Kai Duan (2022)

NO FLAWS

Where do I even begin?? I was merely looking for a modern drama to quench my thirst for a modern cdrama and I found what is possibly the best drama, THE BEST, that I have ever watched. I love dramas with fantasy elements but I often still have to willingly suspend my disbelief to really get into a story. However, with this drama there were 0, I repeat, 0 plot holes or ridiculous leaps in logic. Everything made sense, every bit was gripping. There might be some complaints here and there that the time loop starting is never explained, but I think it being explained would have no effect on the story at all so it didn't bother me one bit. This drama has executed the plot point of a time loop so well I don't think there will be any dramas in the foreseeable future willing to take on this premise anymore. They just won't be able to outdo this drama on it. Every aspect of this drama was amazing, the finished product is phenomenal.
Unlike most cdramas, this is only 15 episodes, so quit your quandaries about watching this drama and go! You'll regret not having experienced this gem of a drama and wish you could go back to change your choice.

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Amazing!!!! Loved it!!!

This is my very first time giving overall and rewatch value as 10 without even thinking. The anticipation,excitement,every feeling i felt when i saw this drama loved it. All character were perfect no matter what their roles is,no matter how big or small their role is they nailed their performance. The cast was very well casted and they nailed their role gave their full efforts. There is few song of this drama and its good.

15 eps , a well written script, not too less and not much scenes or story plot. At 1st ep , i was very confused and for few eps i was confused with the character about the loop. It was like what i felt ,the character are conveying that in show in the first few eps ( if the one who already watched the show understand this feeling😅) but it was okay. Everthing made sense. Just keep your head clear and you will be able to put things together easily then. Like i said good script , they made sure what they showed was revelant to plot in every sense.

My time spent in the drama and the waiting i did for the eps was well deserved and worth it. End was satisfactory even though i wanted to how they explained the police at the very end and all (but not at the same time as i feared they will be taken as accomplice or something😅) but still satisfactory.

Loved this drama, i underestimated this drama but as the saying goes never judge book by its cover in this case a drama.

If you want to know whether you want to/ can/should watch this drama or not then you can definately watch it. It will be worth of your time atleast it was for me!!! So go ahead and i hope you all like this drama and also i hope the review was useful to you.

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Thriller Packed 15 Episodes Show

Story starts with Li shi qing ( student, FL) waking up in bus moments before it goes up in flames and starts to experience the incident all over again, she tries to escapes the inevitable only to tag along Xiao He Yun (ML, game architect, passenger of bus) in to time loop. How they manage to escapes this never-ending time loop n save everyone - is entire premise of the plot. The show is one of best offerings of C-ent, i have seen in past year, i rate it around 8.7-8.8/ 10 for its genre.

The plot progress in most realistic way, both ML & FL goes though repeats of death experience with moral conundrum (for ML part) trying to find the truth and figuring out the loop. Mind you not every loop is same, as both tries to crackdown & alters a sequence , each time it plays out differently - victims varies.

Every passenger on the bus get their moment as leads investigate and shed some light on their lives (moments that tugs your heart). As loop continues stakes goes up - it starts to take a troll on their health n final loop comes closer. The loop gets bit convoluted with police plotline in later episodes of the show.

Each loop have its moments to keep you edge of seat, with some fillers but can overlook. Acting of leads is impressive, supporting cast are good too. Though i impressed with the direction n cinematography, can't help to feel let down with ending as they left out questions about loop logic - only after little research i came know the answers - this is because team is restricted with censorship.

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Watch it, you won't regret it!

If you're on the fence about watching this drama then I would highly encourage you to do so! This is the best Chinese drama that I've ever watched, for me personally, everything is just so perfect and I don't even have a single criticism. Loved the acting, the production quality, the pacing, the chemistry, everything!
I know it sounds too good to be true and I may be overhyping it for you but if you have nothing to do, you're stuck scrolling through titles because you wanna watch a drama then please watch this, it really is such an amazing watch.
(The final episode just aired on viki today so I recommend you watch it there)

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How can a time-loop drama be this good?

