Bob

Things no one mentioned...

Saw this on Amazon Prime and apparently they "purchased" or "leased" it from Tencent...because in the final 6 episodes, including one that lasts 106 minutes, 4 of the episodes have utterly shit Machine Ai English translations. Horrible. I was outraged that my wonderful C-Drama was now unintelligble. I suffered through it simply because I had invested so much time already, but there's no excuse for this kind of thing. F you Tencent, and F You Amazon Prime for not checking the product before you bought it and then advertised it for us.
Anyways, this is a good drama. I won't say it's a masterpiece because much of it doesn't land, as the saying goes. For one thing, the last 2 episodes it suddenly goes "Wacky". SPOILER...you didn't need Gong Bao to win the lottery and then comically plunge to his death. over a small bridge. (He for sure would have survived, btw) And Wang Xiang finds a baby abandoned by the tracks (Aka Wnag Bei) I mean come on. Both these devices are heavy handed. And was Wang Xiang raising another boy because he lost his own son, really important to the series? Sure you could argue...oooh, it kept him alive having a new baby to take care of after the death of his wife and son. Yeah, fine, but let's be honest...the way that Wang Bei was incorporated into the series made us ALL think he was a ghost, not real for a few episodes;that Wang Xiang had made him up to take the place of his own son. Okay maybe some never thought this, but I sure as hell did...and it wasn't until a few episodes in that I was like, okay, so he's really his 2nd "son"? Got it. But then we don't even know if he's another baby BORN AFTER Wang Yang's death or whatever. I mean there's enough mystery happening that to have this kid introduced as well was just kinda meh. Especially since Wang Xiang didn't seem to be as doting and involved and clingy with the kid as we expected. I didn't like having to winder for probably 10 of the 12 episodes how this Wang Bei came into his life.
Gong Bao was definitely insufferable. Great actor, everyone loves the actor, but his character is definiely an a-hole. Not someone I'd want to be around. Not a decent guy and just cause he's funny and embarassing doesn't make him - for me - someone to root for. And Wang Xiang was a shit to his wife, a bully really, barking orders and being master to slave. I don't care if the guy's cuddly and cute and a lovable actor...I saw the character not the actor, and the character was a typical shitheel to his wife, and I didn't like seeing that. And of course was a dick to his son as well - and yadda yadda yadda - he suffered for his actions all those years after his son died, we know, but you don't get my sympathy. Be respectful and loving to your wife!! And try to understand your son, not bully him. Consistency is relationships dude. A hug every now and then doesn't make up for all the times you were a jerk.
The series also short changes Shen Mo. They made the old guys the main protagonists but nothing happens without Shen Mo's story. She's the catalyst.. And her story is far more tragic than wang xiang's. Far more. She spends her youth without her deaf brother because her frantic and unsettled aunt sends him away, and then she has to endure being sexually assaulted - raped to put it bluntly - by her Uncle for years. Then a so-called friend drugs her and hands her over to LU who rapes her.
Ya know what...I totally understand why she killed LU. And the friend that drugged her she killed too. An example of why they short changed - or were afraid of having us really ROOT for Shen Mo's actions - is that they didn't flashback to her killing that son of a bitch Uncle. All series long I was waiting to see her get her revenge, to see in his eyes how she got pay back, but they never showed that. I don't know if it's a censor thing or an artistic choice, but sorry...my allegiance the whole drama was to Shen Mo. She was my main storyline and the fact they didn't show her killing that asshole of an uncle, makes me think the creators didn't realize her impact and that our sympathies could very well have been with her. Watching the montage of characters at the end of the series, they hardly key in on Shen Mo and that was wrong. Her story affected me way more than Wang Xiang's.
Another thing that wasn't done well was that it sure as hell seemed like there were 2 or even 3 dismembered bodies. They made it seem like it was a serial killer case...only who were the other ones? Yong Hi, the female friend was the only one dismembered. LU was incinerated in a 1000 degree fire. The Uncle was found in their apartment. So tell me, series creators, who were the other bodies that were dismembered? Why make it seem like there was a serial killer...if there wasn't?
Lastly...Those thugs who kept coming back to beat up the deaf brother and his friend, should really have been beaten up for good. I didn't like that they got away with beating the crap out of those 2. I wanted to see their cowardly "leader" get his once and for all. And by the way...sorry Series director...but in that huge fight scene you stupidly have that gang leave their expensive helmets behind in the video hall. There's no way 6 or 7 thugs will do that. They'd pick up their expensive helmets and take them with them.
So I liked the series, but I had problems with it....as you can tell.

