Bonus Longye:

seen from Italy
seen from China
seen from United States

seen from Italy
seen from United States
seen from South Korea
seen from Italy
seen from China

seen from Italy

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Italy
seen from United States
seen from Italy
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from China
seen from Germany
seen from China
Bonus Longye:
bonus: happy april fools
Tracking Tadpoles
As you can see, I have a lot to share for this WIP Wednesday! And it’s all different stages of my art process, I think that’s fun.
I finished the last of the linearts for the Yin Yang Master Lingerie Project and promptly threw myself into the gym au series. Which is basically lingerie for folks who like sweat. XD
Also decided that I needed to draw a dude in heels and a dress and thanks to the yin yang master discord server folks that dude ended up being Boya.
I also started colouring the XiCheng shibari pictures, yay! Still gotta decide what kind of light I want for those but so far I am very pleased with how this one is coming along. ( •̀ ω •́ )✧
Li Junjie as Longye in The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity
+ bonus gif (that sadly did not fit the colour scheme)
The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity
So I was looking for clips of Zhao Youting for animated gif making and I stumbled across a video of this movie starring him and Deng Lun, and that was of course on my long long long watchlist on Netflix. And it's been a while since I haven't done any reviews, so many projects are still ongoing, but what a better way than to start with a movie. Because after two hours, it's done and I can just go back to whatever else I was doing and it doesn't cause sleepless nights since I won't need to keep on watching when the two hours are over. As usual, I have actually totally no idea what this is about, I guess from the bits and parts I saw (and the title) that this must have some xianxia background to it and I wouldn't mind that at all. After all, that's just my favorite genre when it comes to drama. And movies. So wither further do, let's dig into this!
Right from the start, beautiful sceneries and images. I feel mesmerized by what I'm seing. It all starts with a little boy, Qing Ming being taught by his teacher how to cast a protection spell however he can't seem to master it, even after years of practice and finds a way to protect himself otherwise. But his master isn't pleased with his side ways and even though he's the best disciple, if he can't master something as basic as this, he will never become a Yin-Yang Master. Then, the big ice wall starts to crack up and the master sends Qing Ming away and summons three magic beings. Beasts? Not sure yet what are they. But the special effects are gorgeous, everything is gorgeous.
But no matter how hard the master tries, a bad snake comes out of the wall and when it's time to conjure the protection spell, Qing Ming tries his trick but of course it doesn't work, so the master sends his shield to his disciple and ends up being badly injured but the snake and one of his minions jumps in the snake's mouth to kill it. And it was all in vain because it won't cure his master since it wasn't the real snake. So the master will die. Qing Ming is afraid to be left alone and he doesn't care about people remembering him, but his master calls him the Yin-Yang Master.
Seriously, this really beautiful, as far as I am concern. The costumes. The setting. I'm really impressed. It really immerges you in the spirit of the movie.
Ouuuuh a Deng Lun playing the flute. That is nice. Him and Qing Ming both sense that there is a demon somewhere near and start moving, and so they meet. But somehow, Qing Ming saves the pipa playing demon? I'm so confused. Ah, that's because he's not a mean one. So Deng Lun's character hates demons, but Qing Ming thinks some demons are good. So they end up fighting while the demon flees. The choreography of the fight is beautiful. So well executed. In the end, Qing Ming wins. And he drops Deng Lun on the top of a roof.
The demon waited for Qing Ming because he wanted to thank him for saying that demons have feelings too. And he asks to become... hmmm... like his servant? It's more complicated than that obviously, but I can't quite put the right word on their relationship now. Some concepts are so hard to translate to be honest, because we have actually nothing similar in Western culture. Anyways.
