[Review] Reunion: The Sound of the Providence (重启之极海听雷) Season 1

Title: Reunion: The Sound of the Providence or known as The Lost Tomb Reboot 重啟之極海聽雷
# of Episodes: 32 (Season 1)
Release Date: July 15^th, 2020- Aug 13th, 2020
Where to Watch: iQiYi app or website (VIP restriction) or Viki (they will be getting this show sometime this year)

Warning: Some spoilers here, but overall will not go in-depth on this review!

Why did I start watching this?

For the actors that form our iron triangle/trio– Zhu Yilong, Chen Minghao and Huang Junjie!

Plot/Synopsis Recap

The iron triangle Wu Xie, Pang Zi and Zhang Qiling restart their adventure after receiving an unusual text from Wu Sansheng. Wu Xie, Pang Zi and Zhang Qiling have hung up their hats to end a ten-year promise. After trading their adventures for a normal life, a text from Wu Sansheng drives them to embark on a mysterious journey for the sake of family and friendship. (Source: Chinesedrama.info)

This story takes place after ten years or so from the main storyline (The Lost Tomb series). We have the reunion of the iron triangle after Zhang Qiling dealt with certain matters and has returned. Uncle Three remains missing. Before an unusual text from Wu Sansheng (Uncle Three), Pang Zi lives with Wu Xie and both run an antique store.

Please note that this is only one part of the drama as it has 66 episodes with 32 episodes being the first part and the second half will air later with 34 episodes of the same cast.

Cast/Characters

Zhu Yilong (朱一龙) as Wu Xie (吴邪)

Born to a family of grave robbers and the grandson of Wu Lao Gou (Mystic Nine’s 5th master) in Changsha, and nephew of Wu Sansheng, a masterful tycoon of Southern scholars (embarks on grave-robbing adventures). He is now considered the head of the family. Because his lungs have become damaged, he only has three months to live. At the same time when he received a text message from his third uncle, he has decided to embark on a search for his missing third uncle to fulfill his last wish. After finding out his third uncle’s disappearance was related to tinglei (sounds of thunder), he set foot on a similar path as third uncle to seek out thunder.

Chen Minghao (陈明昊) as Wang Pang Zi “Fatty Wang” (王胖子)

One of the iron triangle. Although his figure is fat, he is nimble. He has been very concerned about and takes care of Wu Xie. Often called “Fatty mom”. After Wu Xie fell ill and second uncle took the antique shop, he rented an apartment to live with Wu Xie. When Wu Xie entered the Warehouse 11th to investigate clues about third uncle, he would assist Wu Xie in dealing with outside matters.

Huang Junjie (黄俊捷) as Zhang Qiling (张起灵)

Nicknamed Xiao Ge (Little Older Brother). One of the iron triangle. Although he is taciturn, he can has insight to everything. He can appear in critical moments, giving people a sense of security. Following Wu Xie’s investigation on clues of third uncle, he has found out that Wu Xie has fallen ill with his lung condition deteriorating and his life span becoming short. After second uncle arranged for Wu Xie to return to the old house, he follows after second uncle to Lei city (City of Thunder) in search of clues on third uncle.

Mao Xiaotong (毛晓彤)as Bai Haotian (白昊天)

Descendant of the Bai family, she is a high-level warehouse manager of the Warehouse 11th. Skillful while heart is pure and adorable. When she heard about Wu Xie’s deeds, she became Wu Xie’s number one fangirl. When Wu Xie entered Warehouse 11th to search for third uncle’s whereabouts, she provided support to Wu Xie inside and take part in assisting him.

Hu Jun (胡军) as Wu Er Bai (吴二白)

Wu Xie’s second uncle who has always been concerned about and has taken care of Wu Xie. Yet, he is very mysterious. He is a shrewd individual and is rather deeply black-bellied of the uncles. Took Zhang Qiling, Liu Sang, and Hei Yanjing to Lei city (City of Thunder) to look for clues. Second uncle is the driving force behind everything Wu Xie has experienced after he has fallen ill and whose aim is to treat Wu Xie’s illness.