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Coulda been a contenda Charlie...

First off, kudos to all the wonderfully written reviews before mine. Honestly...well done, I enjoyed and agree with everything everyone wrote.
I just want to add a few things. For me the biggest issue was the casting of Wen Guo. I don't know how anyone could ever think that this actor could play a 24 year old? He was 38 or 39 at the time of filming and he LOOKS 38 or 39. And the shows early years when everything important happens, is way more impactful and takes up more screentime than the series' later years...so it was ludicrous to think that they needed an older actor to "play" younger. It should have been the reverse. If they can age-up the young actress playing Yong Hong effectively, they could have done the same thing with an actor who looked 24. The actor playing Wen Guo was undeniably good, but his characters greatest scenes were the ones when he was younger, yet he was never convincing. Very poor casting decision.
It also bothered me - unless I missed it!? - that we never know why Xiang Dong wasn't with the Crime Division in the City and was in the mountains working at the Detention Center. Seriously...was there ever exact information as to what happened to him? If I missed it, my apologies, but I kept waiting for a flashback or specific reason why he wasn't with that division any longer. Seems to me an over-sight. If he was "sent there" as implied, tell us why!
Also, how did Wen Guo get out of the Frozen Truck? Poor storytelling. We see him later alive, so he didn't die in there, but it's crappy not to give us a 30 second scene that explains it. Especially since they made such a big deal of him fighting for his life and almost getting caught. It's a cheat.
Also, what did Wen Guo do for a living the 18 years or so after he survived running back into the mine shaft and not getting killed, whereas Xi Ma the cop did? (Hmmmm, to that!) Like someone else mentioned, it might have been nice to understand through flashbacks how he got to where he is after all those years. I still don't know what his exact job is/was once he returned. But he seemed to have a lot of money now!
Also, they didn't really handle the whole death of Fenfang as well as they think they did. It really was bit confusing and if I'm correct, the way they played it out at the end, it seemed that for all 13 - 18 (?) years after she died we're supposed to believe he was delusional to her death? But once he "solves the case" he's suddenly aware she's dead and chooses to kill himself? Hmmm.
And what did he do for all those years before Wen Guo returned? Was he at the detention center all those years? Was he driving a mini-car Taxi? Hmmm. S
The acting was great, the humour was nice, and the cinematography was incredible. Some scenes were emotionally true, others were a little maudilin but not to detract from the series overall. It's a shame though the "mystery" was so easy to figure out. As someone else mentioned correctly, it's not really a crime drama , with all that that implies for an audience, but it was different and I guess that's okay.
But it'd be nice if this could be remade by another country in the future. I'd love to see if they can keep the slice of life stuff, but make the mystery a real mystery, actually hard to figure out until the very end.

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A Good series. Beginning to end. No Complaints.

I don't have the patience to break everything down and give you the plot and get into every little thing that MDL wants us to do in these reviews. (Must I discuss the OST? Really? Zzzzzz.) So if what I'm about to write won't be satisfactory for MDL and they take it down - or never release my review - then so be it. Can't be bothered. By the way, kudos to those insane people that write 2000+ word reviews. I mean I never read them because they're like way too long and who has time, and ya know...I bet no one reads the long reviews, so who are you writing them for? Self-indulgent much? But I digress. I mean, I respect ya all's desire to write 2000+ word reviews but know your audience. This is MDL...where everyone gives a show starring their dreamy idol a 10 , where everyone loves tropey, dumb, sleep-inducing romance dramas - Fyi, The Lonely Runner is NOT a good drama,- and everyone wants to know if the drama is a BL. That's 80% of MDL reviewers.
If you've made it this far, great. But I'm in the other 20%. If you want to know my "taste"...I consider The Worst of Evil a near masterpiece. I think the lead actress in Mr. Queen gives one of the greatest comedic performances, Song of the Bandits is fun and underrated. Big Bet was criminally over-looked. Reply 1988 is close to perfect. The Revenant is the best horror, supernatural series yet. And yes, Mr. Mister is that good.
Bottom line, I think I know what's good and what's mediocre, and this series is GOOD. End of story. If you can tell quality from crap, know good writing from bad, good direction from bad direction, good acting from wooden acting, and understand the difference between earned emotions and manipulated emotions, then watch this terrific series. If not, I don't care. I'm off to re-watch The Long Night, and a year or two from now, will re-watch and appreciate this drama a second time.

