{ "id": "epb75whj22", "slug": "the-lonely-warrior", "title": "The Lonely Warrior (三大队 (网络剧))", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials", "label": "International serial drama and telenovelas", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia", "label": "East Asian drama series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials", "label": "East Asian web and streaming serials", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials.alpha-iv-to-my", "label": "Titles Iv to My", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials.alpha-iv-to-my" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials.alpha-iv-to-my", "label": "China · 2021 and later: Titles Iv to My", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials.alpha-iv-to-my", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021", "label": "China · 2021 and later", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials", "label": "International serial drama and telenovelas", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials", "label": "East Asian web and streaming serials", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials.alpha-iv-to-my", "label": "Titles Iv to My", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials.alpha-iv-to-my" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Lonely Warrior (三大队), also translated as Man Hunt, is a 2023 Chinese suspense crime web drama directed by Xing Jianjun, starring Qin Hao as detective Cheng Bing.", "snippet": "The Lonely Warrior (三大队), also translated as Man Hunt, is a 2023 Chinese suspense crime web drama directed by Xing Jianjun, starring Qin Hao as detective Cheng Bing.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials.alpha-iv-to-my", "markdown": "# The Lonely Warrior (三大队 (网络剧))\n\n**The Lonely Warrior** (三大队, also translated as *Man Hunt*) is a 2023 Chinese suspense crime web drama directed by Xing Jianjun (邢键钧), adapted from Shen Lan's (深蓝) 2018 nonfiction feature *Please Tell the Chief, the Third Brigade Has Completed Its Mission* (请转告局长，三大队任务完成了). Produced by iQiyi, it ran 24 episodes of about 45 minutes each, premiered on iQiyi's Light On (迷雾剧场) mystery strand on December 21, 2023, and began a satellite broadcast on Dragon TV (东方卫视) on December 25, 2023.[1](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%89%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%9F/60744803) • [2](https://www.jiemian.com/article/10660239.html)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| English titles | The Lonely Warrior; Man Hunt |\n| Format | 24 episodes, about 45 minutes each; suspense, action, crime genres; Mandarin Chinese[1](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%89%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%9F/60744803) |\n| Broadcast | iQiyi from December 21, 2023; Dragon TV from December 25, 2023[1](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%89%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%9F/60744803) |\n| Source work | Shen Lan's 2018 nonfiction feature on NetEase's Renjian (人间theLivings) account[2](https://www.jiemian.com/article/10660239.html) |\n| Lead cast | Qin Hao (Cheng Bing), Li Naiwen, Chen Minghao, Ma Yinyin; Tong Liya special appearance, Ren Min invited lead[1](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%89%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%9F/60744803) |\n| Performance | iQiyi heat index 9837, the highest for an iQiyi short-form drama and a Light On record; topped the platform heat chart after three episodes[1](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%89%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%9F/60744803) • [2](https://www.jiemian.com/article/10660239.html) |\n| Recognition | Nominated for the 34th Flying Apsaras and 32nd Golden Eagle best-series awards; Golden Angel Award at the 20th Chinese American TV Festival[1](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%89%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%9F/60744803) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and adaptation choices\n\nThe series follows the interrogation accident that sends Cheng Bing (Qin Hao) to prison and costs his Third Brigade colleagues their badges or rank, scattering the elite unit. After ten years of imprisonment he is released with nothing, while the suspect Wang Dayong (Chen Minghao) remains at large. Cheng Bing and his former brothers regroup and, as private citizens cooperating with the police, pursue the fugitive across a long and lonely journey, seeking both the case's resolution and a place for their own lives.[3](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_ux83fziwjd.html?list=1jejtuy19g2) The drama's stated arc has the brigade members, as ordinary people, persisting for thirteen years in probing the truth.[1](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%89%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%9F/60744803)\n\n**A civilian detective structure.** Critics noted that the adaptation departs from the conventions of the Chinese crime procedural. Except for two members, the whole brigade loses police status in the interrogation incident, and because civilians lack the authority, technology, and information access of the police, the show builds a \"police-civilian\" contrast: instead of forensic imaging or autopsy-driven deduction, Cheng Bing traces the fugitive through ordinary objects such as a packet of ginger candy and a delivery slip. The police investigator Pan Dahai relies on fingerprint comparison and ballistics, but the fugitive has destroyed his fingerprints and abandoned the gun, so official methods stall; this both justifies Cheng Bing's private quest and shifts the drama's weight onto experience, intuition, and persistence.[4](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2024/0201/c419388-40170861.html) Expanding a roughly 7,000-character source text to 24 episodes, the series added everyday and emotional subplots, including the rescue and integration of the fugitive's daughter and the brigade members' family lives, subplots that at times competed with the case itself for narrative center.