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Review: Battle of Changsha (戰長沙) (2014)
This drama was REALLY GOOD. It took me completely by surprise. I thought it was going to be like Band of Brothers, but it was actually a family drama.
All of the members of the family were portrayed as realistic people with merits and flaws, but what was most important was that we saw how this family still cared for each other even after acknowledging their faults.
I was expecting a really sad ending, so I was pretty much prepared, but I did cry at certain parts near the end. I never thought I'd be this affected but that goes on to show how this drama brought something that I think even now not a lot of dramas are able to do. They showed us what familial like, and now touching and motivating it can be.
Spoilers.
Story
There isn't exactly a plot to this show. It's more about how a family tries to survive the war. Well, more accurately, it's about how a family is affected by war.
In addition to that, we see how our main characters are changed by war, not necessarily for better or for worse. It's just a fact of the matter that as people go through war, they see the blind spots in their priorities, and they adjust accordingly.
The war aspect of the show was pretty basic. I didn't even pay a lot of attention to that because frankly I wasn't as interested. All that I really needed to know about the war situation was communicated well through the narrative and the characters.
I did cry a few times towards the end of the show. The first time was when Xiangxiang told her in-laws that even though she knew it would be dangerous to travel away from Chongqing, she just wanted to be closer to Gu Qingming. And after that I cried every time Xiangxiang thought of Xiaoman. I'm going to talk about this more later, but their bond was something special.
The greatest thing about this drama was the writing. We saw the characters through a variety of situations, both comedic and tragic, and yet they remained recognizable. And both those comedic and serious parts of the show were well written, in a way that was not forced and fit the tone of the show.
Production
The production and set design were convincing enough for me to believe that I was in a war. I've seen a lot of Republican Era dramas that just feel like bland movie sets. I didn't feel like the show set was artificial here. The set and costumes all contributed to me really feeling like I was in war-fearing Changsha.
The acting in this show was SOOO GOOD!! The acting was one of the reasons I found all of the characters so likeable. Besides during the comedic bits, I never felt like the actors were playing caricatures. The vast majority of the actors were people I was unfamiliar with and I thought they all did so well with what they were given.
Characters
One small thing kind of bothered me about this show, and that was the lack of originality with some of the main characters' names. I'm not sure if this show was an original script. Xiangxiang's name just being her generation name seemed lazy. And Xiangjun and Junshan sharing a character also seemed too coincidental. Again, very small things, but I like to pay attention to names, and man, I wish they had some more original ones in this show.
Hu Xiangxiang
I'll admit that I've always been skeptical of Yang Zi's acting ability. I'm still not totally sure if I believe in her acting chops. While Yang Zi did very well in her role as Hu Xiangxiang, I've also never seen her play any popular character who wasn't a naive young girl. But that's a discussion for another time. The fact of the matter is that Yang Zi did a terrific job as Hu Xiangxiang.
At the beginning, Hu Xiangxiang was a typical bossy young miss. She was well educated, but she was a brat, a girlboss in the making. She talked back to Gu Qingming at their matchmaking session on principle, because she had something to prove, and not because she actually hated him, which is immature, but that's who Hu Xiangxiang was at the beginning.
Xiangxiang also often got into trouble with her brother Xiaoman. They were thick as thieves, and their bond was closer than most siblings. I'll talk more about them in the family section below but I really liked their relationship.
The first time Xiangxiang was hit with the reality of the war was when Jinfeng told her that she'd already become a different person, and that she couldn't be with Xiaoman because of that. Xiangxiang was struggling to understand what those words meant, but that was probably the beginning of her journey to understanding what war did to people.
Over the course of the show, Xiangxiang grew up. She married Gu Qingming and became a mother, but her priorities also shifted.
Even though it was dangerous to be so close to war, Xiangxiang would risk her life to look for Qingming. At the beginning of the show, even though the threat of war was looming over Changsha, Xiangxiang was still sort of happy-go-lucky and I think it was because in her mind, the family was always going to be together, and they'd be fine as long as that was the case. Before she got married, she was still a child of the Hu family, and was always the one being protected or comforted. But as a wife to the Gu family, she now had a responsibility to play an active rol ein protecting or being there for her husband and child.
By the end of the show, Xiangxiang returned to the cemetary in Xiangtan one last time before she and Gu Qingming and their family would leave to go to another country. Xiangxiang said with a smile that everybody was here now. Even though she was going to be leaving her whole family, I think Xiangxiang smiled because now everybody else was together in spirit. As she said to Xiuxiu, the worst had already passed, and nothing could ever hurt them again.
Gu Qingming/Gu Shaohuan
I've only watched Wallace Huo in Love Me If You Dare, where he played a stereotypical cool guy. He was kind of the same here, but he served his purpose as the perpetually serious guy, especially in the case of the comedic parts.
At the beginning of the show, Gu Qingming was very devoted to serving in the military, so much so that it had caused a rift with his father. He was so stoic and hard to approach.
For the first part of the show, we saw his character loosen up a bit while spending time with Xue Junshan, who was always trying to get him to marry Xiangxiang.
As the war situation became more dire, Gu Qingming started to understand how fragile life was, and how easy it was to lose your loved ones, and I think during his courtship with Xiangxiang was when we really saw him soften up more. He still took his responsibilities seriously, but he also respected the feelings of others, and I guess I can consider that character growth for a man who was originally so cold and stoic.
Hu Xiaoman/Hu Xiangjiang
Xiaoman's character was so interesting. He was one of the characters who to me exhibited both good qualities and bad judgment.
He was loyal and was objective when it came to things that Xiangxiang wasn't objective about (mainly her denying her feelings for Gu Qingming). But Xiaoman was obviously very annoying when it came to him trying to woo Jinfeng, and him stupidly getting involved with unsavoury people like Xiaohei because he wanted to earn money. And his constant rejection and bullying of Xiuxiu was so hurtful to watch.
But even through all of that I still wanted to cheer for Xiaoman. I wanted him to be there for Xiangxiang, but I was also looking forward to him learning from his mistakes.
