The Long Season

Quite easily the best, most well made Mainland Chinese drama I have ever seen. A true crime story that goes way beyond the crime itself, as it touches on society, human nature and so much more. Everything from the cinematography to details of every character and scene is carefully constructed. The setting is distinctively Northeastern China and China during that time. Not everything should or needed to be painted roses, and I believe The Long Season could serve as a vital lesson to those in charge of this department in China in determining what makes a good TV show. The leads, especially Fan Wei delivers a performance of the ages. The characters are so well sculpted and their relationship with each other are so authentic and true. This is one powerful drama that uniquely celebrates character development and character faults and hits hard long after the end credits. Oh yes, and the end credit, each one featuring a different song to reflect the mood of the episode, is the cherry on top.

For the middle-aged people in the northeast of China, 1990s is an unforgettable era which is full of magic and trauma. The transformation and decline of industry deeply affected the society and every family's life. People lost their jobs and the crime rate became higher. All of them make the era an abundant source for Chinese literature, and the creation of this amazing tv drama.

Basically this is a crime drama, but this is more about the characters' personalities and life, which is familiar with true detective series. It's a brilliant and touching combination of 1990s China style and tough detective novel. The emotion and the connection between people in this drama are so powerful. If you are a fan of true detective, you may love this.

This TV show triggered self-compassion for my own midlife crisis.

Yes, you may not encounter the sad life in this series, but you will definitely get older. Even the most powerful people will get old, and when that time comes, how to live decently?

It does suck to have your wife and children die abnormally and your best friend die in a car accident like Wang Xiang in this title, but it's even worse to face your own old age. The good thing is that the screenwriter gives a more positive and optimistic attitude, which seems to encourage us viewers not to be afraid of getting old. But specifically for each individual, it may not always be that easy.

Frankly, I've started to have to face some of the signs of aging, my mind gets older sometimes, and trying to act young seems to make me cringe because appearances can't hide it.

Let's hope I get the same optimistic ending, like the ending line: look forward, don't look back!

Snapping my fingers once in a while, shattering the distance between the distant past and reality.

Every dust of the times falls on a person as a mountain.

I didn't really understand this sentence until I watched this TV series. This masterpiece, which I think is the best Chinese TV series I have seen, tells an absolute tragedy. A lost father, a frustrated husband and a retired policeman attempted to solve a mystery which had lasted for nearly 20 years. They were all trapped in the autumn in 1998. All the roles in it tried to fight against their fates, but found in vain eventually. When the mystery is solved, fate still remains in the Man chang de ji jie, which means a long season in English. This sense of powerlessness makes each of us relate it to ourselves.

I know many people like watching a nobody finally turn to a successful man through his hard-working and insistence. But most of the time it's not the reality. And most of us, the ordinary people, can't overcome this mountain of the times. We are trapped in this long autumn, until our faiths break down. However, we still see someone go forward.

Life is difficult. Sometimes it's like a elegy of fate. But never forget to sing a hymn to ordinary people. In the end of the series, a snow falls, declaring the approaching of winter. What a beautiful scene! We all like spring because it's the beginning of a new year, also the beginning of life. But not everyone is so fortunate to see it. So when the long autumn finally ends, when the first winter snow falls, why can't it be a new beginning for us? Eyes towards front, move forward, and do not look back. Sometimes the meaning of life is not break through our fates, but choose hope in the suffering of life.

We can all find ourselves in this TV series. It's more like a documentary about ordinary people, and also inspires them to move forward.

I gave this 10 stars, for very specific reasons, both technical and artistic, which are detailed below.

This is a superb production; it honours the thriller genre, which has become a very sophisticated genre in recent years, but also brings its own spirit, at times lively and charming, at others very dark.

The story takes place in two eras: 2017, or 'now', and 1997; the visual recreation of the earlier period is meticulous, as well realised as a very good feature film; and the cultural and social fabric of that time, its complexities and contradictions, is beautifully evoked. Events are centred around the Hualin Steel Works, a huge factory, more like a small city with its own housing, hospital, and a large security force. The Steel Works is in steep financial decline; the middle-aged workers belong to the old China of Mao-style Communism ("I was a Model Worker!" says Wang Xiang), while the younger characters belong to the new China, still in its infancy. Economic fears, severe personal financial fears, and fear of what the future holds, pervade the community; corruption and crime are high, and, Wang Xiang, the hero of the story, struggles to be a good man in society where the costs of doing good are high, and where the community and many of those close to him have stopped believing in the morals of the past.

The narrative style is subtle, sophisticated and genuinely enthralling. The story unfolds slowly; the interwoven timelines blend gently, jumps in time at first catch you unawares. The story contains many minor characters, some of whom graduate to major characters; facts and details, hints and suggestions, are revealed here and there; a lot of guesswork and deduction is required of the viewer. Slowly the dark threads are drawn together. There is a thematic thread about 'fate', in the shape of forces outside personal control; and much of the cast consists of anti-heroes (those trying to do the right thing, but failing), and sympathetic villains (forced into wickedness by desperation), while the truly evil lurks for a long time in the shadows.

To aid with the viewer grappling with this perplexity and darkness, the script is generous with character comedy, particularly in the 'now' timeline, woven together with scenes of friendship and unresolved sadness.

The soundtrack is excellent; the show is visually cinematic; the acting is wonderful (Qin Hao, who plays Gong Biao, for example, executes one of the most convincing performances of aging 20 years that I have ever seen, so good that it was hard to believe he played both roles). My Chinese guide tells me the dialogue is also rich in idiom, accent and dialect.

In short, this is a brilliant and unique work of story-telling that both honours the genre and goes beyond it.