Chong Ming Wei (2018)

Binge worthy show

STORY: During Qin Dynasty, a meteorite fell from sky which led some people to gain super natural powers, who are called the” Abnormalities”- Jizhong. The rulers used the power of Abnormalities for achieving great duties. But they feared that they may misuse their abilities to trouble the emperor. During the Ming dynasty, a department called “Chong Ming Wei” was created to exterminate Abnormalities.
The abnormalities may have 9 kinds of super powers- “Fu Jiu You”.
I watched this drama in Rakuten viki, which in my opinion has best subtitles and translation, but I felt some of the words weird, so I am mentioning them here in case you couldn’t follow them. Also, I could only understand a few of them.
The super powers:
1. The dark clap of thunder- ability to kill target by discharging electricity.
2. Cloud and feather space- levitation.
3. Abstract law of collection- THE ABILITY TO TOUCH A CORPSE AND HEAR THE LAST SOUNDS THE DECEASED HEARD BEFORE DYING.
4. Connected imitation- the ability to impose the fears, an abnormality has, onto normal people and make them hallucinate.
5. Peach blossom spring- ability to make other abnormalities abilities momentarily ineffective.
6. Giver of life: ability to quickly heal external injuries.

This drama revolves around male lead’s investigation about Ting ji case (Zhang cha- an Abnormality- tried to assassinate the crown prince) that happened 10 years ago. He tries to find the truth and mystery about that case.
It has more fantasy elements than crime and investigation.

The pacing of story is good, no dragging. First half of the drama is very cool, with lots of fun but the last episodes have a bit of melodrama.

ACTOR’S PERFORMANCE: To be honest, there isn’t much scope for actors to exhibit their talent. Only the male lead has got a long screen time and he steals the show with his hilarious expressions.

EFFECTS: I felt this as a low budget drama, the effects aren’t very appealing, but I appreciate the crew’s efforts.

My verdict: This a 24 episode bingewatch worthy drama, with each episode having a duration of less than 25 minutes, if you skip intro and outro. I recommend you to watch it if you want a story not so intense and not so foolish either..
Finally, don’t miss the ramblings of the actors at the end of each episode, they are funny.

The crew announced that there is going to be a season 2 for this drama and I will watch it definitely.

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Enjoyable if you are into Ancient detective dramas

I think below are still better:
The sleuth of the Ming Dynasty <-- still the best
Ancient Detective
The Imperial Coroner

But if you enjoy this kind of niche drama then you'll like the storyline of this as well despite being a low budget drama.
The story has multiple cases and gets solved pretty quick, but every case tied to a bigger mystery surrounding the ML.
Acting was ok, no one really stood out but at least none were terrible.
Chemistry wasn't strong between the ML and the FL, but the focus wasn't on the romance. I actually preferred that being the episodes were short and I wasn't looking for cheesy romance in this kind of the genre.
Each episode ended with some random rambling, some were quite silly and funny.

The ending suggested season 2 so I hope that it will happen!

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