Kill to love - how unfortunate name in English - original: "The Eternal Silence of Mountains and Rivers" is a powerful, intense, passionate, love story, and it is until the end.
It grabbed me since the first stills were released and it greatly surpassed all my expectation: this is a BL masterpiece indeed.
The last three eps - which predominant colours are golden. red and black - with hints of whites/almost white reminding me the concept of the "sacrificial lamb" in critical moments. These episodes are full of a heartbreaking sensuality. Every fits of anger in Zi Ang is a cry of wanting to possess ShuHe again - like a portrayal of the old Freudian theory that awareness of death heightens sexual desire.
The golden scene - Start well in prison, "Ziang" SH called with a mix of pain and seduction, in bed SH looking more beautiful than ever with a shoulder expose, his lover tied up with golden lace. SH holding a knife, there is jealousy and there is a turn of tides. What we are watching? it looks like a sex scene, but the dialogue is piercing.
The red scene - (the favourite of the director) - Everything is so intensely reflected from the Zi Ang red robe in the bath tube to ShuHe and Zi Ang delivering every world with a cadence that express the pain of their lost story and their current sexual longing. It is a mutual seduction interchange, that bear fruits. I believe they become physical intimate again here and continue until the Lantern Festival.
The white/black scene - The saddest of all the scene for me happens here, in the Lantern Festival night. Shu He going against his heart doing all "for others" the white is his predominant colour. Zi Ang in full dark robe that in the night at the critical moment look like black. Cruelty, is the word in both lovers lips.
The red/gold scene - Marriage. The series brings us the first wedding in a Chinese BL, but for me is so melancholic. When I imagined LWJ and WWX wedding in The Untamed I saw it as a celebratory, pretty, cheerful affair. Years by, we have this, and maybe we have better. Two "old" lovers, that know each other wounds around their bodies and souls, bound themselves for eternity, eager to seize those husbands moments.
Black/Golden scene - ShuHe wanted to recover his freedom and dignity, not to escape Zi Ang, but to chose him again and again for the whole eternity.
What a beautiful story to be told. My heart is full of gratitute to all those who made it possible 🙏❤️
