AleksandraSucur

Not all of them, but yes, the fact he directed several good dramas (Starry Love, Ahes of Love, The Long Balad...) makes us check out each new one.
Actually, I don't like his weird use of light, camera spinnings (that's why I've dropped Kunning Palace), he uses a lot of melo and slo-mo in romantic scenes, but fortunately in BiA he abstained from all those annoying things.

This drama's plot is based on well-written dialogues. It's completely different from Shen Li. The pace isn't boring, many things happen to many persons and they happen pretty fast, with minimum of violence, CGI, blood-spitting etc. It is an ensamble drama, with many characters entangled with the CP, actually the main leads miraculously go together well, without misunderstandings and melo typical for Cdramaland.
It isn't a masterpiece, there are elements of unlikeliness in it, but it's very refereshing and enjoyable to watch

I continue to be impressed by subtle details in dialogues. The encounter of the emperor with HZ was sooo well written, I can't believe the screenwriters are the same persons who wrote TTEOM (which I've dropped because of horrible dialogues, excess of screaming, blood-spitting, confusion, lack of elementary logics...). The plot, the pace, characters... everything here is a complete opposite.

The entire scene was carefully built up in a way to create a sense of ackwardness, of tension but... smoothly. No voice-raising, no open threats, no blackmails. The sense of sinister in psycho-despot's demeanor was conveyed progressively by: deception she was invited by the empress dowager -> double sense of the phrase "you are bringing your business to my palace" (implying her friendship with Shen's not her pastries) -> "I don't mind YX is with you (if that means) he'll work better for me" -> the sinister story of his youthful love -> all that culminating with a word "insignificant", while intending "expendable". People who don't retreat in front of his will are all expendable. He left her no choices but to retreat and this single scene in ep. 32 perfectly announced what followed in ep.33.
Chapeau to the screenwriters!

I've appreciated a double-sense in the 6th Prince's lines (during the kitchen competition), answering to Yan Xi's question "Are you happy watching this game, cousin?"
- If the father (intending also his own father) loses, I'll be happy. If he wins, that would be uninteresting".
It helped to build up the tension, resolved by a good fight.

Although the plot is often "unlikely" in terms of realism, the storyline is continously enriched with these subtle details in dialogues which actually makes the drama very enjoyable to watch.

I've noticed the same thing, their lips have similar shape

why did they do that?

Today's eps (31 & 32) turned an interesting financial-political thriller into a less credible melodrama with certain characters starting to show more & more psycho disturbs. Don't like this turn, hope it's transitory

This drama is a fiction in documented settings, titled "The War of Faith" in English and "The Storm Chaser" (implying a person who wants to achieve smth. great but hard or impossible to reach) in Mandarin. It's normal that the main traits of the characters, as well as their believes, are exaggerated for the purposes of story-telling. In reality, it would be improbable for such an educated lady like SJZ, who joined the CP believing it could create a better system for people and their families, not to ever have heard of the famous Mallet Du Pan's quote: "revolutions are like Saturn, they eat their children".

Well, this production is already high quality and satisfying to watch. If the story is good and well told, I don't mind if it's a fiction or based on real people and events. The principle which rules a good story is "se non è vero, è ben trovato" (even if it isn't true, it's nicely figured out). It must contain its intrinsic logics.
Actually, an additional enjoyment for a history lover like me are doc-fictions, i.e., fictional stories placed in documented settings. The costume department here made a terrific job: dresses, uniforms, weapons, artillery, interiors... everything is so accurate, completely different from other C-dramas with people eating corn, potatoes and tomatoes in Tang, Song or Ming dynasty settings, using weapons invented centuries after and so on. I get too irritated to watch, my drop-rate of C-dramas is more than 90%, either because they are badly script-written, or because of the inaccuracies.

"the ordinary people better stay away from politics in chaotic situations", how are you supposed to protect your family? Everybody wants to protect their family, family is everybody's weakness, even that local gangster who abducts WRL wants to "make friends with communists in order to protect his family in Jangxi". The more situation gets chaotic, less you can protect your family if you are disconnected from the ruling system. You are not living in a police state, in most part of the countries today you can be completely disinterested in politics, so you should try to think how would you act if you were a Chinese in circumstances of police terror and witch-hunt, one wrong word can condemn your entire family, indipendently of how "ordinary people" you are. You have two options: to flee or to fight. Not everybody can flee, we see that neither STN nor LQS are allowed to flee. And if they want to fight then they can't play a sheep among the wolves.

