mendimore

[mendimore]

Cdrama Reviews/Reccs Series 01: Mysterious Lotus Casebook (莲花楼)

SPOILER WARNING!!!! PROCEED WITH CAUTION ( will be talking about the plot and the ending so if you are spoiled that if not my problem in any way)

Mysterious Lotus Casebook, led by Chengyi, Zeng Shunxi(Joseph), and Xiao Shunyao, directed by Guohu and Ren Haitao, aired through summer 2023 and was one of the most popular cdramas to come out that summer.

Unfortunately I was a bit preoccupied falling down the Boy's Planet rabbit hole after being peer pressured to watch it to serve as moral support for a friend of mine and thus, being unintentionally dragged back into my kpop phase.

It was also because I had a hellish 14-hour work/study schedule 5-6 days a week during most of that summer meaning I could only have one hyperfixtation and watching five three-minute fancams was still a lot less time than rewatching a word of honor episode for the literal 14th time.

However, I am back and despite still being busy as hell, I have pulled three all-nighters (not in a row thank god) to finish this drama because it was heavily reccomended.

And needless to say, since I was able to sacrifice another decade of my life for it, it was pretty good.

I have not read the novel it was based on, I am only going off of what is in the actual drama.

For costume dramas, out of the big three platforms in the land of cdramas, youku, tencent, and iqiyi, I would say production quality-wise I prefer iqiyi, so that was one of the reasons I agreed to watch this drama. When it comes to Iqiyi, most of the time I don't feel taken out of the story by the production quality. Usually, I'm removed from from the illusion of the story by the story itself but that is another issue, particularly prevalent in productions with script with no source material or very low-quality source material.

The skin smoothing wasn't super excessive and the general look was pretty harmonious. No props that stood out strangely and few consistently or particularly awkward camera angles messed with the storytelling elements that I can remember. Pretty good for a Cdrama. The bar is a bit low, yes, but in the grand scheme of things it's not a badly produced drama, and it's pretty evident, that the people working on it cared at least a passing amount about those storytelling elements which I can wholly appreciate. And obviously, it's nowhere near a cinematic masterpiece, it did not lack the quick cuts of slow-mo, or the wide-face shots that are a certain pet peeve of mine in dramas, though I will say, it didn't bother me as much as it usually does. It had a certain martial arts film charm to it and generally sidestepped the tacky look that kind of editing or shots usually have, but nonetheless, the production has certain things to be desired. I would say the overall look/production quality definitely doesn't hinder the watching experience.

However, there was something that did set me off a bit. I am a Mandarin speaker myself. Listening to this drama was a bit awkward at times. Of course, If I can find them I will put on both Chinese and English subtitles, if not I will at least have one language of subtitles on so I don't have too much problem understanding what is going on, and this was no exception. but frankly, spending late nights in front of my computer screen trying to read subtitles has never been my favorite way to enjoy cdramas.

The line delivery in costume dramas has certain standards that contrast with contemporary dramas making it that much more difficult and important to the scene. My first victim is Zeng Shunxi, the actor for Tianji Manor's young master Fang Duobing. From what I understand Mandarin is not Joseph Zeng's first language, perfectly fine, but the problem is, in this drama, I can tell. There are plenty of instances where his delivery is majorly awkward, particularly for a Minister's son, he's supposed to be well-versed in literature and an eloquent young master but sometimes talks like the words don't fit his mouth and other times the words come out in form fitted lines of monotony that also feel strange to native speakers and particularly costume drama viewers. It's not the worst thing and if you only read subtitles you will probably not even notice because his emotions generally still translate pretty well and it's not like he is speaking noticeably slower than other actors or like a robot. there is just a lot of be desired in that standards of voice acting. I am not here to attack this man, the fact that he could play in his own voice through the whole drama as someone whose first language is not Mandarin is impressive, particularly because it is a costume drama so there is a whole other level of difficulty, plus his line delivery was not bad enough to prevent me from finishing this drama so do with that what you will. However, for the purposes of the story, I think getting a dubbing actor could have been a reasonable investment. Our other leading actor, Chengyi also has certain issues with line delivery, though arguably not as noticeable. His character is a reserved, tired person, secretive so it's generally in character for him to be quieter, calmer, and his cadence is mostly natural, but sometimes I really couldn't quite catch what he was saying. He likes to gloss over certain words, his ending sounds such as those with ng like jing or neng get ommited some of the time, and his overall delivery borders mumbly several times. Mumbly words said under your breath are acceptable as long as the words are heard clearly, but that is the problem, they aren't. Again, it likely will not be noticeable if you are only reading subtitles and it is not bad enough to ruin the moment or scene in most instanced but there are things to work on, definitely. These two actors have the most lines in the entire show which is why I'm making such a big deal about it, but for people that don't know mandarin, that don't hear the awkward cadence or can't understand whatever is being mumbled, it wouldn't be noticeable, however it was definitely a criticism I had.

