Light Chaser Rescue Review

I expected Light Chaser Rescue (追光者) to be an action-oriented drama. It should have lots of thrilling moments of rescuing people from accidents and natural disasters. But it is not exactly so. The rescue scenes are there but they do not have high excitement level as anticipated. Instead, the moving moments come from the romance, friendships, and family relationships. If that is the case, is it still worth watching then? My Light Chaser review will have more details about this drama.

My rating: 7.5/10
Episodes: 40
Type: Romance, Action
Aired: October 2022
Images Credit: WeTV Official Facebook

The Cast Of Light Chaser Rescue

• Leo Luo Yun Xi as Luo Ben
• Janice Wu Qian as Zhan Yan
• Marcus Li Ming De as Zhou Ming Ming
• Li Ting Ting as Ding Ding Ding
• Xu Shao Ying as Xiong Fei
• Yang An Qi as Luo Yuan
• He Ming Han as Cai Yu Xiao / Dr. Cai
• Huang Pin Yuan as Zhan Qing Shan
• Liu Hai Lan as Ruan Jing Zhu
• Fan Lei as Lie Ying / Falcon
• Ji Huan Bo as Da Peng

Main Characters

Luo Ben

Luo Ben is a successful and ambitious attorney specializing in business contracts. He is a confident and opinionated man who seems to care only for his own interest and insensitive towards others. He is a smart and capable lawyer. Luo Ben is also an overly protective elder brother to Luo Yuan. Ai Rui Er is his assistant and partner at work.

Zhan Yan

Zhan Yan is a general surgeon in Lin Jiang Central Hospital. She is also a member of the International Medical Rescue Team and a qualified underwater rescuer. Zhan Yan is a very aloof woman who doesn’t care about niceties and self-promotion. She is only interested in healing patients and is good at her work. She has a warm side which she rarely shows except towards those close to her. Zhan Yan has a difficult relationship with her father.

Supporting Characters

Zhou Ming Ming

Ming Ming comes from a rich family and works in a media company run by his mother. He is a young man with little interest in his job who eventually ends up as a member of the Light Chaser Rescue team.

Ding Ding Ding

Ding Ding is a comic artist and Zhan Yan’s younger cousin sister. She is expressive and can be a little immature. She has a bickering relationship with Ming Ming.

Xiong Fei

Xiong Fei is a senior member of the Light Chaser Rescue team. He works as a deliveryman for a speed post company. Xiong Fei is upright and fair but can be a little wooden in expressing his feelings.

Luo Yuan

Luo Yuan is Luo Ben’s younger sister. She is mute and works as a dance teacher in a special needs school. Luo Yuan has a kind and warm personality. She is trusting of others and leads a sheltered life due to Luo Ben’s protectiveness and pampering.

Cai Yu Xiao / Dr. Cai

Dr. Cai is Zhan Yan’s senior in university and colleague at Lin Jiang Central Hospital. He is also a surgeon but adept in facing the press to promote his line of work and the hospital. Dr. Cai always has a soft spot for Zhan Yan although they are vying for the same promotion.

Zhan Qing Shan

Zhan Qing Shan is the founder and team captain of Light Chaser Rescue. He is also Zhan Yan’s father. He is a good man who is still haunted by the death of his wife many years ago due to an earthquake.

Ruan Jing Zhu

Ruan Jing Zhu is the psychologist for the Light Chaser Rescue team. She is aware of Zhan Qing Shan’s regrets and his poor relationship with his daughter.

Lie Ying / Falcon

Falcon is a veteran member and trainer of the Light Chaser Rescue team. He appears as a happy-go-lucky kind of man who likes to drink. Zhan Yan is close to Falcon and regards him like her own father.

Da Peng

Da Peng is a senior member of Light Chaser Rescue. He can be hotheaded and direct towards those he doesn’t trust but means no harm.

Synopsis

Luo Ben and Zhan Yan first met when they encountered an accident on a highway. He is an attorney while she is a surgeon. Zhan Yan wasn’t impressed with Luo Ben initially and this carried over to their subsequent meetings during an earthquake. Luo Ben’s younger sister was trapped under the rubble and Zhan Yan was there to save her together with a non-profit rescue team called Light Chaser Rescue.

