Guardian thoughts, part 5
Jan. 8th, 2020 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nnozomiEpisodes 26 to 33 below.
26
jeez, suddenly cutting to Shen Wei in a white shirt open at the throat and no glasses, have mercy. (Also, I want to know where he put his ascot, is it in his shirt pocket or what, and why didn’t we get to watch him taking it off?)
I wish they hadn’t used the slurpy music for the covering-Zhao-Yunlan-with-jacket scene, though; it would be more moving without.
Zhu Hong, maybe be a bit more obvious that you’re covering for Lin Jing while he’s out courting—that little “uh-huh, that’s it” at the end of your fluent excuse, honestly. (Still, I really like Zhu Hong and Lin Jing’s relationship; it feels very real, and I like that they took the trouble to create this solid friendship along with the main story lines.) And Wang Zheng’s look of pure pleased amusement at being told to cut Lin Jing’s bonus again is gold.
Lin Jing’s switching between doofus in love and sharp-eyed professional is funny too. Sha Ya needs to sit down and swap notes with Shen Wei on the topic of “why do I find this idiot so damned endearing.”
Pause for an interlude from Agatha Christie translated into Chinese (for all intents and purposes)
Lin Jing happy to just sit there and adore, and Zhu Hong tilting her head like a music critic
Also, Lin Jing is taking the deaths of tall, pretty young women very personally right now.
Lin Jing wastes no time in getting his own back from Da Qing for teasing about his love life…oy.
Da Qing has managed to find the ugliest suit in the known universe, God knows why when he has the nice one he wore to impersonate an official…
lol, you can tell it’s Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei just from their shoes. also, loool, Zhao Yunlan is cracking up at poor Da Qing’s plight and Shen Wei looks as if he’s concentrating real hard not to.
Which gets less funny fast. Shen Wei screwed up, but I don’t think Da Qing and Zhao Yunlan exactly covered themselves with glory either.
I would find Da Qing’s various Feelings more moving if he didn’t look like a high school boy on spring vacation.
wow, Dr. Cheng is EVEN MORE adorable in her civvies.
Also, why doesn’t it occur to either Da Qing or Da Ji to escape being strangled by turning into a cat? You’d think there was no point in this whole Yashou thing.
oh my God, everyone united in teasing Da Qing. I can’t even tell whether Xiao Guo is seriously congratulating him or joining in the teasing.
and does Zhu Hong get out of this by saying “Sorry, I’ve got to go shed my skin”????
(I’ve decided that the only real purpose of having Da Ji around is to show that in spite of everything, Lin Jing really has pretty good taste in women. Sha Ya comes off pretty well by comparison.)
27
Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan seem to resort to telepathy in emergencies.
Look at all the floating kanji, I mean hanzi, bits, isn’t that cool…
wow, Wang Zheng really has no time for Lin Jing, does she.
aw, Li Qian’s pajamas are so cute.
I have the feeling this episode is basically the buildup to a giant clusterfuck, but is actually supposed to be working that way, unlike episode 25.
That is well done, in the lab. We don’t see Shen Wei afraid (as opposed to, afraid for Zhao Yunlan, which is pretty common) very often.
awwww, Lin Jing. He’s really trying to be his best self for her.
Chu Shuzhi, maybe take one of the shopping bags, good grief. On the other hand, that does leave his hands free to get handsy with Xiao Guo…
Good for Xiao Guo’s auntie, giving a yell. She looks considerably less intimidated than her husband.
Interesting bass-baritone duet for Zhao Xinci and Shen Wei. (aagh, now I can’t help imagining Guardian: The Opera. What even.)
You get the feeling that Shen Wei is struggling to understand what’s making Zhao Yunlan behave this differently from usual—to continue the musical metaphor, I think this is the longest passage ZYL has completely in piano and mezzo-piano—and grasping that something’s really wrong but not able to put his finger on what it is, as hard as he tries.
I like the subtly different ways everyone reacts to Lin Jing being obviously weird—Zhu Hong, Da Qing, Guo Changcheng, Zhao Yunlan. Lots of different kinds and degrees of emotional and professional intelligence.
