Reimagine a time and space in the past
I am a Cantonese speaker growing up in the 90s, so I watched this series largely because it's dubbed in Cantonese, and set in the 80s/90s. Maybe if I am old enough to remember it first time, then I am too old to see it coming around the second time.
Overall the leads are good looking, and the Cantopop style theme songs are well written. But the spacious back streets and interior clearly set it away from "the young and dangerous" world in Hong Kong.
I was a bit bothered by the dubbing like the others at the start, but after I saw a documentary about the walled city, and how its residents did actually have various accents as they had come from mainland and other Asian countries, I can see that using someone who clearly isn't a Cantonese speaker to dub, is more authentic in a way. I guess this is a wrong place to look for authenticity, as this is not the "blossoms shanghai" kind of production led by a cult director with his unlimited budget.
What i see as a shame, is that the original novel, which i have read, is a well paced story and has a few important revelation scenes, plot twists, that had been cut in the series and swapped with some vacant longing looks between the leads that feels like a stretched out perfume advert. I don't really understand the logic behind this because censorship is clearly not a concern as the series is not intended for release in mainland China.
But to be fair, I don't even know who directed this series, as behind the scenes footage, for some reason, obscured the identity of the director. Maybe censorship has been internalised.
I wouldn't get my hope up for a second season if it did actually end in ep9. Because if even KinnPosche couldn't make it to the second round, then as a pessimist, i think what's untold may just remain untold.
The theme songs stay with me though:-)
Overall the leads are good looking, and the Cantopop style theme songs are well written. But the spacious back streets and interior clearly set it away from "the young and dangerous" world in Hong Kong.
I was a bit bothered by the dubbing like the others at the start, but after I saw a documentary about the walled city, and how its residents did actually have various accents as they had come from mainland and other Asian countries, I can see that using someone who clearly isn't a Cantonese speaker to dub, is more authentic in a way. I guess this is a wrong place to look for authenticity, as this is not the "blossoms shanghai" kind of production led by a cult director with his unlimited budget.
What i see as a shame, is that the original novel, which i have read, is a well paced story and has a few important revelation scenes, plot twists, that had been cut in the series and swapped with some vacant longing looks between the leads that feels like a stretched out perfume advert. I don't really understand the logic behind this because censorship is clearly not a concern as the series is not intended for release in mainland China.
But to be fair, I don't even know who directed this series, as behind the scenes footage, for some reason, obscured the identity of the director. Maybe censorship has been internalised.
I wouldn't get my hope up for a second season if it did actually end in ep9. Because if even KinnPosche couldn't make it to the second round, then as a pessimist, i think what's untold may just remain untold.
The theme songs stay with me though:-)
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