Obviously I am very bored and restless now that I have pretty much a clean drama plate except TWO hours a week of Fargo and River’s Edge and my foot is in a cast. This is depressing.
So this sillyblog has this everything goes coming:
1. Fan Bing Bing as Wu ZeTian in The Empress of China.
On one end of my rational mind, I want to be the prick I am and slay this on the synopsis alone. Where on earth is the opinion of Wu ZeTian’s real life story undramatic we have to invent the role of warrior queen to her?! But then, even though I am never a fan of FBB’s acting, she is THE movie star I would probably pay a movie ticket even to watch what clothes she is wearing and droolz at her face very very shallowly. Then at the deeper end of my silly mind I wonder why ladyproducer did not go more creative and crossdress as LanLingWang instead, she somehow looks so indisputably girly beautiful yet manly reminding me of a Sharla Cheung in this to give me the visual I did not know in my head of the warrior so lady-gorgeous he has to put a mask on in battle.
2. Tong LiYa did a Manguo magazine shoot and WANT…
why was she not cast in one as a ladyspy already in production, sure to swarm the stations with that whole Chinese Dream hoopla?!
3. Bosco and Ma TianYu selling us some yummy ridiculous Cperiod slash. From all I heard, Bosco young det. Dee and his sidekick Ma’s YuanFong has been doing nothing much but eyesmexing:
Let me shield you from the rain~!
I think Bosco is the only one over at TVB magnetic enough a leading man with just that kick of sleaze and badboy but not over the top, and a magnet also literally in attracting all forms of shippers. Be it with Kate Tsui, Nancy Wu, or Michael Miu, Ron Ng…the list goes on.
His current TVB fare 點金勝手/The Ultimate Addiction, is TVB’s take/highschool production rip-off of Leo’s Wolves of WallStreet with a sprinkle of Great Gatsby, I kid. Not a soul is watching this for writing, but I bet many is checking this out for a trio of leggy ladies in the better acting department, TVB standard (ha.): Nancy Wu, Sharon Chan and Kate Tsui (my order). The draw is itchy to know who one would end up shipping, Bosco x Kate or Bosco x Nancy or Bosco x Sharon or the most expected Bosco faucest a bromance with his ‘bigbro’ his co-lead Ben Wong, but to quite a surprise perhaps we may have a harem of Nancy instead:
4. I really really really want this:
I have been patiently praying this will pop out somehow ( I think it touches on infidelity and ‘lil three’ that’s why it is not passing the censors…) and now my hope is slightly up after a little weibo hug from Sonia Sui to TangYan the other day and this is their only collaboration. I LOVE Sonia Sui.
I love all the actresses, and from the long trailer, it seems like all three of them will have a very full development. I think Bosco is a very good pick for 林方文, he has the chic edge to play an artsy moody songwriter, can go over the top romantic yet still keep a charming distanced cool, and in the same body, part bad guy lover we can’t help falling in love, but should not.
Let me muse about old school CN romance novels, I am not really a fan of the genre, weird I know, if I want out there fantasyland, I gobble up my shoujo mangas. With my favorite chinese ladywriter being Li PikWah, her tales are almost definitely scary and cautionary in the romance department. I’ve heard of 顾漫/ Gu Man being a gold standard. imo Miss Turtle Man has a good command of Chinese, not something I can expect from a lot of the very popular C novella writers these days, I can see in the pages she is painstakingly poring over every sentence like her nick a turtle. I can read her novel without cringing at her prose, her stories are decently thought out with some nice nuances, just…there is not much of a hook nor twists, nor character growth… she is not a favorite of mine because her characters are not my thing. I think generally speaking what is in vogue of CN romance novels last decade has not stoked my interest much except for some reason I can read everything by Xin YiWu, her characters are often hopelessly flawed and unlikeable so her mass appeal is understandably less. But I enjoy the challenge of a writer making me care about the unthinkables. Take Gu Man’s Silent Separation’s dreamboat Mr He, this obsessed, this madly in love, harboring this unshaken crackling molotov of emotions for 7 years after our heroine left for a misunderstanding without a word is asking too much from cynic me to suspend my disbelief. Because never in an out there dream of mine do I desire such a guy which I would diagnose as obsessive compulsive manic depressive but somehow he is functioning splendidly in all other aspects of life except this dept all these years, and how?! Beats me. It is what rocking a lot of readers, tropes and plot devices that you can call extremely romantic fantastical, but they are snapping me out of immersing in them, finding them too unrealistic. That’s where I will insert my argument why the romance novel scene was better for me twenty years ago when Amy Cheung starts her reign, ruling the reading list of all the teengirls to OLs where and when I grew up.
