Magical realism letter time-travel drama that is worth your time
Our offspring our strangers to us in the future and our parents are strangers to us in the past.
This little gem of a chinese drama series is well worth the small investment of time (only 12 episodes). I have been trying to figure out why it is unusual. And I think I've settled on this as the main reason - that it shows very clearly the truism of the fact that our offspring our strangers to us in the future and our parents are strangers to us in the past. If you could change your parent's past, would you?
I think it is also unusual because in a sea of polarising genres of either shamelessly shallow idol dramas or full on police crime dramas, this thoughtful and deep drama explores the harshness and brutality of certain parts of rural China (in the 90s and quite possible even now) without being a police crime drama. Trigger warning- there is exploration of familial abuse, triad gang war and small town thinking. The closest TV series I can think of that does a similar thing is Nobody Knows, but that drama had significant police-crime plot line. There is no doubt where the emphasis is in this drama - on the young coming of age couple in the early 90s living in a small town.
It is also unusual also because of its beautiful cinematography and the treatment each side character gets to tell the fully-orbed story. I thoroughly enjoyed the breadth and depth of each character and only wish a longer series could have been written - perhaps exploring more of the thoughts and feelings of the offspring as they discover more of their parent's past. Another follow-up series wouldn't be out of place when the series is this good!
As it is, I felt like a lot of Chinese series, the ending left rather a lot to be desired. It is a source of mystery to me that Chinese dramaland simply cannot deliver a Chinese series without some sort of deflation-of-souffle- ending. Seriously, why not? If only...
The acting on the other hand is stellar. I think most people will be blown away by the two young actors and I have come across many who have said this is Zhou Yiran's best work yet. I quite agree. I believed every moment. It helps when the character is written so well!
This drama was a real gift for christmas 2025.
P.s. On that note, couldn't they have released it 2026 to make it fit the timing in the drama?
This little gem of a chinese drama series is well worth the small investment of time (only 12 episodes). I have been trying to figure out why it is unusual. And I think I've settled on this as the main reason - that it shows very clearly the truism of the fact that our offspring our strangers to us in the future and our parents are strangers to us in the past. If you could change your parent's past, would you?
I think it is also unusual because in a sea of polarising genres of either shamelessly shallow idol dramas or full on police crime dramas, this thoughtful and deep drama explores the harshness and brutality of certain parts of rural China (in the 90s and quite possible even now) without being a police crime drama. Trigger warning- there is exploration of familial abuse, triad gang war and small town thinking. The closest TV series I can think of that does a similar thing is Nobody Knows, but that drama had significant police-crime plot line. There is no doubt where the emphasis is in this drama - on the young coming of age couple in the early 90s living in a small town.
It is also unusual also because of its beautiful cinematography and the treatment each side character gets to tell the fully-orbed story. I thoroughly enjoyed the breadth and depth of each character and only wish a longer series could have been written - perhaps exploring more of the thoughts and feelings of the offspring as they discover more of their parent's past. Another follow-up series wouldn't be out of place when the series is this good!
As it is, I felt like a lot of Chinese series, the ending left rather a lot to be desired. It is a source of mystery to me that Chinese dramaland simply cannot deliver a Chinese series without some sort of deflation-of-souffle- ending. Seriously, why not? If only...
The acting on the other hand is stellar. I think most people will be blown away by the two young actors and I have come across many who have said this is Zhou Yiran's best work yet. I quite agree. I believed every moment. It helps when the character is written so well!
This drama was a real gift for christmas 2025.
P.s. On that note, couldn't they have released it 2026 to make it fit the timing in the drama?
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