Agree it's so good! I was going to just watch a couple of episodes but I binged all 16 in 1 day!
The scene in the hot spring in the earlier episodes where the camera view turned from horizontal to vertical was insanely gorgeous and I can't get over it.
The sad thing is that you're caught up now! You will have to wait in agony for them to air just like the rest of us LOL :)
Because it's a difficult time, even in my country, there were heroes who sacrificed everything during British…
I would agree with you that these dramas definitely push the belief that "the Party is always right" and that it's not really realistic because these types of ethical and moral dilemmas are dilemmas because they're in a grey area. There were definitely times when the British people during WW2 disagreed with Churchill's orders and voiced their opinions. I also think there are times in which people do have blind loyalty because they're looking at things based on the outcome they want versus analyzing if the steps they're taking to reach this outcome are ethical. I think in terms of how it's depicted in these dramas it has to do more with the CCP not wanting to be portrayed in a negative light to viewers because it might harm citizens' views of the Party and overall morale.
This show actually had some great Nationalists in Tu Nan who digressed throughout. I guess this is what sets it…
What you're finding annoying about these dramas is the national allegory (And believe me, it drives me insane sometimes too) https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100223851. It's basically where the story is actually centered around the state of the nation and the characters are just vesicles to portray it. I think someone else mentioned it as well, but this is extremely common in stories centered around political unrest and war. It's a trope that is known for existing in a lot of third-world stories to show the struggles a nation had to overcome. That's why so many characters end up sacrificing. So, because I'm a nerd for this topic I ended up accidentally writing basically an entire essay in response to your question LOL. Please enjoy :).
I think I might be able to provide somewhat of an answer to your question, "I mean, would you honestly kill your brother or sister or let them be executed without doing anything if you knew about it just because of your faith in one of the parties? " I totally understand how mindboggling it is that someone could stand by and watch their loved ones or people be killed. To answer the first part of your question, yes, unfortunately, this happens and there are some situations where it may (disturbingly) make sense. I think there are three themes - each one building off of the others - that your question involves. 1) Individuals vs. the masses. 2) Sacrifice or be in a worse state. 3) Faith.
I want to start with the concept of thinking about individuals versus the masses. Have you heard of the Trolly Problem? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem). It's an example of how we think about ethical dilemmas. Basically, there is a trolly that is about to hit five people on the tracks. However, you have the ability to divert the trolly onto another set of tracks where it will only hit one person. The idea is that most people will choose to divert the trolly and kill one person instead of five people...you sacrifice one to save many.
Now let's add a personal touch to our trolly problem with the second theme of sacrificing or being in a worse state. You talk about the death and sacrifice of loved ones. One direct example of this comes from WW2 during the U.S. invasion of the Mariana Islands, specifically the island of Saipan. When the U.S. invaded Saipan many Japanese civilians committed suicide by jumping off of a cliff. Women threw babies and children off the cliffs and then jumped themselves. This was because the Japanese had instilled this idea into civilians' minds that the Americans would brutally rape and murder them so they felt that death was better than living in torture. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_Cliff).
To continue building on themes 1 and 2, the modern film The Imitation Game about Alan Turing and the cracking of the German Enigma machine during WW2 is a really good example of sacrificing a small number of your own people for the greater good. Although what is depicted in the film is a fictional event it's a good example of the moral and ethical dilemmas your question brings up. In the film, we see the team crack the German's codes. Just as they do so, they can see that German U-boats are going to sink a British passenger vessel. One of the character's family members is on the ship but they ultimately choose not to alert the vessel to change its course and allow thousands of innocent British civilians to be killed. They made this decision because if they were to alert the vessel and have it change course then the Germans would know the British had solved the enigma machine and the Germans would change it leaving the British to start all over again with cracking it. Meaning, that all of the efforts to solve it would have been used to save one ship of their own people versus used to win the war and allow all European nations freedom from an authoritarian dictator. That's why people sacrificed so that future generations would not have to live under the Nazi regime. Which, gets us to the part of your question about faith. (See https://www.quora.com/In-The-Imitation-Game-there-is-a-scene-where-Alan-Turing-is-blamed-for-taking-the-lives-of-people-on-the-ship-Is-it-true-that-his-work-of-saving-21-millions-lives-had-some-victims-Why-Wasn-t-there-any-other for further discussion on the topic).
