Novoland: Pearl Eclipse is William Chan Off the Shits, and Here’s Why
Hello friends! After months of staring at this man’s face, I am finally able to put my research to good use!! And now you all get to suffer with me! Admittedly I have only watched the first episode, but it’s already got me feral bc my man wills is fucking it up to the max.
Okay so like. I love William. You all know I love William. But for the LIFE of me I could not figure out why they kept casting him in shit bc he’s SUCH A FUCKIN WEIRDO (again I love him) and I thought at first that it was just Him being The Way He Is but Novoland has got me convinced that actually he is The Greatest Actor of Our Time and here is why: his ghost smile is gone.
Let me explain:
The last play I acted in my director was like “GIRL YOU HAVE GOT TO STOP WITH THE GHOST SMILE” and I was like “the fuck you talking about” and she was like “ok. Your resting face? It’s a smile. You Ghost Smile. This character would not do that. So stop.” and then for the rest of the show I had to be fully focused on turning the corners of my mouth down whenever my face was at rest and Let Me Tell You that is Not Comfy. Ghost Smiling is like the opposite of Resting Bitch Face but only in the mouth. Resting Bitch Face involves eyebrows (granted my Neutral Eyebrows are Happy but that’s besides the point).
Now. William’s resting face is also a Ghost Smile. The corners of his mouth are just Up when he’s at neutral. If he’s frowning or acting, they turn down, but when he’s at rest you can catch the corners up just enough to soften his face and give it the classic William Charm. Observe (William):
(Ok I know that last one isn’t exactly resting but it’s a good example of his Ghost Smile bc he’s so focused on the rest of his body that he’s REALLY not schooling his face here. Also I just like this picture)
ANYWAY you can see how, when caught candidly in a resting facial position, his lips are still Up and there’s just a Hint of a smile there. It’s very nice! And if you still don’t believe me, by contrast, here’s Wang Yibo’s neutral:
Now Yibo DOES have a very prominent Turn Down in his mouth, but I digress.
OKAY SO. most of William’s characters ALSO have Ghost Smiles bc that’s just his natural face. If he’s not actively doing facial expressions, it’s just going to end up like that, which is totally fine bc that’s just what faces do!
Lil political dude (I have no idea what drama that’s from) has a ghost smile! So does Liu Ziguang in Age of Legends (remind me to talk about william’s acting choices there some other time)! And Fo-ye (sorry for the terrible ass screenshot but it’s honestly SO hard to find a picture of William In Character as Fo-ye and also At Rest because FUCk does fo-ye emote a lot :/)
Which brings me to why Novoland has got me so freaked out, and why it’s kind of hard to be like “oh yeah that’s a classic William character.” Because he’s played stoic characters like Fang Jiang before! He almost always plays stoic characters! But he has dialed it The Fuck in for this one and it’s bc his Ghost Smile is gone.
FUCJING LOOK AT THAT!!! LOOK AT THE DOWNTURN OF HIS MOUTH!! His face is constantly Passive and Neutral but William’s natural Passive and Neutral still has that smile hint! But here it’s gone. Vanished. Poof! And that means that William has gotten himself SO DEEP into this character that his natural face has changed for him. I’m sure if we see behind the scenes footage at some point the Ghost Smile will be back, but he has MASTERED this character to the point that he has changed his At Rest face to fit him.
That’s not an easy thing to do! And I speak from experience! And I didn’t even do that good a job at it bc I kept getting distracted by other things and forgetting about my mouth so like. William is acting his ass off in this one, and even if it doesn’t seem like it bc he doesn’t really emote, it’s all in the little things. I have no idea how Novoland is going to go but so far it appears to be William’s Finest Acting Work to date (even if that’s not a hard feat bc he has some…….. questionable projects), and I am very proud of him
I heard the sweet, dulcet tones of acting meta on this post and could not resist her call, so @xcziel, @foxofninetales, this one is for you.
THE LIU CHANG DMBJ CHARACTER META: WANG CAN vs LIU SANG
So first of all lemme just say I love these bitches, and what’s interesting about Liu Chang is that he plays them on opposite ends. There’s not much he can do about the fact that, y’know, he’s the same-ass person, but there are some very distinct differences between Liu Sang and Wang Can, which we will be talking about now.
I’ve talked about body lines before! But now we get to look at it from the same actor in two different characters! As a recap, straight lines are strong, sturdy, confident, and straightforward; curved lines are weaker, but more interesting and more dynamic.
For example!!
