Heck yeah! Climate-friendly romances! Finally, a series where I don't have second lead syndrome. I'm just stuck liking them both! It's a shame the Female Lead has the emotional maturity of a teenager and even worse that the writing stops being good as soon as fake issues are assigned to the mind reading. Hanaoka-san pick me! Choose me! Love me!
It's unfortunate that bisexuals are stereotyped as polyamorous cheaters, because I was rooting for this to end in a throuple throughout the entire film (and was sorely disappointed). It's also ironic that Andi stuck pictures of Max onto pictures of Lady Gaga (bisexual icon) before she knows he's bisexual.
I have no criticism for the visual quality, the pacing or the quality of the writing, I just wish it wasn't so regretfully uninvested in women's rights (f**k spanish and american imperialism). The inaccessibility (and illegality) of abortion is still a serious problem. All throughout this film the option is brutally shut down whenever Andi mentions it. Andi is essentially forced to sell her unborn child in exchange for her basic necessities, she is the forced to go through with the life-threatening procedure of giving birth because her ex boyfriend's boyfriend wants a child.
There's this scene where the three are baby sitting, Max and Christian get into an argument because Max is unsure whether or not he's ready to take care of a child (note: the question lies not even in whether or not he's willing but in whether he can). And it's such an absurd scene to me, because no one EVER asked Andi, simply because she is pregnant she has to take care of the child. These two men force her through a pregnancy so that they can adopt a child (she openly said that if they wouldn't help her abort it, she would find someone who will) but then later on when the adoption is called off not only can't she abort it anymore, but the role of mother is suddenly thrust upon her.
To keep up appearances, they not only had to fool their boss but any possible witnesses including Director He's…
It's hard to hit a target, much easier to miss it. Either way they're capable of both. A bullet to the shoulder or outer-abdomen doesn't have to be lethal, anything to further extremities is practically accessory in this context.
The only problem with this film is that you could not pay me to believe a character played by Tony Leung would voluntarily collaborate with the japanese (I could fix him❤️). So I never really had any doubts on where they stood (which is probably why I didn't find this film confusing like most reviewers on Letterboxd lol).
Zhang Jingyi was such a badass in this film, I usually get really bored watching war films, but there wasn't a second where I got bored watching this 🖤
Why did He and Ye fight so ardently and for real if they were on the same side and Ye worked for He?
To keep up appearances, they not only had to fool their boss but any possible witnesses including Director He's wife (she could be taken by japanese militia and questioned any time) the bruises and cuts had to be real, it had to be believable that they fought to the death and that's basically what they did; The best lie is very closely related to the truth. There's only so much a spy can get away with, in this case it was letting Director He and Ms Chen go (when Ye was supposed to kill them, he even claimed he had but we don't see what happens when he limps back up those stairs.)
Director He asked him to 'keep up his facade until the very end'. Thus it would have been consistent with their roles for He to kill him, even if it's just for show, however after throwing him down the stairs, he didn't go back down to confirm the kill, in fact he probably knew it didn't kill him, but at that point it was plausible for him to believe that he did and that is what allowed them to spare each other.
So just curious to any history people here, is this based on the Shanghai Massacre in 1926? And how much of it…
Hi, I'm only at episode 3 so I can't confirm much, but what I found out by screwing around on wikipedia for a while is the following:
Our two male leads, Xu Guangyao and Tan Xuanlin are both members of the Beiyang Government's Army which controlled (the much larger) northern part of China.
As opposed to the southern KuoMingTang's National Revolutionary Army that later committed the April 12th 1927 Shanghai Massacre against the Chinese Communist Party, leftists KMT members and the Shanghai Labour Union Militia resulting in an estimated 5.000-10.000 deaths, despite the KMT's previous (admittedly superficial) alliance to the Soviet Union and by extension the Chinese Communist Party.
The Beiyang Government does not have any direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party. It is said to have been an incredibly corrupt and incompetent government that maintained the Warlord era's division. They received most of their funding from families that had accumulated their wealth during the still 'feudal' Qing dynasty (1644-1912), and spent most of it on military forces.
After Sun Yat-sen (KMT founder)'s death in 1925, his successor overthrew what was left of the Beiyang government in 1928 through his Northern expedition (the Shanghai massacre being one of its fruits).
The tables turned during the 1930s where the Communist party grew amidst Japanese occupation during the Sino-japanese war (1931-1937).
As a fan of the anime, I can't help but be a little disappointed with the way they portrayed Ayane Yano. I can't bring myself to blame the actress in any way for this, I think it was a conscious choice to change her character.