However, breaking away from the complaints I would like to point out that I generally really liked the fighting choreography. Fighting choreos can be the highlight of wuxia dramas. Many martial arts cdramas nowadays bypass having to train their expensive idol actors and actresses in fighting choreo with stuff like special effects and camerawork, but the fighting sequences and swordsmanship sequences were all pretty well done. Special mention to Chengyi's performance for the Li xianyi/Li lianhua's swordplay sequences was very nicely done. His movements are fluid and generally crisp, fitting his character and are nice to watch and capture the scene. I think my favorite was the last time he practiced his sword, in front of a fire, in the moonlight but here were quite a few pretty breathtaking moments.

Did this drama make me sob my eyes out? Yes, several times. I do tend to cry at every little thing but I did have a long bawl about Li lianhua after I finished, and a couple of sore, dry-eye days after a long night of quietly crying in my bedroom. However, making me cry is only a facet of storytelling that I evaluate. Personally, for the story itself, I found it generally pretty easy to get roped and invested in. The case breaking stuff is usually interesting to me and this one certainly was, though I do think that the cases themselves were sometimes overly convoluted with quite a couple of logic holes because their line of reasoning was so long and complicated. The amount of hints that are thrown at you in small moments are pretty hard to keep track of, but I think that it the characters and their dynamic is charming and the resolutions to the cases and the characters' agency was still satisfying enough for me to follow them on their little detective cases, and obviously the conflict caused by Li Lianhua's identity was the main backbone of the story. Li Lianhua's attitude, his disillusionment, all very heartbreaking, I loved it. I have seen some people argue that Li Lianhua has no character development. He still pushes the people who love him away, he is still walking away from his problems, and hurts them which is true in some ways but I disagree with the fact that he has no development. He had this sudden and painful disillusionment, before the story that changed his worldview entirely and really before Fang Duobing comes along, he is hypercritical of himself, the ruthlessly unyielding, unforgiving part of Li Xiangyi is something he still carries with him. However, after meeting Fang Duobing who admired Li Xiangyi in a way that wasn't just putting him on this untouchable pedestal or making him an ideal kind of helped him remember and allowed him to go back to Sigu sect, put on those red robes and save Yun Biqiu with Fang Duobing supporting him the whole way. He ends up giving his old acquaintances and friends some closure even though he originally intended to leave it all exactly where it was ten years ago and, though, I think it was unfair the lack of closure that Fang Duobing got, in the end, Li Xiangyi resolved his story in a different way than he was going to. Of course, he still leaves everyone behind but he isn't exactly just walking away from all his problems anymore, he's helping them accept his inevitable outcome, wishing them a bright future and the life he won't get to have and that, though albiet subtle is still development.

Overall I think the cases were draggy and complicated, but not uninteresting and the real plot with digging up the main male lead's past was a pretty good point of intrigue. These episodes are like almost 50 minutes long though so to each their own. Acting, other than line delivery gets a pass for me. They were consistent believable characters with motives and consequences that made me care about them. The chemistry between the three leads was pleasant and harmonious. Their dynamic was clear, humourous, and entertaining, nothing to gawk at but seeing them fight together and interact definitely brought a smile to my face more than once.

As for the soundtrack, it was, as most of the rest of the drama, pleasant and fitting, but, nothing mindblowing. However, I am still listening to that soundtrack while I'm writing this and it has definitely grown on me.

