C-Drama Review: Deep Lurk, a Riveting Espionage Drama

Deep Lurk is surprisingly a fantastic drama to watch! If you are a spy/espionage drama fan looking for one, this is the best one to check now. It is highly entertaining and mind-churning at the same time. 😂 It will burn your brain trying to digest all the information, strategies, and who the culprits are. It is fast-paced so you need to pay attention to the sequences of events and understand its character to understand the succeeding events. 

Deep Lurk began filming in 2019 but had to stop due to the pandemic. They only resumed in early April 2020, and wrapped up filming in May 2020. They secured the license to air later that year, but for unknown reasons, it was stalled. Finally, on November 13, 2024, iQIYI and CCTV-8 (China's state broadcaster) released the drama in its late afternoon slot.

Deep Lurk is a historical drama. It tackles real events and period in Chinese history before the first Battle of Changsha in September 1939 could take place. It was one of the four attempts of Japanese forces to take over Changsha. Just like in Deep Lurk, Chinese forces were triumphant in quelling the Japanese forces because, according to Chinese historian, it was the period where Chinese forces became stronger and Japanese forces became weaker.

Plot Summary:

Deep Lurk is a republican era spy drama. The story is set in 1939 before the first Battle of Changsha in China. It follows Yun Hongshen (played by Cheng Yi) who traveled back to Changsha from Shanghai, to trace the murderer of his father, Yun Muzhi (played by Wang Jinsong). Hongshen believed that Japanese agents are behind the murder of his father. 

In Changsha, he was reunited with his older brother, Yun Hongqi (played by Zhang Tianyang), and grandmother, and got to meet his father's close friend, Yang Zeming (He Zhonghua), the minister of Economic Affair. The brothers also met a nurse, Ming Lan (played by Hou Mengyao), who they befriended. 

In his pursuit of tracking the murderer of his father, Yun Hongshen became the target of the NBIS, the Republican military agency. He was hunted by the agency led by Wen Yeming (played by Ying Er). The agency's chief, Ke Jingping (played by Liu Huan), upon learning Hongshen's skills and talent in pursuing enemies, invited Hongshen to be a part of the agency.

Cheng Yi as Yun Hongshen

Yun Hongshen realized he and the NBIS had the same goal of breaking the Japanese spy network in Changsha, so he decided to join the agency. There, he met the formidable NBIS director, Ling Han (played by Han Chengyu) who gave him a hard time pursuing his goal. They later resorted to mind games, launching their strategies and tactics, trying to outwit each other, resulting to a deadly game of survival. 

However, Yun Hongshen realized that defeating Ling Han is not his ultimate goal but to uncover the most dangerous Japanese secret agent who had been lurking in Changsha for more than a decade, planning a great deception to invade Changsha. Kunwu. Hongshen is convinced this man was behind the murder of his father. Later, it was not merely about revenge, Hongshen realized that he must do everything to help save Changsha and the motherland from Japanese invasion. 

Cheng Yi, Ying Er, and Zhang Tianyang

Our Review:

This is a surprisingly good drama! It's fast-paced, compact, well-crafted, and the cast delivered fantastic performances. This is also the first time that Cheng Yi appeared in a Republican era drama and he performed well as the brilliant spy, Yun Hongshen.

This is my best C-Drama watch in 2024, it's like reading a deeply engaging book that I can't put down until the last page.

The identity of kunwu, not only provides the framework of suspense but also teaches us how to come up with a better judgement. It is no longer the question of who he is among them, it's more on how our mind works, whether we trust our instinct or doubt the logic and assess the situation. So this drama makes us utilize our ability to analyze a complex situation using logical reasoning.

Kunwu's identity might be obvious even in the early episodes, but the drama laid out events that stirred up our minds and confused us, which made us doubt our judgement. Which is good because that's what spy drama is all about. 

Secret identities in a suspense drama are usually visible, someone who the main character is already acquainted with, but someone is not too obvious, sometimes it's a random person in the circle of friends of the main character. 

In Deep Lurk, it was not a random person, and he is one of the suspects at the very start but the way the drama set up the play, we hesitated to make our final judgement if it's really him haha! Which is really good. It didn't ruin the essence of the story because the script didn't let us feel dumb. It still keeps the viewers on the edge, creating a compelling finale.

This drama has been consistent in dishing the viewers with doses of mystery and suspense from start to finish. Republican era genre is not my type of genre but Deep Lurk is an exemption. It has a unique ability to keep the viewers glued on the screen with its well-written script.

It's one of the best espionage series I've watched in recent memory. It's Cheng Yi's second best drama so far after Mysterious Lotus Casebook when it comes to plot, flow, character, and quality of the script. It's simply riveting.