Baron Chen or Chen Chuhe (陈楚河) as Hei Yanjing “Black Glasses” (黑眼镜)

A close friend of Wu Xie. A highly valuable force. Because eyes loose eyesight in places with light, the darker the place, the better he can see. Therefore, he wears black sunglasses. His identity is a mystery and has been following Wu Er Bai– first to the mute village to seek clues of Lei city (City of Thunder) and then to Lei city to explore the mystery.

Overall Impression

As someone who has watched bits of Lost Tomb 1 and the full series of Lost Tomb 2, I dived into this drama with some knowledge already of our main trio and others as well along with excitement for the leads whom I have watched in other shows. It helps that there are some novel readers clarifying uncertainties in the comment section (mydramalist and other forums) so that I have gotten a clearer understanding of the story. I also noted of the information that the series was originally filmed to span 72 episodes but had to cut down to 66 episodes because of censorship which includes restructuring and editing some parts of the storyline, namely the re-recording of the voice dub-overs.

It is evident that the editing due to censorship has made the story somewhat chopping in certain parts and that I started noticing the voice dubs were out of sync and weird by the end of the drama. The pacing was quite uneven at times and I found that they focus a bit too much on the mute village at times. Perhaps if we had the full 66 episodes, the pacing in the first half would not have been too noticeable.

In addition, due to possibly the censorship, they inserted more scenes of the female characters to the overall story such as Ya Nv (mute girl), Bai Haotian, and Ye Piao Piao. Personally, I enjoyed the scenes with Bai Haotian and Wu Xie in the 11th Warehouse and found her character very cute. She does serve a purpose in that storyline and I can see the reasons behind having her character in the story. However, I cannot say the same for Ya Nv and Piao Piao. It seems they wanted to make this less of a bromance type of story and into a more common romance storyline. There were way more scenes between Ya Nv and Hei Yanjing than what was needed and I found myself fast-forwarding their scenes so much. Perhaps in the second season they will have Ya Nv joined the tomb adventures or something, but as of this post, I don’t see much of her character purpose in the story. Whereas for Piao Piao, I felt frustrated by her character and felt that they could have written her character to be smarter and more reliable. Furthermore, due to the editing, they have cut out the illness of Piao Piao’s daughter which would make an interesting case mystery. The link for the later mysteries of this season was not there as much, which resulted in the story not tying together too much.

Now that negative parts I have gotten out, the good parts include the cinematography and the acting. I felt that the CGI and effects of this Lost Tomb franchise are a major improvement from the previous Lost Tomb series. It felt so realistic and the part with the paper figurines definitely gave a thriller-like moment for me. The casting here was solid and my favorite part was when Wu Xie was under the illusion in the sea palace tomb and showed fear at the possible deaths of his two closed friends. I felt Zhu Yilong’s portrayal of Wu Xie was fantastic. He definitely carried Wu Xie well as someone who had to go through so much and has to deal with his illness (deteriorating health) in this series. Huang Junjie was actually a pretty decent Zhang Qiling and his acting here was an improvement from his previous drama (Dr. Cutie). Chen Minghao was a solid Fatty Wang and others were alright. The songs included in this show were decent and work well with the story. Overall, minus the editing, the production values for this show were good. The production did attempt to keep the story somewhat coherent for a good portion of this season despite censorship, so I’ll give them some slacks. They had to edit to hopefully increase the chances of airing this drama as I’ve read that they took quite a long time filming for this show and probably spent a substantial amount of budget.

Final Verdict: Decent watch. The tomb-robbing/raiding scenes were executed well enough. The cast are solid. As for the storyline, not that great, but not the worst of the drama storylines I’ve watched. Would I recommend this for folks who like tomb-raiding? Yes. For folks who read the novels? Maybe. Folks who want more scenes of the iron triangle? Nah.