One last thing, I did not get to the the entirety of the ending because I do not pay for iqiyi, however, I know the general idea of what it was. Personally, I am kind of glad I did not because I think the ending in the 40th video was more than enough. I know that they don't want to incur the wrath of all the emotional fans crying after the last video and believe me I was one of them, but giving him an ambiguous ending with a hint about him returning just doesn't sit right. Li Lianhua was a dead person, he spent ten years accepting his death. This story is about the freeing of Li Xiangyi from the cycles of vengeance and the death of the idle, wandering physician Li Lianhua. If Li Lianhua does not die, entanglement in the affairs of the world is inevitable and since Li Lianhua is now recognized as Li Xiangyi, they can no longer exist separately as they had been doing for ten years, because if they do, Li Xiangyi will be forced once again into the entanglements of vengeance, attachments, and worldly affairs which undermines his selflessness, self-loathing, righteousness, and bittersweet apathy. Even though this is not Di Feisheng's happy ending, and definitely not Fang Duobing's happy ending, this is Li Lianhua's happy ending, to die quietly, all his attachments to the world settled and left behind, in a small boat where he can rest peacefully and die where he was supposed to all those years ago, rocked by the current and forcing the people he has left behind to let go of him, as they should have done. He gave everyone as much closure as he could, and he gave himself control over his own death. As much as I want him to be alive, I don't think, for the purpose of the story that he should be or would be.

Anyways, I have grown way too attached to Li Lianhua, and keep rewatching the series to cope. Overall, I liked Mysterious Lotus casebook a lot, ti is definitely I would say worth the watch and even though it is not the most amazing or greatest thing in the world it has a special place in my heard and as kind of some closure for me, that is my review of the show, hope you liked it.

[mendimore]

The Danmei Series 01: Tf is Danmei?

Note: This is an effort to convert more unsuspecting fandom children into danmei because I need more people to talk to about this. Enjoy!

Danmei.

If you haven't heard of it before, HAHAHA, you are in for a ride.

Basically, Danmei is a Chinese fiction genre (the name directly translates to indulging in beauty)that features m/m relationships.

Mendi, isn't that just bl? Yes, but specifically Chinese.

Well, Mendi, what difference does that even make? It's all the same thing.

No. It is not.

...Okay, it is a little bit.

BUT, danmei is its own genre for a reason. China, just like any other country is rich in culture. I acknowledge this may be a bit biased, but I am overjoyed that Danmei is flourishing. But, anyway, let's talk about it.

If you have heard about Danmei media in the West, even just a little, It's pretty likely that you came across one of MXTX's works. MXTX or Mo Xiang Tong Xiu is the pseudonym for a popular Danmei author on Jin Jian Wen Xue Cheng (jjwxc) a popular web novel site(a whole lot of Danmei authors publish their work on this site).

MXTX has three novels, and if you hear about the MXTX fandom, it refers to the enjoyers of all three of her novels. These three works consist of Scum Villain's Self Saving System(svsss), The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation(aka Mo Dao Zu Shi, or mdzs), Heaven Official's Blessing(aka Tian Guan Ci Fu, or tgcf). The first of their works to become very popular was mdzs, which has several adaptations(basically any adaptation you can think of). If you were into cdramas at all around 2019, you might have heard of The Untamed. The majorly successful live-action adaptation of mdzs. Or maybe if you are in the anime/donghua community, you heard about the mdzs donghua adaptation. And if you were a fandom child who found Ao3 at the right time, you might know of "Sexy Times with WangXian" which broke Ao3 with the number of tags it had and forced Ao3 to have a tag limit, or a fanfic of the lead actors of The Untamed making Ao3 illegal in China.

Have I scared you? Sorry. Truly, the mdzs fandom is not as problematic as it sounds. I started my own Danmei journey with mdzs, and it holds a soft spot in my heart. I also have way too many opinions on the adaptations and how new viewers of mdzs should approach it to get the maximum emotional value, but that is a discussion for another time.

