HILARIOUS. self-deprecating, smart/fun meta humor, and absolutely committed to the bit (so far). if this drama…
as background that may help you appreciate its genius - when news came out about this drama, everyone rushed to look at the manhua it was supposedly based on (scriptwriter here is also the manhua author). no one really had any expectations as it was from 2008, and featured a typical mary sue storyline. imagine my surprise when drama starts out with the fl of the manga (played by sxt) getting pulled out of the manga by some kind of divine manhua interlocutor and told that she's not real, that the manga she's starring it has stopped updating because mary sue storylines are no longer popular and that she needs another job. then follows her journey into the real world where she tries to convince her author/creator (the ml) to continue updating the drama.
comedy ensues, based on a very deliberate exploration and reversal of manhua/drama tropes. some of it is just funny - for example, she has no idea what toilets are because no one uses toilets in manhua’s. some of it is subtly critical, like when she laments not having any friends because in her world all the guys like her and all the girls hate her for no reason. i couldn't handle it when the second ml popped out from the manhua a few scenes later, sporting a very '00s spikey anime hair and responding to everything with the most basic "black-bellied" ceo language (cue passerby kids acting as the audience practically falling asleep as he drones on about love's misery). i also just generally love that this drama is basically the scriptwriter re-examining (and sometimes trashing) her own prior manhua and the nature of it.
minor worries: there are a few small plotholes and i am worried about the main couple's chemistry (given ml is rather green), but the spin put on their interactions is refreshing (again inverting and playing around with romantic tropes). this reminds me heavily of w and extraordinary you; i don't know if it will reach the same level of creative insanity or nuance (especially given it is just 28 episodes with less than 10 minutes each), but it's a really good start.
HILARIOUS. self-deprecating, smart/fun meta humor, and absolutely committed to the bit (so far). if this drama continues on its current trajectory, su xiaotong for sure has a knack/luck for picking scripts. i have a more in-depth review below of the first 6 episodes with very very light spoilers.
it is hard, because suicidal elements, drugs, hiphop culture, and any negativity that violates broadcast rules…
i wouldn’t say that they’re completely ruled out (e.g., so many drug related crime dramas) just that they can’t be glamorized and have to be approached plot-wise from what they see as a socially healthy perspective. which is why this kind of heavy sarcasm, black comedy isn’t that common. hopefully censorship won’t deter the plot line.
really hard to watch this without thinking every other minute of netflix’s the ending of the fxxxing world. but nihilistic dark humor is hard to find in cdramas so i’ll take what i can get
4/12 - love the visual direction and its asian extreme cinema styling (e.g., audition, the ring, confessions, etc.) i think it’s going to be one that relies more on atmosphere than clear plot direction, but i hope it won’t end up too navel-gazing. had to laugh that every major japanese person can also speak chinese. also wish the thesis portion had better dialogue. will continue watching!!
wow i really skipped over that. hmm…maybe he’s an informant of another branch? it obviously wouldn’t work for the branch lin qiang is part of. but that’s a lot to unpack in less than 4 episodes less, and characterization-wise it would be more impactful if he isn’t. what do u think?
yessss a huge strength of this drama is how it delicately portrays victims of the drug war, especially female characters. ding ding wasn’t even in that many scenes but you get to see so many shades of her - how she’s so shy and sweetly innocent, how she yearns for a different life, and how it was cruelly torn from her (props to the actress for portraying her so well).
my guess is xianhe is innocent in all of this. he was born to a mother involved in the drug trade, and made an orphan by and then adoped by the drug kingpin (ma hongtao/mht). in the beginning the police informant (sun dapeng/iron sword/sdp) mentioned he wanted to take xianhe's task, because xianhe's a father and he would be dirtied if he involved himself - meaning xianhe was likely not involved in the drug business beforehand. all signs point to sdp taking xianhe's task and then committing suicide (or assisted suicide via xianhe) once he realized the task was intended to out sdp as a police informant. at that time he probably put that bloody piece of paper with the police captain's phone number in xianhe's hands, and gave xianhe the task that he could not accomplish - find ling fang and deliver him to the police. xianhe then pretended he killed spd in order to not implicate himself as an informant. i don't think he's actually an informant just that liu bing was searching for every way to bring him down (as liu bing wanted to succeed ma hongtao). the police force also has no connection with xianhe, and i think it's a bit too late in the game to suddenly uncover some kind of informant tie.
xianhe going after hu ge was part of the last task spd entrusted him with. it looks like spd partially raised him growing up and taught him how to cook, so he had a strong emotional tie to spd. he then went after liu bing because liu bing threatened keke. in other words, in contrast with his vile, playboy mafia son image, he's really a normal but honorable man driven to do things out of desperation, love and loyalty.
as to ending, i think he is either going to jail or disappearing. There's a small small possibility he becomes the next police informant so at least the two leads can stay together, but for narrative impact my bet is on them separating. honestly, i'll be satisfied if they both stay alive at this point lol.
Ahh praise you, thanks for posting/translating! This makes a lot of sense. C:Although in re: #6.... I am 100%…
omg yes, i was so scared they were going to go for cheesy humor but it ended up really fitting (i’m still laughing over her answering “two isn’t too many right?” when her boss asked whether both zxh and cjs were her boyfriends. 😂
Nervous why? I have a similar feeling and am wondering if anyone shares my theory.
just want to mention since i didn’t add it to my post above, the scriptwriter mentioned liu zhaohua as a figure he drew source materials from. in short, he was a meth kingpin that makes walter white look like a shrimp, and was executed in 2009.
comedy ensues, based on a very deliberate exploration and reversal of manhua/drama tropes. some of it is just funny - for example, she has no idea what toilets are because no one uses toilets in manhua’s. some of it is subtly critical, like when she laments not having any friends because in her world all the guys like her and all the girls hate her for no reason. i couldn't handle it when the second ml popped out from the manhua a few scenes later, sporting a very '00s spikey anime hair and responding to everything with the most basic "black-bellied" ceo language (cue passerby kids acting as the audience practically falling asleep as he drones on about love's misery). i also just generally love that this drama is basically the scriptwriter re-examining (and sometimes trashing) her own prior manhua and the nature of it.
minor worries: there are a few small plotholes and i am worried about the main couple's chemistry (given ml is rather green), but the spin put on their interactions is refreshing (again inverting and playing around with romantic tropes). this reminds me heavily of w and extraordinary you; i don't know if it will reach the same level of creative insanity or nuance (especially given it is just 28 episodes with less than 10 minutes each), but it's a really good start.
xianhe going after hu ge was part of the last task spd entrusted him with. it looks like spd partially raised him growing up and taught him how to cook, so he had a strong emotional tie to spd. he then went after liu bing because liu bing threatened keke. in other words, in contrast with his vile, playboy mafia son image, he's really a normal but honorable man driven to do things out of desperation, love and loyalty.
as to ending, i think he is either going to jail or disappearing. There's a small small possibility he becomes the next police informant so at least the two leads can stay together, but for narrative impact my bet is on them separating. honestly, i'll be satisfied if they both stay alive at this point lol.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0UeQuCWqNjFngtYth4DetY?si=-VkzD0ORRKi3bGA8xjTQOg&dl_branch=1
yet i’m still laughing every episode because this show is so good at switching up the comedy. i feel a little crazy 😂😭