Zhao Yunlan’s leather jacket looks just right in the club, Shen Wei’s suit is considerably out of place. (Also, I love the idea of Sha Ya’s power varying its effects according to what kind of music she’s playing.)
Aw, Lin Jing, getting his own Luke Skywalker moment (boy, were his fancy anti-electric gloves useless, although I suppose he didn’t have much time to dream them up). And Chu Shuzhi of all people actually has some sensitivity about leaving the two of them alone.
Extremely stupid of Zhao Yunlan to let Lin Jing into the interrogation room, jeez. Also, look at him sitting on the table, good grief (allowing himself peak access to Shen Wei’s shoulder…)
28
wow, Hua Yuzhu is as pretty as they come. (She’s also probably surprised that Xiao Guo isn’t more dazzled by her…but then he has this man in black taking up most of his attention.)
(Also, I really like the cute pizzicato Sha Ya and Hua Yuzhu BGM theme.)
awww, Lin Jing. (I wonder if one of the reasons he’s throwing himself into being in love with Sha Ya so hard is that it seems a lot purer than all the Other Things in his life right now.)
okay, that is definitely the exact minimum amount of “oh, they were actually in love with characterless-love-interest-boy, not each other” that the show could get away with…
I kind of feel sorry for these construction workers, who were not expecting to have their normal day interrupted by anything like this.
Zhao Xinci’s reaction is along the lines of, another day, another guy who wants to kill me, what else is new…
As far as “extended moments of tension where events are limited to conversation,” the scene in the SID after Guo Ying shows up is world-class. God damn, Bai Yu.
Cong Bo with his hand on the back of Lin Jing’s neck in passing just furthers my belief that yes, they are having semi-hatesex on the regular.
…and another scene which you just wonder what the hell the censors are thinking, Shen Wei sitting ON Zhao Yunlan’s bed and gently tucking the blanket over him…
Zhao Yunlan to Shen Wei after the little crow fight: I just told you not to get hurt, jeez!
29
oh dear, Shen Wei’s little pleased smile when Zhao Yunlan admires his telephone detection skills, and the way the corners of his mouth tuck in afterward like he wants to keep smiling.
I kind of feel for Lin Jing, professionally required to be an expert on everything from shocksticks to the language of flowers.
(Doesn’t Guo Ying have, like, minions who can carry people for him? He’s a senior bureaucrat. On the other hand, like nephew, like uncle?)
Zhao father and son, oh dear, “that brat,” “just some old guy.”
Wang Xiangyang’s whole tragic backstory seems to have been transplanted from a Yong-sama type Korean drama…
I am the first (okay, not the first) to say that the whole drama, everything, is built around Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei’s love story, and it stands up to the weight and then some, but I don’t think anything Shen Wei could say to him would gut him the way Zhao Xinci does here. Once again: God damn, Bai Yu.
(On a lighter note, does Chu Shuzhi say basically “You oughta be grateful to the science weirdo”?)
I love this quiet scene at the SID; it’s not celebration over getting the Merit Brush, nor is it wailing and shouting drama, everyone is exhausted and badly shaken and trying to cope in their own way. (Also, Chu Shuzhi stroking Guo Changcheng’s head, even though he gets his timing wrong; Lin Jing seeing the point before anyone else; and Shen Wei swearing, although I don’t think 糟了 is a particularly awful curse word? It certainly seems to be the one Shen Wei favors.)
lol, Hua Yuzhu as Angelica Schuyler: “I know my sister like I know my own mind…”
(Also, it amuses me that Shen Wei changes from the green coat of doom into his elegant blue suit—to go to Dixing. Just put your damn Envoy robes on, Hei Pao Shi. Not that I don’t like the suit, you understand.)
30
lol, Shen Wei clearly thinking, Sha Ya seems to have found happiness with Hua Yuzhu, is she actually going to want Lin Jing’s trinket? Why me? And his embarrassment over the password is adorable. And Sha Ya resolving, well, if I have to yell it, I WILL YELL IT. And Hua Yuzhu obviously in it too—I love the way she just takes everything in stride.
What with one thing and another, Zhao Yunlan is hanging on by his fingernails, his trademark 余裕 gone for good; even when he’s cracking jokes or offering decoy lollipops, he’s right on the edge.
