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vintagegeekculture · 3 years

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The Chinese Cultural Inspirations for Dragon Ball Z and Super

Journey to the West was only the beginning.

A lot of people are vaguely aware that Dragon Ball was inspired by Chinese culture and Hong Kong Kung Fu movies and novels, but are unaware of how deep and long lasting it goes. The Japanese spent the 1980s fascinated by China, which opened up from being a closed society for decades in 1978; the most famous human being in Japan in the 80s was either Michael Jackson or Jackie Chan.

In fact, a lot of people commonly believe that the Chinese action movie and Kung Fu novel cultural and media influence on Dragon Ball ended very early on. This is untrue. Sure, we started to see qipaos and cheongsams less frequently when they headed to West City, but it absolutely did not finish, because there’s tons of influence to see even as impossibly late as Dragon Ball Super. Interestingly, I don’t think any of these point of inspirations have been pointed out before, mainly because a lot of Chinese adventure novels are simply not available in English.

The Piccolo/Gohan plot was inspired by the Chinese action novel “Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre.”

Okay, tell me if you’ve heard this story before: a truly demonic, weird looking monster villain is defeated by a martial arts hero, but by circumstance, is forced into training his greatest enemy’s young son. The villain trains the young boy, the son of his enemy, in martial arts and over time, becomes like a second father or uncle to him and his family, putting the boy in his “evil” sect, and thanks to his love of his rival’s son, this baddie turns over a new leaf and goes from evil to just…grumpy, and becomes a loyal, though gruff, ally of the boy.

Of course, the events of Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre are a bit different from Dragon Ball in details. The Lion King becomes Wuji’s teacher because they are both stranded together on an island after a shipwreck, for instance, and he is blinded and made vulnerable. Also, the Lion King wasn’t so much evil so much as he was misunderstood by the orthodox martial world. However, in broad outlines, this trajectory for a face turn (becomes friends with his greatest enemy’s son, and becomes like a second father to him as he trains him, causing the villain to become a gruff good guy and ally) is essentially from one of the most famous Chinese novels ever written in the 1960s.

Oh, and while we’re at it, Gohan is likewise inspired by another character from a Louis Cha novel: the Prince of Dali Duan Yu in the Kung Fu novel Demigods and Semi-Devils. The Prince in that novel is a naïve, pacifistic scholar who prefers books to fighting, and who was raised to be timid and avoid combat, absolutely out of step with his family, all of whom are martial artists and warriors. In fact, the beginning of the story is the prince gets incredibly lost in the wilderness, where the hopelessly naïve prince is utterly out of his depth, with all the robbers and scary beasts, and needs to be saved by real martial artists that protect him like fairy godparents. He spends the first part of the story running away from everything, scared as hell. However, by circumstance, he has naturally high power he cannot fully initially control, and eventually realizes that even scholars and others who hate fighting have to sometimes become fighters to protect those they love.

The Duan Yu part of Demigods and Semi-Devils was made into a film, the Battle Wizard, which was reviewed by PewDiePie. The Dragonball similarities went over his head because, honestly, PewDiePie does not strike me as a perceptive person.

Hit was based on the screen persona of Chow Yun Fat.

Chow Yun Fat was a Hong Kong cinema superstar who was to director John Woo what Robert de Niro was to Martin Scorsese. There are three giveaways that Hit was based on Chow Yun Fat. One, he’s an assassin, same as Chow Yun Fat’s character in the Killer, and is even given a sequence that’s a John Woo homage with an assassination in an office building with guns pulled on an empty elevator in an act of misdirection. Second, he’s wearing the single piece of clothing Chow Yun Fat is associated with, a black trenchcoat (fun fact: in Hong Kong today, trenchcoats are called Brother Mark Coats, after Chow Yun Fat’s character in John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow). Third, his power is essentially bullet time, a visual technique refined by John Woo in Hong Kong in the 80s and 90s in his gunplay triad movies starring Chow Yun Fat (what, you think the Wachowskis invented it?).

The Goku/Vegeta relationship is from “Legend of the Condor Heroes.”