We got our bitch Wang Can here!! This is our first look at this slimy man, and look! He’s like a square!!! All straight lines, all ups and downs. Him body a square!! The costume people also do a great job of boxing him up bc of the tailoring of his jacket, and the two neutral color palette. There’s no embellishments, no decor. This is a straightforward man!! He’s not hiding anything except exactly how much of a bitch he is
(Also notice that his hands are showing and in fists. This will be important in a minute.)
Next, we have our favorite boy Liu Sang, showing up for the first time (ignore the differences in angles):
Oho! He’s a curvy motherfucker!! Aside from the fact that his clothes are now tailored correctly to demonstrate his natural curves, this mans is also curving himself! His arms! Are loose! And bent!! His head and neck aren’t nearly as emphasized! And! AND!!!! His hands are in his fucjing POCKEEETTTSSS. That indicates FURTIVENESS! That indicates MYSTERY! We’re going to find some things OUT about this boy and we’re gonna like it!!!
In comparison, look at Jiang Wu:
LIU CHANG U BEAUTIFUL BITCH. He fucking BENT HIS ARM. He kept one straight and BENT THE OTHER!!! Oh joyous occasion!! We have a DYNAMIC BOY!! but not too dynamic—peep that hidden hand! Also I love this bc it was TWO DIFFERENT LIU CHANG CHARACTERS IN THE SAME SHOW!!! :D see!! Here’s Liu Sang again!
THIS IS A CONFIDENT LIU SANG!!!! He is CHANGED! He is capable of expressing emotions now! Look at just how much body language he has going on, while in comparison, Jiang Wu and Wang Can are like creepy Wood Baby Puppets. His body shape is boxy again, but that’s bc he’s the protagonist of this one. The plot hinges on him, he’s gotta be sturdy.
WHAT WE HAVE DETERMINED SO FAR:
Wang Can is straight lines, no hidden agenda (which is funny cause he’s a Bad Guy)
Liu Sang is dynamic lines and movement, and alludes to mysterious ✨secrets✨
Jiang Wu is a mix of the two and also a dumb dork (that’s not from the body language, I just think he’s funny)
PART TWO: HAIR, BABY!
Once again I owe my life to costuming people. Someday I’ll write that Mystic Nine costuming meta but today we’re focusing on Liu Chang and, specifically, his HAIR PEOPLE!!! I love them and would die for them literally
Once again, ladies and gentlemen and all my glorious they/thems, Wang Can:
OOOOOH I hate his slimy RAT FACE lemme AT EM. Ahem. Regardless, let’s take a look at this BITCH, shall we? We have: straight line face angles!! Very standard shape, BUT this is all accented by the fact that his hair is S C R A P E D back to within an inch of its life, like. Ahem. Sir. Please. Also this man’s got CONTOUR on. If u look at literally any pics/videos of Liu Chang out of character he is NOT this angular. His head is just as rectangular as his body, and the pulled back hair emphasizes his face, which is interesting as he doesn’t do a whole lot with it.
Alternatively, Liu Sang:
This is a nice boy!!! This is a nice soft boy!!! Look his face has CURVES that are emphasized by the glasses (which also draw attention to his eyes, which is good bc that’s where he does the most work, which we’ll get to later) and the HAIR!!! His hair is soft!! It’s flowy! It’s curvy! He conditions!!! This boy is approachable and will Not shoot you One Million Times with a Machine Gun. This also works with the Liu Sang Signature Ponytail, as he leaves thick-enough bang pieces out to also give the illusion of curves around his face. Also his nose and cheekbones are NOT as strongly contoured, so the angularity of his face is softened as well
WHAT WE HAVE DETERMINED SO FAR
dmbj hair and makeup people were doing the absolute most
Wang Can’s hair gives us the most access to The Face, giving him a slick, straight look, and also something else which we will discuss next
Liu Sang is Soft and Curved bc of the hair and glasses, primarily
Oh speaking of fucking which you know who else is soft??? Huang Junjie. That’s the softest man I have ever seen. His xiaoge is my favorite bc it’s perfectly believable that he’s Butter Inside based solely on his Cheeks (again, it’s the hair people doing the Lord’s work)
PART THREE: IT’S ALL IN THE FACE
The face is the actor’s best friend, and Liu Chang definitely uses his well. We know him as being sort of stoic, more on the Xiao-Ge end of things than the Wu Xie side, but if u compare Liu Sang to Wang Can, LS is going HAM with the facials.
Let’s take a look!