It took a long time, but Xiaoman did eventually understand the faults in his ways. It took Jinfeng literally dying for him to understand that they could not be together, because Jinfeng would always prioritize the war first and her personal life second. And maybe his love for Xiuxiu still wasn't genuine, and that he still saw her like a sister, but Xiuxiu had always been there for him, and to some degree, he did love her in a special way.
After the deaths of his grandmother and parents, Xiaoman ran away from Xiaohei who was hunting him down, and he ended up joining forces with Wang Huzi, who was the loan shark who'd threatened to take the Hu house away. Wang Huzi was running a militia that would take down Japanese troops. Xiaoman died fighting against these Japanese soldiers, but he did leave Xiuxiu with a child.
Hu Xiangjun
Hu Xiangjun was the eldest of the Hu children. She was so calm and gentle. She really was such a nice older sister. She was often a mediator and peacemaker in the family. There were tensions between Junshan and her father. But Xiangjun had come to understand that Junshan could be a good person, and she tried to communicate that to the family. Xiangjun was also just a very stable person overall. Her constant presence in the household was very comforting to those around her, whether it was Xiangxiang and Xiaoman, or her parents and grandmother.
Xiangjun was originally supposed to marry Minghan, but Minghan had gotten caught, and Junshan told Xiangjun that if she married him, he would let Minghan go. So that explained the love triangle between Junshan, Xiangjun, and Minghan.
When Junshan had crawled his way out of war, he returned home happy but his mood was dampened when he saw that Minghan had been seeing to Xiangjun. Junshan had sent Xiangjun and Ping'an to his ancestral home to pay respects, but on the way, they had to hide from Japanese soldiers, and amid he fright, Xiangjun had smothered Ping'an to death, which caused her to go into mental shock.
When Xiangjun returned home, she'd temporarily lost memories, but she had also thought that Ping'an was still alive. This part of the drama was very shocking to me. Like I said, Xiangjun had always been a rock of the family, and seeing her lose her mind was very worrying.
The family dealt with it by playing along, assuring her that Ping'an would be home soon. They felt that doing so would give her a peace of mind. And as Xiangxiang said, doing so would stop Xiangjun from going out into the street and taking other people's children.
When Maomao was taken home, Xiangjun treated him as Ping'an, and Maomao just accepted the care. Everybody else still called him Maomao, but Xiangjun called him Ping'an. This angered Junshan because he didn't want anybody to replace Ping'an, but over time, he saw that taking care of Maomao was healing for Xiangjun, and that this could be a new beginning for them.
From then on, Xiangjun started volunteering at the orphanage more, and we saw that she was nearly back to her normal self. She even acknowledged that she was treating Maomao like Ping'an, signifying that she knew that Maomao wasn't Ping'an.
Xiangjun died after an attack on the orphanage, when she got lost amid the frenzy.
Xue Junshan
Xue Junshan was a character who was set up as a bad guy, so it was really surprising when he ended up actually being quite the family man. As mentioned, he'd forced Xiangjun into marrying him, and Changning (Xiangjun's father) hated him on principle. But at that point, the Hu family relied on Xue Junshan's job as a military man to survive, as Changning didn't make much as a teacher. Most of the others in the family including Nainai, Xiangxiang, and Xiaoman respected Junshan for the stability he brought to the household.
As mentioned, Junshan had sent Xiangjun and Ping'an away in a sort of fit of jealousy. Xiangjun returned mad and Ping'an didn't return at all. I do think that Junshan felt very guilty for it, though nobody in the family explicitly blamed him for what he did (except for Minghan).
As mentioned, Junshan was upset with the Maomao situation because he didn't want to replace Ping'an, but he soon saw how stable their life was with a child. Not that Xiangjun needed to be a mother in order to be a person, but having someone to love like she loved Ping'an gave her comfort and stability, and she was getting better with Maomao there. That conversation that Junshan had with Ping'an's tablet was so touching. He was trying to address all of his concerns, telling Ping'an that he wasn't adopting Maomao because he didn't love Ping'an anymore.
Junshan died in the line of duty. He'd crawled his way out of tough war situations several times, but ultimately, it caught up to him.
Junshan really stood out to me as a character because based on what we were told, I was expecting him to be a big bad gruff man, but as Xiangjun said, despite his flaws, he was good to his family and relatives, and I like that this show had the space to develop that emotional depth him.
Hu Changning
Hu Changning was the father of Xiangjun, Xiangxiang, and Xiaoman. However, he wasn't the leader of the family. That was Nainai. Changning was portrayed as a kind of cowardly man. He was a scholar and if he wasn't teaching or attending scholarly meetings, he was listening to old music.
At the beginning of the show, Changning and Junshan butted heads a lot. Changning disliked Junshan on principle, probably because he was a gruff military man. But Changning also relied on Junshan financially so he couldn't do much about it, and Junshan knew. But as the family went through trouble after trouble in the war, I think Changning did accept Junshan as an important part of their family.
Towards the end of the drama, Changning did start to have more of an active role in the family.
I think the first notable example of this was when Xiaoman had used their house as collateral when borrowing from the loan shark. Changning was appropriately angry out of his mind that his son had done something so irresponsible.
Xiaohei had been knocking on the Hu family's door, asking to have Xiuxiu's hand in marriage. After the loan shark business, the Hu family wanted to distance themselves from him. So when Xiaohei came knocking again, Changning refused his offer for marriage. As we know Changning was a very principled man, so even though Xiaohei was more financially successful, the fact that he was helping the Japanese was unforgivable. As a result, Xiaohei turned Changning over to the Japanese as an anti-Japanese scholar.
Changning refused to attend their meeting several times, but he knew that he could only refuse so many times until his family was at stake. OChangning and his mother had a quiet meal, and he explained to his mother that he had to go attend the meeting. At first, he thought that maybe she was upset with him as she had gotten up in the middle of him talking, but she returned with a beautiful outfit, something that Changning's father had left him. She told him that he should look good in front of the Japanese. And that's when Changning knew that his mother understood that he had to do what he had to do.
On the way out, Changning was called a traitor by neighbours in the streets, but Changning had a smile on his face, looking like he had made peace with what he was going to do. Now at this point, I thought that he was going to play traitor to keep his family safe. But at the meeting, he denounced them with a song, and was shot to death.
I think Nainai understood that Changning would rather die than denounce his teachings, and she let him do that because he was her son and she loved him.
