Tender Light (2024)

Visually stunning, Tragically beautiful.... Unsatisfying ending

If you a fan of mystery thrillers, then this is a must watch. It's got a similar feel to "13 years of Dust", "Bad Kids", "The Pavillion" so on....

Well directed & perfect casting! The synopsis already explains what the story is about, so I won't recap that.

What I loved:
Entire Cast:
1. Young Nan Ya matches the mature Nan Ya. I loved that they didn't use the same actress trying to play down. Obviously, you can't really fake youth and all that collagen. Young Na Ya had the innocence slowly lost.
Mature Na Ya is played by Tong Yao who to me has a 70% resemblance to Zhang Zi Yi's facial features, but she definitely has her unique beauty and acting style. Physically, the natural makeup, lighting, camera works captured her best angles & every curve. She's definitely got that mature beauty that younger boys can fantasize about. Acting, I think she nailed the character Nan Ya perfectly.
2. Zhang Xin Cheng playing Zhuo Luo. He's one of the few talented actors that can play young mature characters that tend to internalize all emotions and explode one day.
3. Ye Zu Xin playing the cop that returned to the town. Nan Ya was his first love and there are definitely regrets in his gaze.

Actual Story: Everyone is intertwined. There are secrets, jealously, lies, betrayal, love, lust, obsession, every human emotion possible. However, it's not for the faint of heart as there are some serious disturbing subjects.

Set/lighting/makeup/production quality: Visually stunning. The small-town feel is uniquely beautiful.
Poetry & Music: It's very artistic. The music elevates every emotional scene.

Decent pacing until ep 14 then felt slow. Ending...... Hate it....... A moment of "Did I just spent 28 x 53 min episodes for this kind of ending? ...... Tragic on its own.

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Dark

This is definitely not what one would call a romance, as it is a dark investigation in to a woman's past and present it a not so tender light... Surrounded by slander, murder, psychological harm and more slander. Either one of these would be awful but put all in to one drama and most of what you see is pain and obsession.

While there are a few moments of tender light, as well as extremely sensual light, most of this drama is dark and sad. The type that makes you wonder how much more can a person take, how mean can people be?

The female lead is a mazing bot in character and acting. The male leads character was well performed but not as amazing as the female lead and the other male leads character was so well written, a combination. of adding fuel to the fire while simultaneously drinking away ones regret...

The cinematography was stunning,, my only complaint is that they dragged it out a bit to much, and added unnecessary twists as well as just a few too many recaps to male me up the score.

If they had just cut out out some parts in the middle and maybe added a scene or two to the en then I may just may have given it a 9 or 9,5,

Also there is very little, preaching, china propaganda, and ehat I would say more or less anti healing element instead of healing acknowledging that some parts of life are just dark, inexcusable and awful. And has several really good quotes from poetry and life...

A drama that will not restore your faith in humanity, but may restore your faith in C-dramas... If you ever loose it that is.

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