Review of the C-drama "Love Me If You Dare" (2015)

This summer, I've embarked on a quest to improve my grasp of Chinese (Mandarin), and part of that involves watching Chinese movies and TV shows in the original language. I can understand about half of what is being said if I forego English subtitles, but I've been leaving them on to help with the other half.

I just finished this "C-drama" (Chinese drama) and highly recommend it for anyone who likes crime thrillers. It streams on Amazon Prime or you can find it on YouTube. If you have Prime, I would recommend using that because the picture and sound quality is much better. (The only advantage of the YouTube feed is if you want to follow the Chinese subtitling, which is readable if you turn off the English CC. Amazon, for understandable reasons, stripped the Chinese subtitling, which is otherwise standard for Chinese movies and shows.)

Anyway, "Love Me If You Dare" (or "He Comes Now, Please Close Your Eyes" in Chinese) is something like Silence of the Lambs if it had a rom-com element to it. The main characters are Bo Jin Yan aka Simon and Jian Yao aka Jenny. Names are given in traditional Chinese format, so Simon's surname is Bo and Jenny's is Jian. Professor Bo is a brilliant criminal psychologist with near zero EQ. He spent some time in the U.S. where he was captured by a serial killer known as the Flower Cannibal but managed to escape and is now recuperating back in China. He hires Jian, who is finishing college, to assist him in solving, as he puts it, cases involving the worst and most devious killers.

The first few episodes involve Bo and Jian chasing someone who has been abducting young boys and killing them in a gruesome fashion. With enough clues, Bo can sort of envision the crime from the killer's point-of-view (not unlike, say, Will Graham in Manhunter), and then he condescendingly prods Jian into figuring things out herself. This is the pattern for the first 3/4 of the series, before things kick into high gear.

Some of the rest of the case (to mention all of the characters would give away too much) include Fu Zi Yi, who is Bo's only friend and a tech genius (and my favorite character of the series for the comic edge that he added); and Li Xun Ran, who is a police officer and childhood friend of Jian's.

Lead actor Wallace Hou has a tough job, but succeeds in portraying Bo's supreme intelligence and his social awkwardness, and yet making the chemistry with Jian seem believable. Lead actress Ma Sichun (aka Sandra Ma) is terrific as Jian, showing her to be smart and fesity. In the later part of the show, she has less to do but even then Ma does some incredible acting, including one scene that's heartbreaking to watch. Yin Zheng (aka Andrew Yin) steals every scene he's in as Fu, and Wang Kai plays Li as a serious, dedicated police officer.

The production values are good. The music, in particular, really captures the mood of the show, from the creepy, "X-Files"-like main theme, to the light and funny rom-com ditty when the show veers away from the mysteries toward the developing relationship between Bo and Jian.

There's one really weird thing about the show, though. There are numerous scenes where Chinese characters speak to American characters, and everyone speaks in their own language without interpreters, yet everyone (save for one scene) understands everyone else. There aren't that many non-Chinese speakers of Mandarin in the United States...

Anyway, I really enjoyed this show. I picked up some new Chinese vocabulary, although I'm not sure how useful these words will be on a practical level for me: "perverted" (bian tai de), "victim" (so hai zhe), "fingerprint" (zhi wen), and so on.

MCU chronological rewatch -- sorting the movies into tiers

The combination of Covid-19 "stay at home" orders and Disney+ led the family to rewatch the MCU movies in chronological (not release) order, starting with "Captain America: The First Avenger" (1940s), then "Captain Marvel" (1995), and so on. The only MCU flick we didn't watch was "The Incredible Hulk," because it's not available on Disney+ and I was too cheap to rent it.

Overall, the MCU is very impressive, and collectively, far better than the Star Wars cinematic universe. The worst MCU movie ("Iron Man 2") is nowhere as bad as "The Phantom Menace," and the best MCU movies surpass "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Rogue One" (though the last half of "Rogue One" is spectacular).

Okay, here we go:

#1 - "Thor: Ragnorak"

Before this movie, I found Thor to be a dull character. Director Taika Watiti brilliantly fuses comedy with thrills, and just about everything works perfectly here. Hela is an incredible antagonist, played with chillingly hamminess by Cate Blanchett, and wait, there's more, with Jeff Goldblum's even smarmier Grandmaster. Thor gets so many funny lines, from "that's what heroes do" (as he throws a ball against a window, only to have it bounce back and hit in the face) to how he flatters the Hulk and Banner separately, each time saying he likes the current incarnation and not the other one to "he's a friend from work!" (when he is matched against the Hulk in the arena). Oh, and how Thor keeps trying to calm Hulk down by saying "the sun's getting low," which is (I think) mockery of the lame Black Widow-Bruce Banner forced romance in "Age of Ultron." This movie was so fun it reportedly made Chris Hemsworth change his mind about being done playing Thor.

