Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty II: To the West (2024) A Recommendation

The Lu-Su mystery solving gang are back and this time there’s no pussy-footing or the obligatory head-butting that comes packaged with a buddy cop storyline. This time round it seems that the showrunners got their act together and the tightly woven storytelling is the result. Unlike say, Sweet Home 2 which was the troublesome middle child that was clamouring for attention with the promise of lots of shiny toys, the sequel to Strange Tales maintains its scope and scale while cutting out the dross of its predecessor. It’s a rare sequel that is better than the one that started it all. Not only is it a continuation of the journey embarked by the rag tag team that grudgingly found common cause, but also portends more ominous happenings on the horizon. Hence the greenlighting of Part 3. Of course credit must be given where credit is due. The second series couldn’t have happened without the first laying the necessary groundwork as well as establishing character arcs along the way.

*No major spoilers*

It helps a great deal that Lu Lingfeng (Yang Xuwen), the deputy of the Supreme Court (Da Li Si) — less a law court and more an investigative body — has grown up and is less prone to temper tantrums. He’s a diligent and bright lad to be sure but tended to do things by the book and was inflexible about the use of deception to elicit answers. Under the tutelage of Su Wuming (Yang Zhigang), who is a direct disciple of the great Tang statesman, Di Renjie, Lu Lingfeng makes great leaps as a detective. In the previous season he was on a hero’s journey which saw those rough edges knocked off by bizarre encounters in seemingly intractable cases as well as the behind the scenes factional power plays that he inevitably became embroiled in. On top of that, he was relentlessly pursued by Pei Xijun, the daughter of a former court official for much of the show due to a switcheroo if memory serves. The push and pull was exhausting and stymied the plot developments unnecessarily in my opinion. Once Pei Xijun (Gao Siwen) got her man and Lu Lingfeng accepted that there was no escaping this love match, the drooling puppy tail-wagging came to a halt.

Romance is really a smallish portion of this show and even more miniscule in part 2, mostly in service of the odd comic relief at the lead men’s expense. If one awaits in eager anticipation of fireworks in the laboratory of love, one will come away disappointed. The investigative team is what really matters and now that they’re all getting accustomed to each other’s idiosyncrasies, they’re humming along like a well-tuned instrument. It is the mark of a good leader that he/she knows how to use people well. Despite the demotion, the de facto leader of the team is still Su Wuming, the older and wiser mentor who has garnered enough respect from the others who despite their natural propensity to act on their own. Along for the ride are wonder physician Fei Yingjun aka Chicken Fed named for his love of chicken and Ying Tao, a jianghu pugilist who has a strong attachment to Su Wuming. All five members develop a strong bond that transcend even those among family as they take up their various positions in the group.

Part 2 begins in Chang’an with the painting of a mural in the royal temple. The wine-imbing capricious artist, something of a national celebrity, has been commissioned by the princess to depict the defeat of a mythological demon (Mara). Unfortunately for the Chang’an public, the monster has come to life and has wreaked havoc not only at the Ghost Market. There’s also a serial murderer afoot that’s connected with the art world… so to speak. Lu Lingfeng is tasked with unmasking the murderer until his sudden disappearance which leads to the recall of Su Wuming from his post guarding the royal mausoleum. Although the duo are successful in unveiling the perpetrator(s), they fall victim to the political winds and are unceremoniously dispatched to the western region of the country where there’s no shortage of puzzling matters to occupy their collective minds. Like the first series, it’s Agatha Christie meets Scooby Doo with a dash of Sherlock Holmes on a collision course with the X Files. There are also reverberations of the old Justice Bao stories as well as allusions to Journey to the West in the mix. Whatever notable style of detective fiction might be on display, the show takes the opportunity to showcase the very worst and commendable of human motivations.

The creative arts are a constant feature of the show’s greater landscape in the battle of ideas. Whether it’s painting, drawing, calligraphy, poetry, carving or song, the heights of human expression are demonstrated in every case. It’s the Tang dynasty afterall so there’s plenty of material to choose from. Masks are a common motif in these strange tales. All the world is actually a stage. The men and women at the dominant end of the food chain have set the stage for a piece of theatre that have large ranging ramifications for the grassroots. National politics affect local politics even while the latter has its own flavour. There are puppet masters pulling the strings from behind the veil. There are others who hide behind the veneer of respectability to profit from the vulnerability of others. As masks and facades were a mainstay in the Scooby Doo franchise to conceal sinister goals, masks serve a similar purpose which wear out the integrity of the social fabric. This accounts for the quaint if earnest overtones of patriotism that punctuates the cases. It’s the Great Tang here. It’s the Great Tang there. The implication being that the individual lives and dies for one’s country regardless if he’s an alcohol addled artist or a ten-year-old child unabashedly proud of his hometown.

It is the job of the investigators to see past the theatre and get at the truth behind the manifold layers of deceit and truth claims. These are elaborate scams calculated to pull wool over the eyes of the less discerning until the objectives are met. By then the damage is incalculable. Exposing the truth is one key task but saving the vulnerable common folk from dangerous subversives is the endgame.

What makes the Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty franchise superior to your average C historical idol drama is its purposeful integration of history and politics of the day with modern developments in the detective genre as defined by the likes of Agatha Christie. The procedural beats are undoubtedly familiar to aficionados and yet this is still a C drama in the best sense. The Tang dynasty might have been a golden age in Chinese history and Buddhism but prosperity in any age is no guarantee that the darkness that lurks in the human heart won’t manifest its discontent. In fact prosperity more often than not gives shade to other kinds of nefarious activities not discussed ini polite company.