After repeated encounters with each other, Luo Ben begins to get attracted to Zhan Yan and pursues her. He also gets involved with Light Chaser Rescue on behalf of a client. Subsequently, Luo Ben becomes influenced to join the team which is headed by Zhan Yan’s estranged father. Xiong Fei, who is also part of the team, is his sister’s love interest and this creates complications when Luo Ben refuses to give his blessings for the relationship.

Hence, the various team members have to navigate their life problems and personal relationships while maintaining preparedness for rescue missions. When called upon to rescue others in dangerous situations, they have to put their training to good use as even one small mistake can be deadly.

Light Chaser Rescue Ending (Spoilers Alert!)

Light Chaser Rescue has an implied happy ending. There is no wedding or romantic scene for a clear cut indication that Luo Ben and Zhan Yan are back together as a couple. But they meet again 6 months later at Light Chaser Rescue base after her stint at the border hospital in the mountains. The last scene shows them smiling at each other.

Prior to that, both Luo Ben and Zhan Yan have survived a near death experience due to a snowstorm. Zhan Yan was up in the mountains to save Da Peng, a team member of Light Chaser Rescue. But they got lost and Zhan Yan fell into a crevice. Luo Ben managed to get her out but was trapped by falling ice blocks. It took all his strength and willpower to crawl out through a frozen underground river to get saved. He was motivated to survive because he wanted to see Zhan Yan again. After Zhan Yan and his fellow team members reached him, the scene jumps to 6 months later to wrap up the story.

When Did The Main Couple Start Dating?

Luo Ben starts having feelings for Zhan Yan in Episode 7. They are trapped during a landslide in Episode 12. While waiting to be rescued and with their lives on the line, Luo Ben and Zhan Yan exchange secrets and he kisses her in Episode 13. She pretends not to remember the kiss after they were rescued.

Luo Ben then directly confesses his feelings to her in Episode 14. Zhan Yan tells him that she will think it over. She gives him her answer in Episode 20 and the couple start dating then. Luo Ben proposes to Zhan Yan in Episode 34 and she says yes.

Any Breakup?

Yes, Zhan Yan breaks up with Luo Ben in Episode 35. He learns what happened to his parents and that Zhan Yan hid the truth from him. Zhan Yan knows Luo Ben will not be able to forgive her and her father. They also need time and space to face the truth.

Following the break up, Zhan Yan decides to apply for a stint in a mountainous region at the border. She leaves the city in Episode 37 and declines Luo Ben’s call while on the way to the airport. They didn’t meet again until Luo Ben arrives to save her from a snowstorm in Episode 39.

Is There A Love Triangle?

Dr. Cai is also interested in Zhan Yan. In fact, they were lovers while in university. But Zhan Yan broke up with him as she felt that they were not right for each other. She still feels the same when Dr. Cai confesses to her with the hope of getting back together after 7 years in Episode 12. Zhan Yan rejects him outright with the same reason that they are not compatible.

After Dr. Cai left Zhan Yan behind during a landslide, he regrets his action and apologizes to her in Episode 13. He promises to make amends and protect her from then on. But Zhan Yan bluntly turns him down again. She tells him that he actually doesn’t love her but himself. Dr. Cai changes for the better after his mother couldn’t remember him anymore due to illness. He quits his job at the hospital to look after her in Episode 29. Dr. Cai and Zhan Yan meet again in Episode 38 at the border hospital when he also decides to serve the people there. They remain as friends.

Ai Rui Er also likes Luo Ben but he has no romantic interest in her. She even tells Zhan Yan that she will fight for Luo Ben in Episode 28. She also wants Zhan Yan to stay away from Luo Ben in Episode 36 after learning that they have broken up. Ai Rui Er confesses to Luo Ben in the same episode but is rejected. He tells her that they are merely good working partners. Hence, she decides to quit the firm and goes abroad to further her studies in Episode 38.

Father-Daughter Relationship

Zhan Yan has always been angry at her father because she thinks he chose to save a boy to be a hero instead of her mother during an earthquake. She reveals to Luo Ben that Zhan Qing Shan is her father in Episode 13. The father-daughter relationship only begins to thaw in Episode 30 after Zhan Qing Shan thought he has cancer and decides to tell Zhan Yan the truth.