I was talking about the global outcome of the Chinese Civil War, too. If Chiang Kai-shek didn't insist on this policy (which was prior to the Shanghai Battle, with purges in 1927, even prior to the Mukden incident & occupation of Manchuria), and - I will repeat: he did it, only for the purpose of his personal power - the outcome would have been completely different for the world.
1. Japanese would have never dared to launch an offensive on a"united front" China. They've dared because China was a complete mess.
2. China today would probably be a democracy, in many Western democracies communist parties were normal parliamentary parties, serving national interests first and ideological (=revolutionary) second, many times they were parts of coalition government and more many times a constructive opposition committed to the national interests.
3. Chinese main frustration called "the century of humiliation" would have ended many decades before its joining the WTO.
4. Maybe even Hitler wouldn't dare to start the WWII. Chiang Kai-shek, who actively cooperated (providing tungsten, which is mentioned in this drama) with Nazi-Germany, before being dumped by him in favor of imperial Japan... and that would have saved 50-56 M people who died in that war. He wouldn't have the necessary tungsten to forge the weapons.
Should I continue?

Thank you for sharing this article. I agree on the points raised: 1. Compromise on counterfeit money, 2: Failure to act on Treasury bills, while point 3. is just LQS opinion, not a real point. I'm not a Chinese, but I've also felt unconfortable about https://it.mydramalist.com/746341-guang-ming-zhi-lu#comment-16801651
But, as you can see, I (and other discutants below) disagree with the conclusions from this article. STN & LQS are similar because (quoting another person from this discussion because this person expressed it perfectly inverting the passages): "It is like STN and LQS were recruited in a gang not a government job. When a person joins a gang, most cases the only way to leave it is to die. It is very rare for anyone to escape from because they will always have something against you.
STN and LQS are in similar situation of Kill or be Killed. Both had dreams to do something great for their country and hopes but completely shattered by those on the top position. LQS in earlier episodes was ready to leave Shanghai with his girl after his suspension, but he was forced to stay in the police force by threatening Meijuan's life. In the current episodes 27 and 28 STN was ready to quit his job at the Central Bank. But the KMT leaders at the top forced him to stay with threatening Zhouzheng sword, with the message "Sink or Swim.""
More than this disillusioned LQS's sarcastic comparison of two of them, I was hit by LQS's to his assistant: "your sense of guilt (because you've shot unarmed and peaceful protesters) will defeat you sooner or later" - that was a great quote to describe a DENIAL, after being shattered. It is not a matter of "chosing the 'bright side'" (what kind of nonsense is this?), they both had NO CHOICE other than death, they couldn't quit and leave. It is not STN who is "inconsistent", it was the flow in scriptwriting that first created a "perfect mentor" and then failed to consistenly explain why he lowered his defences against the gangsters. The "united front" (with gangsters) against Japanese in the Shanghai Battle gave him such a good opportunity, and one "appeasement" scene after the victory would suffice to logically justify why he lowered his defences.

Red Army from Jangxi Soviet Republic LOST the civil war with KMT forces in 1934 (i.e., 2 years after the events in this drama). You should check the history before you write nonsense. KMT was not a monolite party, it had many factions and some of them hoped for cooperation with CP, like Wang Jingwei, also because they had had such a cooperation during the "Northern Campaign", they've created a united front. It was Chiang Kai-shek crazy obsession with "first internal pacification, then external resistance", because it was a good way to impose his rule over the whole KTM and rule out other parties from his government. The result was known to everybody, Japan (real colonial power in East Asia) almost crashed China.

Thank you very much! 👍

those were dangerous times. Besides, not all KMT was happy with Chiang Kai-shek's password "first internal pacification, then external resistance", meaning: first exterminate the communists, later deal with the Japanese. Left-wing leader of KMT, Wang Jingwei (who was governing Shanghai few years prior to the events in the drama) openly stood for cooperation with CP. The government of Nanjing was full of CP's informers and some of them were hidden CP's high officials. KMT had different internal factions and local warlords fighting against each other, in reality when the Battle of Shanghai began, CK-s was forced to appoint Wang Jingwei as a prime minister, and this happened only a year after he forced Wang to flee to Guangzhou, governed by another anti-Chiang faction. In such a mess, it wasn't a rarity to have a CP's sympathizer in family, especially in such a big city as Shanghai, where CK-s subordinates and related gangsters conducted bloody purges and mass murders among trade-unionist and intellectuals, because it was the only way to resist the terror.

I have a question for Mandarin-speakers. The native title of this drama is "A Storm Chaser", 追风者. Does "storm chaser" have some deep meaning in Mandarin, how this term is related to the plot?

as you can see from my reply to Laramd, I am not unfamiliar with the history of that period and I appreciate and even admire the author for creating this fictional story, thus simplifying far more complicated real events for a broader audience. This story stands and deserves to be told indipendantly of real events. For instance, the cooperation on weaponry (and trade of tungstan) between KMT and the Germans occurred only years after, when Hitler came to power, for Weimar Republic was impossible to produce arms at home, because the industrial production was limited by Versailles Treaty to the sole civil-engineering production which was in hand of allied forces who took over almost all the Rurh industry as a compensantion for failing payments of war reparations under the Treaty. That doesn't mean Germans didn't produced their weapons, and paradoxically they did it in Soviet Union after a secret deal they've reached with Soviets during the Genoa Conference in 1922 and later they will produce it in Argentina, too. So, in reality, there was no way for the STN's sister to learn how to produce weapons in Germany. The author smartly used a real later event avoiding to connect the real military-trade cooperation with Nazi-Germany.
He created STN taking a "perfect mentor" as an archetype. STN is a mentor we all would like to learn from or have learned from. Imho, it's incoherent for such a character to stop being wary of his opponents only because he reached a compromise with them and promise that "it won't happen again". They've tried to kill him, they've killed people who died for him (and he is a very responsible person), a compromise is not an appeasement, it isn't enough for lowering defences.