After I breezed through Silent Separation the other day, I had to revisit perhaps my first modern C/HK romance novel: 面包树上的女人/Women on the Breadfruit Tree. I haven’t reread it, I have grown out of my Amy Cheung phase, but surprisingly it holds up. The characters are streamlined, truly everyday (as in no cold rich prince sickly obsessed with heroine, or maybe three of those princes) more flawed, much less dreamy and extreme, and it would perhaps be the case of no one is likeable nor spazzable this day and age, but that is exactly my draw. I see them living through life’s tribulation, falling, bumping around making mistakes but thankfully they learn and grow with every bruising of life and become more aware and knowledgeable juggling romance and real life sensibly, practically, yet still…irrationally. These characters do not feel like they were form in certain molds but are fluid entity, shifting sums and subtractions of many evolving parts. It takes a much more muted, middle ground approach in what many romance novels are trying to discuss on thematically, on top of being escapism, love or bread, be your own independent woman or do we need a tree to lean on. Can we swoon at the the exotic flower, bearing that weird odd looking fruit, and eat it too, tasting like normal bread after it is roasted, they said. I can not name one Cdrama contemporary romance I can sit through, imo most of these breezy read are 10 eps worth of drama at best, given the usual 30-40 eps, that is a lot of drag and filler going on. This book though, I think any one of the ladies can make a decent drama on her own, and if they touch on its epilogue 《流浪的面包树》 it can fill up the 40 odd eps convincingly.
5. Now tada the FUGLY. This is not known nor said methink in any blog or forum chatter outside of C fandoms so might as well be me. There are two massive, hence a higher number of craycray diehards fandom in Cdramaland I’ve ever witnessed: Wallace Chung’s and Liu ShiShi’s. ***SO IF YOU R A DIEHARD. U KNOW WHERE UR PLACE IS…NOT HERE. DO NOT PROCEED. I DO NOT CARE TO WASTE TISSUES NOR SHOULDER SPACE FOR YOUR WAILING. MUAHAHA***
My opinion of them are lukewarm at best atvm. WC, I just have not seen him worthy in a role and I have gone to the extreme of morbid curiosity of sitting through 逆水寒 / Ni Shui Han, arguably his best loved character, right?! A repeat in the few eps I stabbed my eyes through in Magic Blade, hoping and praying he must’ve improved through the years playing angsty heroes in duds I can not muster any interest in, it’s me, not him, huh?! NO-PE. 鹿鼎记 / Royal Tramp in which I always forgot he is in scene, that much for screen presence, when a young KangXi, especially fanboy fictionalized by LC here, is so formidable, charismatic, brightest, most ruthless a vortex in any room he steps into, but most bugging of all, the emperor should be as titular a role as WXB, his juxtaposition and frankly WXB’s OTP but there is NO spark to be found between him and HXM (though I would blame more on the most hammy job from HXM). Then DGSD2013. If I thought WC was passable, decent, on a nice day when I want to be sweet and kind (or mostly out of fear for his rabid fans hahaha), all the good will are laughed off my ass with his turn in that one. I can not respect any 40 yo working actor, in the industry for the good of 20 years, with his massive body of work (even if most productions are crap writing wise and not sth I can fault him other than his poor taste level) making a name in the industry of mastery in romance novel leads of the cold, brooding angsty dreamboats and not able to sell a QF, this macho angstiest most pitiable hero of ALL LC, instead making it so cringeworthy blergh and flaccid I doubt his QF has a manhood. Did I try out 来不及说我爱你/Too Late to Say I Love You? Sure. It peeves me when fluffy angsty pure romance doodles itself as ‘war drama’ and after a few episodes not doing a thing for me, and an irking, I read this on wiki: to destroy Feng at any cost, even if it means conspiring with Japanese invaders. In the name of heartbreak, losing the girl in lurve. DAFUQ. I think I only liked him as Nalan in a Qing period I did like enough 康熙秘史 , but one solid job in 20 years does not flicker my heart. Did I watch me some Best Time?! Y yes, and I puked at the amount of posing and out of sorts from both the dudes in a crappy script I now come to expect from TongHwa’s ‘coordination’, that is no longer an excuse, I mean it is not like they have only worked in best of scripts all along. I want to send them back to acting schools and learn the basics, from scratch.