Changning died standing for what he believed in, and as a normal person, that was all he felt he was capable of doing.
Liu Duoci
Duoci was Xiangjun, Xiangxiang, and Xiaoman's mother. She mostly took a backseat role for most of the drama. She tended to agree with Nainai or Changning on many issues, though she was also very protective of Xiuxiu, her niece.
Duoci became very ill towards the end of the show. When Changning died at the meeting, it seems that Duoci had sensed her husband had left, and she realized it was time to go too.
Shi Nainai/Tenth Grandmother
Nainai was the leader of the family. She had left Xiangtan, the Hu family's ancestral home a while back and vowed never to return. We found out that it was because she blamed Da Yeye for the death of her other son.
Though Nainai didn't return to Xiangtan until her death, over the course of the show, her attitudes towards Da Yeye did soften. When Xiangping had fled to be a soldier, she offered Da Yeye room and board, though he refused because he wanted to be at the inn to search for Xiangping.
I was actually quite surprised that Nainai committed suicide after Changning and Duoci died. My guess is that she didn't want to burden the family anymore. Xiangxiang had the Gu family, Xiaoman could figure things out, and Xiuxiu and Maomao would be taken care of by Minghan (though Xiuxiu would ideally be taken care of by Xiaoman). I think she felt that if she was still around, she would be dead weight.
For the entire drama, I viewed Nainai as a very sturdy leader for the Hu family. While she was not perfect and she had small hangups (like not wanting to return to Xiangtan), overall she was very rational, always putting the safety of the young ones first.
Liu Minghan
Minghan was Liu Duoci's nephew, her son's brother, but his parents had died when he was young and he was raised by the Hu family for the most part. He was supposed to be betrothed to Xiangjun, but as mentioned, they had to break it off to save his life. Minghan was a doctor, and Changning also really liked talking about matters of art and literature with him.
Minghan was like a big brother for the kids, which made sense. He was their older cousin, and he was presumably around the same age as Xiangjun.
Minghan's vice was that his relationship with Junshan was iffy, but they sort of powered through it for the sake of family. The only time Minghan showed his actual hatred towards Junshan was after Xiangjun went mad. Also, Junshan said that he'd leave Xiangjun in Minghan's care and Minghan was like "are you giving her to me now that you think she's damaged goods?"
Nevertheless, Minghan remained a filial member of the family, always returning home to check on them. He was tied up with the Japanese authorities because as a doctor, his skills were very valuable. Also he had studied with a Japanese doctor before, so there were also people who thought that maybe he was sympathetic towards them. He was neither, and all that he did was for the well-being of his loved ones.
In the end, Minghan ended up being one of the few members of the family left alive. He took Nainai, Changning, and Duoci's coffins to Xiangtan. Even though he did not bear the surname Hu, he had grown up alongside them, and he considered them his nuclear family.
At the end of the drama, Minghan became a teacher. He didn't want to leave the country with Qingming and Xiangxiang because he felt that China was in dire need of doctors at the time, but he also did not think less of Qingming and Xiangxiang for leaving the country when they had the chance.
Maomao was also left in his care, and he said he was hoping that he'd have a scholarly education, as his uncle Changning had wanted.
Liu Xiuxiu
Xiuxiu was Minghan's younger sister, Duoci's brother's daughter. She was betrothed to Xiaoman from a young age, but Xiaoman had no qualms about rejecting her.
I will admit that I was a bit annoyed with how Xiuxiu would let Xiaoman walk all over her. But at the same time, I understand why Xiuxiu would do that. Xiuxiu was a very timid girl and she wasn't the best with words. She'd accepted her betrothal to Xiaoman, and as long as he agreed to it, she would try to love him the best he could. For now, all she could do was provide him support.
The parts when Xiaoman was trying to get Xiuxiu married off to one of his friends was intriguing because Xiuxiu was even humouring him. Maybe because she thought that she would make Xiaoman happy even just chatting with him, or maybe she had considered getting married to somebody else if Xiaoman wouldn't have her.
Xiuxiu survived Xiaohei's attack on the Hu household because Nainai had told her to go out with Maomao and to fetch Minghan. So she had survived by being in the right place in the wrong time.
Xiaoman and Xiuxiu did eventually get married, and they had a child, but Xiaoman died fighting in the militia before the child could be born. Minghan had suggested the name Hu Guanghua, milk name Xiaoman. Xiuxiu was going to stay in the Hu house, restarting the cloth business.
Jinfeng
Jinfeng was a friend of Xiangxiang and Xiaoman. At the beginning, she was already a nurse in the war. Though Xiaoman was crushing hard on her, she really didn't want to date or marry him. She told him to kill 100 Japanese soldiers to get him off her back but to her exasperation, Xiaoman never let go.
It was explained that Jinfeng was an orphan and so she focused all of her efforts on the war.
When things in Changsha got really bad and everybody was fleeing, Jinfeng told Xiaoman that she'd marry him when he returned to Changsha, probably hoping that they'd at least leave on good terms. But she never intended to leave Changsha, and Jinfeng died killing a Japanese soldier by lethal injection.
Xue Ping'an
Ping'an was Junshan and Xiangjun's son. He was a cute little thing, a constant presence in the Hu household. He unfortunately died when Xiangjun accidentally smothered him to death.
Maomao
Maomao was a child who was orphaned during the war. He stayed at the hospital for a period of time, but when there was no room for him, Xiangxiang and Xiaoman were pressured to take him to their home.
When Xiangjun first saw Maomao she called him Ping'an, obviously seeing him as a replacement for Ping'an the elder.
Maomao tried to escape home several times in search of his biological mother and father. Junshan did track down who his biological parents were, but they were both dead, and the only available guardian was Maomao's father's subordinate. Thus, Junshan felt comfortable taking in Maomao.
Though Xiangjun called Maomao Ping'an, everybody else called him Maomao. Even though he only had a short time with his parents, I think Maomao did recognize Xiangjun and Junshan as his adoptive parents. He was mostly raised by the rest of the family though.
By the end of the drama, he was staying with Minghan and Xiuxiu in the Hu household.
