Latest / Daebak K-Rambles Podcast: K-drama Reviews / Love Like the Galaxy | Full C-drama Review / Ep. 50

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Love Like the Galaxy | Full C-drama Review / Ep. 50 · Daebak K-Rambles Podcast: K-drama Reviews

• 0:18
  I'm Jessica and this is Teva K Rambles, where a couple of
• 0:20
  friends review Korean dramas. Except today because we're going
• 0:24
  to review a Chinese drama A/C drama today for this episode, I
• 0:27
  am joined. For back-to-back episodes, I got
• 0:32
  Carol with me from K Drama Musings.
• 0:34
  Carol, what's up? Hi, thank you for having me
• 0:39
  back. I'm so excited to be back.
• 0:41
  I can't believe I'm like a podcaster now.
• 0:44
  Oh my God, yeah. Because last time we recorded,
• 0:47
  you hadn't launched the K Drama Musings podcast.
• 0:49
  But now that you have, please everyone give her all the love
• 0:54
  in the world. Follow her on the socials if you
• 0:56
  haven't already for some reason. And listen to her podcast.
• 0:59
  Come on, I'll be on pretty soon, I think.
• 1:03
  Thank you. Thank you.
• 1:04
  It's exciting, and we're going to review A/C drama today.
• 1:09
  Carol, before we even get started, why did you watch this
• 1:12
  drama? Why did you watch Love Like the
• 1:15
  Galaxy? OK, I watched it because I had a
• 1:20
  conversation with no no for sleep.
• 1:24
  You know, sleep for dramas. Yeah, Caitlyn.
• 1:27
  Sleep for dramas, Caitlyn and we had, we were in the Dms talking
• 1:32
  about, oh, like this is the new thing after you know the Devil
• 1:38
  one. And and then I went on the sides
• 1:43
  and I saw 56 episodes and I was like, Caitlyn, why?
• 1:46
  Why would I do this? So I totally ignored it.
• 1:50
  I was like, Nah, I'm not going to watch it.
• 1:52
  And then I saw one of your stories and I was like, God damn
• 1:57
  it, it is good. I got to get into it and I
• 2:01
  started, I think I finished like 24 episodes in one night.
• 2:07
  I was. I I went hard.
• 2:09
  I didn't go to bed till like 8:00 AM.
• 2:12
  Oh my God. And then I slept for an hour and
• 2:14
  I went to work. Don't do this, people.
• 2:16
  Don't do this. Don't do this guys.
• 2:18
  This is only for hardcore people.
• 2:20
  So for me it was basically almost the same thing.
• 2:25
  I was talking to Caitlin from No Sleep for dramas because of the
• 2:30
  Till the end of the Moon episodes.
• 2:32
  We have like a DM chain going. And I was like, what are you
• 2:36
  guys watching? I was talking to Liliana from
• 2:38
  tea and soju shout out to Liliana because we were all
• 2:43
  talking about Steve dramas and what we were watching.
• 2:46
  And I go that love like the Galaxy looks really good.
• 2:50
  And Caitlin was like I am finally into it.
• 2:53
  It took me a long time. The first part was in that was
• 2:57
  in that fastpaced and. I was like, Oh my God, I've it's
• 3:01
  been on my list forever. And by forever, I mean just a
• 3:04
  year, because it's the 2022 show and we're in 2023.
• 3:09
  And then to follow up Caitlyn's excitement, that was contagious.
• 3:14
  I saw this epic edit of this one scene and I'll share the scene
• 3:20
  later. And I was like, yeah, fuck the
• 3:24
  schedule. I'm watching Love Like the
• 3:26
  Galaxy right now. And that's exactly what
• 3:29
  happened. That is why we were here,
• 3:31
  Caitlin, from No Sleep. For dramas, you're to blame.
• 3:33
  But thank you as well for getting us both into love like
• 3:37
  the Galaxy. I feel like we all just affected
• 3:39
  each other, you know, Like one person yawned and all of us
• 3:44
  started yawning. That's what happened with love.
• 3:47
  Like the Galaxy. I love that's how it happens
• 3:51
  with us. We just ohh you see an edit and
• 3:54
  you see someone saying it, that's.
• 3:57
  You know, that's some influence I love that for.
• 3:59
  Us. I love that for us.
• 4:00
  So now we're here, we're going to talk about it.
