#the disguiser

[nemainofthewater]

Q: How are you feeling? A: *coughing up blood* Never felt better in my life

Q: Are you dying of a deadly disease and/or are fatally wounded? A: Of course not

Q:Is there a world-shattering secret (about my life) that you aren't telling me? A: Of course not

Q: ...are you lying to me? A: ...

Hello everyone and welcome to the Lying Liar Who Lies Poll! This character would probably claim they were fine while literally on their death bed. Or they might have fun lying to people for fun and profit. Perhaps they just can't help it anymore - if they don't lie at least once a day they go into withdrawal.

Looking at the list of candidates, it might even be all three...

Vote to find out who's the most egregious liar in cdrama (affectionate)! Propaganda, call out posts, and write-in candidates welcome!

#guardian #nirvana in fire #mysterious lotus casebook #nirvana in fire 2: the wind blows in changlin #love and redemption #word of honor #winter begonia #the disguiser #love like the galaxy #sleuth of the ming dynasty #rise of the phoenixes #poll

[ladysisyphus]

Okay! Now that we have finished it, I would like to take this moment to recommend the Chinese drama The Disguiser.

It is a must-watch if you liked Nirvana in Fire, because of course it's the same director and a significant chunk of that same cast, except all playing significantly different roles with different dynamics.

For normal people, you should give it a go if you like:

spies

suits

spies in suits

the amazing east-meets-west aesthetic of late 1930s Shanghai

international incidents

acknowledgements that non-marriage-trajectory relationships can still be important and intimate

minimal unfounded valorization of heterosexuality (like, I can't really explain this one without spoilers, but trust me)

but when the heterosexuality happens, it's cute? so you can't really begrudge it for happening

pretty men getting tortured horrifically

some amazing female villains, like seriously, most of the main bad guys are ladies and they're powerhouses

transparently hilarious try-hard patriotic shit

the inherent eroticism of having someone who loves you shoot you with a sniper rifle

did I mention the suits? because damn

an ending that is satisfying and not relentlessly, senselessly tragic

For perverts, let me sell the show to you like this:

大姐. Elegant and terrifying. Will make you kneel and hit you with a flogger, but only because she loves you. Mommy? Sorry. (Not sorry.)

大哥. Executive homosexual. Will bend you over a bench and paddle you in the foyer, but only because da jie told him to.

弟弟. Should not, from what I understand of the book (and the musical???), be the main character, except he's Hu Ge, so of course he's the main character. Spoiled little gremlin. Everybody's baby. Has a real weird daddy thing going with a very bad man, if you're into that. Bisexual slut powers activated, but only patriotically.

弟弟 #2. Adopted when he was ten. Just like a member of the family except when he's not. Faithful right hand and subordinate of da ge, whom he tops so hard. (But seriously, they're in love.) (No, really. They're basically married.) (I sense the source material has him a little saltier about his station in life, but in the show, he never shows an inkling of being anything but perfectly content doing what he does.) Sultry baritone. Will hold you down so da ge can spank you.

And I'm going to say that pervert shit runs strong throughout what little fandom there is, at least as AO3 would have it:

Which is what happens if you include everything tagged for the Disguiser. If you filter it by English-language works only...

And some of those that say they're in English aren't even in English! They're just pretending to be in English! What I'm saying is, if you feel like making kinky things for a bitty little fandom, this is the place.

Now! If I've sold you on it, here is how to watch it:

Option 1: KissAsian. Upside: Subtitled by the same Viki team that did the Nirvana in Fire subtitles, so they're absolutely readable and like 98% comprehensible. Downside: Slightly sketchy site.

Option 2: YouTube. Upside: It's YouTube; different translation that's also perfectly okay; hardcoded Chinese subs. Downside: Whoever formatted the hardcoded English subs did not put anything behind the plain white text, so any time the English text appears over a bright background (which is curiously often), the words disappear.

Also there's a musical??? that came out in 2021????? If I find a link to a full production of that, I'll come back here and update. The clips I've seen of it look great, though.

Look, this is not a show for everyone. It's got some gore and torture and onscreen injury that's pretty disturbing. It portrays the truly awful realities of Japanese occupation of China during this period. The rah-rah communism! bits are at best hokey and at worst distasteful. It can be slow at times and way too condensed at others. If you're not familiar with this period of history, it's tough to keep track of all the various resistance factions. Because of the spycraft and double-agent business, it can be legitimately tricky to remember who's lying to whom about what at any given moment.