#2 - "Avengers: Infinity War"

Yes, it ends in a cliffhanger (but so too did "The Empire Strikes Back"). It starts strong with Thanos crushing the Asgardians and the Hulk, and then never lets up. Lots of funny lines too. I got chills when Thanos finally made his appearance on the Earth - walking out of a mist of purple fog.

#3 - "Captain America - The Winter Soldier"

Until the rewatch, this was number 2 on my list. Its drop reflects my greater appreciation of "Infinity War," not any discontentment with this one. I love conspiracy thrillers, and this movie is as close to "24" as the MCU gets.

That's it in terms of individual rankings. The rest are sorted into tiers:

Great

"Ant-Man" - super funny; only thing that keeps it from breaking into the top 3 is that the villain is sort of derivative of the one from "Iron Man"

"Black Panther" - great villain who's almost sympathetic (one of my boys asked, "would Killmonger be the hero if he didn't kill all those random people?"), and T'Challa is a really good lead

"Iron Man" - started it all

"Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 1" - it's like "The Avengers," but funny

"Spider-Man: Homecoming" - that reveal of Vulture was a knock-out

Good

"Ant-Man and the Wasp" - not as good as the first, but always good to see Walton Goggins

"Avengers: Endgame" - very moving but so much didn't make sense

"Captain America: Civil War" - liked it better the first time I watched it; still, introduces T'Challa and Peter Parker

"Doctor Strange" - really weird, appropriately so

"Spider-Man: Far From Home" - best for the chemistry between Tom Holland and Zendaya

Okay

"The Avengers" - bloated

"Avengers: Age of Ultron" - how can a movie featuring James Spader's snarky tone be so blase?

"Captain America: The First Avenger" - kind of boring

"Captain Marvel" - it's fine, but nothing special except for the Flerken

"Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 2" - I liked the addition of Mantis to the GotG, but eh

"Iron Man 2" - the worst

"Iron Man 3" - better on rewatch

"Thor" - Shakespearean tone and MCU don't mesh well

"Thor: The Dark World" - too long

Fictional POTUSes in TV and movies

I rewatched "White House Down" last night, and one thought I had was, man, Channing Tatum was lucky he was guarding Jamie Foxx (who's spry and athletic), and not Trump or Biden! That inspired this list of

TV and movie POTUSes and my thoughts on whether I'd vote for them if they were real:

James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) on "White House Down" - DEFINITELY YES; he's like a cooler version of Obama.

David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) on "24" - DEFINITELY YES; he sent Jack Bauer after terrorists; does anything else need to be said?

Wayne Palmer (D.B. Woodside) on "24" - maybe; not as cool and inspiring as his older brother, but he did support Bauer as well.

Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) in "Olympus Has Fallen" - NO WAY; just compare how he handled being coerced by terrorists versus Jamie Foxx in "White House Down"

Charles Logan (Gregory Itzen) on "24" - NO WAY. Have you seen "24"?!?(Great actor, though)

Thomas Whitmore (Bill Pullman) in "Independence Day" - Probably? He did give what is possibly the greatest ever Presidential speech...

James Marshall (Harrison Ford) in "Air Force One" - maybe. He seemed kind of boring, but he did fight off hijackers by himself.

President White (Donald Pleasance) in "Escape from New York" - um, no.

Fitz Grant (Tony Goldwyn) on "Scandal" - Probably. He was Shonda Rimes' conception of a Republican, which meant he was basically a moderate Democrat.

Thomas Kirkland (Kiefer Sutherland) on "Designated Survivor" - yeah, I know he's not Jack Bauer (we can only dream), but he was a straight-up nerd who told it as it was.

Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones) on "24" - probably? She was fine; her sniveling husband and conniving daughter were not.

Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) on "Scandal" - Yes! I started off really disliking her (because she was set up as an antagonist to star Olivia Pope) but by the end, I was rooting for her.

***

Now, there are a few notable fictional Presidents missing from my list. I haven't watched "The West Wing," "The American President," or "House of Cards," so I can't say whether I'd vote for any of them. Also, I skipped some of the Presidents in "24" and other shows that I've watched. Create your own list!

Who else could finish "Game of Thrones"?

HBO's "Game of Thrones" comes to an end on Sunday. Many fans have been upset with this last season that a petition to remake the entire season has attracted almost half a million signers. Of course, there is no cost at all to signing these sorts of Internet petitions, and you have to wonder how much money the signers would be willing to pay to realize their dream. At an estimated $15 million per episode, with six episodes in season 8, it would cost $90 million or more. So each signer would have to pay on average $180....

