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sombredancer · 12 days

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Recent visually beautiful and generally watchable Russian fantasy movies

(because I start forgetting they exist at all) Ironically, all of them are adaptations of books/comics.

I Am Dragon / Он — дракон (2015) This movie is a very free adaptation of the novel "The Rite" / "Ритуал" by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko (Марина и Сергей Дяченко). It's a reinterpreting of an ancient tale about a maiden, a hero and a dragon. I don`t like the novel because it's very postmodern, wracks the typical fairytale plot and hurts my escapist feelings by ugly reality, but the movie is pretty fairytale-ish and nice. Firstly, it is visually beautiful and represent Slavic pseudo-medieval lore the way it should have always been in Slavic fantasy.

Secondly, as a love story between a monster and a maiden, it has got A PLENTY of tropes I'm usually looking for in Chinese dramas, so I understand very well why it was pretty popular in Asia.

Thirdly, when I said it's visually beautiful I wasn't joking. The main hero is played not by an actor, but by a male model, who is shirtless all the time (and sometimes pantless) and has a very fit and good-looking body. It's something unbelievable that someone in Russia made a movie to please women's eyes! Really, it's insane!

The folk-rock band Мельница wrote an insanely beautiful song "Обряд" (The Rite) for this movie (more matched to the book plot, though), but it was never used as OST, which is a shame. The song is about a black sheep girl, who is denied by society and asks a dragon to come for her and to take her away, because the dragon is denied by this world just like her. You can listen to it here. The band also has a song "Змей" (The Wyrm) (based on Lev Gumilev's poem), which is more accurate to the plot of the movie: the wyrm kidnaps maidens to make them its wives, but they are all dying during the flight; at the end of the song a hero-knight is ready to shoot it in order to stop it. Listen to it here.

It ends with HE, which is better than the book's obscure ending, so it is pleasure for me to rewatch it till these days.

Major Grom: Plague Doctor / Майор Гром: Чумной Доктор (2021)

It is an adaptation of Russian comic series "Major Grom" by Bubble comics. I am traditionally not very happy with the source material, but it is very good reworked to be the screen play of this movie.

It's very beautifully made in terms of director's, cameraman's and screenwriter's work, which is a rare thing for Russian movies. Also, the actors are young and handsome, especially the villain, which is a rare thing not only for Russian movies, but for the current Western movies, too. It has got a lot of allusions to Russian reality and a lot of beautiful views of Saint Petersburg, the second capital of Russia and one of the most beautiful Russian cities. And it has got some unusual visual solutions that turn it into a comic it should be.

The plot revolves around a mysterious serial killer (kinda bad Batman), a black sheep police officer and Russian Mark Zuckerberg (kind of). Mark Zuckerberg is the best guy of this movie and I like him a lot! Серёёёёжа! 🧡🧡🧡

This movie wasn't popular in Russia because of political situation in the country by the moment of its release (the both sides found out in there something insulting for them and banned it), but even if it has something like that, I honestly didn't pay attention to it. It's just a nice blockbuster with a tragic and handsome villain. The villain also has got his own BL-drama (in the comics they are really lovers, it`s as obvious as it could be shown in a Russian comic).

By the way, the villain is hot, insane, ruthless, sensitive and suffering. How does he contain all of this character treats in one personality? you may ask. He doesn`t. He has dissociative identity disorder, I would answer.

I don`t know if it works by now, but some time ago you could watch this lovely movie on Netflix.

The Master and Margarita / Мастер и Маргарита (2024) This is a loose adaptation of Russian classical novel "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov. I genuinely hate this book, but the adaptation reinterprets it, divides it into very interesting layers and makes it understandable and beautiful.

It`s layered, so it will probably be hard to understand what layer are we currently on if you are not familiar with the original story. The first layer is an ugly Soviet reality, the second layer is a plot of the novel that the main hero is writing, a story within a story. The third layer is the insane intertwining of the first two layers. On the reality layer the Master loses his job and freedom because of friend's denunciation and becomes star-crossed lovers with a married woman. On the novel level he meets devil, who visits Moscow by chance, and the devil gives him and his woman opportunity to live their lives being free from everything that usually tortures people IRL. Somewhere among those layers is a little plot about Jesus and Pontius Pilate.

The movie is visually beautiful. Although it feels pretty anti-Soviet, Soviet visuals of the movie are gorgeous. There were used the Stalin-times concepts of Moscow of the Future, the CGI buildings in frame came from the real architecture projects of those times. The Stalin Empire architecture style and views are typical for Moscow (but as I know, ironically, this all was shot in Saint Petersburg). It seems to me that this movie is heavily stuffed with visual allusions to the Western works: devil's escort looks like bunch of Pennywises, Margarita is Enchantress from Suicide Squad I, the scene of blood dripping is from Blade I etc. Usually, when I see it in Russian movies, it feels like plagiarism because I can recognize the reference but there is nothing except for these references . But here we have got the plot, so the allusions work as allusions and don`t irritate me.

The movie is dark, disturbing, uncomfortable. It really makes you feel as if you watch devil and his escort marching around you; they ravage, kill and destroy everything and you can only breathlessly, helplessly and in fear watch them. The German actor playing devil is insanely good. He stole the movie and I understand why it should have been named Woland (the devil's name) instead of the current movie's name. You may want to watch it, because it's very unusual in terms of plot and visuals experience, especially when you are not familiar with the book.

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sombredancer · 1 month

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Asian dramas and familial dynamics

There are my favorite familial dynamics as a list.

Brotherly love

Drama: The Untamed / 陈情令 Characters: Wei Wuxian & Jiang Wanyin Screentime: Secondary

My favorite brother couple! They tore my heart into million pieces and it's still broken. There is jealousy and love and difficult moral choices between them. Wei Wuxian is an extraordinary man, as the main hero should be. He is brave enough to go against the rules if he feels it's right thing to do, also he is ready to sacrifice himself for the greater good and hides all of his pain tightly inside. Jiang Cheng is a mere person. He is not strong (or insane) enough to put everything on the line, because he shoulders responsibilities for his sect. Although they love each other, Wei Wuxian is ready to die for the truth and chooses to fight if fight is inevitable. Jiang Cheng tries to go the path of "minor evil" and sacrifice his sense of justice in order to save as much as possible. The both views are OK and each goes the chosen by himself path and bears consequences of this choice. Consequences are awful. They are traumatizing. And, what is the biggest pain of mine, they never discussed it. They never found out about sacrifices they both made for each other. They never found out that they still love each other as brothers.

Drama: My Journey to You /云之羽 Characters: Gong Shangjue & Gong Yuanzhi Screentime: Secondary About these two I wrote two posts here and here . In a nutshell: one is carrying the responsibilities for everything and anything, strictly follows the rules and teaches his younger cousin how to live this life. The little cousin is yandere, who is obsessed with his older cousin, has no conscience and does his best to make his cousin's life better. I like this unusual dynamics: they both love each other and care for each other on the same level, even if one of them is yandere.

Master-servant relationship

Drama: Word of Honor / 山河令 Characters: Gu Xiang & Wen Kexing Screentime: Secondary I like this type of dynamics when servants become someone more than just servants to their masters. Chinese drama makers love it and use it a lot, but this scene was so powerful that made me cry. Beautiful transformation from a servant to a family member (unfortunately, post mortem).