Fuck me UP!!!!!! Look at him!! This is one of the earlier episodes too so we haven’t even gotten to the real good stuff but!!!! Look at his eyebrows!!! Look at how wide his eyes get (once again, the glasses are jumbotroning the peepers)! Look at his unhappy lil mouth!! That’s a whole REALM of facial expression, and so early on in our journey!
Meanwhile, Fuckboy Prime:
(Pardon the garbage screencap, my laptop broke on me this week and I am Suffering)
This is at the very end of Wang Can’s time with us; he’s fighting and he’s going to die and he KNOWS it, but this bitch doesn’t even draw his eyebrows together. Mcwhomst???? Bitch u GOTTA give us more than that I’m BEGGING u
The other interesting thing about their differing facial expressions is that Liu Sang emotes mostly with his eyes, and Wang Can emotes mostly with his mouth. This is very obvious in the clip @xcziel posted, esp when he starts doing the whole gesturing-with-his-chin thing, but it’s prominent throughout.
These two screenshots were taken like fifteen seconds apart. He does a whole face journey, but only with his mouth. His eyes stay fixed; they move, sure, but they don’t get any wider or anything like that.
Liu Sang, however is always doing stuff with his eyes. For example (I couldn’t find an image of it quick enough but I know that @kholran has this gifset), the sacrifice scene where he looks up at Wu Xie with the biggest, most pleading and questioning eyes imaginable?? Kills me. The DEPTH in those bad boys. Fuck me UP.
This also checks out when we remember the glasses. Since they emphasize the eyes, we’re drawn to that part of Liu Sang’s face, so it makes sense that the majority of his expression would happen there. This is also prominent with his hearing abilities; whenever he’s trying to focus them (or get us to focus on him), he not only turns his eyes away, he SHUTS THEM, which means we as the audience know that there’s something going on underneath the surface, and really highlights the fact that this is an unusual and cool power!
With Wang Can, however, the structure of his face and absence of Hair Curves directs the eye to his mouth, so we watch that to tell what’s going on in his head. It’s all about directing the eye, and Liu Chang is very good at knowing where people are going to be looking!
SO: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
Liu Sang, Wang Can, and Jiang Wu are all very distinctly characterized through their body language
The same actor becomes different characters by using their toolkit (the body) to its full potential
Hair and makeup people are Wizards
Wang Can is a Whole-Ass Ho and I do not miss him even a little bit
Liu Sang’s body dynamics change over time and I love that for him!!
hhhnnnnggggghhh im going feral about acting choices again
ok ok ok so like. i’m working on the Zhang Daddy Rishan Kinesthetics Masterpost but also I was watching Mystic Nine yesterday to Watch His Lines and I realized that??? Fo ye???? is a Chest Lead???? so then of course I dropped everything to determine what Leads everyone in m9 has (and I’ll be doing the rest of the dmbj characters later im sure) but I HAD to share because I’m literally insane about it.
BIT OF BACKGROUND INFORMATION (asldighaldskfj y’all are really just going to get my entire theatre degree For Free): one of the easiest ways to Get Into Character and Embody Certain Traits is to decide how your character walks. They made us do this during movement workshops EVERY TIME (another thing we did during movement workshops was lie on the floor and scream. also there was an exercise where u just stared into each other’s eyes. anyway) because it’s like the best place to start, because even if u didn’t decide ANY physicality movements for your character except for what Lead they have, that’s still going to be a really good physical indicator of traits and characterization. And basically a Lead is just what body part Goes First when you’re walking (more on this in a bit).
Anyway, there are four main Leads:
Head: a head lead is someone who is known for being intelligent and logical. They do most of their character action inside themselves, and reveal it to the audience through lines and words. This is probably the most common lead because it’s the easiest to do. Wu Xie is
Chest: a chest lead literally is following their heart. They’re guided by emotions, and are often fierce and very loyal to the people they care about. They tend to do most of their character action through expression.
Hips: a hips lead is confident in their body and the way they present themselves. They are usually very physical, though not necessarily active. Hips leads can also become stomach leads or crotch leads, depending on what the actor wants to emphasize in their character (stomach is grounded, sensible, and strong; crotch is a little bit sleazier/less trustworthy a first glance; think Pangzi vs Hei Xiazi).
Feet: feet leads are the hardest to do, because they require an actor to have very good balance and poise. Feet leads are often people of action, and unlike physical characters who will use small bits of energy to keep continuously moving over time, they usually do bursts of energy at different times.