Needless to say I was provoked and something flipped a switch in me because that is all my opinion on the by all accounts nice guy a lot of folks love that I could keep to myself. So what forked with me?! His fandom craps on my beloved, TWO of my most precious things of late: Battle of ChangSha ANDDDD Legend of Southwest Dance Music. W! T! FFF! Flipping all desks in a mile radius. Silly fangirls, do you freaken know how hard it is to come by a decent original script in Cdramaland?!?!?!?!? Battle of ChangSha, strictly speaking is an adaptation of a novel, BUT the same writer works on the script and she poured so much lovely tweaks in it I want to weep and hug and thank her and wash her feet from now on you do not even know. Legend of SW Dance Music is the BEST original old school wuxia script I have seen perhaps EVER in Cdramaland. EVER. When this is a sickest place masterpieces of LC, GuLong r repeatedly raped till unrecognizable. Talk about a rainbow and puppy vomitting unicorn. Two of them. So you do not go jerk around a Douban rating of these honestly terrific pieces of writing and click an irresponsible one star rating (in all of cdramaland where the bottom of the barrel is seven oceans deep!) with the same finger of 5 starring ALL WC dramas in the same page just to be stupid and cuckoo and be caught and screencapped and piss my lid off. And for what?! Because WallaceH is the crowd/ nonWCfan favorite teaming with TY in a not even worth it C fluff?! Because WallaceH’s very good outing in a respectable serious war drama is about to go nation-wide while WC’s currently airing ‘comparable’ war drama is not making enough a splash as you demand?! And with the trolling, they have successfully dropped Battle of ChangSha’s douban rating by a 0.1 going on 0.2 in ONE FREAKEN DAY. Stop it. Do not agitate me to bravely watch EVERY Wallace drama and snark till hell bends over with my sailor ugly tongue. You would not wish anything upon your bias this tragic.
This pops up my feed a few times now, hard to avoid witnessing it here and there. I have seen very ridiculous shiteous trolling going on whenever the name of WC or LSS is popped up in the favorite past-time/how to save ad bucks in Cdramaland: casting rumors. It was ugly during the BBJX casting when TR’s Kboss did kinda use WC’s name for noise as a possible casting, but boy was other potential leading men slaughtered online by WC’s fandom. I actually find both WC and LSS pleasant and harmless, sweet, gentle, kind in RL, but perhaps because they are nice quiet peeps, with limited talent, mixing with super massive rabid fandoms that worship them overratedly, a lot of their fans will go to the bizarre extreme promoting their idols above and beyond even if it means trashing, trolling anyone they deemed a ‘threat’. To them, WC and LSS are the dreamcast in EVERYTHING. Have you ever not come across an upcoming Cidolperiod without a fanvid of either one of them or both?!?!?!! No leading lady is good enough for WC, it is expected they will be royally pooped at online by his Cfans, every one of them, now it is TY’s turn. That is why my dreamcast for Silent Separation was seriously WC and LSS, I truly think they fit the role decently enough, but better yet let these 2 craycray fandom buttheads, that’s entertainment right there.
