Hello, you're watching AvenueX
where a junkie on good storytelling,
shares her thoughts, knowledge, and occasional,
weird ideas on stories and how they're told
Xiao Shi de Hai Zi
The disappearing child has finished airing
recently on the platform Mango TV
i have already made a first impression video
when this drama has aired the first four episodes I believe
it's very rare that I make multiple videos
on such a short drama,
but I really think in this case,
this drama rightfully deserves more attention.
And in my opinion,
it is the best suspense story we've had in 2022
in chinese dramaland.
Earlier this year around chinese new year's time,
we've had a thriller that was explosive,
quite literally and also in terms of popularity
Reset.
This drama can be categorized in similar genres,
but it's more focused on crime, suspense, mystery end of things.
Instead of thriller, action and adventure.
This drama is based on an original novel
while it has almost completely taken the atmosphere
and the quality of storytelling of the original text.
It also did something for the purpose of
make sure this drama can air.
So what I would suggest my audiences
if you still haven't checked out this drama
go and watch this drama, it's very short,
12 episodes and it's easy.
Once you start, it's hard to stop,
you're gonna binge through it.
So probably one day
then you can come back to this video and
listen to me talk about the difference without getting spoiled.
Before I go to talk about that part.
Let me first give you my general rating and another kind of recap of
what made a very strong impression while I was watching this drama
I will give it three gold mine.
and It inlates a little bit.
If it had kept hundred percent to the original novel,
this would be a clear three gold mine.
I still prefer the original novel where it made certain
things much more clearer than the drama version.
But I totally understand that if they do this,
then it probably wouldn't really go through.
The more accurate number probably is a 2.8,
but i'll round it up to three because this drama is
based on a very solidly written novel on Dou Ban
I don't know if there's a very reliable translation
in english or other languages of this novel,
the chinese version is written in such an easy to read and very visually
give you the picture of different characters way
that in its nature, it's like an almost ready made script.
As long as you have a little bit idea of how you translate text to visual,
you almost cannot fail at this story
they have great taste for this production
to pick this story and then bring it to screen.
You can tell it's done by very professional team.
I would emphasize that, again,
at pacing, at using visual cues,
using camera languages,
editing, to make sure essential informations are delivered to the audience,
but then not too much and not too intentional.
In the first video, i've already said the person who surprised me most
would be Wei Chen and also Li Si Dan Ni
and that continued
the super interesting male character Yuan Wu
played by wei chen who I believe in reality
there are many people like that.
Maybe not so to the extent that this character is,
he's the extreme version of somebody who has such a strong phobia of in
communication with any other human beings
cannot take responsibility of his own life,
has to trust all that to his mother.
and when the mother figure died in his life,
his life just shatters
as a not really professionally trained actor,
Wei Chen has done such a beautiful job.
I think he should just work towards even bigger screen like film.
He would be stunning a on big screen for a lot of
indie, art house movies.
He's just such a perfect material for that type of story.
I really think he represents what audiences of dramas really want.
The type of actors who can bring characters to life
does not matter who they are in real life.
But when they are on screen, being the character,
you 100% believe and you get mesmerized and,
get blown away by their performance.
Li Si Dan Ni, also
one of the most convincing policewoman i've ever seen on screen and
she's not even the definitive lead of the drama, it's ensemble drama.
She's one of the characters.
And then Yu Wenwen
I haven't mentioned her in my first four episodes review,
because she hardly showed up
her story happened later in the last 2/3,
I previously have pretty much no idea about who she is.
I know a little bit about her being a performer and singer
and they just picked the perfect person to play this role,
somebody who is very fragile, beautiful,
and definitely a victim in the story,
but then who is also intelligent, strong, capable,
and not hopeless,
although she gets a lot of help from other people.
And then I have to say,
I didn't see Wu Haochen would be playing such an
interesting and important role of the story.
He has been around for a long time.
He was in Ode to Joy
he was in Nirvana in Fire 2
and he always plays supporting roles and usually not a good guy.
He's not the good looking type of actors.
let's be honest and he often even gets like complained
about when he shows up in dramas by audiences in a very
cruel way, saying he's not good looking enough to be an actor,
but he's really good.
Come on, let's be honest every role he's ever played.
If you're supposed to feel, you don't like him,
you will feel that
in the beginning you think he may be not good guy.
And later you realize he's a really good guy.
And then later you realize he's a really,
super clever guy
and this actor just makes it completely convincing.
and he has always been like that in every drama
he's been in that I've watched him
very accurate at his performance
and also his line delivery is really good,
much better than a lot of famous good looking
getting much more popularity and love actors.
So for this drama,
these roles played by Wu Haochen, Yu Wenwen, Li Si Da Ni and Wei Chen
made this drama for me
not saying like Tong Daweii or better known actors.
