andrxil

[andrxil]

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Get yourself a boyfriend crush who will have you falling back in love with the weather you don't like.

[andrxil]

okay absolutely binged through the white olive tree’s episodes so far today, and while there’s room for improvement in some of the writing and it’s got a healthy dose of propaganda like all military dramas, I am so so emotional about how they are portraying the victims of war and genocide.

the obvious references to the Palestinian experience - keffiyehs in the background, the olive tree symbolism, ancient cities being laid to rubble - are paired so beautifully with humanizing moments, reminding the audience of what this kind of horrifying experience really means. it’s especially fascinating in a media landscape where this type of “other” is so often villainized - it is so refreshing

I really really wasn’t expecting to be so moved in this context by a cdrama. Western media pls learn from this! It helps that the romance is also incredibly wholesome (and very filled with trauma and pining just like I like it). very good so far, hope it stays on this trajectory!

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"The meaning of Chen is actually a roof that shelters all. With a roof, people can shelter from the wind and rain. With a roof, there is home."

AND THEN HE LITERALLY DELIVERS HIMSELF INTO ZHUO YICHEN'S ARMS, like a freaking love letter!!! HOLY FUUUUCK!!! That's such a mindblow! Zhao Yuanzhou has always longed for a home to return to only to finally find it in ZYC. His name MEANS home. They always made joke what their names meant, but it was all to cover the one meaning that mattered (that's one hell of a covert operation, Edward Guo).

Even the lyrics confirm it, interlacing with Zhou Yichen's search for Zhao Yuanzhou, the main theme song of the entire drama has been about THEM all along, it's their love song (all the lyrics about searching and finding and longing coincide with ZYC appearing on the screen, not WX) - ZYZ being lonely by the sea ('Someday, I'll return to my hometown'), abandoned, lost, longing for home/him ('Looking for you'), while ZYC is searching for him ('Running towards you, chasing your voice'), his yearning to find ZYZ reaching ZYZ, echoing his own longing, waking up his demonic energy on that contract, the wind taking him ('I finally heard the wind say knowing where you are') and delivering him to ZYC ('It'll lead me to find you'), his home. Not to WX, who is waiting for him in the Wilderness, but to ZYC, who's been searching for him desperately and all alone.

Being a great demon now and a former human, ZYC can give him both - a shelter and a home. And WX's narration again ends with a final close-up at ZYC.

This is a love story for the ages.

[andrxil]

Here is my contribution to the Fangs Of Fortune fandom. You're welcome.

[andrxil]

The way the entire second half of the epilogue is just a visual poem about two incredibly lonely people who found each other.

And how it fits in with the words said earlier.

The bell in his hair is a reminder of Bai Jiu and a sign that now it is him, Yichen - the one who is lost

and wants to be found.

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I just

Had a realization about Fangs of Fortune.

Li Lun's reluctance to go out of his comfort zone is

because he's a tree!

And Zhu Yan is literally a monkey, he's supposed to roam!

Wow

For some reason until now I thought they are assigned those origins for only "haha monkey and a tree what a pair" reasons 😭

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sometimes a family consists of two depressed demons, a weepy goddess, a possessed child prodigy, a silly mountain god, and an archer lady, and I think that's beautiful

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anyway. this IS the most sexiest thing i have seen on television this year.

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I love the way Zhu Yan is, in the first episodes, very much presented to the audience as your classic, sterotypical demon... seeking to mislead and tempt people.

He tells both Zhuo Yichen and Wen Xiao separately that he has come there to help them... to help Zhuo Yichen to kill his greatest enemy and take his revenge... and to help Wen Xiao to find the missing baize token.

And it's very deliberately framed this way to the audience, we see him speaking separately to each of them (in the same place - the prison cell) and telling them each a seemingly different story about why he came, a story that seems designed to tempt them, offering them the thing they want/need most in the world.

He's filmed and framed as cunning and sinister, someone not to be trusted.

And ofc it turns out that every word was true and he was telling them exactly how he could and will help them... except of course doing it in a sinister and unsettling way... because he's a dick and a 30+ thousand year old demon's gotta get his kicks somehow. 😂

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From now on, we will protect the Wilderness and mortal world together. Promise me.

FANGS OF FORTUNE 大梦归离 dir.  Edward Guo, Luo Luo, Wei Nan, 2024.

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OMFG! Has the hell frozen over, or what, because this is an FREAKING MALE-TO-MALE LOVE CONFESSION IN A MAINSTREAM CDRAMA! There is no need to even read between the lines!