• 4:02
  But before we do, if this is your first time listening,
• 4:04
  please go ahead and subscribe on your favorite podcast app.
• 4:07
  We're on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and many more.
• 4:10
  And if you like us, please give us a review on Apple Podcasts
• 4:13
  that goes such a long way for us to get discovered by other
• 4:16
  listeners just like you. And come check us out on social
• 4:19
  media to stay up to date on everything that we're doing.
• 4:21
  You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok
• 4:24
  at Tibak Pod. And if you're a fan, the best
• 4:27
  way to be a fan is to become a patron.
• 4:29
  It is a great way for you to get involved, show your support, and
• 4:32
  get a bunch of extra content. You can check out the page on
• 4:35
  patreon.com/always Critic Pod and shout out to our patrons
• 4:39
  Curtis Bales, Cindy, CD Alana, Grace, Lorna, Lee, Sammy, and
• 4:43
  Caitlin. You guys are wonderful.
• 4:45
  We couldn't do this without you guys.
• 4:47
  All right. So I'm going to go ahead and
• 4:49
  read the My Drama List synopsis and we can get going.
• 4:52
  I want to preface this. Big PS:.
• 4:54
  A Every time we talk see dramas on the Tabak feed, we do not do
• 4:59
  a nonspoiler section. It is just all spoilers.
• 5:03
  It is the assumption, my assumption that if you're
• 5:06
  listening to a podcast about a 56 episode Chinese drama, more
• 5:13
  likely than not you've watched the drama or at least watch some
• 5:18
  of it. So spoilers are on the table.
• 5:21
  You are not safe. From the spoilers, OKPSA major
• 5:27
  PS:. A and I'll say that after we
• 5:28
  talk about like, casts and stuff too, I will repeat repeat the
• 5:32
  PSAOK. Here's the My Drama List
• 5:35
  synopsis for love like the Galaxy.
• 5:37
  Ling Gu Yi, the foster son of Emperor when and a talented and
• 5:41
  ruthless general of the Black Armor Army, was on a personal
• 5:44
  mission to uncover hidden truths about the past which had led to
• 5:47
  the massacre of an entire city and of his clan when he met Tung
• 5:52
  Xiaocheng. During a mission, the young Chun
• 5:55
  Sao Shang had been left behind because her parents had gone off
• 5:59
  to fight in the war. Neglected and uneducated, she
• 6:02
  had been a thorn in her aunts and grandmother's side until the
• 6:06
  unexpected return of her parents after many years on the front
• 6:08
  lines. Sha Shang, however, is unfazed
• 6:11
  and determined to live for herself and her unruly and
• 6:13
  audacious nature, and her quick wits catch the attention of
• 6:16
  quite a few people in the capital, including Ling Bui.
• 6:20
  As someone who has her own mind and who prizes her personal
• 6:22
  freedom, being tied to Ling Buii presents its own set of
• 6:25
  challenges. Can Ling Bui and Xiaoxang
• 6:28
  overcome these trials and forge a union that shines even in the
• 6:31
  brightest of galaxies? Yeah.
• 6:34
  Anyway, this show aired from July to August 2022, so happy
• 6:41
  birthday to this show. It is a year old.
• 6:47
  I know it's been only a year. It feels like it's been around
• 6:50
  for a long time. I don't know why the drama year
• 6:53
  from 2020 summer 2022 to to summer 2023 feels a lot longer
• 6:59
  than just a year. But we're here.
• 7:01
  A lot has happened. So this show was adapted from
• 7:05
  the novel. And apologies right off the bat,
• 7:08
  I'm going to try my best to pronounce this Singh, Han Khan.
• 7:12
  LAN Singh Shen. She shy.
• 7:15
  By gwan Sheen say one, I think you speak a little Mandarin, so
• 7:21
  if you have any anything to impart here or any corrections,
• 7:26
  I don't mind at all. No, you're good.
• 7:29
  You're good. We'll leave it at that.
• 7:31
  All right, so love like the galaxies and split into two
• 7:34
  parts. Part one is 27 episodes long and
• 7:37
  Part 2 is 29 episodes long for grand total of 56 episodes.
• 7:42
  It was directed by Fei Sing Xiang.
• 7:45
  Who's a male director? And then it had two
• 7:47
  screenwriters, Zoa Uet, who wrote No Boundary from 2021 and
• 7:54
  The Rise of Phoenix's from 2018, among other things, of course.
