Hard To Find Review

I stumbled upon Hard To Find (难寻) on YouTube and again, the short length attracted me to give it a try. Each episode is only 20 minutes long and that kept me interested all the way to the end. Frankly, I was surprised by the quality and intensity of this short drama. This proves that you don’t need big stars and a huge budget to create a great production. Essentially, it surpassed my expectations and my Hard To Find review below will touch on why this drama deserves more attention from viewers.

My rating: 7.5/10
Episodes: 28 (20 minutes per episode)
Type: Historical Romance
Aired: April 2024
Images Credit: Douban Movie

The Cast Of Hard To Find

• Zhao Yi Qin as Helian Xi
• Shen Yu Jie as Liang Chan / Feng Yuan
• Fang Xiao Dong as Xi Jiu
• Guo Jia Yu as Qin Sang
• Wang Ze Xuan as Feng Yin
• Kay Song Zhao Yi as Hua E
• Wu Ri Li Ge as Shi Ying

Main Characters

Helian Xi

Helian Xi is the Crown Prince of Linchuan. He is a great martial artist and takes his responsibility of reviving his tribe seriously. He appears as ruthless and aloof but is tormented by his lover’s betrayal which caused Linchuan’s downfall.

Liang Chan / Feng Yuan

Liang Chan is Crown Prince of Shuoyun’s fiancee. She is a kind and sincere lady but suffers from amnesia. She is grateful to her fiancee for saving her but has a longing to know about her past. Feng Yuan is her original identity and she is a Princess of Yongzhao.

Supporting Characters

Xi Jiu

Xi Jiu is Liang Chan’s fiancee. He is also the Crown Prince of Shuoyun. He is a good man who genuinely loves Liang Chan and distrustful of Helian Xi.

Qin Sang

Qin Sang is Helian Xi’s subordinate and is tasked to serve Liang Chan / Feng Yuan. She has a special bond with Liang Chan / Feng Yuan due to their past.

Feng Yin

Feng Yin is Feng Yuan’s elder stepbrother. Although he is a Prince of Yongzhao, he was born to a maid and is an unfavored child. Hence, Feng Yin is cruel and ruthless with a desire to obtain power. He has a son, Feng Qing.

Hua E

Hua E is Feng Yin’s lover and partner in the quest for power. She has an ambition to be the Queen of Yongzhao.

Shi Ying

Shi Ying is Feng Yuan’s cousin sister. She is a doctor with her own clinic in Yongzhao. Shi Ying is a straightforward lady.

Synopsis

Helian Xi is the Crown Prince of Linchuan whose tribe has been sealed up and their divine tree which gives life to the place has withered. This is due to a betrayal 3 years ago by his lover. Helian Xi’s current aim is to revive Linchuan’s divine tree and unseal his people. However, he needs a twin twig of the tree in order to do so and the twig is in the possession of Liang Chan who is the fiancee of the Crown Prince of Shuoyun, Xi Jiu.

Liang Chan was found unconscious at a riverbank by Xi Jiu 3 years ago and suffers from memory loss. When Helian Xi starts targeting her, she learns that she is the betrayer who had caused Linchuan’s downfall. Helian Xi is torn between his hatred and love for Liang Chan who feels obligated to make amends for the past despite having no recollection of what happened. He also begins to suspect that there may be more to the past than a simple act of betrayal.

Hard To Find Ending & Recap (Spoilers Alert!)

Hard To Find has a sad ending. Feng Yuan sacrifices herself to revive the divine tree when she stabs herself to retrieve half of the twig that is still inside her in Episode 27. When she dies, Feng Yin also dies due to their blood connection that had activated the tree heart earlier.

With Feng Yuan’s death, Helian Xi decides to join her in Episode 28. He leaves their daughter, Shi Liu, to Shi Ying and Xi Jiu who is now the little girl’s godfather. Both Feng Yuan and Helian Xi had never reveal to their daughter that they are her parents but let her assumed that Shi Ying is her mother. Helian Xi tells Xi Jiu that Linchuan will always have a place for Shi Liu should she decides to return in the future.

After tying up all the loose ends, Helian Xi lays down next to Feng Yuan’s body and pierces his own heart with a dagger. He wants to die with her and be bound together forever as a couple. The drama ends with Helian Xi’s words that he is not a good father and tribe leader but he really loves Feng Yuan. His only regret in his life concerns Feng Yuan and a love that is hard to find.

When Did The Leads Get Together?

