I honestly don't know where to start lol bc this was a drama with a lot of side stories and characters. I think I'm gonna start with why I watched this drama: Allen Ren lol. I finished Under The Power and I was excited for another Allen drama as I am a big fan. Since we're talking about the actors/actresses, I'll start with the acting.

Acting: Although I liked Allen in this drama, I think Chi Cheng (2nd ML), Miyamoto, and YC's brother stole the show for me. Liu Huan (LH) portrayed CC so well and I really enjoyed all of his microexpressions from being worried to being scared to being semi-happy. I was always really scared for him getting caught rather than YC. Miyamoto MA GAWD, although he played the evil character and was a bitch sometimes, I never really hated him lol. His portrayal was on point and I genuinely liked seeing him on screen. His anger and rage and annoyance was spot on and he's so smart too eversince the first episode but noone believed him or was too scared to believe him. YC's brother is on a whole another level lol. I like his comedic scenes but I also love his character in general. I felt like for character wise, he does so much more than YC lol like YC barely did anything himself, he only thought of the plans. As for Li Man (FL), I actually like Li Man, I think she's very capable of an actress, but this script did her dirty. This script made her useless and annoying for the most part of the drama. Her character had so much potential like imagine if YC didn't keep her and she joined forces with CC or imagine if YC and his brother trained her to be a communist and have her charcter changed from being wimpy to strong lol. Like YC depended so much on his brother for executing his plans, why coudln't the FL also be apart of the plan and stop being timid you feels. I digress. CC and 2nd FL was cute lol but their romance dragged esp, when CC kept rejecting her. She's not the type to take his rejection like she's a strong person so the plot should've made her become a communist and help CC as well. XF and XP were okay, their acting was good but not memorable to me. Other than that, the supporting character, esp Miyamoto's right hand man was awesome.

Plot: I said it once and I'll say it again, CC and YC should've known eachother's communist status on their trip to Vietnam or when HK was caught, there was no reason to drag it out to ep 47. Anyone with common sense would suspect YC and CC like they were in on every communist plan?!?!?!? Anyways, this made the plot less enjoyable bc they could've done so much more than going back and fourth on their missions. It made me not want to watch anymore bc like you want to know when they know but when the plot keeps dragging it, the suspense and thrill just dies down rather than increase. HK shouldn't have died and YC should've saved him in my opinion that would've made the plot so much more thrilling than him dying but still YC didn't get much info from him. YC's dad should've appeared earlier on lol bc Sato didn't seem much like a threat throughout the entire drama. The ending was anticlimatic to say the least lol, I expected CC to get YC out of prison or smth of that nature but he didn't. I also expected more from FL like to get smarter and help rather than going away. I think this drama coudl've done without romance or at least YC didn't need a romance bc it didn't add to the story. CC and 2nd FL was cute tho and added to the story so I don't mind.

Cinematography: I don't mind the editing and the cut scenes but whenever there was romance involved, the cut from romance to serious scenes were weird lol like they be trying the most to tell us that ML and FL are in love. I enjoy how they decided to execute spy message scenes like the subtle camera shot of the message and I really like how they introduce the characters whenever there was a new character with their codename and pause for a second. The colors were nice as well and I enjoyed the torture scenes as it looked very real lol.

Overall: I think this drama for the first half was pretty good but then it dragged towards the end and the ending was a bit anticlimatic. I think the acting and interactions between the characters really made this drama. Although I came for Allen, I have to say that this was not his best or one of his best works as his character made him stiff and he didn't really do much other than plan schemes with a serious facial expression. His "romance" scenes weren't great other but I digress. I would say LH (CC) and LTZ (Miyamoto) surpassed Allen's acting in this series and really made the plot all the more interesting. I also like Sato lol. The females in this drama were all okay but there was no one that made a "WOW" impression on me. Overall, I enjoyed this drama for the most part and I do recommend it but I wouldn't be upset if someone decided to drop this drama lol.