Cat's Cradle (2020)

El complejo y duro camino de la infancia hasta la madurez.

No hay mucho que pueda decir, por lo reciente de su finalización. Todavía puedo sentir ese extraño sentimiento, mitad dolor, mitad esperanzado por un destino tan apegado a los errores, que sin querer, muchas veces cometemos los adultos sin darnos cuenta en nuestro egoismo, del niño olvidado que una vez fuimos. Nuestros 3 niños protagonistas,Zhu Chaoyang, Yang Ling y Pu nos muestran en esta historia como es ese camino hacia la vida adulta,cargado de errores,muchas veces cometidos por la ignorancia de la poca edad, en otras ocasiones, por la misma necesidad imperante de querer sovrevivir en un mundo que no nos comprende ni valora lo suficiente. Por que sin contar mucho(es un thriller, no deberia de ser desvelado sus detalles,si no disfrutarlos)nos encontramos ante una historia muy humana, que nos muestra la cara mas cruel de la vida,pero tambien la cara mas amable y leal de una amistad sellada por el destino. Los actores,puntuar que estan fantasticos,soberbios, genuinos, en cada una de las escenas, con cada una de las expresiones dadas,tan llenas de verdades a medias,y mentiras que hieren hasta matar. Por que la muerte es el simbolo que mejor define a este drama. Por ellas, nuestros niños protagonistas sufren y hacen sufrir un calvario por su inmadurez a todos aquellos que los rodean. Sin duda, un drama inolvidable,con un villano muy humano,o mejor dicho,un humano villanizado y una amistad que nace desde la necesidad mas absoluta.

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True Lies

This must watch crime drama hooked me from the start and commanded my undivided attention till the end.  My review is going to be brief because for this drama, spoilers will vastly diminish your viewing experience so best steer clear of the threads until you are done.

Three children from broken families - Zhu Chao Yang (Rong Zishan), Yan Liang (Shi Pengyao) and Yue Pu (Wang Shengdi) accidentally record footage of a murder in progress. They bite off more than they can chew when they go toe to toe with the murderer in a deadly cat and mouse chess game that could lead to mutually assured destruction. This is brilliantly written and superbly acted, with dynamic relationships, complex emotions and mirror lead antagonists. The sophisticated and nuanced performances of all three child actors and notably Rong Zishan are impressive beyond words. They are surrounded by a veteran cast that deftly portrays realistic, empathetic characters with very human failings. This is a dark story about how social and familial pressure and occasionally just darn bad luck can make people do both deeply moving and terrifyingly chilling things. The suspense builds naturally as a result of gripping storytelling and acting and is not artificially induced by music.

As a mystery buff, I have loved the unreliable narrator style of storytelling since I read Agatha Christie's "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd". The kind of darkness of human nature explored in this drama also coincides with my other Christie favorite "Crooked House" so this drama checks all my boxes. However, the adaption of this type of narrative style to film is incredibly difficult and usually disappointing - the movie version of Ian McEwan's Atonement is a classic example. So I am just bowled over by how meticulously and insidiously well executed The Bad Kids is. Even if you watch this without blinking, you will inevitably miss many of the true lies and scratch your head as to when and where the lines between fact and fantasy get blurred. There is no shocking "Aha!" moment - indeed initially I was convinced with and unquestioning of my first impression of what happened. I fell for the fairy tale hook, line and sinker. And then insidiously, all the alternate possibilities started to creep up upon me and drew me into re-watching. I watched this two times and and parts of it more than that and yet the ambiguities and different possibilities persist. That is actually what is fascinating, thrilling, chilling and absolutely mind blowing about this experience. 

Of course there are some mild logic flaws but this is truly so well executed there is little to pick at without being petty. I can't praise this enough, it has to be the best crime/mystery I have watched as of June 2020. It can hold its own relative to the best in class of this genre not just in China but anywhere and everywhere. Two thumbs up!!!

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