LayarHijau — The period mystery drama Light the Dark (把黑夜点燃), starring Chen Zheyuan and Jiang Xin, made a surprise debut on October 15 at 6 p.m. on iQIYI, where it streams exclusively. Just 30 minutes after the premiere episode went live, its popularity value on the platform topped 3,000.
The drama has drawn heavy discussion on social media thanks to its realistic feel and tightly paced plot. Many viewers have called it the “most satisfying mystery series” in recent memory.
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Its biggest draw is Chen Zheyuan’s performance. He has mostly been seen as a fresh-faced young man, but here he plays Chen Shan, a working-class laborer who sets out to hunt down a killer after his family is struck by a major tragedy. For the role, Chen Zheyuan shaved his head to a buzz cut, applied darkening makeup, and appeared without any makeup throughout the series. Chen Shan evolves from a cheerful, sunny young man into a calm, restrained, and hardened man with a scar on his face.
Scenes in which Chen Shan collapses in helplessness after his mother’s misfortune, and in which he beats his enemy in prison with a fierce glare, have been widely shared by netizens. They praised his line delivery and emotional range as having “leaped forward” and said he looks “like a completely different person.”
Jiang Xin plays Chen Ying, Chen Shan’s older sister. Her restrained yet powerful acting brings to life a character who is gentle on the outside and strong on the inside. Viewers have praised her for “kicking open the door of mystery dramas.”
Veteran actors including Ren Zhong, Zhang Guoqiang, and Wu Gang round out the cast, and the performances across the board are considered solid.
In terms of storytelling and production, Light the Dark runs just 12 episodes and avoids dragging the plot out. The first three episodes wrap up the murder case involving the protagonists’ parents. The story then unfolds along two timelines: an old case from 1997 and a new case from 2001. Several plot twists have left viewers saying they are “so tense they can’t bring themselves to skip ahead.”
About 90% of the scenes were shot on location in Chongqing. The setting recreates the society of the 1990s during the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, along with the moral gray areas of human nature. Some critics have described the series’ raw, realistic industrial mystery style as “a scalpel that dissects an era.”
The drama exposes the tangled conflicts of interest and rampant corruption of the 1990s reform wave. Chen Shan and Chen Ying start out estranged over their differences, but ultimately reconcile and join forces to set a trap. They comb through a secret ledger, crack a hidden code, and investigate the shady dealings behind a construction project on site, determined to bring the mastermind behind it all to justice.
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