I am very curious as to whether they were going to give Maomao a proper name but they never did XD Man, I really wanted to know what his name would be lol.
Da Yeye/Eldest Grandfather
Da Yeye was the eldest brother of Nainai's husband. She blamed him for sending her son away, to his death, and that's why she vowed never to return to Xiangtan.
Da Yeye was very fond of the twins. Actually he was fond of the kids in general, but he had some very traditional views, particularly about the twins being good luck charms and such.
During the movie, Da Yeye's struggles were related to the grandkids of the Hu family that were in Xiangtan. Xiangping kept wanting to go off to war but Da Yeye wanted him to stay and live safely in Xiangtan. Da Yeye even went so far as to go to Changsha to search for Xiangping, but as a soldier, Xiangping was forbidden to desert.
There were two other grandkids. Xiangning was a grandson who had already gone off to war, and eventually it was revealed that he had died in war. Xiangshui was another grandson who was around the same age as Xiangxiang and Xiaoman. He had died while trying to lure Japanese soldiers into some landmines.
Before the Japanese invaded Xiangtan, Da Yeye gave away all of his lands and his food stock to the villagers, saying that he would never give the Japanese anything. He died soon before the Japanese finally made it to Xiangtan.
Hu Xiangping
Xiangping was one of the grandkids who was determined to go off to war. This caused a huge rift between him and Da Yeye. The military was unwilling to let go of him because of his great performance. I think Xiangping was moved to a flight division so he wasn't a foot soldier, but that didn't exactly ease the heart of Da Yeye.
Xiangping did return home at the very end, when the war was over.
Hu Xiangshui/Xiao Jieba
Xiangshui, known as Xiao Jieba was a grandson of Da Yeye who was similar in age to Xiangxiang and Xiaoman, so they played together a lot. I forgot for what reason Xiangshui had set off from home (it might've been related to his brother Xiangning), but he had gotten caught by Japanese soldiers. They had captured him and forced him to guide them the right way, and he led them through a landmine.
Xiaoqiu
I'm not sure if Xiaoqiu was a distant relative of the main line of the Hu family, or if he was just an adopted son. Anyway, he was very loyal to Da Yeye. Even the others in Xiangtan said that he was stupidly loyal, to the point that he would agree to marry Xiangxiang even if he already like Shuilan, as long as Da Yeye ordered it.
In the end, Xiaoqiu joined the militia alongside Xiaoman. He did not die, and he kind of helped the family reconnect back in Xiangtan at the very end.
Jingyan
Jingyan was the girl that Xiangping was in love with. They did get married and have a child, but Xiangping still left for the war. I'm assuming Jingyan and the baby survived, but it wasn't shown.
Shuilan
Shuilan was married to Xiaoqiu. Unfortunately, she died when the Japanese attacked Xiangtan.
Wang Huzi
Wang Huzi was the loan shark that Xiaoman got involved with when he got into the cigarette business with Xiaohei. Xiaoman had borrowed 3,000 yuan but with interest, Wang Huzi was asing for 30,000 yuan, which is an insane amount of interest. The collateral was the Hu family house.
Obviously the Hu family was very distressed, trying to gather what riches they could get to pawn. In the end, Xiangxiang had help from a government officer to get the loan sharks to back off, and to lower the debt to 6,000 yuan, which Xiaoman eventually got from Xiaoman.
Later in the war, Wang Huzi became the leader of a militia, which Xiaoman and Xiaoqiu joined. However, Wang Huzi died in an attack.
Xiaohei
Xiaohei was a distant relative/friend of the Hu family. According to Xiaoman, he had shot his own foot so that he could get out of serving in the military, and that was why Xiaoman refused to have Xiuxiu betrothed to him. Xiaohei was very fixated on Xiuxiu even though she was devoted to Xiaoman.
Xiaohei tried to get into a cigarette business with Xiaoman, but Xiaohei was mostly leading the way, with Xiaoman following along dumbly. So I think the family partially blamed Xiaohei for getting Xiaoman involved in such dangerous business.
Later on in the war, Xiaohei climbed up in status as he started helping out the Japanese, tipping them off and such. He tried to use his connections with the Japanese to get the Hu family to betroth Xiuxiu to him, but as explained, it did not work and Changning died for it.
After Changning was killed, Xiaohei and his mercenaries went to the Hu family and tried to kill everyone off, but Xiaoman shot him to death.
Themes
Family
Family was definitely the biggest theme of this show. Even through the grim circumstances of the war, I felt a sense of hope and comfort while watching the show, because even if the characters were going to go down, at least they went down knowing that they loved and were loved.
Throughout the show, the characters would make bad decisions, but because they were still family, the others would band together to help solve the problem.
The family bond really stretched beyond death. No matter what happened, their bonds would not be replaced.
Any time Xiangxiang and Xiaoman's bond was mentioned, I would get emotional, especially at the end. Xiangxiang and Xiaoman considered themselves to originally be of one body. When Xiangxiang and Xiaoman said they had a telepathic bond, it was usually for comedic purposes, but it came in near the end, when Xiangxiang felt Xiaoman dying.
I just think that twin bonds between brothers and sisters are explored a lot more in media, and I felt that this bond between a twin brother and sister was so special. They were different in so many ways just by virtue of the gender roles that were in place, but they were closer with each other than anybody else. There were some feelings and thoughts between them that they couldn't even explain.
Being apart was scary for them, but knowing that they could never be together again hurt me a lot ;_;
War and Patriotism
We all know that Cdramas set in the Republican Era are often very patriotic. And while patriotism was praised in this drama, I also felt like it wasn't glorified like it usually was. And I think that was because the realities of war were emphasized so much.
Yes, Changning died standing up for his Chinese morals. But look at what followed. His wife and mother died with him, and his children were left without a father.
So I liked that this drama emphasized the horrors of war because it helped put patriotism into perspective, especially when it came to balancing patriotism with the sanctity of life and love.
Overall
I didn't expect to love this drama as much as I did, but wow. I rarely see dramas that feature such a loving family. So many family dramas have such petty drama, but this drama really emphasized the fact that petty drama was petty, and that what was most important was that the family had each other and that they were there for each other.