ZYZ literally says THEY ARE EACH OTHER'S SOULMATE, I can't! And ZYC doesn't correct him. Plus the shaken look in his eyes, as he realizes ZYC is baring his heart and soul to him.

And then he admits he wishes they could spend an eternity together. He says 'our group', but let's face it, that's just a trick/loophole to get it past the censors. WX is mortal, she would die in a few decades, but ZYC and ZYZ are virtually immortal.

It's a reciprocation in its purest, most visceral form.

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Demon Daddy really said "My body, my choice." LOL. Also, me being a huge LOTR fan, I literally hear the follow-up of those words "It is mine to give to whom I will, like my heart."

Even though the whole thing is a plot to mislead the Dragon Princess, ZYC means every single word he utters. He's being completely vulnerable and open; his feelings and sentiments are real and, in the end, WX and ZYZ get carried away by his heartfelt sincerity. He makes the lie real. Because, let's face it, eventually it will come down to it and ZYZ will do something like half-killing himself to help ZYZ, especially since it really looks like he wants to use the scale to save WX who might have really been poisoned.

The sword is his family heirloom, the one thing he truly connects with his older brother, and everyone wants that sword, but he would throw it away without any hesitation, if repairing it meant hurting ZYZ or him dying. Honestly, it almost looks like he is totally fine with it, getting rid of the possibility of him having to kill him with it one day.

He is so adamant about and steadfast in that he won't allow ZYZ to sacrifice himself for him, and in a way, he is actually picking him over BJ, or rather he could give up on BJ rather than save him at all costs.

Translation: "You are more precious to me than anything in the entire world." FETCH MY SMELLING SALTS!

ZYC's words shake ZYZ to his core, it floors him that someone would choose him, the most evil great demon, above everything, that he would even choose him over the adorable BJ.

Demon Daddy thought he would show an Oscar-worthy performance, but he ends up going through the most intense therapy session of his life. All these words are everything he needed to hear in those past 8 years so much, but didn't know it.

Look at him! How much it means to him! How much he drinks those words in! WX and ZYC are unbreaking ZYZ's heart that shattered to pieces a long time ago and putting it back together. The fact that ZYC would turn against his friends and fight for HIM of all people, defend him, protect him, without any weapon, just using his body!

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The call back to Ying Long and Bingyi's lovestory - Ying Long broke his body to forge the sword for Bingyi and now ZYZ mutilates himself and exhausts his demonic power to re-forge it for ZYC, Bingyi's descendant. Just as YL created the sword to protect BY and later kill him with it, ZYZ does the same, giving a piece of himself to make ZYC complete again. They aren't their reincarnation but dead-ringers fated to relive their tragic fate.

How he doesn't hesitate even for a second to give a piece of himself to him and undergo unspeakable torture.

"Can anyone explain to me why all the problems in this world can be solved by stabbing and tormenting ZYZ?" - Zhuo Yichen. Really, he is like an universal sacrificial lamb.

Also from THIS:

To THIS:

That parallel! They've come such a long way; now he's really asking him to protect him, because he wants to live just a little longer.

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The thing I love the most about the finale is how Zhuo Yichen vowed to roam the vast world to find Zhao Yuanzhou's soul, but it was ZYZ's soul who got to find him first at the end. This was such a testament about their love for each other.

"Bingyi once said that the most beautiful things in the world are false alarms and a reunion after a long separation. Having a friend (soulmate) who truly knows you, you'll have no regrets in life. Then I hope that when you reach the end, all your hardships will turn out to be false alarms and return after a long dream." - Ying Long

[andrxil]

Fangs of Fortune (Ep. 25): Quick thoughts on the visuals

Pretty sure that last scene of Fangs of Fortune's Episode 25 made me feral and has not given me a moment of peace since I saw it (where's the fanfic, y'all???), but it did highlight for me something distinct about Director Guo Jingming's visual storytelling that isn't often discussed: his actor blocking.

Like in My Journey to You, Guo often uses how the actors are positioned in relation to the set and one another to reveal something about their characters, and he then shifts them like pieces on a chess board to signify changes in their mental state and/or relationships. This directing choice really gives his scenes a sense of movement and tension because the characters literally end up in different positions than where they started. We see the change on screen as much as we hear it in the script.

At the beginning of the scene, we see Li Lun looming over Zhou Yichen, reveling in the latter's apparent defeat over being harassed for being a demon.

Even though Li Lun eventually kneels down, it is menacing and just as much a power move as when he was standing up.

