Kai Duan (2022)

Literally the best, a masterpiece in time loop dramas.

Not much needs to be said really, other than go right now and watch it. My kinda genre with a perfect wrap up and no loopholes. Chef's kiss.
Just when I thought it was getting a little boring, they spiced it up to a perfect level and didn't let me drop my phone even for a snack. Their acting was pretty good and the story was very reasonable- I'd like to add how glad I was when they jumped into action as early as possible after interpreting their very unrealistic and crazy situation instead of crying for a whole episode.
Overall no second thoughts- go for it.

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I bet you’ll never be bored with this drama

That's really the best C-drama I have ever watched in past years..This is the drama you will never be bored of.. It's my first review but not the last..

At first when I first started to watch the drama I thought this will be not good enough ad I'm quite picky whilw choosing drama to watch.. But it's really worthy drama to spend your time with..

The story,casting, acting all of these are up to the mark...Though it's a story about 'time-loop: but you'll never be bored with watching the same scene repeatedly.Besides you will become more and more excited to watch the next episode. The scenery will be same but each of person's acting will be different...you'll know why I am repeatedly saying the drama is worthy after you see it yourself!!!

That's the best c-drama I have watched so far..I really loved it!💜

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Started 2022 with one of the best Cdramas

"Reset" is a perfect drama to start your cdrama journey in 2022. The ending was so satisfying. With all the suspense & thriller they managed to pull out many emotional, heart fluttering & funny scenes. One of my fav scene is xiao heyun & Li shiqing hug in the reiverside While "only one" ost playing in bg. I loved that ost. The crazy woman acting was so good. Omg her voice, eyes & dialogue delivery perfectly fitted the character. 1st ep may seem confusing to you. But trust me everything will get cleared one by one. Its a journey. Main lead Xiao heyun & Li shiqing was the best partners of each other throughout the whole drama. Their chemistry was top notch despite the drama has mostly subtle romance. The confession at the end was so heart fluttering. The drama proved how to show best romance despite a drama not being romance centric. They manged to slip ambiguous dialogues, a subtle love triangle, a confession & a kiss in a suspense thriller drama. This is a perfect drama to get mixture of all kind of emotions. The acting is top notch. All characters are equally important in their own. I think this drama has only 2 osts & both are so good as well. My fav was "only one". I would definately rewatch our main leads moments & some never wrecking scenes. Specially scenes from ep 5-10 are my most fav.

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Excellent Web drama!

I am usually not fond of Web dramas partly because they are oftentimes warped in melodrama and the plot can drag too long.

This however was a rare gem in the making! It was nicely paced and each episode would really keep me on my toes and looking forward to the next episode. The novelist and screenwriter(s) did an exceptional job and you never think that daily tragedies in our lives all affect various people in various ways with similar fates and we wish sometimes we could turn back the time. The plot was so moving that it really hit me hard that life is short. Way too short and I will always be reminded to pick the phone calls from my loved ones...

The male and female leads were also superbly represented in their roles with so much depth in their characters that were extrinsically real. I loved that they ended up well and together in the end. So happy for them.

With 2022 CNY starting out, this was a very good drama to reset all that he world has had to suffer this past 2 years and hopefully we can really start afresh with living the new norm more meaningfully. 'Tis a drama anyone should catch if searching for one that is worth your time.
Blessed New Year to all...

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My view on this drama

Normally I just watch these Chinese dramas to practice my Chinese language skills (I'm a German national) and don't bother leaving reviews or feedback, but this drama is really nice and I had to leave a comment.

I was watching another drama (episode 5 of Love is Sweet) on Youtube when on the browser side with the video thumbnails I saw this Reset drama and it looked sort of interesting. So I paused Love is Sweet and opened episode 1 of Reset in another tab and only listened to the sound while doing other things on my PC (to practice my Chinese listening skills sometimes I just listen to Chinese speech in the background).

By the end of episode 2 of Reset I realised that this drama is something very special. I went back to episode 1 and started watching it, both audio and video. I finished the first nine episodes in 2-3 days, then had to stop because episode 10 wasn't available yet on Youtube. Later I found episodes 10-12 on Youtube with English subtitles.

I managed to find episodes 13-15 on another website, but only with Chinese subtitles. This was a bit tough, because without English subtitles I understand only about 80%-90%. But sometimes individual words are essential to understand what is being said on the screen. So I ended up watching these three episodes (as of today, January 30th they are still not on Youtube with English subtitles) in a stop and go mode - pausing the video and using my Chinese dictionary to translate certain words needed to get the meaning.

In any case this drama is really special - I hope it gets an average score as close to 10 as possible, because it really deserves it.

