With You (review)

With You is an anthology of stories about life in China right before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The drama is set against the backdrop of the pandemic and focuses on the struggles and challenges faced by individuals, families, and communities as they navigate the uncertainties brought about by the pandemic.

Here are my favourite stories:

Episodes 1 and 2

Doctors of a hospital grapple with the realities of a pandemic including the heart-rending cost of not being able to save every soul.

This was a realistic depiction of the realities of the early days of the pandemic. The story of the old woman waiting for her son to come out of the ICU, and how it affected everyone in the hospital, formed the heart of the story.

Episodes 3 and 4

A delivery rider watches the city implode as a mysterious virus appears. He decides to continue delivering food and driving people around, even volunteering for hospital work despite the anger of his wife.

Starring Ni Ni.

During the pandemic, we depended so much on delivery riders. Yet, despite putting their lives in danger, they get so little in return. I liked how this story highlighted how he was torn between doing the right thing (volunteering to ferry hospital workers and getting them food) and his wife’s anger at his “selfishness” of not placing his family first by putting himself in danger (and possibly bringing home the virus).

Episodes 5 and 6

Two medical students go on a road trip to return to Wuhan after news of the pandemic hits. They could’ve chosen to stay in the safety of their rural towns but decided that they were needed back in Wuhan. However, the trip proved to be more challenging than thought.

Starring Yang Yang.

Okay, this was a more pleasant sojourn compared to many of the stories. It highlights the paranoia in the rural areas about people coming from the cities. It does make me think about how Malaysian villages fared during the time. A lot of the coverage was about the cities, and hardly anyone talked about what was happening in the outskirts.

Episode 15 and 16

A chef ends up stranded in Wuhan when he takes the wrong train. Without any accommodation or money, he decides to take a job at the hospital as a cleaner. At first, he was so terrified by what he saw that he fled, but in the end, he overcomes his fear to serve the staff and patients inside. Starring the now-thoroughly-cancelled-because-of-unpaid-taxes Deng Lun.

This was my favourite tale because our hero was very relatable. (Also it was wild that this actually happened—that people ended up stranded in cities when lockdown was suddenly imposed.)

Our main character was, in the beginning, quite cowardly, and there will be a part of you who will be twitching at his actions. Watching him grow a spine and develop empathy for the patients and hospital workers was gratifying. Also, it was nice to see Deng Lung out of wigs for once!

Conclusion

I enjoy dramas about social issues, and China produces some of the most positive ones out there. So often, dramas that centre around society’s ills get so dark and depressing, but I like China’s brand of social issue dramas because they often have a more hopeful message.

Sure, call this propaganda if you like, but With You isn’t it despite what you may think. For one, there are criticisms about the Chinese government’s COVID-19 actions, but I suspect that Western or international viewers are not used to the more subtle or softer way Asians tend to criticise the authorities. Or, they view the more communal approach to solving issues with suspicion.

To be honest, some episodes were a bit dull, and some were a little jingoistic for me to suspend disbelief. The stories that won me over were the stories about ordinary people just trying to cope with a crazy situation—the delivery men, the ordinary workers and more.

Final rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Admittedly, this drama is difficult to access. If you’re not geo-blocked, you can watch it via iQIYI.

#3Stars #CDrama #CDramas #China #ChineseDrama #Covid #covid19 #TV