roddib

Cinematography and dialogue are truly ambitious in Chinese dramas. Ambition and experimentation are expected as per the written guidelines! Agreed, graphic violence is not the way to make a high quality drama. Finding and exploring narrative techniques to let the watcher imagine the menace in her own mind is what is clever, imo. It does require a lot of attention to narration techniques. Background music is oftentimes enough to convey menace!

yes the goal is to make the publishing process faster and more streamlined. The review of dramas is going to start taking place more during the filming, also.

In my understanding the US part was filmed in the US and has an American director. It's a co-production between China and the US. Shao Tong character is a Chinese American.

I don't think it's AI subbed. AI subbed dramas so far have not been understandable at all. The subs have some mistakes but generally good.

Yes, the lifting of the more than 40 eps ban and several other new guidelines became effective from the start of the year. I read the documents explaining the guidelines bc it's all interesting stuff.

Sometimes the suspense just gets too much. I tend to stop watching when I feel too much anxiousness for what is going to happen. Then I continue watching in the next day, somehow the break has done it's work and it's easy to continue. But I'm grateful that Chinese dramas avoid graphic portrayals of violence and gore (I hope they keep it this way bc psychological suspense is already enough!)

not a sequel

The dialogue between Bingrui and Kojima was utterly poignant and memorable. Even today, most people just accept war propaganda without questioning or looking deeper into what is real (referring to the Ukraine war here). So it was an epic, timeless discussion.
As was the reasoning of prisoner 909. A human being needs hope to survive. Even false hope is better than no hope.
The US has a lot to do with helping Japan destroy the evidence about Unit 731. Also the drama Lost Identity referred to the way the US was flying out Shiro Ishii and his research immediately after Japan surrendered. As the US continued Ishii's research and used his methods (e.g., weaponized ticks) in the Korean War, silence around Unit 731 is undertandable because admittance would have meant also admitting the US war crimes. The situation in China was chaotic as the war continued as civil war, therefore, gathering evidence and securing documents was not a primary concern. In the US, German and Japanese bioweapons research and development was continued in Fort Detrick and Plum Island. For anyone interested, there are interesting documentaries about Plum Island in YT.

About ep 6 below

This is fun and entertaining (am currently at ep 5). Family & slice of life drama. A story of an alienated hutong family coming together again.

There was prudishness but she threw the Colonel into the bathtub just like that! I agree we can look for forward to her character development.

I agree. She was thrown in a situation and she hasn't really had time to come to grips with her new role. She makes dumb mistakes but the realities of her new situation are just slowly sinking in.

This is really good, highly recommended! I watched the first 5 episodes and they flew by just like that! There's a lot of tension of course and I expect things to get even heavier, as historical accuracy demands. But there was quite a lot of intelligent humour in the first 5 episodes as well. Mainly, the interactions between Wumu and Ye Bi Ying are so delicious! It's nice to see banter and chemistry like that.

Edward Zhang's acting is simply awesome. Of course playing an undercover agent means dual acting (the character is an actor who acts). Both a dream role and a big challenge for an actor. The nuances as in how the Colonel puts down his weight to make the Japanese not suspect his authority and how he deceives them acting drunk are just very fine indeed. I haven't seen Ning Chang before but she's wonderful in this.

The cinematography is another factor that deserves full attention. Especially the scenes in the club were worth noticing. (Of course the war planes CGI is not on current level but to me that's irrelevant).

The suspense is quite not as hairraising yet as it was in The Guardians (2025) or Silent Tides (2025) or Lost Identity (2024). But as I've watched all 3 recently, this is a relief. If this gets more intensely suspenseful, I'll still be seated as it's already obvious that we are getting great writing, acting and cinematography.

I guess this got the streaming permission after 8 years because the ban on historicals having more than 40 episodes was just lifted. How lucky we are!

Heroes Next Door is an action comedy without romance, it was great compared to this, imo.

A good place to stop watching, imo. It doesn't get better.

The last 2 episodes were really totally boring. But this was fun until then, especially scenes on the filming sets.

Last scenes of last episode went meta. Saying they just wanted to make a harmless drama reveals a lot about the current mindset in k-dramaworld. In 2026, if there's nothing more ambitious or experimental, the hallyu wave comes to a total standstill. For me Nice to Not Meet You was one of the actually watchable dramas in 2025, but landed with a crash. This was a good 7.5. until the last episode, which makes me give this 7.0/10.

I thought from Kang Dae Il

Jung Woo Sung's acting is the highlight of this drama. I didn't really like ep 3, the character played Cho Yeo Young was so pathetic. I guess the point was to show that Baek Gi Tae is truly ruthless. Ep 4 was better but nothing extraordinary. Am glad that this is only 6 eps and there's going to be no long downhill slide (my current expectation for all k-dramas).

I do appreciate the historical realism a lot.

Now Youku has good subs (at least from ep 2 on)

Youku has finally put on the fanmade good english subs.
If they do not appear in ep 1, they were present in ep 2. A million thanks for the subber, excellent person! Thanks Youku for listening!