It's a mix of very interesting story, some science-fiction elements, very good acting and you see real people with their tough, every day life. It's not a drama like Love is Sweet, where everybody/everything is perfect and beautiful, You see some ordinary people who together manage to achieve something very special.

Episode 15 is the one I liked most. I've been watching certain scenes of the second half several times (and the soundtrack, Wake up, is also very nice).

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JUST GO WATCH IT DON'T HAVE ANY DOUBTS

Started this thinking that it will be another normal cdrama and told myself to just watch one episode but i watched the whole series in one go so i am a little bit ashamed of myself.

The first episode is bound to get you hooked it just pulls you in yk, and it also hooks you by wanting you to find out what exactly will happen

So it starts off with this girl waking up in a bus and then the bus explodes and then she wakes up again and pulls this guy along with her into the time loop and they both work together to find out how to stop the bus from exploding

It was just super duper amazing i usually get bored with timeloop dramas but this was wow i didnt even get bored every passenger had their own story and the director and scriptwriter made sure to show them all

I wasn't expecting a romance out of this but then when they hugged each other out of fear damn i had to expect it, their chemistry is insane

It's just a really really great watch and the acting was spectacular they showed the frustration the fear the anxiousness all so well

Best cdrama i've watched hands down

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Tick Tock Tick Tock

Here’s a scenario - if you are able to loop back to minutes before a bus explosion, having the chance to escape the death vs trying to stop the catastrophe, what would you choose? And the catch - you don’t know how many times you can reset, how many chances you have before it’s truly game over, and if you get to survive anyway. Would you still confidently say you will die trying to stop the explosion? It’s a true test to one’s courage, resilience, and morality. Herein comes our main characters dilemma and the story for Reset.

What Reset did really well, was the execution of the plot, having an engaging storytelling approach, and a well fleshed-out cast. In a story about time loops, it’s easy, too easy, to make our main characters played the idealistic heroes that will choose to overcome all obstacles for every loop. After all, it’s the mission of being the “chosen ones”. Failing means getting another chance, it means unraveling the mystery until the loop ends. In other words, there was no “real” consequences from the get go if we watched Reset from this lens. Hence, this was the most important thing that the production team and cast did right - engaging the audience to care for the main characters to escaping the loop and saving the passengers.

In 15 episodes, with 8 suspects to investigate, 2 main characters’ rapport to establish, and 1 team of smart police who were doing a proper job, Reset did not waste any minute telling a comprehensive tight knit story. Li Shiqing was the “Heart” of Reset duo while Xiao Heyun complemented as the “Brain”. Through the course of the story and each time loop, the Brain learns to care more for the people around him while the Heart learns to better consider the implications of her actions - it made us believe that one cannot exist without the other, and it made us buy in their romantic development amidst the tension and escalating crisis as they got closer and closer to the perpetrator in the next loop.

I also especially loved the subtle unexpected comic reliefs within the narrative to balance out the tension as well as strong supporting characters who had their own identity within Reset. Inspector Zhang is the kind of police you’d want in your district. The passengers are the everyday passengers whom you'll come across, adding color to Reset. Some of their backstories were relatable, heartwarming, and were by no means fillers.

On a deeper layer, Reset is also trying to deliver a message on the negative consequences of irresponsible social media use and ignorance - we never know when the hurt invoked will cause an unintended time bomb to someone else, figuratively speaking. And life as we know it, has no Reset button.

All in all, Reset is a wonderful, logical, engaging time loop story for the ones who love a good mystery. Even if you are not a mystery fan, there’s a lovable couple who try their best for our heartwarming cast to root for.

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Thrilling

This show is so fast-paced and intriguing that I binged 10 episodes in 24 hours. I even watched the later episodes without subtitles with my limited Chinese because i need to know what was gonna happen to them.
The plot is logical and was able to sustain my interest throughout. I really enjoyed the two main leads' acting and i think their chemistry is fantastic.
It was a bit slow at first but once the male lead realised the situation they were in, things got really exciting. I found myself on the edge of my seat since episode 8. Overall, this drama is a wild ride and it's definitely worth your time.

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overall: weak characters, interesting premise, ehhh execution

this wasn't worth my hl essay worktime and my chem exam study time. Also, this is purely a rant of disjointed thoughts about my irrelevant opinion, ofc.

