First Episode 50: 潜伏

[roddy]

I'm up to episode 4 of this, it is good stuff and I'll try and stick with it. You do need to pay attention though - if it hadn't been for the flashbacks I'd have completely missed that 马队长 had been in Nanjing.

[roddy]

Getting through this pretty quickly - it's damned good stuff once you get into it. It could almost be a bit too dark and oppressive, but there are moments of humor in there (if you have no sense of humor, listen for the double bass) such as 马队长 practicing his lines in his office, etc. And while the first few episodes are a bit confusing, once our hero ends up in position in Tianjin everyone (so far, I'm on about episode 10) is more or less who they seem. Not much in the way of action - hardly anyone has even died - but tons of tension, a little romance, and a plot you can get your teeth into.

[roddy]

Finished. I've been basically hypnotized in front of this for the last week or so - maintains the tension right up to the last episode, has some great funny and moving moments, and while it does some odd stuff now and then which does break the third wall and remind you that you're watching telly (specifically I'm thinking of the dodgy CGI snow, and the rather unexpected electric guitar in the last episode) it's actually incredibly consistent. Plus at 30 episodes it's not too long.

This is definitely on my list of Chinese TV I'd recommend, and probably not too far from the top.

Favourite moments would have to be him persuading his contact to save Wanqiu - "Because you love her? - Because I love them all"; later hearing Wanqiu over the radio, and of course the chicken dance at the airport. Damn, Communists are so loyal and clever and romantic. In that order.

whether I thought that his boss the KMT guy knew he was a mole all along

I never thought that, nor did I get any hint that I should. Maybe he thought that Yu Zecheng was a bit dense in his loyalty and could therefore be relied on, but I don't think he was ever suspicious of him apart from when Li Ya was running about investigating.

Edited August 1, 2009 at 09:27 AM by roddy

[renzhe]

I think there are plenty of hints. Spoilers...

He's the No.1 guy, and there is a mole in his department, and he kills each one of the guys working for him EXCEPT our hero, and there's STILL a mole in his department, and the show ends with our hero basically being forced to go to Taiwan at gunpoint.

And THEN his new secretary in Taiwan is the girl the No.1 guy was trying to get him involved with.

Could be all a coincidence, but doesn't have to be.

[roddy]

Actually it did just occur to me that it was odd to have Yu disarmed when he sent the guys to collect him. But I'd say that's just a plot hole. You could read the book if you like, that might have some clues

Edit: Although Wanqiu isn't HIS secretary - she's the secretary of some Chinese-Japanese businessman or something. That was maybe a bit of a dud note, her turning up like that, but it was nice to see she'd made something of her life

[imron]

@roddy, what happened to the spoiler tags?

They no longer appear to be an option when writing a post.

[roddy]

They're still there - use the

tag. The icon has gone missing, but I don't think anybody really used them anyway. Did we spoil your viewing?

[imron]

Nope, I was just going to point out to renzhe that he could have used them, but then discovered the icon was gone.

[Outofin]

A bit spoiler below but nothing major.

My favorite supporting role is Wanqiu's husband, Xie Ruolin. While information to Yu Zecheng is a matter of life and death, information to Xie is business and money. This guy trades information and has a very different set of moral standards. I think Yu was a bit freaked out by the guy, and that was very funny.

I don't know whether the division head Wu Jingzhong knew Yu was mole, but that didn't really matter. Wu was too corrupt. From some point, he stopped caring about the conflict between communists and nationalists. Or maybe he never cared. He only wanted to maintain his privilege, collect money and set up his family business as an "exit strategy". To Wu, even if Yu was a communist, as long as Yu helped him on his personal business and didn't make any trouble, Yu was a model worker in Wu's eyes. Maybe Yu's communist status could be useful someday. Who knows.

The real threats were Ma Kui and Li Ya. These poor guys took their job very seriously and really wanted to get things done. Ironically, they had fewer resources and supports in their own division than Yu, the spy. I felt so sorry for them.

[rob07]

After the rave reviews this has been getting I felt compelled to watch it. It turned out to be entertaining in more ways than I expected.

