If a male lead doesn't secretly battle a bear and bring it down in the middle of the night to detoxify the love of his love and then hide the truth and his scars from her, what is he even doing and how can he call himself a period cdrama male lead?
I stopped counting but it seems that the scars he sustained because of her are starting to outnumber the ones he had got in his 10+ years on the battlefield.
He is a total psycho proud of his own brand of cray cray. He had long accepted the inevitability of his own death and decided if he is going to die young he is at the very least choosing the cause of his death - her. Because the way the story is going it's more likely she will become a widow before she becomes a divorcée.
It should be released by the end of the year. Although I already know it's a tragedy, it will be impossible not to see it. His perfect profile makes it all worthwhile. Come quickly, Yang Wujian!
I'm only about 23 minutes into the first episode of Key to the Phoenix Heart and so far, this is what I know about Xiao Wuyi. He's a fierce general or something like that:
He gets all bloody and injured in a battle:
When we meet him again, he's bathing, sinisterly:
A lot of time must've passed because all that are left of those battle wounds are scars:
When you're wearing a sinister black bathrobe, you have to put on a sinister face:
I have no idea how he got his sword to flame for this long but I am all for it.
I was thinking why I thought this was badass while rolling my eyes in a very annoyed way at the blindfold archery in BoP and I think it's because I expect and enjoy extra in my stories yes but it has to make sense - it would definitely be advantageous to be able to have a flaming sword in battle provided you could figure out how to keep it burning and had skills not to set your eyebrows on fire.
There is literally zero point to blindfolding yourself while shooting pirates.
Not to mention that I am always more into it when there are real stakes - this battle looks hard for this dude, not whatever 'don't break a sweat ever' nonsense both the overly OP mains in BoP are doing.
I mean, this drama is extra and nonsense of course, but one I can enjoy!
I didn't understand it at that time.
But after he left, I finally understood that bone-deep sadness.
It was the base color of his soul. Like a broken song, vast, distant and desolate.
This man is suffering so much from all the stupidity
I haven't felt this sorry for a male lead who wasn't actively bleeding since poor Song Mo couldn't figure out how to convince his wife he was attracted to her in Blossom. Someone save Nan Heng from the ridiculousness before he explodes! He is miserable enough!
Started watching my first wuxia C-drama, Fangs of Fortune, and you guys weren’t kidding when you hyped it up so much. Right off the bat, I was blown away by the stunning visuals—those intricate costumes, detailed sets, and even the CGI look incredible! I've watched tons of films and dramas from different countries and eras (been into Korean dramas since 2012), but this one still managed to pleasantly surprise me.
By the end of the second episode, my main thought was how Demon Hunting Bureau feels like a classic RPG party lineup. We’ve got, let’s say, a mage who’s also a demon and a total trickster personality (Zhao Yuan Zhou), an assassin whose top skills in an RPG or DnD campaign would be persuasion + intelligence (Wen Xiao), the quintessential lawful good warrior with a magical sword that can kill demons and break their reincarnation cycle (Zhuo Yi Chen), a stoic sharpshooter (Pei Si Jing), and a 13-year-old healer (Bai Jiu). No idea if this is a typical setup for wuxia since I’m new to the genre, but so far, it’s exciting and super promising.
Another thing that stood out compared to what I usually watch is the lighthearted vibe—it feels like one big fairytale. The funny moments actually make me laugh out loud, and it’s just a fun, easy ride so far. Loving it!
Heyyy OP, you might be interested to know that the reason the CGI looks so good is because... a lot of it is NOT CGI. It's in-camera FX. They filmed on a stage set against a MASSIVE curved video screen displaying and computer-generated backgrounds (created using Unreal Engine). So the computer-generated scenery was there as there were filming, rather than added in post.
It's a pretty epic new technology, known as virtual production.
I keep hoping someone funnier or better with images than me will write a primer for this show, but I haven’t seen it yet, so it’s looking like I’m going to have to be the propaganda I want to see in the world.