Seeking out love

Drama: Word of Honor / 山河令 Characters: Xie Wang & Zhao Jing Screentime: Secondary

Zhao Jing adopted a very skillful and absolutely ruthless killer as his son. The killer is self-confident and does his job playfully, but his weakness is his passionate desire to be loved by his adoptive father. He feels that Zhao Jing just uses him for his skills and will throw him away as soon as his adoptive father will not need his skills anymore, so he even paralyze his adoptive father to force him being always near. He ends up not being capable to choose his life over his father's and dies with him. A very sad type of addiction with "A little mermaid" type of moral: you can bring the whole world upside down, but if one doesn't love you, one will not, no matter what.

Drama: Painted Skin 2020 /画皮 Characters: Wang Sheng & Xiao Wei Screentime: Main In this B̶L̶ version of Painted Skin Chinese legend the fox demon is male and wants to get one of the humans that brought him home. But humans love each other, no one is interested in a fox demon, so he makes them pay for their previous kindness with blood, sweat and tears. In the end the demon gets a human heart, feels something (e.g. how hard it is to be a human) and makes up one more lie, giving to the soul of the man he wanted for himself a strand of his own hair instead of human's wife's hair in order to meet him in another life. The same moral as in the previous drama. The same sadness.

#cdrama #tropes #movie tropes #SDabouttropes #period drama #costume drama #bl drama #wuxia #word of honor #The Untamed #xianxia #painted skin #my journey to you #family issues

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sombredancer · 1 month

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Asian dramas and relationship dynamics

There are my favorite relationship dynamics as a list. Opposites attract + power couple

Drama: I Am Nobody / 异人之下 Characters: Zhuge Qing & Wang Ye Screentime: Minor I like it when characters are different in a way they could complement one another, but at the same time they are similar in terms of what is important for people to stay stuck together. Zhuge Qing is public, easy-going and wants to be friends with Wang Ye. Wang Ye is mysterious, reflexive and doesn't want to be bothered by other people. But no one can beat extrovert if he decided to be friends with you =) Plus, they are united by their superpowers: they are both powerful sorcerers and their sorcery is very similar in its nature. So they can compete and learn from each other and, if necessary, kick enemy's ass together. ̶A̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶d̶y̶n̶a̶m̶i̶c̶s̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶g̶o̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶B̶L̶ ̶v̶i̶b̶e̶s.̶ By the end of season 1 they are OK and together.

Drama: Mysterious Lotus Casebook / 莲花楼 Characters: Di Feisheng & Li Lianhua Screentime: Secondary Di Feisheng is a leader of a demonic sect, a former slave and a very straightforward man. Li Lianhua is a former leader of a righteous sect and an extremely sly man with not-so-bad background. But both of them are the best martial artists in Jianghu and went through a lot together. One wants everyone to leave him alone, another wants to be with him together forever, and both of them don't give a damn about everything that happens in the world but they care for each other. B̶L̶-̶v̶i̶b̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶t̶t̶a̶c̶h̶e̶d̶.̶ The ending of the drama is obscure but I'd like to think they both are alive and happy together.

Drama: The Blood of Youth / 少年歌行 Characters: Xiao Se & Ye Anshi Screentime: Secondary A leader of a demonic sect who has an ultimate martial knowledge and the best righteous martial artist in the past, who is suffering from decease and can't fight anymore. What can unite them? The answer is: the similar mindset. They both had a great power and lost it, they both are shouldering great responsibilities that don't make them happy. Despite the fact that they should be on the opposite sides in Jianghu world, they are still good friends. M̶a̶y̶b̶e̶ ̶B̶L̶-̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶l̶t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶X̶i̶a̶o̶ ̶S̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶g̶i̶r̶l̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶.̶ There is a small extra ep at the end of drama, when they meet each other again in a very romantic way. Just search for it.

Drama: The Legends / 招摇 Characters: Lu Shiqi & Qin Qianxian Screentime: Minor She is from a demonic sect. He is from a righteous one. She is immune to the impact of spiritual power. He is the one of the most powerful people in terms of spiritual power. She is dumb, straightforward and pure-hearted. He is blissed yet sensible and burdened with difficult moral choices. They could be an ideal Yin-Yang couple. But they have BE, because it's "The Legends", everyone should die in here Т_Т.

Pride and Prejudice + power couple

Drama: The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity / 晴雅集 Characters: Bo Ya & Qing Ming Screentime: Main This dynanics is similar with the previous one, but here we are focused on how they ended up together. Bo Ya has prejudice against demons-yao and believes all of them should be executed. He meets half-demon-sorcerer Qing Ming who helps him to overcome his prejudice. Finally, they become friends (or̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶b̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶f̶r��i̶e̶n̶d̶s̶) and together they win over the evil forces. At the end they are separated but there is a hope they meet again.

Drama: Wuliang / 无量 Characters: Po Xiao & Feng Ren Screentime: Main People of different social status both seek to get a magical sutra. During a road trip they exchange opinions on the sutra and how to use it and change each other's mind. In the end it turns out that they together saved the world and can be finally together. As friends, of course.

Drama: Oh No! Here Comes Trouble / 不良執念清除師 Characters: Pu Yiyong & Cao Guangyan Screentime: Main Pu Yiyong looks like lowlife, studies very bad and hates Cao Guangyan, who is self-confident, smart and thinks low of Pu Yiyong. But a mysterious case with ghosts forces them to interact and they find out, that together they are a perfect team. Honestly speaking, this little series couldn't develop this topic as good as I hoped, but it's a really interesting story, so you can watch it for the ghost detective plot and get this type of relationship in addition. It's a Taiwanese drama, so BL-jokes and dalliance with a viewer were huge, but it didn`t help much. Still a nice dynamics and a good drama. Us vs the World

Drama: The Untamed / 陈情令 Characters: Wei Wuxian & Lan Wangji Screentime: Main I don`t like the novel, but I like drama exactly because here I can see this dynamics. In the past life of Wei Wuxiang Lan Wangji was not strong enough to go against the whole world to protect his friend (well, in the novel they are lovers, but it kills the main idea of this dynamics by turning it into "I do it all just to get into your bed", which is meh), and his friend died. Suddenly, 16 years later, he gets a chance to choose once more: to be a part of society and watch once more his friend dying or to be with him against everyone this time. The moment he chooses to be with Wei Wuxian against the whole world I felt cathartic pleasure. The drama ends up on a little bit obscure but positive note.

Drama: Word of Honor / 山河令 Characters: Zhou Zishu & Wen Kexing Screentime: Main A former king's assassin who is at the brink of death and just wants to live the time left in silence and a birdy master of the most skillful criminals find each other, find out that they are brothers-in-teachings and decide to fight against the world together just to live in silence and enjoy each other's company. When one thinks it's his last second of life, the other comes to help him even if they both can't beat the greater number of enemies and will die for sure. Catharsis! The drama has a small extra ep where they are together and all right.

Drama: The Legends / 招摇 Characters: Li Chenlan & Lu Zhaoyao Screentime: Main Them, again! The first half of the drama they have enemies-to-lovers dynamics, but then, when they find out the truth about Zhao Yao's death and about feelings for each other, they turn into Bonny and Clyde and go annihilate the righteous guys who are in fact not-so-righteous. And it makes me feel cathartic, too. A very catharsis-causing dynamics, indeed! It's little obscure, but they will be fine at the end of the drama.

Drama: Dong Lan Xue / 东栏雪 Characters: Shen Yan & Chu Ningyuan Screentime: Main Two bad guys work together to get power in the palace. And get involved in romantic relationship during their power gaining. Nice story with an open ending.