I think this is the first time we hear Lin Jing raise his voice since the novel-writer episode.
Lin Jing starts out thinking Zhao Yunlan’s going to hit him, doesn’t he.
Zhao Yunlan really doesn’t need anybody else going up against him, but okay, it made me laugh that when he yells at Xiao Guo he gets Chu Shuzhi leaping to his feet to bellow “I SUPPORT CHANGCHENG” at him.
Lin Jing’s little not-going-to-cry throat clearing gets to me. Poor loyal Zhu Hong.
It seems really historically wrong to me that the carvings on the pillar are in simplified characters…
Zhao Xinci doesn’t look like himself without the purple coat.
The Guo family, doomed to try to make peace where there isn’t any to be made…
honestly, this city would run much better if they just left it up to Ya Qing, Dr. Cheng, and Zhu Hong and took all the men out of the equation.
okay, it’s very hard not to see this as Ying Chun and Zhu Hong having a sweet assignation (floaty chiffon and black leather!) and Fourth Uncle catching them in the act…
Guo Changcheng knows his calligraphy (and other people’s).
31
You wonder if Zhao Yunlan would have been able to have this relatively calm conversation with his father (and Zhang Shi) if he wasn’t already pretty emotionally battered. (Also, they manage to have this fraught discussion of Dixingren without ever coming right out and saying “Hei Pao Shi” or “Shen Wei”…)
Zhao Yunlan must be pretty shook; he’s been sitting on a sofa and a bench like a normal person…I feel like someone needs to tell him and Zhu Hong both not to have this conversation until they’re both less upset.
Zhao Yunlan, for God’s sake drop your damn lollipop if you’re going to get in a fight! Or throw it at Ya Qing or something, jeez.
Xiao Guo would have fainted dead away on his first appearance if Zhao Yunlan had cursed him out like that, never mind hauled off to punch him, but here he is standing his ground. (I think his newfound guts are less helpful than otherwise in this episode, but he does kind of provide some pacing to keep the intensity from ramping up too far at once.)
ooh, I like dream-Zhao Yunlan’s nice denim shirt. Not so much the hairstyle.
Poor Chu Shuzhi; he can’t resist taking a moment from dealing with the process servers to just go oh my God, why me, I did not sign up for this. (Also, where is Da Qing anyway? I’ve lost track of him.)
lol, the magical awakening kick in the ass from Zhao Yunlan. I notice he’s not trying the same thing on Zhu Hong.
poor brave Zhu Hong. Good for her. They did a nice job of making that a really tender moment. (“You’re a friend, you’re family.”)
(At least Xiao Guo didn’t scream “THEY’RE AWAKE!” like he did with Zhu Jiu…)
32
Oh, now Da Qing shows up.
I’ll have to check with the English subtitles, but my general take on Zhao Yunlan’s 内？外患 is along the lines of “Everything’s fucked.” [Oh, it’s 内憂外患！aargh, simplified characters. About right then.] And his “Just let me think” should not be so heart-breaking…
Ye Zun wants to be Darth Vader today.
Nice to see Zhu Hong has her balance back enough to grin at Xiao Guo and his nap.
Zhao Yunlan, I’m with you 100% but maybe don’t take out your stress on the guy who can fire you and/or your staff?
Zhao Yunlan has momentarily been out-Zhao Yunlanned by Lao Chu…
Oh dear oh dear, “I’ll bring him back,” and for a minute you can see Zhao Yunlan forget absolutely everything else.
Poor Guo Changcheng, that’s two kicks in the butt in quick succession…
It’s too bad Xiao Guo didn’t get to talk to An Bai; I feel like he’d have wanted to know him.
wow, Lao Chu’s madness is about the creepiest seduction scene ever. (Points for Changcheng, I guess, for not going “aa how do I get out of here,” just “must hang on until Chu-ge starts acting normal again.”)
(Ye Zun is taking full advantage of a big brother whose first reaction to his little brother is to hug him, unlike Shen Wei.)
I actually can do without Chu Shuzhi’s look-how-muscly-I-am outfit. Better with all the black stuff on.
For once I can kind of sympathize with the Regent—“is this really the time and place for a sibling argument!”
33
Aw, Chu-ge. That’s a good hug.