During the 2nd Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War, citizens felt that the Nationalists were corrupt. Additionally, the Nationalists were brutal when trying to eradicate the Communist Party and at some points during the 2nd Sino-Japanese War they spent efforts eradicating Communists rather than joining forces to push out the Japanese. Although not technically during the 2nd Sino-Japanese War (1937-1949), The Long March (1934-35) is an example of this because the Japanese were already occupying parts of China in 1931. From my understanding, Chinese citizens felt the Nationalists were caught up in corruption with a line between them as the bourgeoise and ordinary citizens who struggled and were poor (Beautifully depicted in the 1949 Chinese film Crows and Sparrows). Whereas, the Communists seemed to advocate for the working class and ordinary people. We see the "commoners" enact retribution later during the Cultural Revolution by targeting the bourgeoisie. This is sort of reminiscent of the French Revolution. So, going back to our WW2 discussion, like the British, the Communists wanted freedom and they had faith and hope that their people and nation could one day attain it for the greater good. This is the same reason individuals sacrificed themselves and even allowed their loved ones to sacrifice to save the nation from full Japanese occupation because the Chinese knew (like the British) how their people would be treated.
Hopefully, that sort of answers your question. If you're looking for Chinese dramas or films that don't include this type of sacrifice and focus on other troubles, I would suggest checking out post-modern Chinese, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese films such as films directed by Zhang Yimou, Jia Zhangke, and Hou Hsiao-Hsien which in some cases act as a criticism of the politics during the period through the struggles of the characters. The films Farewell My Concubine (Zhang Yimou), Under the Hawthorne Tree (Zhang Yimou), Unknown Pleasures (Jia Zhangke), and A Time to Live and A Time to Die (Hou Hsiao-Hsien) may be of interest to you. If you're up for a Korean film, I suggest Memories of Murder. Here are two watchlists of mine that may also be of interest and include the films covered during two of the courses I took for my Asian Studies minor: 1) Intro to Chinese Film https://kisskh.at/list/32APKBlL 2) East Asian Film Class https://kisskh.at/list/LAlqZrw1
I'm three episodes in and I'm not really getting any sense of an overarching plot or storyline yet. Those of you who have watched more episodes, can you weigh in?
There's a term for why you don't typically see happy endings in Republican Era dramas. It's called the National Allegory. The lives of the characters we see so intimately are only small pieces within a larger context...fighting against the Japanese or for the communist revolution. That's why main characters die and love stories end tragically.
Li yi feng was involved in a criminal case to do with prostitution and arrested.As with kris wu and others he's…
It seems it's no longer on Viki and Youtube, but Li Yifeng's work can still be found on various streaming platforms like IQIYI and Viki. Same for Deng Lun. It's just that neither of them will be seen again in the industry producing new works.
The sad thing is that you're caught up now! You will have to wait in agony for them to air just like the rest of us LOL :)
I think I might be able to provide somewhat of an answer to your question, "I mean, would you honestly kill your brother or sister or let them be executed without doing anything if you knew about it just because of your faith in one of the parties? " I totally understand how mindboggling it is that someone could stand by and watch their loved ones or people be killed. To answer the first part of your question, yes, unfortunately, this happens and there are some situations where it may (disturbingly) make sense. I think there are three themes - each one building off of the others - that your question involves. 1) Individuals vs. the masses. 2) Sacrifice or be in a worse state. 3) Faith.
I want to start with the concept of thinking about individuals versus the masses. Have you heard of the Trolly Problem? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem). It's an example of how we think about ethical dilemmas. Basically, there is a trolly that is about to hit five people on the tracks. However, you have the ability to divert the trolly onto another set of tracks where it will only hit one person. The idea is that most people will choose to divert the trolly and kill one person instead of five people...you sacrifice one to save many.
