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Review: Insects Awaken (驚蟄) (2019)
This was the sequel to Sparrow, with some of the same actors returning, namely Zhang Ruoyun and Kan Qingzi. I found this drama to be less compelling than Sparrow. I think Sparrow had more compelling acting, while the characters in Insects Awaken didn’t really give room to the actors to be their own characters. It was okay, not disastrous, but it felt kind of generic.
Spoilers.
Story
Like all Republican spy dramas, the story is fairly straightforward: working together against the Japanese. The special gimmick in this show was Chen Shan first portraying his doppelganger Xiao Zhengguo, and getting embroiled in the social network of Xiao Zhengguo. Then, he was recalled and resumed his original identity of Chen Shan, though he continued to operate as a spy, this time with the help of Zhang Li. Having finished the show, I felt that the consequences of his time as Xiao Zhengguo were minimal. It didn’t really come back to haunt him messily the way we would have expected in such cases. I feel like the only takeaway from that part of his life was Yu Xiaowan’s attachment to him.
When he returned home, he began his new spy life, marrying Zhang Li, and also reuniting with his family. His father who showed signs of dementia, his sister Chen Xia who was unknowingly under the control of Huangmu Wei, and his brother Chen He who was undercover as well.
Towards the end, there was much death as our characters fought against the Japanese. At risk of sounding insensitive, I felt that many of the deaths were a prop to fuel Chen Shan’s determination, as opposed to deaths that were specific to each individual. In Sparrow, characters died because they decided to take certain actions knowing they could die. However, in Insects Awaken, it felt like many characters sacrificed their lives to help Chen Shan.
Chen Shan took down Huangmu, who was kind of the main villain of this show. I felt like there was potential for an interesting and complex relationship but we didn’t really have that between Chen Shan and Huangmu. Chen Shan was trying to stay within Huangmu’s graces while working behind his back, and Huangmu was trying to use Chen Shan while keeping him at arm’s length. But I didn’t think we got the mutual respect that would have made a hero-villain story interesting. Which is fine, these two people are definitely on very opposite sides of a war, but it didn’t make Huangmu interesting to me as a villain and so his death meant very little to me. The show ended with Chen Shan joining the war effort, where he met Yu Xiaowan who’d come back from her heavy injury, implying that they would work together.
Overall I think Insects Awaken revolved around Chen Shan too much and didn’t give as much to the other characters. It would have been fine if I was a Chen Shan stan but as I’ll explain below, I didn’t think Chen Shan was a particularly outstanding hero either.
Production
It is what it is. I never go into Republican era dramas expecting good production value. This drama was similar, in that I got that distinct feel of this show being filmed on a set.
The acting was alright, but I felt that the characters were not as interesting as in Sparrow, and there was not as much room for the actors to grow into their characters and endear them to us with their personalities and relations. But as a whole I felt that the acting was weaker than Sparrow. I know I keep comparing this show to Sparrow, but considering Insects Awaken was labelled a sequel, even with overlapping characters, I think I’m within my right.
Characters
Chen Shan/Xiao Zhengguo
I’m starting to notice that Zhang Ruoyun often feels similar when he’s playing the main character. He feels similar to Fan Xian in Joy of Life, which was released in the same year. Chen Shan was humourous but crafty. Very much your main character everyman. I found Zhang Ruoyun more compelling in Sparrow, where he had individual motivations that was something other than just saving everyone like a typical shounen protagonist.
Chen Shan’s first job was to pose as Xiao Zhengguo. I’m going to be real with you I don’t remember how he eventually pulled out of that job and resumed his life as Chen Shan. But as I said, it felt like him pulling out of his role as Xiao Zhengguo resulted in very few consequences other than Yu Xiaowan becoming attached to him. Everyone just accepted that he was actually Chen Shan. Granted it was because he went back home to a completely different city, but the lack of consequences was likely one of the reasons it made it difficult for me to remember what he’d done in that life.
When he returned to Shanghai was when the real story began for Chen Shan, where he reunited with his family and he began working on combatting Huangmu Wei. He married Zhang Li, found out his brother was an undercover agent, constantly tried to ward off Yu Xiaowan.
Yes, Chen Shan had a lot to do, but what was his personality? Like I said, he felt like a typical shounen protagonist and with that meant that he did a lot but it was hard for me to gauge his personality other than a person who wanted to save everyone. He wanted to save everyone, but in what order?
