Homecoming.
Billed as a suspense drama, 2021's highly anticipated Mist Theatre debut is really a family drama about how guilt and regret fractures a family after their youngest, best loved child Xuan Zhen is murdered nineteen years ago. Xuan Liang, who neglected to pick up his sister that fatal day is a stifling, over protective and paranoid father who is slowly but surely alienating his eighteen year old daughter Nianmei, who bears an uncanny resemblance to her long dead aunt. Another seemingly related murder finally presents a potential break in this cold case for long suffering detective Yuan Fei, whose wife Xuan Min also cannot let go of her sister's murder. The homecoming of Xuan Zhu, Xuan Zhen's fraternal twin sister is the catalyst that finally connects disparate threads between the past and present.The best part of this drama is the exceptional veteran cast who deliver performances that exceed the quality of the dialogue and the logic of the storytelling. Their compelling acting reinforces how they, the survivors are the true victims of this crime as they are each tormented by the knowledge that Xuan Zhen would still be alive if only they had done something differently. The problem is that amongst such nuanced and immersive portrayals, the young actress playing both Xuan Zhen and Nianmei is completely out-classed and her portrayal by comparison seems a lot less compelling than it really is. It does not help that neither character is written to be that empathetic.
Where this drama fails spectacularly is on the suspense thriller aspects. Despite decent camera work and a very dark and mysterious ambience, there is no sense of imminent danger or looming evil. As always Duan Yihong is so enjoyable to watch and between his Yuan Fei and his rookie sidekick Liu Xinli, the investigative aspects are logical and well presented. However, all of the credible suspects are eliminated very early and by the 6th episode, the who and the why is quite obvious. To meander through another 6 episodes of digressions into family drama to get to the how takes too long; what little suspense is built up fizzles out. The antagonist is also not interesting or sympathetic and their motive is not well fleshed out. It ends on a strong note as we are made to see and feel how important closure is for the Xuan family.
Even though this is a pretty forgettable suspense thriller, it is difficult to rate it too badly considering its strength as a family drama and the strong performances of the all-star cast. I give it a 7.0 overall as a decent watch if you need to pass time.
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Light on Series - Love with Flaws
I started with a drama called Burning Ice (2017) then went on to "The Long Night" and found it's Light on Series drama from a review. Now I can't stop watching them! I can't say any one of the drama has been super amazing but all had quality stories and acting.This drama didn't have many twists and it was pretty predictable where the story was going but I really enjoyed the cast and the family dynamics. The trauma of losing a family member shattered each one of their lives in different ways. As the search for the truth progresses, each person reveals their struggles inside.
The last episode closed out with the family recovering but it didn't feel completely satisfying as other relationships did not get resolved like:
Between the parents of the boy in beginning of the drama vs the parents of Nian Mei
Nian Mei & Mu Ge
Mu Ge's Mom vs Nian Mei's Aunt
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good production, believable story, nice acting
The story is not light, it is hard and painful. The characters are well-written and their decisions make sense. They make mistakes according to their personality and they interact with other people in believable ways.The writers should have more courage and not try to downplay everything in the last 2 episodes, but overall the writing was solid. The ending didn't impress me, but it was believable and logical according to the story development.
The actors were good and the production was good, nothing too cheap nothing too flashy.
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Broken family through past happenings, can they heal?
While writing this review, I was listening to the comforting OST...although I have never really listened to the words, the music is mirroring my feelings of this drama and is giving me nice closure.After watching the trailer, I knew what was coming at me and I was not surprised, great acting by many veterans, interesting characters and coloring and camera quality. The story, personally never had really big highs or lows, it had similar pace. I would not call it a suspense thriller. The characters had all many problems within themself and among themselves. I liked the family setting and could quickly feel for the characters. The first half of the drama was more a setup and more showing us the superficial problems. I would also say, it was weaker part of the drama. In the second part we really got to known the real problems, how deep the case from the past influenced all the people. Also how differently we saw the characters in the first half and maybe misjudged them and saw all the beginning in different light.
The police investigation was great, young police officer Li has shown his potential in asking good questions. Mi La, the young actress playing both Xuan Zhen and Nianmei, surprised me in the second half of the drama, because I found her acting weaker in the first half, but now I understand why she acted like that, the second part really shows all whys to both characters she was playing. The end, I like how the case finale was presented, how we learnt the truth through two different sources. But I didn't really like how they rolled out the end of both cases, not convincing enough, they could have show more of the trails earlier on.
In the end, the solving of the case really helped the whole family and people to grow, change and accept things, it helped them heal and finally put Xuan Zhen's lingering to peace. I enjoyed it, because this dramas was as I was expecting it to be.
12 episode to solve two cases and ... heal the broken family.
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