Ripe Town: Spoiler-Free Mini Review
- Jul 10
- 3 min read
Updated: 12 hours ago
Title: | Ripe Town (2023) |
Platform: | Viki, Youtube, WeTV |
MDL & Douban Rating: | 8.1 & 8.5 |
Genre: | Period Investigative Thriller/Mystery |
Episode Count: | 12 |
Parental Guidance Rating: | PG-13: This should be MA, if not for content, then at least for comprehension. The content straddles between TV-16/MA. Violence, murder, child abuse, torture, partial nudity. |
Starring: | Bai Yu Fan (The Hunt) Ning Li (Joy of Life S2) Julia Xiang (Love of the Divine Tree) Liu Yi Tong (Created in China) Zeng Li (Love Like the Galaxy) Zhang Hao Wei (Who Rules the World) Yu Yao (Love in the Clouds) |
RBTS Rating: | 4.5/5 Stars  |
Cast From Left to Right: #BaiYuFan, #NingLi, #JuliaXiang, #LiuYiTong
Synopsis:
In the 37th year of the Wan Li Period of the Ming Dynasty, a series of bizarre murders occur in Jiangnan County, with unrelated victims posed strangely and a cryptic sentence left at each scene. Xiaohu Kuaiqu Sanren, the apprentice of the first victim, teams up with friends to investigate. As they dig deeper, they encounter a diverse group of people, and a ten-year-old case resurfaces. Who is the murderer, and what is their motive? @MDL
Stay tuned for my full review!
Spoiler-Free Mini Review:
What a masterpiece! On the surface, Ripe Town is a crime thriller about catching a serial killer, but the real meat of the story is unravelling the iceberg of cases lurking underneath. The first half of the show really embodies the principle “Great men rarely align with their ideals", while the second half wrestles with how far one is willing to go to get justice, and if going that far no longer qualifies it as that. The drama explores the hypocrisy of Confucianism in this society, and the absurdity and selectivity in legal system it formed.
This is not a feel good show. The constant corruption is suffocating, but it allows you to feel the helplessness and complexity of what it takes to get what you want, dare I say deserve, while remaining a “good” person. The themes were so powerful and layered on top of each other like a delicious 10 tier cake. The pursuit of power was so interesting—all roads led toward it—but even once obtained, the characters were still trapped. In the words of Qui Gon Jinn "There is always a bigger fish".
Told in two timelines (Present and flashback), Ripe Town is an existential thought experiment on justice, morality, and revenge, told through characters who only ever wanted a better life. The low rating on
MDL is expected because there are no "traffic" idol actors, nor romance.
Story= 5 (Truly outstanding. I doubted at some points, but by the end I understood it)
Acting= 4.5 (Didn’t love the bailiff ML, but maybe it’s because he played his role too well. I’m used to a certain type of ML, but this one broke the mold. Many shouts out to Judge Song)
Production Quality=4.75 (Felt very authentic, I think because it was so contained, but the women’s wigs were not anatomically correct)
Ending=4 (I was crushed like the little bug I am, and felt it was slightly anticlimactic, but overall I GOT IT)
Enjoyability= 4.5 (I was so intrigued but I feel traumatized)
Trailer:
Director: #WangZheng
Screenwriter: #WangZheng
*Disclaimer: I do not own any of the images used on this blog. All images belong to their respective copyright holders and are used for commentary and review purposes. All reviews, opinions, and statements expressed on this blog are my own and are intended for entertainment and informational purposes only. They reflect my personal thoughts and interpretations and should not be considered as factual.
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