In the flashback, Feng Yuan married Helian Xi in Episode 10 and truly fell in love with him in Episode 13. Back in the present, the couple reconciles in Episode 18 after Feng Yuan has regained her memory and Helian Xi discovers the truth about what happened through an ancient device that could let him see the past and future. He gets the confirmation that Feng Yuan didn’t betray him then. In fact, she suffered much to protect him which pains his heart.

Is There Any Breakup?

Helian Xi and Feng Yuan start off as an estranged couple. But there is no more breakup after their reconciliation in Episode 18.

Is There Any Love Triangle?

The drama starts with Liang Chan / Feng Yuan already engaged to Xi Jiu. She has lost her memory and grateful to Xi Jiu for saving her. Xi Jiu really cares for Liang Chan / Feng Yuan although he doesn’t know about her past. Their wedding ceremony is cut short when Helian Xi and unknown assassins show up with Liang Chan / Feng Yuan being the target. This causes chaos in the streets and Xi Jiu’s father is also against the marriage. Hence, Liang Chan / Feng Yuan decides to cancel her marriage to Xi Jiu in Episode 5.

Xi Jiu lets her go in Episode 6 when he sees that she is willing to endure punishment to get out of the marriage and that she couldn’t discard her need to find out about her past.

What Happened To Feng Yuan?

The happenings 3 years ago is told in a flashback from Episode 10 while Feng Yuan has fallen unconscious. She was hit by the force of the tree heart during a fight with Feng Yin. Feng Yuan is a Princess of Yongzhao and was to be married off to Helian Xi 3 years ago. Before leaving for Linchuan, Feng Yin had gained control of the palace and imprisoned their parents. Feng Yin wanted Feng Yuan to kill Helian Xi as he wanted to capture Linchuan and obtain the divine tree heart in exchange for their parents’ safety.

By Episode 13, Feng Yuan had fallen for Helian Xi as he was loving towards her. They consummated their marriage in Episode 14. But Feng Yuan was lured back to Yongzhao on the pretext that her father was sick in Episode 15. She found out that she was pregnant while being held hostage. The idea was to force Helian Xi to come to Yongzhao to look for her so that Feng Yin could kill him to get the tree heart.

Feng Yuan gave birth to a baby girl and smuggled her out to Shi Ying in Episode 16 by tricking Feng Yin that the baby was stillborn. At the same time, Helian Xi was drugged and tortured by Feng Yin when he arrived at the palace. Feng Yuan stabbed Helian Xi in order to convince Feng Yin to let them get away and die together as a couple. The conversation and the stabbing made Helian Xi think that Feng Yuan had betrayed him.

Feng Yuan regains her memory after awakening from her sleep at the end of Episode 16.

When Did Helian Xi Finds Out The Truth?

Helian Xi learns what happened to Feng Yuan in Episode 18 through the help of Xi Jiu’s father. The Shuoyun Tribe has an ancient disk that could let the user see the past and future. Through the disk, Helian Xi learns that Feng Yuan had the twig embedded in her without his knowledge. Each of them has one which could be used to exchange their lives for the other.

Thus, when Feng Yuan stabbed him and carried him away from Feng Yin, she had used her twig to save him. Neither did she give the entry key into Linchuan to Feng Yin which he thought she did. When she was cornered by Feng Yin, she stabbed herself with the twig and fell off the cliff. The twig was then assumed lost. But Feng Yuan learns that she sill has half the twig inside her in Episode 25.

Side Couple

Shi Ying and Xi Jiu start off as a bickering couple after they accidentally bumped into each other on the street in Episode 20. As they both know Helian Xi and Feng Yuan, they end up having to spend time with each other. Xi Jiu also knows that Shi Ying likes Helian Xi while he has a past with Feng Yuan. They talk about it in Episode 22 and acknowledge that Helian Xi and Feng Yuan only have eyes for each other in Episode 23. Hence, they wouldn’t have a chance and should move on.

In Episode 27, Xi Jiu gets jealous when Shi Ying starts to check out candidates for a potential husband. He asks her to consider him instead since he should be able to fulfill her high standards. Her response implies that she will choose him and they are seen together with Shi Liu in Episode 28.

