Chen mo de zhen xiang

As a big fan of yinmidejiaoluo (The Bad Kids) I was looking forward to this show a lot. As far as The Bad Kids goes, I've learned that the book is even better than the show and can attest to that after having read it. Nevertheless, the show was excellent as well, so I was happy to learn the director and writer would work on another show.

Unfortunately The Long Night does not deliver. It opens strongly and for about two to three episodes, it seems to be heading somewhere interesting. It soon devolves into a run-of-the-mill good vs evil morality contest. Corruption is evil, police is good except for bad apples.

A more cynical viewer may even become put off by the heavy-handed propaganda of the Lei Feng-like charicature Jiang Yang, and constant reference to the weirenminfuwu (serve the people). It does not help that he is the worst actor in the ensemble, especially in the latter half of the show.

It boggles the mind why this show went this route, as both the show as well as book version of The Bad Kids had an excellent portrayal of the moral ambiguity of people. It is as if the writer of The Bad Kids was hired to do a moral propaganda piece. The subtlety is gone, the flavor nowhere to be found.

Ultimately, what we are left with is a show without depth whose content could have been put into a mediocre movie. I will still be looking forward to their next project, but the writer and director have lost some of the intrigue they built with The Bad Kids. Let's hope for a better show next.

Brilliant show. It gets a little convoluted in the middle due to all the timelines but the pay off in the last 10 minutes is incredible. So well acted and moving with some great plot twists.

Best Chinese cinema I've ever seen- world class! Great story, filming, acting... Best drama I've seen in a long long time.

. I can't stop watching this show, It only took one day for me to finish it. I cried three times in the last episode. This show is adapted from a novel, and as I heard the novel has a much darker side than the drama, but the production crew has to change the story so they can get the approval from the Chinese government easily. However, I'm still proud that this show is able to release in China.

After staying up late to watch, the five-star recommendation, editing and flashback are all very good, meeting the expectations in my heart. The film well publicizes justice and courage, and we should be more brave...