Review: Battle of Changsha

Synopsis: 

(wiki, edited to avoid spoilers)

Battle of Changsha tells a story about an ordinary family in Changsha, China, coping with the Anti-Japanese war between 1938 and 1945, reflecting Chinese people’s lives during that ill-fated period.

Female lead, Hu Xiangxiang, a 16-year-old high school student, spoiled but innocent and inner-directed girl who is running away from a blind date set up by her brother-in-law, Xue Junshan, who's arranging to marry her off and to find an escape to protect her twin brother, Xiao Man. The person for the blind date is Gu Qingming, a senior strategy adviser of the battle who is totally different from those people who want to stay away from the war. He is eager to fight against the Japanese even though his family, especially his father is strongly against him to go into the battle instead of going abroad to save his life. Hu XiangXiang and Gu Qingming did't start off on good terms. 

Hu Xiangxiang is still fairly ignorant about what a war is really like and all she wants to do is escaping. However, during the times of war, the 16 year-old girl is forced to grow up quickly. After seeing a series of deaths of family members and killings carried out by Japanese troops, Xiangxiang and Xiao Man get themselves involved into the war. They are also deeply touched by the constant help from Gu Qingming whenever needed and his passion to save the country. The romance between Xiangxiang and Gu Qingming blossoms in the most chaotic time of China.

Ratings: 9/10

This drama is really a different type of genre from the usual dramas that I watch - romantic, cute, school-ish teenage drama. It touches on various levels of the human feelings, from funny to fear to touching to heartbreaking. Many elements of feelings can be felt throughout the whole movie and the development of the story was really smooth, though at one point of time I was pretty anxious about the outcome of the drama because war is filled with uncertainities. (yes, as you can see, I've already become one of the character in the drama and felt how war was like hahahha jk but the drama did had the power to make me understand more about wars)

At first, before I started on this drama, just by looking at the poster, I thought that it is definitely going to be a touching drama (war scene + comments i saw) and guessed that it will be quite special since its a war scene. tbh, I won't touch on this (tho i know its touching) if there isn't walluce huo inside hahahaha they picked the correct actor. AND IM SO GLAD THAT I STARTED ON IT (yes, Walluce still plays a big role here but well, he carried out his role absolutely well and no one can do better than him) 

This drama is simply: 

- ROMANCE between hu xiangxiang and gu qingming (how cute they became lovers from enemies i swear I LUV SUCH ROMANCE OMG ANGRY TO LOVE DAMN CAN U IMAGINE THAT SNEAKY GUILTY SMILE)

- just be prepared to stare at gu qingming's face features, pale but sexy lips, stunning eye gazes and sharp jawline like.... 32 hours of walluce huo WHY IS HE MARRIED ALR 

- cute twin brother xiaoman!!! really enjoyed his presence because he made the siblings relationship to be very tease-y and I like how he's so weak to protect xiangxiang (his twin sis) yet still does his best to AWW (yes i disliked him for a few eps at the end but it still ended w the cute xiaoman :')))) )

- from hate to love brother-in-law xue junshan!! Thought he was the jerk from the start but he ended being like the jerk who loves money but still put everyone else's interest before him :''')))) tbh his character was DAEBAK like 

- Brotherhood in this drama is REAL. typical drama: bromance SQUEALS. this drama: brotherhood SNIFFS SNIFFS 

- how they actually put clips of jap war clips into the drama here and there to make it more realistic and make me wonder about the soldiers back then in the real war. 

*** SPOILERS****

- hu xiangxiang's family story!!! how they fight to their last breath w the Jap, how I followed them throughout to survive through so many bombings and shootings and see them dying in the jap's hands one by one........ at the start, the family mems was blessed w luck and survived through so many hardships that I thought it was quite odd because they keep "going back" to where they escaped from (their house - they felt its still the safest) and finally one by one, they left their loved ones crying in pain. It felt like every single family member held a large role in the drama that I just can't believe they just died. (was really shocked at xuejunshan's death)  

I think it was well done that they made us like xue junshan so much when he becomes the hero of heroes from the original jerk and then BAM DEATH, hit us like the jap's guns. 

-xiaoman and xiuxiu's romance!! which only existed for like 1 ep towards the end before he died (fuuu)??? personally, i didnt expect them to get tat at all but xiaoman finally saw the good in her :')) tho the time spent was so little that i felt heartache for xiuxiu at the last ep :( OK WELL at least they had their childhood tgt HAHA 

- I felt like the ending was bittersweet and quite empty..... bittersweet because almost everyone died but they died for a better future for their remaining love ones..... sacrifices were unbearable here. Just remind yourself to think of the hardships they went through together and not how they ended and I guess, you'll feel touched by their kinships. Ending was quite empty though, to not see the well-developed characters in the last ep alr. And ofc, hu xiangxiang changed q a bit from ep 1 to ep 32. Realised, as usual, the cute and naughty female lead became a mature female lead (reminds me of shan shan lai le)

Rated it 9/10 because its seriously worth the watch, esp I think its good to watch smth different once in a while (YET STILL HV ROMANCE YAY) but the drama had too many deaths IM SRY OK THO CREDITS, WALLUCE HUO AND HIS WHOLE FAM WAS ALIVE (I srsly thot the baby survived so that the fam line can cont when gu qingming died) + tho the battles are not repetitive but keep seeing it does get a tingy little winy boring 

Something I found out from this drama though, is that I always find war periods very short like 1938-1945... like the years are pretty close but this drama truly made me feel how 1 year during the war feels like 10 years.