The Long Season 1.05

Episode 5

Hualin, 1997. Section chief Xing Juanchan offers Xiang a bribe to look the other way while goods are stolen from Hualin Steel Works. Xiang can't do that. He returns the bribe to Xing. Xiang also tells a couple of thugs who come to visit him to back off.

Xiang gives Yang a hard time for not focusing on school. Yang doesn't want to stay in school. He wants to be a poet. Luo Meisu tries to keep the peace between her husband and their son.

Yang gets to spend a little bit of time with Shen Mo, after work. The day after that he takes her for a walk along the railroad tracks. He tells her about his poetry and his father. She likes his poetry very much.

Shen Mo returns to her dorm and finds her aunt and uncle waiting for her. Her aunt needs some medical treatment and hopes to get it at the university hospital. Shen Mo offers to pay for a room for them while they are in the area with the money she makes playing piano.

Fu Weijun and Sui Dong, two of the guys, from Episode 3 (who beat up the guy who harassed Shen Mo) get attacked by a group of guys who suspect that they stole one of their motorcycles. The two guys fight back so viciously that the other guys back off. Shen Mo later meets with them. Fu Weijun gives her a pager. He wants her to have it. She tries to refuse it but he insists.

Xiang and Luo Meisu wake up at 1 AM. They hear a noise. He goes outside and finds a rat tied to the doorknob of their apartment. He suspects that it is Xing who did it.

Shen Mo's uncle tries to visit her in the evening but she is not in her dorm. She stops by the next day to see him. He has bought her a dress that he wants her to try on while his wife pretends to sleep. She goes into the bathroom to change. It fits but he wants to see her wearing it. She leaves immediately after he has seen that it fits.

Yang buys tickets for Titanic (1997). He gives one to Shen Mo. He talks his boss into letting him have some time off. He walks outside to go the theater where he runs into his father who insists that he come home. Shen Mo watches the movie by herself. She walks out of the theater and finds her uncle waiting for her.

Thoughts

This entire episode was set during 1997. I think that's the first time that an episode has not jumped at least once in time. Biao and Ma Desheng were not in this episode.

This is getting dark. I don't like Shen Mo's uncle. I found out from the Wikipedia page for this series that Fu Weijun, who is deaf, is Shen Mo's brother. I'm not sure if that has been revealed in the show or not up to this point but I don't recall it. Xiang seems to be doing everything he can to destroy his son's life. I don't think he is fully conscious of what he is doing but his insistence on doing things his way is destroying not just his son's life but also their relationship.

I can't stop watching this show now. The two big questions that I hope will be resolved before the end of the show. The first is what happened to Shen Mo? I assume that the dead body is hers but maybe that's just a red herring. The second is what happened to Yang? Is he dead too? Did he have anything (directly or indirectly) to do with Shen Mo's death or disappearance? I am nearing the halfway point and it getting more and more interesting. This is good, really good.