• 8:00
  And then the also the cowriter was Anhimo, who's a female
• 8:06
  writer, and she wrote The Legend of Whitesnake from 2019.
• 8:10
  Have you? Watched any of these dramas or
• 8:14
  any other dramas that these screenwriters have written.
• 8:17
  I have seen the rise of the phoenixes and I completely
• 8:21
  enjoyed that. OK, Rise of the Phoenixes is a
• 8:25
  comp to love like the Galaxy. And I thought that, and I wrote
• 8:30
  it down before I went to look at the filmography for the
• 8:34
  screenwriters. And then I saw that one of them
• 8:36
  wrote Rise of Phoenixes and I was like, oh shit.
• 8:40
  That tracks. That tracks completely because
• 8:43
  it. Makes sense?
• 8:44
  It makes so much sense and we can get into it a little later,
• 8:47
  but if you haven't watched Rise of Phoenixes and you enjoyed
• 8:50
  Love Like the Galaxy, I highly recommend you watch it.
• 8:54
  Highly recommend it. It's stunning.
• 8:57
  And it's on Netflix, right? It's on Netflix.
• 8:59
  I think it might be a Netflix original.
• 9:03
  I feel like that's might be the case.
• 9:05
  And then Legend of the White Snake, I did start that one and
• 9:09
  dropped it like a bag of hot nickels because I just didn't
• 9:13
  like it. I did not like that show and I
• 9:17
  don't like the main lead, the female lead.
• 9:21
  So anyway, that's a Shawn show by the way, and I'm just going
• 9:25
  to go into our two leads for love.
• 9:28
  Like the Galaxy. There is a giant cast.
• 9:32
  Huge, huge cast. Too much and he'll talk about
• 9:35
  it. We'll talk about it, but the two
• 9:38
  leads, we'll focus on them. Woolay, aka Leo Wu, stars as
• 9:43
  Ling Bou Yees slash Zishong. He was 23 years old when he
• 9:49
  filmed this. Yeah.
• 9:51
  Stop. It I am not joking.
• 9:53
  He was only 23 years old. Yeah.
• 9:59
  Oh my gosh. I know, yo.
• 10:00
  He did amazing. I know, I know.
• 10:05
  I was shocked too. And I looked at this his age.
• 10:07
  I was like, you're you're joking.
• 10:09
  That's incredible. Incredible.
• 10:14
  I'm shocked I found it. I'm so shocked.
• 10:17
  I have no. Words He is known as the
• 10:20
  nation's little brother in China, and he is considered one
• 10:24
  of the four heaven, little heavenly kings and.
• 10:28
  He's basically a child actor who has grown up and he was in other
• 10:36
  dramas like 2020 One's The Long Ballad.
• 10:39
  He was in 20, Fifteen's Nirvana and fires in a support role.
• 10:43
  So he has definitely cut his teeth on a lot of supporting
• 10:46
  roles and bit parts until he's landed main roles and has
• 10:50
  starred in dramas as a young man, young man, so.
• 10:56
  It's exciting to see him in this show and we we will certainly
• 11:01
  talk more about his character and the growth and the stuff
• 11:05
  that he did in the show. Xiao Lucy plays Chung Xiao Sheng
• 11:11
  Slash now, now, now. That's her nickname in the show.
• 11:14
  Yeah. I think you double dipped
• 11:16
  because you saw you're seeing hit and love.
• 11:19
  Yes, I finished Hidden Love. And let me tell you, that girl
• 11:24
  just rose through the ranks. And my favorite actor actresses
• 11:28
  because I think she did fantastic.
• 11:32
  Yeah, so I I didn't realize that I've seen so much of her work,
• 11:36
  but I've seen her in 20 Nineteen's I Hear You, which is
• 11:40
  a modern drama. I saw her in love 1000 years
• 11:44
  from 2020, which is a Shansha. It sucked.
• 11:49
  I saw her in the romance of Tiger and Rose also from 2020,
• 11:54
  which I really enjoyed. I thought that was a really good
• 11:57
  Wusia like romance show. It's available on Netflix.
• 12:01
  I have my thoughts up on the Patreon feed.
• 12:03
  I believe the same for romance of Tiger and Rose.