I understand that Gyaru culture is no longer what it was 14 years ago (f*** I''m old) but Ayane Yano was not supposed to be conventionally stylish. In the anime/manga her makeup was always very thick, people nearly described it as vulgar and that adds so much to the dynamic between her Yoshida and Kuronuma. Yoshida is not traditionally feminine at all but rather sporty and yankii/tomboy-ish, Kuronuma is shy and awkward she isn't 'cute and charming' in the way most girls that age aim to be. Yano was a slightly more mature character (or at least one that desperately wanted to appear as mature), which makes more sense of the rumours about her 'getting tons of men'. Yoshida and Yano were already quite unconventional which is why rumours didn't particularly bother them and why they so easily took a profound liking to Kuronuma: they value sincerity and in a way found solidarity in being slightly outside of convention.
In the 2023 Netflix drama Ayane Yano's makeup seems rather ordinary or ambitious at best but never kitsch or excessive: she looks rather conventionally cute (the longer hair also contributes to this) she seems less mature in appearance and also in behaviour, she appears less responsible and level-headed and I think it's a shame. Ayane Yano kind of lost what made her so unique in the manga/anime.
(I've only watched the first three episodes, but I really hope they decide to leave out her romance with the gym teacher.)
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I have no criticism for the visual quality, the pacing or the quality of the writing, I just wish it wasn't so regretfully uninvested in women's rights (f**k spanish and american imperialism). The inaccessibility (and illegality) of abortion is still a serious problem. All throughout this film the option is brutally shut down whenever Andi mentions it. Andi is essentially forced to sell her unborn child in exchange for her basic necessities, she is the forced to go through with the life-threatening procedure of giving birth because her ex boyfriend's boyfriend wants a child.
There's this scene where the three are baby sitting, Max and Christian get into an argument because Max is unsure whether or not he's ready to take care of a child (note: the question lies not even in whether or not he's willing but in whether he can). And it's such an absurd scene to me, because no one EVER asked Andi, simply because she is pregnant she has to take care of the child. These two men force her through a pregnancy so that they can adopt a child (she openly said that if they wouldn't help her abort it, she would find someone who will) but then later on when the adoption is called off not only can't she abort it anymore, but the role of mother is suddenly thrust upon her.
Director He asked him to 'keep up his facade until the very end'. Thus it would have been consistent with their roles for He to kill him, even if it's just for show, however after throwing him down the stairs, he didn't go back down to confirm the kill, in fact he probably knew it didn't kill him, but at that point it was plausible for him to believe that he did and that is what allowed them to spare each other.
Our two male leads, Xu Guangyao and Tan Xuanlin are both members of the Beiyang Government's Army which controlled (the much larger) northern part of China.
As opposed to the southern KuoMingTang's National Revolutionary Army that later committed the April 12th 1927 Shanghai Massacre against the Chinese Communist Party, leftists KMT members and the Shanghai Labour Union Militia resulting in an estimated 5.000-10.000 deaths, despite the KMT's previous (admittedly superficial) alliance to the Soviet Union and by extension the Chinese Communist Party.
The Beiyang Government does not have any direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party. It is said to have been an incredibly corrupt and incompetent government that maintained the Warlord era's division. They received most of their funding from families that had accumulated their wealth during the still 'feudal' Qing dynasty (1644-1912), and spent most of it on military forces.
After Sun Yat-sen (KMT founder)'s death in 1925, his successor overthrew what was left of the Beiyang government in 1928 through his Northern expedition (the Shanghai massacre being one of its fruits).
The tables turned during the 1930s where the Communist party grew amidst Japanese occupation during the Sino-japanese war (1931-1937).
I understand that Gyaru culture is no longer what it was 14 years ago (f*** I''m old) but Ayane Yano was not supposed to be conventionally stylish. In the anime/manga her makeup was always very thick, people nearly described it as vulgar and that adds so much to the dynamic between her Yoshida and Kuronuma. Yoshida is not traditionally feminine at all but rather sporty and yankii/tomboy-ish, Kuronuma is shy and awkward she isn't 'cute and charming' in the way most girls that age aim to be. Yano was a slightly more mature character (or at least one that desperately wanted to appear as mature), which makes more sense of the rumours about her 'getting tons of men'. Yoshida and Yano were already quite unconventional which is why rumours didn't particularly bother them and why they so easily took a profound liking to Kuronuma: they value sincerity and in a way found solidarity in being slightly outside of convention.
In the 2023 Netflix drama Ayane Yano's makeup seems rather ordinary or ambitious at best but never kitsch or excessive: she looks rather conventionally cute (the longer hair also contributes to this) she seems less mature in appearance and also in behaviour, she appears less responsible and level-headed and I think it's a shame. Ayane Yano kind of lost what made her so unique in the manga/anime.
(I've only watched the first three episodes, but I really hope they decide to leave out her romance with the gym teacher.)