Kai Duan (2022)

Ritmo serrato dalla prima all'ultima puntata. Ottima Zhao jin mai.

Una ragazza salendo su un autobus rimane intrappolata in un loop temporale e per poterne uscire dovrà svelare un intricato e misterioso enigma. La protagonista trascinerà involontariamente con sé nel loop un ragazzo e, ovviamente, tra i due nascerà una relazione sentimentale.

L’autobus esplode circa mezz’ora dal momento in cui la protagonista Li Shi Qing (Zhao jin mai 赵今麦) sale sul pullman ma l’esplosione non sancisce la fine della sua esistenza come quella degli altri passeggeri del pullman bensì il ritorno al punto di inizio della vicenda: lei che si sveglia sul pullman in marcia verso l’ennesima esplosione.

A nulla servirà scendere in una o nell’altra maniera dall’automezzo, i due giovani capiscono ben presto che dovranno trovare in pochi minuti la ragione dell’esplosione del pullman e riuscire a disinnescarla prima che sia troppo tardi ed il loop inizi di nuovo da capo.

“Solo” 12 episodi (incredibile per lo standard dei drama cinesi che si aggira di media intorno alle 30/40 puntate) per questa serie a metà tra il thriller, l’azione e la fantascienza con qualche pizzico di romanticismo. Una serie che non annoia mai, tiene lo spettatore costantemente col fiato sospeso grazie ad un ritmo serrato.

La protagonista Zhào Jīn Mài (赵今麦) per una volta esce dalla sua classica parte della scolaretta o giovane donna in carriera ribelle ma se la cava molto bene, risultando, come al solito, spontanea e diretta.

Godibile, da vedere.

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Amazing plot BUT....

Disclaimer: I do not usually watch chinese dramas and I must have seen about 3 out of over 400dramas I'd completed so I am writing this as a complete ignoramus as far as the c-dramas usual tropes are concerned!

Reset comes highly recommended so I decided to give it a go.
I am a sucker for a good time travel/time slip/time loop story which are notoriously difficult to write without plotholes or illogical events!
No such problem here! They managed to write a believable plot, create complex characters, introduce a strong and smart FL, present beautiful songs (mostly in english! Why is that?).
What we have here is "Groundhog Day" on a bus where two people get stuck inside a time loop and must find out who the culprit is, why is he/she commiting a crime and stop him/her without casualties! It is just a nailbiting rollercoaster ride of a plot!

BUT I wish another country had made this drama which had been completely ruined, IN MY EYES, by chinese official propaganda!
I come from a former socialist country and I can recognize brainwashing when I see it! And I had been brainwashed in my childhood! Here, I could see the same slogans on the walls, the same fidelity to state and party proclaimed all over the place, the same, selfless people fighting for the greater good of the society! And of course: the police, here to protect everyone but you have to tell the truth they want to here, police commissioners thoughtfully looking at slogans on the wall for inspiration, all present surveillance making sure everyone understands that they can run but they cannot hide anywhere! Unbearable!
There are CCTV in Korea and the police dramas use them a lot but not to this extent!

Anyway this is a great drama if you can look past propaganda! I could not and therefore my note is rather low!

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Masterful storytelling that doesn't fool around and delivers the punch straight to your face.

I don't usually write reviews until I've finished the entire thing, but with this one I'm only 4 eps in but I'm thoroughly impressed and couldn't stop myself from saying something.

Incredibly realistic and relatable. Characters behave exactly how a real person would, if they encounter a situation like this, and the show doesn't shy away from showing us each an every thought process they go through which is very organic instead of having leads who are either super smart or super stupid.
However, this is exactly what makes the show difficult to watch, at least for me. Not because it's particularly gory or thriller-y but because IT'S TOO REAL! It made me feel second hand stress and panic because the characters were doing exactly what I would do and.... holy moly the impact it causes.
Therefore I would say you'll need some guts to watch this, unless you aren't particularly sensitive to that sort of thing. Me? I had to pause like every 15 mins because I was anxious watching the characters' desperation. Also the police being strict and serious with their job... and there can be very few nightmarish things to a civilian than finding yourself on the wrong side of the Police, and them not believing a word you are saying. It's no joke.
Shudders.