• 12:08
  Like I watched those back-to-back and all my thoughts
• 12:11
  are on the Patreon feed and. I have not watched Hit and Love,
• 12:16
  which is currently. I think it's just finished
• 12:19
  hearing in this, the year of Our Lord 2023 and I am so excited.
• 12:27
  You have no idea how excited I am to press play on Hit and
• 12:31
  Love. That is not a historical Shian
• 12:33
  Xia Wu Xia show. It's a modern.
• 12:36
  Drama. I was a huge fan of unrequited
• 12:39
  love that see drama from 2019. And when I saw the premise for
• 12:43
  Hidden Love, I was like, this is right up my alley.
• 12:46
  Like, this is like, it's putting on like a hoodie that you've had
• 12:51
  for like 10 years. And it's like perfectly worn and
• 12:55
  warm and soft and like, that's what these types of stories are
• 12:59
  to me. And so I might, you might see me
• 13:05
  just get off this podcast and immediately started and love.
• 13:09
  I am liable to do that. The last thing I'll say about
• 13:14
  Xiao Lucy is that she also starred in The Long Ballad.
• 13:18
  So I'm not have not watched The Long Ballad, so I don't know if
• 13:22
  they had any scenes together, but they felt both Leo Wu and
• 13:26
  Xiao Lucy were both in the same drama The Long Ballad before.
• 13:30
  A year later Starring in Love Like the Galaxy.
• 13:33
  So all this to say, what the hell, We just binge watched the
• 13:42
  shit out of Love Like the Galaxy.
• 13:45
  We're about to start on our thoughts and again, spoilers are
• 13:49
  on the table. You have been warned.
• 13:53
  Talk to me, Carol, about this experience, about how you
• 13:57
  enjoyed the show. If there were some laggy points
• 14:01
  or nitpicks that you have, please let her rip.
• 14:04
  But I think we I might already know what you what you think.
• 14:10
  OK, first of all I loved the show.
• 14:14
  It was a wonderful show to watch.
• 14:16
  It was like. A very long journey which leads
• 14:20
  me into the show is too damn long.
• 14:22
  I think 5056 episodes. I felt like they could have done
• 14:27
  it in 40 or like 44 or 45, but other than that, loved the
• 14:38
  characters, the main leads. Those are the only two people I
• 14:41
  cared about. So I cared about the leads Xiao
• 14:44
  Xiang and Wu Yi Xiang. Or Li Bui.
• 14:49
  And then I cared about the Emperor and his love line
• 14:54
  because they were so cute. And then that's it.
• 14:59
  Those are the only people. OK, so you're leaving out 80% of
• 15:03
  the other players in the show. Fair, but fair.
• 15:08
  OK, so you just you were in it for the main couple and for the
• 15:13
  goofy emperor and his wives. I was in it for, in part one,
• 15:19
  you know, her parents coming back.
• 15:21
  I loved her antics with like petty revenge, and I thought she
• 15:26
  was really good with that. But then as the show progressed,
• 15:31
  I loved when you know she meets Zushan.
• 15:35
  I loved their interactions. I loved what he was doing with
• 15:40
  the war and whatnot. But it started getting a bit too
• 15:45
  much for me when when the politics, especially towards the
• 15:51
  end when you're like, oh wait, this character is still here.
• 15:55
  I thought we ended with them like 10 episodes ago.
• 15:59
  Yes. That those were the challenging.
• 16:02
  That was problematic for you. Yeah.
• 16:05
  And then in the last couple of episodes, it just picked up and
• 16:08
  it was like, boom, boom, boom, let's go, let's go, let's go.
• 16:10
  I was like, whoa, OK. I love this.
• 16:13
  Let's get back into it. Yeah.
• 16:15
  What about you? So for me, I was really excited
• 16:20
  about part one and Part 2. I think I'm one of the few
• 16:24
  people that really enjoyed both parts and I am one of those
• 16:31
  people that really likes interpersonal.
• 16:34
  Relationships and family dynamics and the loss of
• 16:39
  innocence. I think this is really tough to
• 16:43
  get right without going into a full, what's it called, coming
• 16:52
  of age, because this is not a coming of age.
• 16:55
  Show this. Is a loss of innocence.
• 16:58
  Show. Yes.
• 17:03
  You see what I'm saying? That's tough to do.
• 17:06
  Not a coming of age show, but a loss of innocence show that
• 17:11
  really sinks its teeth into characters.
