What could have been

4 Minutes was a missed opportunity on so many levels. The premise that the 4 minutes after a person’s heart has stopped beating, when they are in a state of hypoxia, events from their life will play out in their consciousness was novel. Back when the author of the series was announced as Sammon, a medical doctor, I knew that 4 minutes referred to that brief few minutes between life and death, if the victim is not revived.

At first, the viewer is not aware of what the 4 minutes signifies. Instead, the tendency is to take Great’s explanation at face value, that at times he can see 4 minutes into the future and has a chance to make different choices. For the first few episodes, everything is grounded in this point of view. But gradually the viewer becomes confused about what has happened and is happening. Clearly, everything we are seeing cannot all be reality. More and more contradictions creep in to the story line. We see events that don’t involve Great at all, and then variations of those same events. Whose reality, or 4 minutes are we witnessing? Sometimes we never find out.

Basically, the entire plot is constructed on the premise of reliving choices and potentially choosing differently a second or even third time. All of this takes place in a hypopoxic state, but whose? So many possibilities are thrown at the viewer that at times we aren’t sure what is real and what is imagined. That might have been interesting to explore, but the script never tackles the fundamental question, What is consciousness, what is reality? Instead, we get a repetitive muddle of a plot laced with soft core porn scenes, graphic violence, and individuals you wouldn’t want to meet in real life. By episode 8, I was repelled by all but two of the main characters (and I was certainly no fan of Great and Tyme by then). I especially take exception with serious actors being required to act in soft core porn scenes that do nothing to advance either plot or character development. A less explicit scene could have communicated what was needed. Instead, in these scenes the actors are presented exclusively as sexualized bodies engaged in explicit coupling solely for the titillation of the viewer. The CEO of Be On Cloud is credited as the Intimacy Director,, so the decision to treat his actors in this way was definitely his. How can an actor say “no” to the CEO when called upon to film such scenes and not lose his job? It smacked of exploitation and this did not sit well with me.

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Same cast, but two completely different dramas

This drama appears to have two very separate production units: the combat team and the everything else team.

The combat team was composed of a very good group of script writers who understand how to script action scenes. The action is realistic and the action choreography enhances and propels the story. The action director (probably a veteran of action movies) knows how to use time, space, and the camera in telling a story using mostly movement. The stunt work was also quite good and the fight coordinator knew what he was doing and how to communicate through action on the small screen.

The everything else team was a mess. The script was all over the place. Character development was inconsistent, and direction, especially of the actors, was not very good. There was a lot of over emoting in place of acting, and the endless crying! Not only do the women weep buckets of tears, but the men, including top brass and hardened military veterans are sobbing at every turn. This became quite annoying and at times verged on the comical. The lighting was poor, and I don’t think it was to give the drama an intentionally retro look because the lighting stayed the same over the 35 year span of the drama. Direction of the actors was also spotty and inconsistent. Xiao Zhan tried too hard to make the lackluster script into something, anything, and Johnny Huang often didn’t try at all. The female lead became annoying about halfway through and you never believed that she and one of the ML were ever in love. There was zero chemistry between them, no matter how hard she tried. Just a mess that all too often was more annoying than entertaining.

Finally, the jingoism got tiresome. I don’t watch military dramas from my own country because I find them annoying for the same reason. Also, all this China peacemaker of the world rings a bit hollow if you have been following recent history closely.

All in all, Ace Troop is a mostly mediocre military drama that is heavy on propaganda and light on convincing storytelling. This was the same issue I had with Ark Peace, another military drama that came out in late 2021. It totally wasted Chen Kun, but opened with two stupendous episodes of all action that were very well done, before a truly horrendous script and the worst production values I have ever seen in a recent Chinese drama were trotted out for the rest of the series. I think I will give Chinese military dramas a pass from here on out, I don’t care who stars in them m

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Great until the finale, which was a farce

Until the final episode, this was a very engaging program. The inclusion of so many world class international dancers really lit a fire under many of the Chinese participants. But the finale was worse than a joke, it was an insult to the stellar international dancers who participated in it. Rather than having professional judges, it was determined by partisan audience vote (all Chinese, many quite young, filled with Wang Yibo groupies many of whom wouldn't have known good street dancing if it ran over them). What an insult to the foreign dancers who endured the draconian Chinese quarantine rules and gave up 6 months of their lives to participate in this program. China has some interesting dancers, but too many of them just aren't of the caliber of their foreign counterparts. China, if you don't feel confident that your own dancers can bear a head-to-head comparison with some of the best dancers in the world, why did you invite them? Oh, and I noticed that there wasn't a single US dancer on the program? Why was that? Since street dancing and the musical forms that it is danced to are all creations of the African-American community in the US, why the glaring omission? Also, the traditional Chinese-themed choreographed story dances did grow a bit tired as a format as the program progressed. The heart and soul of street dance is the expression of raw emotion, not sweet-themed stories. I hope in the future the organizers will back off from pushing this format and let street dance be street dance and not try and make it into a staged choreographed and highly rehearsed storytelling theatrical dance. Of course, just my personal opinion after over 50 years involvement with many forms of dance.

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Two different dramas

The first three episodes are great, filled with action, drama, tension, etc. They are like a self-contained action movie. But with episode four, it becomes a very pedestrian military medical drama, more like a second-rate documentary on the Ark Peace hospital ship and its mission. From episode four on, Chen Kun is wasted in this drama. The early episodes hinted at his traumatic past in the military, but now those hints have disappeared. Unless this series gets exciting or interesting soon, I’m moving on and this one will join the list of mediocre Chinese series that I started, but gave up on this year.

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