[4](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2024/0201/c419388-40170861.html)\n\n## Origin in the source feature\n\nThe drama descends from a work of narrative journalism rather than a novel. In 2018, the NetEase-owned account 人间theLivings published *Please Tell the Chief, the Third Brigade Has Completed Its Mission* by Shen Lan, a signed contributor to the account who had worked as a police officer and wrote the story from events around people he knew.[2](https://www.jiemian.com/article/10660239.html) The feature tells of Cheng Bing, captain of a public security bureau's Third Brigade, who caused a suspect's death during an interrogation, was sentenced to prison, and after release kept pursuing the fugitive suspect as an ordinary civilian. The piece won NetEase Literature's 2018 annual click championship, and thousands of readers left comments asking for a film adaptation; film and television companies bought the rights soon afterward.[2](https://www.jiemian.com/article/10660239.html)\n\n## Production\n\nDirector and screenwriter Xing Jianjun decided to develop the project in March 2022; a base script was completed in December 2022 and continued to be revised through shooting. The team interviewed veteran police detectives, whose accounts of how officers change emotionally across different cases became one of the drama's sources of authenticity; a scene of Cheng Bing's release from prison was rewritten after an interview surfaced a similar real story.[5](https://www.jiemian.com/article/10629271.html) Filming ran from mid-December 2022 to early April 2023.[6](https://www.sohu.com/a/748008850_220095) Producer Dai Ying, iQiyi's senior vice president, said the expanded content came from conversations with real police officers, folding cases and details that had actually happened into the dramatic structure.[7](https://news.sina.com.cn/o/2024-01-29/doc-inafecyk3951426.shtml)\n\n## The parallel film adaptation\n\nThe drama reached viewers almost simultaneously with a separate film adaptation of the same source feature, an uncommon one-IP, two-adaptation arrangement in which both versions were made at nearly the same time and released within days of each other. The film, directed by Dai Mo (戴墨) and starring Zhang Yi, opened in theaters on December 15, 2023, six days before the series premiered; it earned over 500 million yuan at the box office within 14 days and held a Douban score of 7.8.[2](https://www.jiemian.com/article/10660239.html) • [6](https://www.sohu.com/a/748008850_220095) The two versions share almost no creative personnel: the only role cast identically is Cheng Bing's mentor Zhang Qingliang, played by Yang Xinming in both.[6](https://www.sohu.com/a/748008850_220095) The 132-minute film compresses the pursuit for pace, while the 24-episode series uses its length for added detail and setup.[6](https://www.sohu.com/a/748008850_220095) Commentators described the pairing as an evolved form of \"film-drama linkage,\" a strategy that lets rights holders develop a scarce, proven IP for both formats at once rather than stockpiling rights that may never be produced.[8](https://news.sina.cn/2023-12-29/detail-imzzsqhu6152141.d.html?vt=4)\n\n## Reception\n\nThe series topped iQiyi's heat chart after only three episodes and reached a heat index of 9837, breaking the platform's record for short-form dramas and setting a new mark for the Light On strand.[1](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%89%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%9F/60744803) • [2](https://www.jiemian.com/article/10660239.html) On January 8, 2024 it was named to Weibo's 2023 annual high-score drama list.[1](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%89%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%9F/60744803) In 2024 it was nominated for Outstanding TV Series at the 34th Flying Apsaras Awards and Best TV Series at the 32nd Golden Eagle Awards, and it won the Golden Angel Award for TV series at the 20th Chinese American TV Festival.[1](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%89%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%9F/60744803) Through iQiyi International the series also reached audiences outside the Chinese mainland.[1](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%89%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%9F/60744803)\n\n## References\n\n1. [三大队（2023年邢键钧执导的悬疑追凶剧）, Baidu Baike](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%89%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%9F/60744803)\n2. [《三大队》的火爆，带不动特稿IP影视化, 界面新闻 · JMedia (豹变)](https://www.jiemian.com/article/10660239.html)\n3. [三大队-电视剧-全集高清正版视频在线观看, 爱奇艺](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_ux83fziwjd.html?list=1jejtuy19g2)\n4. [剧版《三大队》：刑侦剧的另一种可能, 中国作家网](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2024/0201/c419388-40170861.html)\n5. [对话导演、编剧邢键钧：《三大队》破解悬疑剧的\"被剧透\", 界面新闻 · JMedia](https://www.jiemian.com/article/10629271.html)\n6. [张译和秦昊，你选谁？, 中国新闻周刊 (搜狐转载)](https://www.sohu.com/a/748008850_220095)\n7. [制片人戴莹谈悬疑剧, 新浪新闻](https://news.sina.com.cn/o/2024-01-29/doc-inafecyk3951426.shtml)\n8. [《三大队》影版、剧版、原著\"找不同\"丨图数馆, 新浪新闻](https://news.sina.cn/2023-12-29/detail-imzzsqhu6152141.d.html?vt=4)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › East Asian web and streaming serials › Titles Iv to My*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lonely-warrior", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lonely-warrior.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Lonely Warrior (三大队 (网络剧))\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lonely-warrior. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Lonely Warrior (三大队 (网络剧))](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lonely-warrior)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lonely-warrior](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lonely-warrior). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Lonely Warrior (三大队 (网络剧))\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lonely-warrior. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Lonely Warrior, also translated as Man Hunt, is a 2023 Chinese suspense crime web drama directed by Xing Jianjun, starring Qin Hao as detective Cheng Bing." }