Nonetheless, pervert shit aside, it's a solid story about a complicated quartet of siblings who love and also injure one another, and all the people who love/hate them. There are plenty of genuinely tense moments. The hairstyling and costuming are perfectly on point. The actors turn in some stellar performances. As I alluded to in my bullet points, it has an ending that includes some tragic elements, but not so many that it'll sink all your ships and ruin your day. And I tell you what, this show is legitimately horny for everyone in this car:

So if you watch it, let me know what you think!

#the disguiser #伪装者 #c drama #nirvana in fire

[theultimatesexypeopleshowdown]

#the ultimate sexypeople showdown #bizu #neru #the disguiser #town of salem #polls

[bananaproved]

I love ming jing dearly but her problem is that she would make an AITA post after calling Ah-Cheng's abusive mother back home to live with them bc she genuinely does not see what's wrong with that and she want to hear other opinions on the subject.

#the disguiser #AITA for allowing the impoverished mother of my adopted brother to come live with us ? #Then in the middle of the text she would drop bombs like #“they are in bad terms because she refused to feed him for extended period of times when he was young” #and people in the comment would be sent in hysterics #i still love her tho

[sinni-ok-sessi]

would anyone believe me at this point if I said I was watching this show for the plot?

#I am a simple soul: you give me hot people in nice clothes with messy feelings and I'm sold every time #the disguiser #(I am. so sorry to. well. most of you. I like to think I'm usually at least tastefully deranged about things #but not today my friends)

[jianghushenanigans]

We're watching this show for the plot

#the disguiser #ming jing #ming lou

[myhamartiaishubris]

Imagine your abusive mom works for this rich family, a sister and brother whose parents died when they were young. They've got another adopted brother because the world is unfair and they're kind. When they find out what's happening to you they fire your mom and take you in. Decades pass, and you grow into a man. You take your sister and brothers' name but you're not quite part of the family. You're their brother. You're their butler. You don't know what family means. This is what family means. Then one day, after 20-30 years of not even thinking about her, your mom comes back. And seeing her face brings up so many bad memories. Being dragged out of your bed, being forced to carry buckets of water from the well as a child, being beaten and hungry. You don't know how to speak to her. Your siblings insist you should forgive her. You can't forgive her, but you can't let her go. And you both have secrets and you both use the other but still, it's almost better than it was before. And then she threatens your little brother's life, and you have no time to think, and she runs to you eyes wide calling your name begging you to save her and you point your gun into her thigh and leave her body on the street. Anyway it's thinking about A'Cheng and Gui-yi hours.

#the disguiser #伪装者 #ming cheng

[dangermousie]

#cdrama #hu ge #poll #nirvana in fire #the disguiser #the myth #Xuan Yuan Sword #sound of the desert #the young warriors #legend of the condor heroes #shangri la #Chinese Paladin #Chinese Paladin 3 #little fairy

[welcometothejianghu]

Of course, we're all switches under Communism.

#the disguiser #伪装者 #i made this

[sutaner]

#song yi #the disguiser #savingthrowbackpicturesherebecauseiamclearingmyphonememory

[nemainofthewater]

Best character surnamed: Wang

Come and vote for the best characters with the same surname!*

What does best mean? It's up to you! Whether you love them, are intrigued by their characters, love to hate them, or they're your '2 second blorbos whose personality you made up wholesale', these are all reasons for you to vote for your favs!

*note, the surnames are not exactly the same in all the cases, as often there will be a different character. I am, however, grouping them all together otherwise things got more complicated.

Propaganda is very welcome! If I’ve forgot anyone, let me know in the notes.

This is part of a larger series of ‘best character with X surname’ polls’. The overview with ongoing polls, winners, and future polls can be found here

#poll #league of nobleman #sleuth of the ming dynasty #the dumb husky and his white cat shizun #joy of life #the disguiser #dmbj #reset #ode to joy #love like the galaxy #the king's avatar #the story of Minglan

[lasenbyphoenix]

1 Character per CDrama - Inktober 2023

25. Ming Lou, The Disguiser.

A fantastically intricate portrayal in a cast of great characters, my heart will start screaming if I think about him and his brothers for too long.

