One of my fav movies!

Okay, so this is a Zhang Yimou film so you should already have high expectations and this one absolutely delivered! The main leads' love story is so sweet and tragic. I cried so much it was insane. When she realizes he does really care for her because they spent the night together and when she didn't want to have sex he was perfectly content with just holding her in his arms.

One of the things I wanted to touch on is Zhou Dongyu's acting. I first saw her in Sparrow 麻雀 and honestly I felt her character was so whiney and the fake crying was just really bad. I think this is where having a good director and a good script really pulls its weight. Her acting was so good and when she cried it was really believable.

I will leave it at that because you should really watch it for yourself!

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I got through this mostly because of Ren Jialun's gorgeously handsome face

Seriously? This had potential but it did not deliver. I got through this mostly because of Ren Jialun's gorgeously handsome face. Buckle up, cuz I have a lot to say. FYI I'm basically focusing on the two main leads, the review would be too long otherwise.

Let's be honest, based on how long it took for this drama to finally air, you can guess its got train wreck energy. They filmed this in 2017, but couldn't release it because of censorship stuff until 2020. It was also originally filmed for 80 FREAKIN EPISODES. That's a lot for a C-drama! Then it got cut down to the 49 episodes of just meh.

CASTING
Ren Jialun (Ye Chong): He's a good actor, so I really don't have any criticisms. Just wish they didn't dub him. I think his voice would've been fine for his character. On the other hand, I've heard that people say his voice sounds like he can't catch his breath.

Li Man (He Ying): I didn't realize this until later but she was in freaking Curse of the Golden Flower. Based on this drama you would've never guessed she would've ever been in a Zhang Yimou film. As in her acting really isn't good here because of how the character is written. I can't say it's necessarily a casting problem, more so an issue with the scriptwriters and director.

CHARACTER PORTRAYLS
Ren Jialun (Ye Chong): His character was actually quite sweet. He's stiff at times, but that comes with the job of being a Communist spy in the Japanese Army during the occupation. He's also just genuinely unhappy and the only thing that seems to bring some light into his life is He Ying. I think when it comes to He Ying he def shows a lot of emotion behind the facade. Him bringing flowers home to her but saying he saw them and thought they were pretty, but not specifically saying they were for her...but we all know. Him comforting her when she's upset and putting his hand on hers, etc. If you're looking for much more cutesy stuff, besides the end scene ish, what I just described basically sums it up. Sorry, folks.

Li Man (Hey Ying): What on earth? Her character was really dumb and childish. In one scene the Japanese are trying to set her up and get her to reveal that her and Ye Chong are Communists. She immediately takes the bait and spills the beans. Like how dumb are you? You don't just tell people you don't know that you're playing for the other team.

PLOT
Why was He Ying's character even in this? She wasn't really in that many scenes for being described as the female lead. Before watching, I thought she was actually going to be some type of spy or something, not some dumb girl just trying to act the part. Also, when they cut a lot of episodes they cut out the scenes that really solidified He Ying and Ye Chong's feelings for each other. The hug when they basically see each other for the last time is all in their heads. Cutting those scenes (you can find them on YouTube) absolutely deprived the audience of the feeling of warmth from seeing the characters' behave in ways that say, "I love you" when it probably won't be said aloud. I think that was quite cruel for the director to do and a poor choice in terms of the plot. On the other hand, when have Chinese directors really ever cared for the audiences' feelings?

Also, Ye Chong and his brother's backgrounds weren't believable at all. But their dynamic is cute. I actually skipped to the end around episode 48 or something because I found out Ye Chong died on the way to the place he's always wanted to go (Yang 'An) to meet the love of his life (He Ying). It took me quite a bit to eventually go back and watch the parts that I missed. I feel Ye Chong's death was kind of dumb, it was heroic because he saved a lot of people and sacrificed himself, but seriously they should've just given us the happy ending for putting us through it all. Like, you deprive us of the solidification of their feelings for each other and then make Ye Chong die when he's so close to potentially being happy...it was too much and hurt the plot. A good tragedy will give the audience something to really hold onto and then rip it away with a valid reason for why the characters can't be together. But the drama is a train wreck because there wasn't even much of a love story. In Ye Chong's last words to He Ying he doesn't even say his feelings for her, he's basically like, "yeah, you'll be fine without me." So the audience mourns what your plot lacks not the "love story" you gave us.

With these Republican Era spy war dramas, it's safe to assume that the main couple will not end up together for various reasons due to the National Allegory. This is basically where war and the current political situations really consume the characters' lives and love is just a side effect. Often you'll have a character devote their life to this heroic thing, but the National Allegory says, "it's okay because even though they've given their life, things will be better for future generations!"

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Worth Watching

I originally wanted to watch this movie because it has some of my favorite actors and actresses in it (Song Yi, Zhang Ruoyun, Zhu Yilong, Ni Ni). I'm also a big fan of Republican Era movies and dramas.