At first I found it pretty confusing, I couldn't work out why Renzhe didn't mention in his summary the scene where the KMT assassination squad and the Japanese target end up in the same hospital in the French concession run by undercover Chinese communist agents.

Then I worked out that even if you ask it to play 潜伏, Tudou will always play 潜伏2.

I was still confused. If this is a 2009 series, how could there be a 潜伏2 already? Turns out that it is a completely different show:

昨天，《剑·谍》制片方负责人徐宁说：“《潜伏2》的叫法是卖盗版DVD的人加的噱头，跟我们公司的发行没关系。”.

As far as I can tell, 潜伏 is not on tudou. You can watch it online without downloading anything on sohu though, here is the link:

http://tv.sohu.com/s2009/qianfu/

[rob07]

I just finished this series, thoroughly compelling viewing. More generally, this Grand First Episode Project is terrific, it now feels completely normal to be watching Chinese TV.

whether I thought that his boss the KMT guy knew he was a mole all along.

I'm pretty sure he didn't - the voiceover tells you what the boss is thinking when Li Ya is trying to convince him that Yu Zecheng is a communist.

Favourite moments would have to be him persuading his contact to save Wanqiu - "Because you love her? - Because I love them all"; later hearing Wanqiu over the radio

Wasn't part of Wanqiu's poem about having found love? Makes you wonder how far in advance she had planned the endgame. She obviously had some guanxi with the communists by that point. Anyway Zecheng had plenty of opportunity for a life with Cuiping, but wasn't willing to give up the spy lifestyle for her, long after he could reasonably have done so. So he can't complain too much, but I wonder if he ever looks at Wanqiu as they lie in bed together and thinks - "I wish I had let you die instead of marrying you".

[roddy]

We should have some kind of bell to ring to celebrate every time someone finishes a full series .

It never occurred to me that Wanqiu might have maneuvered herself into that position - I suspect we're meant to view it as coincidence / fate, as it wouldn't have been hard for the contact guy to mention that she'd specifically requested the assignment or something.

[rob07]

The way I look at it, to fully appreciate this sort of show, you should be prepared to indulge in a few crazy paranoid conspiracy theories. Since Zecheng was begging the guy to find his missing wife, he wouldn't have wanted to say anything more about the other girl than he absolutely had to. And it is a pretty big coincidence and Wanqiu would certainly have maneuvered for it if she could have.

[imron]

Ok, I've finished watching this series now too. Pretty good, but what an unfair ending!

I don't think the 站长 knew about him either.

In addition to the main actor, it also seems that they got the same boom operator from 落地请开手机 too - every other episode the boom mike kept dropping into the shot

[roddy]

I swear, I watched the whole thing and never once noticed a boom mike. I'm sure your TV is distorted to the top 10% of the image takes up the entire top half of the screen or something.

[imron]

Seriously? It fell into shot so many times it was laughable. Here's the most recent one I remember from the last episode. Check the top of the screen just above Yu Zecheng's head at about 1.33 in.

[roddy]

Man, 李队长‘s copped it and you're paying attention to bits of production equipment

I just never noticed it, to be honest. Guess I pay less attention to detail.

[imron]

I'm not specifically paying attention to it, it's bumping plainly in to view and disrupting the whole illusion of it all. I mean there I am, all caught up in the moment of 李队长 copping it and the boom mike suddenly bobs into view - not exactly conducive to suspension of disbelieve

[Benzi]

Hello,

I was interested in this series, but it appears it is no longer on verycd, is that possible? My experience with chinese p2p is quiet limited, so I am not sure, but all I can find are bogus files. I do not want to use a streaming site - any suggestions? I also think it would be helpful if someone could find (I will try later but most likely fail) subtitles files like .srt files. They can be hosted legally (if custom made) and could help, because one can open them and make a vocabulary list before watching each episode.

Greetings

[roddy]

Right enough, seems to have been taken off Verycd - guess the rights owners were particularly fussy about this one, no great surprise given the popularity. If you do a search in Emule directly there are a couple of sets available, have you tried them?