In actual fact, Zhan Qing Shan selfishly wanted to save his wife first after she was trapped under the rubble. Nearby was another couple and their son. In his haste to save his wife as well as ignorance about rescue work, he caused the rubble to collapse further. His wife and the other couple were killed as a result. The boy whom he pulled out from the rubble survived as his mother shielded him. A picture showing him carrying the boy became a symbol of his “heroism” in the public eye. This is what makes Zhan Yan mad because she thought he would rather play hero than save her mother.

Boy’s Identity

After the incident, Zhan Qing Shan started Light Chaser Rescue to make amends for what he had done. He has also been trying to find the boy to apologize and get rid of the guilt. Zhan Yan finds out that they boy is Luo Ben in Episode 34. Luo Ben comes upon the same information in Episode 35 but thinks Zhan Qing Shan is a hero. Zhan Yan then asks her father to tell Luo Ben the truth in Episode 35 that he indirectly caused his parents’ death.

Luo Ben is very angry until he puts it all behind him in Episode 38. This is after Zhan Qing Shan makes it known to all team members of his past mistake. He decides to step down from being the team leader and passes the responsibility to Luo Ben.

Second Couple

Luo Yuan is drawn to Xiong Fei very early on after he saved her from the rubble following an earthquake. He is interested in her too but Luo Ben wants him to stay away from his sister because of his past. Xiong Fei is an ex-convict which makes it difficult for him to find a good job. He was jailed because he accidentally killed a man who was harassing his sister back when he was in college.

Luo Yuan confesses her feelings to Xiong Fei in Episode 17. When Luo Ben finds out that she is giving up the opportunity to pursue her dream abroad because of Xiong Fei, he forces her to go. However, Luo Yuan didn’t board the place and goes back to look for Xiong Fei. He expresses his love for her then and they become a couple in Episode 18.

Luo Ben tests Xiong Fei’s commitment towards his sister in Episode 19 by making him choose between Luo Yuan and Light Chaser Rescue. Xiong Fei chooses to quit the rescue team even after Luo Ben tells him that he no longer opposes their relationship. But Luo Yuan encourages Xiong Fei to rejoin the team in Episode 26 when it is facing a crisis. She knows the team means a lot to him and wants him to continue doing what he loves. Xiong Fei proposes to Luo Yuan in Episode 27. They have their wedding in Episode 29. Luo Yuan is shown to be pregnant in Episode 40.

Third Couple

Ding Ding begins to feel something for Ming Ming in Episode 21 after he stood up for her against her friend who was jealous of her success. But he no longer has much time for her after his mother’s health scare in Episode 22. Hence, Ming Ming is forced to take up his responsibilities at work to lighten his mother’s burden.

Ming Ming and Ding DIng become a couple in Episode 25 after he risked his life to get her out of a flooded cave. However, Ming Ming’s mother disapproves of the relationship as she thinks it is Ding Ding who got her son involved in the Light Chaser Rescue team. She also wants someone who can help her son in his career and Ding Ding simply doesn’t fit the bill.

Due to Ming Ming’s mother’s insults and relentless pressure, Ding Ding breaks up with Ming Ming in Episode 33. But the breakup is short-lived as Ming Ming is sure of what he wants. He asks Ding Ding to register their marriage in Episode 34. However, Ding Ding feels that they should get his mother’s blessings first. Hence, she slowly worms her way into his mother’s heart. Ming Ming’s mother grudgingly begins to accept Ding Ding in Episode 37 and fully acknowledges her in Episode 38.

Light Chaser Rescue Review – More Romance Than Action

Light Chaser Rescue is not a really good action drama if you are looking for a lot of thrilling and exciting moments. While it gave me the impression that there will be many dangerous rescue missions that will keep me on the edge of my seat, it is not exactly so. The action is pretty limited because the focus is more on character development and heartwarming moments.

Many people have compared this drama to You Are My Hero which also has a doctor and special police officer as the protagonists. The difference is Light Chaser Rescue has more complex relationships and personal issues in its story. Thus, the main drivers of this drama are romance and family rather than action. There are 3 couples in the plot and their relationships take up the bulk of the screen time.

Multiple Couples

I think it is easy to find Light Chaser Rescue boring because not everyone will enjoy watching all the 3 couples’ story. The main couple is matured and calm with a tinge of sweetness once they get together. The second couple is loving and supportive of each other. The third couple is the youngest of the lot with much bickering in the initial stages.

