Woxin rewatch- ep 21

[flemmings]

We're- what?- less than ten minutes into disk 5, ep 21, and already I can't decide which is more wearisome: Wu Zi Xu mistreating Gou Jian or Fu Chai mistreating Gou Jian. (And in fact the person we see mistreating people most is the unlovely bwah-ha-ha! Brute 2.5 in the prison camp.) WZX is obsessed, and boring in his obsession (did I not comment on this trait of his before, likening it to Proust's narrator?) while Fu Chai is just... full-fed bumptious dork. If only he'd been beautiful and suave: if only *he'd* been the obsessed one: how much better it would all go down.

There'd at least be something to do yaoi with, since yaoi is what one does when the action gets so boring nothing will save it but making the characters screw.

Maybe instead of writing matey!Fu Chai I should be writing yin!Fu Chai, all dark eyes and smouldering glances and leading his chancellor a merry dance.

(Edited for borked pinyin. You-all do realize that Cow Cow and Cow Pee is Heaven's retribution for thinking you can do Humpty-dumpty Rule on someone else's alphabet? 'When I say a letter,' said Humpty-dumpty proudly, 'it sounds exactly as I say it does, neither more nor less.' Right, Woozy Exu-Gesundheit!)

Comments

[rasetsunyo.livejournal.com]

yin!Fu Chai, all dark eyes and smouldering glances and leading his chancellor a merry dance

Hahahahahaha! *wipes tears*

It might work if I can somehow banish from mind Hu Jun Fu Chai's manly-man-ness. Live-action is inconvenient like that. :D

(Interviewer: howcum you always play tough guys? Hu Jun: I don't think Fu Chai's a tough guy. Uncle Ming: Yeah I don't think so either.

...Whatever that means.)

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hear all about Hu Jun's manly manness but to these ang moh eyes he still looks like an amiable teddy bear in RL. Fu Chai however looks pretend-smug-over-nagging-insecure. 'Look at me the triumphant king of Wu! Wu always wins! Aren't I grand! Aren't I splendid! Tell me how grand I am or I'll cut off your head! (or maybe I'll cut it off anyway- who do you think you are, obeying orders?')

Insecure people are the worst. Not bad enough to be Grand Villains like WZX, not good enough to be sympathetic antagonists. Fu Chai resembles a fancy cake, actually- all the decoration is on the outside and there's nothing much in.

Or maybe I just don't like his primmy mouth and constipated laugh. Agh. Whatever. He doesn't do what a Japanese antagonist would do, which throws me, and he isn't hot enough to make me interested in what he does do, unlike Uncle Ming.

[feliciter.livejournal.com]

amiable teddy bear in RL

It's the adorably dorky (not quite adorkable) expression on that round face coupled with the chunky mesomorph build and slurred accents. (Which, alas, remind me of nothing so much as the construction workers from China who get admitted for dengue fever whenever the season rolls around.)

pretend-smug-over-nagging-insecure

And thus oddly (or not) the Chinese fanfic that works features insecure-and desperately-trying-to-hide-it!Fu Chai/ambiguously-broken!Gou Jian.

interested in what he does do, unlike Uncle Ming.

Their *interaction*, OTOH? ^_~

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's dorky. Kings shouldn't be dorks.

the Chinese fanfic that works features insecure-and desperately-trying-to-hide-it!Fu Chai/ ambiguously-broken!Gou Jian

I can see how it would. Though I suppose you could also do serenely secure but intellectually (he thinks) intrigued Fu Chai. paleaswater said she always sees later Fu Chai, not the bumptious earlier one, which must make it easier. A little self-knowledge, a bit of humility, and things go a fair treat.

Their *interaction*, OTOH? ^_~

Frustrates me immensely. Hu Jun's range of facial expressions isn't in the same league even as Uncle Ming's. So where Gou Jian shows me everything- even if I don't know what some of it is- Fu Chai shows me virtually nothing, presenting what seems an emotionally stunted character.

The surrender scene, when Gou Jian walks away and Fu Chai looks after him, what's he thinking? 'What a gurrly, crying like that' is just as likely as 'Henh, call that a surrender, we'll see about that!' and infinitely more likely than 'Be still my trembling heart, what is this strange emotion that thrills through all my veins at sight of my enemy and captive's exquisite glistening eyes?'

I want more expression, more emotions, and more subtlety from Fu Chai, and I'm not getting it. No doubt I'm missing the Fu Chai everyone has seen in various Chinese dramas through the ages (to say nothing of Moral Ed) and so not appreciating what a departure this one is, but still. What I see isn't *enough*. So I must create my own version.

[rasetsunyo.livejournal.com]

Amiable teddy bear seems to be right. No one said manly men can't be cuddly. :p

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Let's say, the two images have a hard time co-existing in my mind. Manly men here do not cuddle, nor does one wish to cuddle them. Manly men are rarely amiable either, except in an unpleasant way with other good ol' boys. That Hu Jun is praised for his manliness suggests to me that these things are defined differently in China than in NAmerica. Would any manly Hollywood actor do a film where his character is obsessed with something that looks like Uncle Ming? and would he ever *lose* to something that looks like Uncle Ming, even if history says he did?

Hollywood would cast Uncle Ming as Fu Chai, evil sexually ambiguous villain with designs on the pure hero, and Hu Jun as Gou Jian, who triumphs hand-in-hand with Justice in the end.

[rasetsunyo.livejournal.com]

I expect they are. Someone like you describe -- I won't even think to call him manly. Probably something more along the lines of "oh that man. *rolls eyes*" Manly, it's, hmm, vigorous, big-hearted, forthright, generous as the sea. Yang, basically. Mature too, pretty young things don't have the gravity to be called manly.

Manly Hollywood actors probably wouldn't have done Lan Yu (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292066/) either.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Manly, it's, hmm, vigorous, big-hearted, forthright, generous as the sea

Nod, nod. That's the Japanese definition as well- and one I always feel that derives from a culture where men live in society, even if it's Outlaws of the Marsh society, and not alone with their guns in the frontier, indulging all the worst side-effects of testosterone.

Unthinkable for a manly actor to play a gay man. No one would believe the character, just for a start; it'd be construed as an insult to the fans, and it'd ruin the guy's acting career.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

The C in pinyin is all the fault of the Soviets!!

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Prove my point. Soviets use Cyrillic and shouldn't be telling the Chinese how Roman letters read. And the Chinese should have *known* not to trust the Russians.