You would think this drama gets boring after a couple of episodes because we see the same bus drive and explosion over and over again, instead every new loop brings the MLs new information and they slowly unravel how to stop the loop.
It never gets boring, there are so many great twists, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
Even though this is a fast paced plot driven drama we really get to know some of the characters and their backstory too, which really helped to make them more three dimensional and actually made me pretty emotional a couple of times.
The acting is excellent, especially of the police officer and the mother.
What I loved so so much, was that no stupid decisions were made by the MLs just for plot reasons. Both MLs are really smart regular people that have common sense (which a lot of dramas are lacking sadly). There are no clichés, no cheesy romance, just a bonding of two people who go through insanely traumatic events over and over again.
I wasn't aware of any plot holes which is great too, some things are implied and not explained! (like the reason for the loop)
The script of this drama was simply perfect, thrilling, exciting and one of the best of the genre I'm sure.
I really hope we will see more c-dramas like this!

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There has never been any time loop C-dramas done before, so Reset is the first of its kind in C-dramaland. That being said, it was very well executed and left both domestic and internationally audiences in awe. For those who don't normally enjoy time travel/time loop dramas because they are either too complicated to understand, or have many plot holes and logical errors, this drama is something that they can enjoy. The story is easy to follow, things make sense overall, rules and principles are consistent throughout (they don't throw in deus ex machina to resolve problems like many other dramas do). The plot starts off a bit slow but picks up its pace as time goes by, and by ep.8 it becomes heart-racing.

Story
The synopsis on MDL says that four people enter a time loop, but in the drama, only two people actually enter the loop - the male and female lead. The female lead goes on a bus, the bus explodes and kills everyone in it, but the female lead wakes up and finds herself repeating the same bus ride over and over. She tries to tell the police about her experience, but no one believes her. Incidentally, she causes the guy sitting next to her on the bus, the male lead, to start experiencing the time loop with her. Together, they try to stop the explosion and save the people, while eventually getting to the bottom of it all. Of course, this takes many many tries, but each try gives them more information to work with. The story may not be new to many internationally audiences, especially if they have had exposure to movies of a similar nature like Source Code and Groundhog Day, but Reset manages to excel with an original take - the emotional factor. Many characters who I thought were just unimportant managed to have their own backstory and proper closure. For example, we got to understand more and connect with each character that was on that bus, who were from different walks of life and had their own life struggles and problems they were facing, some which led to them boarding this bus. Death was not just a number in this drama - it was the loss of people who had loved and were loved. And I think this drama portrays the sentiment behind this message very well.

Acting
The acting is also decent, the female lead is a fresh actress who hasn't had any experience portraying this type of character, but she managed to pull it off and also change people's impression of her. Her character has many humanistic flaws, very heroic, kind-hearted, but impulsive and easily judgmental towards others. Male lead is more logical, cautious, but at the same time a bit of a cowardice. It was good to see their development in the later stages. There were also a lot of seasoned actors who did amazing performances, most notably the main cop and the bomber.

Music
There's not much of music in this drama, but it isn't really needed. There are two OSTs with lyrics (?), and some background music to deliver the atmosphere of certain scenes. The music fitted the scenes well and did not break immersion.

Rewatch Value
I don't think this drama is meant to be rewatched, because a large part of the excitement comes from not knowing what will happen next. That being said, certain emotional scenes are probably worth going back to from time to time.

Overall, would definitely recommend this drama to everyone, it's a good drama even for people who are not normally into sci-fi or time-related genres.

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Rarely I speechless with the overall drama plot, usually the romance or maybe the cinematography that make me sigh with satisfaction after I've watched the drama. But this drama make me speechless with overall drama itself. Yeah the drama doesn't have too much exaggerated plot or effect, they keep is as simple as possible. And we thanking God for it. :D

OK now let's talk about the drama.

Do we ever wonder what will we do if we trap with the time loop like Li Shi Qing (SQ)...? Sometimes after watch this kind of plot always makes me wonder, is this really could happen to any of us..? Why...? How to get out if I being trap inside it...? And here if I being SQ will I did the same thing with her...? Or maybe waste a few more day just to enjoy myself with treatment....? Hehe...

Angel Zhao did a very good job to portray a good naive Young woman who did her best to exit the loop. This is my second time watch her & so far being quite satisfied with her performances. And Bai Jing Ting added a very nice character to help her exit the loop. Quite like the interaction between them, we see from stranger, develop trust and how in the end they also develop feeling & depending on each other.

What I really like:
+ they give us some background story of the other passanger.
+ How the story being reveal a little by little about the true problem that cause all of that.
+ How in the end everyone help bring the bad guy down actually a little proof in humanity that we need, sometimes human not all just self centered.
+ To see how effective the police forces do when there's threat is always soothing. Not sure the police in my country can do like that or not...:(
+ They don't drag the duration with more episode.

