Review: Regeneration C-Drama. Started Strong But Lose Momentum Towards the End

Just finished watching this suspense thriller Chinese drama, Regeneration. What an ending that didn't make sense! 

Believe me, this drama had an impressive start, I was hooked chasing the episodes. Everything sounds good from episode 1 to episode 8 but as it approaches the finale, it becomes inconsistent and ultimately runs out of stem as it reaches the final episode. So disappointing!

Regeneration talks about a con artist guy named Fei Ke (later we knew it was an allusion to "Fake") and his mysterious personality. Fei Ke was played by Jing Boran. The story opens up with him in the airport meeting He Shan (Zhou Yiran), but he collapses before they can meet. 

The next thing we know, five people are summoned to come to the island for Fei Ke's funeral, and these five people were chosen due to their connection to Fei Ke. However, they find out that Fei Ke's body is not there, He Shan said that for them to leave the island, they need to share how they met Fei Ke.

So each of them (except He Shan) shared their recollection of meeting Fei Ke and the relationship that followed. Through their sharing, we know how Fei Ke scammed and deceived them, and how he pretended to be a nice guy to swindle money.

Everything looked thrilling and suspenseful until episode 8 when the story shifted into a different scenario. All four persons did not tell the truth and their sharing was twisted. 

Then it was revealed, that one of them was the mastermind of summoning each of them to the island and that Fei Ke had been tied up inside the boat they were in.

He Shan shared how she met Fei Ke, and it appears they have been friends since high school. Fei Ke's real name is Lei Zherui and he screwed up himself leading to his downfall in adulthood. 

As a teenager, he had experienced humiliation at the hands of his stepmother. He also hated his father for abandoning him and his biological mother, until his mother died. So he devised a revenge scheme against his stepmother and half-brother, a revenge that ultimately backfired. 

But what I did not like about this drama is how Fei Ke met his end. After all the misfortunes and sufferings he underwent in life, the script could have given him a nice finale, a reflection ending, a chance to redeem himself and start a new. 

After all, the title, Regeneration or New Life, denotes a new beginning, a new start, an opportunity to reflect on mistakes and find a new meaning in life again.

But the script became weak towards the end, and just "finished" him off, crushing him until the end, without any opportunity to redeem himself. As if the writer didn't know what to do with the main protagonist.

Even if he completely messed up in life, human beings always deserve second chances! We have so many chances to renew ourselves, to change, to realize our mistakes, and to start anew. This drama just crushed that hope. As if telling us that people who messed up in life are hopeless and deserve to die.

But the weird thing is that all the five people who gathered on the island were given second chances by allowing themselves to realize their mistakes and serve their "sins" in prison. Such a very inconsistent storytelling. It thoroughly lost momentum and did not have a strong finale.