Drama: Derailment /脱轨 Characters: Qi Lian & Jiang Xiaoyuan Screentime: Main It's a little story inside a big one about transmigrators that you can read in another of my posts. It lasts something like 1,5 eps of the drama but is a nice story itself. A lonely bellicose boy from a rich family runs away from home where no one cares for him and lives on the street. A lonely girl from an extremely poor family and being bullied by classmates tries to survive in this world. They meet each other and understand that it's easier to fight their fate together. Nice story, it's a pity that this one is too short and not a main plot of the drama.

The next post will be about Asian dramas and familial dynamics.

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sombredancer · 1 month

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Asian dramas and my favorite types of characters

There are my favorite types of characters as a list. A villain with a fatal weakness

Drama: The Scholar Who Walks the Night /밤을 걷는 선비 Character: Gwi Screentime: Secondary Gwi is an ancient vampire and a master of puppets (and Joseon's king is the main of them). He is merciless, invincible and scheming all the drama long, until he accidentally kills a girl, who was his hostage and recalcitrant puppet from her childhood on and was the only one who could scold him and deny him. Nothing about it is said directly in the drama, but after her death he goes insane, kills all of his puppets and this way causes his own death. So, I suppose, she was his only weakness, and I like this type of a personal drama for a villain. Punch-Clock Villain / the Dragon

Drama: 100 Days My Prince /백일의 낭군님 Character: Moo-yeon Screentime: Secondary Moo-yeon works as an assassin for the killer of his father, who is constantly threatening him with the life of his sister. Moo-yeon is a man of a very ill fate: his family was accused of a treason and executed, his sister became a fugitive, he was forced to sell his conscience for his and sister's lives and, as a cherry on the top of this cake, fell in love with the daughter of his captor. And died trying to save her... His story is sooooo sad, but it makes me feel for this character fully. Also, he is the king of whump because the half of the drama he is injured and suffers from his wounds. The whole sad story of this guy is analyzed by me here, here and here.

Drama: The King Loves /왕은 사랑한다 Character: Moo-suk Screentime: Minor Koreans, obviously, like this type of characters, too, so there is another Dragon of the main villain, Moo-suk. In his free from dirty deeds time he h̶e̶l̶p̶s̶ ̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶l̶a̶d̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶c̶r̶o̶s̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶o̶a̶d̶ literally saves cute children and restores self-confidence of young ladies. And then he falls in love, rethinks his life and dies from the hand of his master. Predictable and sad. Still a memorable guy, though. 50 shades of a Byronic Hero

Drama: The Wolf / 狼殿下 Character: Chu Youwen Screentime: Main A Mowgli boy was adopted by a wicked emperor, brought up like a cruel beast and was forced to do some dirty stuff for the emperor. He is mysterious, severe and you never know what's on his mind. As a true Byronic hero. He is some kind of Dragon, too, but it's a Chinese drama and he is a main hero in it, that's why he doesn't really do anything bad during the series. His soul is kind and his heart is pure, but he hides it from his love and deals with all of his problems on his own. It's the reason why all of this drama is a masochistic tango between him and his love. Whump lovers will be happy, too, because he is constantly in chains, pierced by arrows like a hedgehog or works as a slave in mines. As any other Dragon, he has a BE.

Drama: Lost You Forever /长相思第一季 Character: Xiang Liu Screentime: Secondary A mysterious demon general, whose name makes everyone shake in fear. A former demon slave, who is true to his word enough to fight for his benefactor even if he knows crystal clearly that it's hopeless and he and his army will die in the end. A man who has huge problems with expression of his emotions in a socially approved way. Edward Cullen of Chinese dramaland. He is enigmatic, with thick vibes of a bad guy, yet very loyal to his benefactor as well as his love and very selfless. SPOILER TO SEASON 2: because of this loyalty he will die and the love of his life will never-ever find out about anything he has done for her during the story.

Drama: My Journey to You /云之羽 Character: Gong Shangjue Screentime: Secondary A guy was through trauma in his childhood and it made him look intimidating and unfeeling. A tsundere is born! He coped with his trauma by taking extra responsibilities for everything and everyone and turned to be a walking killing machine instead of a man. But an enemy assassin comes to his life and teaches him how to be a human once more. It's a painful experience, but it`s necessary in order to grow up as a character and is beautifully fulfilled. It was a great joy to know that he survives at the end of the story, it's a rare thing for this type of characters, so even if there is season 2 someday, I will not watch it in order not to spoil my impression of the first one. I wrote about him detailed here, here, here and here.

Drama: Princess Agents / 特工皇妃楚乔传 Character: Yan Xun Screentime: Secondary It's the transformation story, too, like a previous one, but this time it's transformation from an ordinary man to a villain. Prince Yan Xun is a hostage colony prince in a metropolis empire, but he enjoys a noble life along with other nobility youth. The society around him is awful, each of these noble youths is a psycho who appreciate human hunt and so on, but cheerful and easy-going Yan Xun doesn't think their bloodthirstiness could turn against him. When relationship between the metropolis and the colony become tense, though, Yan Xun's friends of yesterday are happy to drink his blood. He loses his whole family and, insanely longing for revenge, slowly turns to one of those monsters himself.

Drama: A Journey to Love / 一念关山 Character: Li Tongguang Screentime: Minor This guy has got a very realistic personality and background: he is a bastard who was deprived of mother's love since he was a child. The first circumstance made him power-hungry, scheming and outwardly emotionless, the second one made him longing for mother's love on insanely level. So he is invincible outwardly, but turns into a teary mess when it's about his female tutor, who is a mother figure for him. The contrast between these two personalities is enormous and makes this character very alive and interesting. During the drama he will not cope with his Oedipus complex but circumstances will solve this problem for him.

A pure-hearted hero

Drama: Creation of the Gods Ⅰ / 封神三部曲 Character: Ji Fa Screentime: Main It's maybe strange to find this type of characters in the list of my favorite types, but morality and selflessness of a character is very important for me, too. This story is some kind of King Arthur's legend, but in a Chinese way. The emperor is bewitched by a demon and is bringing the kingdom to it's downfall, the Gods are here to find the savior with the help of a magic scroll that can be opened only by a true king. Ji Fa, a hero of this story, doesn't care about scrolls, but his heart is loyal to his kingdom and to his family (in this very order). He genuinely wants to help his friend-prince to be a king his kingdom deserves and, despite awful things that were done to him and his family, doesn`t harden his soul and betray his ideals. And, I suppose, although he isn't aware of this, he IS the future King Arthur of China. Interesting character decisions

Drama: The Legends/招摇 Characters: Jiang Wu Screentime: Minor This character is something like a rival of the male lead. He is a xinmo - an inner demon of some other character and represents the darkest features of a human's soul. He is a ruthless killer, a dark sorcerer without conscience, but what was very unique, being literary the worst part of a human personality, he values his assistants a lot and genuinely cares for them. A villain is usually a lone wolf. He doesn't trust anyone and doesn't value anyone, his loneliness is usually his weakness and a key to his downfall. So I was pleasantly surprised that sometimes a villain is capable of building healthy relationships with his subordinates.

Drama: Sh**ting Stars / 별똥별 Characters: Do Soo-hyuk Screentime: Minor

This guy truly surprised me. Firstly, he is supposed to be something like a third wheel in relationships of the main couple, but he just calmly got a refusal from the female lead, said "OK" and, absolutely relaxed, proceeded to live his life further. It's something unbelievable for me, because I used to see the insanity caused by an unrequited love to be the plot engine of a lot of dramas. Secondly, he is well-written as a character, straightforward, principled and has tsundere-ish or Byronic vibes - all the character features that I like =) Part 3 will be about other interesting types of relationship, mostly between men.

