We follow the story of a young boy – insolent, foolish at times and happy-go lucky – as he grows up and finds his passion in the game of Go with the support and guide of Chu Ying, a spirit from centuries ago. The drama does well in depicting the very arduous road to self-discovery, sprinkled with a whole lot of growth for our protagonist Shi Guang, and poignantly explored the mentor and mentee relationship/friendship well. However, my rating sticks at 8.5 because I had trouble connecting emotionally to our main character – I didn’t particularly like him and found it hard to relate – but despite that in some way I still felt the need to root for him. Other things I took issue with are the pacing of the whole drama and the last episode.

--Things I liked--

Shi Guang’s growth, undeniably he grew up a lot from being a petulant little child, to an easygoing happy go luck teenager who never takes anything seriously, to someone who can hold their own and knows what they want in life. His character is very reactive which is the main reason I couldn’t connect with him as much. He would often act impulsively before he thought properly, ready to dive head first into his decision without thought to the consequences or how it would affect those around him. Then he would spend time apologising and trying to right his wrongs. In a way, it’s an accurate and realistic depiction of one’s life, we all make mistakes and act irrationally. Shi Guang never shyed away from owning up to his wrongs, which served as his saving grace. At times, I was extremely frustrated with him and annoyed he lacked foresight, empathy and smarts. His easy-going, smiley disposition really carried him and made him able to bounce back from hardships. You really go on a journey with him as you track his growth through the 36 episodes.

Humour. There are several laugh out loud moments throughout the drama that come at unexpected times, but fit perfectly. It was a form of release in the face of all the tension and felt very genuine and authentically crafted. See mooncake scene haha.

The relationship between Chu Ying and Shi Guang was unique – giving off father-son but also friend-friend vibes. It was a very close, intimate and respectful relationship that I saw flourish, grow and only strengthen. They were able to support each other during the hardest of times, even until the very ending moments.

The friendships and side character arcs. I really liked the breadth and width of all the people Shi Guang met along the way. We got time to delve into everyone’s lives a bit and that helped with the richness of the Go world and of the bonds of friendship. Of course I liked Yu Liang, he was indeed the detonator and initiator for Shi Guang, but I appreciated how this worked both ways. His character went through personal struggles and everytime he would circle back to Shi Guang for motivation and inspiration. They were like magnets, connected in a way but on their own individual journeys. Also special mention to Fang Xu, I had initially pegged him as a stock standard character ready for revenge and superficial acclaim, but he surprised me with character complexity and dilemmas that lifted his character to a higher dimension.

--Things I take issue with—

Time and pacing, this was something that put me off the drama the most. The episodes were long, almost an hour each and literally depicted one hour of the character’s life, sometimes to the point of being excessively long. And this meant that Shi Guang’s progress felt incremental, at the end of every episode, his skill level picked up only by the smallest amount. A lot of the scenes could have been sped up and I felt we didn’t need to see every nook and cranny into his life. We journey through a long 5+ years of his life and watching the drama, you really do feel it.

Last episode. The last episode felt disconnected in tone, problematic in many ways and for me, let the whole drama down.

***SPOILERS AHEAD****

After Ch Ying left, the momentum left with him and we spent the remaining time picking up the pieces and hurriedly tying up loose ends, the go competition faded into the background. Yes, they depicted Shi Guang’s five stages of grief well, but underlying that, I was annoyed with him because it felt like his actions were out of spite and ungrateful. The last episode felt disconnected from everything, random, with major tonal shifts. All the suspense and tension disappeared and it suddenly felt like a bl rom-com that didn’t really fit the past episodes.

In particular, Hong He’s journey arc felt like such a cop out. We spent so much time of Hong He and his journey and abruptly ending it felt so wrong. Hong He was the epitome of the best friend, almost to the point where I was like no way someone can be this good, loyal, kind and selfless. He was never jealous or hated on Shi Guang’s talent along admired, he was super self-aware and did everything in his power to help his friends, even if it meant they surpassed him. His ending was undeserved and made me feel wholly dissatisfied.

Yu Liang and Shi Guang’s relationship was built up so much from the very start when they meet up as kids and throughout the drama, time and time again, we play on this idea of them competing against each other so much we eagerly await this. And then in the final episode their attempts to give us that feel like another cop out, unmomentous and lacking any significance.

***SPOILERS END****

Other minors things are they didn’t really explain the rules of Go properly, so when watching the competitions I couldn’t really follow what was happening. Also, being a predominantly male centred drama, all the female characters felt like they were only there to purely serve as support figures.


There are a lot of things to like in this drama, par the final episode. Everything worked well, albeit the drama being a bit slow and drawn out. The friendship, comradery, mutual trust and passion were all displayed to the max and I really like the band of them coming together to share the same bond over a game of Go. I appreciate this will not be everyone’s cup of tea, so watch when you’re ready to take a journey – be warned it’ll be a long one, but one that is fulfilling and rewarding.