Very good thriller!
This is a fairly talky drama (although there's action and violence too), but I found it very engaging. There is a ton of plotting and scheming going on (besides the CCP spy the mole hunt is looking for, we learn fairly early on that there's also a KMT spy in the mix - not to mention everyone's own agendas). It's full of unreliable narrators (don't necessarily trust the flashbacks that are shown). I enjoyed watching everyone's interactions as the cat-and-mouse game unfolds and I particularly adore Gu Xiaomeng and Li Ningyu's chemistry! I also felt like it has a pretty satisfying ending.As may be expected from the genre and time period it's set in, it does have a fairly high body count among the main cast and I think most of the content notes you'd expect for a WWII era spy drama apply, especially in the second half of the drama.
I really enjoyed this and I'm so glad it got fansubbed!
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The storyline and the characters
I love this drama show the message 2020. The whole storyline,the badass powerful characters especially Li Ningyu. And when comes to Li Ningyu or wenyongshan. The whole episode since Li Ningyu appears on the story was so whole awesome. She is such genius colonel and genius characters. I love her. She is the one andd only idol not just beautiful like a goddess also she is the babass powerful genius godess who ever play in the drama show. And when comes to eoisode 5 and 4 that was the amazing part of Li Ningyu.Im so amaze with the acting of wenyongshan when she play role as Li Ningyu. She has some cold personalities that can be suits to Li Ningyu. Not only cold and calm. But Li Ningyu also warmhearted, caring, genius. She is so perfect.
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Kind of boring
So... not sure if I'm just dumb or skipped around too much but I don't quite understand some parts of this show. The gist of plot is about how the Japanese/Nationalist government tries to find a Communist spy within their midst with the codename "Ghost". In order to do so, they decided to lock 5 suspects together in a mansion (lol) and basically "interrogate" (torture) them. None of the characters know who "Ghost" is (except for "Ghost" of course) and can only make educated guesses on who the "Ghost" really is. Hence, what results is a lot of talking, gossiping, and plotting to try and tease out the identity of the "Ghost". This does not make for entertaining viewing when the characters spend chunks of time sitting around a table monologuing and trying to manipulate each other. 38 episodes of this gets old real fast and I had to fast forward so much because I was losing interest. I get that this is a espionage thriller but this is wayyyy too much scheming and talking for a drama. Doesn't help that there is an average of 3 flashbacks per episode to show the backstory of the characters and that is just too many flashbacks come on... Some plot points made zero sense as well. Also, the CGI was horrifically bad and the props looked extremely low budget.The 2 female characters are Mary Sues. Li Ning Yu especially so with her being beautiful, extremely intelligent, a top rated cryptographer who also coincidentally has 0 flaws. Her relationship with the other female character Gu Xiao Meng was confusing (to me) as she seemed to treat Gu coldly then suddenly revert to being warm and vice versa. It was strange. Chinese social media shipped them together but I don't get it. Censorship like what happened in A couple of Mirrors? Who knows. Actress playing Gu also overacts a fair bit which is cringey.
Conclusion: Plot seems more suited for a movie. Strong propaganda overtones as well considering the time period this drama is set in.
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