Here’s a story you might have heard before. It’s about two rivals, but by circumstance, one is raised in the wilderness beyond civilization, where he becomes an honest and goodhearted, though overly naive bumpkin, martial arts prodigy. The other is raised a wealthy prince by a conquering enemy, who grows up to also become an armor wearing martial arts expert, but also a cunning, arrogant, emotionally distant sociopath.

The similarities go into their love lives, too. The unsophisticated bumpkin hero is betrothed to a daughter of a powerful bearded barbarian king against his will, while the one hint of vulnerability and loss of emotional detachment in the otherwise sociopathic prince, the crack in his smirky arrogance, is that he loves a girl he otherwise pretends to hate, and even fathers a child with her who becomes a main character later.

This is Guo Jing and Yang Kang from Legend of the Condor Heroes. The most fascinating similarity, and proof that female psychology is the same all over the world, is that the fangirls love the emotionally distant, arrogant, and sexy/evil prince (remember when Rhonda Rousey said her first crush was Vegeta?). Girls everywhere love bad boys and sexy villains, and oh boy, do they love Prince Yang Kang. I think you can probably guess who all the fan art is about for Legend of the Condor Heroes, and what ship is the most popular.

I have to emphasize that Legend of the Condor Heroes, which came out in the 1950s-60s, is possibly the most widely read novel by the most widely read novelist on earth - the sales on that dwarf Twilight and Harry Potter. It’s probably not an exaggeration to say nearly every Chinese person, even if they never read it, knows who these characters are. In fact, Yang Kang and Guo Jing from Condor Heroes are basically repeated over and over in Asian, Chinese, and Japanese culture. Does the unsophisticated but gifted martial arts prodigy bumpkin hero, and the glib, arrogant wealthy prince rival remind you of….another duo of rivals?

Gohan/Videl comes from Little Dragon Maiden

One of the most important and influential Martial Arts novels of all time is “Return of the Condor Heroes.” A sequel to Condor Heroes, this time, the main character is the teenage son of one of the main characters from the first novel. It gets even more familiar from there.

“Return of the Condor Heroes” was about a martial arts couple who are also master and student, the same age but vastly different in experience and skill so one somehow seems “older,” and they fall in love because the circumstances of training together requires they spend lots of time together and become intimate. The training story and the love story are exactly the same in “Return of the Condor Heroes.” The dead giveaway one story inspired the other is that in both, the most significant training sequence is one where the master teaches the student how to fly (though Return used a chamber of sparrows for lightness Kung Fu).

There are some differences of course – obviously in Return of the Condor Heroes, the genders of teacher and student are flipped from Gohan and Videl (it’s the Little Dragon Maiden who is a powerful teacher, and the boy who is the student). It was the girl (Videl) who was a rebellious delinquent in Dragon Ball Z, when it was the opposite in the novel, true. But it was obvious this story was in the back of the creator’s mind as a way to combine Kung Fu with the love story, by making teacher and student lovers.

Addendum: hey, remember that awesome movie Kung Fu Hustle, the one Hong Kong movies normies have seen? Well, remember the landlord and landlady? The landlady was named Xiao Lung Nu, or Little Dragon Maiden, and her husband was named Yang Guo – the same as the main characters in Return of the Condor Heroes. It was a joke that went over the heads of Westerners, by giving these names of attractive and naïve young people in love with each other to a surly, bitter, arguing and chain smoking middle aged couple who don’t give a damn.

Going Super Saiyan comes from “Reincarnated” aka “Bastard Swordsman.”

Stop me if this sounds familiar: a terrifying warlord tyrant prone to killing underlings who displease him has achieved a level of skill and cultivation so tremendous nobody can stop him. But there is one, and only one, thing he fears and that can defeat him: a long-lost legendary skill that nobody has achieved in recent memory, that includes a supernatural combat power transformation that turns the hair light to indicate it worked.

This is “Silkworm Skill” from Reincarnated aka Bastard Swordsman, a novel and TV series from Hong Kong in the early 1980s. Of course, there are differences. To get the power boost and new hair color, the hero has to jump in a cocoon he weaves himself. In fact, the scene is so well known that they actually have it on the poster.