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sombredancer · 2 months

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Tag navigation in this blog

Longreads, meta-analyses, recaps, lists: #SDaboutLBFAD - about c-drama "Love Between Fairy and Devil" #SDaboutMJTY - about c-drama "My Journey to You" #SDabout100dmp - about k-drama "100 Days My Prince" #SDabouttropes - about tropes, favorite types of characters etc. #SDaboutFilms - about Western (non-Asian) movies and series Impressions of stuff: #SDaboutTTEOTM - about c-drama "Till the End of the Moon" #SDaboutDerailment - about с-drama "Derailment" #SDaboutONHCT - about tw-drama "Oh no! Here comes trouble" Reblogs: #SDaboutSKZ - about "Stray Kids" K-pop band #SDaboutMLC - about c-drama "Mysterious Lotus Casebook" #SDaboutMDZS - about c-drama "the Untamed"

My art and handmade stuff: #SDaboutstuff - my handmade and arts #SDaboutTGCF - about "Heaven Official's Blessing" #SDaboutTolkien - about J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Silmarillion" #SDaboutSW - about "Star Wars"

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sombredancer · 2 months

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Asian dramas and Love tropes

There are my favorite characters and their love stories as a list. Enemies to lovers

Drama: Her Royal Highness/长公主在上 Characters: Gu Xuanqing x Li Yunzhen Screentime: Main A boy is sent to be a servant in the unruly princess`s palace in order to find some dirt about her and to help his master to overthrown her, but something goes wrong... The HE is attached.

Drama: The Legends/招摇 Characters: Li Chenlan x Lu Zhaoyao Screentime: Main A leader of a demonic sect died trying to get demonic sword. Her soul returns to the world full of wish to get revenge on the current leader of her sect, who, as she thinks, killed her in the past. Found the way to be close to him, she learns that he wasn't the reason of her death and, moreover, desperately in love with her for many-many years. This is an adaptation of the novel "Ostentatious Zhaoyao", which I love more than a drama, but it's a good story in both variants. The HE is attached (although it`s a little bit obscure in the drama).

Drama: Till the End of the Moon/ 长月烬明 Characters: Tantai Jin x Li Susu Screentime: Main A boy who is destined to become a Demon God and to destroy the World tries to fight his doom. In a process, he falls in love with a transmigrator, who was sent 500 years back in the past to prevent his transformation into a Demon God. The irony is,making him falling in love is the only way to kill him for good... It`s an adaptation of the novel "Black Moonlight Holds the BE Script", which I like way-way-way more than the drama, not the least because the drama has BE and the novel has HE. I just watched it as a visually beautiful fanfic to the novel.

Drama: Love Between Fairy and Devil /苍兰诀 Characters: Dongfang Qingcang x Xiao Lanhua Screentime: Main My favorite drama of all times! Trying to save her love, a girl accidently falls into a secret prison for immortal criminals, revives the most fearsome demon of all times and heals his ability to feel. Later, forced to spend his time together with the girl from the enemy camp, the demon finds out that he actually likes her... The HE is attached. I wrote A LOT about them and made recap of the whole drama from the point of their relationship development in these posts: one, two, three, four, five and six.

Drama: My Journey to You /云之羽 Characters: Gong Shangjue x Shangguan Qian Screentime: Secondary In order to destroy the martial artist's clan, a female assassin was sent in there. While she is trying to seduce one of clan's young masters, he tries to expose her lies, but, eventually, falls in love with her. Unrequited. Maybe. This story has an open ending. My analysis of their relationship is here.

Drama: Butterflied lover /风月变 Characters: Ling Changjin x Bao Zhu Screentime: Secondary A wicked nobleman marries a princess because of her miraculous blood: it`s able to bring his zombie sister back to life. The princess allows him to treat her bad because she has been in love with him for a long time and believes he is a good person. Bit by bit he starts believe in it himself and begins to cherish his wife more... The ending is obscure (in a traditional Chinese way).

Drama: The Blue Whisper /与君初相识 Characters: Li Shu x Xue Sanyue Screentime: Minor A cat demon prince infiltrates the valley of demon hunters in order to set free the great demoness, but falls in love with one of demon hunters. Mutually. The ending is traditionally Chinese - they met again in another life. Т_Т

Drama: Immortal Samsara / 沉香如屑 Characters: Xuan Ye x Ran Qing Screentime: Minor An Asura king infiltrates the Heavenly Realm in order to steal the artifact that can help him conquering the world. The keeper of this artefact is a brave and honest goddess and he can't help but fall in love with her. After, he needs to choose: to be with his lover or to rule the world. He wants all at once, but there is no way to get it all. No HE for this pair. Pride and Prejudice

Drama: Lighter and Princess / 点燃我 Characters: Li Xun x Zhu Yun Screentime: Main A girl from a rich family with an anxious type of attachment falls in love with her classmate from a poor family with an avoidant type of attachment and tries to win his heart. It`s a problematic ship in a full meaning of these words and I like it this way. Yummy! The HE is attached.

Drama: Derailment /脱轨 Characters: Qi Lian x Jiang Xiaoyuan Screentime: Main A boy accidently meets his school sweetheart after many years of radio silence and understands that something is wrong with her. It turns out that her body is occupied by a transmigrator from a parallel world. At first he hates transmigrator for replacing his lover, but bit by bit he learns, that a transmigrator has not only the same appearance but the same habits and way of thinking, and falls in love with this new personality again... The story ends with HE but not in a way that you may think it would.

Drama: The Love by Hypnotic /明月照我心 Characters: Li Qian x Li Mingyue Screentime: Main In order to build relationship between two countries an emperor arranges marriage for his son. His fiancée is from a barbaric tribe: she is good at horse riding and archery, but knows nothing about palace etiquette and ladies stuff. It`s a light and sweet story about finding a path to each other's heart. The HE is attached.

Drama: The Long Ballad /长歌行 Characters: Hao Du x Li Leyan Screentime: Secondary A tsundere of a low background with a poker face does his ruthless job in a court, that's why a young princess thinks he is an awful man and is scared of him. But in reality he is a loyal servant and son and, moreover, secretly in love with the princess, who can't stand him... The HE is attached.

Drama: Miss the Dragon /遇龙 Characters: Xue Qianxun x Qingqing Screentime: Secondary A very naïve bird demon girl accidently meets a tsundere god of netherworld and turns his well ordered life into havoc. He starts liking it, though. The HE is attached. Forbidden love

Drama: A Frozen Flower /쌍화점 Characters: Hong Rim x No Guk Screentime: Main A gay king needs a heir, so he forces his lover to conceive a child with a queen. In a process, a boy, who was groomed as a king's lover from his childhood, finds out that he likes women much more than men. A traditional Korean tragedy. Very beautiful and full of feelings, though. (No GIFs because they all would be erotic ones).

Drama: 100 Days My Prince /백일의 낭군님 Characters: Moo-yeon x Kim So-hye Screentime: Secondary An assassin who is working for a wicked court official is secretly in love with a wife of a crown prince, who happens to be a daughter of the killer of his parents. Forbidden love doubles! But it's mutual, unfortunately for him. It's a very beautiful and full of desperation and feelings story. No HE, we die like Koreans. More detailed story of their relationship is available here, here and here.