For reason beyond me, I have never seen a fandom hating the RL loving other half of their idol so much as LSS’. All I see is ShiShi has a glow in appearances lately never before, her eyes are a pool of love I have never seen her able to materialize on screen whenever she glances Nicky’s way during promo rounds, she looks her best in years in 犀利仁师/Incisive Great Teacher, her skin is so supple dripping in collagen (when gosh she looks so haggard in TR’s lighting in BBJQ) , the blushing pink glow on her face…only a girl in love haz it. The drama of course is insufferably silly and trying too hard at funny but so not. Yes, Nicky is too old for this crap, but he is playing the older teach. The costumes, aesthetics, are eyesores, but to hear so much naysaying on him, when this is what he has been typecast, doing all the years without a fraction as much hate?! Bizarre. Everywhere I look, LSS’ Cfandom generally hate the RL coupling so bad, they are wishing upon sth to happen between SS and WallaceH with their repeated collaboration and willing a Strange Hero 2 to happen for their dream screen CP and quite a large reason in hope of sparks flying to real romance. Seriously?!?!? I have already heard of unconfirmed marriage rumors down some gossip grapevines of ShiShi and Nicky, just get off their backs!
I am enjoying what I saw of her in IGT, even when I did not make it through one ep. This is my honest critique of her acting: she can not do nuance. But in an OTT slapstick comedy, when her facial features can do so much, running freely all over her tiny face ’emoting’. It at least gives her something physical to focus on, instead of overthinking what acting actually is. A make or break is if she can fit in Five Minutes to Tomorrow with its J movie sensibilities when so much is riding on nuances and precise subtlety. Joseph Chang is arguably the most natural, organic actor she has worked with. I doubt she will surprise me pleasantly I am afraid, but I love the poster.
6. The worthy bits of 犀利仁师/Incisive Great Teacher for me:
7. I will picspam and spazz about Battle of ChangSha as much as I want to: His perfect life was orderly, routine and…tediously boring before she enters. And since then, it has been chaos and constant silly nightmares… to his own surprise, it does not bother him as much. At least it is interesting. And slowly, but surely he warms up, changes into a human being from the immaculate alien fr the planet of the Iriekuns. No, this is not my silly sum-up of ItaKiss.
8. I am reading a guoman/Chinese Manhua 隐山梦谈 prompted by this. lol
Rainy night. Deserted Temple. A strange young charming girl painting portraits in the temple as her studio. A stranger in a monkey mask enters, asking if he can take shelter till the rain stops.
He is a demon-fighter, he said. The young girl is obsessed with drawing portraits of people, faces she bumps into, asking if he would sit for one, taking off his mask. But no, he has to keep his anonymity from the demons and spirits. ‘Even plants and objects can transform into spirits. It does not mean they do not exist even if you can’t see.’
Killing time, the young girl asks for his most interesting anecdotes as a demon fighter. And he starts with the story of a princess and her groom. A groom with the most beautiful face on earth. OHLALA SHOUJO ALERT!!!
9. My WallaceH stanning is tragic I am hating everything I tried out within the initial episode, but it sees no bounds, and my BettySun bias is very strong, I checked out an episode of 屋頂上的綠寶石/Emerald on the Roof because of the following gifs:
Hot cute boys in specs! ! ! Figure what is the size of the swarm of saliva on my keyboard now! ASFD:LLJKHJHAFDS”L””L:LKJHGF
Surprise! I actually find the drama not headdesky (which was my expectation) after one FULL episode. The OTP is the usual bickering cuteness, she is the rich princess/tomboy, he is this softie poor (mama’s) boy. I read somewhere SunLi is the only actress WH praised being so terrific he is in awe with her every scene while shooting. Some peeps, like her, are just a natural. And maybe her awesome was infectious, I find WH and George Hu like a different beast at ease here than their other early cringeworthy ohnoes they can’t act a lick TWidoldramas.
And the bromance between WH and George Hu is pleasing to my eyes, I am getting some ビーチボーイズ BeachBoys vibe from them. All very good. *end very biased fangirl talk*
10. Feel free to scoff at me like HuanHuan and YuChun. Fandom make me this:
HB CHUNFACE~!
11. It is a rule if some lovely loverboy fangirl repost this, I have to repost. Those beautiful lovely eyes I can die happy drowning in them.
12. I am madly in love with River’s Edge. I rewatch the ep to get myself through the week. And btw, drama, I owe you a proper thank you for this. Lets all giggle till Monday!
