Could've been better. But definitely not your ordinary spy drama.
I've been through a LONG drought of Yang Mi in drama land and Storm Eye's release this year just quenched it a lot. This has been anticipated by a lot of her and Zhang Binbin's fans albeit less expectations with the drama quality considering the genre and the production company involved.First, I'll write about the good things I've observed in the drama:
1. It's different. It's a spy drama but the guns do not really appear until the latter part. There are not much stunts going on but they all did this as realistic as they could in terms of action.
2. It's also different in the sense of scope or on which area of "spy" they covered. This isn't narcotics or drugs but ores - minerals, rare resources, that are not often discussed or shown in contemporary police dramas. This could be the reason why some viewers might find it a bore, especially when we get into the technical parts.
3. The side characters' acting is pretty good. They really picked actors with good ranges and none of them stood out like a sore thumb (okay, maybe one or two but we love him/them nonetheless)
4. The CP is soooo shippable ♥ Yang Mi and Vin Zhang! We've loved them in Ten Miles and now they're FINALLY a couple. In all fairness, the way they sprinkled romance into the drama isn't so out of place. It's just about 30% of the show and yet it gives giggles and smiles. Lovely!
The not-so-good parts of the drama:
1. Come on, don't dress up like a SPY when you're doing missions undercover. Talk about alerting the enemy with all the actions/mannerisms they did.
2. There could've been a better script. RIGHT. The plot is pretty solid itself. They just went a bit off with how the script went for some important scenes and for most fillers. It becomes a bit predictable and unbelievable at some point. But still better than Memory Lost. LOL.
3. OST! How I wish they released proper OSTs for this one. Like, is this made in 2012? I kinda liked a more fitting OST for 2021, but if patriotism is the aim of the show, I kinda get it.
Too bad that this has been overshadowed by more trending works released during its run, but glad that it had pretty solid TV ratings in the mainland during its run. If you are a fan of Yang Mi, Vin Zhang, or any of the side characters, it's still a pretty good watch. Especially for those interested in these kinds of genre.
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This review may contain spoilers
China's Stealth Surveillance Security Forces: Silently Tracking & Watching you
THE PLOTMiao Fei (brilliantly portrayed by Dai Si), stars as the eldest daughter of Miao Huan Yang, a successful wealthy businessman who founded Ding Hua, a privately owned company that deals with valuable mineral ore using its proprietary artificial synthesis technology. Life looks plush and rosy for the her until she is confronted with news of her fiance's sudden suicide as well as her father's remand by the China National Security Agency for suspected trade manipulation activities. With all this sudden chaos and disruption, Miao Fei plunges into grief and becomes an unwillingly pawn for an unnamed Commercial Spy, who threatens to expose her father's past illicit deeds to the police. At the cusp of leaking the entire core data behind her Father's company's proprietary artificial synthesis technology to this Spy, Miao Fei decides to cooperate with the China National Security Special Ops team to induce the main mastermind behind a shady Criminal Organisation to come out of the dark. Under the operative "Storm Eye", the China National Security Ops team and Miao Fei eventually work together to piece the missing clues behind the bigger conspiracy linking her fiance's murder, Ding Hua's data theft and related illegal ore smuggling activities.
THE PROTAGONISTS
The China National Security Special Ops team are portrayed as the main beacon of hope and justice in this story. All security agents are trained to work silently in the background and surprise their unsuspecting targets, because their sophisticated surveillance monitoring system is able track any individual's location and identity from their gait and bug every single phone conversation where there is a signal. The main leads are An Jing (played by Yang Mi) and Ma Shang (played by Zhang Bin bin). The former ex-lovers are uncannily reunited in this "Storm Eye" operative and are forced to work together in order to penetrate the mystery enshrouding Dinghua's proprietary data leaks.
THE BADDIES (SPOILER ALERT)
The shady characters whom the viewers are made to suspect, are not the real criminals. Instead, they are portrayed as imperfect humans who are honest enough with themselves to admit that they will behave in less-than-honorable ways to pursue quick advantages and financial gains.
"Sleeper", the main mastermind behind the information theft of Dinghua's proprietary technology and murder of Miao Fei's fiance, appears to operate independently on his own terms outside the Underground Organisation. As his code name implies, he lies "sleeping" throughout most of the drama because he is very successful at manipulating people around him, while quietly advancing towards his goal: to access the coveted trade secrets of Dingua's proprietary artificial synthesis technology. I find Lawrence Wang's portrayal of this sinister psychopath convincing.
"Bat", is the commercial gun-for-hire. A mysterious man few words and of little-known origins, that "Bat" weaves in and out of the scenes to strike when he is being instructed to by his higher boss of the Underground Organisation, without having a clue who the highest boss is, or what their main agenda entails. As the show's tropey psychopath, he appears scary but is in reality, a wandering blind bat flying aimlessly in the dark. I find this character rather comedic.
ZHANG BB SHINES
I really enjoyed watching Zhang Bin bin's portrayal of Ma Shang as a suave, affable and quick-witted NSM agent and filial caring son. I thought that Yang Mi's portrayal of An Jing as a perfectionist workaholic was on point. As An
Jing's character is scripted to be highly capable NSM agent
who takes her job too seriously to have a social life, Yang Mi's lack of effusiveness or expression for most scenes seem suitable for an Ice-Queen that only shows one emotion (frustration) when things go awry and beyond her plans.