Deng Lun goes back to his academy or temple, wherever it is that he's training, to receive orders regarding the bad snake from the beginning of the movies. Some of his shadows are coming back to stir up troubles. He has been sent to attend some worship ceremony and bumps again into Qing Ming, which angers him because he believes that someone sympathizing with demons shouldn't have the right to attend. So he challenges him to a duel, but Qing Ming declines. Then some girl comes to ask if he's declining because he's afraid of losing. Then some other man comes over and tells them to go have a rest, but when he sees him, something seems to shock Qing Ming. Probably he knows him from somewhere else? We'll see. That girl and that guy are both creepy. Like they give me chills. They are too soft spoken.
As cultivators, I feel it's kind of weird that hey get dressed up by other people, even though it's a special day. They are not royalty.... And I don't like Qing Ming's hair for that part. Then a princess comes around. The creepy girl spreads the gossip about her: she isn't married even though she's over 30 and she might know of demonic cultivation. One of the cultivator wasn't there, and when they ask about him, they hear he died. So the creepy guy will take his place during the sea,ling ceremony. The guy was killed by a demon. Qing Ming suggest the killer is in there. So the creepy girl suggests they use her technique to detect demonic energy, so they decide to. The fishes in the bowl all converge to Qing Ming: it is said that his mother was a fox demon. Oh interesting. The princess orders to take him away, but Bo Ya says Qing Ming wasn't the one to kill the master. How does he know? What is he going to say??? So he put that little bell in Qing Ming's room that night, the one he noticed. So he didn't go out of his room. The Princess says it's not enough to prove his innocence, but Qing Ming has another evidence: someone stuck something on him and that thing actually lures the fish when he passes it over to Bo Ya. Then the fishes move to the princess. She gives them three days to summon the beasts to lock away the bad snake.
Oh so they all spied on each other. Hahaha.
I really like Qing Ming's character. He was asking Bo Ya to have a drink, but he's in a hurry to leave. Then one of his servants comes around and Bo Ya almost kills it again because it's a demon. He tells him to become a demon instead of a cultivator if likes them so much. His answers really angers Bo Ya. But I just love how Qing Ming is really calm about everything, he's so relaxed.
Okay, I'm not digging the thrid eye in the middle of Bo Ya's forehead. That's creepy. Like it's well done, but I really dislike it. Anyways, they all go around killing demons, I guess to wake up the guardians as they feed spirit balls to their statues. Except for Qing Ming. He's drinking with a bunch of women. I like that he's relaxed, not that he's some womanizer. But I guess there's something more to it than that so I'm not too worried yet. Later on he meets with Shou Yue and asks him if they ever met. But he never left the palace. He asks him if he killed the other master, but actually he's a servant of his late master, so he's going to die soon.
Ohhh so he was collecting information as to find the demon spirit to feed the dragon he has to awaken. As he's explaining that to Bo Ya, a servant comes for Qing Ming as something happened to the princess. While he's trying to treat her, Qing Ming notices some worm-like shapes moving under her skin. So he takes it from her body to his. It makes him ill and thanks to Bo Ya. The spirit is enough to awake the dragon.
Bo Ya and Qing Ming share a little of their past. Bo Ya's mom was killed by a demon, so he started cultivating to rid the world of demons. Whereas Qing Ming was mistreated by people because people branded his mother for being a demon. That the only nice person to him was his master. So he shows Bo Ya how he died at his hands.
Okay so the four masters end up fighting each other while someone tried to enter the emperess's rooms. Ah long, the creepy girl with the fishes noticed something odd about the princess and she gets killed by a bunch of hair. Before dying, she tells Qing Ming that the princess is the murderer. Later that night Bo Ya threatens Qing Ming while the princess asks Shou Yue why he betrayed her. So Shou Yue is controlling the hair demon and killed Ah Long because she knew their secret. He wants to bring back the snake. And he killed the other master earlier. Now he plans on killing Qing Ming and Bo Ya. Qing Ming is convinced that the killer is the Princess from what Ah Long told him, but Bo Ya still doubts Shouyue. But then Qing Ming tells him the relationship between Shouyue and his previous master. So Bo Ya thinks it's a conspiracy against the princess, since he grew up with her. So they're both convinced that they friend isn't the bad guy. They both are. I guess they are somehow lovers too? Confusing much, but she doesn't kill him.