But we instantly feel the switch in the flow of power within the conversation when the distance between the two actors gets smaller. It's like Li Lun is both compelled and repulsed by Yichen's defense of humans and his criticism of Li Lun's indiscriminate violence towards them.

So we know that Li Lun has lost control of the situation when he stands up again and leg kabedons Yichen, pinning him roughly against the wall. Unlike earlier in the conversation, he now has to resort to brute strength to repress Yichen, and we see that realization on Li Lun's anguished face.

SIDE NOTE: That little grunt and exhale of air from Yichen at that move? Sorry, my mind wandered. Moving on...

Up until this point, Yichen has been relatively calm, but when Li Lun goes too far by calling him a coward like Zhu Yan (big mistake to insult his man!), Yichen demonstrates his power and blasts him away from into the water.

Not only is Yichen now looming over Li Lun, they're literally not on the same level, the latter isolated and cast in darkness. His resentment and crimes have sunk him to such a level that Yichen can only see him as pitiful.

Li Lun's switch to Bai Jiu's form in the background as Yichen walks away reinforces this. As a child actor, Lester Lin is significantly smaller than Yan An, so the use of his body makes Li Lun look even weaker.

SIDE NOTE: What a devastating use of rack focus from Li Lun to Yichen, showing how his manipulation won't work on Yichen no matter how painful it must feel to see Xiao Jiu. The shallow depth of field weakens Li Lun's image (and therefore power) even further.

Finally, I love how this scene ends with Yichen walking past Li Lun who remains immobile in the water but eventually drags himself in the other direction. It's the perfect bookend to the start of the scene. Yichen moves beyond that barrier (Li Lun's body), looking forward into the future despite the challenges he will face, while Li Lun's stays behind, most likely choosing an even more self-destructive end to his tragic story.

God, I love this director even when his writing drives me up a wall.

[andrxil]

Love how Zhu Yan is known among humans as the most terrible and fearsome of demons but the moment they meet another demon/deity they're just like "oh yeah the most annoying fucking guy ever"

[andrxil]

I think one of the reasons all the emotions hit so hard in Fangs of Fortune is the way hard, bitter feelings and violent actions are layered with softness and gentleness. All the main characters (except Ying Lei, who is just pure, soft sunshine), are hung up on rough feelings of grief, revenge, and remorse, betrayal. But each of them is willing to surrender those feelings, which for each of them have grown into a kind of mission, to let tenderness in. This gradually changes them.

The tenderness is shown through so many devices: touch, gaze, play and humor, frank and intimate conversation. It’s also shown through costumes:textured and soft textiles, fur, fluffy pom poms, velvet, that invite touch. Zhao Yuanzhou’s costume in his final scenes is the epitome of this– somber and solid-looking material on one side and a fuzzy white knit textile on the other to signify duality. In this case, the firmness of purpose, making amends, the inevitability of fate on the harder black right side, and the small choices we make to connect with and touch the lives of others on the soft white left.

The soundtrack music also conveys softness. Lead actors Hou Minghao and Tian Jiarui, especially, use incredibly soft, wavering voices to sing haunting ballads that sound like laments and lullabies. But there is also some harder rock music used during fight scenes to balance the dreamlike overall effect.

This all helps convey the theme that though none of the characters can escape what fate has chosen for them, they don’t need to let it harden them. Each has suffered great losses, each knows they will suffer more, but they remain pliable and willing toward each other.

I thought it was interesting that forgiveness wasn’t really a theme. There wasn’t a moment when Wen Xiao and Zhuo Yichen forgave Zhao Yuanzhou in order to love him. In fact, they held him accountable for his past actions until the end but loved him nonetheless. Zhuo Yichen showed his love by taking on the guilt of killing the man he loved, a death that both repaid a debt and saved the world and left him bereft and alone. Wen Xiao showed her love by tearing up the contract and releasing him to both be her lover and to die.

To live with duality, one must be flexible (a point made overtly in the swing scene). The characters that cannot do this, that rigidify on one side of the balance, are the villains. Wen Zongyu, who sealed himself inside hatred of demons after they killed his wife, and Li Lun, who sealed him inside hatred of humans, and a sense of betrayal by Zhao Yuanzhou for loving them. In the end, however, Li Lun, softens and releases the love that remains in his heart to save Zhao Yuanzhou and Zhuo Yichen. These characters live with contradictions and ambiguities.

So the main male characters become better, nobler men not by doing great, or violently masculine deeds, but by letting the softer, gentler, one might even say somewhat feminine side of their natures direct their actions.