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War of Faith isn't just one of the best C-dramas I've ever seen, it's one of the best, most riveting, powerful dramas I've ever seen, full stop. The writing is superb, completely packed with suspense, interesting plot twists, seamless character development throughout, and a plot that builds to a fully satisfying finish. I need to emphasize this, because this show is SO tense, so full of unease and uncertainty, while also being so canny and subtextually sharp about the lengths people will go to for the sake of ideology, and how terrifying and ruthless they can be regardless of which ideologies they're a part of. Although the text is typical glowing propaganda for the red army, it's also full of philosophical rumination on power and what a political party owes to its people; the subtext never stops reminding us that the Communist party mirrors the Kuomintang in multiple ways. It's fully possible to read this entire show, for all its overt support of the party, as a tacit critique of the modern-day CCP. There are moments when I found the sheer zealotry of the characters as dark and disturbing as anything else happening onscreen, and I believe that was fully intentional. These are easily among the best roles Li Qin, Wang Yang, Wang Yibo, and Zhang Tianyang have ever done, and all of them as well as the magnificent ensemble are perfectly cast; the level of acting from this group is next-level. Wang Yibo is magnificent as plucky young financial genius turned ultimate strategist Wei Ruolai—this is a performance full of depth and nuance and strength, a performance to permanently silence critics who think he hasn't earned every bit of his tremendous success. Li Qin is an absolute badass as Shen Jinzhen, but also blends her strength with a terrifying level of single-minded belief in the Communist agenda, to the point where she becomes a microcosm of the CCP's power to control and direct its followers. But it's Wang Yang who deserves the most praise for his work in an absolute mindfuck of a role. He is phenomenal here, giving the performance of multiple lifetimes as Shen Tunan, Jinzhen's older brother and Ruolai's idol, personal hero, and mentor. Over the course of these 38 episodes Tunan's loyalties are stretched in every direction, and you will spend the last half of this show second-guessing you think you know about the first half because of the way Wang Yang steers his character through the darkest, murkiest waters. It's also genuinely so homoerotic you will think you're watching a BL (one with queer-coded characters all over the place), and the intense chemistry between Wei Ruolai and Shen Tunan carries a show that's already unbelievably good to a whole different level of exciting. This show is so well directed, and every aspect of the production is meticulous and lavish and beautiful, from the Shanghai cityscapes to the wardrobe details to the beautiful score to the outstanding fight scenes and even the symbolic color-coded lighting design. Everything is pointed, nothing feels superfluous, and the ending lands every plot and emotional beat.If indeed we get a War of Faith 2, I'll be perched on the edge of my seat all over again.
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