I have no idea what’s a dream and what isn’t at this point, but this little honeymoon-in-Dixing atmosphere is very weird…and now it’s Xiao Guo’s turn to enact a creepy seduction scene.
The Nightmare Master (?) just looks like a cut-rate Zhu Jiu, with the long hair and the purple coat thing…
Nice work with Zhao Yunlan’s face while Lao Chu is having his breakdown; you can see all three days (?) of hell.
Shen Wei’s reaction to Zhao Yunlan’s appearance is total disbelief…and Zhao Yunlan has this wonderful smile of “How do you even get yourself into these things.”
I kind of wanted more on-screen hurt/comfort, but then again that’s what we have fic for…
Lao Chu, learn to say thank you properly. Shen Wei, there are limits to the situations in which it’s okay to say “I’m fine.” (And Zhu Hong, clearly figuring WELL, all the men are out of action, I guess I’m SID chief for the duration, oy.)
Shen Wei suffering a mild case of euphoria, and Zhao Yunlan just wanting to stop thinking about any of the problems for a little while. (Oddly this is the one place the whole time where I am really feeling the constraints of the censorship. Lao Chu gets to stroke Xiao Guo’s FACE, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan should get to hold hands, put a hand on a thigh, anything on their bench—not even getting hot and heavy, just physical comfort. It’s all wrong that they don’t.)
Poor Lin Jing is regretting all his life choices ever (beginning, but very much not ending, with coming to an office where he has to answer the phone formally).
26
jeez, suddenly cutting to Shen Wei in a white shirt open at the throat and no glasses, have mercy. (Also, I want to know where he put his ascot, is it in his shirt pocket or what, and why didn’t we get to watch him taking it off?)
I wish they hadn’t used the slurpy music for the covering-Zhao-Yunlan-with-jacket scene, though; it would be more moving without.
Zhu Hong, maybe be a bit more obvious that you’re covering for Lin Jing while he’s out courting—that little “uh-huh, that’s it” at the end of your fluent excuse, honestly. (Still, I really like Zhu Hong and Lin Jing’s relationship; it feels very real, and I like that they took the trouble to create this solid friendship along with the main story lines.) And Wang Zheng’s look of pure pleased amusement at being told to cut Lin Jing’s bonus again is gold.
Lin Jing’s switching between doofus in love and sharp-eyed professional is funny too. Sha Ya needs to sit down and swap notes with Shen Wei on the topic of “why do I find this idiot so damned endearing.”
Pause for an interlude from Agatha Christie translated into Chinese (for all intents and purposes)
Lin Jing happy to just sit there and adore, and Zhu Hong tilting her head like a music critic
Also, Lin Jing is taking the deaths of tall, pretty young women very personally right now.
Lin Jing wastes no time in getting his own back from Da Qing for teasing about his love life…oy.
Da Qing has managed to find the ugliest suit in the known universe, God knows why when he has the nice one he wore to impersonate an official…
lol, you can tell it’s Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei just from their shoes. also, loool, Zhao Yunlan is cracking up at poor Da Qing’s plight and Shen Wei looks as if he’s concentrating real hard not to.
Which gets less funny fast. Shen Wei screwed up, but I don’t think Da Qing and Zhao Yunlan exactly covered themselves with glory either.
I would find Da Qing’s various Feelings more moving if he didn’t look like a high school boy on spring vacation.
wow, Dr. Cheng is EVEN MORE adorable in her civvies.
Also, why doesn’t it occur to either Da Qing or Da Ji to escape being strangled by turning into a cat? You’d think there was no point in this whole Yashou thing.
oh my God, everyone united in teasing Da Qing. I can’t even tell whether Xiao Guo is seriously congratulating him or joining in the teasing.
and does Zhu Hong get out of this by saying “Sorry, I’ve got to go shed my skin”????
(I’ve decided that the only real purpose of having Da Ji around is to show that in spite of everything, Lin Jing really has pretty good taste in women. Sha Ya comes off pretty well by comparison.)
27
Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan seem to resort to telepathy in emergencies.
Look at all the floating kanji, I mean hanzi, bits, isn’t that cool…
wow, Wang Zheng really has no time for Lin Jing, does she.
aw, Li Qian’s pajamas are so cute.
