Plot

The year is 2022, Zhang Chi ft Wang Yan Li has been the hot shot driver in the Chinese Rally Racing world for for the past several years, representing his scrappy Pegasus team. He’s been a constant thorn to the more powerful and wealthy Master Racing Team. In 2022, he suffers a devastating injury, and due to other actions, is banned from racing for 5 years. In the intervening years, a new young driver, Lin Zhen Dong ft Hu Xian Xu takes the racing world by storm. In 2027, Zhang Chi claims that he will beat Lin Zhen Dong at the next race in Bayanbulak. The two race but Zhang Chi’s car malfunctions at the end of the track and he plunges to the depths. He’s rushed to the hospital but falls into a coma. He suddenly wakes back up in 2022 in the body of the then 21 year old Lin Zhen Dong before all of the unfortunate events that befalls the Pegasus team. Zhang Chi, in the body of Lin Zhen Dong, vows to make things right and tries to change the course of history. 

The drama itself is based off a pretty popular film series Pegasus and Pegasus 2 which stars Shen Teng and Huang Jing Yu in the original. I personally hadn’t watched the movies but based on the initial buzz for this drama, I don’t think anyone was expecting a separate drama for these two movies. This drama essentially is set in a separate universe that retells the story of the 5 years where Zhang Chi is banned. Somewhat different from the movie, the main star here really is Hu Xian Xu for his portrayal of both Lin Zhen Dong and Zhang Chi.

The drama was a fun and entertaining watch because while it follows the familiar tropes of new wunderkind surprising the whole field and being taken under the wing of a more veteran driver, the time travel and inhabitance of different bodies really kept this story fresh. Add to the fact that this drama was only 28 episodes long meant that the story didn’t drag.

Car racing is rising in popularity in China and I’m impressed that we actually got a drama about Rallying. I did a quick check and China has hosted Rally China since 1997 as part of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship. I don’t believe there are any active Chinese Rally Racers at the most elite level right now. Perhaps unsurprisingly because it is the biggest car market in the world. I follow formula one so I know that there’s one Chinese F1 driver and this year will be the first year they have the Shanghai Formula One Grand Prix since Covid. Hopefully this drama helps drive (hehe) more interest to Rallying but unfortunately it didn’t do too well ratings wise. I actually wished this drama had more buzz than it did. It only breached 6700 on the YouKu index, which is rather low considering that other dramas such as In Blossoms regularly broke 10,000. However, this was well received by viewers breaking 8 on weibo ratings.

What I liked

• Twist on time travel: When I started watching this drama, I thought, here we go again. The main character, has the Midas touch, goes back in time to try and change the course of history. It’ll be smooth sailing, right? I’m glad I was wrong! The drama starts out with the still rash but determined veteran Zhang Chi traveling back in time into the body of the young Lin Zhen Dong trying to change the course of history. This drama cleverly turns that story on its head by having Zhang Chi and Lin Zhen Dong alternate who has control of the body. The characters also quickly catch on that something is wrong with Lin Zhen Dong. I don’t want to spoil too much, but let’s just say that it is refreshing that the characters don’t have the gift of foresight for much of the drama.
• Hu Xian Xu’s acting: I hadn’t watched a drama with Hu Xian Xu before despite him being a child actor and I went in with some trepidation. I think he was the best actor of the bunch, which is no small feat as he’s surrounded by veterans such as Wan Yan Lin and Yu En Tai (although that might be a statement more about the other two). I thought he was quite impressive with his acting abilities in the drama, convincingly switching between the reserved, yet secretly passionate Lin Zhen Dong, and the more outlandish and rasher Zhang Chi. I thought he did admirably in mimicking quite a lot of Wang Yan Lin’s mannerisms to the point that I could clearly tell which persona took over. He has a bright future ahead of him and I will be watching his career. I will be honest though; he just looks WAY too young. He was only 21 when he filmed the drama and also got a racing license to prep for this drama, which is exactly his age in the drama, but I had a hard time being convinced that he could turn into an elite driver. I know the F1 drivers also start really young, but it took me a while to get over my mental dissonance.
• Team Dynamic: Much of the story is set at the garage and headquarters of the Pegasus racing team. It’s a scrappy and tight knit team, and honestly, I wish I had a team like this to support me. Each character tries their best to support the two main racers and really support the oftentimes weird Lin Zhen Dong. They accept that he has a dual personality and try their best to support him even when mentally, he’s struggling with the two personalities. I’m also glad that they didn’t throw in random romance storylines for the sake of it. Even though we don’t spend too much time with the team, the drama is able to showcase a fun team environment that also faces the hardships of trying to fund their team. Car racing isn’t cheap and honestly, I don’t know how such a scrappy team like Pegasus can even survive in reality but hey, let’s keep this dream in the drama.
• Rallying!: This was a fun foray into a new sport that I haven’t seen on Chinese TV. Even though most of the drama was filmed in Ning Bo, near Shanghai, the cast and crew went on location to Xin Jiang and other sites to film the races. I really enjoyed the races, vistas, and cars showcased in the drama because we got to see the cars racing on different terrain and at speed too. The show did a decent job in explaining the point system, the types of races, and the qualifications to the World Rally Championships and the significance of Dakar. I think this was a good start to introduce more interest about motorsports.
• Racing Friendships: From what I know from F1, drivers (the current slate) are generally on good terms with other but the pressures of racing do and can turn the whole competition into a rather toxic environment. This drama was also able to showcase healthy budding friendships amongst drivers from different teams. Lin Zhen Dong becomes friends with two other drivers, and while each of them want to win, won’t stoop to sabotaging each other just to gain an upper hand. I enjoyed that these drivers respected each other for being ambitious drivers and wanted to win fair and square. 

Stray observations: What was really cute is that the entire cast from Season 5 of Divas Hit the Road helped promote the film on Weibo. 6 out of the 7 had a reunion and filmed a short promo for Hu Xian Xu. All 7 of them promoted the drama on Weibo. Aww, we were all waiting for a reunion and got one! 

Let me know your thoughts on this drama!