(To those saying “Super Saiyan turns your hair blonde, not white” my response is that it turns hair white, or uncolored, in the comic book.)

The idea of your hair turning white to indicate a new supernatural combat transformation or martial state wasn’t created by Bastard Swordsman, though – though it is the best example and probably the one most familiar to a 1980s audience due to the hugely popular books and TV series. For an older example, a famous Chinese movie based on a folktale is “Bride With the White Hair,” about a bride who’s hair turns white when she is betrayed, in her anger, she becomes less a woman and more a supernatural creature of vengeance (interesting that anger should be the means to unlock it).

#dragon ball z #china #kung fu #martial arts #anime

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sixteenthshen · 3 years

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my rant on episodes 31/32

I feel so conflicted about them.

On the one hand, I wanted to watch the shared horse scene so much. On the other, there were so many inconsistencies and WTF moments. I can't bring myself to touch those episodes again to make more gifs, which is such a pity because WKX falling down the cliff? SO PRETTY.

Spoilers behind the cut. If you do follow the drama with Chinese fans, you’ll probably have heard the same things like a million times. To save yourself more angst/stress, skip my post.

The upside is that the director took the fans complaints to heart. They were making edits until 2am last night. I heard it’s already live, but I’m still trying to prepare myself. There’re some things that can’t be fixed ><

*hopes for the best on Tuesday*

In episode 11, WKX wanted to tear the Scorpion assassins into ten thousand little itty bits because ZZS had some blood on his lip, which made me mentally scream so much from joy. In episode 31, he LETS Duan Pengju, that evil dickface(TM) go, just like that? Where's the rage? Where's the anger? Do you see the colour of ZZS's face? Can you see what he's wearing? Do you know what dickface did?

Although it's a very touching moment when WKX decides to acknowledge the shixiong/shidi relationship, it's super weird that the ghosts are behind. I mean, I suppose it can make sense if we focus on the fact that he's planning to "retire" from being the big bad CEO of Ghost Valley. But it seems careless to expose a weakness in case someone tries to take advantage of it since they have to kill you to get to be the new CEO.

There's no follow up on the injuries sustained from being tortured by the evil dickface(TM). How could they make WKX seem so callous? Maybe a scene where ZZS asked Wu Xi to hide his injuries from WKX, but WKX's right outside. He overheard ZZS telling Wu Xi to hide it from him, so he pretends not to know. *cue angsty scene for WKX here*

The only thing related to injuries was when Wu Xi said ZZS could be saved from his self-inflicted nailing. Okaaaay. What about the piercing of the scapula? (穿琵琶骨 (piercing pipa bones) - it's supposed to cripple your martial arts ability until you heal ok)

WKX suddenly decides to go off and be a career man, which is perfectly fine. But he suddenly has Gu Xiang watch over ZZS like a hawk, not letting him drink. (Seriously, I forgot if this belongs in TYK or if this is yet another thing stolen from Sha Po Lang) Where is WKX showing any concern over ZZS's total loss of 2 out of 5 senses? I ASK YOU MS. SCRIPTWRITER. What have you done to WKX's character??? Poor WKX, poor ZZS.

And did everyone laugh off the fact that ZZS can't taste, so why should he drink wine? Ok, I can make myself accept this if I remind myself that ZZS would not like people making a fuss and pitying him anyway... (but shouldn't someone, anyone care???)

We get many hints that WKX has a sneaky scheme, but he doesn't tell Gu Xiang, his closest friend since childhood. He doesn't talk to his soulmate about this either.

WKX and ZZS's dialogue just before he falls down the cliff... Seriously reminiscent of Silent Reading, when Fei Du makes the same self-flagellating confession & Luo Wenzhou stops him.

ZZS draws his sword and stands beside WKX. What is going on?! How does he still have his martial arts ability? Did months pass since WKX saved him from evil dickface (TM)? Nothing makes any sense!

