Kseniya Green

After this part I only had some more concerns, but after Ou Xinping's death, the subsequent episodes completely ruined my impression.
And no matter how much I think about it, the image of Zhou Zhifei does not form a logical whole for me - even a logical whole of a person with a split personality. For me, he falls apart, as if there are several characters from different dramas.
And the craziest thing about this is that Zhang Songwen manages to breathe life into at least some of these parts. And this makes the impression of the drama even more twisted 🤯.

Yeah. It feels like there's a lot between the lines of his acting too.

I wonder if Zhou Zhifei's storyline is different from the original plot or not?

Oh, it would be very interesting to read what they changed! Because personally I couldn't shake the feeling that the first two thirds were filmed as one story, and then another one came along and the logic of the characters and the story suddenly broke down.

Same here. And I honestly really dislike the "he was forced into marriage, but after years of being in a forced marriage and losing everyone he really loved, he developed feelings for the fake wife" trope.
If XRT had lived, but Gu Yizhong had realized he was already in love with someone else, it would have felt different. But as it is, it just feels like "he's gotten used to his chains."

Me too. I blame Zhang Songwen for everything 😁. His magnificent acting turned my head and turned off my critical thinking. What a dangerous man 😌

I feel the drama as if they experimented with lines and images in the first two thirds of the drama, and then rolled it all into the concrete framework of the "correct" ending. And this feels boring and lifeless to me personally.

Yeah 😂. And probably Zhou Zhifei wanted Gu Yizhong to love him like he loves Mr. Li, but this love story didn't work out 🤭.

He pierces Gu Yizhong with his own traumas, and look at him with the expression of a sympathetic psychopath: "How are you, dear? Does it hurt?"

Yes, as if consciously or semi-consciously, Zhou Zhifei is trying to make Gu Yizhong completely repeat his fate.
And if we look at Zhang Songwen's acting - in all the scenes when Zhou Zhifei makes Gu Yizhong suffer, there is some kind of mixture of pain and sadistic satisfaction.

Maybe these constant parallels are the reason for Zhou Zhifei's morbid obsession with Gu Yizhong. As if he sees some lost part of himself in Gu Yizhong. And one piece of his split soul wants to grab onto this part. And the other - to completely destroy it, so that it doesn't hurt. But maybe I'm again trying to imagine something deeper than it is 😅

I watched up to episode 32.
And yes, I agree that if you try to logically assemble Zhou Zhifei's character, he looks like a person with a deep personality split. Where one part is a psychopath, going to survive on a mountain of corpses, and even feeling sadistic pleasure from this. And the other part is suffering, but perceiving its own actions as "force majeure", as if he himself had nothing to do with it.
And both parts are completely obsessed with Gu Yizhong - which turns Gu Yizhong's life into hell.
If we follow the further logic of the development of such a character, then by the finale Zhou Zhifei should go completely mad - unless he is killed earlier, of course.

I watched a little further, and yes, it looks like this is exactly what they wanted to show. Something still doesn't fit for me, but maybe it's just my expectations 😅.

I'll probably watch it to the end too, after taking a break to deal with some disappointment 😅.

I understand what you mean, yes, such people exist too. But Zhou Zhifei doesn't feel like that to me. But I'll say it again - this is my personal impression. Other people may see it differently. But I can't believe this character

I have the same feeling. Because the image began to break down abruptly somewhere after two-thirds of the drama. As if they initially wanted to create an ambiguous antihero. And then they realized that the image of the antihero was turning out to be too bright and strong, which is not good for the image of a traitor in a patriotic film, and they rushed to break it. And to break it so thoroughly, not only in terms of his moral qualities but also in terms of his strength and intellect. So that no one could accuse that "your traitors are cooler than your heroes."

To be honest, I saw that he was trying to make such an impression, but I expected a double bottom and a more complex game. And here's why.
I don't claim to have the ultimate truth, but in my opinion, when a person is ready for any cruelty and meanness to save his own skin, there are two options.
Either he is a psychopath - and then he is not capable of any love and affection, he would not care that his son is becoming Japanese, he would not care about the death of Gu Yizhong's sister, etc.
The second option is a weak and cowardly person who may have some attachments and values, but he is not ready to defend them in the face of the threat of death. But such a person would behave completely differently in the situation with Ou Xinping and in a number of others. Whoever Zhang Songwen plays, he definitely plays a person with a strong will.
That's why for me the image of Zhou Zhifei falls apart into pieces that do not fit together.

I understand. It's not the tragic outcome that upsets me - I expected it, and I'm fine with tragedies.
What upsets me is the illogicality - in my subjective opinion - of Zhou Zhifei's character. Considering that I watched it primarily because of this character, his transformation from a charismatic half-shadow antihero into an ordinary scumbag upsets me. And it doesn't seem psychologically plausible to me. At least not the way it's shown in the drama.

Everything is fake in this drama. And maybe that's the point, but I don't like how it's done.

I admit honestly, I had high expectations from this drama. But somewhere after 21 episodes all these expectations started to collapse along with the logic of the characters.
And after the last episodes, this Lonely Boat completely sank for me 😞. I don't even want to watch it to the end.
But still, my respect to the actors ❤️. They liven it up as best they can. I hope to see them again in more worthy projects.