This review may contain spoilers
drama is not for entertainment
fei teng ren sheng (the boiling point of life) is not an average entertainment drama for everyday viewerseeking laughter and excitement. This drama is more focus on the up's and down of an era starting from a
transitioning of a socialist economy where workers produce a limited amount of goods under the direction
from the government into a free market economy based on the mass demand. The story start at the middle of 80's.
The company Hua Qi truck company faces obstacle where they never endured before since establishment during 1960s.
For first time their bread and butter 5 ton truck suddenly faced competition from other few established truck
which offers a better feature and higher reliability forcing Hua Qi to create a new line of 7 ton model in a
matter of 3 months (in reality 3 months is impossible )or they will face a market elimination perhaps more
precisely a total demise to the company where thousands of workers depends on for 3 layers of generations.
After solving few main quality issues their 7 ton truck ready for debut.
The 90s came and the comfort is still far over. Due to the decline orders from the military Hua Qi were forced to
open their truck sales towards civilian use. Soon Hua Qi discovered their 7 ton truck is far from meeting demand
for the mass market. In order to sell into mass market new features need to be added such as user comfort.
To add the matter worse military including the civilian version starting to precured foreign truck brands.
Therefore Hua Qi faces an even more terrifying reality where they had to accept their truck in terms of quality,
reliability and the usage economics lagging far far behind from the European and Japanese brands. Hua Qi could not
even compete to the most basic features such as Air Conditioning let alone engine technology which Hua Qi still
depend on third party engine supplier thus limiting their ability to produce even more trucks to meet the market
demand.
From that day on Hua Qi came into a self reflection which they must innovate their own technology or face a total
wipe out from the Chinese market. Therefore by the mid 90s saw the reform programme to revitalized their product
and services yet coming to the 2nd half of the 90s a storm appears again threaten their survival in a matter of
months. For the substantial orders they received for few years suddenly grind to stop. Suddenly they faced a new
set of calamity which not related to their product but their single entity business started to show weakness.
Many foreign companies with strong capital started to eat out those weak companies. Hua Qi for first time learnt
in order to survive in the competitive environment, they need to raise huge capital by allowing other companies
becoming part of the shareholder , attracting young talents and innovate even further
starting from year 2000 onwards Hua Qi not only manage to survive but thrive in the modern world. One sentence
from Ai Chang An which is very meaningful to me. He said " All the while we are chasing against the time in order
to ensure this company would be able to survive tomorrow. Now in order to stay relevant we need to be the
initiator and let others to chase after us."
To say in general this drama reveals the challenges during the transition from a socialist economy into free market
capitalist idea. As the result a sudden exposure to this violent storm forcing companies to ditch their old management
approach embracing to a more competitive ideas. Hua Qi is a part of the growing pains representing every company need to
enduring for the first 40 years since the transition in the middle of 80s.
Let's talk about interesting characters in detail:-
1) Ai Chang An
This person is a high school graduate further educated in the "University of Society". He is basically a street smart person
who always prefer a harmonious solution rather than subversion towards his opponents. To tell the truth he is not a person
full of ideas but his strength is to borrow on someone's part of strength and combine with many different part of strength
to serve his purpose. He is also not a manipulative who only want to climb on other backs to achieved the social ladder.
He is also a risk taker willing to throw himself on the line in order to save his beloved company. From
there we could see his limitation starts to reveal. He only be able to use his limited knowledge to lead the war of survival.
This lead his life full of pain and bruises which only be saved by others offering a little door of hope so he could continue
to walk until to the end. (from this time on I always wish he at least receive some further education at least to University level)
Well this is hard to be blamed because he inherit a company with a shaky foundation and his participation always during
company at the times on the knife's edge. But the most admirable part of him is his determination to succeed no matter how hard
it takes. This battle harden person eventually lead to a success in search for love and his career.
2) Shen Xia
For her entire life she is a follower and a pillar of strength to her partner whom she worked with. She is clever resourceful
and very focus to what she is doing. She never wish to stand at the forefront as she only satistifed to be the second person
behind her man. The only weakness she had is she never had her own direction on her life. Her life always lead by others through
deeds and direction while she willingly obey and make wonders never made anybody disappointed in the end.
3) Xu Chi
For me Xu Chi is the most interesting person. I think he is the smartest of all cast starred in the drama. He is jack of all trades
who could be successful no matter where he is and what he is doing. Basically I like this and I wish to be like him too. At front he
looks like an arrogant person but in the inner side he made a very clear distinction between what is the bottom line of his morality
and protect his love ones.
4) Ge Tai Ping
I could say this person is a very unlucky person. Unable to obtain recognition from his father no matter how hard work he is while
easy to blow his top when any issues arise. Personally I'm really pity of this guy. He is the unluckily few who wants to make his name
yet unable to break the career barrier. He is the type who always issue a blank cheque in order to gain his customer's trust while expecting his friends would clear the rubbish up whenever failure happens. This is the main reason why he could gain anything throughout his 50 years of his life.
5) Ge Bao Zhong
Actually he is Ge Tai Ping's father. This person is not worth for me to mention but if this drama remake for a second time I wish
he could step down as the factory manager from the 10th episode onwards as from my perspective he is a sore loser who is only qualified to become a factory watch dog rather than manager
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