As well, I felt that too much of the story revolved around him. We barely learned about the characters around him except for how they related to him, and for that reason it was difficult to bond with the other characters. In Sparrow, we learned of the backstories of our main characters and it helped shaped them as characters. It’s hard to say how the backstories of characters in Insects Awaken affected these characters. How did Zhang Li’s past romance with Chen He affect her today? How did Yu Xiaowan losing her father affect her personality. I could technically argue these but it was not obvious, because many of our characters in the end just amounted to helpers for Chen Shan.
Zhang Li
Zhang Li was an agent that Chen Shan had met as Xiao Zhengguo. She had early on figured out that he was not who he said he was, as she was close with Yu Xiaowan and thus would have been familiar with Xiao Zhengguo. Chen Shan immediately dropped his act with Zhang Li, feeling relieved that he didn’t have to pretend in front of her.
I can’t really say for sure whether Chen Shan was in love with Zhang Li. With them getting married, it certainly advanced that narrative, and he was protective towards her, particularly when trying to get Yu Xiaowan to back off. A special part of Zhang Li’s heart was always for Chen He, but I struggle to say that she was in love with anyone in this timeline, because her life purpose was her mission.
Like Zhang Ruoyun, I felt like Wang Ou was just kind of playing herself. As well, it just felt like she was fulfilling the role of an agent and not a character. Again, what was her personality other than being responsible? Hard to say.
In the end, Zhang Li sacrificed her life to save Chen Shan. Unfortunately, it was a little anticlimactic for me. But again I think it’s due to the fact that she had the same goals as Chen Shan so it ended up being a bit difficult to separate the characters and let them have their own personalities and motivations.
Yu Xiaowan
I think that Li Xiaonan was by far a more compelling character than Yu Xiaowan. Personality wise, they were similar, and I don’t know if Kan Qingzi has been typecast into this kind of role. However, Li Xiaonan had much more of a personality, more filled out values. Li Xiaonan was an aspiring actress, she was in love with her not-boyfriend and she would continue to pursue him even if he didn’t want her. As well, she was a patriot, and that was actually her main goal. She had lost her family and she wanted to do something with her life. And in the end, she had the send off she deserved. If I remember correctly, her code name in Sparrow was Doctor, so perhaps that was why Yu Xiaowan was a doctor in Insects Awaken.
That being said, I felt that Yu Xiaowan’s role as a doctor could have been expanded upon. For the most part, her being a doctor was irrelevant to the story, as her role was mostly relegated to Xiao Zhengguo’s wife. Initially, it had been a political/loveless marriage. However, when Chen Shan stepped into Xiao Zhengguo, Xiaowan found herself attracted to his charm, something she had never felt.
Xiaowan felt a bit betrayed when she found out the truth, even going to Chen Shan and Zhang Li’s wedding. Xiaowan and Zhang Li were able to reconcile, because they had always been friends. It was a bit different for Chen Shan, who had technically tricked her. He tried again and again to get her to back off by showing her what a scumbag he was. But in the end, Xiaowan wanted to stay to help their effort.
Xiaowan was held captive by Zhou Haichou who wanted to get back at Chen Shan and also loved Xiaowan. Xiaowan broke out of her bonds and attacked Zhou Haichou, becoming heavily injured in the process. However, she recovered and at the end we saw that she was a leader in the forces against the Japanese.
Unfortunately Yu Xiaowan did not live up to Li Xiaonan. It was to be expected, since Li Xiaonan as a character that completely took me by surprise and was very unlike any other character I’d seen in this genre. But Yu Xiaowan, like Zhang Li, just became an extension of Chen Shan. She did have a backstory of missing her deceased father, but it was overshadowed by her one-sided love for Chen Shan.
Zhou Haichao
Zhou Haichao was an officer who pursued Yu Xiaowan. He would go dancing with her often. When Xiao Zhengguo returned, he told Zhou Haichao to back off, which hurt his pride. Xiaowan was never really that interested in Zhou Haichao, she just liked dancing.
Zhou Haichao then became a minor villain in the first arc in that he was constantly trying to unmask Xiao Zhengguo. After Chen Shan came back into the picture, Zhou Haichao wanted to reveal Chen Shan’s true allegiances to Huangmu Wei to get him killed. He did kind of succeed. Despite his heavy injures in the scuffle with Xiaowan on the street, he was able to give photos to Huangmu that showed Chen Shan meeting with “the enemy” (i.e. Chinese forces). But ultimately Zhou Haichao was working because of his hatred of Chen Shan instead of his own ambitions.
