Game of Hunting 猎场 - Episodes 5 & 6 (Impression Post)
kakashi: I have a new favorite character and it's not Zheng Qiu Dong! Plus, we're getting started now.
SakiVI: Yes, the next stage of weird stuff in Qiu Dong's life has begun.
Panda: Drama picks up steam and I get a tad distracted by Qiu Dong's mop of hair. Literally a mop
JoAnne: Can I just push Qiu Dong off a cliff? It would put us ALL out of our misery...
Qui Dong is a good boy, really.
I held my breath and only let it out when he finished his task as asked. Good boy ZQD.
That was a lot of time spent on nothing happening, unless something about the very specific details of those tasks will be relevant to us later. I don't mean the details about Qin Fei, either. This could have been handled with much more economy and would have bettered the (so far very boring) story.
There is a woman who meets him and guides him through the process, one that he suspects used to be Liu Liang Ti's lover. She is very tight-lipped, but Zheng realizes quickly that his Shifu went to prison to save his own daughter. A very heartbreaking story. His first daughter had a horrible illness and he found no bone-marrow donor that fit hers. The only way to save her was to make a second child and use that child's umbilical cord's blood for stem cells (dodgy science there, but who cares). The only problem: he and his wife (a known beauty) had already divorced at that stage. Still, he got her to agree. But for reasons we do not know, she killed a man (at her office?) and Liu Liang Ti went to prison for her and the new baby she was carrying. The daughter was saved. And Liu Liang T's (ex)-lover know the whole story but did not speak up for him in court (since he also did not want to be spoken up for, I guess)
So, by known beauty, the ex-wife was a celebrity?
Why do I have a feeling we might meet either the ex-wife or daughter along our journey? Shifu's story was very sad, I hope he gets a pardon.
It's a sad story but I had to laugh at Qiu Dong's question about whether there wasn't anyone who could have spoken up for his shifu, thereby saving him from prison. He didn't WANT to be saved, Qiu Dong.
To do all the transactions, the mysterious woman gives him the ID card of a dying student (Qin Fei). As an ex-prisoner, Zheng would not have been able to do all this, I guess? Or he would have drawn attention. He draws attention anyway - the police come to see him, just because one of the hotel employees alerted him. Another employee who knows him from before hands "Norwegian Wood" to him later - he left it when he ran. Awwwww, poor Zheng. He misses his Yi Ren very, very much.
I awwww-ed too when he got the package from the receptionist. The did look happy in the photograph. Sniff.
So the employee knew that Qiu Dong was using a fake ID, even asking about it in the room, and the police never bothered with something as simple as 'Please show me your ID.'
The borrowed identity haunts him, of course and his true experience sometimes (almost) shows, for example when he talks about a prickling feeling confined spaces give him (prison). Before long, Lin Bai spots him again - Mr. Headhunter, who thinks he looks awfully familiar. (From Nirvana in Fire.) He has an eye for good people though and he gets Qin Fei an interview with a rather pompous looking online company (Valley).
MENG!!!
Goddammit, I dozed through Meng? I'm not going back.
Again, Qin Fei gets the job, with flying colors. Things are definitely looking up: he will have a salary, health insurance, social security etc. etc. Only...the CEO takes a sudden and surprising interest in him. His valued business partner - oh no! - has a connection to Qin Fei. They were at the same hospital and Qin Fei influenced him a lot by something he wrote down for him called Doomsday (or Apocalypse - which seems to be a variation of Socrates Apology). Mr. CEO calls his business partner to surprise him. Poor, poor Qin Fei. Is it already over?
Yes, it was actually Socrates' Apology.
The scene with the CEO and partner had my heart beating fast. I could feel his despair, anger, everything.. Very well done
Very grudgingly, I'll agree.
SakiVI: Yes, the next stage of weird stuff in Qiu Dong's life has begun.
Panda: Drama picks up steam and I get a tad distracted by Qiu Dong's mop of hair. Literally a mop
JoAnne: Can I just push Qiu Dong off a cliff? It would put us ALL out of our misery...
Episodes 5 & 6
Finding one's place in life after a prison sentence is no piece of cake. And even though our Zheng Qiu Dong has a clear mission, it is very tough for him. Diligently, he does what his Shifu Liu Liang Ti asked him to do though - he sells his house, he buys the graveyard slots for his parents and himself and he wires the extra money to his friend's daughters overseas.Qui Dong is a good boy, really.
I held my breath and only let it out when he finished his task as asked. Good boy ZQD.
That was a lot of time spent on nothing happening, unless something about the very specific details of those tasks will be relevant to us later. I don't mean the details about Qin Fei, either. This could have been handled with much more economy and would have bettered the (so far very boring) story.
So, by known beauty, the ex-wife was a celebrity?
Why do I have a feeling we might meet either the ex-wife or daughter along our journey? Shifu's story was very sad, I hope he gets a pardon.
It's a sad story but I had to laugh at Qiu Dong's question about whether there wasn't anyone who could have spoken up for his shifu, thereby saving him from prison. He didn't WANT to be saved, Qiu Dong.
I awwww-ed too when he got the package from the receptionist. The did look happy in the photograph. Sniff.
So the employee knew that Qiu Dong was using a fake ID, even asking about it in the room, and the police never bothered with something as simple as 'Please show me your ID.'
In his gratefulness, Liu Liang Ti gives Zheng the left-over money from the house-sale. And Zheng starts researching the guy from the countryside whose ID he has and who has died. But will a new identity change who Zheng really is?
He's feeling sad and desperate.
Sigh. For such a smart man, this is such a dumb move to make. I am sure he is not thinking it through and it's only going to result in tears.
The only thing that's producing tears for me are these microbangs on these men.
He does marvelously well though - and aces every job interview. I'd give him the job too! Clearly, being someone who has nothing and knows he has few chances in life left, he gives it his everything. Nothing keeps him in the province though, he goes back to Beijing. He gets himself a nice apartment and good clothes, but he's completely broke. He goes to the market to get cheap leftovers etc. He also gets into an MBA-program, again because of Qin Fei.
Actually, I thought he had money from that house sale and thus could pay for his MBA.
The MBA wiped him out because he paid double. Hair looks much better too.
Yawn.
MENG!!!
Goddammit, I dozed through Meng? I'm not going back.
Yes, it was actually Socrates' Apology.
The scene with the CEO and partner had my heart beating fast. I could feel his despair, anger, everything.. Very well done
Very grudgingly, I'll agree.
The entire episode 6, a sense of dread is hanging over Qiu Dong. He can do whatever he wants, he will not be able to escape his past, it seems. There are too many lies. He is very careful and he researched everything meticulously (he even knows all the details about Qin Fei's high school), but of course, there are people in this world who have met the real Qin Fei and those people can make his dream end before it has even started.
He really should not have done something this complicated.
It is one of the stupidest things ever. And, he is back in Beijing! It's literally tempting the Fates for it to get messed up.
He's an idiot, pure and simple.
The irony is that Qiu Dong seems actually really capable (and not only ambitious). It's just his life choices that seem unwise. How will he get out of this intricate lie now?
I get that he's desperate and offended by the prejudice against ex-prisoners, but he's being seriously stupid.
This is flogging a dead horse but for someone who just left prison, this was the opposite of what he should have done. I wish him Luck because he is going to need LOTS.
Maybe someone shoots him and puts us out of our misery. I have a question, too. There's this one scene in a bar where he runs into some unsavory types who recognize him from one of his prison lectures. Everything is very friendly, he even gets a job offer of sorts. That scene cuts away to him sitting in the shower with a bloody head wound. No explanation. WTF?