Anyway, Heaven Official's Blessing, also skyrocketed in popularity when it came out. It has its own donghua that you can find on Netflix with a fully English dub. As well as an extremely beautiful manhua and audiodrama. But of course, I encourage you to read the novels first, especialy because these adaptations are not finished, unlike mdzs.

Scum Villain is the heavily underrated middle child as far as adaptations go. It absolutely does not mean that it is bad. It isn't. I don't wanna get into the debate about how someone isn't a true mxtx fan if they haven't read it, and how it's so much better than the other books. I personally disagree with the last statement. I do also hold a lot of love for Scum Villain, Shen Qingqiu is one of my favorite MCs of all time, the premise is a lot more relatable than the other two, but it's pretty clear that svsss is Mxtx's oldest work. She has definitely been improving. Obviously. go read it, especially if you enjoy her other two works.

But, before you come at me for only talking about one author out of ALL the Danmei out there, I would like to point out that MXTX works are probably the most accessible in the West in regards to Danmeis. They were the first to get a full English translation and along with 2ha (The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun, another very popular danmei written my an author under the name Meatbun), I was able to see them perching on their own little stand in Barnes and Noble.

So, you may have noticed something. I talk a lot about the web novels. maybe if you're into bl or yaoi, you will notice that a lot of those adaptations are in the form of graphic novels. Why is it that there is more emphasis on the actual novel? I know I know, why do these people want to make us actually just READ words instead of look at pretty pictures of pretty people. Disgusting. I understand your pain. I actually do not have anything largely conclusive to tell you why this is, but based on my observations here are two contributing factors: 1. it's easier to hide subtext, specific cue words, and satire in text media(I mean it's pretty clear when a character is desperately holding on to another character, yelling "My, love, when will you return," when you skim through a manhua, then if there are just a bunch of words), this also means its easier to hide from censorship; 2. the Chinese language itself is very poetic and if you have interacted with Chinese people, the number of references and idioms will drive you nuts as a language learner, in manhua form it can lose some of its humor and imagery, particularly with Danmei because a lot of the subject matter and the nature of the romances is kind of idealized and poetic; 3. Danmei is actually very plot-centric, the romance is often like a little cherry on top of the mounds of story, drama, and character, and so when you see even manhua or donghua adaptations of the stories, I would say that often quite a bit of the depth gets lost for the characters and the story, it's the same as what happens with a lot of blockbuster films. I'm sorry but book >>> movie almost every time.

Of course, there are options for you if you are stuck on graphic novel-style stories. Chinese manhua generally has a distinctly pretty and clean style. It does depend on the artist, obviously, but if you are a huge fan of pretty art, I tell you Manhua knows what's up, just give it a shot.

Anyway, all this yammering and I haven't talked about the actual content.

Many things set a lot of Danmei apart, content-wise. Chinese fiction has its own fantasy genres of wuxia and Xianxia. Wuxia, translating directly to martial hero, is a low fantasy genre that centers around martial arts in a historical au including sects, master-apprentice relationships, cool fights, etc. It has a lot less supernatural or magical elements, and instead often focuses on what is feasible with the human body alone. Xianxia on the other hand(translating directly to immortal Hero), can vary with very cool magic systems and worldbuilding based on Daoist and/or Buddhist influences. Xianxia is high fantasy and often includes supernatural themes, immortality, spiritual cultivation, etc. It may include mentions of the three realms. where you can ascend to godhood, haunt the mortal realms being unable to find the land of the dead, or go through the cycle of reincarnation.

Danmei can be based in some Chinese historical settings as well, separate from wuxia and can be from ancient times or during the more recent period of militant china, often with some emphasis on Peking opera.

Of course, Danmei has plenty of works set in contemporary or futuristic timelines as well that are similarly unique in their own way.(right now I just started Little Mushroom, and I really enjoy the futuristic worldbuilding so far)

Additionally, I mentioned before that Danmei is in fact very plot and character-centric.

Ha, yeah right, Mendi. Plot. The plot is romance, that is the genre, what plot could there possibly be.

Well. A whole lot.