Huangmu Wei/Araki Yoshi
Huangmu was the Japanese officer who first kidnapped Chen Shan to pose as Xiao Zhengguo. He kidnapped Chen Shan’s sister Chen Xia in order to keep him doing his bidding. As the show went on, he was aware that Chen Shan wasn’t fully loyal, but he wanted to keep using him for information. Huangmu did seem to fancy Chen Xia, even going so far as to getting surgery for her to gain eyesight. That never really led anywhere though. I didn’t think Chen Xia was a strong character but more on that later.
In the end, I felt that Huangmu was killed in an anticlimactic fashion. It was exciting, with an explosion, yes. But there was no confrontation between Chen Shan and Huangmu. Realistically speaking it was probably a better assassination to not have a confrontation at all but it kind of furthered the argument that Huangmu wasn’t an interesting villain.
I am a fan of Wang Longzheng and I don’t even mind that he’s constantly typecast as a cop because he does fit that vibe, but he just wasn’t very charismatic in this show.
Chen He/Qian Shiying
Chen He was Chen Shan and Chen He’s older brother, the golden child of Chen Jinwang, and Zhang Li’s past lover. For the first part of the show, all we knew of him was that he had gone to Beijing to study and his dad was so sure he would return as a government official.
He came into the picture when Chen Shan and Zhang Li saw him at a gathering, posing as Qian Shiying, the companion of Tang Manqing. He was also an undercover agent. No one knew his identity, not even Huangmu Wei. Chen He hadn’t even returned home to see his father.
Chen He and Chen Shan seemed to be on slightly different sides of the war. In particular, Chen Shan also held some resentment over Chen He not returning home, especially since their father would often forget Chen Shan and only remember Chen He, his golden child.
In the end, Chen He was taken in for questioning by Huangmu Wei. To the end, he maintained his identity as Qian Shiying so as not to endanger the others. However, in his dying words, he said that he was dying for “Heshan,” “rivers and mountains,” He for Chen He and Shan for Chen Shan. So Chen Shan knew that deep down inside, Chen He did still care for him.
As for Chen He and Zhang Li, their relationship again didn’t really amount to anything. They still went ahead with their jobs. I didn’t even find that they were conflicted at all? They were just very professional. Fine, for practical purposes. Not interesting for fictional purposes.
Tang Manqing
Tang Manqing was a lady friend of Qian Shiying. I don’t actually know her role, but she seemed to know enough about Qian Shiying and later Chen He’s background. When Qian Shiying was first taken for questioning, it was Tang Manqing who came to him, fabricating an alibi that they were together. But at the end we saw that Tang Manqing helped Chen Shan, saying that she considered Chen Shan her little brother (since he was Chen He’s little brother). I felt like she could have been a more interesting character, just that her role was a little unclear to me.
Qiantian/Senda
Qiantian was Huangmu’s right hand woman. She was very loyal, and an extension of Huangmu. The only time we ever saw a rift was when she had connected with a person from her hometown, who was actually a plant by Chen Shan’s camp. The purpose was to make it seem as though Qiantian was behind an attempted assassination. I thought that was the one interesting time that we saw any rift between Qiantian and Huangmu. But otherwise, whenever Qiantian spoke, she was just speaking Huangmu’s mind, which kind of made her unnecessary.
Chen Xia
Chen Xia was Chen He and Chen Shan’s younger sister. She was blind, so she was a little vulnerable at first. She had been taken in by Huangmu unknowingly, thinking that he was Chen Shan’s friend. Huangmu held her hostage so that Chen Shan would do his bidding, though it seemed that Huangmu grew feelings for her. At one point, Qiantian tried to tell Huangmu that he was putting too much importance on Chen Xia, though he did not agree. He took Chen Xia to get surgery so that she could gain her eyesight. I think it’s a bit of a copout when blind characters aren’t blind anymore.