PREDICTABLY STRAIGHTFORWARD ROMANCE
Romance isn't the core focus of the plot. Your heart is more likely to flutter from the anticipation of the NSM nabbing a criminal than a romantic confession from the lead actors. Ma Shang's yearning for his old flame, An Jing, is believable as he appears to constantly take the initiative to woo an ice-queen who is too hung up on her past. There is only one romantic rival for An Jing's romance, but he eventually dies off as most sacrificial martyrs do. An Jing eventually warms up to Ma Shang only when the mysterious circumstances surrounding her late father's car accident and death starts to come to light and they track down the culprit. As with all happy endings, they rekindle their romance as the Storm Eye mission concludes.
CEREBRAL PIECING OF A PUZZLE
There isn't a lot of impressive fighting or chasing scenes in this drama, only a couple of physical brawls seen in the last few episodes. Most of the "action" lies in how the NSM agents piece the missing clues together through countless interrogation interviews, surveillance footage and insider inputs. But the clues are intricately spread out throughout the first few episodes, so the main conspiracy linking the proprietary data theft, planned murders and underground smuggling only make sense after the 10th episode. Overall, this drama gives a fairly realistic portrayal of how criminals and security agents operate and I like there is a happy decent ending.
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Chinese censorship makes watching law & order dramas interesting...
In my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh", and "nah", this rates a "liked"/"meh".What I liked:
I, of course, liked Vin Zhang, but then again, I could probably watch a drama that is just him watching paint dry and I'd be okay, as long as I occasionally got that quirky slightly crooked smile of his. I also like that he is not afraid to play opposite female leads who are older than him (like in "I will never let you go"). I thought both FL and ML actors did their roles well. I appreciated getting to hear their normal voices and neither one bothers me. Of course, I also do not speak Mandarin, so there's that. I liked their opposite natures: ML was cheerful and often irreverent, FL was by-the-book and serious. Their romance was believable (and there was even a kissing scene. If I was Yang Mi, I would have made VZ do that take at least ten times. You know, for science), but I did get a bit frustrated by the FL's unwillingness to let anyone into her life. I loved ML's family. They were hilarious and had a good relationship with their son (and for once, the dad was played by an actor who was handsome enough in his own right to have believably produced a son who looks like Vin Zhang.). Despite the initial drag of the plot, I actually got into it as it moved along.
What merited the "meh" portion:
I'm not really into procedural police dramas and this was definitely procedural. Lots of time spent in conversations about the case and what they were going to do. Thanks to censorship, plenty of patriotic script writing--I had to fast-forward through those bits. And I know this is most likely due to censorship, but I had a very hard time believing in a government agency that had zero infighting, zero bosses under political pressure, zero problems interacting with local police forces, and zero territorial disputes with other agency offices. In a way, that is what ruined the other very realistic-seeming parts of the drama.
If you're really into procedural law & order-type shows, you'd like this one, just be aware of the limitations due to censorship outlined above. I thought all the actors did a nice job and I did not feel I'd wasted my time watching it.
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Am I watching a pro-China infomercial, or a spy drama?
I should have learned my lesson when I tried to watch Love Me If You Dare. This drama is even more heavy-handed in its pro-China spoon-feeding. From the moment I turned on the series, it felt like one of those cheesy, overly patriotic recruitment videos we're forced to watch in school or before a movie starts in the cinema. I almost have 2nd hand embarrassment with how over the top it is. From the ridiculous monologues about patriotism and "dying for your great Country" (while they're talking about a dead coworker) to the regrettable OST that sounds like it should be coming from a school megaphone and not a serious spy espionage drama.Despite my reservations, I gave this series a shot because I adore the cast and just came off watching Bin Bin in Rattan (great drama!). That being said, it was admittedly hard to watch from the beginning. Our ML, Ma Shang (Bin Bin), is straight-laced, fluffy toward our FL, and adorably feisty when he's not in serious job mode. He's got a great relationship with his parents, and I adore their interactions throughout the series. An Jing, his childhood sweetheart and co-worker, shares great chemistry with him, and I liked seeing the two actors together again from Eternal Love. I also really liked Ma Shang and He Zi Xuan's chemistry. That's...pretty much where I stop caring about the series.
I was already skipping through by the 4th episode and pretty much skipped around until I got to Ma Shang and An Jing's scenes. Even then, it really couldn't be saved.
In reality, China *can't* do espionage/crime/serial killer/murder type genres. Their Government censorship rules completely water down everything to a laughable extent and puts their winning team on unrealistic pedestals. You mean to tell me that their national security teams are perfect? Zero infighting? Zero corruption? Perfect and seamless camaraderie and technology from start to finish? The criminals are never a match for them, right? They're always sloppy, one-dimensional villains who tend to speak in English when they're being diabolical, or they're terrible D-list Western actors playing evil caricatures of themselves, and they always just lay down and give up when they're caught. Give me a break.
If you want gritty, more realistic dramas within those genres, I recommend Western TV shows or Kdramas. I just finished watching Through The Darkness with Kim Nam Gil, and it was *amazing*. It's a novel adaptation and has a lot of similarities to the Western drama, MindHunter, about profiling serial killers in custody while trying to catch an ongoing case. Both shows are miles better than this. If you want a corporate espionage-type thriller, I recommend Killing Eve (has a bit of dark comedy as well), The Americans, or The Night Manager.
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Overly pathetic and patriotic
I basically picked this drama because I wanted to see the cast of the Eternal Love in modern outfits and check what sort of deals the Chinese security office investigate. Industrial espionage that is. For a short moment it was even interesting to observe the level of intertwinement between the government and a corporate world, but I am not really into corporate dramas, which this show appears to be by the third episode. What they'd offered by the fifth episode wasn't my fav type of intrigue. All the security service guys looked too flat, pathetic and immaculate. Vin Zhan and Yang Mi look way better in historic costumes, whereat I'm going to continue enjoying them.Was this review helpful to you?
