The Bad Kids

It's a fascinating and intricate story centred around three children from poor families in southern China. The production values are high. The three young actors do a great job as they navigate the many complexities of the real world: educational pressure, marital bliss, financial and health crises. There are no easy choices between right and wrong.

Unfortunately - as other have commented - the editing and storyline drop inexplicably in the last three episodes. I'd happily watch it again in a few years time as the characters and themes were so endearing, but I'd hesitate to recommend it to anyone because of the mangled ending. Perhaps the producers ran out of time or money.

Nevertheless as a student of Chinese I persevered to the end, 12 sessions. Lots of technical flaws, and an unbelievable plot. Acting of the three central characters, teenagers/children pretty convincing in frankly silly situations.

Cinematography and settings are pretty good, but the succession of deaths and murders and lack of involvement of the police were too much of a stretch of the imagination. Yet I enjoyed some of the family relationship portrayals, and the grey mean streets and quarters and dockyards.

The series was notably lacking in smiles and humour and similarly grey in setting and tone, but a special commendation goes to the actor who portrayed Pupu, a professional performance for one so young.

Definitely not recommended unless you are a Chinese language study freak (as I am)

Loved it.finished watching today. special thank you too all the team behind creating this series. the work by the child actor is mind blowing. the teacher wanted a girl daugher. a small part also felt sorry for the teacher for being betrayed. overall the life is shown beautifully. how the life not always happy. its also sad.

The plot is closely linked with each other. The opening song, the ending song and the interlude are all carefully designed, and the plot bedding and details are full of meaning. All the actors performed very well. Since then, I have a psychological shadow on the protagonist Zhang Dongsheng.

Which actually dives into archetypal children's behaviours, and the consequences of the adults around them never growing up and never fixing themselves.

The deaths are very well thought out and placed, and the fact nobody cares about them only serves to highlight something that everyone knows but is afraid to admit to - when was the last time you actually knew about your neighbours, talked to them or got interested about what was happening in their lives?

The answer is probably - "Never", and is the same answer which is to be given in place of most parents who're too "busy", too overworked, or too traumatized themselves with their childhood traumas to get interested or to understand what's really happening in their children's lives.

I highly recommend this drama, along with other recent Chinese productions.