Li sheng are not doing a good job,
but they are more surprising and exciting for me to discover
also the kid.
Liu Qiqi, the girl, essential teenager character,
she has already proven herself in many recent years dramas
As the younger version of the female lead multiple times,
but those dramas are very limited in range of characters.
And also her screen time is tiny tiny bit of the big dramas.
This one she is one of the essential roles
and her story goes through the whole drama.
One of the hopefuls of the future,
I think she can probably sit at the super comfortable level.
She can reach more idol type of roles and scripts.
And she can do that, but she can also do serious stuff
like proper actress stuff.
And I can imagine her in both drama and film.
So I look forward to everything she is gonna do in the future.
So this is on performance level and also on the
production level that this drama is very mature.
and It has just made it work.
Then let me tell you the difference between the novel
and the drama version
mostly happening towards the very end.
There's an essential difference that's todo with the title
of this novel Hai Kui (Sea Anemone)
the sea animal is the girl teenager En Huai
in the drama version,
you see that just managed to kind of leak through a little bit
seemingly she has something to do with the missing of the boy,
but the drama never clearly shows you that
that's the case
at the end of the drama.
You have this conversation between Tng Dawei's role and the girl.
And he's kind of vaguely telling her,
I know what you were trying to do or you planned to do or you did.
There is a line that we need to draw in our relationships
regarding you and me, my family, my kid,
how we can incorporate you,
and then what we hope you can do
and she's a very clever and sensitive a kid.
So she immediately gets that,
but it's at a very vague level
Almost you can interpret that whole conversation.
However you wanna do,
whichever way you wanna go,
I think that's in intentionally done by production,
because if they are in any way very specific and clear as the novel is,
the drama wouldn't really go through censorship.
In the novel, it's clearly explained that En Huai
the teenager girl has everything to do with the missing of the boy Yang Mo
She masterminded the whole thing.
A long time ago, she already realized her father is a criminal,
and her father has this secret passage that links to Yu Wenwen'scharacter's
previous occupied apartment, later rented by Yuan Wu
She has a very dysfunctional family,
never really growing up in the environment of
safety, comfort, security and love
when she comes across the person who lives.
One storey above her and that family,
she started to want that and she wants to
replace the boy's role in that family.
She wants to be adopted and to do that,
she planned to make the boy disappear.
So she planned everything,
make sure the kid enters her apartment at that time,
design the whole room in the way that the kid can only
go to her father's bedroom and hide in that wardrobe.
She even intentionally moved the boxes
that's blocking the entry to the passage,
a little bit to the side so that the kid can for sure,
enter, hide there and then find the passage
goes to Yuan Wu's place find the body
and therefore will be captured by Yuan Wu
and she would have nothing to do with it on the surface,
but she would have made the kid run into danger,
maybe getting murdered so that she can take his place
and she has planned it
So meticulously to minutes of timing and what happens
and what can be done and where things need to be put.
Also she left herself sort of a back door.
If the kid didn't find it then it will be fine,
or if the kid didn't get hurt and eventually come back,
she would not be implicated in any way.
And that's the really scary part of the story.
So that got really clearly explained in the novel version.
Whereas in a drama, all very vague,
particularly the last episode is all rainbows and unicorns
and slow motions and happy life
off screen narrative voice of the characters.
It definitely is trying to soften it up a lot
in terms of mystery writing and characters exploring.
And then the dark places of human heart, mind.
I think the novel version is much more sexier.
and although it sounds very cruel,
there are definitely people out there like that,
even when they're teenagers
They can be so clever and so masterful of
planning things and with such cruel intentions.
But also I have to give another sort of to the drama
is although it clearly softened it up at the end and
giving you the happy version of everything,
it never actually shyed away from the possibility
of she is the mastermind
pretty much every scene that's crucial about her character
and herplanning and her procedure of how to get that thing done
is already presented on screen.
It's up to the audiences.
It doesn't tell you exactly, the drama is not verbal,
but if you want to interpret it,
the way that the novel has it, there's no problem.
You can still look at it that way.
So they've done,
I think the best they could
meandering around all the red tapes and stuff
with all that effort.
And then all the other details they've put into this drama.
And then as a visual medium work,
with such presentable, coherent,
high quality of storytelling.
After i've said all this,
I have convinced myself again,
it deserves a three gold mine,
even though it's not hundred% exact
As the original novel,
I would highly highly highly recommend everybody
watching my channel to check out this drama on Mango television.
You will see some very good performances and get very impressed.
by actors and actresses who are actually not "professional" actors and actresses,
but who have done so much better than a lot of "claimed"
professional actors and actresses.
I hope this type of dramas can happen more frequently in chinese dramaland,
and i'm happy to see that Mango Monsoon is doing this kind of work.
Thank you for watching AvenueX
i'll see you in my next video, meanwhile,
live long and happy drama watching.