Review / Comments ~ The Rebel (叛逆者) 2021

 #review #TheRebel #叛逆者 #ZhuYilong #朱一龙 #TongYao #童瑶 #WangYang #WangZhiwen # ZhuZhu #LiQiang

(For capsule reviews and links to other reviews of Tong Yao's work, please CLICK ME)

(For Additional Comments 1 ~ USE OF MISE-EN-SCENE AND NARRATIVE ELEMENTS TO CREATE MEANING - Lin Nansheng + Zhu Yizhen, please CLICK ME) 

(For Additional Comments 2 on  The Rebel, please CLICK ME -- currently WIP, will update this post when the link is ready)

The Rebel is an espionage series set in China during the Republican Era.  The story centres on a young cadet, Lin Nansheng 林楠笙 (actor: Zhu Yilong 朱一龙) who was plucked out of military school even before graduating by the head of the Shanghai Branch of the Fuxing Society to help flush out the Communists spies in the city.  Chen Moqun 陈默群 (actor: Wang Yang 王阳) is mostly concerned about trying to capture a mole within the Shanghai Branch.  He decided to recruit a new face into his team because he knew that there was a mole in his branch and had begun to suspect everyone there.  He chose Lin Nansheng because he noticed the young man's intelligence and powers of observation.

When their only lead to the Postman is assassinated, they discovered that university undergraduate Zhu Yizhen  朱怡贞 (actor: Tong Yao 童瑶) may have had some contact with the Postman.  Hence, Chen Moqun instructed Lin Nansheng to get close to her and in the process try to find a way to enter the Communist underground.  In spite of his misgivings, Lin Nansheng complied. Chen Moqun's attempt to capture this undercover agent code named Postman made up the bulk of the first arc of the series.

Our main protaganist is Lin Nansheng and the story traces his growing disillusionment with the Kuomingtang and him eventually turning into an undercover agent for the Communists.  This isn't even a spoiler because it's in all the synopsis and promo material for this series.

There are a few things that non-Mainland Chinese viewers need to have if they are to attempt to enjoy this series.  The most important one is to have an open mind.  This series isn't made for us, it's made for Mainland Chinese viewers and in their worldview, the Communists are the good guys.  If you can't get past that, then don't bother attempting this.  

The other issue one may have is that the politics of that era maybe a bit confusing.  It certainly was for me.  I certainly don't know what the different factions in the Kuomintang were nor who some of the historical figures they mention are.  I was also not sure what the rivalry was about in the last part of the series after Shanghai was liberated from the Japanese.  That said, this shouldn't deter you from attempting this series.  Just think in broad strokes and don't get bogged down in the details because it's not really that important.  All you really need to know is that there's the Kuomingtang vs the Communist and both of them vs the Japanese.  Sometimes different groups in the Kuomintang fight each other.  If you arm yourself with this knowledge, then you should not have big issues figuring things out.  However, if you wish to gain more knowledge about the politics of this era, this page (CLICK ME) is a good read and I do recommend reading it even if it's after viewing the series. 

Although, the main plot isn't exactly a mystery, the series is still way above average.  Production values are generally relatively high.  Lighting is quite nice for the most part.  The tense and opening sequence already signalled clearly what they hoped to achieve stylistically in the series and for the most part, they did achieve it.  The nice atmospheric lighting and an exhilarating chase scene set a good tone for the first main arc as they played a cat & mouse game with the Communists undercover agents.  

Sets are also generally quite nice.  Interiors set designs are well designed and decorated appropriately.  Many were quite beautifully lit too.  I'm not sure if they are all historically accurate but from an untrained eye, they managed to recreated that era quite believably.  Background music is also good and well used; not intrusive and helps to accentuate the mood and tone of scenes and sequences.  There were several pieces with a regular pulsating beat that really helped to create tension, expectation or suspense which I quite liked.  Pacing is also generally quite good and the events kept rolling along which helps to hold interest even though it's 43 episodes long.  There were a few scenes and sequences that I felt they could have dropped in Hong Kong, particularly the sequence where Lin Nansheng goes buy medication.  I'm not sure it they were absolutely necessary or if they really added anything to the series but since the pacing of the series was still okay, it's just a minor quibble.

Also they seemed to have also broken the Chekov's Gun principle with regards to a pen Zhuo Qiuming 左秋明 (actor: Dai Xu 代旭) gives Lin Nansheng twice in the series.  It didn't seem to have served any real purpose.

Technically, the series wasn't bad for the most part. Action scenes in the beginning were mostly well choreographed and shot, although I do have an issue with the last shoot-out in the final episode where I felt that they could have afforded to spend more time on.  That final shoot-out by the river was a little underwhelming.

