The ending of "Hidden Corners" seems to be very happy. At the end, Zhang Dongsheng is killed by the police, Zhu Chaoyang continues to go to school, Pupu's brother is saved, Yanliang wants to be a police officer, and Lao Chen and his partner square dance. But do you think the story really ends so happily?
In order to be able to pass the trial but also to retain the essence of the original, "Hidden Corner" drama repeatedly used a very deep meaning of the lens to achieve the purpose of the metaphor, a lot of details in the implication that, Lao Chen is actually dead! So how did Old Chen actually die?
Just when Lao Chen applied to be Yan Liang's guardian, he saw Yan Liang fighting with Wang Li, and in order to save Yan Liang, he was inserted into his internal organs with a stick by Wang Li. In the drama, Lao Chen recuperated in the hospital and recovered his health, and after Yan Liang fell into the sea, Lao Chen and the police went to the sea with him, and Lao Chen, by himself, dragged Yan Liang to the shore, did CPR, and succeeded in rescuing Yan Liang. This is a bright line that the director purposely arranged to make it look like both Lao Chen and Yan Liang survived.
In fact, it wasn't. Lao Chen was killed by Wang Li due to blood loss and injuries to his internal organs, while Yan Liang was brought to the boat by Zhu Chaoyang, who guided Zhang Dongsheng to kill Yan Liang with his own hands, and he watched Yan Liang fall into the sea without reaching out to pull him.
In the last episode Yan Liang watched Lao Chen and his old partner dancing in the square, it was obvious that Lao Chen was the extra one, at that time there were three rows of people in the square, the left and right rows were seven people, only the row in the center where Lao Chen was was eight people, which implied that Lao Chen was the extra one, he was dead long time ago, and he shouldn't have appeared in the team of the square dance!
Lao Chen and Yan Liang were both wearing white tops. Yan Liang also appeared in the school's auditorium and walked up to Zhu Chaoyang, the rest of the school didn't have any reaction, none of them saw Yan Liang, suggesting that Yan Liang and Lao Chen were from another dimension.
In fact, if you are willing to believe in fairy tales, you can believe in the apparently happy ending, it's just that nowadays we are all too sober and prefer dark and cruel endings.