I also didn't expect to love this drama because I was iffy about Yang Zi and Wallace Huo's acting. They were cast in roles that really suited them, so I could overlook that, and the other supporting characters were just so great.
All of the members of the family were portrayed as realistic people with merits and flaws, but what was most important was that we saw how this family still cared for each other even after acknowledging their faults.
I was expecting a really sad ending, so I was pretty much prepared, but I did cry at certain parts near the end. I never thought I'd be this affected but that goes on to show how this drama brought something that I think even now not a lot of dramas are able to do. They showed us what familial like, and now touching and motivating it can be.
Spoilers.
Story
There isn't exactly a plot to this show. It's more about how a family tries to survive the war. Well, more accurately, it's about how a family is affected by war.
In addition to that, we see how our main characters are changed by war, not necessarily for better or for worse. It's just a fact of the matter that as people go through war, they see the blind spots in their priorities, and they adjust accordingly.
The war aspect of the show was pretty basic. I didn't even pay a lot of attention to that because frankly I wasn't as interested. All that I really needed to know about the war situation was communicated well through the narrative and the characters.
I did cry a few times towards the end of the show. The first time was when Xiangxiang told her in-laws that even though she knew it would be dangerous to travel away from Chongqing, she just wanted to be closer to Gu Qingming. And after that I cried every time Xiangxiang thought of Xiaoman. I'm going to talk about this more later, but their bond was something special.
The greatest thing about this drama was the writing. We saw the characters through a variety of situations, both comedic and tragic, and yet they remained recognizable. And both those comedic and serious parts of the show were well written, in a way that was not forced and fit the tone of the show.
Production
The production and set design were convincing enough for me to believe that I was in a war. I've seen a lot of Republican Era dramas that just feel like bland movie sets. I didn't feel like the show set was artificial here. The set and costumes all contributed to me really feeling like I was in war-fearing Changsha.
The acting in this show was SOOO GOOD!! The acting was one of the reasons I found all of the characters so likeable. Besides during the comedic bits, I never felt like the actors were playing caricatures. The vast majority of the actors were people I was unfamiliar with and I thought they all did so well with what they were given.
Characters
One small thing kind of bothered me about this show, and that was the lack of originality with some of the main characters' names. I'm not sure if this show was an original script. Xiangxiang's name just being her generation name seemed lazy. And Xiangjun and Junshan sharing a character also seemed too coincidental. Again, very small things, but I like to pay attention to names, and man, I wish they had some more original ones in this show.
Hu Xiangxiang
I'll admit that I've always been skeptical of Yang Zi's acting ability. I'm still not totally sure if I believe in her acting chops. While Yang Zi did very well in her role as Hu Xiangxiang, I've also never seen her play any popular character who wasn't a naive young girl. But that's a discussion for another time. The fact of the matter is that Yang Zi did a terrific job as Hu Xiangxiang.
At the beginning, Hu Xiangxiang was a typical bossy young miss. She was well educated, but she was a brat, a girlboss in the making. She talked back to Gu Qingming at their matchmaking session on principle, because she had something to prove, and not because she actually hated him, which is immature, but that's who Hu Xiangxiang was at the beginning.
Xiangxiang also often got into trouble with her brother Xiaoman. They were thick as thieves, and their bond was closer than most siblings. I'll talk more about them in the family section below but I really liked their relationship.
The first time Xiangxiang was hit with the reality of the war was when Jinfeng told her that she'd already become a different person, and that she couldn't be with Xiaoman because of that. Xiangxiang was struggling to understand what those words meant, but that was probably the beginning of her journey to understanding what war did to people.
Over the course of the show, Xiangxiang grew up. She married Gu Qingming and became a mother, but her priorities also shifted.
Even though it was dangerous to be so close to war, Xiangxiang would risk her life to look for Qingming. At the beginning of the show, even though the threat of war was looming over Changsha, Xiangxiang was still sort of happy-go-lucky and I think it was because in her mind, the family was always going to be together, and they'd be fine as long as that was the case. Before she got married, she was still a child of the Hu family, and was always the one being protected or comforted. But as a wife to the Gu family, she now had a responsibility to play an active rol ein protecting or being there for her husband and child.
By the end of the show, Xiangxiang returned to the cemetary in Xiangtan one last time before she and Gu Qingming and their family would leave to go to another country. Xiangxiang said with a smile that everybody was here now. Even though she was going to be leaving her whole family, I think Xiangxiang smiled because now everybody else was together in spirit. As she said to Xiuxiu, the worst had already passed, and nothing could ever hurt them again.
Gu Qingming/Gu Shaohuan
I've only watched Wallace Huo in Love Me If You Dare, where he played a stereotypical cool guy. He was kind of the same here, but he served his purpose as the perpetually serious guy, especially in the case of the comedic parts.
At the beginning of the show, Gu Qingming was very devoted to serving in the military, so much so that it had caused a rift with his father. He was so stoic and hard to approach.
For the first part of the show, we saw his character loosen up a bit while spending time with Xue Junshan, who was always trying to get him to marry Xiangxiang.
As the war situation became more dire, Gu Qingming started to understand how fragile life was, and how easy it was to lose your loved ones, and I think during his courtship with Xiangxiang was when we really saw him soften up more. He still took his responsibilities seriously, but he also respected the feelings of others, and I guess I can consider that character growth for a man who was originally so cold and stoic.
Hu Xiaoman/Hu Xiangjiang
Xiaoman's character was so interesting. He was one of the characters who to me exhibited both good qualities and bad judgment.
He was loyal and was objective when it came to things that Xiangxiang wasn't objective about (mainly her denying her feelings for Gu Qingming). But Xiaoman was obviously very annoying when it came to him trying to woo Jinfeng, and him stupidly getting involved with unsavoury people like Xiaohei because he wanted to earn money. And his constant rejection and bullying of Xiuxiu was so hurtful to watch.
But even through all of that I still wanted to cheer for Xiaoman. I wanted him to be there for Xiangxiang, but I was also looking forward to him learning from his mistakes.
It took a long time, but Xiaoman did eventually understand the faults in his ways. It took Jinfeng literally dying for him to understand that they could not be together, because Jinfeng would always prioritize the war first and her personal life second. And maybe his love for Xiuxiu still wasn't genuine, and that he still saw her like a sister, but Xiuxiu had always been there for him, and to some degree, he did love her in a special way.
