During a recent family health issue, this was what I was watching every night when I came back home after a full day at the hospital.
I am not that into mystery/detective-type shows but this was highly recommended, and I do like my “ancient/historical” setting stories, so while this was not my usual genre, I gave it a try, and I was glad I did!
Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty is considered the golden age of Chinese civilization. Even now, about 1500 years or so later, people still consider it the best time where people were extremely polite, there was peace and order, culture and art flourished, government was very organized, and Chang’an, the capital, was considered the best city in the world where merchants from all over came to trade.
1500 years later and we still have this saying that in the Tang Dynasty, you could leave your door unlocked and no one would come in to steal your things.
This is the backdrop where all the “strange tales” happen.
Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty is more of a supernatural mystery-solving series with a side of love story.
The show just aired recently towards the end of September to early October 2022.
Lu Lingfeng is a young aristocrat, currently serving as a General in the Imperial Guard. He has a healthy interest in solving crime and often uses his position to nose around, even though technically, the crimes are not within his purview, but are instead under the jurisdiction of the county sheriff.
Su Wuming is the newly appointed county sheriff. He is a disciple of Di Renjie, a renowned judge in the Tang Dynasty equivalent of the Supreme Court. He knows how to do autopsies, and is very observant and calm in the face of danger, but he has no fighting skills.
Of course, the whole series starts with a mysterious death.
At first, our two main characters are at odds trying to solve the same case, each working their own angles, but eventually they reach the same situations while pursuing their own leads.
Each “case” takes around 5 or so episodes to conclude.
Initially, all their cases seem supernatural. They encounter “ghosts” and “vampires” etc… Through their investigations, the “strange happenings” are all shown to not be supernatural at all, but actually the work of villains/ humans. Kind of like Scooby Doo, LOL.
Well, there are still a few things that seem supernatural (like the ancient magicians doing David Copperfield-level stuff).
The younger Lu Lingfeng is at first overconfident in his conclusions but eventually realizes he has a lot to learn from the older and wiser Su Wuming.
Review
Don’t compare this to methodical Sherlock Holmes, don’t expect it to be like that.
While this is a detective story working a series of cases leading to the big bad, the show is fully immersed in its setting. Our main characters have to dance around two political factions while maintaining their integrity.
They are also sent hither and to by their political benefactors and go through ups and downs at the whims of their sponsors.
There are also some fantastical elements, and strokes of luck befriending other characters that have unique skills.
In spite of all that, the series is solid, it treats the audience with intelligence, and I enjoyed the series. There is a bit of comedy as well to keep the tone of the show light.
There’s no maudlin crying, no main character being abused and bullied by devious relatives or love rivals – it is really just a detective mystery-solving show set in ancient China, and it is done well.
I don’t want to talk too much about the cases because I don’t want to spoil anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. Rest assured that the cases are resolved, although they did leave one thing dangling at the end (the real background of one of the characters was not fully resolved to my satisfaction – we got a lot of hints, but… ), perhaps to tackle next time?
If you want to take a break from dramatic love stories, check out Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty. The show is intelligent but not too full of itself that it will turn off many viewers.
I kind of wished it was more dramatic and that there were more fight scenes, but for what it was, I did enjoy watching it without being too emotionally invested in it.
Also, even though the show deals with murders, etc… I still found it relatively light and easy to watch. They didn’t show the very gruesome details, anyway. They just talked about the gruesome murder details and didn’t show it on screen and didn’t dwell on the horror aspects.
At the end of the show, they promised that they will return. So are they promising a Season 2? Can’t wait!
Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty is on iQiyi 🙂