Drama: The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity/晴雅集 Characters: He Shouye x Zhang Ping Screentime: Secondary A woman, who is destined to restrain the undying evil within her body for eternity in solitude, falls in love with Yin-Yang master. Her love is mutual, but her lover can't be with her forever, so he leaves with her his guardian demon to brighten her loneliness. Protecting her for ever starts being the only goal of demon's life... A tragedy, but a beautiful one.

Drama: The Legends/招摇 Characters: Gu Hanguang x Shen Qianjin Screentime: Minor "The Legends" once more! The main doctor of a demonic sect is in love with a leader of a righteous sect. A girl is not allowed to love anyone, otherwise she will suffer from the poison, so he anonymously sends her packages of medicinal herbs. She is curious about anonymous sender, too. But nothing can be kept in secret forever... Unfortunately, no HE for these two. In the novel he is safe and sound, but he has no love plotline at all. So is a price of love Т_Т.

I will talk about my other favorite characters and tropes in the next post.

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sombredancer · 2 months

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♥️♥️♥️♥️

#Lee Felix #Lee Yong-bok #Lee Yongbok #SDaboutSKZ

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sombredancer · 3 months

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Swooning over a secondary character (again), Pt. 3/3

Dandelions as a symbol of a longing for salvation (and of their love as well, which is SYMBOLIC).

He is about to run away with his sister (who is happened to be lovesick and heart-broken, too) but then he learns it was his lover who ordered assassin to shot him and decides to talk to her one more time before leaving. He is foolishly brave, as usually. Maybe he is very understanding, too, and this wicked attempt to make him stay said to him how desperate the princess needed him, or something, idk, it's never been said in the story.

They meet in private again and she says she wants to run away, too. He is reluctant and it makes her upset.

But finally feelings take over rationality and he promises to take her away with him. But this secret tryst was watched by Kim Cha-eon's spies, so now he is sure his daughter is pregnant with Moo-yeon's child. And also he knows Moo-yeon lied to him about killing of the Crown Prince. This all doesn't bode well for Moo-yeon.

Kim Cha-eon takes Moo-yeon hostage and threats his daughter to kill him off if she doesn`t obediently play her role of a Crown Princess, pregnant with Crown Prince's child. He is also not happy with her humble choice of a baby's father.

Meanwhile, during the investigation of his own murder attempt, the amnesiac Crown Prince makes a big mess in Kim Cha-eon's mansion and finds something very interesting in vice-prime minister's barn...

So here we have a sweet family reunion. A wanna-be-murderer of the Crown Prince turns out to be a big brother of a woman he loves.

After blaming Moo-yeon for leading such a miserable and disgraceful life and serving for a murderer of their father (even if it all was for her sake), Yoon Yi-seo tells him to hand himself over to the Crown Prince and to confess his crimes (which is a death sentence for him for sure) and Moo-yeon does it.

Moo-yeon tells the Crown Prince that Kim Cha-eon tried to kill him because Kim So-hye is pregnant with Moo-yeon's baby and the Crown Prince says no his beloved's brother nor his unfaithful wife will be forgiven.

"Escort the Crown Princess out of palace. She went out in the deaf of night to meet her paramour and was killed there. "

The Crown Prince didn't forgive them but let them run away together just as they wished to. I don't care there are 1,5 more eps, this drama ended up for me here, they ran away and lived maybe not super-happily, but free together and raised their child in love. The end.

"Once it heavily rained for a long time. The whole soil was drowned and even dandelions were about to die. A small dandelion prayed to the skies. It pleaded for salvation. Then suddenly the wind blew. The dandelion's seeds took flight and landed on a sunny hill. Shortly after they sprouted and bloomed. If we ride the wind, we will be able to bloom somewhere else, too."

#100 days my prince #백일의 낭군님 #kdrama #Kim Jae-young #김재영 #Moo-yeon #Yoon Seok-ha #윤석하 #무연 #Kim jaeyoung #moo yeon #Yoon sokha #SDabout100dmp #Kim So-hye #kim sohye #han so hee #han sohee

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sombredancer · 3 months

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Swooning over a secondary character (again), Pt. 2/3

The evil vice-prime minister promised Moo-yeon (aka Yoon Sok-ha) that he can be relieved from his servitude and safely reunite with his sister if he fulfills the last and the most difficult task: to kills the Crown Prince. But Moo-yeon failed to do it during the organized by Kim Cha-eon attack and is forced now to finish this task by his own means.

Eventually, Moo-yeon finds the prince amnesiac and, moreover, wedded to Moo-yeon's sister, who happened to hide all this time in a nearby village as a peasant.

His sister seem to genuinely like the amnesiac prince, so, after some moral sufferings, Moo-yeon dares to deceive Kim Cha-eon making him believe the Crown Prince is dead. And then he gets his long-longed freedom.

And he could live freely and happily ever after with his sister (and her husband) if not for one thing.

Namely: he has an affair with the Crown Princess (the Crown Prince's wife and also Kim Cha-eon's daughter, whom he threated with the blade as he was a kid). Going out of Kim Cha-eon's mansion, Moo-yeon accidentally hears that his lover is pregnant, so he also decides to bid farewell to her before finding his sister and disappearing with her for good.

His lover, Kim So-Hye, is a very miserable woman, too. Her father used her from her childhood on to reach his political goals and arranged her marriage with the Crown Prince who hated her from the bottom of his heart as a daughter of the murderer of his childhood love Yoon Yi-seo (which is VERY ironic). She was very lonely in the palace so she couldn`t stand her lover leaving her, too, and hired one of father's assassins to hurt Moo-yeon and make him stay (even if only for the time of his recovering).

The Crown Prince never ever got laid with his wife, so she is obviously pregnant by someone else and Kim Cha-eon tried to kill the prince in order to cover for his daughter (because adultery of the princess should be punished by death of the whole cheater's family). He told her to kill the biological father of her child by herself in order to eliminate the witness, believing it was one of a noblemen of the palace. Later he learned she killed a son of an official and felt relieved. But the situation over Moo-yeon being shot in order to prevent him from leaving makes Kim Cha-eon rethink the adultery of his daughter. And from now on he starts being suspicious of Moo-yeon.

Meanwhile, there are rumors spreading that the Crown Prince is alive and it forces severely wounded Moo-yeon to try to make him disappear for good (because if Kim Cha-eon learns that Moo-yeon lied to him, the little liar won`t be able to escape and reunite with his sister). But he predictably fails and stays lying on the ground, unconscientious and bleeding.

Fortunately, he has good subordinates who find him and bring him back. The Crown Princess is very anxious, she never wanted to hurt him so seriously, so she takes a good care for him.

But the situation over the Crown Prince's fake death becomes more and more dangerous, Moo-yeon‘s life and freedom as well as his sister's is hung by a thread, so his subordinates help him to run away.

He sends back to his lover a bracelet she once gifted him and bids his farewell to her, planning to start a new life with his sister far away from Jeoson. Unlike the Crown Prince, who hated Kim So-hye for who her father is, Moo-yeon is in love with her even despite her being a daughter of his father's murderer. But he understands that their relationship is doomed as far as she is a nobility and (an unloved, but still) Crown Prince's wife and he is a mere slave of her father, unable to protect even himself. So he thinks it`ll be better for them to just forget each other. (And he is so goddamn right! But love is love. *sighs*)

#100 days my prince #백일의 낭군님 #kdrama #Kim Jae-young #김재영 #Moo-yeon #Yoon Seok-ha #윤석하 #무연 #Kim jaeyoung #moo yeon #Yoon sokha #SDabout100dmp #kim sohye #han so hee #han sohee #Kim So-hye

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sombredancer · 3 months

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Swooning over a secondary character (again), Pt. 1/3

This is Moo-yeon, the best assassin of the wicked vice-prime minister Kim Cha-eon, the most powerful man in Joseon. He is VERY good at archery.