Anyway, I've never subscribed to HBO, and I ditched cable years ago, so I am stuck in the story at the end of "A Dance With Dragons," which was published in 2011. To put that in context, "Leviathan Awakes" -- the first novel in "The Expanse" series -- was published in 2011, just a month before "A Dance of Dragons" was.

That's an interesting comparison because "The Expanse" novels are kind of like "Game of Thrones" in space, with the same kind of dense political intrigue, layered characterization, factions, and realistic violence.

Since then, author James S.A. Corey has published seven more novels, not to mention a few novellas, with the ninth and final novel scheduled for publication next year. I think the probability that the last Expanse novel comes out before "The Winds of Winter" (book 6 in the "Game of Thrones" series) is pretty near 100%. I don't gamble, but if I were to, that's a bet I'd make.

Anyway, Corey is actually the pen name for two guys, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Franck, it turns out, used to work for "Game of Thrones" author George R.R. Martin as a research assistant. Hmmmmm....

Maybe book fans should get together and petition Martin to turn the writing of books 6 and 7 to someone else who will actually finish them. It sounds like James S.A. Corey should be free.

NYT rates the 20 best shows since "The Sopranos" -- and my response

A while ago, the New York Times ran an interactive article identifying the 20 best shows (in the author's view) to have aired since "The Sopranos" debuted 20 years earlier.

Several of the shows on NYT list are also on my post-"Sopranos" list -- indeed, some of these would even make my all-time favorite TV show list, including:

• "The Shield": Simply brilliant in terms of how it made you root for who would ordinarily be the antagonists of a show. I felt dirty hoping that corrupt cop Vic Mackey would get away with his schemes, which is a testament to the writing and the acting. Yeah, it wasn't as realistic as "The Wire," but it was far more interesting.
• "Battlestar Galactica": The ending didn't make much sense, and it tended to sag in the middle of each season. But it was so dark, gritty, and intense in its peak episodes, with a more or less continuous story lasting 4+ years (counting the mini-series and "Razor" movie). I'm reading the unauthorized oral history of BSG (both incarnations), So Say We All, and I just got to the section about the mini-series.
• "Lost": Another show whose ending (indeed, the entire last season) didn't make sense, but was still captivating throughout its entire run. The framework of mixing present day scenes with flashbacks (and then that mindblowing flashforward!) was subsequently adopted by one of my all-time favorites, "Once Upon a Time." [Strangely, "Once Upon a Time" did not make the NYT list, perhaps because it was too mainstream?]
• "Veronica Mars": A teen noirish mystery that launched Kristen Bell's career. I didn't watch the third/last season, and haven't gotten around to the movie either, but that first season was twisty.

On the "just missed the cut list" of the NYT:

• "Justified": This would also make my all-time list. I used to think Captain Kirk was the coolest character on TV, and Jack Bauer was the most interesting. Kirk has been supplanted by Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, whose misadventures in Harlan County, Kentucky, were laconically intriguing. I loved how Givens' character could be summed up in an eight word sentence he once told a bad guy: "You make me pull, I'll put you down." And of course he would make sure that he was justified in shooting.

But there are also a number of shows on the list that I, while possibly acknowledging their greatness, never watched or tried to watch but never really got hooked on:

• "The Wire": I know that it is a common opinion that this is the best show ever in the history of television. I just found it dull and populated with boring characters. It's not that I don't appreciate characters with shades of gray -- notice that I loved "The Shield," and the main character in that is a bad guy! Pretty much every actor in "The Wire" that I've seen elsewhere has been better elsewhere, from Lance Reddick in anything, to Wendell Pierce in Amazon's "Jack Ryan," to Michael B. Jordan in "Black Panther."
• "Grey's Anatomy": I've never watched this, so it isn't entirely fair for me to question its placement, but another procedural/soap opera didn't sound interesting to me. (It's also weird to me that this made the list but "Scandal" did not. See below for more on that.)
• "The West Wing": This has seemed to me like the left-wing version of "24." Each presents a fantasy world where its proponent's fears are being realized, and stopped only through the proponent's heroism.
• "Breaking Bad": I need to watch this. A major reason I haven't yet is that I'm not ready for my image of the goofy dad from "Malcolm in the Middle" to be overwritten by Walter White/Heisenberg.