To sum up the appeal of this weird gem in 4 characters from chadō: 一期一会
chi-go ichi-e (fr wiki)
The tea master lives in a simple hut and when some unexpected visitor comes, he prepares the tea and serves it, and arranges seasonal flowers (chabana) in a simple container. They enjoy quiet and amiable conversation and spend a peaceful afternoon.
Through the performance of a simple the tea ceremony, the participants should learn these things. The seasonal flowers carry a keen sense of the seasons into the tea room, and teach the beauty of nature and that “the flower’s life is short.” This means that, as a human’s life is also short, one must live life as a precious thing.
In the tea ceremony human relationships are important, so the tea master tries to deal with each guest as if it were a unique occasion. Ichi-go ichi-e (一期一会, literally “one time, one meeting”) is a Japanese term describing a cultural concept often linked with the famed tea master Sen no Rikyu. The term is often translated as “for this time only,” “never again,” or “one chance in a lifetime,” or “treasure every meeting, for it will never recur.” Ichi-go ichi-e is linked with Zen Buddhism and concepts of transience. The term is particularly associated with the Japanese tea ceremony, and is often brushed onto scrolls that are hung in the tea room. In the context of tea ceremony, ichi-go ichi-e reminds the participants that each tea meeting is unique.
And lucky 13. I must watch Border for the bromance and FatherSonLublub even when ep1 did not grab me huh?!?!?!
14. The history of shoujo manga in 45 mins and YamaPi :
mookie 
AHAHA YES I love the part when Muraki/the boss wear the bunny ears in River’s Edge. Megumi always makes things so much funnier. 😀
Wow I didn’t know Wallace & Sun Li starred in a drama together! O: Hey..I just remembered another Wallace drama…did you ever try out the one where Wallace was dressed up like a pirate? (Xing Ming Shi Ye) If you haven’t…….don’t… T_T”
I love how little they handle with the interactions btn the threesome yet we get it organically they are each a third of the team with his/her own unique perspective on anything. I love how sexual Megumi is on surface but there is no sexual tension btn her and Muraki (nor director) just straight tight working buddies
Emerald on the roof is still typical TWidoldrama in the bones, story is cliched, there is forced angst nonsense, but with SunLi in the mix everyone is so so much less OTT and little of the usual slapstick shenanigans. WH is still not very good, but he is adorable and the three r convincing as highschoolers, to my surprise! I never really get much young girl vibe from SunLi even in earlier works than this. Amazing when i think more of it because she is believable without any signs of even trying, so grateful for no fake aeygo! ( as opposed to how unbearable my 傾世皇妃 watch was). A few eps in harmless and watchable still.
I’m extremely allergic to anything Nicky produced, it was just all silly and horrible, no way around it, that one i am not touching w 10 ft pole
Mookie Unni,
OMG thanks for sharing the japanese entertainment show link!!! It was so good and I was laughing all the way since I was a fan of shoujo manga (I’ve read quite a few of them lol) and yamapi! Do you know how to watch the other episodes of this show?
Hi sweetie,
can you read this link? http://wiki.acfun.com/index.php/%E4%B8%96%E4%BB%A3%E5%A4%A9%E5%9B%BD
The show’s name is 世代天国 in chinese, in short. YamaPi is the host 🙂 I have just watched that ep only, I mean who can resist that combo!
Thank you Unni!!! I can read chinese :). I shall slowly check it out (I’m quite the IT and streaming idiot haha), and will tell you if there are any nice episodes.
Hahahaha! Yes, the combo was especially lethal cos Yampai is the ultimate Shoujo male! Especially when he was young! Hahaha. I really laughed at the part when the hosts said he cannot read the shoujo manga or he will become unbeatable.
And Pi is finally of age to play the taboo hot teacher to flail all his students making the silliest shoujo trope work!
to mookiehyun,
hello there, I’ve been lurking here since forever but never got the nerve to drop a comment*sorry* just because I feel that I don’t have anything substantial to contribute and reading what you write is more than enough…
so you might be thinking why now…well it because of my recent discovery of a website where I can download c-audiobooks!!!!!!!! and there is no one more than you than I can trust for suggestions…I can only read very very very very little chinese so you can not imagine my happiness of c-audiobooks….I’ve just recently finished BBJX….
so would really appreciate it if you could suggest some books that you think is a must read…and any genre is good…except for horror…
Your silent and forever grateful reader
leile
hi Leile! 😀
Thank you for finally say hihi~! Seriously no worries, I grumbles on whatever strange things on my mind anyway…glad it was enjoyable for you lurking!