Now let's add a personal touch to our trolly problem with the second theme of sacrificing or being in a worse state. You talk about the death and sacrifice of loved ones. One direct example of this comes from WW2 during the U.S. invasion of the Mariana Islands, specifically the island of Saipan. When the U.S. invaded Saipan many Japanese civilians committed suicide by jumping off of a cliff. Women threw babies and children off the cliffs and then jumped themselves. This was because the Japanese had instilled this idea into civilians' minds that the Americans would brutally rape and murder them so they felt that death was better than living in torture. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_Cliff).
To continue building on themes 1 and 2, the modern film The Imitation Game about Alan Turing and the cracking of the German Enigma machine during WW2 is a really good example of sacrificing a small number of your own people for the greater good. Although what is depicted in the film is a fictional event it's a good example of the moral and ethical dilemmas your question brings up. In the film, we see the team crack the German's codes. Just as they do so, they can see that German U-boats are going to sink a British passenger vessel. One of the character's family members is on the ship but they ultimately choose not to alert the vessel to change its course and allow thousands of innocent British civilians to be killed. They made this decision because if they were to alert the vessel and have it change course then the Germans would know the British had solved the enigma machine and the Germans would change it leaving the British to start all over again with cracking it. Meaning, that all of the efforts to solve it would have been used to save one ship of their own people versus used to win the war and allow all European nations freedom from an authoritarian dictator. That's why people sacrificed so that future generations would not have to live under the Nazi regime. Which, gets us to the part of your question about faith. (See https://www.quora.com/In-The-Imitation-Game-there-is-a-scene-where-Alan-Turing-is-blamed-for-taking-the-lives-of-people-on-the-ship-Is-it-true-that-his-work-of-saving-21-millions-lives-had-some-victims-Why-Wasn-t-there-any-other for further discussion on the topic).
During the 2nd Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War, citizens felt that the Nationalists were corrupt. Additionally, the Nationalists were brutal when trying to eradicate the Communist Party and at some points during the 2nd Sino-Japanese War they spent efforts eradicating Communists rather than joining forces to push out the Japanese. Although not technically during the 2nd Sino-Japanese War (1937-1949), The Long March (1934-35) is an example of this because the Japanese were already occupying parts of China in 1931. From my understanding, Chinese citizens felt the Nationalists were caught up in corruption with a line between them as the bourgeoise and ordinary citizens who struggled and were poor (Beautifully depicted in the 1949 Chinese film Crows and Sparrows). Whereas, the Communists seemed to advocate for the working class and ordinary people. We see the "commoners" enact retribution later during the Cultural Revolution by targeting the bourgeoisie. This is sort of reminiscent of the French Revolution. So, going back to our WW2 discussion, like the British, the Communists wanted freedom and they had faith and hope that their people and nation could one day attain it for the greater good. This is the same reason individuals sacrificed themselves and even allowed their loved ones to sacrifice to save the nation from full Japanese occupation because the Chinese knew (like the British) how their people would be treated.
Hopefully, that sort of answers your question. If you're looking for Chinese dramas or films that don't include this type of sacrifice and focus on other troubles, I would suggest checking out post-modern Chinese, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese films such as films directed by Zhang Yimou, Jia Zhangke, and Hou Hsiao-Hsien which in some cases act as a criticism of the politics during the period through the struggles of the characters. The films Farewell My Concubine (Zhang Yimou), Under the Hawthorne Tree (Zhang Yimou), Unknown Pleasures (Jia Zhangke), and A Time to Live and A Time to Die (Hou Hsiao-Hsien) may be of interest to you. If you're up for a Korean film, I suggest Memories of Murder. Here are two watchlists of mine that may also be of interest and include the films covered during two of the courses I took for my Asian Studies minor: 1) Intro to Chinese Film https://kisskh.at/list/32APKBlL 2) East Asian Film Class https://kisskh.at/list/LAlqZrw1