• 17:15
  And it seems like such a character story, character
• 17:19
  driven character study. And I felt really deeply for so
• 17:25
  many characters and I agree with you that.
• 17:32
  The show was too long. It could have been tightened up
• 17:35
  100%. And the politics, which sort of
• 17:40
  you, you sort of glazed the surface in part one of the
• 17:44
  grander politics and the warring factions within the court and
• 17:50
  the whole cover up of the law, the lone city and all that crap.
• 17:55
  That comes in really hard in Part 2 and I think I got lost
• 18:01
  and I've did I message you and I was like, I think I can't, I
• 18:05
  can't get through these episodes without thinking I'm completely
• 18:10
  lost out of my death with some of these politics, the
• 18:15
  politicians, the names, everybody has 2-3 names. 1st.
• 18:20
  In the show, no one's just like Jessica.
• 18:24
  It's like first daughter Jessica.
• 18:26
  So everyone's like the first daughter, first sister, first
• 18:30
  Princess, whatever. 5th Princess. 5th Princess.
• 18:34
  Then they have their given name. So you might have, oh Jessica.
• 18:38
  Then you might have a nickname. So let's say my my nickname is
• 18:42
  Coda, which has is my a real nickname that I have?
• 18:45
  So Coda. So you're talking to me without
• 18:48
  showing these people and having long winded conversations about
• 18:51
  where they are, what they done, the bullshit.
• 18:54
  And you're talking about, I'm like a large cast.
• 18:59
  You're not talking about main players, you're talking about
• 19:01
  supporting for episodes upon episodes in Part 2.
• 19:06
  And things are intertwining and you're like stuck on who the
• 19:09
  hell they're talking about. Completely agree with you.
• 19:14
  So that was really difficult for me and I don't think that
• 19:19
  anybody who is watching this show who has gotten that far in
• 19:23
  the show. It's necessarily in it for the
• 19:26
  political strife and the the whole drama of the lone city and
• 19:35
  who's at fault for killing the whole clan, which is Boogie's
• 19:41
  family, like his maternal family.
• 19:44
  Actually, it was that was a whole thing too, because it
• 19:46
  wasn't his maternal family, it was his father's patrilineal
• 19:50
  family. That was completely slaughtered,
• 19:53
  so I think it would have benefited from simplifying.
• 19:58
  And this is also why I feel like Rise of Phoenix's was such a
• 20:03
  great comp before I found out that the one of the
• 20:05
  screenwriters wrote that Rise of Phoenix's because Rise of
• 20:08
  Phoenix's has does a lot with political.
• 20:14
  Nonsense and machinations and a lot of Game of Thrones stuff and
• 20:19
  people playing meaningful games of Go and or chess, Chinese
• 20:25
  dress or whatever. And it's very beautifully shot.
• 20:30
  The cinematography and rise of Phoenix's and love like the
• 20:33
  Galaxy are comparable and I would say even the set design.
• 20:38
  And production design of Rise of Phoenix's is better than love
• 20:43
  like the Galaxy. So there's even that to contend
• 20:46
  with acting beautiful for both. So I was feeling like all of
• 20:50
  these connections between the two.
• 20:52
  But for Rise of Phoenix is I think I understood it a little
• 20:56
  better, like the the whole spider web of political.
• 21:04
  Craziness. That was happening.
• 21:05
  I was like, following a lot better than I did and loved like
• 21:08
  the Galaxy. And that's saying something,
• 21:11
  right? It is.
• 21:13
  It is, I think. I think they got too complicated
• 21:18
  with this one and because it was kind of like okay, my uncle's
• 21:24
  family and my grandma's family and.
• 21:28
  This family. But then when they go to courts,
• 21:30
  like you said, they're called this instead.
• 21:32
  And I'm like, who the hell are you?
• 21:34
  Like, yeah, yeah, it was just. I was also having a problem with
• 21:38
  we would see people without headdresses on, Yeah, and then
• 21:43
  in court they would have a headdress.
• 21:44
  It would take me 20 minutes to be like, oh shit, that's that
• 21:48
  guy from the plum tree, the the Cherry Tree house.
• 21:54
  That's taking care of Bui's mom, and I had no idea he was in the
• 21:58
  court this whole time and he had a position.
• 22:01
  I thought he was just her caregiver.