From one of the behind-the-scenes video that I watched, they used practical effects for a number of the bigger explosions which is nice.  Camerawork is nice and fluid when needed.    They also used squibs for bullet hits and blanks for the guns in the wider shots, as far as I can tell.  That's nice, because not all productions do this these days, some productions, even in the West, will replace some of it with VFX.

VFX is generally not too bad with no horribly noticeable issues with the exception of some of the comp on the roof top scenes & one really bad one by the sea in HK.  There seems to be some issues with the key on Lin Nansheng's hair.  The background's horizon line seems off too and that horrendous shot composition which I suspect was the result of them not being able to fix some issues in VFX.  That two shot of Lin Nansheng and Zhuo Qiuming has Zhuo Qiuming nearly completely cut-off.  The screen capture below isn't a pan shot, they held that shot in this composition before they cut to the next shot.  Some of the camera moves seemed a little odd too.  I'm usually quite good at tuning out technical imperfections when I watch films and dramas but this particular one was too obviously problematic that even I could not tune it out.

A lot of the series is quite event driven and these events are quite well written and logical.  They had a clever and believable way to drive the espionage portions of this series with regards to the Communists.  The Communists had organized themselves very well with the more important agents having at most only two contacts that they meet face-to-face, one upstream and one downstream.  Some, like the Postman, mostly only contacts one agent.  This keeps the top agents safe because if, for example, when a low level agent like Zhu Yizhen is captured, she won't be able to give up the Postman because her upstream agent is Lao Ji.  So there can be several layers of protection for the most important agents.  This makes it believable that the Kuomintang would have such a difficult time trying to destroy their underground network.

However, there are some disadvantages to the system that the Communists use.  If for example, the upstream agent is lost for whatever reason.  It can be difficult or there can be a delay for the downstream agent to get in contact with their superiors.  Also if they need to ascertain an agent's identity, it can be time consuming too.  This was actually effectively used in the series several times to either explain why events had to be delayed or to add tension and suspense.

One other major reason why this series is so watchable is because the cast was extremely good.  Aside from Zhu Yilong who plays the protagonist, all the support actors and even those that play minor characters played their parts very well.  There is essentially only one protagonist and everyone supports him.  As this is also a very male-centric series, even the first female lead (Zhu Yizhen) is very much a support character and probably has even less screen time than some of the male support characters.  Still everyone played their parts well from Zhu Yilong to Xia Minghao 夏铭浩 who plays Sun Fuan 孙福安.

The main players aside from Lin Nansheng are Chen Moqun, Gu Zhenyan 顾慎言 aka Lao Gu (actor: Wang Zhiwen 王志文)  who's the Postman and Ji Zhongyuan 纪中原 aka Lao Ji aka Fisherman (actor: Li Qiang 李强).  It was a lot of fun watching them make moves and counter moves.  

Wang Yang was particularly charismatic as Chen Moqun and it was easy to understand why his team was loyal to him in the beginning.  

Wang Zhiwen's Gu Zhenyan was also really fun to watch here.  On the surface he was someone who seemed unambitious and subservient but when he needed to ferret out information and counter Chen Moqun's moves, his eyes take on a purpose in an instance.

Li Qiang's Ji Zhongyuan may not be too eye catching in the beginning but he will grow in significance and statue over time.  I really like Lao Ji.  He's calm, collected and decisive.  He's like a mentor to Zhu Yizhen and perhaps the only one she really opens up to.

And finally, Wang Shian 王世安 (actor: Zhang Zixian 张子贤 ) turned out to be my favourite antagonist in the series.  By the middle of the series, I liked Wang Shian more than Chen Moqun. 

This cast is a very experienced cast and are very well directed too.  It's clear what kind of tone the director wanted which is why except for Lin Nansheng who's allowed to emote a lot more, all the other actors kept their performances understated with varying levels of subtlety and nuance, depending on their characters' design.  There is very little melodrama in this series, even when some very traumatic things happened to the female characters in the series, we don't get the melodrama that is often assigned to them in the script.  The chemistry between cast members was also very good.  Even scenes when little is said,  for example, the Lin Nansheng x Zhu Yizhen scenes after her return to Shanghai in the middle of the series, the two actors managed to communicate meaning with their performances.  I was also liked Zhu Yizhen and her father very much.