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interesting concept, good execution, but strange premise

This drama is a good take on the Groundhog Day concept, which reminds me a lot of the series "The Long Night". The reason is both of these are well acted, well packaged short dramas with a tendency to glorify the police force. And both of them have the same weakness: as suspense/ plot driven dramas, the 'big reveal' is a bit of a letdown therefore making the rewatch value limited.

To the screenwriter's credit, the short number of episodes are not repetitive despite returning again and again to the scene of the crime. The first couple of times the FL Liu Qingshi and ML He Yun are just trying to figure things out and they do so in a mostly logical manner. However after that they begin to explore the backstories of the people on the bus and this brings some diversity into the story. Everyone is well acted particularly Tao Yinghong as the spot on intense asian mom and our very natural and convincing FL. Bai Jingling as the ML is fine but I think his best role is still later in Destinied.

Weaknesses: I did feel that some of the side stories drag on, such as the anime boy Lu Di and the watermelon man Ma Guoqiang. But the biggest weakness is similar to the Long Night. The whole drama works to make the cast look like noble and self sacrificing people especially the policemen. But in order to do this they make the villain's motives quite unnatural. In this case, they make the villains very mentally ill. The other obvious drawback is that a lack of shortcomings in the lead characters makes them feel underdeveloped. Combined with the fact that this is a mystery drama, this means the whole thing can become viral a la Squid Game (which it did, in China at least) but then not be worth a rewatch.

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This is fine

It's a fine drama. I was emotionally involved in the story from the beginning almost to the end. The tense moments were tense, the protagonists were likable, and the attention to detail was high. However, near the end it slipped a bit.

Here's why.

I think the choice to focus on the motives of antagonists and the related case was bad. First, because their motives and the case were predictable, and they themselves weren't likable or sympathetic people like narrative wants us to feel. Second, because it dragged on too long, the last 2-3 episodes are about that rather then the loop and how to break it.

I also think that portrayal of police was too idealistic, all police officers were dedicated, kind, willing to risk their lives, zealous in their devotion and the phrase "trust the police" was told multiple times, then we were shown on multiple occasions that trusting the police is always the best idea. It felt like propaganda.

The ending "slideshow" showing the endings of various passengers was idealistic too, like what kinda guy would be happy to see his estranged former criminal father suddenly show up at work with a bunch of dirty watermelons? And the boomer parents cosplaying for the cat guy, I just laughed at that.

Also, speaking of the cat guy. He "rescues" cats from the street by putting them in cages and locking them in his small room in darkness. Tbh death is probably better then such rescue.

And the romance between main characters, literally zero chemistry.

Finally, the reason why time loop happened wasn't explained.

So I can't rate it higher then 8/10. There are much better time travel and time loop works of fiction around.

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Il primo film simile a Speed che ho mai visto

Da grande fan del film Speed con Keanu Reeves, sono stata felicissima di scoprire del tutto per caso questo drama cinese che ha una trama simile ma con in più l'elemento del loop temporale, che è un altro tema che adoro.. Certo è più lento di Speed, ma non troppo, numero di puntate giuste, ritmo giusto, personaggi simpatici. e non parte per la tangente ad un certo punto come fanno certi drama cinesi. Rimane coerente, e il tuutto si chiude con un senso logico. Certo alcune cose non vengono spiegate, ma ci si può sorvolare visto l'elemento soprannaturale e forse un paio di puntate in meno si potevano avere, ma è Veramente carino e fatto bene nel suo piccolo, e la ripettitività del loop non mi ha per nulla dato fastidio è gestita in modo egregio.

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可以看一遍的剧，后面有些拖沓。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

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