Synopsis
"The Long Season" is a 2023 suspense drama with a Douban rating of 9.4, directed by Xin Shuang and starring Fan Wei, Qin Hao, and Chen Minghao. It tells the story of a dismembered corpse case spanning 1997 and 2016 in the small northeastern city of Hualin, with Fan Wei playing retired taxi driver Wang Xiang as he pursues the truth. It was named the best domestic drama of 2023, and Fan Wei won multiple Best Actor awards for his performance.
Overview
The Long Season is a suspense crime drama that premiered on Tencent Video's X Theater on April 22, 2023. Directed by Xin Shuang and written by Yu Xiaoqian, Pan Yiran, and Chen Ji, the series stars Fan Wei as Wang Xiang, Qin Hao as Gong Biao, and Chen Minghao as Ma Desheng, with supporting roles played by Liu Yitie, Liu Lin, Li Gengxi, and others. The 12-episode series holds a Douban rating of 9.4 and is widely regarded as the best domestic Chinese drama of 2023. This is director Xin Shuang's second series following The Bad Kids, once again showcasing his exceptional storytelling skills and unique visual style.
The uniqueness of The Long Season lies in its guise as a suspense drama while being, in essence, a profound work about the changes of an era and individual destinies. Using a dismemberment case as a clue, the story connects the dramatic changes in the lives of ordinary people in the northeastern industrial city of Hualin over two decades, from the state-owned enterprise reforms of 1997 to the economic transformation of 2016. The characters are not cold detectives or mysterious criminals, but ordinary people swept up by the tides of the times—they lose their jobs, their loved ones, their youth, but never lose their obsession with the truth or their love for life.
Plot
The story begins with a dismemberment case in 2016. A dismembered body is discovered in the small northeastern city of Hualin. Retired taxi driver Wang Xiang (Fan Wei) recognizes clues in the case related to his son, Wang Yang. This takes him back to the long autumn of 1997—when he was a train driver for Huagang (Hualin Steel Plant), and the steel mill was undergoing massive layoffs and restructuring.
In the 1997 timeline, the young Wang Xiang is a model worker at Huagang, but with the advancement of state-owned enterprise reforms, he and his wife face the threat of unemployment. His son, Wang Yang (Liu Yitie), becomes romantically involved with a mysterious girl named Shen Mo (Li Gengxi). Meanwhile, a dismemberment case occurs in Hualin, and Wang Xiang becomes involved in the investigation after discovering the body.
Joining Wang Xiang in the pursuit of the truth are two others similarly left behind by the times—his brother-in-law Gong Biao (Qin Hao), a smooth-talking but kind-hearted laid-off worker; and retired police detective Ma Desheng (Chen Minghao), an old cop haunted for life by his failure to solve this case. The three form an absurd and poignant investigative trio, doggedly pursuing a truth buried for nearly two decades during a northeastern autumn.
Cast
| Actor | Character | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Fan Wei | Wang Xiang | Retired taxi driver / Huagang train driver, obsessively seeking the truth about his son's death |
| Qin Hao | Gong Biao | Wang Xiang's brother-in-law, a smooth-talking laid-off worker who faces adversity with optimism |
| Chen Minghao | Ma Desheng | Retired police detective, haunted by regret over the unsolved dismemberment case |
| Liu Yitie | Wang Yang | Wang Xiang's son, a young man involved in a complicated relationship with Shen Mo |
| Liu Lin | Luo Meisu | Wang Xiang's wife, a strong and resilient northeastern woman |
| Li Gengxi | Shen Mo | A mysterious girl, a central figure in the case |
Cultural Impact
The Long Season transcends typical suspense dramas and has received such high acclaim because it touches on a profound theme of the times—the decline of the old industrial bases in Northeast China and the fate of generations of northeasterners. The state-owned enterprise reforms of the 1990s caused millions of northeastern workers to lose their "iron rice bowls," transforming them from former masters of society into its marginalized members. The series' depiction of the layoff wave at Huagang, the hardships faced by workers after losing their livelihood security, and the economic decline of the small city are all authentic reflections of that era.
Fan Wei's performance is the soul of the series. He masterfully portrays Wang Xiang's journey from a confident Huagang train driver to a down-and-out taxi driver, and finally to an elderly man still stubbornly seeking the truth. Particularly powerful is the final scene—where the elderly Wang Xiang shouts to his younger self to "look forward, don't look back"—a moment that became one of the most震撼人心的 (heart-stirring) images on Chinese screens in 2023. Fan Wei won multiple awards for this role, including the Best Actor award at the Shanghai Television Festival's Magnolia Awards.
The series' soundtrack has also been highly praised. The use of the ending theme song "Looking Back Again" is a stroke of genius, bringing viewers to tears each time it plays. Director Xin Shuang films the northeastern autumn like a melancholic poem—golden leaves, gray skies, empty factory grounds—every frame saturated with nostalgia and sorrow for a bygone era.
References
- Douban Movie: https://movie.douban.com/subject/35503073/
- Baidu Baike: https://baike.baidu.com/item/漫长的季节
- Wikipedia: https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/漫长的季节_(电视剧)
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