I'm a big fan of the representation of desire in Chinese dramas. Dripping ink, hot baths and entire waterfalls. Then, there are lingering close-up shots around wind-laced curtains 🤌 This is why Asian dramas (not always though) can be a breath of fresh air in comparison to a lot of western romance stuff.
I'm late to the Pursuit of Jade party, but this first episode is good! I love to be dropped in the story without too much obvious exposition. We're getting a sense of who the FL is through her actions. ML is a stranger cloaked in mystery, but his emotional state is apparent. I'm intrigued!
This was one of the best quotes in the novel. After this he actually eats in the pig offal noodles. In the drama he doesn't which I feel somehow about. 😭 But, they do keep the comedic tone of the scene.
Look at them faces of disbelief when he tells them he can't eat their food. And she rightfully tells him that food is is precious.
Love em
My guy is starving but he is out here been a snob.
this is what i like to call "beautiful suffering", something cdramas absolutely love. they're bloody shows but most often in this way that sort of offsets the violence with the aesthetic. very bittersweet, very dramatic, very poetic in nature. i've had this thought for a while but when this scene came up i was like THATS IT.
see other examples such as white clothes when being whipped or stabbed, so you can see the blood paint the clothes. a blindfold when blinded (sometimes bleeding from the eyes as well). grey/white hair when poisoned or sickly. even just poison in general is usually very "aesthetic", it's never oh i'm vomiting it's like oh a pretty floral pattern is appearing on my skin. whenever they're chaining someone up and it's always the all 4 limbs chained in the middle of a room so they're outstretched and look like a subject of a painting. beautiful masks to hide disfigurement. suicide to aid a greater cause or protect a loved one. the classic hairpin as a weapon. and of course the pervasive spitting up blood i would add as well. lol i keep thinking of things... lemme know if you ever pay attention to this or any thoughts you have about it.
also context for the image if you don't mind generation to generation spoilers:
her husband wants to use their daughter's life force to master a cultivation technique that would make him pretty unstoppable, she refuses to give up her daughter's location so she's stabbed by him and then thrown in the water. (the daughter was watching all this too rip) it's sort of the final moment that proves he never truly cared about them and is now just corrupted by this idea of revenge.
In honor of the dumb take I just posted about re: grooming in SOKP, I'm creating a rock band called Mind Cougar for all of the transmigration female leads in cnovels and dramas who get with fellow teenagers despite having lived a whole-ass life before (looking at you, Malicious Empress).
Join us in honoring this very underrepresented form of teen predation among formerly dead adult women.
I don’t do modern cdramas, much less school dramas but Summit Of Our Youth has proven to be a winner as of ep9. It has a youthful vibe without being childish (well to be fair the main couple went back in time so they are mentally adults) and it’s been doing do well in developing the budding and romance between Ling Zhi Hua and Zhu Xue Jiao. The supporting cast have enough screen time to showcase their characters and contribute to the overall roundness of the OTP without taking away the spotlight from them… how rare for all of this to be found in a drama these days!
I did this exact same taking-photo-of-our-shadow thing before 😂 that faux relationship ended disastrously though lol
My only complaint so far is the rather choppy editing in transition of scenes, but I’ll gladly take this any day for a well written & acted drama!