For some of my fav actors and actresses, it ended up being like 30 seconds of screen time, which was the result of there being so many characters. I personally feel it was too many characters and it took away from the actual story and made it confusing, but that's also coming from someone who didn't grow up in China and never had a Chinese history lesson. At the same time, I totally get why the directors and creators behind the movie did it this way. It's a Chinese movie and not one that was really meant to be rolled out to international audiences. I suspect the average Chinese national wouldn't have this issue since they probably learned about all of those people in their history class lol. The point of this movie was to commemorate all of those who took part in founding the CCP, which is the reason there are so many characters and so many famous actors and actresses.

As someone who is generally uneducated about Chinese history, this was a good opener to learning more about the events of that period and how spread out the movement was. Now I'm more familiar with the names. I even paused to look up some names to learn more about their role in Chinese history and the CCP. Although it did have a lot of characters with short screen times, it did focus on a larger group of people whom the audience gets deeper insight into their lives. The film did a good job of depicting this idea of a bright future, in which the youth of China will continue to bring forth a new and better China. The interaction between the older generations and younger ones and the eventual handoff of a country is a theme within this film that I think was portrayed quite nicely. I think the film also does a good job depicting how passionate people were at the time regarding their beliefs. Overall, I think the movie was decent, I learned something and got to see my favorite actors and actresses!

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I Fell in Love with Zhu Yilong

I fell in love with Zhu Yilong because of this drama.

THIS IS A TRUE SPY WAR DRAMA. In this drama, you really get to see the intricacies of how spies keep their identities a secret, how information is passed among the party members, and the amount of vetting to become a party member. In other Republican Era dramas with a spy aspect to them, a lot of times I see characters telling other characters their identity, which is unrealistic. The character development throughout the drama was done quite well.

This drama is really good at depicting why people were drawn towards the communist side. Even if people think it's wrong they should at least be open to understanding why and how people were drawn to this ideology. I've seen other dramas with a similar nature and nationalistic sense in terms of communism receive heavy criticism because of CCP propaganda. In all honesty, you read the synopsis, so you should know it's a part of the package. If you can't handle any mention of communism or an ounce of CCP propaganda (all the while ingesting your own country's propaganda) then I suggest you watch a different genre than the Republican Era. But, for those of you who are interested in or love the calamity, history, heartbreak, and raw human emotion of this genre you will not be disappointed. It's a little lengthy, but it's high-budget with beautiful cinematography, good storytelling, and an amazing cast.

The Cast:
Hands down an amazing cast! I had seen Tong Yao in Like A Flowing River before so she was familiar to me. Seeing Mickey Yuan was a pleasant surprise since I saw him in Rookie Agent Rogue. Over the years I've seen Wang Yang in a variety of different roles and honestly, I'm always impressed by him. Wang Yang and Zhu Yilong have the ability to play a variety of different characters in dramas with varying intensity levels. I feel like that ability proves how good their acting is because they're not being type-casted.

This drama had some really intense moments and I think Zhu Yilong nailed them. Another review said that you could tell Zhu Yilong really poured his heart into this role and honestly they're 100% correct. The vein in Zhu Yilong's forehead that pops out whenever Lin Nansheng is concentrating, enraged, stressed, etc. is captivating and phenomenal. His execution of Lin Nansheng's character made me fall in love with him.

I felt that Tong Yao didn't have much chemistry with Zhu Yilong. I think Zhu Yilong and Zhu Zhu (Lan Jie) had better chemistry. They are very cute and sweet together and what he does for her gives Lin Nansheng the "all-around nice guy" title. But ehh, this isn't a romance drama so I rest my case. BUT, we are blessed with Zhu Yizhen and Lin Nansheng confirming their feelings for each other!

The Story:
Overall, it was good. I think the beginning was a little slow, especially the scenes with the senior KMT leaders, but I get why those were part of the drama. The audience needed to see and understand the internal conflicts and suspicions amongst the characters as well as understand each character's character.

I think the drama paints a marvelous picture of how people get to where they are based on ideologies and personal strength in beliefs. At the very beginning, we see how strong Chen Moqun's (Wang Yang) loyalty to the Nationalists is. But after he's set up and made to look like a traitor, he actually becomes one. At first, for both the audience and characters it's hard to believe he'd do such a thing. But we later learn that what Chen Moqun values most is his own life. We see this when he sets himself up to still have a foothold amongst the Nationalists when the Japanese are defeated. This is the difference between Chen Moqun and Lin Nansheng. Chen Moqun is ultimately a coward and cares more about saving his own skin than his own country. This is devastatingly disappointing for Lin Nansheng. I think this drama perfectly depicts why and how the people were pushed towards communism. We see this through the eyes of Lin Nansheng. As he continues to grow he starts losing faith in the Nationalists due to various events. He loses his brothers due to poor leadership and witnesses the corruption of Nationalist party members. Slowly, he realizes that his ideas of what a nation should look like no longer align with the Nationalists, so he switches sides. I think that Zhu Yizhen's character was pertinent in opening the door for him to switch sides.