I have the feeling this episode is basically the buildup to a giant clusterfuck, but is actually supposed to be working that way, unlike episode 25.
That is well done, in the lab. We don’t see Shen Wei afraid (as opposed to, afraid for Zhao Yunlan, which is pretty common) very often.
awwww, Lin Jing. He’s really trying to be his best self for her.
Chu Shuzhi, maybe take one of the shopping bags, good grief. On the other hand, that does leave his hands free to get handsy with Xiao Guo…
Good for Xiao Guo’s auntie, giving a yell. She looks considerably less intimidated than her husband.
Interesting bass-baritone duet for Zhao Xinci and Shen Wei. (aagh, now I can’t help imagining Guardian: The Opera. What even.)
You get the feeling that Shen Wei is struggling to understand what’s making Zhao Yunlan behave this differently from usual—to continue the musical metaphor, I think this is the longest passage ZYL has completely in piano and mezzo-piano—and grasping that something’s really wrong but not able to put his finger on what it is, as hard as he tries.
I like the subtly different ways everyone reacts to Lin Jing being obviously weird—Zhu Hong, Da Qing, Guo Changcheng, Zhao Yunlan. Lots of different kinds and degrees of emotional and professional intelligence.
Zhao Yunlan’s leather jacket looks just right in the club, Shen Wei’s suit is considerably out of place. (Also, I love the idea of Sha Ya’s power varying its effects according to what kind of music she’s playing.)
Aw, Lin Jing, getting his own Luke Skywalker moment (boy, were his fancy anti-electric gloves useless, although I suppose he didn’t have much time to dream them up). And Chu Shuzhi of all people actually has some sensitivity about leaving the two of them alone.
Extremely stupid of Zhao Yunlan to let Lin Jing into the interrogation room, jeez. Also, look at him sitting on the table, good grief (allowing himself peak access to Shen Wei’s shoulder…)
28
wow, Hua Yuzhu is as pretty as they come. (She’s also probably surprised that Xiao Guo isn’t more dazzled by her…but then he has this man in black taking up most of his attention.)
(Also, I really like the cute pizzicato Sha Ya and Hua Yuzhu BGM theme.)
awww, Lin Jing. (I wonder if one of the reasons he’s throwing himself into being in love with Sha Ya so hard is that it seems a lot purer than all the Other Things in his life right now.)
okay, that is definitely the exact minimum amount of “oh, they were actually in love with characterless-love-interest-boy, not each other” that the show could get away with…
I kind of feel sorry for these construction workers, who were not expecting to have their normal day interrupted by anything like this.
Zhao Xinci’s reaction is along the lines of, another day, another guy who wants to kill me, what else is new…
As far as “extended moments of tension where events are limited to conversation,” the scene in the SID after Guo Ying shows up is world-class. God damn, Bai Yu.
Cong Bo with his hand on the back of Lin Jing’s neck in passing just furthers my belief that yes, they are having semi-hatesex on the regular.
…and another scene which you just wonder what the hell the censors are thinking, Shen Wei sitting ON Zhao Yunlan’s bed and gently tucking the blanket over him…
Zhao Yunlan to Shen Wei after the little crow fight: I just told you not to get hurt, jeez!
29
oh dear, Shen Wei’s little pleased smile when Zhao Yunlan admires his telephone detection skills, and the way the corners of his mouth tuck in afterward like he wants to keep smiling.
I kind of feel for Lin Jing, professionally required to be an expert on everything from shocksticks to the language of flowers.
(Doesn’t Guo Ying have, like, minions who can carry people for him? He’s a senior bureaucrat. On the other hand, like nephew, like uncle?)
Zhao father and son, oh dear, “that brat,” “just some old guy.”
Wang Xiangyang’s whole tragic backstory seems to have been transplanted from a Yong-sama type Korean drama…
I am the first (okay, not the first) to say that the whole drama, everything, is built around Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei’s love story, and it stands up to the weight and then some, but I don’t think anything Shen Wei could say to him would gut him the way Zhao Xinci does here. Once again: God damn, Bai Yu.
(On a lighter note, does Chu Shuzhi say basically “You oughta be grateful to the science weirdo”?)