How how how exciting indeed! I can only imagine. A whole new world! Do you mind sharing? I am asking mostly because my irk is it would mostly be mainland Chinese novels and I am not terribly well read in it…and the ones I truly loved, are banned in CN. I want to see what’s available to you/what you are interested in and if I have read any…and honestly have some good recs.
It is safe to check out douban/http://book.douban.com/ for current book recs, anything close to 8/10 are good reads seldom failing me. I’ll do it my way here , throwing a few I have recently reread and very very dear to me but not that chatted about anywhere now. These are from 4 very famous HK ladywriters, I have hundreds (literally) of their books I am keeping most at my folk’s to their endless rants.
An obsessive fan of 李碧華/Lilian Lee, I savor her prose with so much envy wishing I can have 10% of her wit and creativity with how to play with words. She can get indulgent, but never too abstruse. She writes original novels and nonfiction of various genres, most famous for her novelist revisions of folktales or strange romance with an historical/paranormal bend. She writes a lot of romance, but it was a different better beast than what is all over the place these days. I have the habit of reading her short essays daily in newspaper since I can read, so it has been decades, she is my best of essayist in this medium of 散文.
So I’ll rec 3 of hers:
煙花三月, nonfiction, a biography on 袁竹林婆婆. She was the first comfort woman in China making a stand accusing and suing Japan for war crimes committed. This is a documentary Writer Lee poured years on, starting with catching an ad posting looking for long lost husband haven’t seen for 38 years. 袁竹林婆婆 had a more than tough life, and in her twilight years, that was her last wish. This goes beyond a harrowing report on the life story of a comfort woman, it was a sweeping, heartbreaking love story, a record of their generation, a perspective of the history of CN last decade through the eyes, lived by one strong woman, make tough by the milieu, all in one haunting brilliant book I can memorize so many quotes from. To quote, ‘当明天醒来，人已不在，一切如前。 从此再没有心愿了。 ‘When I woke up next morning, he is gone, everything is back to it used to. I have no dream from now on.’ I stared at this line for hours in tears on my first read, very very simple words, so very poignant.
女巫詞典
This is her seminal short essays. It might be slightly dated, and I am not sure how it connects to newer generation, but I think it is one of a kind and very sharp still.
霸王别姬
My very first novel of hers, I was in grade’s school, I was at school’s library so tempted to remain hiding in my corner and finishing it after light’s out not able to part even checking it out, bringing it home… BLOWN AWAY. I honestly love every single one of her full length novels to death as much (ok more last few years) as JinYong.
I also love 林燕妮’s writing, particularly her short essays. I think 小黃花 is impossible to find, but try nonetheless! Often you read works from writers and you love what they have to say, is it not that often when you clearly see the working of a very very smart, intelligent, well-read individual who is passionate in what he/she is born to do, a writer, the maestros JinYong and NiKuang said she is their best essayists ever in HK.
亦舒 is the most popular, highest earning HK ladywriter ever. I am not a fan of her writing in general, but she is so productive there are still a few good ones. I think her books are the easiest reads, her Chinese is very simple and plain (and dull) compared to the previous two writers. Many generations of HK ladies have been worshipping her novels like mantra to navigate in romance in RL, she is as mass popular and as old school romance novels as it gets:
珍珠
朝花夕拾
I am on a nostalgic trip with 張小嫻 lately, I did really enjoy her in my young days and her books are very easy enjoyable romance novel reads, light and breezy, not taxing on the brain and not too much of the ‘stepmother dogblood angst’ trendy nowadays. 20 years later, I am still in shock 麵包樹上的女人 is still good!
This is darker, snarkier, more mature stuff 黃碧雲’s 其後. It was stunning.
