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tanithryudoRecently, have been watching 《开端》aka "Reset", a new TV short series that has been surprisingly popular in China lately. Surprisingly popular despite the genre - a looping day akin to "Groundhog Day", though action/suspense rather than comedy. It's also only 15 episodes long, so doesn't require a huge investment of time.
Here's the official eng sub playlist on Youtube. First ep can be found here:
And haha, I'll admit, I was made aware of this show because Zhou Shen sang its closing theme song 《My Only》. The song is also doing surprisingly well on the various music app billboards in China, made #1 both the 1st week of release and the 3rd week of release (that just ended). It's a full english song, which is interesting, since the show has no foreign elements in it. It's also a very clearly romance oriented song, even though romance...it's there but I don't think it's the primary focus of the show.
My impression is that the focus of the show is two-fold: one is the obvious amateur detective feel, where the protagonists have to figure out who is blowing up the bus, and how to prevent the explosion. In the end, the loops don't end when they succeed in saving the bus and putting the culprit(s) in jail. It ends when the protagonists figure out the root cause of it all, and succeed in convincing the "villain" to put down their weapon, and ensure that no lives are sacrificed.
A bit of a fairy tale happy ending...but really, what are retries for if not to get the best ending?
The other focus seem to be commentaries of modern china, the problems and pressures that normal people often face; each of the passengers has a backstory that someone can probably identify with. The central theme appears to be that normal, common people can sometimes bend to pressure, or sometimes stand coldly/uselessly by...but they can also choose to be heroes.
The romance...again, it's definitely there. But it doesn't feel like the story is being bent to fit the romance. Rather, the romance progresses naturally from the story. In the beginning, the two protagonists are total strangers, and not totally trusting of one another. As time goes on, they grow closer as partners, because they only have each other to lean on, through hardship, trauma, and each minor success. They see each other at their lowest, and help each other through those lows. So it feels very natural in ep 10 when Zhou Shen's voice starts singing in the background, as the protagonists stand in the water and......hug. =P
EDIT: Seems like LJ crossposting is also not working anymore. -_-
Here's the official eng sub playlist on Youtube. First ep can be found here:
And haha, I'll admit, I was made aware of this show because Zhou Shen sang its closing theme song 《My Only》. The song is also doing surprisingly well on the various music app billboards in China, made #1 both the 1st week of release and the 3rd week of release (that just ended). It's a full english song, which is interesting, since the show has no foreign elements in it. It's also a very clearly romance oriented song, even though romance...it's there but I don't think it's the primary focus of the show.
My impression is that the focus of the show is two-fold: one is the obvious amateur detective feel, where the protagonists have to figure out who is blowing up the bus, and how to prevent the explosion. In the end, the loops don't end when they succeed in saving the bus and putting the culprit(s) in jail. It ends when the protagonists figure out the root cause of it all, and succeed in convincing the "villain" to put down their weapon, and ensure that no lives are sacrificed.
A bit of a fairy tale happy ending...but really, what are retries for if not to get the best ending?
The other focus seem to be commentaries of modern china, the problems and pressures that normal people often face; each of the passengers has a backstory that someone can probably identify with. The central theme appears to be that normal, common people can sometimes bend to pressure, or sometimes stand coldly/uselessly by...but they can also choose to be heroes.
The romance...again, it's definitely there. But it doesn't feel like the story is being bent to fit the romance. Rather, the romance progresses naturally from the story. In the beginning, the two protagonists are total strangers, and not totally trusting of one another. As time goes on, they grow closer as partners, because they only have each other to lean on, through hardship, trauma, and each minor success. They see each other at their lowest, and help each other through those lows. So it feels very natural in ep 10 when Zhou Shen's voice starts singing in the background, as the protagonists stand in the water and......hug. =P
EDIT: Seems like LJ crossposting is also not working anymore. -_-
(no subject)
Date: 2022-01-31 04:37 am (UTC)Yeah, about LJ... here's the news announcement.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-01-31 05:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-01-31 01:34 pm (UTC)Ah well, DW has been more reliable than both LJ and IJ so far. It'll probably continue to be so...