- first of all. It's blatant police propaganda lmao i swear this shit was funded by the police there was no nuance at all
- second, wtf was the ending. Why were they in the time loop?
- the ending was basically a massive, dragged out sob story
- plot wasn't as tight as I would have liked. The beginning dragged dude. The amount of dramatic shots i can't.
- the edge of tomorrow did this premise better
- the girl was boring. Sorry she's basically a portrayed as a saint with no character development. Her naivety pissed me off. Can we have cool female character that doesn't act like a 10 year old kid for once?
- the two leads have no chemistry. The kiss was abysmal, the usual for cdrama kisses.
- i think this is every gamer's wet dream. I think that statement is explanatory in itself. tbh he was sort of cute, but again underdeveloped, and i didn't like him very much.
- beginning half was better. Seriously how did this become a cop drama in the last few episodes? (also: how many shits did i give about the cop almost dying? 0). The ending? Basically the cop said, trust me bro. And the man was like ok dude I will. ???
- also isn't it funny how china lets you see graphic severe burns where the skin is literally molten but refuses to air some cleavage? smh puritans. Make it make sense ccp
- I did like how they subverted expectations several times and how the villains were understandable, like we got their motivations. Also i may be tripping but I swear the antagonists better developed than the protagonists themselves?
- the crazy wife was good but dude she overdid it sometimes. LIke bruh we get it ur crazy.

- messages: don't judge ppl by how they seem, the perils of keeping silent with sexual assault (omfg the moms rant about wearing short skirts shut up boomer), the consequences of police failure, etc.

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Filler and concerned faces stuck on a time loop

Story: It seems like a complex plot, with each time loop adding more insight towards the 'investigation', but I found the plot to be simplistic and over-reliant on a suspense-driving storytelling mechanism - the time loop. That mechanism didn't do much for me, intellectually, and certainly not emotionally. That mechanism lost value by the following issue: pace.

Pace: Consider episode 15 of 15, 21:27 - 23:00, a scene with just vehicles driving around and sparse, inconsequential dialogue; 90 seconds of no plot or character development; it was about as interesting as looking at my hands for 90 seconds. There are a lot - truly a lot - of scenes throughout the show like this; they are filler. This could easily have been a 6 or 8 episode show, with tighter storytelling pace and keeping our heart rates higher. Instead, it felt like a slow burn detective story despite its design as a thriller. This is one of the most fast-forward-able shows I've ever seen. And in fast forwarding, it's easy to catch what's going on in the plot. Therefore, if you don't want to invest a lot of time, just fast forward a lot. I probably watched the 10 hours of actual content in about 6 hours of viewing time with hardly any issue in comprehension.

Characters: The ML and FL lack depth and are essentially 'tools' for the 'investigation'. We get a little bit of backstory, but there's not much to their characters other than the role they're playing in the 'investigation'. In fact, they are really the investigators using the police to help them solve the puzzle. Early on, it seems character development might happen with Lu Di (the cat dude), who adds interest to the plot. But Lu Di doesn't continue in the loop and returns to being a tool for the plot schematic. The perpetrators actually have the most development. We find out what is driving their terrible choices. Many character motivations are non-compelling and don't make sense. Basically, character development was muted and that limited the following: acting.

Acting: With such limited characters, the actors seemed to do their best, but there wasn't much 'range' of expression. We get a LOT of concerned looking characters, wrinkly foreheads, over and over. I'll try to highlight the best of the best in terms of acting. Liu Tao as Du Ju was understated, but very well done within the narrow design of the character; she was convincing as a poised, mature leader of the investigation team. Liu Yi Jun as 'Uncle' Zhao or 'Old man' Zhao also performed well. Incidentally, Liu Tao and Liu Yi Jun were also cast and performed well in Nirvana in Fire; however, in that show, their characters are deeper and more compelling. These veteran actors show us how skilled they are with their limited Reset character roles. The younger ML and FL have potential, but didn't show a lot of subtlety or range; these are not the best roles to judge their ability. Not for one moment did I feel their pairing to be chemical. Their connection looked and felt, as was written in the plot, forced. None of the acting in Reset was bad, but the limited character depth put a ceiling on what the actors could do.

Because the plot and characters are not well developed or particularly meaningful, I'm left to believe the storytelling mechanism - the time loop - is gimmicky. If the mechanism can enhance story and plot, I'm for it. But in this show, it seemed like the writer wanted to display the clever mechanism more than 'characters' or a meaningful story. It's as if the genesis for the story was "let's do something with a time loop" and that became the central focus of the writing. It wasn't started with an approach like "hey, I've got an interesting story and characters, what if we told it in a fresh way using a time loop".

The music was completely unmemorable. But it wasn't inappropriate either. It sounded like filler. Kudos, at least, for not being cringey or off-vibe.

My emotional satisfaction for this show was basically non-existent, maybe a 1/10. The most emotional I got was feeling bad for the watermelon guy. I rate it 6.5; because from a film craft perspective, it's not bad, it's just narrow. If I time loop back to the start of watching, I would probably pass.

P.S. Respect to bus drivers. They deal with crazy sh*t.

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