Sometimes I felt that Zhu Yizhen's character was almost too perfect and if Lin Nansheng had really worked side by side with her for a long period of time his view of her in that way might have been disrupted. The question is whether he'd still like her. Part of the reason why he likes her is possibly because he sees her as perfect.

Other:
The cinematography was amazing. The scene in which the main leads have been shot in the alleyway and we get a close-up of Lin Nansheng's fingers inching their way toward Zhu Yizhen's is beautiful and heart-wrenching. The camera then pans out and gives us a shot of them from above sprawled out and injured on the ground amongst the snow…truly beautiful and insane. Oh, and the scene where Lin Nansheng imagines seeing Zhu Yizhen in her school uniform was also really beautiful. The angles, the colors, and the costumes were all wonderful. I enjoyed how the costumes were pretty period-accurate. The colors are sort of dark and subdued which matches the events and happenings around the characters. I also loved how there was limited use (if at all) of blurring filters. Close-up shots of actors' faces showed pores and five O'clock shadows. This really contributed to the realness and rawness that is felt when watching this drama.

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Good Palate Cleanser Drama!

STORY: I felt like there were parts of the plot that were kind of all over the place. Like the mystery that the ML is trying to solve about the 8th Prince kind of gets left in the dust until the end of the drama. For a good portion of the middle of the drama, it's not really talked about. Another instance is when they visited the Falcon Tribe. I thought that the characters they met there would resurface later, but that didn't really happen. There's a girl and her brother that they meet and the girl likes the SML Chu Xiuyan, but nothing comes of it so I'm not sure the reason it was added.

ACTING/CAST: Overall, it was pretty decent. I felt at times the acting was overdone. Especially, with the SFL, Rou Rou. I read in the comments that people thought she was annoying (this was before watching the drama) and I thought people were just overreacting. After watching the drama I completely see what they mean. I thought her character was overdone. For example, the FL and ML's romance was halted because the FL didn't want to make the SFL sad since the SFL couldn't be with her love at the time. So the FL and ML basically couldn't spend time together. I thought this was unnecessary and dumb.

As for the FL, her character was sometimes childish and she sometimes lacked the grace and etiquette of a general's wife/ a lady from her time at times. For example, when the princess of the Falcon Tribe comes to stay at her manor. Despite being childish at times, I feel her character was very brave, quick-witted, and emotionally and socially intelligent. Firstly, the love for her mother is very strong. She volunteers to marry the general in place of her sister to protect her mother. Secondly, we see her stall an attack on her manor, holding off the enemy for long enough for the general to come back and help out. She is creative and quick-witted, by putting the general's armor on and telling the others to make it appear as if more people are there protecting the manor. Although it's the general who technically comes to the rescue, she states to his right-hand man that without the general they are all dead. We also see her social and emotional intelligence when dealing with her sisters. She knows exactly what they're up to and the words to say to shut them down.

In terms of the ML, I felt his character was meant to seem too perfect, when in fact he was far from it. In the middle of the drama, the two end up in an argument over the future of the general's aide (SML). This eventually leads to the FL returning to stay with her mother for a bit. His character becomes overbearing, controlling, and rude, and not in a sexy way. When it's found out that the FL is pregnant, the ML says to the physician, "I'm not asking how she's doing, I'm asking how the baby is." I felt this line deviated from how the audience is supposed to view his character....loving and warm. I think he has a few of those moments where he deviates in that way, where you expect him to console his wife or be more loving, but he just isn't. When the FL lead returns home because of the argument between her and the general, the general comes to her home and says to her mother that it's his fault. But to me, I felt he was just sort of saving face and he wasn't 100% sincere. Otherwise, he cares for the FL and loves her. Perhaps he's a bit socially awkward in terms of confrontation in his relationship.

There are definitely misunderstandings between the main couple due to lack of communication, but nothing that really really irritated me. In general, I felt the drama could be slow at times, but I think this is a good drama if you need something light to cleanse your palate between intense dramas.

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The Chemistry b/t the leads...OMG

Okay, first things first, the chemistry between Yan Yikuan and Song Yi is hands down the best I've ever seen! I watched Love in Hanyuan back in 2020 or 2021 (Yes, I'm just getting around to the review) and since then I've seen probably more than 30 C dramas. The only other one where I've seen chemistry at this level would be Maid's Revenge/Forever Love with Chen Fangtong and Dai Gaozheng.