And not really good at anything else.

His servitude for Kim Cha-eon has a very heartbreaking background, though. Originally he was of a noble bloodline and was named Yoon Seok-ha. He and his younger sister Yoon Yi-seo were children of an official. But once there was a take-over and their father was accused of treason felony. The official and the whole his family were sentenced to be executed. The children managed to escape, but they were being cruelly hunted down as animals.

In the end Seok-ha hid his sister and led the chase away from her. Tired, scared and desperate, he sneaked into the residence of the murderer of his father, Kim Cha-eon, and tried to threaten him, promising he would kill off Kim Cha-eon's daughter, Kim So-hye, if that evil guy would continue to hunt down Seok-ha's sister.

Spoiler: there was a love from the first blade pressed to one's throat. Mmmmm, delicious. And no, I`m not about Seok-ha and a vise-prime minister 😄 Naturally, Seok-ha failed because Kim Cha-eon had no heart and his daughter was not really of value for him, so there's nothing left to do for Seok-ha but to beg for death for himself and for mercy for his sister. But Kim Cha-eon had other plans for this stupidly brave boy. He made a deal with the boy and forced him to do everything Kim Cha-eon wanted him to do in trade for sister‘s life and freedom.

So here he is, professionally doing disgusting and honourless stuff for the murderer of his father.

#100 days my prince #백일의 낭군님 #kdrama #Kim Jae-young #김재영 #Moo-yeon #Yoon Seok-ha #윤석하 #무연 #Kim jaeyoung #moo yeon #Yoon sokha #SDabout100dmp

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sombredancer · 3 months

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Derailment thoughts

The first 2/3 of Derailment were marvelous. I truly enjoyed the part when Qi Lian couldn`t understand why Jiang Xiaoyuan treated him like a stranger and attempted to be just friends with her:

And the next coil of a spiral, when he learned she was a transmigrator who possessed the body of his teenage sweetheart. It`s a very interesting question: who are we if we are stripped of our memories? Are we still the same person or another one? What if your lover is gone and replaced by other personality, but this other personality has the same appearance, temper, habits and gestures? Could you fall in love with this new personality again as you previously did? This topic started to unfold when Qi Lian came the whole path back from being scary and mean to her to mutual pining, but never was unfolded till the final point, because screenwriters went to other topics (and came to nothing at the end).

The last point I liked here was a drama inside a drama about their relationships at school. There is my second favorite trope "us vs the world" so I naturally enjoyed it and would like to watch the whole drama about it (but obligatorily with Lin Yi as a main):

Do you think I don't know what's on your mind?

The end of drama was ill-conceived though, so I can`t say that I like it as a whole thing.

#cdrama #derailment #脱轨 #derailment drama #qi lian #jiang xiaoyuan #lin yi #liu haocun #SDaboutDerailment #ep 6 #ep 7 #ep 19 #ep 20

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sombredancer · 4 months

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It has thick vibes of Scandinavian films: nothing is said to you by words, but you understand it anyways and it hits you hard. The whole drama is amazing, but this scene is the best of the best.

She was woken up by the sound of something scattering and came to check.

I don`t know the cultural context of scattering salt and earth (?) but it obviously meant that their son is dead and what they just saw was his way to pay his last respect and to say "goodbye" to them from the other side. Powerful.

#oh no here comes trouble #twdrama #不良執念清除師 #oh no! here comes trouble #ep 3 #SDaboutONHCT

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sombredancer · 4 months

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to defeat monsters: become the greater monster | m.a.w

#the untamed #poetry #wei wuxian #SDaboutMDZS #SDaboutpoetry

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sombredancer · 4 months

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Enemies/Rivals to Lovers recipe

(with the mild version aka Pride and Prejudice and the tragic version aka Romeo and Juliet) Step 1: The main heroes are on the opposite sides of any scale (the grumpy one vs a cheerful one, a kind and stupid one vs a cunning and vile one, a demon vs a god, a master vs a servant, people of enemy states or absolutely different cultures etc.).

A cheerful and funny little bird demon-yao Qing Qing and a grumpy and stone-faced deity of Netherworld Xue Qianxun Step 2: They are forced to communicate with each other without a chance to avoid it (e.g. an arranged marriage, being trapped somewhere together, working as a mole in the enemy camp etc.).

Asura King Xuan Ye plays out damsel in distress to get undercover into Heavenly Realm and his future lover Ran Qing is the one who "rescues" him.

Step 3: One party get impressed by unique character features of other (e.g. the person is the only one who isn't terrified by other's scary reputation, the only one who treats other party well etc.).

Even kings and princes are in absolute terror seeing Gwi - an immortal all-powerful vampire, and only Hye Ryung hates him so much that dares to bicker, scold and deny him. Step 4: One of the parties takes the first step towards another and that melts another`s heart.

Even if Hou Ling Changjin hurt Princess Bao Zhu for her miraculous blood, she still cares for him and doesn`t hold a grudge.

"You are injured!"

Step 5: Here come mutual pining, UST and moral sufferings "what is more important: to fulfil the mission / to be accepted by the society / whatsoever or to love?"

Gong Shangjue doubts if he can indulge himself being gentle with the girl he likes if she is an assassin from the enemy clan.

Shangguan Qian adds Shangjue`s favorite flowers into her tea and thinks about her mission of taking him down.

Step 6: It`s time to confess the feelings.

Leader of a diabolic sect Li Chenlan comes to save his beloved who hated him and tried to kill him and promises her to be her sword and shield. So romantic!

Step 7: The parties try to solve the problem that keeps them apart. If the problem is internal (it has something to do with beliefs and prejudice of a person), here it will be solved and «happily ever after» begins.

Despite of his low social status Hao Du ventures to participate in the competition, wins the right to marry the princess (who he is in love with) and dares to be honest explaining that he did it not only in order to save her from a Barbarian prince but because he truly wants to be with her. Step 8: If the problem is external (there is a large-scale conflict and the parties are just some insignificant participants of it), one of the parties sacrifices themselves to solve the problem.

Before saving the world by the cost of his life Demon God Tantai Jin engraves his name on his own tombstone placed next to his beloved wife's one, so in the future she could mourn him in a suitable place.

Step 9: In a satisfying story there is a magical reward of party's brave deed, which is a happy end.

Demon Lord Dongfang Qingcang sacrificed himself in order to save the girl he loved and died but his girlfriend (who happens to be a Goddess with abilities to resurrect the dead) nurtured a piece of his primordial spirit for 500 years and brought him back to life. Side note: If you want to add some chili pepper into your story, you can break this scheme any step from Step 4 on: pining could be one-sided, UST could never ever be resolved, characters could prefer their goals to love or maybe death or other circumstances would do them apart against their will.

The Wolf and Ma Zhaixing finally got together but the cruel world couldn`t allow it to last anytime long.

Bon Appétit! Your Enemies to Lovers story is well-baked!

