ibisfeather

ep39
a great episode. One problem caused by epiphenomena here online. I see absolutely no evidence of "choppy editing" or "rushed" plot. What the heck are you guys talking about?

1. This is cdrama, whereas in kdrama tv endings just tail off in a weird naturalistic RL tv-series way, in cdrama culminating murders, crazy plot turns, revelations in rapid succession are, if not the norm, at least not unusual. This didnt even come near previous pinnacleof wacky cdrama craziness. Everyone who is not a new viewer probably has their favorites.

2. Every single revelation has been part of all the questions swirling around to the average viewer and well-introduced by now. THE ONLY WAY THIS IS CONFUSING OR RUSHED IS IF PEOPLE DIDNT ACTUALLY WATCH THE PREVIOUS EPISODES ALL THE WAY THROUGH. Is it really a criticism that you dont understand the plot at a quick dip in at the last minute? Spare me.

3. If you havent noticed one of the themes of the show is that nothing is real but love and even that is governed by myth gossip and appearances. Lots and lots of theatrical references do not fail in this episode. The best in my mind immediately is that the puppet Emperor is the one who shelters behind the screen = the back of the throne, whule the madman QiMin conducting his own independent mad theatre sits on it.

4. Yes, the confrontation at the palace doesnt last very long. Did anybody pay attention to why? Because this is all about the family. It is all about tragic love. It is the story of Wei Yan, and Qi Rongyin today. There is probably more for tomorrow. The armies public and private are only there to back up their commanders, who are all part of the same family. I was amazed at how disciplined the three groups were at the base of the wall overlooked by Qimin. They must have been through family fights like this before.

5. It is an anti-war show.It is all about fictions, public and private. It is all an empty show. Of course when the showdown ends, the lovers look at the empty courtyard and promise each other that they will have a better life from then on.

5. All that corrosive trash-talk on these pages and with the patience of real people it would have been obvious that the Marquis rocks as a man when it counts. And the actor, ZLH really is looking like a man nearing 30 now -- his jaw is more powerful and his stance is more sinewy, his range is greater and his voice has always been amazing.. He is going to be a real heart-throb consistently in the coming years.

Gender politics in China are scary, bec the govt gets involved and larger policies can be indicated or affected.
Army recruitment. Youth unemployment. Women and gay people as scapegoats, to redirect energies.
There is state promotion of 'microdramas', which I think means the verticals. Male leads who are aggressive s*x***ly. Now it looks like female-centric long form may be curtailed? Lets hope the intermediate short-form remains a place for legit, nimble, responsive and flexible entertainment.
Poor ZLH. The joke is that aside from his looks he has a very masculine presence. In this drama he i beginning to look as if he is almost 30, and it is powerfully attractive . May he live long and prosper as an actor.

Ep1
Rewatch
I have missed the falcon so much.

Ep38
The bandit queen hands over the tiger tally half, cy discusses w/xz.
For me the change in costume for the leads is a shock. Cy wears an outfit sim to win shu in minor mode. Light blue, voluminous, and a centre forehead applied jewel.
Xz is dressed like a bureaucrat, sober and pared down. This after they spent a night in lots of silk pj's and hot water.
I don't like seeing changyu like this but it is inevitable. If there is anyone who can be depended on to live up to whatever her current responsibilities are it's changyu. Even if she has to dress in sky blue. Hope it's temporary. The peach robe was much calmer, more her style.

It was the top airing show for the first 2 weeks. As soon as the leak happened, it disappeared -- this all depends on us -- dont those numbers come from our watchlists? So lots and lots of us hit completed or dropped or onhold,

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.