ibisfeather

ep38
open
Guard Jinbao comes into his own as the passionate couple's privacy guardian.
Didnt one of us say, what is a costume drama lately without an aphrodisiacal trap?
ZLH as a star is becoming the greenflag with s*x appeal of his generation. A girl's dream.

"What is this thing you call life?" says the soldier to the street thug and filial grandsonn turned bodyguard.

good point. plot hole?

I have been puzzling over the persimmon in the opening credits all this time. It has been left to 'blet' on the tree, because persimmons dont sweeten enough at their first ripening. Sometimes this effect can be achieved by freezing the fruit. So, I guess JiuHeng is the golden persimmon -- dropped in the snow, the falling noble.
I had characterized the Marquis' personaltransformation in Linan as 'growing a soul', but the fruit metaphor gives a feeling of 'when you are ready, it will happen'. There he was hiding in the pigsty from the corvee, and he looked up to see her dragging away the piles of brush which had hidden him. And Zheng JiuHeng fell for Fan ChangYu. For once and for all time. The camera lingers on his light brown irises and eyelashes golden in the sun.

Totally agree. On the other hand legally you cant be married under a false name, I think. But they were married in their hearts and in the eyes of their community.

I think there are plenty of netflix watchers. I am plodding along. Partytime on Monday! Finally we will get to give our opinions. There are lots of new bingers who will probably be bleary-eyed but happy on Monday too.

ep37
almost the end
great visual. exact frame of the throne with the weeping emperor and his dead eunuch crumpled at its foot at the end of a nice beige carpet as the shot draws back throuogh the doors.
wait for it..wait for it
then finally the Marquis convinces the Marchioness wordlessly of his love..
but its a cliffhanger! so only briefly for a few perfect seconds.

Ep37
"17 years ago, the late emperor did the very same thing." Two steps forward, "You Qis really are of the same family."

I like the late reveal and look forward to the explanations of 38.

However I am not sure of the foreshadowing previous to now. The temptations of the chattering novel-readers intermingle with memory of the show. It would be an impossible feat to separate their information from the experience of the watch so far. Lesson learned. Another question shelved for the binge. Sigh.

ep37

plot upon plot.
So satisfying to the bloodthirsty history obsessives amongst us.

Ep 37
opening scene, (not the shot)
Thank goodness for the tip ahead of time that the after-banquet would be in such tight quarters. Usually there is such grand spacing, total quiet, such a set of diminished guests.

Is it that we are in the early Song? I Like it.

I LOVE the in-your-face dramatic reversal of power the Marquis accomplishes in under a minute. Unlike the novel-readers take, he isnt just rescuing his wife from the wiles of those low-level-vermin ministers trying to get her drunk.

The Marquis is acting like the regent he will become from the get-go. He put them in their place without any pushback from even one of them, or from anyone in the room.

HE IS FEARED.

And ChangYu is fine with that.

And now we see why for all these long episodes he, himself, the very man of him, is regarded as a powerful faction to balance out the Li and Wei show.

The palace hall was not the grand one, I gather, so we zoom into the courtyard under some low graceful curve and cut straight to the banquet room. ChangYu is alone, and beseiged. But it is very intimate. We are in the very den of the animals.

The domesticity.

I wasnt a big fan of ZLH's acting. I really appreciated the way his development has been done in the open, really interesting for a newbie watcher. But his roles? Meh.

I think this role has really made him a star in the old Hollywood sense. Charismatic, dreamy, green flag stepped up a notch.

I cant take my eyes off of him. And even if he isnt central to a scene, it is his face and eyes I remember late in the day.

@CloudA
So basically you are reinforcing the idea that Chinese dramas are more of an interaction with people who read (the novels). Which is cool, but for a person like me who is primarily visual, still the actual form of the drama is engrossing and marvelous. What to do?

Ambition..
The tropes are there to hold our hands, to create comfort, and when a director is ambitious or just different the experience doesnt feel right. But that doesnt mean that the aesthetic and tropes arent actually changing.

But also..different to kdrama,
This long discussion we have had here was often equally divided between people working from the novel and people working from an overwhelming world of epiphenomena -- gossip, released clips, leaked clips, previews (given an unholy weight), and then on top of that the fans of the stars and the companies which handle the stars. Fascinating.
And in essence, the commerce is right out there in the open!

I wonder what sort of licensing agreement Netflix has with IQIYI for POJ?
The mix of irony, sentiment sex and the macabre seems absolutely tailormade for Mexican/Colombian/Brazilian tastes -- maybe NF isnt licensed for this show in those countries?

IQIYI probably has deep penetration into the Andes countries bec of Chinese projects and workers there? Maybe people there, as in Europe, have all bought IQIYI subscriptions now to watch POJ?

It seems like a negative event for Netflix somehow.

For we Netflix watchers, it is still four more days until the last episode.
Please be kind with the spoiler veils.

Thanks, you are right.

It is the evidence that will prove ChangYu's Dad;s innocence. No more kids' games throwing vegetables at the Great Traitor, Wei Qi Lin. It was all a lie.

Thank you again.

have faith in the drama gods.

TRue! Casting was excellent.

I like it!