I gave you a little taste with the mentions of some cool worldbuilding, but you will get a taste of insurmountable joy and boundless despair, reading some of this stuff. Many of your favorite tropes appear often, from enemies to lovers to pretty guys with long hair falling down cliffs(ok that is just an MXTX thing, I don't care if you think my taste is basic because i love MXTX, the stories are good). Also, you get a dose of east asian ideals and culture. For Asian Americans like me, it was very refreshing to feel somewhat understood in a way that I didn't see in Western media. The emphasis on family relationships, age hierarchies, reputation, and the way your asian aunties will gossip about you both right in front of you and behind you and have no sense of boundaries, and dramatic-ass idioms(iykyk). The way that these relationships are built is through the plot, and that is something I miss sometimes with a lot of the romances I've read. There are plenty of points of interest, from being do-gooders trying to be a good person and then getting roped into and wrongfully blamed for some elaborate scheme, or a hefty, intricate revenge plot based on some deep hatred and a not so healthy does of body horror. You will have a blast.

So, now that I have sold you on danmei content. Let's talk about another factor why you may not already be a Danmei enjoyer.

Danmei is enjoyed by many women in China and internationally, which also means there is a lot of controversy regarding the fetishization of m/m relationships. While I agree that this is a problem, I disagree that enjoying a gay romance is fetishization. it can be, but it more than often is not. Just like how I can enjoy a poetic, well-set-up, straight romance, I enjoy a lot of really beautiful Danmei stories in much the same way. For a lot of Chinese women, Danmei allows them to remove the societal constraints put on women in a relationship. it's a way of escapism, this might also be a reason as to why a lot of these romances are so poetic, even if tragic at times. Having the stigmatism of fetishization might push more heteronormativity into media. As long as you can enjoy the romance healthily, appreciating the characters as characters, and the plot as plot, and not specifically enjoy the fact that the relationship is between two gay men, you should be in the clear. The fact that some people are driven away from these stories because of the stigmas around boy's love saddens me. You don't have to be a connoisseur or anything, but if the sole reason you reject a piece of media is because it has a gay pairing in it, that is pretty homophobic. Although I will say, there is a difference between not wanting to read it because it's gay and not wanting to read it because you don't want to read smut. I understand some Danmei has smut, and some people aren't comfortable reading that, ok. But if you are intrigued by the premise, I would say just do your best to skip the smut scenes, if you really don't wanna, ok, but I think for things like smut, you can really get away with not reading it usually. Also if you think all danmei has smut, you are sorely mistaken. There are plenty of Danmei fics with no smut, and a lot of the adaptations sometimes don't even have real romance, which is sad, but if that is your concern, seriously don't. Also, in regards to censorship, if that is your issue. Unfortunately yes, it is an issue, but, there are plenty of options in the Danmei world, I'm certain you will find something.

Anyway, some of this is just my opinion, I am still actually relatively new to Danmei, I have read my fair share, but if this encouraged you to get into some Danmei, I have fulfilled my mission.

I will be back, probably talking about mdzs adaptations next time or some recs or working on some reviews, but I hope you enjoyed!

NOTE: About MXTX official translations, I have heard some mixed reviews. I, personally, read all three of the works as popular fan translations online, so I have not reread the full official translation. I have heard there are some distinct changes, including smushing some of the chapters together, which is something I am not sure about. it's unfortunate, but its only something to keep in mind. The novels should still be faithful to the original story.

[mendimore]

Hi, I'm Mendi

Since you might be reading my stuff, here's a little it about me.

I love analyzing and talking about different types of media, having been exposed to the internet and I was hoping to find a community on tumblr.

I am ethnically Han Chinese and an American, so many of my interests and the fandoms I have been exposed to are geared toward a strange mix between East Asian and Western. I find comparing two distinct cultures very interesting so don't be surprised when it comes up a lot.

I also indulge in a variety of hobbies, mostly artistic, and I like lacing my experiences with a lot of what I consume.

Some of the topics I might talk about are: kpop, Cpop, danmei, baihe, manhua/manga/manhwa, novels, animated films, anime, etc

if you share any of my interests. feel free to stick around, and if you don't, feel free to let me drag you down a myriad of hellholes that you will never get out of.