I felt that Chen Xia was a little annoying unfortunately. I’m guessing she was supposed to be a teenager considering her naivete. She constantly asked to see her older brother, not understanding that she was actually a hostage. There was a point where she was wearing a kimono at her party, and Zhang Li commented that perhaps Chen Xia didn’t understand the implications of her doing so. I’m not sure if this is a plot hole but I believe that party was also the first time that Chen Xia had seen Chen Shan with her own eyes (after she gained eyesight) and I thought it was odd that that was never acknowledged.
I’m guessing that although Huangmu became more wary of Chen Shan, he didn’t want to hurt Chen Xia and that was why he didn’t actually hurt her to threaten Chen Shan. Chen Xia also started to finally understand that something was wrong. She asked where Chen He was, she wanted to see her father, etc. Unlike Chen Shan, however, Chen Xia had no idea how to deal with her father’s dementia, which is a little odd. She was living with him before, when he already had dementia, wasn’t she? I also didn’t appreciate that she blamed Chen Shan for a lot, not knowing what he was doing on his mission. Maybe it was her way of coping with the mess and not knowing what to do.
In the end, Chen Xia tried to kill Huangmu but was unsuccessful and she died.
Chen Jinwang
Chen Jinwang was Chen He, Chen Shan, and Chen Xia’s father. He seemed to have some kind of dementia, constantly forgetting Chen Shan, and not being able to answer questions correctly. Nonetheless, all the kids did love him, even if Chen He never returned home. Chen Shan would go along with Chen Jinwang’s narrative whenever he didn’t answer questions quite correctly. But Chen Xia didn’t quite know how to handle things when her father didn’t recognize her as Chen Xia.
I guess Chen Jinwang represented Chen Shan’s purpose. He had a peace to him that none of the other characters had, because of his dementia. In his mind, all that was important were his kids, even if he always forgot Chen Shan. Maybe that was what Chen Shan was actually fighting for.
Huangmu tried to interrogate Chen Jinwang to find out where Chen Shan was, but he couldn’t get anything out of him. Like with Chen He, Chen Jinwang told Huangmu to return his “Heshan,” He for Chen He and Shan for Chen Shan. That showed that he did remember Chen Shan in his subconscious, even if the upper layers of his brain couldn’t always recall him. However, he was knocked over and killed in an altercation with Huangmu’s people.
Themes
As always, the moral of the story is patriotism. Everybody in the show lost someone or something, but they had to fight for the cause. Because of who they lost, and so that they’d prevent anyone from losing anything more.
Overall
Not as good as Sparrow. A bit more boring because the story was completely centered on the main character.
Spoilers.
Story
Like all Republican spy dramas, the story is fairly straightforward: working together against the Japanese. The special gimmick in this show was Chen Shan first portraying his doppelganger Xiao Zhengguo, and getting embroiled in the social network of Xiao Zhengguo. Then, he was recalled and resumed his original identity of Chen Shan, though he continued to operate as a spy, this time with the help of Zhang Li. Having finished the show, I felt that the consequences of his time as Xiao Zhengguo were minimal. It didn’t really come back to haunt him messily the way we would have expected in such cases. I feel like the only takeaway from that part of his life was Yu Xiaowan’s attachment to him.
When he returned home, he began his new spy life, marrying Zhang Li, and also reuniting with his family. His father who showed signs of dementia, his sister Chen Xia who was unknowingly under the control of Huangmu Wei, and his brother Chen He who was undercover as well.
Towards the end, there was much death as our characters fought against the Japanese. At risk of sounding insensitive, I felt that many of the deaths were a prop to fuel Chen Shan’s determination, as opposed to deaths that were specific to each individual. In Sparrow, characters died because they decided to take certain actions knowing they could die. However, in Insects Awaken, it felt like many characters sacrificed their lives to help Chen Shan.
Chen Shan took down Huangmu, who was kind of the main villain of this show. I felt like there was potential for an interesting and complex relationship but we didn’t really have that between Chen Shan and Huangmu. Chen Shan was trying to stay within Huangmu’s graces while working behind his back, and Huangmu was trying to use Chen Shan while keeping him at arm’s length. But I didn’t think we got the mutual respect that would have made a hero-villain story interesting. Which is fine, these two people are definitely on very opposite sides of a war, but it didn’t make Huangmu interesting to me as a villain and so his death meant very little to me. The show ended with Chen Shan joining the war effort, where he met Yu Xiaowan who’d come back from her heavy injury, implying that they would work together.
