"I'm back…and I'll hug you for as long as possible" | 800 years of DFQC's absence for all three realms (the last 300 years exclusively in the arms of his wife)
the final sequence of nosferatu is everything. it's utterly and profoundly bittersweet. it's a multilayered metaphor. it's beautifully disturbing and disturbingly beautiful.
the agonizing tenderness of the kiss. ellen embracing orlok, the manifestation of her repressed identity that was shunned by society, binding her spirit and flesh to the desire that was seen as sinful and abhorred. a glimpse of something tragically human flickering momentarily in orlok's faltering gaze as ellen lies down for him. thomas' futile desperation to outrun the destiny of his beloved. orlok's desire to be one with ellen overcoming his parasitic predisposition to self-preservation. ellen and orlok being alive at least before accepting death as they unite eternally. her succumbing to his darkness and him burning by her light.
and the score accompanying it all...
the sequence forces you to feel the uncomfortable complexity of it all, and it gives you the relief as well.
One of the things that confused me most in Love Between Fairy and Devil is why our protagonists insist that Xiao Run has to be the destined lover and murderer of Xie Wanqing, when the English subtitles only say she has to die at the hands of her "beloved," which could be Dongfang Qingcang, right??? Easy! Why do they lose all hope when Xiao Run doesn't follow their plans?
The TL;DR is that there's a bit of ambiguity in Xie Wanqing's fate poem, and xiao-Lanhua and co. interpreted it a little too literally, while the Netflix subs gave us the more abstract meaning.
Here is the crucial line, according to Netflix subs:
Then she meets her beloved who understands her well
In Chinese, it is
偏逢萧郎解语人
pian feng xiao lang jieyu ren
In particular, the two characters 萧郎 or Xiao-lang, superficially mean "a man whose surname is Xiao," the same Xiao character as in Xiao Run. This line could conceivably mean, "Then she meets Mr. Xiao, who understands her well," which is how xiao-Lanhua and friends interpreted it.
However, if you search for Xie Wanqing's fate poem on the web, you'll find lots of posts in Chinese explaining that 萧郎/Xiao-lang is actually a poetic way to indicate a woman's beloved. It has origins in multiple historical figures surnamed Xiao, but the definitive usage is in a poem by Tang-dynasty poet Cui Jiao, in which he laments that his lover, a maid, was purchased by another man, and alludes to himself as Xiao-lang [See https://www.gushiwen.cn/mingju_576.aspx]. Hence "Xiao-lang" became a way to refer to the person a woman loves. And as we see later in the show, the Netflix subs are actually right in interpreting "Xiao-lang" as "beloved," and not an actual person named Xiao.
To draw an English parallel, I think it's a bit as if the poem had mentioned a person named Romeo, and there just happened to be a guy named Romeo in the vicinity. I, as a viewer with a modicum of English literary education, know that "Romeo" can be a general epithet for a loverboy, but a thousands-years-old immortal with no connections to the human world might not.
That's not the end of the wordplay in the fate poem, though it is the most important. Here are some small things I found on the rest of the lines:
半世锦绣半世尘
ban shi jinxiu ban shi chen
Mine: Half a lifetime of splendor, half of dust
Netflix: Half a lifetime of glory, half a lifetime of dust
Notes: The word 风尘, meaning prostitution, literally breaks down into "wind-dust," and the 尘 (dust) in the poem probably alludes to this, according to https://www.douban.com/group/topic/273507772/?_i=8820568QDrpMtA.
一舞惊鸿倾鹿城
yi wu jinghong qing lucheng
Mine: The elegance of a beautiful dance overwhelms Lucheng
Netflix: A magnificent dance stunned the whole Lucheng
韶华等闲随烟柳
shaohua dengxian sui yanliu
Mine: A beautiful spring thoughtlessly follows the budding willows
Netflix: Her beauty is just like the willow's
Notes: https://www.douban.com/group/topic/273507772/?_i=8817957xu4lIgj suggests that this means Xie Wanqing is unhappy with her life and fate despite her status as Lucheng's number-one courtesan. https://edu.iask.sina.com.cn/bdjx/6fnw1wJF5xw.html explains that 烟柳 yanliu refers to the time when willow trees are covered in tender budding leaves that are not yet green, giving them the appearance of being shrouded in smoke.
凭栏元夜闻笛声
pinglan yuanye wen di sheng
Mine: Leaning on the railing, she hears a flute on the night of the Lantern Festival
Netflix: She hears the flute on the night of the Lantern Festival
断肠几欲飞仙去
duanchang jiyu fei xian qu
Mine: Grief-stricken, she almost flies to the heavens
Netflix: She is heartbroken and wants to end her life
Notes: 仙去 is a poetic or figurative way to say someone dies, but also literally means "goes to the fairy realm," a nod to Xie Wanqing's real identity as the fairy God of War.
偏逢萧郎解语人
pian feng xiao lang jieyu ren
Mine: Unexpectedly, she meets a man surnamed Xiao who understands her
Netflix: Then she meets her beloved who understands her well
Notes: Discussed above.
缘定花朝丝萝梦
yuan ding huazhao siluo meng
Mine: Fate ordains a dream of marriage on the second month's fifteenth day
Netflix: They are destined to be together
红烛剑影断芳魂
hong zhu jian ying duan fanghun
Mine: The shadow of the sword in the light of the celebratory red candle cuts the young woman's soul short.
Netflix: Her husband kills her on the wedding night
Notes: https://www.douban.com/group/topic/273293366/?_i=8819367xu4lIgj agrees with me that this does not necessarily mean the groom will be the killer.
arbiter hall v2 (love between fairy and devil / 苍兰诀 / cang lan jue)
i’ll be releasing still versions of all of these in a phone bg pack on kofi at some point, stay tuned!
I went into Love Between Fairy and Devil thinking it was just a silly romantic comedy only to find "Romeo and Juliet played by Hades and Persephone where the girl, who's destined™️ to end up with the hero, chooses the villain instead" and I've never squealed harder in my entire life.
I came looking for gold and found diamonds instead
YU SHUXIN & WANG HEDIas Xiao Lanhua & Dongfang Qingcang
LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL苍兰诀 dir. Yi Zheng (2022)
— Love can make a heartless person understood compassion and love—to the point of giving up everything for the one he loves, including his own life.
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