I love this quiet scene at the SID; it’s not celebration over getting the Merit Brush, nor is it wailing and shouting drama, everyone is exhausted and badly shaken and trying to cope in their own way. (Also, Chu Shuzhi stroking Guo Changcheng’s head, even though he gets his timing wrong; Lin Jing seeing the point before anyone else; and Shen Wei swearing, although I don’t think 糟了 is a particularly awful curse word? It certainly seems to be the one Shen Wei favors.)
lol, Hua Yuzhu as Angelica Schuyler: “I know my sister like I know my own mind…”
(Also, it amuses me that Shen Wei changes from the green coat of doom into his elegant blue suit—to go to Dixing. Just put your damn Envoy robes on, Hei Pao Shi. Not that I don’t like the suit, you understand.)
30
lol, Shen Wei clearly thinking, Sha Ya seems to have found happiness with Hua Yuzhu, is she actually going to want Lin Jing’s trinket? Why me? And his embarrassment over the password is adorable. And Sha Ya resolving, well, if I have to yell it, I WILL YELL IT. And Hua Yuzhu obviously in it too—I love the way she just takes everything in stride.
What with one thing and another, Zhao Yunlan is hanging on by his fingernails, his trademark 余裕 gone for good; even when he’s cracking jokes or offering decoy lollipops, he’s right on the edge.
I think this is the first time we hear Lin Jing raise his voice since the novel-writer episode.
Lin Jing starts out thinking Zhao Yunlan’s going to hit him, doesn’t he.
Zhao Yunlan really doesn’t need anybody else going up against him, but okay, it made me laugh that when he yells at Xiao Guo he gets Chu Shuzhi leaping to his feet to bellow “I SUPPORT CHANGCHENG” at him.
Lin Jing’s little not-going-to-cry throat clearing gets to me. Poor loyal Zhu Hong.
It seems really historically wrong to me that the carvings on the pillar are in simplified characters…
Zhao Xinci doesn’t look like himself without the purple coat.
The Guo family, doomed to try to make peace where there isn’t any to be made…
honestly, this city would run much better if they just left it up to Ya Qing, Dr. Cheng, and Zhu Hong and took all the men out of the equation.
okay, it’s very hard not to see this as Ying Chun and Zhu Hong having a sweet assignation (floaty chiffon and black leather!) and Fourth Uncle catching them in the act…
Guo Changcheng knows his calligraphy (and other people’s).
31
You wonder if Zhao Yunlan would have been able to have this relatively calm conversation with his father (and Zhang Shi) if he wasn’t already pretty emotionally battered. (Also, they manage to have this fraught discussion of Dixingren without ever coming right out and saying “Hei Pao Shi” or “Shen Wei”…)
Zhao Yunlan must be pretty shook; he’s been sitting on a sofa and a bench like a normal person…I feel like someone needs to tell him and Zhu Hong both not to have this conversation until they’re both less upset.
Zhao Yunlan, for God’s sake drop your damn lollipop if you’re going to get in a fight! Or throw it at Ya Qing or something, jeez.
Xiao Guo would have fainted dead away on his first appearance if Zhao Yunlan had cursed him out like that, never mind hauled off to punch him, but here he is standing his ground. (I think his newfound guts are less helpful than otherwise in this episode, but he does kind of provide some pacing to keep the intensity from ramping up too far at once.)
ooh, I like dream-Zhao Yunlan’s nice denim shirt. Not so much the hairstyle.
Poor Chu Shuzhi; he can’t resist taking a moment from dealing with the process servers to just go oh my God, why me, I did not sign up for this. (Also, where is Da Qing anyway? I’ve lost track of him.)
lol, the magical awakening kick in the ass from Zhao Yunlan. I notice he’s not trying the same thing on Zhu Hong.
poor brave Zhu Hong. Good for her. They did a nice job of making that a really tender moment. (“You’re a friend, you’re family.”)
(At least Xiao Guo didn’t scream “THEY’RE AWAKE!” like he did with Zhu Jiu…)
32
Oh, now Da Qing shows up.
I’ll have to check with the English subtitles, but my general take on Zhao Yunlan’s 内？外患 is along the lines of “Everything’s fucked.” [Oh, it’s 内憂外患！aargh, simplified characters. About right then.] And his “Just let me think” should not be so heart-breaking…
Ye Zun wants to be Darth Vader today.