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Production better than story and execution

Looks good Taiwan Entertainment Industry! Congrats. Great production values, fantastic cinematography, and even some of the music was emotional in a quality-way, rather than the cheesy sentimental slop most dramas serve up.
But the story was predictable after the first 2 epsiodes and the whole thing played out exactly how one assumes it will, with me correctly guessing which scenes would come after each other. It was a paint by numbers show, the worst kind, because there's no mystery, no outside of the box thinking, just straight a to b to c to d storytelling, and when that's the case it all just becomes boring. I also think some of the performances were lacking. The actor who played the leader of the Detectives - he of the wild hair - may be better in other TV and film roles, but here his acting was pedestrian. There wasn't an ounce of charisma or subtlety. He was either barking orders at his men, or yelling at suspects. Watching every scene he was in, was dull not only because he showed no creativity with his line readings, but oftentimes his line readings were just wrong. He yells when he shouldn't. He's casual when he should be more emphatic. For a character with so much screen time to be that boring and predicatible is a crime. The actor who plays main forensic guy who is supposed to have some sort of "asperger's is just not very good. I put aspergers in quotes because he's described that way once by someone who says it in passing, he's not a doctor, so they purposely make his "condition" kinda nebulous. Whatever. The show and the actor were definitely goinf after some ASD type of thing, fine, but how accurate was the actor's performance...because I'm wondering if the show and he really wanted us to think his "condition" also makes him a straight up dick to everyone. Really. Totally unlikable character and perfromance by the actor. I can't believe that everyone with asd is a dick, but it sure seems that way here. Again, lead actor...unlikable for 7.5 episodes. Finally I felt some sympathy for him with one of his monologues near the end, but honestly...this character and the actors portrayal is all on the creators of the show, the writer, the director. Whatver is filmed, remains, so ya know...maybe dial back some of the actors performances and think about how people are reacting to each other. Directing and writing 101.
A Detective show should keep you guessing, and this one didn't. And it's fine if you want to include some emotional scenes - of course - but when they start to overwhelm the solving of the crime and the scenes linger too long and border on melodrama, then you've lost me. Are you a gritty show about solving a series of crimes, or are you know a Hallmark Series where the emotions become more important. The best Detective series have a 85% - 15% ration of this. This one in the end had a 70%- 30% ratio, which is another strike against it.
Anyways, hats off to all involved. Thanks for your hard work.

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An uninvolving courtroom drama

This is a weak series,. The entire series constantly wants to tell us we're watching something deep and profound and meaningful...but it isn't. It's a slog. It stops being interesting around the 9th episode and then just bores us to death for the remaining 6. It easily could have been 12 episodes, though since there's little action - just people talking and talking and talking - even at 12 episodes it would still be a slow watch!
At the center is a smug, self-righteous p.o.s Prosecutor who - spoiler - doesn't get what he deserves. Had he been convicted and made to serve 4 or more years in prison - like how he convicted the student 14 years earlier - I would have been delighted and happy. But he wasn't. F%&k that guy! So to have to sit through 15 episodes of this wanker spouting off about THE LAW and how it's the MOST IMPORTANT THING IN SOCIETY blah blah blah, and this and that, and uphold for the state, yadda yadda, yadda...I was just really sick of his hypocrisy and wanted him to go to jail. They got the entire story wrong!
Production values, acting, music, cinematography were all good...but the writing and directing were mediocre. Honestly, the entire story is kinda backwards for someone living in the USA. I don't know China and how "modern" they've become in their thinking...but the whole idea of Justifiable Defense was treated as something new and "golly gee whiz" we should examine this thing called "Justifiable defense and figure it out!". Seriously, I thought initially this series was maybe set in the 1970's...but it's not, it's a modern story and the writers and director treat the whole idea of "JD" as something profound and so they give too damn many monologues to the Procuratorate to discuss it. Enough repetition already. I mean heck, the idea of Justifiable defense/homicide is so blase to us in the states that we think nothing of when they release a woman killing a dude in a parking lot with her gun since he continually came at her in a threatening manner. She shot and killed the guy 'cause he was threatening her verbally and moving towards her to "possibly harm her"...but .he didn't even touch her, and had no weapon. But she shot and killed him and they called it "Justifiable.". She was in jail for all of 2 days. Crazy, yeah?
So you can see how watching 15 episodes of people debating the pros and cons of JD would bore me.

