Autumn Cicada is beyond a disaster and beyond redemption.

The story seemed to have been thrown together without any thought process and no coherency throughout the story. Even the sections cut out of the series would not have helped. The story is poorly, no, horribly written with so many loose ends, undeveloped characters, unnecessary characters, too many voice overs, and an incredibly horrific ending. The direction was also bad.

It is such a shame because the series have a good cast, most of whom I have seen before. The eye candies did not help with this show. It was such a struggle to get through and many times I almost dropped it, but why should the cast suffer for poor writing.

The voice over was too much. I wanted to see Ye Chong's reactions, not hear about them. I wanted him to make the glass kisses the floor in a crashing manner. I wanted to see his frustrations instead of hearing about it.

I wanted to see the secret agent in Ye Chong not to just be reminded that he was a secret agent.

Li Man who plays He Ying, who is a college student, who is a revolutionist. He Ying, you just wanna knock her out of the frame, she is so annoying and useless. There was no need for her character, absolute waste. The love story that they tried to portray between her and Ye Chong, a Major in the Japanese Army, who is really a Chinese Secret Agent, Code Name Autumn Cicada, played by Ren Jialun. His character is semi-smart. Because, who rescues a person that just tried to kill them and then take that person to his house without to result of the reason he provided. That angle was to dragged out and useless in the show, just pointless. And to top it off He Ying and Ye Chong had absolutely no chemistry at all, at all!

He Ying had more chemistry with Lin Xiao Zhuang, Ye Chong's adopted Brother, played by Liu Xue Yi. He Ying just needed not to be in the series, no growth in her character at all.

Ye Chong and Zhuang were adopted by Japanese General Kiyoizumi , who he has a daughter of his own Junko. It is not shown how Kiyoizumi comes to adopt Zhuang. The dynamics between Ye Chong's mother and Kiyoizumi is left totally ambiguous although it seemed like they had a close relationship. And she asks Kiyoizumi to take care of Ye Chong. It also seems like Kiyoizumi killed Ye Chong's mother and then again it looks like she gets shot in a struggle for the gun, yet another ambiguous scenario. The voice over constantly states that Ye Chong was mistreated by Kiyoizumi, but it was never really shown. Junko in the meantime falls in love with Ye Chong, thinking he is her personal position.

Ye Chong and Zhuang bromance was nice and quite refreshing and I AM HAPPY THAT ZHUANG DID NOT TURN AGAINST Ye Chong.

Ye Chong is not truly shown as a secret agent, he shown more of someone trying to outwit Miyamoto's goal to prove that Ye Chong is a communist. Miyamoto is a Japanese Major. His character way OTT.

Liu Huan, who plays Chi Cheng, a prominent business man and a integrate part of the communist party is more

Chi Cheng seems to be more the agent and Ye Chong. Planning movements, sending intelligence to the Party and moving people of the party around defying the Japanese is a much better way than Ye Chong. His chemistry with his lady love, the feisty no nonsense, Jin Xiang played by He Du Juan is amazing. The rock together.

However, one of the most agonizing things about this series is the transparent misses between Ye Chong and Chi Cheng recognizing that Ye Chong is Autumn Cicada and Ye Chong recognizing that Chi Cheng is a communist. It is so awful. They do not find out about each other's true identity until the end of the series.

It was also disappointing that it was never shown, who the traitor was that released the information the Autumn Cicada was going to Hong Kong. And it was not show how Kiyoizumi ended up with Santalum's code book, which only him and Ye Chong knew about. It was also not revealed how Kiyoizumi came to know all the secret information about Ye Chong and Santalum.

Also, Junko's character was not needed and she is as crazy as her father to want to release poisonous gas. What kind of a legacy is that!

The ending of this series was beyond disappointing.

I have seen most of the actors and actress in that are in this show, in other shows and they can act. This series just does not do justice to them.

I rate the actors and actress based on their acting skills, not on this series because they should not be punished for bad writing and direction.