Sol1056

It's apparently on Tencent's list of dramas tentatively scheduled to release in January.

When David Bowie filmed Labyrinth, he made them remove a kiss scene between himself and Jennifer Connolly, who was 16 at the time of filming. He refused for her first kiss to be on a film set with a guy 23 yrs her senior. A darn decent thing to do. Fingers crossed the production team here had the same decency. No one deserves a first kiss like that.

(Yes, I know LYR is 11 yrs her senior, but that's just as huge a jump for a teenager. I mean, he's almost 30. He's halfway to the nursing home already, by teenage standards.)

Is that Dylan's own voice? d-addicts isn't showing anyone for VA (and there are other roles that do have VAs). I'm very bad at judging accents, so I can't tell if he's speaking clearly or if he's got a strong accent (which apparently Dylan does have)?

A story may be set at any point in time, but it will always be about the time in which it's written. The key is plausible deniability. Is it a scathing critique of the Song Dynasty? Yes. Is it also a scathing critique of other times in history, say, the present? No comment. As long as you can play that game, your scathing critique has a good chance of scooting by.

That description works for all three of the siblings, if you think about it.

If GZ does arrest them, they'll be out and back to their tricks the next day, because the Zou family's as powerful as the Zhang family. Rather let a criminal go (whom, it should be noted, GZ's team already has compelling evidence to know is the culprit), summary judgment and termination is pretty much their only recourse. It's not a pretty or comfortable kind of justice, but it's the only one available.

I like how the story made only one or two throwaway comments about Gu Zhen's military (and apparently wartime) experience. He seems so chill, and then out of the blue he does something utterly brutal, and you're reminded he's not just some mild-mannered bureaucrat. So far, he seems to be a textbook example of "honorable but ruthless", hoping he stays that way.

I get that some characters need to die (in the sense of the author/story requires they die), but damn if it isn't frustrating knowing you're watching a character who's doomed. Especially when other characters -- per their characterization -- will fight like hell to prevent that, which means the doomed character has to be a stubborn boneheaded suicidal ass. There just comes a point where I'm thinking, you haven't just been thrown a rope, you've been thrown an entire net, and yet the character refuses to acknowledge any future in which they're not doomed. I know this death will be a catalyst for someone and push the plot along, but isn't there some way to do that without requiring the character be so monumentally fixated on being doomed?

Lol, ballet teaches you fine body control but it's not exactly where you go to learn explosive power. There was one (modern) drama with LYX I recall watching some of, where his fight scenes really played into his body size/weight -- a lot of rapid-fire upper body/arm movements, like two-hand tai chi on steroids. Pretty sure it's the only time I've found a believable fight scene from him.

(I mainly watch Cecilia for her amazing wire work, whoops.)

I wonder if it's also the training and/or choreography, since I can't recall ever watching an older HK film/show and thinking Michelle Yeoh, former ballerina, wasn't fully capable of throwing guys across the room!

It's not just his leap that's astonishing, it's his reaction time. Those bags are falling, and the other guys don't really react until the bags are almost within reach, which means LYR's free to grab two bags before they even register what he's done! And with the leap, he's literally headed in one direction, registers the bag's falling, leaps to get it, and comes down to pivot instantly to a different direction, and he does it all in a literal split-second. Like, he just leaped and figured the bag would end up where he wanted it. Damn.

Honestly, we need a show where there aren't forced dance rings and bags falling from the sky. I need one where people just throw things at LYR and we all watch him catch them (or evade them). Also, with his shirt off. I have simple needs.

Honestly, with this director? I can't tell whether some of his short takes are because there was a legitimate need due to the actors, or if that's more of his strongly economical use of time. I mean, there were entire parts where most directors would linger, and he wasn't interested.

(Then again, there aren't many directors like Sammo Hung or Jackie Chan who know how to film a fight scene for full impact. That makes it hard to gauge the cause for the editing in a lot of fight scenes.)

There's also a huge difference in the way we train our bodies, depending on our sport. Martial arts are a lot like the sport I was in, where having excellent technique can double your power -- so we train for hours and years to achieve that flawless technique. That training also makes us really really good at learning new techniques (movement patterns, basically) very easily, often with incredible precision from the get-go. Our training taught us precision doesn't just matter, it's the *only* thing that matters.

