I must go off topic and ask why the creeper photo for the poster? Anyway... I genuinely didn't think I'd finish this but here we are, at the end. I finished yet another Chinese drama with over 40 episodes, my gosh, I think I need a drama doctor. I don't think I've ever struggled to figure out a rating as with this drama, It could very well be an 7 and also a mere 6, so I settled for an in-between that I am only moderately content with The drama thrusts you into what I presume is 1940s China under Japanese imperialism. This isn't your typical flowy dress historical as at this point, from the setting and clothing in the drama, there seems to be a huge western influence in China. We're talking guns, suits, music and that iffy shade of green army wear. The story focuses on the Ming family and the role they come to play in liberating China. Let's start by making this clear in that I really gave the writers the benefit of the doubt as intricate plots are interwoven with nauseatingly cliché scenes that as I cringed and wondered what in the world was happening, I came to the conclusions the writers were to some extent really playing with this genre. As with every action, suspense, shooter type of film, bullets will never hit the leads. The leads here in fact, rarely ever run for cover and when they do, it's rather comical because they've evaded hoards of bullets being shot at them out of sheer protagonistness (no, that's not a word). They of course can shoot bullets to nowhere and I swear those bullets will manage to hit someone. The gun usage is indeed your stereotypical action shooter gun usage. We are also for a modest part of this, given a frustrating female character who constantly needs rescue and made the initial eight episodes of this a very painful experience but for once, I listened to the voices in drama land urging me to stick it out as she becomes quite the character. Nicely done, drama land. Amidst this, romance is thrown in and my toes curled as an actor hurled sweet nonsense lines along the cringe worthiness level of “you are my sugar plum” and I questioned reality as these lines were so excruciatingly cheesy, I just can't imagine the writers not being aware of this. It seemed cliché scenes were thrown in here to help nurse the uber macho and high paced scene and also honestly, I just can't get over this *writer's f**king with us* feeling. The main reason for a good rating is when this drama picks up, it genuinely picks up and becomes an enjoyable ride. Take the genre as it is and this drama is quite addictive. It has it's moments of suspense and brilliance although albeit sometimes the plot was far too convoluted. Amidst this is well fitted splashes of humor and heart warming scenes that just made even the most cynical side of me annoyingly melt. The Ming family have some of the best interactions and I was screaming, “adopt me with my mother's permission please.” There is just quite the solid plot in here that really grounds this drama and it makes the genre really feel like the writers wanted to absolutely play with it yet also create a strong plot. I do think the drama could have ended four episodes earlier than it did. The last four episodes milked the this plot like a saharan camel. I don't know if there was some broadcasting requirement in regards to that but it really pulled the screw out of this machine and made the drama feel quite loose.