The Double (2024) - Final Review

Final review/rating: The Double (2024) - Revenge is a dish best served doubled and with theatricality 

This is 8.5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮✮✮✮ from Pandafan🐼

Overall rating:         8.5 Stars Plot:                       8 Stars Acting/cast:            8.5 Stars Couple chemistry:   8.5 stars Music:                    8 Stars Re-watch value:      8 Stars Enjoyment factor:   8.5 Stars

The Double (2024) is a melodramatic rollercoaster of a revenge story, told with lush visuals and an OTT theatricality that may cause the occasional eye roll but somehow works to keep the viewer seated. The narrative is darkly compelling with one high stakes gambit after another, there is the 爽/satisfaction of seeing just deserts being meted out, the villains are interesting, and there is a sensuous slow-burn chemistry between the 'fei chang xiao zhang' '菲常蕭張' CP which made me wish I could borrow Xiao Heng's fan. In concert, this makes for some addictively good viewing.   

There is more than a passing nod to Chinese opera and the gong an公案 'crime case' literary tradition as well. Xue Feng Fei's devious ex-husband scholar Shen Yu Rong has obvious parallels with the infamous scholar Chen Shi Mei 陳世美 from the《鍘美案》/'execute Mei case' who bigamously became Prince Consort and then tried to murder his first wife and two children, and Xue Feng Fei's pet name A'Li 阿狸 and her ultimate switecheroo of identities with the real Jiang Li evokes the《狸猫换太子》/ 'civet cat exchanged for Crown Prince' case. Both are staples of the Justice Bao repertoire. 

However, in The Double (2024) there is no Justice Bao to ensure that justice is served. Instead, there is only Wu Jin Yan's audacious Xue Fang Fei, who must ensure that she and her dead double are avenged. Luckily for the audience, Xue Fang Fei knows how to put on a damn good show as she plays everyone around her like a virtuoso. As for Wang Xing Yue's sexily smoldering Xiao Heng, he is first spectator and than participant in their joint revenge drama, which also doubles as a political chessboard with ramifications beyond the settling of personal wrongs.    

The Double (2024) is far from perfect. There are logic flaws, issues with pacing, places where less would definitely have been more, and some questionable directorial/writing choices, especially in the final arc which left me shaking my head. And while I agree that revenge was taken, I am not certain that justice was truly served in the end. But in the face of these imperfections I found myself imagining Xue Fang Fei cheekily breaking the 4th wall and asking me "are you not entertained?" My answer? Definitely.

SPOILERS AHEAD

  

The Double (2024) - Synopsis

Drama info:

Title:                      The Double

Chinese title:         墨雨雲間 / 墨雨云间 (Eng translation: "Inky rain amidst clouds")

Episodes:               40

Genre:                    Revenge, mystery, romance

Original network:  Youku

Release date:        2 June 2024

Airing schedule:    2 June 2024 - 22 June 2024

Synopsis:

Xue Fang Fei is the talented and much loved daughter of a country magistrate, and wife to scholar Shen Yu Rong.  But one memorable evening, Xue Fang Fei wakes to find herself framed, betrayed, and buried alive...

  

Heroes (2022) - Final Review

Final review/rating: Heroes (2022) - True blue wuxia that falls short of greatness 

This is 8.5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮✮✮✮ from Pandafan🐼

Overall rating:         8.5 Stars Plot:                       7 Stars Acting/cast:            7 Stars Couple chemistry:   6 stars Music:                    7 Stars Re-watch value:      7 Stars Enjoyment factor:   8 Stars

I've been missing traditional wuxia lately.  The most recent offerings have been an alloy of other genres...  For example, the brilliant Sword, Snow, Stride (2021) was definitely wuxia with a xuanhuan /fantasy bent (ie. slow-mo and CGI heavy), and whilst Who rules the World (2022) was marketed as wuxia, it was primarily a political drama with some jianghu thrown in.  

When Heroes (2022) came along, I was therefore very excited by the prospect of some true blue wuxia.  After all, 《說英雄誰是英雄》is one of Wen Rui An's seminal works, and Wang Xiao Shi's part of the story is a prequel of sorts to, and set in the same universe as, The Four Constables 《四大名捕》, which has been the subject of many drama adaptations.  Short of some Jin Yong or Gu Long (who have both been endlessly and not necessarily well adapted for the screen), Heroes (2022) offered the chance to witness traditional wuxia done right.    

Did Heroes (2022) deliver? Yes and no... There is enough fast-paced choreography, compelling characters, and jianghu elements to justify a spot on the wuxia mantlepiece.  The drama is also a visual feast for the eyes, gorgeously shot by a director (Li Mu Ge) who knows how to evoke beauty and atmosphere through his lens.  However, a less then deft mangling of the portrayal of one of the key characters which departs from the original source novel and the somewhat uneven acting by the trio of rookie idol actors meant this fell short of greatness.  

SPOILERS AHEADS

  

Heroes (2022) - Synopsis

 

Drama info:

Title:  Heroes

Chinese title: 說英雄誰是英雄 / 说英雄谁是英雄 (Eng translation: "Speaking of Heroes, who is a Hero?")

Episodes:  38 episodes

Genre: Wuxia, historical

Original network: Tencent

Release date:      23 May 2022 

Airing schedule:  23 May 2022 - 27 June 2022

Synopsis:

In the martial arts world jianghu, two leading sects dominate: the Six and a Half Hall/Liu Fen Ban Tang (六分半堂) and the Golden Winds and Light Rain Tower/Jin Feng Xi Yu Lou (金風細雨樓). The former values profit and business, while the latter values chivalry and honour.  The heroes of the martial arts world flock to both in the hope of making a name for themselves.     

When the innocent young Wang Xiao Shi 王小石 leaves the mountains to travel the world, he is tasked by his shifu with delivering a boxed secret that will determine the future of Jin Feng Xi Yu Lou to the young master of that sect, Su Meng Zhen 苏梦枕.  

Along the way, he meets and befriends the ambitious Bai Chou Fei 白愁飛 and the feisty Lady Wen Rou 温柔, as well as the famous red sleeve swordsman Su Meng Zhen 苏梦枕 himself.  The four become fast friends and the three men become sworn brothers. 

But in the turbulent waters of the capital city's jianghu, Wang Xiao Shi soon discovers that brotherhood and loyalty will be tested by the lure of power and ambition, and in the face of betrayal and heartbreak, he learns what it truly means to be a Hero...