ZCL's hidden weapon is what forces WKX over the cliff. If ZCL did not know about the sneaky scheme, then WTF is this kind of scriptwriting? ZCL's character turned from a good, young child to a prop-causing drama and angst. Even if he felt betrayed, was he not there to see how depleted WKX made himself trying to save Han Ying? Did he not see how WKX tried to keep his shifu safe? Or taught him how to fight? Did ZCL become stupid all of a sudden just to create angst?

It only makes sense if ZCL knew about the scheme because of all the info he was privy to, such as Zhao Jing as the villain behind it all (when he heard WKX and ZZS talking). How would he go from knowing that to thinking ZJ should be the new head of the alliance? As a matter of fact, how could Shen Shen?

Ye Baiyi has to be in on it unless WKX suddenly gained so much martial arts ability in the short time since they last fought. I mean, it only makes sense that WKX got so much stronger because he got injured by YBY, then depleted his strength saving Han Ying.

So ZCL, YBY, Scorpion King and his buddies, fellow ghosts, possibly Shen Shen... WKX only kept it from the two people closest to him? The two most likely to do something stupid when they find out? *flails at this logic*

The scene where ZZS's nails magicked their way out of his body... It's so awkward!!! I mean, we're supposed to feel emotional, but the special effects are just awful. I tried not to skip through it, I failed.

So now what? ZZS essentially sacrificed himself to help WKX complete his goal. He gave up on his chance to be saved to fulfil WKX's pursuit of revenge (and take revenge for WKX's death). And it's all because of a misunderstanding.

Between ZZS's nails and the ZCL-issue, I'm drowning in dog blood. What happened to WKX and ZCL's characters/personalities????

Also episode 32 is VERY choppy, it seems like we’re jumping to scenes randomly, the flow isn’t there.

I can only say that the "Priest" spirit is gone; it's not a bad drama by any means. I'm still watching & I'm still going to buy the new episodes on Tuesday. But the random angst and abusive scenes inserted without no reason nor much logic are very un-Priest-like.

I feel a little cheated about the scriptwriter being a fan of Priest. Priest's novels always feature couples who communicate. The supporting characters can come off flat in a drama sometimes because they're so normal. They don't have ridiculous backstories that make them tragic villains, and they behave logically.

The angst "created" in Priest's novels makes sense. Characters don't suddenly change their personalities so that we can watch something exciting. The "dog blood angst/drama" is the big failing of so many Asian dramas. *CRIES*

Now, the GOOD & HAPPY STUFF.

WKX SAVING A-XU. *heart eyes*

NGL, no matter how short it was, I liked the horseback scene

There was a cute moment between Qi Ye and Wu Xi, scriptwriter knows how to ship!! & knows how to make it clear who’s gong/shou lol.

THE HAIRPIN SCENE. IT’S EVERYTHING.

Even though I’m 90% sure the no-alcohol thing is copied from Sha Po Lang... I have so much love for Gu Yun and ZZS that it made me happy. My drunkards <3

Did I mention WKX looks extremely pretty when he falls down the cliff? How do you fall so prettily? Plz teach me.

WKX also looks pretty fake-dead. ZZS looks pretty when he’s heartbroken

I ship xiangcao so hard even though I know what’s gonna happen. (Cao Weining & Gu Xiang) They’re too cute.

I love the Poisonous Bodhisattva, I thought the Tragicomic ghost would be my favourite because of how gorgeous she is, but she’s too tragic & not enough comic. Poisonous Bodhisattva is my new goddess.

#word of honor #opinion #just in case #i don't think anyone would want to #but just in case #don't reblog this #i just wanted to rant

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orangememory · 6 years

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Nirvana in Fire 2, Episode 4: Recap

We are onto Episode 4 now. Thankfully the wonderful subbers at Viki (Yay Gone with the shirt Team!) have very quickly subbed 6 episodes. For the first 2 weeks, we will get 6 episodes on Viki and DF, whereas in the mainland 12 episodes have already been released.