#art by lasenbyphoenix #1 character per cdrama #inktober 2023 #ming lou #the disguiser

[rabbit-habits]

#my art #hu ge #nirvana in fire #the disguiser #graphite #i still hate rendering hair and clothing #and basically refuse to do it #which i should somehow make a stylistic thing #but i'm not creative enough for that

[bananaproved]

Ming Lou and Ah-Cheng this, Ming Tai and Wang Tian Feng that, yeah okay, both are valid options, but what about Ming Lou and Wang Tian Feng ??? I'm not telling you that they secretly like each others I'm telling you something definitely happened between the two and both are regretting it but can't forget it and hate themselves for doing it while also being kind of obsessed about each other's brains because they are both really smart and really insane in different but similar ways. Maybe it's "what happens in Paris, stay in Paris". Or maybe it's "what happens in Chongqing, stay in Chongqing". But anyway the tension in this poker room was not the tension between two persons that never explored each other's bodies.

#the disguiser #sorry about that #but it's the truth tho

[sinni-ok-sessi]

my dad's one opinion on The Disguiser so far (as watched in thirty-second bursts over my shoulder) is that everyone is ridiculously handsome in it

#me a person with an extremely normal amount of feelings about wang kai's face: haha yeah I guess british spy thrillers tend to cast actors #who look like they've been left out in the rain for six months haha #(i think my parents assume i am mostly monklike in my interests and i see no reason to disabuse them of that) #the disguiser

[jianghushenanigans]

A sequel to the ‘most annoying guy TM in the Jianghu’ and ‘most annoying guy TM in the cdrama capital’ poll because I was specifically asked to include Ming Tai and honestly he deserves it

Propaganda of a sort under cut - also feel free to provide your own

Ming Tai: as a teenager (early 20s? unclear: Hu Ge is blatantly in his mid 30s but we're ignoring this because he's a good actor) and a baby brother raised by significantly older siblings, Ming Tai is the spoiled brat. He's also very good at being a competent spy when he needs to be, but that doesn't make him less annoying when he wants to be, which is always

Shang Xirui: of all the characters on here he's the only one I actually personally cannot stand, but that's partly because he sings opera and I have discovered through watching Winter Begonia that I do not like opera of any kind. But also he's insufferable and needs to get a grip on reality. Some things are more important than the show! Like FOOD! And the WAR!

Zhao Yunlan: SUCKING TOO HARD ON YOUR LOLLIPOP OH LOVE'S GONNA GET YA DOWN. Guardian was the first CDrama I saw and I actually don't remember what he did but I do remember that he liked to cause problems

Wen Kexing: Winner of the 'most annoying guy in the jianghu' poll, I don't think I really need to write propaganda about him but like. Has he considered a method of flirting that does not consist of stalking a random homeless man?

Wei Wuxian: 2nd in the jianghu poll. Everyone knows why he's annoying, I won't go into this any more than to say in the Cloud Recesses arc he distinctly reminds me of one of the most annoying people I have ever met in real life

Lin Chen: 3rd in the jianghu poll and my personal Favourite Guy. To paraphrase @nemainofthewater: 'if he was in it for any longer I wouldn't be able to stand him, but he's only there for long enough that it's actually charming'. Enjoys the fact that he's smarter than (almost) everyone else and likes to be obnoxious about it

Mei Changsu: came joint 1st in the 'most annoying guy in the cdrama capital' poll. Professional party ruiner, but he does try to only enjoy it when his political enemies are suffering. Gets to tag team with Lin Chen bc I don’t want them to split votes and also because between them they manage to annoy literally every character in the whole show

Fan Xian: joint 1st in the capital poll AND 4th in the jianghu poll because he is annoying all the time and everywhere. As a transmigrator he is (unfortunately) aware that he is the main character, causes problems on purpose

Zhao Yujin: 3rd the capital poll. I won't lie that this surprised me because I have seen one gifset total for this show on tumblr (the one that persuaded us to watch), but I guess for those who have seen it it is a legal requirement to vote for him because of literally everything he does ever. In his defence he fell in a pond as a child and then his overbearing mother babied him. That being said, he is an adult now

Huang Yaoshi: included because of @tavina-writes's extensive propaganda in the jianghu poll: my favourite part of it was "the OG torture flute soloist; his flute solo canonically sounds like sex, x-rated porn sounds"

Wu Xin: I missed him off the original jianghu poll, and also the whole point of the polls is for me to try and get people to watch my shows so there’s more fic and I’m not just here crying on my own. An overpowered gremlin boy. 'Would you like to get kidnapped?' 'no??' 'ok that's cool I'm kidnapping you anyway!'

#the disguiser #winter begonia #guardian #word of honor #the untamed #nirvana in fire #joy of life #oh my general #legend of condor heroes #the blood of youth #ming tai #shang xirui #zhao yunlan #wen kexing #wei wuxian #lin chen #mei changsu #fan xian #zhao yujin #huang yaoshi #wu xin #cdrama poll #poll