the ultimate goal here? Million questions popped up as we watched, and the show always delivered brilliantly.
Beyond the plot, the meticulous production and top-notch acting elevated a show that could end up being too dry and cerebral. Chen Kun’s Chen Gong and Bai Yu’s Xun Xu are stellar. The brotherhood between them is the emotional anchor of the show. You can tell you’re watching great actors when you you see them playing spies pretending to be someone they’re not, and their ambiguous performance makes you guess who they are truly — like the multilayered plot, these are mutilayered performances by actors who play roles within roles within roles. I bawled a lot in the last episode, which meant for me that not only did the show manage to keep me engaged intellectually through and through, it also emotionally gut-punched me!
Unlike many Chinese shows, it’s relatively short at 24 episodes, and once it reaches the end, it didn’t need to rush through anything, all characters’ arcs make sense, and the plot threads are wrapped up neatly.
It’s my second Ma Boyong’s show after Under the Miscrocope, which with The Wind Blows From Longxi shares themes such as politics, morality, loyalty, sacrifice… I loved that in the end, this was not a clear-cut good vs evil battle, and yet, it also let the integrity and dignity of its main characters shine.
A nearly perfect show, particularly once the story lifts off after the first few episodes, and one of the few I’m tempted to rewatch with the emotional rollercoaster of hindsight.
Was this review helpful to you?
