Kai Duan (2022)

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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