• 22:03
  No, things like that were really grading, I think, in the latter
• 22:08
  half of the show. So that's a huge nitpick that we
• 22:12
  both have. That being said, I it's if I
• 22:17
  just shut my brain off a little bit and start to simplify in my
• 22:20
  head, I can. I got through it.
• 22:23
  The again, it's the relationships and the bad blood
• 22:28
  and the general beef between people and the family.
• 22:34
  All of that was what kept me going.
• 22:37
  Not to mention the love story between these two characters.
• 22:44
  Do you want to talk to me about this love story?
• 22:47
  OK, OK, OK, this love story was. Very epic.
• 22:53
  Because to me, he's just like, I saw you and I decided you were
• 22:59
  the one for me. And that's to me like, there
• 23:04
  were no games. There were no calms.
• 23:07
  He had a line in there somewhere where he's like, it's going to
• 23:11
  be her or it's not going to be anyone else.
• 23:13
  And I was like, whoa, how are you so sure of yourself?
• 23:19
  For someone who hasn't been in a relationship, for someone who is
• 23:24
  like a warrior, he's very, for lack of a better term, very
• 23:30
  stern and manly when he's out. But when he's with her, he tried
• 23:36
  to do that. He saw she wasn't falling for
• 23:39
  it. So I love that he started
• 23:42
  learning and, you know, considering.
• 23:46
  What she wants and and what she. And that to me was just like, Oh
• 23:50
  my gosh, this guy. Yes, very.
• 23:54
  I want to protect you. Don't eat bread at night.
• 23:59
  God help any man who says I can't eat bread at night after
• 24:05
  noon cuz he I think he said he didn't eat after noon 12:00 PM.
• 24:12
  When you said that, I was like, oh, OK, so you're a sadist?
• 24:19
  And she's just like, well, that's you.
• 24:20
  That's not me And him later on coming back and bringing her
• 24:28
  bread and he's like, yo, you can have bread whenever you want.
• 24:33
  I loved that. He always, most times stood
• 24:37
  behind her because he knew she was up to something.
• 24:41
  Like petty or something like revenge or whatever it is.
• 24:45
  But he would let her do her thing and he would also find
• 24:49
  ways to support her. But he never really, like,
• 24:52
  ratted her out when she was doing her thing.
• 24:56
  Or he would step in and be like, let me, let me do it for you,
• 25:01
  let me handle it. And she's like, no, I got it
• 25:05
  myself. Yeah, you mentioned that he.
• 25:10
  Believes in love at first sight, which is very odd for such a
• 25:16
  manly, masculine war like General to openly say I believe
• 25:27
  in love at first sight. He had this Princess who was
• 25:31
  hanging on to him. His whole family wanted him to
• 25:33
  marry her and he says to her in an early episode in part one, he
• 25:38
  says. The wife I'm looking for is one
• 25:41
  who I will know is the faded one at very first sight for my yeah,
• 25:46
  for my whole life. My heart will be hers.
• 25:49
  If I cannot find this type of lady, I would rather not marry
• 25:53
  my entire life. And you, Princess, are not this
• 25:57
  person. You ain't the one.
• 26:00
  You ain't the one and that I think informed.
• 26:07
  It might be a little more of telling and not showing because
• 26:11
  I think emotions, they show that he fell in love at first sight,
• 26:15
  not that he is acknowledging that he just looked at someone
• 26:19
  and fell for them instantly. You know what I'm saying?
• 26:22
  He's very selfaware in that respect, that he's like, I know
• 26:26
  the person I know inherently who I'm supposed to be with and if I
• 26:30
  never find her, that's fine. I'll just stay single my entire
• 26:35
  life. And again, it's kind of odd, but
• 26:39
  very refreshing, very interesting.
• 26:42
  He always had the best clap acts and was sort of out of pocket in
• 26:48
  the entire show. The most out of pocket moments
• 26:54
  It wasn't out of pocket, but like when we talk about
• 26:58
  respectability politics in the show and.
• 27:01
  You know, polite society and things like that when he when
• 27:06
  the ladies were having tea with their moms and he comes and he
• 27:09
  breaks down the wall. Oh yeah.
• 27:11
  He like, throws the the screen, yeah.
• 27:16
  I was just like, this is my man, this is my man.
• 27:20
  Like, well, he said some shit there too.
• 27:22
  Where he one of the girls. Who was cowering in a corner?