I will be saving my thoughts till the end of this recap. An idea by a friend on Discord was also to include screencaps of new characters so I will try my best as I am on mobile. Onto the recap!

Last Episode:

In Episode 3, Pingjing and Lin Xi start their investigations into the military boat accident aided by Pingjing's cousin Xiao Yuanqi. They have a few nice martial arts fights, and now race against time and baddies Magistrate Zhang, Policeman Qian and Smug-as-fuck Private Assistant to one Minister Song Fu, PA Qin (whose real name is fire-wielding martial artist Duan Tongzhou). The clue to unraveling the case lies in material evidence - and in the one ship that is still sunken in the river.

Episode 4 recap:

- Pingjing and Lin Xi make their way over to the river to find the sunken ship, where Pingjing very casually takes his clothes off in front of Lin Xi. I know its fanservice to the audience at least a little bit, but credit to (the writer and) Lin Xi for not turning all hot and awkward like all asian-drama heroines usually do. Well, she is a doctor, not some blushing maiden, and she has had her hands up and around the gorgeous abs of Xiao Pingzhang which are much better than his brother's....you can see how easily I am distracted here.

- Lin Xi's focus however, is the ridic Bollywood betrothal longevity locket Pingjing is wearing, and she flashes back to her sickly mother with the same locket, telling Lin Xi to not care about the position of a noble's wife, but gain a husband she could live long with.

- Our little Divine Diving Dragon Pingjing has been in the water too long, which disconcerts Lin Xi, so the brat comes up to declare that he can dive for longer but he knows 'softhearted' Lin Xi will worry so he wants to show his face. Not a smart thing to say to women who can fling darts and poison you, little Dragon. Learn from great-grandpa's mistakes.

- However, Pingjing's diving abilities are no joke when he indeed brings up some evidence from below, including some wooden parts of the ship. Later, our trio of smols including Yuanqi, investigate the wood piece and find that it was covered with some sort of jelly, which is hardened when submerged underwater - but becomes brittle when struck with force. Translation, someone coated the ship's wood with this jelly knowing there would be a collision, and the jelly helped exacerbate the impact and cracks, finally sinking ships that should not have sunk. Yuanqi becomes angry and indignant at people who would dare play with people's lives like this. Oh honey, in the future it's gonna be you, it will be sad to see you on the dark side.

- In the meantime, PA Qin/Duan Tongzhou calls over Evil Policeman Qian, and makes him an offer - because he can feel that Magistrate Zhang has not been entirely truthful in their dealings and has kept some buried proof to find his own way out of this mess. PA Qin reminds Qian gently that he is different - which means that Zhang has family and would likely confess, where Qian would lose his life. However if Qian helps destroy the threat that Zhang poses, he can keep his head. Points to Qian however, because there is honour among thieves, and he asks PA Qin not to hurt Zhang who he has served for 8 years. In the night, Qian spies on Zhang removing and burning some secret correspondences he has saved under the floorboard.

- The next day, Yuanqi and Pingjing take stock of all the spies dressed as beggars outside Jifeng Hall, knowing that they are being watched and followed. The most important course of action now, is to wait and watch - however they worry about one witness who is yet to be protected, Magistrate Zhang himself, who Pingjing believes will be crucial to the investigation. Pingjing goes to meet Zhang.

- PA Qin/DT pays a visit to Zhang and threatens him sweetly by burning his letters to complete ashes in his hand just by crushing them! I found this so dangerous and cool, like this dude has so much power that he can burn shit at will. Zhang has no choice but to agree to these conditions.

- Yun-jie, the nurse from Jifeng Hall, delivers supplies to an old, dilapidated winery which is hiding our main witnesses, the physicians and the military boat captain. But she has been followed by PA Qin's lackey! He reports this to PA Qin, who looks smug as usual (I hate his face) and decides to take action. He asks Lackey to undertake another mission for him.

- PA Qin leads Qian and his men to the hideout, and Qian again asks if Magistrate Zhang will be all right. I know this is a small, possibly negligible detail of a minor character - but this is what I love about this show or NIF in general. Even the minor characters have ideas, behaviours and agendas. Qian could have been shown as a mindless lackey but he has a brain, he has conflicted emotions about this business and he is loyal to his master. These characters seem real and fleshed out, no matter how small their screen time.