After the deaths of his grandmother and parents, Xiaoman ran away from Xiaohei who was hunting him down, and he ended up joining forces with Wang Huzi, who was the loan shark who'd threatened to take the Hu house away. Wang Huzi was running a militia that would take down Japanese troops. Xiaoman died fighting against these Japanese soldiers, but he did leave Xiuxiu with a child.
Hu Xiangjun
Hu Xiangjun was the eldest of the Hu children. She was so calm and gentle. She really was such a nice older sister. She was often a mediator and peacemaker in the family. There were tensions between Junshan and her father. But Xiangjun had come to understand that Junshan could be a good person, and she tried to communicate that to the family. Xiangjun was also just a very stable person overall. Her constant presence in the household was very comforting to those around her, whether it was Xiangxiang and Xiaoman, or her parents and grandmother.
Xiangjun was originally supposed to marry Minghan, but Minghan had gotten caught, and Junshan told Xiangjun that if she married him, he would let Minghan go. So that explained the love triangle between Junshan, Xiangjun, and Minghan.
When Junshan had crawled his way out of war, he returned home happy but his mood was dampened when he saw that Minghan had been seeing to Xiangjun. Junshan had sent Xiangjun and Ping'an to his ancestral home to pay respects, but on the way, they had to hide from Japanese soldiers, and amid he fright, Xiangjun had smothered Ping'an to death, which caused her to go into mental shock.
When Xiangjun returned home, she'd temporarily lost memories, but she had also thought that Ping'an was still alive. This part of the drama was very shocking to me. Like I said, Xiangjun had always been a rock of the family, and seeing her lose her mind was very worrying.
The family dealt with it by playing along, assuring her that Ping'an would be home soon. They felt that doing so would give her a peace of mind. And as Xiangxiang said, doing so would stop Xiangjun from going out into the street and taking other people's children.
When Maomao was taken home, Xiangjun treated him as Ping'an, and Maomao just accepted the care. Everybody else still called him Maomao, but Xiangjun called him Ping'an. This angered Junshan because he didn't want anybody to replace Ping'an, but over time, he saw that taking care of Maomao was healing for Xiangjun, and that this could be a new beginning for them.
From then on, Xiangjun started volunteering at the orphanage more, and we saw that she was nearly back to her normal self. She even acknowledged that she was treating Maomao like Ping'an, signifying that she knew that Maomao wasn't Ping'an.
Xiangjun died after an attack on the orphanage, when she got lost amid the frenzy.
Xue Junshan
Xue Junshan was a character who was set up as a bad guy, so it was really surprising when he ended up actually being quite the family man. As mentioned, he'd forced Xiangjun into marrying him, and Changning (Xiangjun's father) hated him on principle. But at that point, the Hu family relied on Xue Junshan's job as a military man to survive, as Changning didn't make much as a teacher. Most of the others in the family including Nainai, Xiangxiang, and Xiaoman respected Junshan for the stability he brought to the household.
As mentioned, Junshan had sent Xiangjun and Ping'an away in a sort of fit of jealousy. Xiangjun returned mad and Ping'an didn't return at all. I do think that Junshan felt very guilty for it, though nobody in the family explicitly blamed him for what he did (except for Minghan).
As mentioned, Junshan was upset with the Maomao situation because he didn't want to replace Ping'an, but he soon saw how stable their life was with a child. Not that Xiangjun needed to be a mother in order to be a person, but having someone to love like she loved Ping'an gave her comfort and stability, and she was getting better with Maomao there. That conversation that Junshan had with Ping'an's tablet was so touching. He was trying to address all of his concerns, telling Ping'an that he wasn't adopting Maomao because he didn't love Ping'an anymore.
Junshan died in the line of duty. He'd crawled his way out of tough war situations several times, but ultimately, it caught up to him.
Junshan really stood out to me as a character because based on what we were told, I was expecting him to be a big bad gruff man, but as Xiangjun said, despite his flaws, he was good to his family and relatives, and I like that this show had the space to develop that emotional depth him.
Hu Changning
Hu Changning was the father of Xiangjun, Xiangxiang, and Xiaoman. However, he wasn't the leader of the family. That was Nainai. Changning was portrayed as a kind of cowardly man. He was a scholar and if he wasn't teaching or attending scholarly meetings, he was listening to old music.
At the beginning of the show, Changning and Junshan butted heads a lot. Changning disliked Junshan on principle, probably because he was a gruff military man. But Changning also relied on Junshan financially so he couldn't do much about it, and Junshan knew. But as the family went through trouble after trouble in the war, I think Changning did accept Junshan as an important part of their family.
Towards the end of the drama, Changning did start to have more of an active role in the family.
I think the first notable example of this was when Xiaoman had used their house as collateral when borrowing from the loan shark. Changning was appropriately angry out of his mind that his son had done something so irresponsible.
Xiaohei had been knocking on the Hu family's door, asking to have Xiuxiu's hand in marriage. After the loan shark business, the Hu family wanted to distance themselves from him. So when Xiaohei came knocking again, Changning refused his offer for marriage. As we know Changning was a very principled man, so even though Xiaohei was more financially successful, the fact that he was helping the Japanese was unforgivable. As a result, Xiaohei turned Changning over to the Japanese as an anti-Japanese scholar.
Changning refused to attend their meeting several times, but he knew that he could only refuse so many times until his family was at stake. OChangning and his mother had a quiet meal, and he explained to his mother that he had to go attend the meeting. At first, he thought that maybe she was upset with him as she had gotten up in the middle of him talking, but she returned with a beautiful outfit, something that Changning's father had left him. She told him that he should look good in front of the Japanese. And that's when Changning knew that his mother understood that he had to do what he had to do.
On the way out, Changning was called a traitor by neighbours in the streets, but Changning had a smile on his face, looking like he had made peace with what he was going to do. Now at this point, I thought that he was going to play traitor to keep his family safe. But at the meeting, he denounced them with a song, and was shot to death.
I think Nainai understood that Changning would rather die than denounce his teachings, and she let him do that because he was her son and she loved him.
