Sunsets Secrets Regrets

Police drama with a balance romance and crime solving

Synopsis:
Cai Wenjing plays Zhou Jin, who has a romantic relationship with both male leads, Jiang Hansheng (Jing Boran) and the 2nd male lead Jiang Cheng (Qin Junjie). All three are childhood sweethearts who grew up together, but their love is complicated by unforeseen circumstances and separations. Yes, we have a heavy love triangle here, but in a good way.

Who should Zhou Jin choose: Jiang Cheng, whom she has admired and loved since childhood, or Jiang Hansheng, who has cherished her since childhood? She and Jiang Cheng dated for seven years and even engaged, but then her brother, a member of a SWAT team, was killed in the August 17, 2012 (817) incident, and since then Jiang Cheng went undercover to investigate the cause of the incident for five years, leaving her to endure the grief alone.

Just then, her family arranged a blind date with Jiang Hansheng, who had become a criminology professor. He seized the opportunity to confess his feelings to her, and after only three meetings, Zhou Jin agreed to a marriage. In fact, Jiang Hansheng had trauma because he was once captured and tortured by bad guys. Yes, we have a marry first, fall in love later trope.
One went undercover for her, the other suffered greatly for her; both chose not to tell her. Zhou Jin diligently performed her duties while simultaneously investigating the truth behind the 817 case. Jiang Hansheng and Jiang Cheng protected her in different ways, helping her avenge her brother's death!

This is a really good police drama with a balanced portion of crime solving and romance between the leads, I'm impressed. The casting is perfect, each actor did a really good job portraying their character, and the chemistry is good and natural. Elvira Cai can have good chemistry with anyone she pairs with. Jing Boran is so perfect to play an aloof, intelligent criminal science professor and an overprotective husband. Qin Junjie played an undercover officer suit him perfectly. Zhao Xun played the crazy antagonist really well, and you'll hate him to the core.
This drama reminds me of Love MeIf You Dare starring Wallace Huo & Sandra Ma, as well as To Love starring Lin Gengxin & Cas Gai. You should watch this drama if you like crime/mystery with romance.

Read More

A Mediocre Soap Opera featuring Cops

1. Pacing is too slow
2. Way too much makeup on both leads, sheesh! (The finally eased up 2/3rds of the way thru!)
3. Mediocre production values across the board. Direction, lighting, sets, costumes -- everything was subpar.)
4. MDL rating way too high
5. Female lead (Elvira) is a weak actress for such a complex role, seems lifeless too often -- and her performance drags down the more than capable ML. And she's ridiculously small and thin for the role. Yes, we see that high heeled boots with lifts.
6. The story has some nice twists, although most are predictable. The plot is the strength of this show, and it gets better as it goes. It's the only thing that got me to the finish line
7. Qin Jun Jie fans should watch this series because he steals the show. I suspect it was really his story all along.
8. This isn't a quality crime drama with MEH soap opera moments. This is actually a quality soap opera with MEH crime drama elements. So sometimes you'll see scenes that make no cop sense but instead romantic sense. If that makes you nervous, don't watch this series.
9. Joker fans will enjoy the villain, but more and more I see queer looking actors exploited as villains. Hmm.
10. The title annoyed me as a bad fit.

Overall I'd tell anyone to pass on this series.

Read More

I’ve loved this psychological crime thriller from beginning to end. The beginning was a little confusing because of the flashbacks jumping between different years, but I decided to trust the writing and let the story guide me, and everything started falling into place as it went on.

The villain was brilliantly acted, and I really liked his backstory. I also loved how every case gave us another clue that brought us closer to the truth about what happened on August 17th and what Jiang Han Sheng went through.

I’m usually not a fan of love triangles at all, but this one actually won me over because it showed something very real: our choices have consequences, even when the love between Zhou Jin and Jing Cheng runs that deep.

I personally liked that she ended up with Jiang Han Sheng, because he gave her the chance to move forward and discover that she could love someone else. Love can also be about being there, feeling at peace, and feeling safe.

And I loooved Jing BoRan as criminal profiler mode. Ugh, so damn sexy.

Read More

MID, AND WEAK (dropping it)

after watching Episode 1: honestly, disappointing. I came in because of Elvira Cai, expecting something engaging with solid drama, but it turned out really bad. One of the worst directions I’ve seen in any drama. The director clearly doesn’t understand what this drama is supposed to be, so the nuances, setting, and overall environment just don’t land right.
The writing and character interactions are nothing special, and it all feels like the work of an immature director. It’s hard to ignore so many mistakes. For example, that boat scene... they used a body double (which is normal in dramas and movies), but it was so obvious you could instantly tell it wasn’t her. That’s poor direction. It might not seem like a big deal, but I just can’t unsee things like that. My instinct tells it's not going in the right direction there's no thrill or excitement at all in the entire episode.
On top of that, the camera angles are off, the execution feels weak, and the production value is very mid. Overall, I just can’t push myself to continue this. I think I need to drop it here.

0

Read More