# Regeneration (新生)
**Regeneration** (新生), also known as *Fei Ke's Banquet* (费可的晚宴), is a 2024 Chinese suspense web drama directed by Shen Ao (申奥), starring [Jing Boran](https://www.edgepedia.org/jing-boran) and Zhou Yiran, which unfolds as a Rashomon-style mystery about a conman whose five acquaintances each knew him as a different person.[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E6%96%B0%E7%94%9F%E3%80%8B/60247849?fromModule=lemma_inlink) The series premiered on Youku on May 6, 2024, and was released on Netflix the following day.[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E6%96%B0%E7%94%9F%E3%80%8B/60247849?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title / alternate names | 新生 (Regeneration); also released as 费可的晚宴 (Fei Ke's Banquet)[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E6%96%B0%E7%94%9F%E3%80%8B/60247849?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Format | 10-episode suspense web drama, Mandarin, produced in mainland China by Youku and Banshan Culture Media[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E6%96%B0%E7%94%9F%E3%80%8B/60247849?fromModule=lemma_inlink) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28178829/) |
| Broadcast | Youku from May 6, 2024; Netflix from May 7, 2024[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E6%96%B0%E7%94%9F%E3%80%8B/60247849?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Source material | Adapted from the web novel *Fei Ke's Banquet* (《费可的晚宴》) by Luo Jia[3](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27384817) |
| Lead cast | Jing Boran as Fei Ke; Zhou Yiran as journalist He Shan; Wang Yanhui and Huang Jue in featured roles[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E6%96%B0%E7%94%9F%E3%80%8B/60247849?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Viewership | Cumulative effective views over 278 million, averaging over 27.862 million per episode[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E6%96%B0%E7%94%9F%E3%80%8B/60247849?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Awards | 2024 Weibo TV & Internet Video Summit annual co-creation work; Best Web Drama at the 20th Chinese American TV Festival; 2024 China Video Awards annual drama honor[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E6%96%B0%E7%94%9F%E3%80%8B/60247849?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and narrative structure
The story opens at a memorial service for Fei Ke (费可), a man whose name is a homophone of the English word "fake".[4](https://aqdzb.aqnews.com.cn/epaper/xml/aqwb/20240524/WB2024052415.pdf) Female journalist He Shan and four strangers are invited to an isolated island villa, where a butler tells them each must recount their history with the deceased before the will is read.[3](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27384817) • [5](https://www.huxiu.com/article/3038988.html) Each of the five knew Fei Ke under a different identity, and each tells a story in which they were an innocent victim of his schemes: mining boss Chen Shufa says Fei Ke posed as the son of an official, deceived his daughter and took 40 million yuan; finance executive [Cheng Hao](https://www.edgepedia.org/cheng-hao) says Fei Ke used his industry access for insider trading and moved 20 million yuan; Su Qian says he took 3 million from a property sale plus 10 million of company funds; [Zhang Xuan](https://www.edgepedia.org/zhang-xuan) says her college boyfriend traded her to business contacts for resources.[3](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27384817)
The setup combines two classic patterns. The sealed island with no transport or signal recreates the "snowstorm villa" (暴风雪山庄) closed-circle mystery, while the contradictory testimonies apply the Rashomon structure, in which each narrator's account is shaped by self-interest, to a television series.[5](https://www.huxiu.com/article/3038988.html) • [6](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2024/0517/c419388-40237685.html) Chinese media noted that this multi-perspective technique, common in film, was an innovation when applied to a TV drama.[6](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2024/0517/c419388-40237685.html) The narrative tradition traces back to [Ryūnosuke Akutagawa](https://www.edgepedia.org/ryunosuke-akutagawa)'s story "In a Grove", the basis of Kurosawa's *Rashomon*, and the series' real subject is not finding the conman's truth but showing that every account is a self-serving lie.[7](https://post.smzdm.com/p/a3m3mz3r/)