Nice to see Zhu Hong has her balance back enough to grin at Xiao Guo and his nap.
Zhao Yunlan, I’m with you 100% but maybe don’t take out your stress on the guy who can fire you and/or your staff?
Zhao Yunlan has momentarily been out-Zhao Yunlanned by Lao Chu…
Oh dear oh dear, “I’ll bring him back,” and for a minute you can see Zhao Yunlan forget absolutely everything else.
Poor Guo Changcheng, that’s two kicks in the butt in quick succession…
It’s too bad Xiao Guo didn’t get to talk to An Bai; I feel like he’d have wanted to know him.
wow, Lao Chu’s madness is about the creepiest seduction scene ever. (Points for Changcheng, I guess, for not going “aa how do I get out of here,” just “must hang on until Chu-ge starts acting normal again.”)
(Ye Zun is taking full advantage of a big brother whose first reaction to his little brother is to hug him, unlike Shen Wei.)
I actually can do without Chu Shuzhi’s look-how-muscly-I-am outfit. Better with all the black stuff on.
For once I can kind of sympathize with the Regent—“is this really the time and place for a sibling argument!”
33
Aw, Chu-ge. That’s a good hug.
I have no idea what’s a dream and what isn’t at this point, but this little honeymoon-in-Dixing atmosphere is very weird…and now it’s Xiao Guo’s turn to enact a creepy seduction scene.
The Nightmare Master (?) just looks like a cut-rate Zhu Jiu, with the long hair and the purple coat thing…
Nice work with Zhao Yunlan’s face while Lao Chu is having his breakdown; you can see all three days (?) of hell.
Shen Wei’s reaction to Zhao Yunlan’s appearance is total disbelief…and Zhao Yunlan has this wonderful smile of “How do you even get yourself into these things.”
I kind of wanted more on-screen hurt/comfort, but then again that’s what we have fic for…
Lao Chu, learn to say thank you properly. Shen Wei, there are limits to the situations in which it’s okay to say “I’m fine.” (And Zhu Hong, clearly figuring WELL, all the men are out of action, I guess I’m SID chief for the duration, oy.)
Shen Wei suffering a mild case of euphoria, and Zhao Yunlan just wanting to stop thinking about any of the problems for a little while. (Oddly this is the one place the whole time where I am really feeling the constraints of the censorship. Lao Chu gets to stroke Xiao Guo’s FACE, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan should get to hold hands, put a hand on a thigh, anything on their bench—not even getting hot and heavy, just physical comfort. It’s all wrong that they don’t.)
Poor Lin Jing is regretting all his life choices ever (beginning, but very much not ending, with coming to an office where he has to answer the phone formally).
no subject
Date: 2020-01-08 06:42 am (UTC)(On the other hand when first watching we were sure Shen Wei would rescue himself and were so happy that Zhao Yunlan got to save him!)
Ahahah yes, this is so true...
I hadn't noticed this! ...on the other hand in Haixing-Dixing they apparently invented writing several thousand years before we did on Earth, so maybe they just started with simplified and never had traditional at all!?
no subject
Date: 2020-01-09 11:11 am (UTC)As you say! I suppose I'm going to have to keep watching if I want a little bit more hurt Shen Wei, even if without the comfort. (I do plan to watch the rest of it, but maybe not keep notes on it...).
in Haixing-Dixing they apparently invented writing several thousand years before we did on Earth
Neat! (I might be wrong about the simplified characters, it was just a glance, but I feel like they wouldn't use traditional ones for real-world political reasons...).
If I hadn't sworn off any exchanges but Yuletide, I would be real tempted to nominate something to do with Languages and Linguistics in Haixing/Dixing for the worldbuilding exchange. Someone was saying somewhere on DW that you can hear Zhu Yilong's Wuhan dialect; so does Shen Wei have a Dixing accent in-universe, for instance...?
no subject
Date: 2020-01-08 09:24 am (UTC)I am the first (okay, not the first) to say that the whole drama, everything, is built around Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei’s love story, and it stands up to the weight and then some, but I don’t think anything Shen Wei could say to him would gut him the way Zhao Xinci does here. Once again: God damn, Bai Yu.