- The Jifeng Hall spots Qian leading his men to the hideout, and immediately inform Lin Xi and Yuanqi. They are slightly at a loss what to do - when Yuanqi offers to risk his life, taking a few men to the hideout while Lin Xi gets Pingjing. The smols are in action mode!

- At the Magistrate's office, Zhang receives the news with resignation that Pingjing is here. But before he can meet him, PA Qin's lackey comes with a white silk cloth and we know what that means. As Magistrate Zhang is taking his last breaths, wham!bam! Pingjing appears and saves the day. He knocks out lackey in one blow, I am impressed!

- Yuanqi and a band of his men rush to the winery juuuust in the nick of time and face off against Qian and smug-looking PA Qin. He uses his royal status and declares the hideout/winery to belong to him, and how dare Qian come and infiltrate his land! PA Qin does not seem worried or fazed by Yuanqi, entering into a battle of laws (yawn, boring) but he needles some sort of hidden anger in Yuanqi, by declaring that the Emperor has not bestowed a feudal land upon him, so Yuanqi does not know the difference between imperial property and personally-purchased property.

- Now this could be a trifling detail, but Yuanqi gets so angry that when Leader Qian asks his men to go forth and search, he kills a man in cold blood, declaring that just because he is idle nobility does not mean he cannot take action. You go boy! Also another interesting detail, Yuanqi's hands are shaking and his eyes fill with moisture, indicating he is actually afraid of this whole situation but yet he is standing strong. It shows the nature of his character who gets pissed off when he is told he cannot do anything. Interesting.

- Pingjing and Lin Xi arrive! They bring Magistrate Zhang as a hostage and Leader Qian is a bit taken aback. Pingjing shows his official badge from the House of Changlin, but PA Qin even dares question it. A tense stand-off ensues (with a great comic moment where our favourite brat raps Zhang hard on the butt with his sword lol) but it is broken up by the arrival of reinforcements!

- It is General Yuan of the Changlin Army (who PJ calls Uncle Yuan) and General Ji of the Shanliu Army stationed in Qizhou. Vastly outnumbered, Duan Tongzhou puts his skills to the test, throwing steel darts at everybody. Pingjing and Lin Xi manage to avoid them, but Duan Tongzhou kills Policeman Qian specifically before wuxia flying away. Lin Xi looks at Magistrate Zhang and narrows her eyes, suspecting something.

- Pingjing is verrrry put out by the arrival of Uncle Yuan, because this means his dad has not trusted him and has been plotting behind the scenes! His father had suspected the imperial envoys would be scholarly ministers who could not deal with the situation, and he felt that local forces near to Datong could be colluding with Zhang and Duan, hence he dispatched Uncle Yuan to seek the help of high-ranking General Ji of faraway Qizhou who came to help. This family, oh my god. I swear I smell bits of Uncle MCS in Tingsheng and Pingjing - those Lin family genes!

- Lin Xi offers to accompany the doctors of Jifeng Hall who are witnesses as they have received a shock. Yun-jie (Princess Liyang NIF2 version) also asks to go with her to Jinling to see the city, but the soft music in the background is the sliiiighest bit ominous. Yun-jie don't go bad on us please!

- General Ji is unable to capture Duan Tongzhou after a night of searching, so the retinue finally departs for Jinling with the witnesses, Magistrate Zhang in cuffs and the smol trio of investigators. Pingjing is wary throughout the journey, suspecting something may happen soon. At one rest stop, Pingjing goes to interview Zhang, who has been very quiet but General Ji is already talking to hom - and weirdly distracts Pingjing by going - Oh look theres Lin Xi! Talk to her. Alarm bells start ringing, tra la la la la

- Pingjing spots Yuanqi who is having an unfortunate bout, trying to cope with shock and trauma. He has never killed a man before, he never knew blood was so warm. He asks Pingjing if he has killed before and the answer is silence - because Pingjing has already been in 2 battles unofficially. The cousins bond over a drink, and its kinda nice to see this kind of detail as well - a man dealing with his own struggles. I like this broship, its only gonna get sad from here. *sigh*

- The next day, they are travelling through the plains. Nothing much happens except Pingjing gives Lin Xi his cloak. Its sweet again, but not in a blushing, cute manner. Pingjing is perfectly natural in the way he acts, offering a coat to a friend and benefactor, and Lin Xi accepts it casually as well. Although we see signs that Lin Xi is warming up to him, its not a contrived romance, so +1 for that.

