The Brothers - unsettling emotions:
Shu He and Shu Qian:
This relationship is so multi layer and gives me an unsettling feeling. They way that they related to each other is a bit incestuous. The words they use, the expectations, jealously could have been framed in a different narrative and it was not. Everything is very obscure, the string symbolising their love and their break down. Shu Qian looking desperately for the string when he himself tossed it in the pond. Shu Qian was a psychopathic narcissist and that could not be helped, but his father contributed to his blind jealously for his half brother. this is why he hated his father so much. ShuQian shallow love for his brother was a way of control. ShuHe was taken by this love. After being tortured at some point he said to ZiAng, "my brother know me the best". His grieve for a brother that he was always scared of and who hated him was just disproportionate. Another very symbolic moment is that when he was drunk in the restaurant waiting for Shu Qian he confused ZiAng with ShuQian, so in a way ZiAng -also symbolically- replaced Shu Qian
ZiAng and Hai Yi
This is the most confusing of all the relationships in this series. Hai Yi was a Duan, so in fact he was not blood related to ZiAng. Of course ZiAng did not know in the beginning. I am not sure how much he wanted to find this brother and how much was an excuse to meet ShuHe, but let's believe that it was genuine. I think he actually said it in the second part of the series. Now, how he found him? Big question, more I watched the series and more I confirmed that both ShuHe and ZiAng were played by Jibei people on this matter. They "planted" Hai Yi there to be found by ShuHe. So, was this Hai Yi, really ZiAng Duan brother? Or he was also an impostor? He was very hostile towards ShuHe since the first moment he met him and his later behaviour was appalling, where that hatred came from? Was this brotherly love or a bit of a different obsession too? I don't believe for a second HY was guided by Buddhist principles, I know there has been a discussion along the line, but I am sorry no way this person has anything from that set of believes on him. He was capable of a very dark cruelty. ZiAng deserved a better brother.
