Superb show based on historical events
The cast was well selected with mature and superb acting from the lead and support actors giving depth to the show. The story takes place during the Japanese occupation of China in World War 2, specifically in the city of Harbin in the then puppet state of Manchukuo. The drama borrows from actual events that took place in Manchukuo including the operation of the infamous Unit 731 where the Japanese conducted research on chemical and biological weapons using humans for their experiments. Fascinating drama especially for those interested in the history of China through the Republucan era and into World War 2.Was this review helpful to you?
Younu Senki
In the Name of the Brother is a butterfly struggling to break free from the grounded life of a caterpillar. It failed. But, oh, what coulda been!It’s 1944, and Nippon’s teikoku is on its last legs. Ah la Gramsci, the Japanese Order was dying and a new world struggling to be born. We meet Gan Xue and the Song brothers as the remnants of the Japanese Kwantung army, Manchuko patriots, Guomindang agents and Communists struggle for power in an age of monsters. One-third of the story is an undifferentiated mess of assassinations, kidnappings and torture.
The third of the story about the Song brothers — Communist Agents Extraordinary — was the weakest and most frustrating part due to excessive plot armour except when the writers decided to scapegoat Gan Xue as the show’s villain. A particularly egregious intervention by the ghost in the machine in Episode 25 was so terrible that I spent minutes after the credits hysterically laughing. That said, Qin Hao elevated the role, as expected, and the tech they used to achieve the twinning effect was. . . impressive. I still do not understand what other purpose making the secondary protagonists twins had besides trying to make Gan Xue the villain! But that’s why I don’t make the big bucks.
Luckily Gan Xue saves the day. Best girl is stylish, not the smartest but competent. Most importantly for the world she inhabits, she is tenacious and ruthless. The subplot of what is an otherwise straightforward tragic arc is that her life was shaped by the many betrayals by all the men in her life. She yearned for family but lost it all in the end, fated to end her days in gaol.
It’s annoying that the writers gave what were very likeable characters an ending more bitter than all that gall Goujian ate to remember to delete Wu from history. They really tried to portray fleeing to Japan with a pretty girl and a bag of gold as the wrong idea! Then dared to end with literal flag-waving scenes. Nah, bro. Some people deserve the Jin Yi Wei.
So, I’m torn. How does one rate a bad story with great characters?
Oh well. At least the soundtrack was superb, and the casting was superb except for one notable exception. Alas, this was one of those directors in love with auteur shooting styles. The man was going for metaphors and unreliable narrator techniques. Too much, chief. Too much!
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Don't waste your time and energy for this drama. Action pack but very repetitive script.
In the Name of the Brother is a Republican Drama set in the 1940s about espionage, where an undercover communist person infiltrated and worked under the Secret Service to deliver Japanese plans to the communist party.My Reviews:
1. The acting could be better, and the story could be more varied and engaging. Instead, it is repetitive.
2. Yang Mi's character is the head of the secret service who works for the Japanese regime, but her team is incompetent yet brutal.
3. It is an action pack. It is an upgrade from the Chinese standard for espionage and the republican-era genre.
4. Qin Hao played the twin brother characters, spies for the communist party. The older brother, Song Zhuo Wu, is more brutal and daring, whereas Song Zhuo Wen is calm and calculated.
5. The story is so repetitive, dragging, and boring that it could be better if it were cut short by 10 episodes.
6. I like the hairstyles and the costumes that Yang Mi's character got to wear in this drama. They are exquisite and nice to look at.
7. Yang Mi did her best acting job in this role for a couple of episodes where she showed some emotion, but she was stern, cold, and tough for the rest.
8. I watched up to 30 episodes, and I wanted to give up. I did not continue with it for 3 weeks. I wanted to see the ending, so I watched the last 10 episodes at 2x speed just to see the ending.
I could skip 31 through 39 and only watch episode 40.
What a disappointing drama. Don't waste your time and energy with it if the Republican era is not your genre. I give it a 5.5 rating.
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