Overall I think Insects Awaken revolved around Chen Shan too much and didn’t give as much to the other characters. It would have been fine if I was a Chen Shan stan but as I’ll explain below, I didn’t think Chen Shan was a particularly outstanding hero either.
Production
It is what it is. I never go into Republican era dramas expecting good production value. This drama was similar, in that I got that distinct feel of this show being filmed on a set.
The acting was alright, but I felt that the characters were not as interesting as in Sparrow, and there was not as much room for the actors to grow into their characters and endear them to us with their personalities and relations. But as a whole I felt that the acting was weaker than Sparrow. I know I keep comparing this show to Sparrow, but considering Insects Awaken was labelled a sequel, even with overlapping characters, I think I’m within my right.
Characters
Chen Shan/Xiao Zhengguo
I’m starting to notice that Zhang Ruoyun often feels similar when he’s playing the main character. He feels similar to Fan Xian in Joy of Life, which was released in the same year. Chen Shan was humourous but crafty. Very much your main character everyman. I found Zhang Ruoyun more compelling in Sparrow, where he had individual motivations that was something other than just saving everyone like a typical shounen protagonist.
Chen Shan’s first job was to pose as Xiao Zhengguo. I’m going to be real with you I don’t remember how he eventually pulled out of that job and resumed his life as Chen Shan. But as I said, it felt like him pulling out of his role as Xiao Zhengguo resulted in very few consequences other than Yu Xiaowan becoming attached to him. Everyone just accepted that he was actually Chen Shan. Granted it was because he went back home to a completely different city, but the lack of consequences was likely one of the reasons it made it difficult for me to remember what he’d done in that life.
When he returned to Shanghai was when the real story began for Chen Shan, where he reunited with his family and he began working on combatting Huangmu Wei. He married Zhang Li, found out his brother was an undercover agent, constantly tried to ward off Yu Xiaowan.
Yes, Chen Shan had a lot to do, but what was his personality? Like I said, he felt like a typical shounen protagonist and with that meant that he did a lot but it was hard for me to gauge his personality other than a person who wanted to save everyone. He wanted to save everyone, but in what order?
As well, I felt that too much of the story revolved around him. We barely learned about the characters around him except for how they related to him, and for that reason it was difficult to bond with the other characters. In Sparrow, we learned of the backstories of our main characters and it helped shaped them as characters. It’s hard to say how the backstories of characters in Insects Awaken affected these characters. How did Zhang Li’s past romance with Chen He affect her today? How did Yu Xiaowan losing her father affect her personality. I could technically argue these but it was not obvious, because many of our characters in the end just amounted to helpers for Chen Shan.
Zhang Li
Zhang Li was an agent that Chen Shan had met as Xiao Zhengguo. She had early on figured out that he was not who he said he was, as she was close with Yu Xiaowan and thus would have been familiar with Xiao Zhengguo. Chen Shan immediately dropped his act with Zhang Li, feeling relieved that he didn’t have to pretend in front of her.
I can’t really say for sure whether Chen Shan was in love with Zhang Li. With them getting married, it certainly advanced that narrative, and he was protective towards her, particularly when trying to get Yu Xiaowan to back off. A special part of Zhang Li’s heart was always for Chen He, but I struggle to say that she was in love with anyone in this timeline, because her life purpose was her mission.
Like Zhang Ruoyun, I felt like Wang Ou was just kind of playing herself. As well, it just felt like she was fulfilling the role of an agent and not a character. Again, what was her personality other than being responsible? Hard to say.
In the end, Zhang Li sacrificed her life to save Chen Shan. Unfortunately, it was a little anticlimactic for me. But again I think it’s due to the fact that she had the same goals as Chen Shan so it ended up being a bit difficult to separate the characters and let them have their own personalities and motivations.
Yu Xiaowan
I think that Li Xiaonan was by far a more compelling character than Yu Xiaowan. Personality wise, they were similar, and I don’t know if Kan Qingzi has been typecast into this kind of role. However, Li Xiaonan had much more of a personality, more filled out values. Li Xiaonan was an aspiring actress, she was in love with her not-boyfriend and she would continue to pursue him even if he didn’t want her. As well, she was a patriot, and that was actually her main goal. She had lost her family and she wanted to do something with her life. And in the end, she had the send off she deserved. If I remember correctly, her code name in Sparrow was Doctor, so perhaps that was why Yu Xiaowan was a doctor in Insects Awaken.