- Pingjing and Yuanqi hold another discussion where he elaborates to him how he smells something fishy. Duan Tongzhou had the opportunity and skills to kill Zhang at their last fight, but he ended Qian instead. What was the motive? Yuanqi and Pingjing both wonder.

- In the Palace, The Emperor, cute Crown Prince Xiao Yuanshi and the Empress are looking over his progress in studies as every Asian parent does. :P The Empress praises Rasputin/High Priest Pu to the Emperor, citing evil spirits were removed from the Crown Prince's body. The Emperor is unimpressed to the moon and back, and gently rebukes the Empress saying that he has allowed for altars and all this hocus-pocus (much more politely than me, I might add), but its not only the CP she should be thinking about, but the thousands of brave soldiers who died in the recent war, and to pray for Pingzhang's health. The Empress' face sours a bit but she has already planned some prayers.

- I must take a moment to say how beautiful and supremely graceful Mei Ting is in this Empress role. Her comportment is very regal, the way she moves her hands and all the subtle actions make her seem very very grand and impressive.

- So Pingjing and the retinue are now in a wooded area near the Capital, and Pingjing is waiting for something to happen. And so is bro Pingzhang, having reached the capital already and convalescing, thinking about where and when Pingjing will be attacked. We are introduced to his wife Meng Qianxue (the ridiculously attractive Tong Liya) who takes care of his health and his mind it seems, puzzling over the matter with her husband. End episode in the same way as NIF, abruptly - but at least they know how to do it better somewhat, and end near a cliffhanger.

Tong Liya as Meng Qianxue, wife of Xiao Pingzhang.

Thoughts:

A more plot-heavy episode definitely, and also some moments of the budding camaraderie between Lin Xi and Pingjing and Yuanqi.

What I am liking about NIF2, or maybe it is something NIF1 taught me to observe- are the details. There are many beautiful aesthetic details sure, but there are these tiny plot points and acting minutiae that catch me. As I stressed on the recap, Qian's loyalty to Zhang, Yuanqi dealing with the effects of his actions, Lin Xi's subtle observations and the Empress' very perfect demeanour hiding her ill will - its all very well executed.

I would also like to state how ridic and amazing Tong Liya is in the one scene she appears now. I have only seen her in two melo romcoms where she was a very sad heroine beleaguered by life and slapped around by men, and to see her smiling and so cute! Her chemistry with Huang Xiaoming is very natural too.

I think I wont stop raving about the Xiao family's natural warmth with each other. It doesnt seem forced at all.

That being said, now the pacing is a bit sedate for me. I discussed this with a friend and she indicated that if I go back and watch NIF there are many episodes where much doesnt happen in the foreground, but the wheels are always spinning in the background. I am all for giving NIF2 a chance - and I dont think it is required to live up to NIF, considering how classic that show is, and How personally the UST and pain between MCS and Jingyan is a very very main driver of the show for me.

NIF2 does not have that UST for me, but it does have detailed characters, plots that seem reasonable and are exposed very well, a whole galaxy of competent characters. (can i mention how much I love competence kink? But I am shit at writing it!)

I don't know what I will take away from NIF2 towards the end, but right now its the competent men and women, and the lovely family bonds we never got to experience in NIF BECAUSE THEY ALL DIED. (Okay Nihuang and Mu Qing you are an exception).

Thanks for reading, if anybody is reading that is! :)

#nirvana in fire #nirvana in fire 2 #episode 4 #recap

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