Hi Mookiehyun,
thank you for your suggestion…I will go look for them!!*determined gaze*
I’m more or less eng.educated but my family and I speak in Canto at home..so it wasn’t until I was in F3/F4 that I watched my first drama in Mandarin..courtesy of a friend who went crazy for Meteor Garden…before that it was all TVB…
I read all sorts of genre..sometimes even children’s book…you have no idea how well written they are compared to some adult books…I basically went through my danielle steel’s period,my nicholas spark emo books…josh grisham when I was taking my A-levels….recently lots of YA..with lots of dragons….and of course some darker ones like Stieg Larsson…and I own all the Jane Austen books…I’m sure I’m forgetting some but basically I’m all over the place….
leile
On a shallow note : Nancy and Kate are so hot ! But 😮 girls kissing ? Wow !! Sometimes I check TVB just to see “womanly” beauties -tired of cuteness everywhere.
OMG you killed me with those eyes *inmodegidding* :D. I am having a festival of eyes with rewatching YWOTYC. Boy’s eyes are prettier than all girls’ combined.
I am a Nancy fan and I want her clothes here. TVB is still good at giving us realistic professional ladies. I am so peeved with Kate’s heels and overthetop fake eyelashes though yet again for playing a cop (sorta) it is too preen.
My fav thing on his things r his eyes and gosh in YWotYC i truly feel like they embodied wild magic of a wolf spirit in the tundra.
About the books too bad I can’t find most of of them translated. 😦 I heard so many good things about them I feel pity on myself I can’t speak mandarin nor delicious canto (I love the sounds).
On this topiv I have just finished HXY SN and SA parts and Gosh I thought I was about to kill someone. I got so traumatized I don’t think I can let go and move on to following chapters. SA is sure SN nightmare. Even though because he felt loyal to XiXi he had NO right to treat a woman (the sister, daughter or mother of someone “his son”) like this. I mean he should have given her minimal respect ! And he had two children with the b.tch while SN lost her only son (she had with him). I found the situation of SN so pitiful. He did not even respect her last will soooo mean !! I think his and xixi ends were to sweet because they had descendents at least. SN left with NOTHiNG (and I think she saved him)… 😦
Farewell My Concubine has English Translation : http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0060976446?cache=c9442757c3b1104773bc36ddcab80d33&qid=1402340465&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1&precache=1 it is not touching how the prose is originally in Chinese, so I’m not sure if it is half as scrumptious a read (it was just alright a read for me).
I have written so many longwinded annoying essays defending SA under Hui3r’s translation and translated Tang7s own dissection on her character in a post of mine, so I’ll stop, but imo it is wrong and frustrating me to no end this story is read so superficially by so many fans when Tang7 was so impressive in what she illustrated in subtlest nuances, in between lines and words, in recess, of the superficial events, like the relief of woodblock is it what creativity she did to indirectly paint SA’s story so minimally and so marvelously (to me) that i turned a fan with that little vignette even though imo she needs to work on her command of Chinese (ie read read read read much more archaic classics) to be a better eloquent, polished writer. She can write better constructed, fuller tales in her other works but none as innovative as this.
And no I disagree we should measure love with number of kids bestowed, and what gains or things owned. shrug
Yes I read the explanation of Tang7 you posted here before actually reading the novel. So I understand somehow the nuances the writer wanted to show concerning the lead relationship and I wholeheartly agree with you on the “lakorn” (sorry I can’t help :p ) r scene (this scene illustrates well their relationship). The thing is I completly understood SN decision to die to the real world and live in dreamland also 🙂 .
It was a messy messy angsty scene, havent watched enough Lakorn to know but r those forced smex/rapes provoked by someone who wanted death by the one she hopelessly still loved yet hating as much and pushing the guy who just lost his unborn baby because of her doing over the emotional edge by provoking with she is the only woman qualified to bear him a child?! Seriously not a rape advocate in any any any situation but i honestly do not know how else to make a baby, proving the point she freshly stabs at him.
Their story is one that i truly is slained by angst so glorious and do not see a way out for them at any point. Fate is giving them a big middle finger of a most intense love they r better off dead in limbo in a dream they van at least dream up and never wake.