Acting/Cast: I was really excited to watch this one because of Song Yi since I saw her in The Disguiser. Her acting is good in this, but since Love in Hanyuan, she's definitely improved and matured. As for Yan Yikuan, this is my first and only time ever seeing him. I'd love to see them together again in the future, but so far it hasn't happened.

Story:
The plot was decent. Don't expect this to be a very accurate or realistic spy drama, because it's just not. There are a lot of situations that happen that are just not very realistic. Instead, it's got your typical toxic relationship between the main couple set in the Republican Era. Again, the chemistry between the two actors really brings it to the next level, so the typical toxic relationship trope is bearable. The toxic indecisiveness of their feelings comes with the territory, but I really didn't like one particular time in which the FL waits for the ML at the church all day and he finally shows up, but he just calls her mom to pick her up and abandons her. I felt that was too cruel and it made me sort of hate his character.

Also, I've seen so many c dramas where the moms are useless money-grubbing burdens. I understand the mom's character is pertinent to the FL's character development because, without a useless mom the FL wouldn't be perceived as so pitiful, wouldn't be pushed to grow up, learn new skills, and provide for the two of them. At the same time, it's annoying and kinda a sad portrayal of mothers and women since it's so overused.

I love how much we can see that the ML cares for the FL. Even during the breakup portion and he's engaged to her best friend, he's still 100% more concerned about our FL like when she's sick or if she lacks an umbrella in the rain type of thing. I think his care makes his character redeemable after abandoning her at the church. Otherwise, I would still find him despicable and cowardly.

There were some parts where I felt there were holes in the plot. Like when the ML takes over and moves into the FL's house and the FL becomes his maid. I feel like it's kind of forgotten that it was her house. There's this one part where the ML at the time is engaged to the FL's best friend. The best friend brings some food over to cook for the ML. Both the FL and ML don't tell the best friend that the FL is the ML's maid. So during this whole cooking ordeal, the best friend becomes sort of suspicious because our FL knows what the ML likes to eat and doesn't like to eat and the FL also knows where the apron in the kitchen is. To which I say...it was her house previously! Obviously, she had maids when living in the house and we know from prior episodes that she didn't know how to cook before, but it was her house, so like it's not that weird????

I think the part where the SML loses his mind when finding out he was betrayed by the ML and the FL (to whom he was engaged) was a bit overdone.

The ending:
When I first watched this drama, it wrecked me because I thought it wasn't a happy ending and that the so-called happy part was just in the FL's mind. But I recently went back and rewatched the ending and it wasn't all in her head. It is a happy ending, there's just sort of a quick fake-out that the director does to mess with the audience.

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A must watch if you're interested in environmental protection!

Wow, I'm impressed! It's refreshing to see a non-wester-centric perspective and approach to environmental protection compared to what I am used to seeing when studying environmental issues.

What I liked:
Normally, these types of dramas have around 40 episodes and can drag on for a bit or have really slow parts but I didn't find that was the case with this one. I felt it was an easy watch and not emotionally taxing. I think the drama did a good job of showcasing environmental issues and how factors such as personal greed, bureaucracy, group dynamics, and the divide between researchers and politicians affect the success of environmental protection. It also accurately depicts how low-income and rural areas are often hit harder by the effects of environmental pollution due to the government turning a blind eye to their situation and the lack of resources such as education, access to medical care, and proper infrastructure for dealing with waste disposal and sanitation. Additionally, when implementing pro-environmental policies in these areas, considering the interests of both people and nature is vital. Although they didn't specifically mention it by name, I was happy to see the concept of eco-tourism (sustainable tourism that promotes the protection and enjoyment of nature while accounting for the well-being of locals) being used as one way to satisfy economic and environmental concerns. This drama is a good example of how some environmental issues and environmental governance issues are hindrances that transcend culture and place. At the same time, others are innate and unique to specific people and environments. It was also refreshing to see a work-life balance struggle that didn't result in marital issues.

Critiques:
I would've liked to see the protagonist struggle a bit more when implementing environmental policies because I felt that issues were often solved either too quickly or smoothly. However, that might have been a result of the drama being 24 episodes. I felt that some of the ways our main character solved issues were a bit unorthodox, but that's probably how it was intended to be.

The other issue I had was with one of the female characters. In general, the drama was male-dominated which was fine. But, I felt the character of Su Na, the internet celebrity/blogger was a huge flop. It almost felt like they added her character to make the drama feel less male-centric. Instead of Su Na appearing strong-willed and genuinely concerned for the people, she was the stereotype of the annoying, naive, and outspoken woman depicted in movies and shows. Showing up at our main character's home after 10 pm doesn't showcase passion and dedication, rather it screams lacking professionalism, especially considering our main character has a wife and child. I felt her character didn't add much to the plot.

Overall, as someone who studies human-animal/environmental interaction, I felt this drama did a decent job of introducing a surface-level view of environmental issues and governance.

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