**The episode 7 reversal.** The first six episodes present the victims' accusations; the seventh overturns them. Fei Ke is not dead, and the testimonies collapse: Chen Shufa had in fact pursued Fei Ke to exploit his father's political connections and forced the marriage that cost his daughter's life, Cheng Hao had sought out Fei Ke to run illegal trades, and the other "victims" were complicit through their own desires.[3](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27384817) Commentators divided over whether this narrative trick was fair play or deception; defenders argued that the clues were recoverable and the logic self-consistent, and that viewers felt "cheated" because they shared the characters' information gap rather than because the writing broke its own rules.[8](https://post.smzdm.com/p/a4q7ezgl/)
## Production and source
The series was adapted from Luo Jia's web novel *Fei Ke's Banquet*, a suspense novel of just over 60,000 characters that fused three dark literary motifs: the Ripper-like identity thief of [Patricia Highsmith](https://www.edgepedia.org/patricia-highsmith)'s *The Talented Mr. Ripley*, the Rashomon structure, and the Faustian Mephistopheles figure.[3](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27384817) Shen Ao, who directed the 2023 anti-fraud film *[No More Bets](https://www.edgepedia.org/no-more-bets)* (孤注一掷), made his series directing debut with *Regeneration*, continuing his focus on fraud themes; he described the drama as being about "information-gap crime" (信息差犯罪), acquaintance fraud rather than telecom scams.[9](https://www.1905.com/news/20240517/1675949.shtml) • [10](https://static.0471tv.org.cn/wb/pc/att/202405/15/969e7771-c523-4e74-840f-bf347a44c7af.pdf) It was among the first titles of Youku's suspense strand after its upgrade to the "White Night Theater" (白夜剧场) brand.[10](https://static.0471tv.org.cn/wb/pc/att/202405/15/969e7771-c523-4e74-840f-bf347a44c7af.pdf)
## Reception and the ending controversy
The series was an immediate hit. It topped platform heat charts in its first week, reached No. 1 on Netflix's daily chart on May 11, 2024, surpassing the Korean hit *Queen of Tears*, and held the [Lighthouse](https://www.edgepedia.org/lighthouse) web-drama daily viewership chart for 9 consecutive days through the day after its finale.[11](https://huacheng.gz-cmc.com/pages/2024/05/20/5f9b4b6e40e9478e99e9d17f19e6b75b.html)
The finale drew a strong backlash. Viewers criticized the last episodes for abandoning the tight plotting of the first seven, leaving logical holes in the core impersonation and exam-substitution setup, and adding a deus ex machina reversal that rehabilitated Fei Ke while his victims were led away in handcuffs.[7](https://post.smzdm.com/p/a3m3mz3r/) • [12](https://news.bjd.com.cn/2024/05/16/10775376.shtml) The Douban score fell from an opening 7.2 to around the passing line.[7](https://post.smzdm.com/p/a3m3mz3r/) Some critics attributed the tonal shift to censorship conventions requiring wrongdoers to face justice, while director Shen Ao offered a different reading: the series is "not a tale about scams but a story about memory and perspective", and the final scenes, framed as He Shan finishing her novel, may be her imagination rather than the truth, leaving open the possibility that Fei Ke survived to begin a new life, as the title Xin Sheng ("new life") suggests.[13](https://dramapanda.com/2024/05/regeneration-criticized-ending-strong-start-director-perspective.html)
## International release
Beyond Netflix, the series became available on Rakuten Viki, where it held a 9.1 user rating from nearly 3,000 ratings, with subtitles in more than ten languages.[14](https://www.viki.com/tv/40482c-regeneration) A separate, unrelated 2026 Chinese short drama also titled 新生, directed by Wei Zhi, exists on iQIYI and is a distinct work.[15](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_1900junxo45.html)
## References
1. [新生 (2024年申奥执导的悬疑网络剧), Baidu Baike](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E6%96%B0%E7%94%9F%E3%80%8B/60247849?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
2. [Regeneration (TV Mini Series 2024), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28178829/)
3. [《新生》：悬着的心终于死了, The Paper](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27384817)
4. [安庆日报, May 24, 2024](https://aqdzb.aqnews.com.cn/epaper/xml/aqwb/20240524/WB2024052415.pdf)
5. [诈骗专业户的《新生》，把观众又骗了一回, Huxiu](https://www.huxiu.com/article/3038988.html)
6. [《新生》找到国产悬疑剧创新点, China Writer Net / Beijing Daily](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2024/0517/c419388-40237685.html)
7. [《新生》的叙事手法不是炫技，是后半段没接住, SMZDM](https://post.smzdm.com/p/a3m3mz3r/)
8. [《新生》的叙事诡计不算欺骗观众？, SMZDM](https://post.smzdm.com/p/a4q7ezgl/)
9. [今日影评：从《孤注一掷》到《新生》, 1905.com](https://www.1905.com/news/20240517/1675949.shtml)
10. [呼和浩特晚报, May 15, 2024](https://static.0471tv.org.cn/wb/pc/att/202405/15/969e7771-c523-4e74-840f-bf347a44c7af.pdf)
11. [国产悬疑，不要再诈骗观众了, Guangzhou Daily / Nanfeng Chuang](https://huacheng.gz-cmc.com/pages/2024/05/20/5f9b4b6e40e9478e99e9d17f19e6b75b.html)
12. [《新生》高开瞎走，大结局给他强行反转？, Beijing Daily](https://news.bjd.com.cn/2024/05/16/10775376.shtml)
13. ["Regeneration" Criticized for Weak Ending After Strong Start, DramaPanda](https://dramapanda.com/2024/05/regeneration-criticized-ending-strong-start-director-perspective.html)
14. [Regeneration, Rakuten Viki](https://www.viki.com/tv/40482c-regeneration)
15. [《新生》(2026短剧), iQIYI](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_1900junxo45.html)
---
*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*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license