Changning died standing for what he believed in, and as a normal person, that was all he felt he was capable of doing.
Liu Duoci
Duoci was Xiangjun, Xiangxiang, and Xiaoman's mother. She mostly took a backseat role for most of the drama. She tended to agree with Nainai or Changning on many issues, though she was also very protective of Xiuxiu, her niece.
Duoci became very ill towards the end of the show. When Changning died at the meeting, it seems that Duoci had sensed her husband had left, and she realized it was time to go too.
Shi Nainai/Tenth Grandmother
Nainai was the leader of the family. She had left Xiangtan, the Hu family's ancestral home a while back and vowed never to return. We found out that it was because she blamed Da Yeye for the death of her other son.
Though Nainai didn't return to Xiangtan until her death, over the course of the show, her attitudes towards Da Yeye did soften. When Xiangping had fled to be a soldier, she offered Da Yeye room and board, though he refused because he wanted to be at the inn to search for Xiangping.
I was actually quite surprised that Nainai committed suicide after Changning and Duoci died. My guess is that she didn't want to burden the family anymore. Xiangxiang had the Gu family, Xiaoman could figure things out, and Xiuxiu and Maomao would be taken care of by Minghan (though Xiuxiu would ideally be taken care of by Xiaoman). I think she felt that if she was still around, she would be dead weight.
For the entire drama, I viewed Nainai as a very sturdy leader for the Hu family. While she was not perfect and she had small hangups (like not wanting to return to Xiangtan), overall she was very rational, always putting the safety of the young ones first.
Liu Minghan
Minghan was Liu Duoci's nephew, her son's brother, but his parents had died when he was young and he was raised by the Hu family for the most part. He was supposed to be betrothed to Xiangjun, but as mentioned, they had to break it off to save his life. Minghan was a doctor, and Changning also really liked talking about matters of art and literature with him.
Minghan was like a big brother for the kids, which made sense. He was their older cousin, and he was presumably around the same age as Xiangjun.
Minghan's vice was that his relationship with Junshan was iffy, but they sort of powered through it for the sake of family. The only time Minghan showed his actual hatred towards Junshan was after Xiangjun went mad. Also, Junshan said that he'd leave Xiangjun in Minghan's care and Minghan was like "are you giving her to me now that you think she's damaged goods?"
Nevertheless, Minghan remained a filial member of the family, always returning home to check on them. He was tied up with the Japanese authorities because as a doctor, his skills were very valuable. Also he had studied with a Japanese doctor before, so there were also people who thought that maybe he was sympathetic towards them. He was neither, and all that he did was for the well-being of his loved ones.
In the end, Minghan ended up being one of the few members of the family left alive. He took Nainai, Changning, and Duoci's coffins to Xiangtan. Even though he did not bear the surname Hu, he had grown up alongside them, and he considered them his nuclear family.
At the end of the drama, Minghan became a teacher. He didn't want to leave the country with Qingming and Xiangxiang because he felt that China was in dire need of doctors at the time, but he also did not think less of Qingming and Xiangxiang for leaving the country when they had the chance.
Maomao was also left in his care, and he said he was hoping that he'd have a scholarly education, as his uncle Changning had wanted.
Liu Xiuxiu
Xiuxiu was Minghan's younger sister, Duoci's brother's daughter. She was betrothed to Xiaoman from a young age, but Xiaoman had no qualms about rejecting her.
I will admit that I was a bit annoyed with how Xiuxiu would let Xiaoman walk all over her. But at the same time, I understand why Xiuxiu would do that. Xiuxiu was a very timid girl and she wasn't the best with words. She'd accepted her betrothal to Xiaoman, and as long as he agreed to it, she would try to love him the best he could. For now, all she could do was provide him support.
The parts when Xiaoman was trying to get Xiuxiu married off to one of his friends was intriguing because Xiuxiu was even humouring him. Maybe because she thought that she would make Xiaoman happy even just chatting with him, or maybe she had considered getting married to somebody else if Xiaoman wouldn't have her.
Xiuxiu survived Xiaohei's attack on the Hu household because Nainai had told her to go out with Maomao and to fetch Minghan. So she had survived by being in the right place in the wrong time.
Xiaoman and Xiuxiu did eventually get married, and they had a child, but Xiaoman died fighting in the militia before the child could be born. Minghan had suggested the name Hu Guanghua, milk name Xiaoman. Xiuxiu was going to stay in the Hu house, restarting the cloth business.
Jinfeng
Jinfeng was a friend of Xiangxiang and Xiaoman. At the beginning, she was already a nurse in the war. Though Xiaoman was crushing hard on her, she really didn't want to date or marry him. She told him to kill 100 Japanese soldiers to get him off her back but to her exasperation, Xiaoman never let go.
It was explained that Jinfeng was an orphan and so she focused all of her efforts on the war.
When things in Changsha got really bad and everybody was fleeing, Jinfeng told Xiaoman that she'd marry him when he returned to Changsha, probably hoping that they'd at least leave on good terms. But she never intended to leave Changsha, and Jinfeng died killing a Japanese soldier by lethal injection.
Xue Ping'an
Ping'an was Junshan and Xiangjun's son. He was a cute little thing, a constant presence in the Hu household. He unfortunately died when Xiangjun accidentally smothered him to death.
Maomao
Maomao was a child who was orphaned during the war. He stayed at the hospital for a period of time, but when there was no room for him, Xiangxiang and Xiaoman were pressured to take him to their home.
When Xiangjun first saw Maomao she called him Ping'an, obviously seeing him as a replacement for Ping'an the elder.
Maomao tried to escape home several times in search of his biological mother and father. Junshan did track down who his biological parents were, but they were both dead, and the only available guardian was Maomao's father's subordinate. Thus, Junshan felt comfortable taking in Maomao.
Though Xiangjun called Maomao Ping'an, everybody else called him Maomao. Even though he only had a short time with his parents, I think Maomao did recognize Xiangjun and Junshan as his adoptive parents. He was mostly raised by the rest of the family though.
By the end of the drama, he was staying with Minghan and Xiuxiu in the Hu household.
I am very curious as to whether they were going to give Maomao a proper name but they never did XD Man, I really wanted to know what his name would be lol.
