Brief Story Line
Ding Qi (Bai Jingting - Yesterday Once More, The First Frost TV series etc) was a police detective who somehow could experience limited time loop and used this "ability" to solve crimes. His supervisor Duan Zheng (Chen Baoyuan - Firestorm, The Hand TV series etc) was sometimes confused by Ding Qi's unique knowledge. In one of his previous cases, Ding Qi got to know and was attracted to An Lan (Janice Man - Lost in the Stars, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils 2021 TV series etc), an intelligent biologist who also worked as researcher in a large genetic engineering company Moma Technology.
When two executives suffered accidental death in that company and their CEO Mo Yuanzhi (Song Yang - Dream Detective TV series, The Caller etc) received threatening letter, Ding Qi convinced his bosses to let him lead the case as he believed he would be able to solve them. However, things became complicated when he realized that this case might have involved someone with similar ability and endanger his life & people close to him.
So what would happen to Ding Qi? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
With such interesting premise as I briefly explained above, it was obvious that I was going to be curious how it would fare. And frankly it was pretty satisfying. The first episode already gave a hint of what would be in store. To me it was a smart move to show Ding Qi's ability to solve crime during his limited time loop in that episode and subsequently showed little by little of the past in the opening few minutes of latter episodes. I would not go into too much detail and let you see and understand for yourself of the uniqueness of those time loops, but suffice to say it was intelligently done.
As the story progressed, we got to experience the reliving of the important day that was spread across multiple episodes. It was really interesting looking at the changes while trying to deduce the real culprit (though if you have seen enough mystery series/movies, you probably would have a strong feeling of who it was). The pace was quite fast, but there were few times which felt a bit draggy in the middle but in general it was still entertaining. I also liked the performance of Bai Jingting as the smart and persistent detective plus Song Yang as the brilliant CEO. However, I did personally feel that Janice Man a bit incompatible with Jingting. Oh funny thing was I had seen Bai Jingting in another great series titled Reset few months ago (before it was made available on Netflix since few weeks ago) which was also about time loop, so I guess he had become a specialist on this genre.
The series had a large ensemble cast. In addition to those I mentioned, there were also appearances of Zhang Bojia (Redeeming Love TV series, Home Sweet Home etc) as Mo Yuanzhi's wife Yu Shiya, Song Jiateng (The Long Way Back TV series etc) and Chao Yang Mingzhu as major shareholders of Moma technology Han Yufei & Tangxin respectively, Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying (Bad Genius, DELETE TV series etc) as Maggie the potential angel investor of Moma, Liu Yijun (Guardians of the Dafent TV series, Love Life Light etc) as Jiang Yuwen, Yuanzhi's mentor during his early days, Gladys Li (Once in a Blue Moon etc) as Fang Lu one of the detectives assisting Ding Qi and many others. They were mostly important to the story development and the case solving. Btw, I understand the series itself was based on the novel titled "Ni Shi Zhen Cha Zu" (literal translation: Reverse Time Investigation Team) written by Zhang Xiaomao. I believe the novel was a big hit even before it was adapted into series.
The whole series had 16 episodes with standard 45 minutes duration. A pleasant thing for audience looking for a more time friendly series as opposed to the standard 36-40 episodes for Chinese dramas. It was well received by audience and critics too and very popular in China and other territories. In Indonesia, it is available on Netflix and also on IQiyi platform (there was a funny thing related to this in one of the episode). Interestingly Netflix has been quite generous lately with their Chinese drama contents as probably they realized the market is there. Anyway, regardless of what the reason was, I am glad that I got the chance to watch it.
Overall this is a series worth to watch. The unique time loop element during the investigation, combined with the complex but not that difficult to grasp story made it enjoyable. Having only 16 episodes to resolve the whole thing was a plus point for me so I can quickly move on to other series. I also liked the series in general as it was quite focused on the case with just a slight romance and drama (even if the lead characters chemistry might not be too convincing, at least for me). Although there was a bit of overly dramatic moments involving Ding Qi's team, but in general it was not too bothersome. Oh I am also glad that despite that final scene which was a bit open to interpretation, the ending was pretty conclusive with even the small detail clarified. So if you are interested in watching detective story combined with time loop that opened up to multiple scenarios, then you should be able to enjoy this like I did. Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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