• 27:25
  He said. I heard that your dad or your
• 27:28
  brother, somebody brought home like 3 girls and he's like, why
• 27:34
  don't you spend your time thinking about what you're gonna
• 27:37
  call these ladies, Mother. Call the mom.
• 27:40
  Yeah, I remember that. And then the other the other
• 27:47
  part where he. OK, so Xiaoxiang had been thrown
• 27:51
  in the lake or in the river with a snake and he finds out and he
• 27:57
  decides to go take revenge on her her behalf.
• 28:02
  Yeah. And he goes to beat up the
• 28:05
  girl's father, the. Censor.
• 28:08
  Yo-yo. I was just and he was so savage
• 28:12
  about it, like. I mean, there were ulterior
• 28:16
  motives to beat up the censor. That's true, we'll talk about.
• 28:21
  But yeah, he was furious and he took it upon himself to track
• 28:27
  down all 7 ladies and completely humiliate them and their
• 28:33
  parents, their fathers in particular, who obviously if
• 28:38
  they were behaving this badly, they were spoiled and of a high
• 28:41
  status and their fathers probably worked in the politics
• 28:45
  in the court. So he went ape shit after that
• 28:50
  whole debacle of the snake in the river and they push her and
• 28:53
  they throw rocks at her and shit.
• 28:55
  But yeah, and I love like, talking about lines that he he
• 29:01
  was throwing out there into the wind.
• 29:03
  And just like, if you catch my drift, like he goes, this is
• 29:07
  early. In part one he helps her family
• 29:10
  get through this checkpoint back into the city after the Hua
• 29:14
  County like nonsense. And he pulls up to her.
• 29:18
  He is like, so dashing, like, come on, like, I could not
• 29:23
  handle it. But he rides up on his horse
• 29:26
  with his posse and he says, like, you know how you've been.
• 29:29
  And she's like, how's your wound?
• 29:31
  Because we'll talk about like she took the air out of him.
• 29:35
  And he sees that her like, fiance is there because that kid
• 29:41
  that was afiance to her first was standing beside her
• 29:45
  carriage. And he goes.
• 29:47
  Miss Chung and I have been through life and death
• 29:49
  experiences. She also undressed me to treat
• 29:52
  my wounds. And the dad was like, what?
• 29:58
  He says this in front of her parents and the whole, like, you
• 30:02
  know, basically the whole line that's out there.
• 30:04
  Her fiance is so funny because he doesn't need to do these
• 30:10
  pulling rank on these people already.
• 30:15
  And he doesn't need to. Nobody to.
• 30:18
  Her. Yeah, It's great.
• 30:22
  It's fantastic. I love it.
• 30:26
  I loved it. I loved it when we're talking
• 30:30
  about Shao Shang too. Oh my gosh, her.
• 30:36
  Like you said, loss of innocence.
• 30:37
  But prior to that, her. Excitement.
• 30:43
  I don't know what's the word, but she was very she was very
• 30:46
  brave, very, very carefree, very out there.
• 30:50
  I'll do whatever I wants to because y'all are going to knock
• 30:54
  me anyway. Might as well live my life.
• 30:59
  I loved that for her. I loved that she was into like
• 31:02
  woodwork and building things and.
• 31:05
  She seemed to love engineering and things like that, things
• 31:10
  that the other girls didn't really get into.
• 31:13
  And I loved that she was so petty.
• 31:18
  Okay, you did this to me. I'm gonna get you back.
• 31:20
  Maybe just give me, give me a few days.
• 31:24
  The character of Xiao Sheng was. The huge straw for me?
• 31:29
  Yes, I love a hot man in armor. Like running around and doing
• 31:33
  good things and falling in love with her sight.
• 31:35
  That's fine. Xiao Shang is such a fucking
• 31:39
  compelling female lead and I enjoyed watching her do whatever
• 31:47
  it was. I didn't care what she was
• 31:49
  doing. It was always so entertaining
• 31:52
  and I loved her personality. She was an extreme feminist and.
• 31:58
  She was constantly questioning the world around her, her
• 32:01
  parents, the societal rules that she was told she needs to abide
• 32:06
  by, and she was just a wild, unteamable spirit.
• 32:12
  And I loved that. She was so brave that she was so
• 32:16
  intelligent. She was, didn't care about
• 32:18
  poetry and the arts and anything she wasn't.