Da Yeye/Eldest Grandfather
Da Yeye was the eldest brother of Nainai's husband. She blamed him for sending her son away, to his death, and that's why she vowed never to return to Xiangtan.
Da Yeye was very fond of the twins. Actually he was fond of the kids in general, but he had some very traditional views, particularly about the twins being good luck charms and such.
During the movie, Da Yeye's struggles were related to the grandkids of the Hu family that were in Xiangtan. Xiangping kept wanting to go off to war but Da Yeye wanted him to stay and live safely in Xiangtan. Da Yeye even went so far as to go to Changsha to search for Xiangping, but as a soldier, Xiangping was forbidden to desert.
There were two other grandkids. Xiangning was a grandson who had already gone off to war, and eventually it was revealed that he had died in war. Xiangshui was another grandson who was around the same age as Xiangxiang and Xiaoman. He had died while trying to lure Japanese soldiers into some landmines.
Before the Japanese invaded Xiangtan, Da Yeye gave away all of his lands and his food stock to the villagers, saying that he would never give the Japanese anything. He died soon before the Japanese finally made it to Xiangtan.
Hu Xiangping
Xiangping was one of the grandkids who was determined to go off to war. This caused a huge rift between him and Da Yeye. The military was unwilling to let go of him because of his great performance. I think Xiangping was moved to a flight division so he wasn't a foot soldier, but that didn't exactly ease the heart of Da Yeye.
Xiangping did return home at the very end, when the war was over.
Hu Xiangshui/Xiao Jieba
Xiangshui, known as Xiao Jieba was a grandson of Da Yeye who was similar in age to Xiangxiang and Xiaoman, so they played together a lot. I forgot for what reason Xiangshui had set off from home (it might've been related to his brother Xiangning), but he had gotten caught by Japanese soldiers. They had captured him and forced him to guide them the right way, and he led them through a landmine.
Xiaoqiu
I'm not sure if Xiaoqiu was a distant relative of the main line of the Hu family, or if he was just an adopted son. Anyway, he was very loyal to Da Yeye. Even the others in Xiangtan said that he was stupidly loyal, to the point that he would agree to marry Xiangxiang even if he already like Shuilan, as long as Da Yeye ordered it.
In the end, Xiaoqiu joined the militia alongside Xiaoman. He did not die, and he kind of helped the family reconnect back in Xiangtan at the very end.
Jingyan
Jingyan was the girl that Xiangping was in love with. They did get married and have a child, but Xiangping still left for the war. I'm assuming Jingyan and the baby survived, but it wasn't shown.
Shuilan
Shuilan was married to Xiaoqiu. Unfortunately, she died when the Japanese attacked Xiangtan.
Wang Huzi
Wang Huzi was the loan shark that Xiaoman got involved with when he got into the cigarette business with Xiaohei. Xiaoman had borrowed 3,000 yuan but with interest, Wang Huzi was asing for 30,000 yuan, which is an insane amount of interest. The collateral was the Hu family house.
Obviously the Hu family was very distressed, trying to gather what riches they could get to pawn. In the end, Xiangxiang had help from a government officer to get the loan sharks to back off, and to lower the debt to 6,000 yuan, which Xiaoman eventually got from Xiaoman.
Later in the war, Wang Huzi became the leader of a militia, which Xiaoman and Xiaoqiu joined. However, Wang Huzi died in an attack.
Xiaohei
Xiaohei was a distant relative/friend of the Hu family. According to Xiaoman, he had shot his own foot so that he could get out of serving in the military, and that was why Xiaoman refused to have Xiuxiu betrothed to him. Xiaohei was very fixated on Xiuxiu even though she was devoted to Xiaoman.
Xiaohei tried to get into a cigarette business with Xiaoman, but Xiaohei was mostly leading the way, with Xiaoman following along dumbly. So I think the family partially blamed Xiaohei for getting Xiaoman involved in such dangerous business.
Later on in the war, Xiaohei climbed up in status as he started helping out the Japanese, tipping them off and such. He tried to use his connections with the Japanese to get the Hu family to betroth Xiuxiu to him, but as explained, it did not work and Changning died for it.
After Changning was killed, Xiaohei and his mercenaries went to the Hu family and tried to kill everyone off, but Xiaoman shot him to death.
Themes
Family
Family was definitely the biggest theme of this show. Even through the grim circumstances of the war, I felt a sense of hope and comfort while watching the show, because even if the characters were going to go down, at least they went down knowing that they loved and were loved.
Throughout the show, the characters would make bad decisions, but because they were still family, the others would band together to help solve the problem.
The family bond really stretched beyond death. No matter what happened, their bonds would not be replaced.
Any time Xiangxiang and Xiaoman's bond was mentioned, I would get emotional, especially at the end. Xiangxiang and Xiaoman considered themselves to originally be of one body. When Xiangxiang and Xiaoman said they had a telepathic bond, it was usually for comedic purposes, but it came in near the end, when Xiangxiang felt Xiaoman dying.
I just think that twin bonds between brothers and sisters are explored a lot more in media, and I felt that this bond between a twin brother and sister was so special. They were different in so many ways just by virtue of the gender roles that were in place, but they were closer with each other than anybody else. There were some feelings and thoughts between them that they couldn't even explain.
Being apart was scary for them, but knowing that they could never be together again hurt me a lot ;_;
War and Patriotism
We all know that Cdramas set in the Republican Era are often very patriotic. And while patriotism was praised in this drama, I also felt like it wasn't glorified like it usually was. And I think that was because the realities of war were emphasized so much.
Yes, Changning died standing up for his Chinese morals. But look at what followed. His wife and mother died with him, and his children were left without a father.
So I liked that this drama emphasized the horrors of war because it helped put patriotism into perspective, especially when it came to balancing patriotism with the sanctity of life and love.
Overall
I didn't expect to love this drama as much as I did, but wow. I rarely see dramas that feature such a loving family. So many family dramas have such petty drama, but this drama really emphasized the fact that petty drama was petty, and that what was most important was that the family had each other and that they were there for each other.
I also didn't expect to love this drama because I was iffy about Yang Zi and Wallace Huo's acting. They were cast in roles that really suited them, so I could overlook that, and the other supporting characters were just so great.