#enemies to lovers #rivals to lovers #cdrama #miss the dragon #immortal samsara #chinese drama #scholar who walks the night #butterflied lover #my journey to you #the legends #the long ballad #till the end of the moon #love between fairy and devil #his royal highness wolf #the wolf cdrama #SDabouttropes

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sombredancer · 6 months

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Fun facts about MJTY

The surnames of those who are in the Back Hill build together an idiom 风花雪月, «four opposites of love». Although hieroglyph 锋 in word "Wufeng" is different from one in this idiom (风), they are homophones that equally sound fēng (and as we all remember, Wufeng is the mastermind of the last three saber techniques out of twelve used by the Back Hill, sooooo...🐱‍👤).

2. The names of Wufeng ranks build together an idiom 魑魅魍魉, «demons and monsters of the Martial World». These hieroglyphs actually mean three types of mythological Chinese monsters, not four: chī, mèi, and wǎngliǎng. In the last word a syllable wǎng (魍) sounds like wáng (王), which means "prince", so there are four princes of cardinal directions in Wufeng. The hieroglyph 魉 (liǎng) includes the phonetic key 两 (liǎng) as one of its elements, which means "a pair". And, as we know, Wufeng has got two bosses of the highest rank 🐱‍👤.

3. The names of those who live in the Front Hill are 宫商角徵羽, the pre-Tang dynasty names of tones in the pentatonic musical scale. The pentatonic scale is famous among musicians as something good for improvisation because all of these tones sound harmonically in any combination. Also, in the Confucian tradition these five tones were credited with a magical effect on society, at which gōng corresponded to the emperor, shāng - to ministers, jué - to the people, zhǐ - to affairs, and yǔ to material resources.

Maybe it all supposed to have a deep meaning and to symbolize something. Maybe it didn`t. Anyway, there are just fun facts.

#cdrama #my journey to you #yun zhi yu #云之羽 #Guo Jing Ming #Edward Guo #郭敬明 #mjty #SDaboutMJTY

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sombredancer · 6 months

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How to be a more interesting character than the Main Hero (Pt.4)

Shangjue and his fiancée

Shangjue has an interesting yet complicated relationship not only with his didi, but also with his fiancée, who happens to be an assassin. The girl aims him from the beginning and plays a cruel game to win his attention, because her mission is to get the secret weapon of Gong clan (the Sutra), to which Shangjue has an access. She is a liar and he knows it, so he decides to choose her as his bride in order to keep his enemy even closer than his friend. So, in the beginning they both play their roles. But Shangjue has a critical vulnerability: he looks like Mr. Danger, but inside of him is a heart of silk. It`s not that hard to tear it apart if you can sneak beneath his ribs.

Their relationship unfolds in an interesting way: an assassin tries hard to find a tiny crack in Shangjue’s nutshell and to guess his thoughts by doing some stuff (cooking meal he doesn`t like, planting flowers he doesn`t want to be planted and bringing havoc into his well-ordered world), and he ends up kinda liking it. He badly needs someone who will dig into his inner core and find there what he truly wants, because he thinks of himself just as of a function and barely knows his own desires. The blankness of his residence is like one of a service apartment – everything is only for work, nothing is for soul.

But bit by bit she learns more about him and finds out that he is not that person she thought he is. At the beginning of the story she says to the female lead that Shangjue likes no one but himself. But in reality, he hardly likes himself either. There is no «himself» at all. There is a sharp saber against clan`s enemies, a legendary martial artist who brings wealth and prosperity to his clan, a wise father figure for didi but there isn`t a man who is called Gong Shangjue. Her thought of Shangjue as of someone who doesn`t love anyone beautifully echoes with herself. Her tutor said that she loves only herself, but at the end of the story she ends up feeling something (not love, but not nothing at least) towards said tutor and Shangjue as well.

Bay flowers are Shangjue's favorite. Btw, their conversation about these flowers is very eloquent, too. An assassin says that Shangjue's favorite bay flowers mean something dangerous yet beautiful and bewitching. Just like her by his side. And he says that they represent victory and prosperity, which are his goals as a Gong clan member (but maybe not what his heart truly wants).

Paying the last respect for the tutor. While an assassin is toying with Shangjue, he is toying with her. He always pulls her closer and immediately pushes her away, gives her approval of her actions and the next moment punishes her for the same actions. He knows that she is dangerous and got closer to him on purpose, but he ends up liking her anyway.

Along his toying with her, nevertheless, he treats her as his real future wife and indulges her to change something chaotically in his realm of order in front of his servants and, I suppose, starts believing himself that she will be his wife.

Meanwhile, an assassin uses the knowledge she received very skillfully: she learns about death of Shangjue’s mother and talks about her mom in order to worm her path out into his shell, later she uses the information given her by Yuanzhi (about Gong clan above everything for Shangjue) to make Shangjue believe she knows his heart.

It looked like he would kiss her. But he didn't.

Their conversation in this scene is heartbreaking: she tells him, that the Main Hero puts Gong clan in danger because he knows there is an assassin in the residence and does nothing about it, and Shangjue has got no evidence that could help to catch her red handed. And by the time she is speaking Shangjue already knows - it is HIM who knows that an assassin is by his side and voluntary puts his clan in danger (and, as we know, will proceed to do it till the end of the story). When Shangjue catches his fiancée as a suspect, his moral trial begins.

Watching the drama for the first time, I was very surprised that he did almost nothing to interrogate her (pushing at the wound can't be considered as a torture). His duty is to expose and to kill a Wufeng assassin, but he ends up eagerly believing any lie his fiancée tells him because he likes her and WANTS to believe her. Then he is about to touch her but doesn't dare to do so, and it's a significant sign, too. He hadn't problems with touching Yuanzhi (at least, when they were younger), so, I suppose, this lack of touching between Shangjue and his fiancée represents his inner struggle. He wants to be tender with her because he likes her, but tenderness is a weakness and shouldn`t be shown to an enemy.

Speaking of intimacy and touching, a lack of it between them is so palpable that I felt very uncomfortable when, a few episodes later, that pool sex scene happened. Many people didn`t understand either, have they banged or not, because even them touching each other is already something unbelievable in this drama. I spent a lot of time thinking about how they banged considering Shangjue’s problems with touching her and allowing her to touch him 😁😁😁.

Btw, this scene is definitely a sex scene. In China there is a very strict censorship in terms of a lot of things, including queere-relationship and sex, but there is also a lot of ways to show it without actually showing something (but even the fact that they were NAKED together in one pool told me everything, as long as in other dramas people had to have sex being dressed in three layers of hanfu). I`m not that deep into Chinese culture, but I have read in comments that the strange phrase of Shangjue «These buds will bloom soon, then you will know if I like you like this (her less obedient and more ambitious self)» refers to a Chinese idiom about a loss of virginity (so if it’s true, Shangjue deliberately invited her to have sex with him if she wanted to know if he liked her and that’s why she came to him without undergarments in the dead of night). The lanterns in the water of a pool refer to the unity of male Yang and female Yin energies (and we could see them in the scene of their first «date», btw). He loosened her hair in the pool: manipulations with girl’s hair it`s something that only husband is allowed do (that’s why you often can see in dramas that a male lead gifts his lover a hairpin or a comb). After everything’s happened, he hovers his cup above a saucer, which means «want to repeat». However, I couldn`t find any proof of these meanings because it seems like Chinese internet doesn`t cross English-speaking one at all and I respectively don`t understand Mandarin. So, if you know something else about it, feel free to correct me in comments. Btw, I`m sure, Yuanzhi's constant speaking about tea in front of Shangguan Qian refers to some kind of idiom, too, but I couldn`t find any information about it. UPD: my fellow @randomingoftherandomness says that it has something to do with a Chinese slang phrase 綠茶婊 (green tea bitch) - "a person who tries to look innocent being in fact calculating".

