I've read a few english reviews and it really misses a lot of the point. I don't blame the reviewers, because even for casual Chinese and Taiwanese watchers the plot and more importantly, the theme is hard to understand.
------ SPOILER ------
Hard to even write this review to explain the story. On the surface seems to be a gangster revenge and honor type of movie, with some twists in the kidnapping plots. Only at the very very end it is revealed that the entire movie was dreamt, with the old man Tang (real name Xia) as the central figure previewing Quan's fate as he grows older. This is why the theater scene was shown twice, the second time as the ending, without promises of marriage, and only tears in Quan's eyes. It is also finally revealed that Tang/Xia is presumably Quan's mother's first husband, and Tang/Xia ended up in jail because he killed Quan's real father, a man named Chen (only revealed in newspaper clippings in Ep 4). Presumably, somehow Quan knows this fact, which is why he said Tang/Xia was his enemy, at the very end scene, while his friends were teasing him.
This is difficult enough to understand, but then it gets very philosophical. There are many references to Chinese literature and poems, some well known some kind of obscure. There are also quite a few literary themes in Chinese culture that refers to a dreamscape that reveals the future, like a Chinese ghost of Christmas future. Being that the entire story is a dream, Quan is representative of Chinese and Taiwanese people's fates, often not in their control, and controlled by big businesses, governments, and triads. By cycling the fate of son revenging father's death but only to die at the hand of the son and so on, it's trying to comment on the cycle of perpetual hell, or Avici in sanskrit, where suffering is repeated over and over. Most of these poems comment on this fate, and one in particular by Li Shang Ying gets to the heart of what the story is trying to tell, which is complicated but simply put that desires lead to suffering.
There are some things to pick on with the story, such as it's overly complicated with some side plots, loose ends that aren't explained, and plot holes that are not or barely or nonsensically explained. I think this aspect is why it's not well reviewed in the general public. If the story was cleaned up and maybe done as a feature film in 120 minutes it may be easier to follow.
Typically dream endings are decried as cop outs but in this case, the story is technically the cop out as the dream, with the intertwined dream within a dream, is the real story. Presumably as the end of the series show, the events in the dream never happened, yet.
------ SPOILER ------
Hard to even write this review to explain the story. On the surface seems to be a gangster revenge and honor type of movie, with some twists in the kidnapping plots. Only at the very very end it is revealed that the entire movie was dreamt, with the old man Tang (real name Xia) as the central figure previewing Quan's fate as he grows older. This is why the theater scene was shown twice, the second time as the ending, without promises of marriage, and only tears in Quan's eyes. It is also finally revealed that Tang/Xia is presumably Quan's mother's first husband, and Tang/Xia ended up in jail because he killed Quan's real father, a man named Chen (only revealed in newspaper clippings in Ep 4). Presumably, somehow Quan knows this fact, which is why he said Tang/Xia was his enemy, at the very end scene, while his friends were teasing him.
This is difficult enough to understand, but then it gets very philosophical. There are many references to Chinese literature and poems, some well known some kind of obscure. There are also quite a few literary themes in Chinese culture that refers to a dreamscape that reveals the future, like a Chinese ghost of Christmas future. Being that the entire story is a dream, Quan is representative of Chinese and Taiwanese people's fates, often not in their control, and controlled by big businesses, governments, and triads. By cycling the fate of son revenging father's death but only to die at the hand of the son and so on, it's trying to comment on the cycle of perpetual hell, or Avici in sanskrit, where suffering is repeated over and over. Most of these poems comment on this fate, and one in particular by Li Shang Ying gets to the heart of what the story is trying to tell, which is complicated but simply put that desires lead to suffering.
There are some things to pick on with the story, such as it's overly complicated with some side plots, loose ends that aren't explained, and plot holes that are not or barely or nonsensically explained. I think this aspect is why it's not well reviewed in the general public. If the story was cleaned up and maybe done as a feature film in 120 minutes it may be easier to follow.
Typically dream endings are decried as cop outs but in this case, the story is technically the cop out as the dream, with the intertwined dream within a dream, is the real story. Presumably as the end of the series show, the events in the dream never happened, yet.