[Recap/Review] Yu Zui Ep. 1-4

I know there are a lot of dramas airing right now so maybe you guys’ watching list is packed already. However, I still want to recommend a drama I am currently loving. Yu Zui is a webdrama currently airing on IQiYi with VIP pass, but you can youtube around and find the airing episodes pretty easily. It is an adventure, action, thriller, strategies packed drama. Because you need a VIP pass to watch it, it is not leading the ratings (My Amazing Boyfriend and With You are both ahead of it), but it recently started releasing episodes for non-VIP IQiYi members. Hope more people will check it out now :3

Drama information

• Chinese name: 余罪
• Adapted from a novel of the same name, check baidu page here.
• 24 Episodes in total
• Length: 45min/episode
• They will do 2 seasons, all will be released for IQiYi VIP membership.
• Cast: Zhang Yishan, Chang Rong, Wu You, Zhang Jincheng, Du Ziming, Wang Ge, Ge Zheng, Zhang Cheng, Bai Yihong, Sun Jiayu, Zhang Yujian, Yu Xiao.

Story: A group of young students at the Police Academy gets into a fight at a local restaurant and are at risk to be expelled from the profession. Then comes in a high rank from the police authority, ready to offer them a second chance. If they can succeed his training, they can become policemen and all their past crimes will be erased. However, the training is very atypic. They will drop the kids in the middle of an unfamiliar city with nothing else than a cellphone (to call if they chose to drop from the training) and a bracelet (to keep track of their location). They will have to survive forty days in this city by themselves. One of the student, Yu Zui doesn’t want to follow the instructions and chose to find everyone else to ally together…

For whom? I do agree it is not your classic drama and may not be for everyone. It is action packed, shows the dark side of society and puts you on alert full time. There is barely any romance and is trying to portray a more realistic vision of the modern street life in China. How accurate? I have no idea. I recommend this drama for anyone who loves action and realistic drama and like to watch young adults use their skills to survive in a modern city. For anyone else, I recommend trying out the first episode and see if you get hooked. It is action packed and if you like the first episode, there is a high chance you will like the rest.

EPISODES RECAP

The drama starts with a basketball game at a police training school. Our lead Yu Zui is breaking the 3D wall by talking to the camera. He introduces the people he hates as well as his goddess An Jialu, watching on the side. They are all students soon to become policemen. Their team wins which causes the other team comprised of his rival Jie Bing to be  furious, especially considering how Yu Zui’s team make fun of the losing team.

Later that night, they are gathered at a restau-bar to celebrate the successful day. The other team has hired people to pick a fight. However, everything was caught on the camera of the restaurant and now, our little group may not become policemen. During that same night, a body of a policeman was found in the river.

The next day, everyone was gathered for their punishment. A new supervisor arrives telling them he can offer them a training camp to redeem themselves. He suggests them to try fighting his assistant, another policewoman. Nobody succeeds except Yu Zui who uses tricks to lure her defense off. Next goes a few days of training until it is time for the big challenge! They will drop the kids in the middle of an unfamiliar city with nothing else than a cellphone (to call if they chose to drop from the training) and a bracelet (to keep track of their location). The kids will have to survive forty days in this city by themselves. Yu Zui tries to keep track of the location so he can find his goddess later on.

Hence starts the training. The guys are doing fairly well. Yu Zui uses stealing and tricks to survive. His brothers also find their own way: being a human punching bag, selling programming/gaming skills to nerds at internet bars, gambling in the street, joining high class prostitution, working at a restaurant, asking for free food, etc.

Finally, Yu Zui decides to go against the flow. He first finds his goddess and knowing she is suffering, offers her all the money he collected. He later breaks his bracelet so he becomes untraceble through the police GPS and starts a quest to find all his classmates. When most of them are gathered together, they live the happy life, working together to make money (in often illegal ways).

However, the police supervisor is not happy about this. He sends his right hand man to kidnap one of the bros and make Yu Zui go to save him. At that empty storage room, they get into a fight which causes Yu Zui to stab the man. They run away while Yu Zui thinks he just killed someone. And this is how Yu Zui ends up being in prison, reflecting over his bad behaviours and thinking he deserves to be there. Meanwhile, the forty days challenge ended and the remaining classmates succeeded. However, instead of being happy, they are mostly worried for the disapperance of Yu Zui…

-end of episode 4 –

I omitted a lot of details as it is quiet complex to explain everything. Hope this made you want to check it out 🙂 If you are also watching or read the novel, please feel free to comment as I would love to know your thoughts ^^

Meanwhile, here are some extra pictures of our lead Zhang Yishan. He is a perfect cast for this role and I cannot think of anyone else who could do such a good job. All actors, newbies or veterans, are often playing very cool and expressionless roles. But Zhang Yishan, he is EXTREMLY generous with his expressions and his acting makes every scene go smoothly. You worry for him, you think he is a genious, you want to see him succeed. I am so proud of him and I hope this role will bring him even more exposure in the future.

Remember when he was still on Home With Kids?