I fell in love with Zhu Yilong because of this drama.

THIS IS A TRUE SPY WAR DRAMA. In this drama, you really get to see the intricacies of how spies keep their identities a secret, how information is passed among the party members, and the amount of vetting to become a party member. In other Republican Era dramas with a spy aspect to them, a lot of times I see characters telling other characters their identity, which is unrealistic. The character development throughout the drama was done quite well.

This drama is really good at depicting why people were drawn towards the communist side. Even if people think it's wrong they should at least be open to understanding why and how people were drawn to this ideology. I've seen other dramas with a similar nature and nationalistic sense in terms of communism receive heavy criticism because of CCP propaganda. In all honesty, you read the synopsis, so you should know it's a part of the package. If you can't handle any mention of communism or an ounce of CCP propaganda (all the while ingesting your own country's propaganda) then I suggest you watch a different genre than the Republican Era. But, for those of you who are interested in or love the calamity, history, heartbreak, and raw human emotion of this genre you will not be disappointed. It's a little lengthy, but it's high-budget with beautiful cinematography, good storytelling, and an amazing cast.

The Cast:
Hands down an amazing cast! I had seen Tong Yao in Like A Flowing River before so she was familiar to me. Seeing Mickey Yuan was a pleasant surprise since I saw him in Rookie Agent Rogue. Over the years I've seen Wang Yang in a variety of different roles and honestly, I'm always impressed by him. Wang Yang and Zhu Yilong have the ability to play a variety of different characters in dramas with varying intensity levels. I feel like that ability proves how good their acting is because they're not being type-casted.

This drama had some really intense moments and I think Zhu Yilong nailed them. Another review said that you could tell Zhu Yilong really poured his heart into this role and honestly they're 100% correct. The vein in Zhu Yilong's forehead that pops out whenever Lin Nansheng is concentrating, enraged, stressed, etc. is captivating and phenomenal. His execution of Lin Nansheng's character made me fall in love with him.

I felt that Tong Yao didn't have much chemistry with Zhu Yilong. I think Zhu Yilong and Zhu Zhu (Lan Jie) had better chemistry. They are very cute and sweet together and what he does for her gives Lin Nansheng the "all-around nice guy" title. But ehh, this isn't a romance drama so I rest my case. BUT, we are blessed with Zhu Yizhen and Lin Nansheng confirming their feelings for each other!

The Story:
Overall, it was good. I think the beginning was a little slow, especially the scenes with the senior KMT leaders, but I get why those were part of the drama. The audience needed to see and understand the internal conflicts and suspicions amongst the characters as well as understand each character's character.

I think the drama paints a marvelous picture of how people get to where they are based on ideologies and personal strength in beliefs. At the very beginning, we see how strong Chen Moqun's (Wang Yang) loyalty to the Nationalists is. But after he's set up and made to look like a traitor, he actually becomes one. At first, for both the audience and characters it's hard to believe he'd do such a thing. But we later learn that what Chen Moqun values most is his own life. We see this when he sets himself up to still have a foothold amongst the Nationalists when the Japanese are defeated. This is the difference between Chen Moqun and Lin Nansheng. Chen Moqun is ultimately a coward and cares more about saving his own skin than his own country. This is devastatingly disappointing for Lin Nansheng. I think this drama perfectly depicts why and how the people were pushed towards communism. We see this through the eyes of Lin Nansheng. As he continues to grow he starts losing faith in the Nationalists due to various events. He loses his brothers due to poor leadership and witnesses the corruption of Nationalist party members. Slowly, he realizes that his ideas of what a nation should look like no longer align with the Nationalists, so he switches sides. I think that Zhu Yizhen's character was pertinent in opening the door for him to switch sides.

Sometimes I felt that Zhu Yizhen's character was almost too perfect and if Lin Nansheng had really worked side by side with her for a long period of time his view of her in that way might have been disrupted. The question is whether he'd still like her. Part of the reason why he likes her is possibly because he sees her as perfect.

Other:
The cinematography was amazing. The scene in which the main leads have been shot in the alleyway and we get a close-up of Lin Nansheng's fingers inching their way toward Zhu Yizhen's is beautiful and heart-wrenching. The camera then pans out and gives us a shot of them from above sprawled out and injured on the ground amongst the snow…truly beautiful and insane. Oh, and the scene where Lin Nansheng imagines seeing Zhu Yizhen in her school uniform was also really beautiful. The angles, the colors, and the costumes were all wonderful. I enjoyed how the costumes were pretty period-accurate. The colors are sort of dark and subdued which matches the events and happenings around the characters. I also loved how there was limited use (if at all) of blurring filters. Close-up shots of actors' faces showed pores and five O'clock shadows. This really contributed to the realness and rawness that is felt when watching this drama.