Actually, in writing this story, the author was certainly (although loosely) inspired by real historical figures: the real gangster operating in Shanghai of the time was Wang Yaqiao, leader of Anhui Gang, engaged in drug-trafficking, assassinations and many other illegal activities. Wang Yaqiao had strong political connections with politics, he even mentored Chiang's chief of secret police, Dai Li and often rendered his services to warlords espc., to the New Guangxi clique. In 1930's he was against the Japanese invasion and bombing of Shanghai (they've collided with his intrests) and indeed eliminated many Japanese servicemen. He was also behind the attempted assassination of Sòng Zǐwén, the real governor of the Chinese Central Bank of the time. He crossed the line with assassination of Wang Jinwei in 1935, after that he couldn't be tollerated any more and became a total outlaw.

But the real governor of CB was far more powerful than our STN, his three sisters were Song (or "Soong", depends on transcription) sisters, the most powerful women of the time, one being married to Sun Yat-sen, another to Chiang Kai-shek (i.e. she was the First Lady of the Republic of China) while the oldest married Kǒng Xiángxī, Yale and Oberlin graduate and top economist, who served as a minister of industry and was a mastermind of economic & financial reforms in both Chiang's and Wang Jinwei's governments (he was close to both rival politicians) and will later become prime minister himself. Sòng Zǐwén, who was Harvard and Columbia University graduate, worked closely together with his brother in law Kong and mantained his connections with the Americans, during the WWII he and his sister the First Lady will employ Flying Tigers, American mercenary pilots, to contrast Japanese air-bombing.

As you can see, the real CB governor headed the Song family, one of the "Four most prominent families" of time, was far more influential and crucial in policy creating than the fictional governor in the show.

You are right, I have that sense, too and in todays's eps it's even more evident, by his resigning and than holding back because the big boss forces him to a suicide if he quits. All this time he has been aware of how rotten is Nanjing, yet, I wouldn't say that he was holding on a glimmer of hope, his reaction was a denial after being defeated. A denial similar to a denial described by LQS to his assistant: if you stop to think you are fighting bad guys (in LQS case "a group of organized thugs with a goal to create turmoil"), "your sense of guilt (because you've shot unarmed and peaceful protesters) will defeat you sooner or later" - a great quote.

In any case, in today's ep he admitted he was naive to believe the gangsters (because the police and garisson chiefs are Yu's ganging partners, and Yu is a typical remnant of former feudal gang and as such, on the opposite political-ideological pole of any republican-style party) "wouldn't dare" to short-sell their bonds, de facto sinking the recovery plan. The naivety of such a capable man in dealing with these sharks is not credible and is in contrast with the main traits of this interesting character. I'm generally fine with the story, but the author should have put some effort in explaining the reason why he lowered his defences and the best chance was their united front against the Japanese bombing, one "appeasement" scene would have been enough. Yeah, we shall see.

From his speeches lecturing WRL we get a clear idea of a true patriot and a firm fighter who "knows himself and his enemies", in particular he is aware and wary of opposing forces-people who make the things turbid for personal gains. In the first half, he is not only smart, brave, talented and soft-powered, he is also a man devoted to his family & friends, responsible for his employees and aware of risks his reformistic financial unification project imply for the people he cares of. He knows they may be hurt because he's a target and constantly reminds WRL to prioritise his life and safety over carrying out a task. All characters are exaggerated in their main traits (let's just think of Li Shengda's survival capacity or of SJZ's killing skills), but it's ok untill it makes sense and is functional for the story-telling.
So, in the first half, we understand why this man is WRL's idol but now - after all those troubles, set-ups and even people who died for his struggle - instead of increasing the level of caution, he seems to lower his defences!? A sudden rennovation of his office while he's issuing recovery bonds and the thought his phone may be bugged never crosses his mind? Surviving attempted assassination and catching only a "small fish" in false coins case, he never inquires who is behind Kang, Yu & co.? It simply makes no sense, it's a relevant flow in scriptwriting. STN is a main character in this story, it's necessary to make it clear why he suddenly started to overlook important things: make him overly self-confidant because of his previous victory, or that he feels even the murky people stands unite when it comes to defending the national interest, or show he is trying and then fails to fish out some intel on the backer...
I don't know if he will embrace the CCP ideas, but he will certainly change his ideas on which party better defends Chinese interests.