I am particularly fond of the two main female leads in the series because even though they get less screen time and aren't always integrated into the main action well; they are very memorable.  The lead female role Zhu Yizhen, played by Tong Yao, goes through a few arcs and is arguable one of the more difficult characters to play in the series because after we see her as a young, lively girl with a sparkle in her eyes, subsequent events will cause that bright clearness in her eyes to dim considerably.  Henceforth, Zhu Yizhen, who isn't an overly demonstrative person to begin with, becomes very guarded, reserved and cautious.  To express the essence of this character, Tong Yao had to make sure that she had to be very subtle and nuanced especially since she spends a large part of the series hiding her inner most thoughts and feelings from almost everyone.  Yet, because her character's relationship with Lin Nansheng changes over time, she had to make sure to vary that nuance as well.  I'm of the opinion that she did a lovely job given that Zhu Yizhen in the latter half of the series is the most guarded and wary of all the characters in the series; arguably even more so than Lao Ji.

The second female lead is Zhu Zhu 朱珠 who plays dance hostess Lan Xinjie 蓝心洁.  Zhu Zhu is suitably sensuous without going overboard.  She plays a tragic figure and has a pretty moving character arc.  She plays several roles in the series because she's not just a dance hostess, she's also a mother, victim, friend and ally.  And she handled all of them well.  Resilient and brave; Lan Xinjie is a very likeable character and is arguably the character that viewers will find the easiest to form an emotional bond with, next to perhaps Lin Nansheng, because her character arc is probably the second most emotional one next to Lin Nansheng's.

Even though there is much to like about The Rebel, it does have one major flaw.  It's main imperfection is that it's focus is too narrow.  The story is literally just about Lin Nansheng and everyone else supports that.  While that on it's own isn't always a bad thing but the problem with The Rebel is that some of that time could have gone into building up the other characters and their relationships with each other, as well as with Lin Nansheng. 

With the exception of the opening section, Lin Nansheng will take over as the main focus of the action soon after we meet him and literally almost everything revolves around him.  While his fans will love it and may quite possibly think that this series is a masterpiece just because of this point alone; I'm of the opinion that it did a disservice to its host of fine support characters and actors.  They could have done with more more screen time to flesh them out better, give them a little background, more detailed emotional development and for them to build more powerful emotional connections with the viewers as well.  

Zhu Yilong did a good job as Lin Nansheng. We see him cry, suffer, grief and hurt and he did a fine job with each scene because he really had to express many different ways that Lin Nansheng suffers.  But  after awhile, I started to get a little desensitized because it seemed like he was just being emotional all the time and by the time he finds himself in Hong Kong, the emotional impact was a little dampen.

While the other characters do get scenes and snippets to show that they too suffer, grief and bleed emotionally too, the number of scenes of Lin Nansheng's suffering was so overwhelming that it almost felt like he was the only one who suffers, the only one that grieves and the only one that bleeds emotionally. After a while I kind of felt it was a little unbalanced and that the other characters deserved a bit more love too.

Most of the main support characters are painted in broad strokes.  Chen Moqun has it better than the others because his character has a story arc that goes though much more change.  Still, what do we know about Chen Moqun, Gu Zhenyan, Ji Zhongyuan and Wang Shian?  Virtually nothing.  We only know that Chen Moqun and Gu Zhenyan were comrades in arms.  Why did the two men choose such vastly different paths?  No idea.  Why is Chen Moqun so obsessed with crushing the communists?  No idea.  I remember only one line of significance when he was talking to Lin Nansheng.  He mentions something like the Communist would show them no mercy too.  However, we never find out what happened to him that would make Chen Moqun so unbending in his attitude.  We never find out why his methods in the beginning were so merciless.  Most memorable villains have a good backstory because viewers can understand, maybe even relate & empathise with them even if they don't agree but the antagonists here are not that complex.

Interestingly enough, even though the only two female characters of note have less screen time them most of the male characters mentioned above, they turned out to be the most well developed of the characters.  Both have familial relationships and have relatable desires and goals.  Zhu Yizhen actually has a backstory that does have some influence on why she would find Lin Nansheng attractive.  They also have the most growth in the series; that is, they change and they change significantly and logically.  Except for Chen Moqun who changes a little and Wang Shian to a lesser extent, characters like Lao Ji and Gu Zhenyan don't change too much at all.

That's not to say that some of the more significant support characters didn't have scenes to show some of their own struggle or a little insight to their characters.  I remember there was one scene when Lao Ji gives advice to Gu Zhenyan as they shared some kind of hotpot.  That was a pretty good scene and one of the few times, maybe even only time, they have a good chat that isn't just strictly about operational stuff.  Zhu Yizhen has a few good ones later in the series with Lao Ji.  It's just that they were few and far between and they often get lost in all the events and Lin Nansheng's suffering that viewers may forget that these little scenes that give us that precious little insight to these characters existed.

