Yin mi de jiao luo

It's a fascinating and intricate story centred around three children from poor families in southern China. The production values are high. The three young actors do a great job as they navigate the many complexities of the real world: educational pressure, marital bliss, financial and health crises. There are no easy choices between right and wrong.

Unfortunately - as other have commented - the editing and storyline drop inexplicably in the last three episodes. I'd happily watch it again in a few years time as the characters and themes were so endearing, but I'd hesitate to recommend it to anyone because of the mangled ending. Perhaps the producers ran out of time or money.

The plot is closely linked with each other. The opening song, the ending song and the interlude are all carefully designed, and the plot bedding and details are full of meaning. All the actors performed very well. Since then, I have a psychological shadow on the protagonist Zhang Dongsheng.

Initially, the show seemed to me like Stranger Things. Then, as things became intense, I felt like watching Breaking Bad. In the end, realizing how the ending could be interpreted two ways, it made me think of Fight Club. I haven't binge watch a show for a couple years now, until this one. Really enjoy this.

Which actually dives into archetypal children's behaviours, and the consequences of the adults around them never growing up and never fixing themselves.

The deaths are very well thought out and placed, and the fact nobody cares about them only serves to highlight something that everyone knows but is afraid to admit to - when was the last time you actually knew about your neighbours, talked to them or got interested about what was happening in their lives?

The answer is probably - "Never", and is the same answer which is to be given in place of most parents who're too "busy", too overworked, or too traumatized themselves with their childhood traumas to get interested or to understand what's really happening in their children's lives.

I highly recommend this drama, along with other recent Chinese productions.

Based on all the forum recommendations and hype (I read that Zhang Ziyi said this was a Chinese series that could finally match the quality of Western dramas), I decided to give this a go.

The first episode was excellent, but from then onwards, everything just got worse to the point where calling this series terrible would not be an understatement.

This drama had a mediocre script, inconsistent acting, extremely unrealistic scenes, too many 'convenient (or just plain lazy) coincidences' used to further the plot, horrible flow/sequence of events and an ending that felt like the director just gave up on the project and wanted to hurriedly conclude everything.

I have never felt so furious before, after finishing watching a TV series. Maybe it was the high expectations. It really felt like the director had zero respect for his audiences. The lose ends were just so 'in your face' that they are completely inexcusable.

The director should really go back to school and put in more effort in terms of preventing laughable lose ends, making the plot/storyline/acting more believable, studying character development, improving script selection/writing and perhaps learning how to present a proper flow/sequence of events. Basically learn how to actually direct a show.

All in, this drama is in no way watchable and not recommended at all. I really hope to see a quality Chinese drama one day.