Hard To Find Review – A Hidden Gem

I wasn’t expecting much when I started watching Hard To Find. Just like The Substitute Princess’s Love, I was just attracted to its short length initially. At 20 minutes per episode, I find it to be better than those 10-minute mini dramas such as Forever Love 2023 that are too short for proper plot development. So, Hard To Find seems to have hit that sweet spot in terms of length and coupled with some suspense when the drama begins, it is easy to get addicted straight away. I see it as a hidden gem that appears once in a long while when it comes to low budget Chinese productions.

The drama has a dark tone with a bit of mystery thrown in at the beginning. The killings are brutal and the male protagonist can be ruthless. He thinks his lover betrayed him and there is a grudge mixed with a longing for her. Despite the unknown actors and low budget, the drama has pretty good cinematography to complement the mood of the story. So, it doesn’t feel low class. In fact, it is better than some of your average dramas with more popular idols.

What might keep you glued to the story would be the mysterious past and identity of the female lead. I think this part is well-executed with the hatred and distrust the male lead has for her. At the very least, it arouses your curiosity at the start and that is enough to suck you into the story while the dark vibes will further heighten the intrigue. However, there are also things which are not too well-explained given the short length.

Missing Details

Missing details and/or plot holes are typical in short dramas. I suppose there is a tradeoff between keeping things short and having more depth to the plot. In Hard To Find, the story is kept simple with a very typical villain. However, the intricacies of the powers of a divine tree which is central to the story are not well-explained. You will get the gist of the story but the details are not there to enable you to fully understand certain situations. You just have to accept that things happen and not delve too much into the workings of the divine tree.

For instance, the villain becomes more and more like the female lead after absorbing the tree heart’s powers but we can only guess why based on certain scenes. You can try to put two and two together to come up with your own understanding for some of these happenings but that means you would have to pay attention and not miss all the small details. Even then, I’m not sure if all your queries will have a satisfactory answer.

While the plot may have this little weakness, the characters are well-written despite the short length of the drama. There is depth to their personalities with their motivations made clear to the viewers.

Great Chemistry

Both the leads have great chemistry despite the actress being young and has not acted in too many dramas. But Shen Yu Jie still managed to keep up to the demands of her role. It is not sterling acting that will be seared in your memory but it is a good performance nonetheless. She looks the part of a princess and could express well for the angsty scenes.

Zhao Yi Qin has the dark look needed to give his character a sense of ruthlessness. But he could also soften his expressions for the tender moments with the female lead. Their acting jives together very well to ignite the chemistry between them. You can feel the depth of their feelings for each other in the story. Thus, their romance would move you and the drama becomes more soulful. However, the ending may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Debatable Ending (Spoilers Alert!)

I’m pretty sure viewers will have different opinions when it comes to the ending. Just like One And Only, Hard To Find also has a sad ending. The female lead sacrifices herself for the greater good while the male kills himself to be with his beloved. It is a tragic end for a couple that is deeply in love with each other. To me, it is a fitting ending given the direction of the story. It ties back to the mood at the beginning which is dark and the male lead’s subsequent regret for the pain that his lover had gone through for him. So, it is expected that he would want to die with her.

Having said that though, most people hate sad endings. Some would not even want to watch such dramas no matter how good they may be. Hence, if you belong to this category of viewers, Hard To Find should be give the boot. I think what makes it worse is that there is actually room to turn it into a happy ending. After all, there is the ancient tree with divine powers there for the screenwriter to tap into to come up with a happy ending. But they still choose to end it in a heartbreaking way which is bound to upset a lot of viewers.

My Verdict – Watch!

Hard To Find is a good one to watch. It flies under the radar due to the lesser known cast and low budget but don’t let that deter you from giving it a go. You don’t need to invest a lot of time to try it out anyway since it is only 20 minutes per episode. The start is like My Journey To You with dark vibes and a bit of suspense. But it moves much faster since it is short and has no time to waste. Therefore, the story has few fillers and a consistent pacing that is kept all the way to the end. There is no long set up to bore you either although the story starts off with 3 different parties wanting the female lead for their own reasons.

The plot isn’t perfect with some unclear details but it is largely understandable and at times, exciting and angsty. The leads gave a good performance and flared up the screen with their chemistry to make the romance more poignant and impactful. Their story could stir up your emotions which is why it is worth a watch in my books.

For this Hard To Find review, I would rate it 7.5/10. It is not superb but still better than a lot of dramas with bigger budgets and more popular casts. The intensity and suspense fade away towards the middle but it does a pretty good job of sucking you into the story at the start. The ending is another point of contention which I have mentioned above. But overall, this is one of the dramas you should watch if you want a break from the usual long-winded productions.