My Old Classmate and But Always are both recent films following the nostalgic trend after the success of So Young and American Dreams in China, but did they succeed, or were they mere capitalistic ventures to ride on the commercial success of their predecessors? Warning: There might be spoilers.
Sleeper hit web-series, The Death Notice: The Darker 暗黑者, adds refreshing humor to a traditionally somber genre, and instead of restricting itself to the usual themes of revolutionary spies, drug wars, and efforts against localized corruption, the show actually challenges a number of social norms and stigmas, something new for c-dramas.
The Death Notice is best described as a crime thriller comedy. Season 1 based off the first book in Zhou Haohui’s Death Notice trilogy, which follows the main character, Luo Fei 罗飞 (played by the brilliant Guo Jingfei 郭京飞 of “Longmen Express 龙门镖局”), an idiosyncratic police academy professor with a hidden past, as he joins a team of misfits to discover and capture the mysterious killer, Darker, a vigilante who targets criminals that have otherwise escaped legal punishment.