Sometimes actors will mix and match Leads, or emphasize an even more specific body part (i.e. shoulders instead of chest, knees instead of feet, nose instead of head), but for our purposes, these four Leads will basically cover all of our stuff.
Also! This works on people in real life, too! A fun exercise is to try and figure out which Lead you have (I say you, because it’s REALLY difficult to tell on other people, because while you do Lead with a certain body part, it’s entirely subconscious and thus very minimal). For example, I’m a Head Lead most of the time, except when I don’t want people to talk to me, or I want attention; then I switch to a Hips Lead. My roommate is a Feet Lead, and one of my best friends is a Chest Lead.
ANYWAY BACK TO MYSTIC NINE CHARACTERS! They are??? Super interesting???
Fo-ye: Like I said earlier, Fo-ye is a Chest Lead which BITCH??? I’M??? HELLO??? like you would think he’d be a Feet Lead or a Head Lead, but he’s a Chest Lead! It took me the longest to figure him out, I think, because I was looking for a Head Lead, but when he walks, it’s like there’s a string pulling him forward from his pectorals, which is SUPER INTERESTING. AND LIKE. IT MAKES SENSE? like fo-ye is smart and capable and active and yada yada yada, but he’s also super passionate? and often doesn’t think about things before he does them? He kind of just jumps in in the moment, doing whatever he thinks is best at the time, even if it comes back around to bite him. For a character with such a strong facade, that type of Lead is so revealing which puts him in very vulnerable positions, which is what it’s good that...
Ba-ye and Er-ye: are both Head Leads!! Like, ba-ye, obviously. He’s a stereotypical nerd, and they’re always Head Leads, but this bitch takes it to another level. Just look at him:
Head Lead lookin-ass. Anyway. But Ba-ye and Er-ye balance Fo-ye’s Chest Lead out very well (it’s funny that it takes two of them though). Er-ye’s Head Lead is also interesting, because it comes out a LOT when he’s doing opera. This could partially be because of the headdresses and costuming, but also I think that he’s very precision-oriented, and is constantly calculating everything in his head before he ever moves at all.
Zhang Rishan: babes is a Foot Lead. Like. He’s so funny. If you watch him run closely his feet come to a stop before everything else and it looks like wind’s blowing him backward. It makes sense though?? especially considering how tense he is all the time?? like sir please calm down, ur so tightly wound, it’s exhausting. Makes the Feet Lead make sense tho, cause like. he’s ready to GO. ready for action! also it makes his connection with Ba-ye even better cause like??? they’re Opposite Leads??? and i love that for them.
Chen Pi: Chen Pi is actually a natural Head Lead, which was super surprising to me, because he seems like he’d be a Chest, but I think he gets most of that from Er-ye and copying him and his methods of doing things. HOWEVER when he’s trying to intimidate people (and especially when he has to deal with Idiots like Officer Lu and Henry Cox, those bitches), he switches to a really heavy Hip Lead to make him seem sturdier than he actually is.
Yue Xinyue: I haven’t quite puzzled Xinyue out yet, but I’m pretty sure she’s a Chest Lead. Like Chen Pi, when she’s in disguise, especially as a man, she switches to Hips, which is a good strategy, since men are more likely to be Hip Leads, as their center of gravity is lower.
Yatou: my beautiful and perfect wife. Of course she’s a Chest Lead. Her heart is so big. I love her (also emphasizes her compatibility with Er-ye hehe).
My point that I’m getting at (besides characterization) is that almost NOTHING that you see onscreen is an accident. Not to like, put actors on a pedestal (bc the REAL magic is the tech people), but acting is hard when you really do it like, for real. Rehearsals for filmed shows often take anywhere between 1-3 months because you’ve got to get ALL OF THE CHARACTERIZATIONS and physicality and everything figured out so that when it’s in front of the camera you’re ready to go (and that’s not even TOUCHING ON fight choreo, which I also love). As much fun as acting is, and as easy as it looks, I can guarantee that there’s a million things going through each of their minds, including things as simple as which body part goes first (also it’s SUPER awkward to go against your natural lead lmao, so like. Props to everyone i love them).
Anyway! That’s the m9 main cast (i didn’t do the antagonists cause most of the time they’re Hip Leads anyway and also i didn’t want to go watch clips of Cox walking around, that’s boring). I think that @cross-d-a, @jockvillagersonly, and @lacommunarde were specifically interested in more acting meta, but I hope you all enjoy it as well!!!
