General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Reborn (重生)

Reborn (重生; also known by its original title Baiye Chongsheng, 白夜重生) is a 2020 Chinese crime web series directed by Yang Dong and written by the screenwriter Zhiwen (指纹), starring Zhang Yi as an amnesiac detective who is the sole survivor of a mass shooting. It premiered on Youku on March 7, 2020, ran for 28 episodes, and is a sister work of the 2017 hit web series Day and Night (白夜追凶), sharing the same writer, the same fictional city of Jinhai (津港市), and overlapping characters.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Premiere / run	March 7 to early April 2020, exclusive to Youku; 28 episodes of about 40 minutes each¹^•³
Premise	Deputy detachment captain Qin Chi, the only survivor of the "714 gun case", fights post-traumatic amnesia while solving cases and seeking the truth of the shooting³
Lead cast	Zhang Yi (Qin Chi), Zhao Ziqi (Feng Xiao), Zhang Haowei (Lu Mingjia), Cheng Xiaomeng (Xia Yutong), Liu Guancheng (Hu Yibiao), Zhao Jinmai (Chen Rui); Pan Yueming guest-stars as Guan Hongfeng⁴
Douban rating	Opened at 8.0, fell to 6.7 by the finale, and stood at 6.4/10 from 91,205 raters as of February 22, 2024; Day and Night holds 9.0⁵^•⁶
Awards	Best Web Series at the 16th Chinese American Film & TV Festival (November 2020); named a 2020 Outstanding Online Audiovisual Work by the National Radio and Television Administration in 2021¹
Production	Produced by Youku, Alibaba Pictures, and Fengyi Entertainment, with the Ministry of Public Security Jindun Film & TV Cultural Center as co-producer⁷

Spoilers

Premise and structure

The story begins after the "714 gun case", in which six detectives fought nine arms dealers in a sealed warehouse; Qin Chi (Zhang Yi) alone survived, shot in the head, and lost key memories to a bullet fragment pressing on his brain.⁸^•⁹ Hailed as a hero and promoted to deputy detachment captain of the Xiguan detachment, he is simultaneously investigated internally, because the evidence shows he was shot twice after the gunfight had ended.¹⁰^•¹¹ As he solves new cases he must also reconstruct who he was before the shooting and reposition his relationships with his father, his ex-wife Feng Xiao, and his colleagues.¹

Dual-line narrative. Like Day and Night, the series runs a main case, the 714 gun case, alongside independent unit cases solved every few episodes.⁵ The unit cases carry social themes: the first case, the Zheng family massacre, examines domestic violence, and later cases touch on discrimination against women and disorder in the entertainment industry.⁸ Reviewers noted that the show leans toward "social school" mystery, prioritizing psychology and social meaning over puzzle-style deduction.⁸

Production

The screenplay was written by Zhiwen between June 2014 and June 2015, before Day and Night aired.¹² The series was announced at Youku's autumn showcase in September 2018 with Zhang Yi in the lead.¹ For Zhang Yi, a film and television actor known for Soldiers Sortie and Operation Red Sea, it was his first web series, and he also served as the show's artistic director; he said he accepted the role quickly after reading Zhiwen's script.⁹ To keep the wounded detective's edge, he wore thin costumes on set rather than a down jacket, and he trained with public security officers, including firearms handling, before filming.⁹

The supporting cast includes veteran actors Song Chunli, Lü Liang, and Gao Jie, and the crew included cinematographer Li Peng and editor Zhang Wen.²^•⁵

Reception

The premiere drew strong early numbers: Douban 8.0, Zhihu 8.8, and a Hupu score of 82.2 after the first five episodes, with more than 100 media outlets praising the show.¹³ During its run it repeatedly topped the Maoyan and Guduo heat charts, and its peak Maoyan heat of 9,772.87 was recorded on March 9, 2020.¹⁴^•⁷ In the ArtEn half-year index for web series released January to June 2020, Reborn ranked tenth among all web series with a broadcast index of 73.2.¹⁵

The score then declined steadily, from 8.0 to 7.4 by episode 15, 6.7 around the finale, and 6.4 by early 2024.¹⁶^•⁶^•⁵ Critics attributed the gap with Day and Night to slower pacing and heavy interior monologue rather than to the acting: reviewers praised Zhang Yi's layered performance and the detailed, realistic style, but found the rhythm less taut and the character setup less striking than the earlier show.²^•⁵ The Beijing Evening News judged that the production and acting surpassed most contemporaneous dramas, but pointed to plot holes in the unit cases and argued that audiences, now used to premium web dramas such as The Longest Day in Chang'an, were judging it against a harsher field.¹¹ The finale ended openly, leaving Qin Chi's fate unresolved, which itself became a topic of debate.¹⁴

The "White Night universe"

Reborn was positioned as the second entry in a planned franchise. Its producer Wang Ping had said in 2017 that expanding beyond a single story into a larger "universe" was a way to keep audience loyalty while avoiding fatigue, and the producers promoted a "White Night universe" (白夜宇宙) comparable to Hollywood franchise models.⁸^•² The links are deliberately light: the two series share the fictional Jinhai setting and some character relationships, such as Qin Chi's uncle Qin Mang being the former master of Day and Night's protagonist Guan Hongfeng, and Pan Yueming reprised Guan Hongfeng in a brief episode 4 cameo that drew the show's heaviest barrage of viewer comments.⁸^•² Commentators described the two works as parallel, independent stories rather than a direct sequel, closer to an author's series than a shared-protagonist universe like the Detective Chinatown films.¹⁰^•⁸ A follow-up series, Reborn: The Door (重生之门), again starring Zhang Yi, aired in 2022.¹⁷

References

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 My to So

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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