During the «torture» scene an assassin asks if Shangjue can spare her life and he says «no», because his duty is not to show mercy to Gong clan enemies. This scene echoes with the end of the story, when she asks him again to spare her life and he says he will if she gives him back the Sutra. And he really lets her go, which is strictly opposite to his mission of protecting Gong clan, because she knows everything about their inner residences and Gong clan members, and, what is the most important, the secret of the Sutra. But Shangjue wants to let her leave because she is the first thing he wants for himself, the first longing of a person, not of a function. Only by opposition between his duty and his heart he could find out who the real he is. Letting her go is very VERY irrational decision, but, unlike for the Main Hero, who stole his assassin‘s heart by his incompatible with life naivety, for Shangjue it is a natural point of his character development: being restricted from all his human wishes for a decade, when he gets the opportunity to fulfil them, he gets off his leash and does it fully. Very human behavior, btw.

I was very surprised seeing that Shangjue’s fiancée had time during this mess to change her clothes. Later I understood that she did it on purpose: she had more chances to survive if Shangjue would recall his feelings for her because this pink dress was a gift from him. In their final scene together he says that he would let her go if she gives him the Sutra back, it means she doesn't need to pretend to be pregnant in order to save her life, as soon as Shangjue always keeps his promises. But he lets her know that he doesn't count her as someone from Gong clan (and as his fiancée as well) anymore, and maybe that’s why she says that she bears a child and formulates it's so as if it's a new member of Gong clan, not just a fruit of their passion, because Gong clan does matter for him and his own personality doesn`t (and, btw, remembering the fertility problems, children are very valued in the clan). But I don't understand why preserving of her bond to Gong clan is so important to her. Yes, she couldn't go back to Wufeng because her information caused its collapse but she couldn't stay with the man she just tried to wipe out as well. Maybe her only hope was that she could keep the Sutra as a clan member (a mother of a Gong child), but Shangjue snatched it back. Her story have had some curtain development but kinda not till the final point so I would like to see how their relationship would move further. It is crystal clear by this last scene of them together that Shangjue catastrophically and fully lost to his assassin. When I have watched the drama for the first time I was sure she would use his soft spot on her to kill him, especially when she put his sword down and came to him very closely. At the very end of the story it seems that Shangjue believed everything she said to him in this last conversation, because her information about Wufeng’s boss is spreaded across the Martial World by the Main Hero, which means Shangjue shared it with him.

Azaleas mean "I belong to you forever".

Back in the story, when didi takes the assassin to Shangjue`s residence, he says that the most vulnerable and unpredictable thing is a human heart and that people often don`t want to know the truth. The story itself proves him right: it’s true in terms of Yuanzhi self, whose heart can be and is hurt only by Shangjue, even if his sworn brother doesn`t have a clue about the inner processes that are going on inside didi’s head; it`s also true in terms of an assassin, so far as she starts seeing a handsome man instead of her victim; and, of course, it’s true for Shangjue as well: he deliberately deceives himself believing the assassin isn`t assassin just to have an opportunity to be with her.

It was a pure pleasure to feel for these characters and to watch their stories unfold and I definitely would recommend this drama for watching.

#cdrama #my journey to you #yun zhi yu #云之羽 #cheng lei #gong shangjue #丞磊 #mjty #gong shang jue #宫尚角 #shangguan qian #卢昱晓 #lu yu xiao #上官浅 #enemies to lovers to enemies #SDaboutMJTY

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sombredancer · 6 months

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How to be a more interesting character than the Main Hero (Pt.3)

Shangjue and his didi (pt.2/2)

Yuanzhi wants to save Shangjue from any kind of pain so badly, and not only because he feels guilt for brother's loss, but also because he is able to see brother's true personality: Shangjue is an invisible root of Gong tree.

When an assassin and didi have a conversation in the final part of the drama, she says that there are people, in front of whom Shangjue could be vulnerable, but Yanzhi smirks and says that the Martial World won`t allow it. And it happens to be true: he knows that Shangjue’s fiancée is an assassin and he knows that, no matter how much Shangjue is into her, she would not hesitate to kill him if she had a chance, so Shangjue`s soft spot for something (such as a woman he likes) would be his doom. But he needs to look invincible, because the whole clan counts on him and relies on him.

Because Shangjue is a root of Gong clan, everyone sees only thriving and green branches and beautiful flowers (which are wealth, power and secure of Gong clan), but no one sees that it wouldn`t be possible without a root, strong yet hidden under the soil (aka one hardworking man).

I often find the fate of Shangjue's type of heroes very unfair: a person unnoted takes care of everyone and is rewarded at the end only with sufferings and death. But this story is different, because Shangjue has got his didi, who doesn't care about world but eagerly takes care of him while he takes care of anything else. This scene was the second one during the drama that upset me a lot. I spoiled myself some shots of Yuanzhi crying over brother's body and I was sure he would die because he isn't fluffy and spotless enough to stay alive in Chinese drama. Fortunately, he didn't:

It works vice versa, too:

Yuanzhi is, I suppose, coded as someone like Asperger: he is kinda genius, he preferred insects and plants to people as he was a child, he couldn`t understand why people cry and felt uncomfortable with someone`s touching (he slipped out of Shangjue’s grip when Shangjue took his hand). And Shangjue did a great job socializing him.

Being an adolescent, Shangjue hadn`t problems with feeling expression. Things Shangjue taught his didi in a flashback are the opposite to those the Main Hero’s mum taught MH and to those Shangjue believes now. Shangjue told Yuanzhi that a man should cry because in that case someone would understand one's woe and this sympathizing could help to recuperate one's soul, but now he never cries in front of someone. However, Yuanzhi learned his lesson well and isn`t embarrassed to express his feelings freely.

I found this scene very weird (if not taking into account that the flower is obviously a red herring): the Main Hero and Shangjue both fancy girls, while didi fancies a magic flower. But later, as I finished the drama, I understood: didi fancies Shangjue the most. The unique and almost extinct flower isn`t some treasure for him, it matters only that this flower can save Shangjue`s life and increase his inner powers. The previous one was taken away from Shangjue, and Shangjue allowed it to happen, because his needs didn`t matter to him compared to prosperity of his clan. (Later, as we know, it was spent in vain by a villain, which made me feel terribly sorry for Shangjue). But his didi values him enough to try to take care of him once more (and for this time he has planted more than one, in order something would end up in Shangjue’s hands even if clansmen would need this flower, too. How smart of his!). And I like that his love is not in vain – Shangjue loves him, too, and believes him in any situation, and that warms my heart. I love their relationship a lot.

And the most vivid feeling that he freely demonstrates is a jealousy towards Shangjue’s fiancée (btw, I like that Shangjue understands it and pardons his tantrums):

"Go ahead, tell me what's on your mind." *opens his mouth to start talking* "Well, rather don`t. I can see it on your face." *smiles*

So, in the part 4 I will talk about Shangjue and her.

#cdrama #my journey to you #yun zhi yu #云之羽 #cheng lei #gong shangjue #丞磊 #mjty #gong shang jue #宫尚角 #gong yuanzhi #tian jia rui #田嘉瑞 #宫远徵 #SDaboutMJTY

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