The Heart of Genius (2022)

Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.

At twenty-three, Lin Zhaoxi lives a life of quiet desperation. She grows up in the shadow of two natural math geniuses - her father Lin Zhaosheng and his mentee and love of her life, Pei Zhi. Despite her passion, her aptitude for math is not intuitive and falls short of true genius. Discouraged, she majors in philosophy and is resigned to a mundane existence. She also loses touch with Pei Zhi after he leaves to further his studies in Germany. Her world unravels further when she discovers her father Old Lin has early onset Alzheimer's. Then out of the blue, she is whisked away to cheese world, a parallel world with a childhood classmate Ji Jiang. In order to return to their world or strawberry world, they must win Math Olympics. This was a challenge she failed as a child. It was arguably the great inflection point that put her on a less satisfactory life path, one that is lacking passion.

Don't be put off by the math aspects of this drama; the writer does a good job making abstruse concepts and theorems quite approachable and avoids getting bogged down into the weeds. The storytelling indulges in almost ten episodes of sheer childhood delight as the young Lin Zhaoxi, Ji Jiang and Pei Zhi try out for Math Olympics. The child actors led by Wang Shengdi, Fu Bohan and Lin Zeyi blew me away with their natural and uninhibited articulation of joie de vivre that conquers all. The young cast steals the show with their empowering message that genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. The Harry Potter allusions were brilliant - it just cracked me up that no one wanted to be Harry! It also pays proper homage to Snape, one of the most complex, fascinating and moving fictional characters ever written. This is indisputably the strongest, best arc of the drama.

The middling arc is a struggle by comparison as both Zhang Xincheng and Zhang Zifeng take time to get in character and are not that convincing as lovers. It is not a bad arc at all, in fact the father daughter dynamics are very enjoyable and touching. It is just that the first arc is just too good. Initially, Zhang Zifeng seems mis-cast because unlike Ji Jiang and Pei Zhi, I could barely see any vestiges of the child that was Lin Zhaoxi. But upon reflection, it is intended that all of that youthful optimism and sense of invincibility is extinguished. The actress really redeems herself in the latter episodes, especially in her chilling encounter with her doppelganger. Oddly it is Zhang Xincheng's performance that doesn't hit all the right notes in this. I think he is much less comfortable taking on grey or flawed roles. I didn't like Pei Zhi for most of the drama and only empathised with him after his heart to heart with his father Pei Donglai in cheese world. Both the young and grown Ji Jiang is far more charismatic and is seamless portrayed by both actors. As always the veteran actors Lei Jiayin, Wang Xiao (Zhang Shuping) and Geng Le (Pei Donglai) are the ones that save the day by extracting the best performances from the younger actors. In this one, even they are outclassed by the amazing kids. Ni Ni's brief stint as an omnipresent and unforgettable character is both delightful and heartbreaking. The drama picks up pace and comes together in the final act. It finishes strongly with a few good mind blowing twists and reveals to end in a good way. Some may not like how it was all wrapped up but I did and I explain why in a spoiler in the comment section of this review.

The Heart of Genius is a well-crafted and intriguing story about life, love and friendship that is comical, inspiring and heartbreaking. Everyone makes mistakes and has regrets; Lin Zhaoxi didn't try hard enough, Pei Zhi lost his father too soon; Lin Zhaosheng didn't fight to clear his name; Zhang Shuping did the wrong thing... This drama tantalises with the impossible fantasy of re-writing history, to have a chance at a do-over of the big what-if moments in life. It proves that even though assholes are still assholes in each world, the grass is not necessarily greener in cheese world; that there are always consequences and trade-offs that are of unknown, unknowable value. Thus we must be consoled by the wisdom that life is not a fairy tale and who we are and who we love are the sum total of our shared experiences good and bad. To live in the moment and to accept what we can't change. It is a very engaging and thought provoking drama that does not seem to get the appreciation it deserves. It is one of the most enjoyable dramas I watched recently and am happy to rate this an 8.5 overall.

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If you could travel to a parallel world, what would you change about your life?

Lin Zhaoxi (LZX) is a graduate of philosophy from a prestigious university who is seemingly overshowed by her genius father Lin Zhaosheng (LZS) and equally brilliant love interest Pei Zhi (PZ). She and superstar classmate Ji Jiang (JJ) find themselves in a parallel world and must figure out how to return home. Honestly, this drama was an absolute joy to watch.

Story wise, this drama was fantastic and despite being about parallel universe, the story managed to remain grounded in the things that mattered. The Parallel universe was a way to help Strawberry Lin Zhaoxi grow in character and confidence, and Pei Zhi to be able to come to terms with his father's death. I have to say given that Strawberry world PZ and Cheese world Pei Zhi both were so stubborn about wanting to stay in the others' world, I think they are both similar in their selfishness. I do wish the story had showed us more of Cheese world's PZ after he returned but the story just ended there. Also, I have to say that the naming of the worlds, Strawberry and Cheese was so simplistic but it worked so well in helping to tell which world they were referring to.

I also have to commend LZS the father because he was an awesome dad to LZX! He put in 200% into his daughter and while he was unconventional, he loved his daughter more than anything or anyone including himself. I loved watching him grow to accept LZX as his daughter in the Cheese world. I also found it funny how he basically switched jobs just to follow her wherever she went. It was so touching.

I also like Snape (I don't recall his name) but I think he was a fantastic character in that he resembled LZX in a big way. LZX was overshadowed by her dad and PZ all her life and Snape more than anyone could relate to that. That's why I loved their little talk in the hospital.

I also must talk about PZ's biggest fan, Zhang Liang because he was fantastic. I liked that they didn't make him hate PZ out of jealousy because that would have been pretty one-dimensional. He admired and wanted to be friends with PZ more than anyone and I loved his adult version even more. It was also funny how he hated and was lowkey jealous of LZX because she had PZ's attention and love which he thought was wasted on her. He genuinely liked math as well and that was nice to see even though younger him was a little brat.

One thing I disliked was the love triangle they tried to force with Ji Jiang because it was never hinted at till they return to their world. It was completely unnecessary and could have been avoided. But I guess they had to give a reason for JJ to remain around LZX so they just went with that.

Acting wise, I have to praise the child actors for this drama because honestly, they were all fantastic and really hard-carried. Young LZX was an absolute unit second only to the cheeky but adorable child actor playing JJ. Then we also had young PZ who was able to emulate the character of a young, doe eyed genius who comes across LZX and was completely taken by her. It was precisely because of the young PZ that I was able to understand the reasoning behind Cheese world PZ setting everything in motion just to be with the LZX he knew and loved. I don't blame him too much because I also felt a strong bond to their younger characters that I was super sad to see them go. Unfortunately the chemistry between the adult versions of the characters wasn't as strong but that's okay. Their performance was still okay.

Music was the bomb!! I'm still looking for one of the OST's. I hope I find it.

Overall, an excellent drama. Reminds me of reset which is odd because they have little in common. But I have to say, China really rocks at this genre. The ability to combine simple everyday stories with time travel/parallel worlds is an art.

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