A little sad with what happen with Wang Meng Meng and the reason for the bad guy to do what they did actually a little doesn't make sense. Like SQ said: "Why must sacrifice everyone...?"

Overall: This really one good piece of drama. Nothing too exaggerated & just perfect little drama.

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A masterpiece

When I finished Someday or one say I was literally scouring through MDL for something similarly brilliant… After so long I found Reset. And wow this has increased my expectation for cdramas to a whole new level.

The story was tight without any missing logic. The acting was on point. Not only where the leads brilliant, the supporting cast also shined through in their roles. There is not a single person who dropped the ball not even the least important character.

The romance also was wonderfully developed and believable.

All in all a solid 10. Just watch it. Ahh now how long will I have to wait for a brilliant drama like this one …

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Super impressive!

Lets start with the story premise. I don't usually enjoy supernatural time loop kind of drama but I started this drama because of the cast. This drama will put you at the edge of your seat in every episode. The script is written really well and the plot keeps you curious. This drama also explore different peoples life which makes you empathize all the characters. Even though the time line in this whole drama is just one day but the story is the opposite of slow. Every episode focuses on different character and in every reset, the main leads make sure they learn what or what not to do when facing both the passengers and the police. They also make decisions and had to face traumatizing events that heavily affected them. On the police side of the story, some people might find them annoying but I love that this drama didn't make characters with weak character who's action does not comprise in their role. The police do their job and they have great moral upstanding.

Love love the acting in this drama. Both the main leads are amazing. I have watched most of Bai Jing Ting's drama especially in the last 3 years of his work and I would say he has the perks of picking a good project. His acting and his character in this drama is so lovable I don't know if I can move on... He does really good expression and reaction to things and his general exposition is amazing.
Zhao Jin Mai also did really well in this drama. I was really surprise as she delivered her roll so realistically it makes your body tense. This especially in the first couple episodes when she first realised she entered the time loop, the way she reacted and act really deserves the good remarks she has been getting with this drama.
The side characters also deserves great praises as each one of them showed an outstanding performance of their character. Especially the character Tao Yi Hong. I don't know how she does it but you could tell the emotion she's portraying just by her eyes and facial expression.

Overall I think people should hop on and watch this drama immediately!

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2022 starts (quite literally!) with a BANG!!!

I've just finished watching this superb drama and...WHOA!!! Seriously, guys, WOW, just WOW!!!
I've seen this described as "Groundhog Day meets Speed", and that's true to some extent, but also totally insufficient to correctly define all its innumerable qualities. It's gripping, moving, bittersweetly realistic and at the same time fascinatingly fictional, and ultimately, extremely entertaining without ever being shallow or silly.
The script was very close to being perfect; not a single scene was redundant, and apart from a coupla very minor characters (the headphones-wearing muscular guy and the wig-wearing female police bigshot) who felt a tad too caricatural to this humble reviewer, all the rest were imho very well written and tridimensional; the premise is as interesting as they come, and its intricate, thought-provoking development absolutely rock-solid.
The whole cast (except for the two characters mentioned above, but then again, I'm willing to "blame" the script there ) deserved a standing ovation, period. Even "minor" characters as the older passengers and the younger cop were brilliantly portrayed. But as far as I'm concerned, Captain Zhang really earned himself a special mention! Chapeau!
Direction, photography, editing and music are all top-notch and add greatly to the overall quality.
And the cherry on top is, for me, represented by the deep, humane messages that the drama managed to convey.
Perfect 10!!!

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an instant hook

while the concept of time loop didn't arouse my interest at first, i pressed 'play' and that's when i was stuck in my own loop of not getting out of the hands of this drama.

a big warning for this drama is that it truly pulls you in and you can't help but want an answer for the mysteries that uncovers for each episode. this drama was VERY addictive.

reset did a pretty good job at keeping its audience entertained as the suspense wasn't randomly thrown in but it was made to be filled with thrills and tension. besides the suspense, the background stories for every character wasn't dragged out. it suited the pace the drama was going with to the point that the story didn't feel overwhelming. it was short but straight to the point.

so, if you're looking for a good mystery drama, reset might be for you. my advice is to watch this at daytime if you don't want to end up walking like a brain-dead zombie the next day.

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