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Can’t believe I’m now writing a review of my favourite Chinese drama of all time
Killer and Healer is an excellent, complex story about revolutionary queers in time of great social, military and political upheaval. It is made in the same highly exalted creative and literary tradition as Nirvana in Fire (2015), and the more recent War of Faith of (2024) of which there are all too few in this category of dramatic artistry.
Chief Jiang YueLou and Dr. Chen Yuzhi are two good men who have a highly developed interest in the well-being of their fellow citizens, but they have diametrically opposed philosophies on how to go about it, and diametrically opposed personal characters which stem from their radically different personal histories, which is the basis of their ideological clash.
Zhan Jun Bai and Boss Yu, share a passion for Chinese opera over which they bond and become instantly attracted to each other, but they are opposed in every other way. I won’t say more for fear of giving away an important part of the plot, but their agonised relationship makes total sense, and even with whats not made explicit, we understood their constant references back to contesting their relationship in the context of Emperor Ai, the originator of the “Cut Sleeve” legend and his tragic love affair with Dong Xian. By the end, and especially the ending, it is made clear how they could not live together, but also particularly in the case of Zhan JunBai, they COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT THE OTHER. I think that’s a pretty powerful love story arc and something you see only rarely in heterosexual love stories, and never ever see in more explicit BL such as from Thailand or South Korea.
In case some are not familiar with the history, the time period is a very tumultuous time of internecine wars and conflict as the new Socialist Republic wrestled with the remnants of the corrupt, capitalist Kuomintang, and building a country in which the masses of the people could survive and thrive after colonisation, which the Chinese called 100 years of Humiliation . It opens with some time spent in Hong Kong which was still under the most ruthless imperial domination, which made life hell for the people of that Chinese region, who only got their liberation from the British when the 99 year lease, one of a number of exploitative land-theft imperialist arrangements secured Unprovoked at gunpoint, expired as recent as 1997. So yes, lots of Chinese people lost their lives during these extended periods of violent colonial occupation and the destructive overhang of the Opium Wars meant to destroy the Chinese people, a phenomenon sadly outside of historical record prioritised in western dominated media.
In the late 1940s following the wars of liberation, China had to face the worst drug addiction problem in the world with 1 in 5 people of its population addicted to opiates. The Opium Trade had been forced on China, against the laws of China because Britain and its western capitalist allies thought this reflected free trade, modernity and liberal values (sound familiar?). Trade in opium was highly destructive to Chinese society and the damage went far beyond the millions killed and enslaved during these western wars of economic and cultural imposition. Cleaning up the criminal vestiges of this western onslaught is the job that Jang YueLou confronts in Killer and Healer. Within three years the Communist Party of China was able to overcome that problem with the help of dedicated men like Chief Jiang YueLou and Dr Chen YuZhi.
All the actors, even seemingly minor ones are perfectly cast and excelled in their roles. Mao ZiJun and Yi BoChen not only mastered their characters emotions but seem to have been born for these roles, making their characterisations and even their sizzling relationship dynamic between them from the first encounter, simply impossible to replicate.
Killer and Healer is a magnificent, meaningful drama that gets better on every rewatch and I look forward to the next BL from this Director, Sam Ho, which is a little Danmei adaptation called Immortality.
Chief Jiang YueLou and Dr. Chen Yuzhi are two good men who have a highly developed interest in the well-being of their fellow citizens, but they have diametrically opposed philosophies on how to go about it, and diametrically opposed personal characters which stem from their radically different personal histories, which is the basis of their ideological clash.
Zhan Jun Bai and Boss Yu, share a passion for Chinese opera over which they bond and become instantly attracted to each other, but they are opposed in every other way. I won’t say more for fear of giving away an important part of the plot, but their agonised relationship makes total sense, and even with whats not made explicit, we understood their constant references back to contesting their relationship in the context of Emperor Ai, the originator of the “Cut Sleeve” legend and his tragic love affair with Dong Xian. By the end, and especially the ending, it is made clear how they could not live together, but also particularly in the case of Zhan JunBai, they COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT THE OTHER. I think that’s a pretty powerful love story arc and something you see only rarely in heterosexual love stories, and never ever see in more explicit BL such as from Thailand or South Korea.
In case some are not familiar with the history, the time period is a very tumultuous time of internecine wars and conflict as the new Socialist Republic wrestled with the remnants of the corrupt, capitalist Kuomintang, and building a country in which the masses of the people could survive and thrive after colonisation, which the Chinese called 100 years of Humiliation . It opens with some time spent in Hong Kong which was still under the most ruthless imperial domination, which made life hell for the people of that Chinese region, who only got their liberation from the British when the 99 year lease, one of a number of exploitative land-theft imperialist arrangements secured Unprovoked at gunpoint, expired as recent as 1997. So yes, lots of Chinese people lost their lives during these extended periods of violent colonial occupation and the destructive overhang of the Opium Wars meant to destroy the Chinese people, a phenomenon sadly outside of historical record prioritised in western dominated media.
In the late 1940s following the wars of liberation, China had to face the worst drug addiction problem in the world with 1 in 5 people of its population addicted to opiates. The Opium Trade had been forced on China, against the laws of China because Britain and its western capitalist allies thought this reflected free trade, modernity and liberal values (sound familiar?). Trade in opium was highly destructive to Chinese society and the damage went far beyond the millions killed and enslaved during these western wars of economic and cultural imposition. Cleaning up the criminal vestiges of this western onslaught is the job that Jang YueLou confronts in Killer and Healer. Within three years the Communist Party of China was able to overcome that problem with the help of dedicated men like Chief Jiang YueLou and Dr Chen YuZhi.
All the actors, even seemingly minor ones are perfectly cast and excelled in their roles. Mao ZiJun and Yi BoChen not only mastered their characters emotions but seem to have been born for these roles, making their characterisations and even their sizzling relationship dynamic between them from the first encounter, simply impossible to replicate.
Killer and Healer is a magnificent, meaningful drama that gets better on every rewatch and I look forward to the next BL from this Director, Sam Ho, which is a little Danmei adaptation called Immortality.
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