You know, it's funny, but I almost never find Bai Yu's acting in the romantic scenes between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei to be anywhere near as hard-hitting as when Zhao Yunlan and Zhao Xinci share a screen. I dunno whether it's the screen directions (if that's indeed what they're called) or the script or what, but he strikes me as being not-entirely-serious in those scenes. He does a good job, but especially when you're comparing it against the sheer earth-shattering, heart-rending splendour that is Zhu Yilong's portrayal of Shen Wei's love and devotion, Bai Yu's performance pales a bit in comparison. I think one of the very rare occasions where he managed to be just as convincing as Shen Wei was when he regained his sight via the quack doctor and smiled at Shen Wei from where he was sitting on the examination table, and also during certain parts of the YOHE arc. But apart from that... Other scenes with SW where his acting was brilliant was in the Kitchen Scene and during the wedding episode when he was cajoling/threatening SW to reveal his identity, but I don't count those because he was angry/frustrated, not affectionate.
At first I thought it was just cos of an unfair comparison with Zhu Yilong, but then I saw how affecting BY's performance was when he was alongside Zhao Xinci's actor (who is also excellent at his role), which is when it hit me that what was lacking was the genuine emotion that was simply oozing from his performances in those instances. Also an excellent comparison was when Zhao Yunlan was crying while saying goodbye to ZXC and ZS before leaving for Dixing one last time vs. when he was saying goodbye to SW in the void after they'd both died. Again, the former performance by Bai Yu seemed more genuine to me, while Zhu Yilong-as-Shen Wei's tears shattered me a lot more effectively than either of their actual deaths did.
And... I think the collective fandom is probably gonna lynch me for this, but your observation that I quoted above dredged up this thing that's been bothering me ever since I first watched the show, and I had to get it out there! (Fair warning that I might lose my nerve at some point and delete this comment altogether ^^)
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Date: 2020-01-08 09:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-09 11:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-09 11:16 am (UTC)I think with the scene on the roof where Zhao Xinci is cursing him out in particular, I felt that no matter how much Zhao Yunlan is in love with Shen Wei, he's only known him, what, a few months? (Ten thousand years from Shen Wei's side, of course...). Whereas his relationship with his father, by definition, goes back through his whole life and his whole personality; in some ways Zhao Xinci is always going to be able to cut him deeper. Plus I'm always a fan of the understated (see: microexpressions), and I thought Bai Yu did an incredible amount with a minimum of lines and no scenery-chewing.
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Date: 2020-01-10 03:17 pm (UTC)Interestingly, this mismatch in the levels of devotion is a large part of why I read fanfic for the Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan pairing in the first place. I never seek out fic for the novel, for example, because in the novel ZYL is just as much in love with SW as SW is with him, so quite apart from the fact that I'm not fond of the characterisation there and it had an HEA, it also pretty much didn't need anything more on the relationship front. OTOH, this gap I feel so strongly from the drama (once again, I haven't the faintest whether it was done intentionally for the sake of censorship or whether Bai Yu didn't manage to act it out 100% convincingly or even whether the script writers wanted to go the more realistic route re: ZYL's feelings because it just isn't believable for a normal person to be crazy about some guy he met barely a year ago) compels me to seek out stories that will portray their relationship in a way which makes it feel fair to Shen Wei. (Of course, I want it to be fair to ZYL as well, but SW is my favourite and was also the one canon saw fit to torment mercilessly, so...)
Also, I can imagine ZYL moving on after SW's death, but not vice-versa, which is why I was honestly relieved they both died in the end. I'd predicted SW's self-sacrifice long before it happened, but ZYL's took me completely by surprise, but I really appreciated it because it cemented them as a "proper" couple (and allowed ZYL to be just as heroic as SW, if not more, though that's not really relevant here), and not a bromance or something one-sided on SW's end. (I feel terrible for ZYL, saying that, but it's only the truth!)
And would you look at that, I'm getting bolder and bolder with the very-much-out-there opinions! *Sweat* Think I'll shut up now and stop hogging your post! ^^
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Date: 2020-01-12 06:20 am (UTC)