Yin mi de jiao luo

Nevertheless as a student of Chinese I persevered to the end, 12 sessions. Lots of technical flaws, and an unbelievable plot. Acting of the three central characters, teenagers/children pretty convincing in frankly silly situations.

Cinematography and settings are pretty good, but the succession of deaths and murders and lack of involvement of the police were too much of a stretch of the imagination. Yet I enjoyed some of the family relationship portrayals, and the grey mean streets and quarters and dockyards.

The series was notably lacking in smiles and humour and similarly grey in setting and tone, but a special commendation goes to the actor who portrayed Pupu, a professional performance for one so young.

Definitely not recommended unless you are a Chinese language study freak (as I am)

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.

What amazed me most is not how fascinating the assassinations occurred but how the real life of China of 15 years ago was vividly presented in the series and how the life of 1 self-abased teacher, 2 eye-half-shut parents and 3 sensitive kids accidentally mix together and obscures the boundary between good and evil.

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.