Also, because they concentrated so much on Lin Nansheng's journey towards Communism, they neglected to give him a very strong backstory.  Although he does talk about his childhood briefly when he was pretending to be the university teacher, it was bereft of details.  He told Zhu Yizhen that he lived in a beautiful quiet village with his mother and older brother.  He also told her that he came to Shanghai because he wanted to fight against the growing threat of the Japanese.  He said that he had spoken to students who had experienced the Mukden Incident and he realised that he was all talk and no action.  So he had come to Shanghai to be at the frontlines of the battle since the Japanese army was stationed in Shanghai.  This should be mostly true since when Lin Nansheng was "romancing" Zhu Yizhen in the beginning, he was able to move and convince her because he was showing her his true and most sincere self most of the time.

While this is a good beginning for a backstory for Lin Nansheng and it does show that he is passionately patriotic, however, that's kind of a basic thing you would expect any young patriot to believe in.  This doesn't quite explain why he chose to join the Juntong and remained loyal to it for a good part of the series even though it was increasingly clear to him that the organization he was part of was corrupt.  I also could not figure out why he still had faith in Chen Moqun even after observing his methods in the beginning.  Lin Nansheng was clearly uncomfortable with having to deceive Zhu Yizhen.  He was clearly uncomfortable with Chen Moqun torturing people and killing them even though he didn't have a shred of proof.  Yet, Lin Nansheng seemed to retain an unwavering belief in Chen Moqun to the point that when Chen Moqun makes a life altering decision in the middle of the series, Lin Nansheng was devastated.

It's also hard to understand why he was so convinced that the way he had initially chosen was the correct one.  The script didn't seem to have address this sufficiently.  Perhaps they should have shown more clearly that he was slowly moving towards the brink of looking for a better way to fight the causes he believed so deeply in.  I know the script wanted him to reach his lowest point in Hong Kong and that's when he accidentally listens to the broadcast of Mao Zedong's writings which is the most direct reason for his decision to change sides.  But they could still have given him baby steps and not just have him simply feel disillusioned and depressed for a long time.  I kind of wanted to see some exploration of options, is what I'm trying to say.  I do agree that it's interesting to have a character make this change not because someone he considers a lover or a mentor influenced him.  Still, I think to just show him disappointed with the Juntong but still so doggedly loyal kind of makes his decision to flip in Hong Kong feel a little passive.

 

Sometimes, while watching The Rebel, it felt like at it's core it was simply a story about Lin Nansheng and his arduous journey of change.  It lacks just that little bit of depth that could have elevated this to a classic.  If they gave their support characters' sacrifices more emphasis and made it not just about one man's journey but many people's journey, it might have added a little more depth.  It doesn't have to be a lot, Lin Nansheng can still be the main protagonist but sometimes by simply lengthening a sequence or adding a scene or two to give these support characters that little bit more of an emotional intensity, that impact and connection with audiences can be achieved. 

 

Or maybe if this series was a character study of a man with all his glorious flaws, it might have greater impact.  It's a pity that the script tended to gloss over Lin Nansheng's "imperfections".  For example after he cheated Zhu Yizhen and pretty much made it difficult for her to fully trust almost anyone again, the script seems to want to make it all okay because he risked his life to save her.  What Lin Nansheng did to Zhu Yizhen is quite a contemptible thing to do but Lin Nansheng doesn't spend a lot of time regretting the hurt he cost her.  His later suffering over this act seemed mostly about him regretting that it resulted in their separation and not about the pain or the permanent emotional damage he caused her. 

Furthermore, even when Lin Nansheng does anything rash, the script will provide him a sound reason for doing it.  So he never really needs to suffer and agonise over how his actions may have permanently affected anyone adversely.  It's like he is never truly haunted by any of the choices he has had to make.  Instead, all of his suffering is because of the clash of his noble beliefs versus the reality he lived in.  Lin Nansheng wants to serve his people and his nation but his situation prevents him from doing so and so he suffers and suffers and suffers but he never suffers because he's wronged anyone.  

But I suppose if they did try and do a character study, this could have been a very different story and might have turned out darker than they wanted it to.  It's a bit of a pity because a little more depth would have been nice.  There were opportunities to introduce some greyness it the script but they wanted to maintain his "goodness".  I wonder if it might partly be because this series finished screening just before the 100th Anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party on the 1st July 2021.  Maybe they wanted to celebrate the heroes of that generation and Lin Nansheng was that representative, hence they wanted him to be blameless but this is just speculation on my part. 

CONCLUSION

Still, even though The Rebel has it's flaws, it's still a good and enjoyable series.  I won't hesitate recommending it to a Chinese drama fan who's looking for something to watch.  The pacing, the intricacy of the espionage elements, the performances from the entire cast, the production values, the good use of music, the attention to details etc far outweigh it's flaws.