Which is why martial arts isn't necessarily what makes Leo good at fight scenes, since there are other sports/arts that focus on absolute precision. On top of that, cinematic fights are nothing like actual matches, and often require martial artists to go against their training. You have to fake your moves, pull your punches, etc; you don't want to paralyze your stunt people. What matters here is Leo's training taught him to be very good at picking up new techniques quickly (aka memorizing the choreography), probably to the point of being able to repeat a newly-learned action in the exact same way, at the same pace, every time.

LYR's training (esp for bball) would've been less obsessed about precision; after all, you get the same points for a clean shot as for one that rolled around the rim. The real focus would be on being ready -- to perform any action at any time from any direction -- and being flexible enough to re-adjust halfway through. You don't have to hit the bullseye, as long as you hit the target.

It's like comparing a skateboarder with a ballerina. Both defy gravity; but the ballerina is planning to make it happen, while the skateboarder may do it even when they didn't mean to. So every landing a ballerina makes is precisely as planned, while every landing a skateboarder manages just needs to be accurate. (More accurately, two-thirds practice and one-third sheer dumb luck.)

Ironically, that might be the reason to edit around LYR. I'd bet pizza money he struggles in cinematic fights because (much like martial arts), it runs counter to his training: the instinct to evade, improvise, and pivot on the fly. Plus I doubt the stunt people around him would be ready (or willing!) to improvise as well, for good reason. Safety is one of the main goals behind planned and rehearsed choreography. Precision matters, and I suspect LYR's still got a lot of work ahead of him to master the memorization and repetition skills required to pull off a believable cinematic fight.

(apologies for going on -- this question had never occurred to me, and once it did, I realized I had thoughts. perhaps a few too many?)

I remember seeing talk this role would've been better done by Leo Wu. (Wonder if anyone would still argue that...) I felt then and still do that LYR occupied the role physically as only a few of his peers could manage. He's obviously not into weight-lifting, as even his bare-chested parts weren't sculpted down to every damn ab. He showed the body of an athlete (which his is/was), and it might be the first time in cdrama I've seen a man displaying a body the character would legitimately have. Lean and long, built for agility and flexibility, not muscle definition.

I think that's also a big reason his fight scenes were believable: he could literally put his whole body into it. Strong leans into/away/around out past his center of gravity but w/out losing balance, full-strength kicks, and turns where he wasn't just spinning, there were legit defense/offense reasons in the fight to do so. I really wouldn't be surprised if he could master the moves easily thanks to his time as a high jumper. You can get the same body-awareness with a dancer, but you'll need an athlete if you want someone who can do that while also communicating the full power behind each move.

stg, I'd almost think the role was written for him. someone get me his next leading role, stat!

It's like the script is absolutely determined to take him out at the knees. Repeatedly.

I'm halfway through ep11, and I have many reasons to keep watching. But right now my biggest reason is to see the moment when someone slaps Zhang Qiniang so hard she's launched into orbit like a low-rent satellite.

idk, I felt like those scenes weren't comedy so much as really terrifying. Someone barges into your home, declares they'll be staying with you regardless of actual invite, replaces your furniture, and then says they're going to sleep with you AND your spouse? There is literally zero hinge anywhere in that summary. She's not just unhinged, she's thrown the hinge away and locked the door behind her.

Probably the same way we're seeing the painter in the show -- he's doing studies of regular events, from different angles, and when it comes time for the 'final' he'll go through all his studies and pick the ones he thinks are the most visually interesting, nicest composition, whatever his criteria. Then he'll use that curated set of studies to compile a full picture, possibly doing several loose/dry runs to get an idea of the overall framing, composition, and narrative.

It ends up looking like it's a snapshot of one moment in time, but it's actually a carefully compiled series of small snapshots taken over some length of time.

I got that impression after the first arc ended (when GZ was around and waiting for a cue). I'm just not connecting what ZBY is doing as of ep9 to what GZ is doing. It's not stopping me, I was just wondering. Thank you!

In ep1, he's basically made a scapegoat and fired from the archives. Next he talks his way into working for GZ, and I thought it sounded like he was hired. But then apparently he quit? Or thought he was only asked to help (not to work for) GZ? And now he's aiming to do litigation? If he's finding crimes, why isn't he asking GZ? Seems to me GZ is the only one thinking there's an alliance, given ZBY and the rest of his family are still investigating but no one's told GZ?

I'm confused about ZBY's work situation coming into ep7. (Spoilery details in reply.)

true dat, I was thinking of the "why did you let them watch you murder him" bit, that led into the bribery analogy. but yes, alliance -- but what makes it funniest is it's actually a pretty astute observation!