Anyways, it's UNSATISFYING because the Prosecutor should have gone to jail and he didn't. Unhappy ending.

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Repetition, repetition, repetition...

This drama was a huge waste of a good story. It runs 12 episodes and if you watch it with any discernment, you'll agree it should have only run 8 episodes.
There is so much replaying of scenes already shown that so often you'll think there must be a mistake. Over and and over you'll ask yourself "why are they showing me THIS scene for the 4th time?" Honest to gosh, it's a joke how idiotically they kept giving us the same flashbacks and pretending that doing so would make the drama more meaningful. And oh okay, now show us thise scene for the fifth time...but in slo-motion. Awesome, thanks!
Huge Spoiler ahead: There's a mopey disturbed loser of a guy who you feel sad for, kinda, but because they show his life in all its depression over and over and over again, - WE GET IT!! - you just lose any sympathy for him.
The director or editor or writer, all of them, screwed this show up bigtime with their poor execution. It pisses me off so much that they dragged everything out to the point of tedium, making me lose my interest all on account of their pretentious displays. Just tell the goddamn story, okay? But they didn't do that. There was only enough content for 8 episodes, and had they been straightforward in their approach...it could have been fantastic. Instead they dragged 8 episodes into 12 and ended up with something far less compelling and extremely boring.

Well it seems I'm not the only genius who knows the people involved screwed up this novel...because someone made an actual 140 minute film of this novel and it's called "Vanishing Point". Chinese as well.
I for one am so freaking happy! I'm sure it'll be far more impactful and engaging at this length. Sadly different actors, 'cause I do think most of them did a great job in the drama. Anyways, I deserve to be critical of the drama overall because I gave it 12 hours of my life...and because the intenedt worlkd exists to give your opinion. So there.
Anyways...I'm off to the see Vanishing Point.
Oh and iQIYI...next time don't use 4 or 8 or 12 different translators!! The last 4 episodes of the drama was like they had been translated by someone newly learning Chinese! The difference in english translation from one episode to the next was so freaking obviously not done by the same person, but probably different people. What the hell? And the worst translator was assigned to do the most important final episodes?? Smart, iQiYi, smart!!

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Kinda like a Werner Herzog film.

No spoliers, so no worries.

Came to this on account of Liao Fan, and because I always seek out untypical drama's. This one about panning for gold in 1986 fit the bill. Immediately one is immersed in the mileu, the setting, and with all the mud and earth and the jungle and desperate sweaty men...it's got the feel of a Werner Herzog movie. In a good way.

I AM enjoying it, however...it's painfully clear this series was heavily censored. There are so many scenes that have terrible editing within them, which indicates dialogue, actions, and even whole people were cut out. As a result, they make no sense. And if you add to that confusion the horrible englsih translation provided by iQIYI .then it's a wonder I can understand anything that's happening. Really. It's a massive chore to figure out specific plot and story points, and I'm barely staying with it. But I will because I love the whole idea of this series and the recreation of the world of gold panning is fantastic.

I'm hoping eventually it'll all make sense. But this series reminds me of the movies Heaven's Gate, All the Pretty Horses, and One-eyed Jacks...in that all 3 are films that might have been considered masterpieces if others just didn't mess with them. But in all 3 films, producers and studio heads shoved their ignorant opinions into the mix, made demands, and as a result the films came out mediocre, because ya know....the confusion. You can see there's genius in all of them, but like this series, they were cut up and it's a tragedy.
I know I'll never get to see an unedited and brilliant translation of Gold Panning, and that sucks. But I'll enjoy this nonetheless.

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