Fangs of Fortune is a 34.5-episode drama that takes place in Ancient Fantasy China, split between the human world and the Wilderness (home of the yao/demons). You can watch it on iQiyi or YouTube. There will be some spoilers below, mostly for early episodes; photos here are from official production stills/promos. As far as I can tell, Fangs of Fortune is a (successful) attempt to get a m/m romantic pairing past the censors by giving the dudes a(n also-queer) female love interest as well, which is neat. The show cares way more about the characters than about the plot, so I’m going to follow suit, starting with…
Zhao Yuanzhou, a.k.a. Zhu Yan
30,000-year-old suicidal Great Demon with suave DILF energy, sky-high self-confidence, and rock-bottom self-worth. 8 years before the show opens, he was possessed by malicious energy and killed a ton of people, including the only living relatives (father and brother) of this guy:
Zhuo Yichen
24-year-old swordsman and demon hunter (head of the Demon Hunting Bureau, in fact), who wears the most beautiful costumes of all time, has sworn to avenge his family, and happens to be in possession of the only weapon that can kill the aforementioned Great Demon Zhao Yuanzhou—if only he knew how to use it.
On the dynamic between Zhao Yuanzhou and Zhuo Yichen, which is the driving force of this show, I can’t do better than this post and this post – please go read them, you will not regret it. In the meantime, please enjoy some homoerotic violent hand-holding.
Zhao Yuanzhou shows up at the Demon Hunting Bureau very sexily and offers to teach Zhuo Yichen to use said weapon, if Zhuo Yichen will (a) swear to kill him with it once they’re done, and (b) in the meantime, let Zhao Yuanzhou join the demon hunting crew. Specifically, he demands to be paired up with this lady:
Wen Xiao
Scholar, demon hunter, Zhuo Yichen’s sort-of foster sister, and technically the Baize Goddess, guardian of the Wilderness… but when her predecessor as Baize Goddess died, she couldn’t complete the transfer of her powers to Wen Xiao, leaving Wen Xiao unable to do the job, and sickly to boot. Wen Xiao compensates by being smarter, more socially adept, and more mentally healthy than everyone else in this cast… although I will grant that’s a low bar to clear.
While recruiting a crew to go after a pesky water demon, Wen Xiao runs into…
Pei Sijing
Stoic archer who recently retired from demon-hunting after she had to kill her own brother; target of Wen Xiao’s very persistent affections.
Here they are being cute together:
Congratulations, you have now met the polycule! There are also two comic-relief teenagers (with obligatory difficult backstories) and two villains, one of whom is boring and will be ignored, and one of whom is Zhao Yuanzhou’s human-hating mall goth demon ex-boyfriend Li Lun, as seen below:
There is not really an overarching plot: in general, the plot is driven by the desire to get Wen Xiao fully powered-up as the Baize Goddess so that she can fix stuff that has gone wrong in the Wilderness, but after a certain point, most plot arcs are driven by problems caused in the previous plot arc. The writers are way more invested in putting the characters in Situations that will crunch them up against each other in interesting ways than in having a coherent plot or worldbuilding. Fortunately, they are very good at writing these characters reacting to each other in Situations, so it works out.
Why should you watch this show? First, it is delightfully gay and there is great fic for it, which you will get more out of if you’re familiar with canon (but don’t let that stop you from diving in now…). Second, the writers are really good at building compelling relationships between characters, romantic and otherwise, and in particular, they have a gift for writing two-character dialogue scenes and cute banter. Third, damn, this is maybe the most visually beautiful show I’ve ever seen in my life. The costumes, in particular, are unbelievable.
Are there downsides? Yeah, candidly, you are going to spend a chunk of the first third of the show sitting through long flashbacks that I call The Ponderous Tragic Backstories of the Het Guest Stars when all you want to do is get back to the main characters. Don’t worry, the whole show is not like this. It happens four times (three toward the beginning and once toward the end). And at least even the Ponderous Tragic Backstories of the Het Guest Stars are still very pretty to look at.
Anyway – check it out! Ask me if you have questions! Correct me if I goofed on anything! See you in Queer Poly Ancient Fantasy China!
(Edited to correct the number of episodes, thank you, @kandadze!)
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