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I would like to invite you guys to watch "GO AHEAD" a made in China TV drama series produced by mainly Huace Pictures, with collaborations with Beijing Laoyou Film and Television Culture Film, Zhang Xincheng Film and Television Culture Studio and Beijing Xingyun Culture Communication Co., Ltd. It was aired in China's Hunan TV on Aug 10, 2020. It was also aired in Iqiyi. Netflix has a right to air it also. The name of the series in Chinese pinyin is Yi Jiaren zhi Ming. It was a family themed drama and shows the bond between brothers-sister and their fathers (particularly the foster father). It was very well received globally. The drama has very good soundtracks and some are very touching emotionally. When played at the right moment, your tears will flow naturally. Filming was mostly in Xiamen and Fukien provinces of China.
It starred Tan Songyun (as the playful Li JianJian), Song Weilong (as the quiet Ling Xiao) and Zhang Xincheng (or Steven Zhang) (as the heartful He Ziqiu). All of the casts performed well, but if I have t choose one person to receive a BEST ACTING AWARD, it would be Zhang Xincheng. He played He Ziqiu very well. He displayed very moving emotions several times during the whole drama, in particular at the time when he had to get his foster father's permission to study abroad. That was a class act by him. Li Haichao (the foster father played by Tu Songyan) also acted very well and deserves my high praise. Let me just give you a synopsis in my own words.
Li Haichao's wife had just passed away recently and now lives with his daughter. Just the 2 of them. He runs a small noodle restaurant in a sub-urban area in China. Then one day, a family of 3 moves into their neighbourhood. This is what the episode 1 starts with. Ling Heping is a local policeman and his wife has a very bad temper and quarrels all the time. The wife, Chen Ting, is a mentally psychotic woman and finds fault with Long Heping and her son (name is Ling Xiao) almost over every little thing. They are not a happy family and the entire apartment community can hear them quarrel and he hiusehold items smashed every time they quarrel. The one that suffers the most is the 7-year-old Ling Xiao. Apparently the wife became like this after the daughter they had accidentally died due to swallowing a walnut. She blames it on Ling Xiao. But the story is weird in that it says that at the time of the accident, both Ling Xiao and his little sister were the only ones at home and the parents locked them from outside. I really don't understand how any parents can lock their children from outside. Any robber can just break the lock outside and come into the house. And if anything happen (as it did in this story), the children cannot get out of the house. They are basically trapped inside. So, I think this is ridiculous. The husband is depicted as always busy with his work and not at home most of the time. This is also his mean of escape from his quarrelsome wife. This leaves his wife living with the son at home most of the time. The son, Ling Xiao really suffer, not just from physical beatings but more terribly from mental torture that (as you will see in the drama) continues to plague him mentally for the rest of his life. He becomes withdrawn, extremely introverted and extremely possessive of the person he loves. Most of the time when the father and mother fights, Ling Xiao will sit outside the apartment house, at the staircase, alone reading his storybook. They are at the 3rd floor. And Li Haichao and Jianjian lives just one level lower, at the 2nd floor. Li Haichao took pity on Ling Xiao and will always invite him to come over to his house to have meals. At home, Ling Xiao's mother has very little time to cook and I can see most of the time Ling Xiao only eats instant noodles. Soon, little Ling Xiao warms up with Jianjian and Li Haichao and started to see him as his foster father. Ling Xiao's mother divorced with Ling Heping and left for Singapore, leaving Ling Xiao to Jianjian (since she asked for him when Chen Ting walked out). So, this is the story of Ling Xiao.
Next is He Ziqiu. A most pityful boy. His fate is even worse than Ling Xiao. When he was born, he already has no father. His mother, He Mei, had divorced him without telling him that she was pregnant. Only later he was informed but already divorced. Both of them are from poor family. He Mei's family are farmers. She could not afford to bring up Ziqiu and when she was match-made with Li Haichao, she tried to be with him for a while. But the relationship did not last and He Mei had to go back to her family when her mother was sick. Before she went back, she borrowed some money from Li Haichao for her mother's medical treatment. She asked Li Haichao to take care of Ziqiu when she is away. But she did not return after that. She informed Li Haichao saying that she would terminate their friendship. Ziqiu returns to the farm to live with his grandmother and aunty (He Lan). After a while, He Lan visited Li Haichao saying that He Mei had gone to Shenzhen to seek her fortunes and will leave Ziqiu to Li Haichao to take care, if he is willing. The situation to Ziqiu is that he feels like nobody wants him. Poor Ziqiu. But Li Haichao is a good man and willingly goes to the farm to take back Ziqiu and provide him with proper schooling and a home. He will adopt Ziqiu as if he is his own son. He Ziqiu mistakenly thinks the money Li Haichao passed to his mother his some kind of marriage money and therefore, he now calls Li Haichao "Pa". He does not know his birth father from at all. So, He Ziqiu went to live with his foster father, Li Haichao, and his little sister, Li Jianjian. He Ziqiu is very pityful and will wrk hard to perform chores at home and at Li's noodle restaurant, afraid that Li Haichao may not want him and send him back to the farm. If send back to the farm, he will not be going to school anymore and have to work tirelessly in the farm. Li Haichao found out one night that He Ziqiu was washing clothes in the bathroom in the middle of the night. Really pity him. Ling Xiao will come join them for meals. And it is like this that the 3 of them grows up together and they regard themselves as "siblings". Both Ling Xiao and He Ziqiu willingly takes Li Haichao as their father - even more father than their actual birth father. They said they will take care of Li Haichao when he is old. And Ling Xiao's father, Ling Heping becomes the step-father of Li Jianjian and Ziqiu.
The love and affection in this family is very strong. The drama shows their family life, their school life and friends. After leaving high school for the boys, the drama shows the difficulties they face when confronted with their "parents" who came back into their lives after so many years abandonig them. For Ling Xiao, it was his mother - Chen Ting. And for He Ziqiu, it was his birth father who is now rich and wants to claim back his son by paying the foster father a million yuan. Li Haichao and Ling Heping basically ask Zhao Huaguang go "F" himself. So, the drama shows the struggles Ling Xiao and He Ziqiu had to go through when these people returns to their lives.
It has 40 episodes in the Huace TV channel in Youtube. There are English subtitles. There is a separate channel that has the entire series dubbed in English. But it does sound artificial. So, I would watch the original Chinese speaking one with the English subtitles. Do watch from episode 1. After completing the series, you may feel that you need to go watch the first few episodes again in order to understand the story properly, particularly those stories pertaining to He Ziqiu. One episode that I cannot stop re-watching is episode 10. That is when He Ziqiu had to divulge his intention to go abroad. It was ironic in that Li Haichao had already planned with Ling Heping with ask He Ziqiu to study overseas. But when it came to the brunt of it, he found out he could not let go of He Ziqiu whom he loves very much (I would say even more than he loves Ling Xiao). He has that special father-son affection and bond with He Ziqiu that he especially willingly took him back to care for the little boy whose mother had left him. And not knowing any other father except Li Haichao. That scene was very moving. Prepare your tissues in advance. As the story unfolds, there are other struggles in the lives of the siblings and their families and friends. But I shall not spoil it for you guys. HAPPY WATCHING! Oh yes, I welcome any comments in the comments section. I will post it to the comments section later. Thanks for your patience.
#goahead #stevenzhang #tansongyun #songweilong
I particularly like the soundtrack "Fearless" by Ma Di and "Rain" by Chen Yi Cheng. "If Rin" by Sa Ji is also not bad.
If you wish to read my other drama reviews, one suggestion is this one - https://buddha-and-me.blogspot.com/2012/01/journey-to-west-2011.html
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