I guess you can skip the second and third couple’s scenes if you don’t enjoy their romance. This should help to quicken the pace of the drama. However, the main couple’s story is tied to events that will happen later. Therefore, if you don’t feel invested in this pair, you might not be able to feel the depth of emotions that they are supposed to bring to the table. If that is so, the drama will really end up being a boring one to sit through then.

Character Development

To me, one thing that Light Chaser Rescue did very well is in the characters’ development. The characters are not written to be perfect individuals. In fact, you might not even like them in the beginning just like the male protagonist in Legally Romance. Luo Ben is a hotshot lawyer who takes a case based on commercial considerations. He also seems like a controlling brother. Zhan Yan appears so cold and direct to the point of being insensitive at times.

However, as the story progresses, these characters will grow on you. There are solid reasons as to why they exhibit such traits and the viewers will begin to understand and accept them. Their flaws make them human which sometimes lead to less than ideal behaviors and decisions. There are layers to their characters that include fears and selfishness apart from the more altruistic values. This realism will make you feel more strongly for their torment, past traumas and their efforts to overcome their emotional baggage as you watch.

Acting

Leo Luo and Janice Wu really shine in Light Chaser Rescue. They are able to feed off each other’s energy to create unique relationship dynamics between them. Their chemistry is not the intense kind like Yang Yang and Dilraba Dilmurat in You Are My Glory but subtle to give us a more grounded couple. They match each other well in their interactions as if they can read how the other will act and respond accordingly for a natural feel to their relationship on screen.

Both the leads’ acting is top notch me. Janice Wu’s display of aloofness gives the character the right demeanor for a person who has lost her mother during childhood and estranged from her father. The character that Leo Luo plays is also a complex one and he needs to show many sides of him from caring to tough and controlling.

While Leo Luo’s acting is great, the one complaint that I have is his built which can’t quite convince me that he has the right physical appearance for the role of a strong rescuer. He looks great in his suits as a professional whether as a lawyer in Light Chaser Rescue or investment banker in Love Is Sweet. But as a rescuer, his body built just doesn’t have that aura the role needs.

Rushed Ending (Spoilers Alert!)

The rushed ending is another gripe of mine. The last 2 episodes is not that well-executed. After putting viewers through the ups and downs of the main couple’s relationship, their ending lacks proper resolution. It is only implied that they have or will get back together at the end. They have broken up along the way which means communication is necessary to resolve the issues between them. But nope, there is no such scene. It is simply understood that they still love each other during a rescue mission. The factor that broke them apart is not discussed anymore. Hence, there is no confirmation if they have got back together as a couple in the last scene.

It is a pity that the drama falters towards the end after a relatively heartwarming story for the most part. If they have expanded on the couple’s relationship to give it a proper closure, the ending could have been more touching and memorable. It just feels rushed as it is with the poor editing and pacing in the last 2 episodes.

My Verdict – Give It A Try

Light Chaser Rescue is not a typical Chinese drama. While romance takes away a big chunk of the screen time, it is not the sole focus. There are also family relationship, friendship, team spirit, societal expectations, and character growth imbued in the plot. I think some may find this drama boring especially if they want a more intense romance like Falling Into You or a fluffy one such as Love At Night. The romance in Light Chaser Rescue is more restrained as the main couple’s love is the steady kind rather than loud and expressive.

On the other hand, neither is this a serious action drama with lots of adrenaline pumping ops. I think you will be disappointed if you are looking for thrills and excitement because the rescues tend to be simple and short except for one or two missions. I suppose there are a few directions that the screenwriter could take with the story and this ends up being more on character development with a strong romantic flavor than real action.

So, personal growth becomes an important element in the protagonists’ life journey. You have to like this kind of storyline which has a certain level of maturity to it to appreciate the flawed characters of the protagonists. To me, the characters are well-written and styled to fit the story to evoke viewers’ emotions. There are touching scenes whereby you may shed a tear or two because the foundation to the story and characters are well-laid out from the start.

For this Light Chaser Rescue review, I would rate it 7.5/10. The ending is a letdown which made me lower its score. It will not resonate with everyone as the characters are not instantly likable and there is more talk than action which might be deemed boring. But do give it a try because if you can relate to the characters, then this would be an emotionally satisfying watch.