And then there are the post-Sopranos shows that are on my list but absent from the NYT:

• "24": Yes, it's more fantasy than "Battlestar Galactica" in a lot of ways, but for sheer adrenaline rush, there's nothing like it. I watched every season as it aired starting halfway through season 2, then watched them all on DVD, and then over the course of several months streamed them all while running on the treadmill. My wife has asked me how I can watch it over and over, and the answer is, I can never get enough of Kiefer Sutherland's intensity as Jack Bauer, yelling, "Tell me where the bomb is!! There's no time!!"
• "Once Upon a Time": I didn't think this would be good, but I TiVo'd the pilot episode to give it a try. Within 10 minutes, I was hooked by the magical look of the Enchanted Forest in the flashbacks, and the puzzle of matching the present day residents of Storybrooke to their fantasy counterparts. And this is a show that featured multiple strong female characters (Emma Swan. Regina/Wicked Witch, Mary-Margaret/Snow White) who easily satisfied the Bechdel test every episode. (I didn't watch the last season, though, which was a soft reboot; the season 6 finale seemed to me to be a very good series finale.)
• "The Last Ship": Military valor, end of the world pandemic, conspiracies -- yeah, I'm a sucker for all of that.
• "Scandal": Another show that was basically fantasy, but it was as addictive as "24" was. I loved it whenever Olivia Pope was in "I'm in control" mode, which was most of the time. I liked it a lot less when she in "I'm moping over President Grant" mode.
• "Star Trek: Discovery": I get that it's controversial. It's a lot darker than the usual Trek series (even "Deep Space Nine"). But I like that. Based on season 1 (I watched the DVDs, so can't watch season 2 yet), it's my second favorite Trek series. It could move up to #1 with more excellent seasons. It would have to get a lot worse to drop to #3.
• "Hawaii 5-0": I don't claim that "Hawaii 5-0" is good in the ways that critics view shows. I find it hilariously entertaining, less so in the mystery of the week than in the character interaction (no show is complete with McGarrett and Dann-o bickering, and without the shrimp truck guy), and it's the only show on TV I can think of that features multiple regular actors who are of Asian descent, which is worth supporting alone for the Asian diversity factor (even if the show ended up making Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park leave because they weren't paid the same as Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan).

Female action stars by VAR (Violence Above Replacement level)!

Serious stat-oriented baseball fans know about a concept called "wins above replacement" (WAR), which is roughly an estimated of how many wins over the course of a season that the player is better than freely available talent. In other words, if a star player were to be injured and miss the season, to be replaced by a minor league player, how many fewer wins would the team be expected to get?


WAR is a useful way to quantify the value of baseball players in many different ways. For example, players can be ranked by career WAR, which results in Babe Ruth at the top spot, followed by Cy Young, and then Walter Johnson, Barry Bonds, and Willie Mays to round out the top 5. Or players can be ranked by top WAR in a single season, which results in a bunch of players from the pre-1920s whom I've never heard of (because I'm not that serious of a fan).


While watching Atomic Blonde last night, and marveling at how much violence Charlize Theron's character Lorraine Broughton was inflicting on East German and Russian bad guys, I started re-evaluating my own subjective ranking of female action stars. Until now, I'd considered Lucy Lawless (aka "Xena: Warrior Princess") and Angelina Jolie (Salt, Wanted, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith) to share the top spot, with Michelle Yeoh (numerous Hong Kong flicks as well as Tomorrow Never Dies), Carrie Anne Moss (The Matrix), and Summer Glau (River Tam in "Firefly" and Serenity) to be worthy competitors.


But oh my gosh, Theron is AWESOME in Atomic Blonde. Like John Wick with Keanu Reeves (co-directed by Atomic Blonde's director David Leitch), the movie seems to have been written from a process of imagining the most intense, explosive fight/gun scenes that would showcase using the star and not a stunt double, and then filling in with a story as needed. And hoo boy did the production and choreography team put a lot of imagination into the action set pieces. At 5'10", Theron commands an imposing physical presence on screen, especially when she kicks guys down the stairs.


Still, was Atomic Blonde enough to vault Theron ahead of Lawless and Jolie as an action star? I decided to turn to an equivalent of WAR. Instead of "wins," though, the standard would be "violence," as in VAR.


For me, Jolie is still #1 in VAR. Besides Salt, Wanted, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, she was also in two Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movies, which is a lot of violence! Lawless played Xena for six seasons, which is over 130 episodes. Her kill count has got to be higher even than Jack Bauer's. That makes her career VAR quite high too.


Theron's tenacious performance in Atomic Blonde might well put her at the top of the single movie/episodeVAR. It's definitely a MVP (most violent performer) role. I haven't seen Mad Max: Fury Road, but I've read that she was very good in that action role, too. That's two high VAR performances, but she has a ways to go to catch up to Lawless and Jolie.


In other words, get together with director Leitch and work on Atomic Blonde 2!

States I've gone running in - updated!

Create Your Own Visited States Map

After my short visit to Boulder earlier this week, I got to cross Colorado off my list of states in which I've gone running. It was a short 4 mile easy run around town and parts of the campus. It's actually surprising that it took me so long to mark Colorado, but apparently I haven't visit since before 2011 (other than connecting through DIA).