Skibbies

I liked her alright in dream of splendour, her character wasn't great but she worked pretty well. She played a really flawed character in the modern drama Imperfect Victim and did a great job in it! (not a fun drama though)

the start of s1 is very much a manhua start problem, web manhua struggled to gain a footing when it starts, so it needed something super different to hook, and there's more problematic humour/plot points for the same reason (it's more apparently in donghua/manhua).

Baobao's flashback was when the story really sold itself to me for donghua too (it's end of s1 for donghua, the drama rearranged events a bit), before that I just liked the premise, but not really the story. Manhua fans are quick to admit the start is rough too, and lot of fans think biyou village is epitome of what the story is about.

in the plans, haven't been filmed yet. this season is just one arc, you can watch it and stop it here tbh, so I don't think you have to wait.

The drama is about multiple couples so they aren't side characters lol. I do think they intro'ed them bit too late though.

director li mo directed this drama and fake it, he also rides bike, so i'm pretty sure he just incorporated the bit. for this drama, racing is one of the things that can be considered attraction in macau, so it's why it's here.

knockout is propoganda probably cos the police won XD china not being the villain? propoganda. china having positive sides? propoganda.

anti-corruption dramas is literally a sub-genre, but they almost never get watched internationally and are waved off as propoganda.

different characters, 徐 and 许, they sound completely different in cantonese as well (tsui and hui).

oh, fu dalong shows up last 1/4 of the show, and......I didn't like his character to be honest? Partially cos his character is boneheaded, but partially how he played it, it came off bit annoying and out place at times. All the cases are based on real high profile cases, so there's that.

It's a folktale yeah, and it's just called hat demon, I keep getting the impression it's linked to 狸猫换太子 folktale too. Both are from Song Zhenzong period, and linked with him not having a crown prince.

Chen Kaige's movie inspiration is also from folktales I think. Strange tales of Tang Dynasty and White Cat Legend both have demon cats in Wu Zetian period.

Criminal Police is decent, though not the type of suspense I like (I like whodunnit and whydunnit more). It's a police procedural that depicts the hardwork and grind of police work, sprinkled with department conflicts and technological change. It's stark contrast to what we normally get in the genre though.

Light on did alright this year I think, I liked lost in the shadows and interlaced scenes, although neither did as well as the lonely warrior (which I didn't watch).

This drama is more detailing how police work in reality + technological/systematic changes over last 30-40 years I think.

Yes, all the cases were based on real high profile cases in China.

I finished, I liked the second half more I think, from ep 25 onwards? there's less battle and more other stuff, touches bit on land reform, taking over xi'an, relatively detailed bit on xizang liberation, I'm more interested in these bits.

I don't think I'd rec this tbh, unless you are curious about the history or main character. I feel like I liked the 2021 batch of commemorative dramas I watched lot more. I think cos they were more about general history rather than a particular place, didn't help I don't care for battles I think. This drama's plot sort of blitz through lot of skirmishes and events. For people, I liked the zhou enlai, deng xiaoping ones more, or the one about the people that went to france.

I didn't expect to find you here :P I'm watching it, and if you are watching it for Ni Ni, she first appear in ep 16 till about 19, then I think 26? I might have missed an appearance somewhere mhmm.

It was decent? It was bit slow for some people I think, sometimes there's multiple playback of a scene, due to different perspective. I liked it anyways, could try it when you have time!

I'm doing catchup on dramas haha, finally watched some decent suspense this year yay. Still not watching much historical dramas though.

Very late, but I liked Tong Dawei in Disappearing Child (2022? mgtv suspense). He played dad of a missing child, the role isn't as complex as this one, but it worked pretty well for the show. I felt like playing dad was in his comfort zone, but he did show bit of chops as suspense.

there's been significant changes in tencent's higher up between 2020 and 2023. Most notably Cheng Wu who was huge fan of the series and met with ZRY is now at Yuewen (copyright holder of JOL, qidian's company, it's also subsidiary of tencent). Han Zhijie is I think busy with the donghua section now?

腾讯影业 also no longer exists. It used to produce lot of the bigger dramas and will sometimes sell it to iqiyi (like my heoric husband) because they re-organised tencent in 2022.

i'm super late, but do try advisor alliance, ming dynasty 1566, and qin empire.

for qin empire, there's four series, i like the 2nd one the best (because it's more diplomacy), then 1st and 3rd and don't really care for the 4th. they are about different kings of qin kingdom, so you don't have to watch them in order. they are vastly different in style and tone due to directors/scriptwriter differences, only 2 and 3 are similar cos they were filmed back to back.

AA is retelling of three kingdoms from different pov, but pretty fun retelling. 1566 is the most dense out of everything listed (including three kingdoms) but i found it surprisingly engaging.

there's also ming dynasty (2019) but i mostly liked the first 20 episodes (family+politics bits, not romance) and dropped it at 43 to avoid an enraging emperor and historical events.

I was wondering when you'd write a review!! Excellent review as always. I really liked Lin Qiaosong and Niu Chunmiao as well. Shen Jinzhen's character was refreshing for me since republican spy drama FLs tend to be lackluster. She's fairly flawed but generally pretty competent.

Agreed on it not really being a spy drama, I feel like they tagged that on to make it more palatable for general audience/easier sell to tv channels/platforms. I like that it's mostly an economics kinda story, since it's a refreshing angle, and fairly well written at that. I don't like the last 1/3 as much, I feel like they could have smoothen something in the arc but it sticked the ending, I really loved it overall I think.