That being said, I felt that Yu Xiaowan’s role as a doctor could have been expanded upon. For the most part, her being a doctor was irrelevant to the story, as her role was mostly relegated to Xiao Zhengguo’s wife. Initially, it had been a political/loveless marriage. However, when Chen Shan stepped into Xiao Zhengguo, Xiaowan found herself attracted to his charm, something she had never felt.
Xiaowan felt a bit betrayed when she found out the truth, even going to Chen Shan and Zhang Li’s wedding. Xiaowan and Zhang Li were able to reconcile, because they had always been friends. It was a bit different for Chen Shan, who had technically tricked her. He tried again and again to get her to back off by showing her what a scumbag he was. But in the end, Xiaowan wanted to stay to help their effort.
Xiaowan was held captive by Zhou Haichou who wanted to get back at Chen Shan and also loved Xiaowan. Xiaowan broke out of her bonds and attacked Zhou Haichou, becoming heavily injured in the process. However, she recovered and at the end we saw that she was a leader in the forces against the Japanese.
Unfortunately Yu Xiaowan did not live up to Li Xiaonan. It was to be expected, since Li Xiaonan as a character that completely took me by surprise and was very unlike any other character I’d seen in this genre. But Yu Xiaowan, like Zhang Li, just became an extension of Chen Shan. She did have a backstory of missing her deceased father, but it was overshadowed by her one-sided love for Chen Shan.
Zhou Haichao
Zhou Haichao was an officer who pursued Yu Xiaowan. He would go dancing with her often. When Xiao Zhengguo returned, he told Zhou Haichao to back off, which hurt his pride. Xiaowan was never really that interested in Zhou Haichao, she just liked dancing.
Zhou Haichao then became a minor villain in the first arc in that he was constantly trying to unmask Xiao Zhengguo. After Chen Shan came back into the picture, Zhou Haichao wanted to reveal Chen Shan’s true allegiances to Huangmu Wei to get him killed. He did kind of succeed. Despite his heavy injures in the scuffle with Xiaowan on the street, he was able to give photos to Huangmu that showed Chen Shan meeting with “the enemy” (i.e. Chinese forces). But ultimately Zhou Haichao was working because of his hatred of Chen Shan instead of his own ambitions.
Huangmu Wei/Araki Yoshi
Huangmu was the Japanese officer who first kidnapped Chen Shan to pose as Xiao Zhengguo. He kidnapped Chen Shan’s sister Chen Xia in order to keep him doing his bidding. As the show went on, he was aware that Chen Shan wasn’t fully loyal, but he wanted to keep using him for information. Huangmu did seem to fancy Chen Xia, even going so far as to getting surgery for her to gain eyesight. That never really led anywhere though. I didn’t think Chen Xia was a strong character but more on that later.
In the end, I felt that Huangmu was killed in an anticlimactic fashion. It was exciting, with an explosion, yes. But there was no confrontation between Chen Shan and Huangmu. Realistically speaking it was probably a better assassination to not have a confrontation at all but it kind of furthered the argument that Huangmu wasn’t an interesting villain.
I am a fan of Wang Longzheng and I don’t even mind that he’s constantly typecast as a cop because he does fit that vibe, but he just wasn’t very charismatic in this show.
Chen He/Qian Shiying
Chen He was Chen Shan and Chen He’s older brother, the golden child of Chen Jinwang, and Zhang Li’s past lover. For the first part of the show, all we knew of him was that he had gone to Beijing to study and his dad was so sure he would return as a government official.
He came into the picture when Chen Shan and Zhang Li saw him at a gathering, posing as Qian Shiying, the companion of Tang Manqing. He was also an undercover agent. No one knew his identity, not even Huangmu Wei. Chen He hadn’t even returned home to see his father.
Chen He and Chen Shan seemed to be on slightly different sides of the war. In particular, Chen Shan also held some resentment over Chen He not returning home, especially since their father would often forget Chen Shan and only remember Chen He, his golden child.
In the end, Chen He was taken in for questioning by Huangmu Wei. To the end, he maintained his identity as Qian Shiying so as not to endanger the others. However, in his dying words, he said that he was dying for “Heshan,” “rivers and mountains,” He for Chen He and Shan for Chen Shan. So Chen Shan knew that deep down inside, Chen He did still care for him.