Boya and Qing Ming both go their way to discover who is the murderer. And they each tell each other to call if they need help. So of course, Shouyue betrayed the master and he's going to try and kill Bo Ya. The hair demon kills the princess before Qing Ming can ask anything and it stole the sword Qing Ming's master entrusted to him. I think? I'm not sure. Okay, so the air demon killed the princess by itself and not under the orders of Shouyue. She broke out of the controlling spell, as she was a servant spirit. But not I am kind of lost. Qing Ming finds a portrait and it seems to be revealing of something important but... haha I lost some bits and parts I guess. Because I don't understand.
Qing Ming rushes to see Bo Ya. The princess isn't dead. She's actually the empress. Her body is actually sealing away the bad snake. She got eternal life. When she starts feeling unwell after telling all about her past, when they try to attack, Shouyue sends them in boxes filling with sand. Qing Ming manages to save Bo Ya in extremis.
Omg, the girl is the sword. She was in love with the master? And now she gave birth to the bad snake and Shouyue eats it, preventing the sword to kill it. So now Shouyue is not dying anymore. So that's what they were trying to do. But it's not enough. Qing Ming and Bo Ya comes in too late. The snake is now huge and the guardians didn't wake up because Shouyue didn't feed his. The snake is trying to kill everyone. He's trying to take her away from Tiandu. But then the Princess jumps from the snake, bringing with her Shouyue so they shall die together. The snake eat both of them. Qing Ming calls his servants to fight away the snake. However, Shouyue didn't die and he comes out of the snake, battling the servants like a badass. Bo Ya is asking Qing Ming to make him his spirit servant, whatever how I should translate that, as he will sacrifice himself to save the princess and awake the last guardian.
I said that Shouyue guy was creepy. Like so much. I don't get his motive.
Okay so now Bo Ya became the guardian. But like... where are the three other ones?
Qing Ming goes into the snake to look for the princess. She's stuck in an illusion where she sees Qing Ming's master. So Qing Ming takes her to when his master died. The master gives her the dagger/sword, however you like to call it. It was named after her name, by herself, so the master could remember her. She makes me so sad. Poor lady. Cursed to live eternally to birth a big bad snake ):
Qing Ming takes her back to the world and send Fangyue to Bo Ya. Who sends it to the snake, but he uses a protection curse. So the princess threatens to kill herself and does it so Shouyue can't use the protection spell. Bo Ya jumps in front of Qing Ming to protect him. Then Shouyue comes back to attack, Qing Ming's protection spell fails to work, but in the end he manages to do it because he found someone he's willing to protect: Bo Ya. So Shouyue was made out of his master to always stay by her side. So that's why he looked so similar. Because he wanted to look his master. So in the end, his motivation was to live forever to protect Fangyue.
That's it, now I'm crying. Even the bad guy was a good guy in the end. He was just doing what he was asked to. And now Qing Ming and Bo Ya are parting ways. Seriously. Why are they always making me cry so bad?
What the heck. Why is she not dead? I mean the creepy girl. Why is she breathing again now? How can they do this to me? And there's nothing else, it's over... Seriously TT
This definitely was a very good movie. It was well executed. The plot line seemed a little bit chaotic for me at first, I was already taking out points to this movie because of that, it felt as if it wasn't going anywhere. I was wondering what was that story telling and everything became so clear at the end. I wasn't expecting the princess at all to actually be the empress, nor Shouyue a part of the master (or maybe I didn't understand that when he introduced himself first?). It was just such a touching story. Loved the dynamic between Zhao Youting and Deng Lun, even though their friendship and trust built a little too fast for me. But overall, there were not loopholes in the plot. The special effects were really good. The costumes, gorgeous. The music perfect. I just really highly highly recommend. Seriously. Put that on your watchlist. It's so so so worth it.