General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Reset (开端)

Reset (开端, Kāiduān) is a 2022 Chinese suspense web drama in which a college student and a game designer are trapped in a time loop after a bus explosion and must repeatedly relive the incident to stop it and save the passengers. It ran for 15 episodes of about 45 minutes each on Tencent Video, premiering on 11 January 2022 and concluding on 25 January 2022.¹^•³

Key fact	Detail
Original title / English title	开端 (Kāiduān) / Reset¹
Run	15 episodes, 11–25 January 2022, Tencent Video; about 45 minutes per episode¹^•³
Source	Adapted from the novel of the same name by Qidaojun (祈祷君), who also served as a scriptwriter²
Leads	Bai Jingting as game designer Xiao Heyun; Zhao Jinmai as college student Li Shiqing⁴
Production	Xiamen Daylight Entertainment (正午阳光); 62 days of shooting beginning June 2021 in Xiamen, Fujian⁴^•²
Viewership	Over 2.1 billion views on Tencent Video within the first two months of release²
Awards	2023 Magnolia Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Liu Dan); nominated for Best Television Series⁵

Spoilers

Premise and plot

The story follows Li Shiqing (赵今麦), a university student, and Xiao Heyun (白敬亭), a game architect, who "die and come back to life" after a bus explosion and find themselves reliving the period before the blast over and over. They move from trying to save themselves by getting off the bus to working together to stop the explosion and uncover the truth behind it.⁴

The loop works as follows: if the two cannot stop the explosion, they revive and return to the moments before the blast, carrying their memories with them, and only preventing the bombing lets them exit the cycle.²^•⁷ As the loops proceed, they work with the police and learn the personal stories of the passengers and the bus driver, which critics at a Beijing symposium called one of the most touching aspects of the drama.² In the final episode, the truth about the death of Wang Xingde's daughter five years earlier is revealed, and Li Shiqing carries out the plan alone because Xiao Heyun does not wake up; the bomb is stopped with zero casualties.³

The supporting cast includes Liu Yijun as a police officer and Huang Jue as the bus driver, with Liu Dan in a supporting role.²^•¹

Production

The series was produced by Xiamen Daylight Entertainment (厦门正午阳光影视有限公司) and reviewed and filed by the Fujian Provincial Radio and Television Bureau before release.⁴ It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Qidaojun, published on Jinjiang Literature City, with scripts credited to Qidaojun, Qiu Yujie, Suan, and Huang Kaiwen, and direction by Sun Molong, Liu Hongyuan, and Suan; Hou Hongliang served as chief producer.⁴

Sun Zhongcai, vice-president of Tencent, said the production proposal was approved quickly about two years before release and that shooting took a total of 62 days, starting in Xiamen in June 2021.² Director Sun Molong described the show's aim as examining the lives of everyday people and their pursuit of justice and a healthy social order, despite its unusual blend of science fiction and suspense.²

Reception

Viewership. The Fujian Provincial Radio and Television Bureau reported that by early February 2022 the series had passed 2 billion views on Tencent Video, with an average of over 130 million views per episode and a single-day peak of 163 million; it topped Weibo, Kuaishou, Zhihu, Douyin, and Kuaishou trending lists and industry rankings including Maoyan, Lighthouse, Guduo, Datawin, and Vlinkage.⁴ Critics at a symposium in Beijing placed it among the most popular hits of the first two months of 2022, with over 2.1 billion views on Tencent Video.²

Ratings. The series opened at 8.2 on Douban and later settled at 7.9 from 947,399 user ratings, with 51.1 percent giving four stars and 23.2 percent five stars.⁴^•¹ A Beijing Business Today report in mid-January 2022 recorded over 400 million views by 18 January and a Douban score of 8.2 at that time.⁷

Awards

At the 2023 Shanghai International TV Festival, Liu Dan won the Magnolia Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Television Series, and the series was nominated for Best Television Series and for Best Adapted Screenplay (Qidaojun, Qiu Yujie, Suan, and Huang Kaiwen). It was also nominated for a 2022 Golden Eagle Award for Best TV Series, a 2024 Feitian Television Award for Outstanding Television Series, and Huading and Macau International TV Festival honors, and it won Golden Penguin Awards at Tencent Video's own ceremony for audience favorite, VIP favorite, and innovative drama of the year.⁵

International distribution

The series has been released internationally under the English title Reset on Netflix, which lists it as a 2022 Chinese thriller adapted from a novel, and on iQIYI International.⁶^•⁸ In July 2024, Reset was among 29 Chinese dramas in the global top 100 of the ratings site MyDramaList, part of a broader expansion of Chinese drama distribution through platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+.⁹

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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