As for Chen He and Zhang Li, their relationship again didn’t really amount to anything. They still went ahead with their jobs. I didn’t even find that they were conflicted at all? They were just very professional. Fine, for practical purposes. Not interesting for fictional purposes.
Tang Manqing
Tang Manqing was a lady friend of Qian Shiying. I don’t actually know her role, but she seemed to know enough about Qian Shiying and later Chen He’s background. When Qian Shiying was first taken for questioning, it was Tang Manqing who came to him, fabricating an alibi that they were together. But at the end we saw that Tang Manqing helped Chen Shan, saying that she considered Chen Shan her little brother (since he was Chen He’s little brother). I felt like she could have been a more interesting character, just that her role was a little unclear to me.
Qiantian/Senda
Qiantian was Huangmu’s right hand woman. She was very loyal, and an extension of Huangmu. The only time we ever saw a rift was when she had connected with a person from her hometown, who was actually a plant by Chen Shan’s camp. The purpose was to make it seem as though Qiantian was behind an attempted assassination. I thought that was the one interesting time that we saw any rift between Qiantian and Huangmu. But otherwise, whenever Qiantian spoke, she was just speaking Huangmu’s mind, which kind of made her unnecessary.
Chen Xia
Chen Xia was Chen He and Chen Shan’s younger sister. She was blind, so she was a little vulnerable at first. She had been taken in by Huangmu unknowingly, thinking that he was Chen Shan’s friend. Huangmu held her hostage so that Chen Shan would do his bidding, though it seemed that Huangmu grew feelings for her. At one point, Qiantian tried to tell Huangmu that he was putting too much importance on Chen Xia, though he did not agree. He took Chen Xia to get surgery so that she could gain her eyesight. I think it’s a bit of a copout when blind characters aren’t blind anymore.
I felt that Chen Xia was a little annoying unfortunately. I’m guessing she was supposed to be a teenager considering her naivete. She constantly asked to see her older brother, not understanding that she was actually a hostage. There was a point where she was wearing a kimono at her party, and Zhang Li commented that perhaps Chen Xia didn’t understand the implications of her doing so. I’m not sure if this is a plot hole but I believe that party was also the first time that Chen Xia had seen Chen Shan with her own eyes (after she gained eyesight) and I thought it was odd that that was never acknowledged.
I’m guessing that although Huangmu became more wary of Chen Shan, he didn’t want to hurt Chen Xia and that was why he didn’t actually hurt her to threaten Chen Shan. Chen Xia also started to finally understand that something was wrong. She asked where Chen He was, she wanted to see her father, etc. Unlike Chen Shan, however, Chen Xia had no idea how to deal with her father’s dementia, which is a little odd. She was living with him before, when he already had dementia, wasn’t she? I also didn’t appreciate that she blamed Chen Shan for a lot, not knowing what he was doing on his mission. Maybe it was her way of coping with the mess and not knowing what to do.
In the end, Chen Xia tried to kill Huangmu but was unsuccessful and she died.
Chen Jinwang
Chen Jinwang was Chen He, Chen Shan, and Chen Xia’s father. He seemed to have some kind of dementia, constantly forgetting Chen Shan, and not being able to answer questions correctly. Nonetheless, all the kids did love him, even if Chen He never returned home. Chen Shan would go along with Chen Jinwang’s narrative whenever he didn’t answer questions quite correctly. But Chen Xia didn’t quite know how to handle things when her father didn’t recognize her as Chen Xia.
I guess Chen Jinwang represented Chen Shan’s purpose. He had a peace to him that none of the other characters had, because of his dementia. In his mind, all that was important were his kids, even if he always forgot Chen Shan. Maybe that was what Chen Shan was actually fighting for.
Huangmu tried to interrogate Chen Jinwang to find out where Chen Shan was, but he couldn’t get anything out of him. Like with Chen He, Chen Jinwang told Huangmu to return his “Heshan,” He for Chen He and Shan for Chen Shan. That showed that he did remember Chen Shan in his subconscious, even if the upper layers of his brain couldn’t always recall him. However, he was knocked over and killed in an altercation with Huangmu’s people.
Themes
As always, the moral of the story is patriotism. Everybody in the show lost someone or something, but they had to fight for the cause. Because of who they lost, and so that they’d prevent anyone from losing anything more.
Overall
Not as good as Sparrow. A bit more boring because the story was completely centered on the main character.