• 32:22
  Drawing in her spare time, she was over here looking at
• 32:24
  schematics and learning how to build things.
• 32:28
  She was a structural engineer. She was into math.
• 32:31
  She was like a STEM pioneer basically back in this era that
• 32:36
  they've set the show in and I love the pettiness and this kind
• 32:43
  of falls by the wayside. Later in the show, it turns into
• 32:47
  something different, maybe. But I think in the part one,
• 32:51
  especially in an early Part 2, she is very vindictive and I
• 32:59
  love that so much. I appreciate that in a character
• 33:03
  that she is very calculating and she may not give you hell right
• 33:09
  in that moment because her hands are tied, but watch yourself.
• 33:14
  Watch it because she will return everything that you gave her.
• 33:20
  I knew she was going to be different when her parents came
• 33:24
  back and her grandma was doing this whole antic about, you
• 33:30
  know, my son and I'm sick. And then she'd see her grandma
• 33:33
  do it, and then she'd exaggerate, fall over, and then
• 33:38
  you'd see her peeping over at her grandma.
• 33:42
  I just knew in that moment, oh, this, this is going to be an
• 33:46
  exciting character, spicy character here.
• 33:49
  Yeah, she really delivered. Now did I like seeing her almost
• 33:55
  lose that fire? That's what I mean by loss of
• 33:59
  innocence. Is that, and I'll say this, the
• 34:02
  story. I mean, the show might be called
• 34:04
  Love like the Galaxy, but I think it does mean love.
• 34:08
  Not just romantic love, it means like familial love as well.
• 34:13
  And I as much as I love the love story.
• 34:19
  I I love the the family dynamics and her working out her issues
• 34:24
  with her parents and with her siblings and everyone around
• 34:28
  her. I think the show was mostly
• 34:30
  about her. It's her story and there are
• 34:33
  large swaths of the show where Lingui is like, gone.
• 34:38
  Yes. He's not.
• 34:39
  He's nowhere to be found. We don't know what he's up to.
• 34:43
  And it's really mostly her story, and I love that about the
• 34:47
  show, that it didn't just focus on the love story and them
• 34:49
  together and both of them equally.
• 34:52
  It was unequal. She was the star of the show to
• 34:55
  me, and later on when things start getting revealed that he's
• 35:00
  lied to her for all this time, that he didn't really let her in
• 35:03
  and be vulnerable with her, didn't tell her his true
• 35:05
  identity and all this shit. The audience is also kind of
• 35:10
  blindsided because we've only seen mostly her perspective.
• 35:16
  That's absolutely true. Because when I finished the
• 35:19
  show, I was like, wait, why did I not put together?
• 35:24
  Why didn't I get inklings that Ibuyee was, you know, who are
• 35:29
  from the whore class? Yeah, Pub.
• 35:32
  Wu Shang or something. Yeah, and that was his dad,
• 35:36
  like. The only time that now when I
• 35:41
  look back, I'm like, oh, it's kind of suspicious when she was,
• 35:46
  she was climbing a tower when they were having that
• 35:49
  competition. Yeah.
• 35:51
  Yeah, she overhears her conversation, she's coming down.
• 35:55
  And who does she meet? Ling Bui.
• 35:57
  Like that's the only time where I'm like, oh, was he part of the
• 36:02
  conversation in hindsight? And we get to find that out.
• 36:06
  But you didn't have his 15 year revenge.
• 36:12
  I didn't know about it. Girl, I have no idea.
• 36:15
  I mean, I had you have an idea that he is very bitter and wants
• 36:21
  revenge. He wants the truth to come out
• 36:23
  about this lone city and this massacre that happened.
• 36:27
  That's all fine and good. You don't understand the extent
• 36:31
  of his vendetta. Yes, until the final episodes.
• 36:37
  And basically right when the character Xiaocheng figures it
• 36:42
  out is when you, the audience, are like, well, shit, I didn't
• 36:46
  know either and that's all. I think it's completely
• 36:51
  intentional to have it written that way.
• 36:53
  You have been in her shoes way more than you have been in his
• 36:58
  shoes throughout the show. Yeah, yeah.
• 37:01
  And like you said, the show is about her.
• 37:03
  I think the show's about her. Yeah, he's on the posters.
• 37:06
  Yeah, he's very integral to the story.
• 37:09
  He's obviously such a great match for her and partner that
• 37:14
  they grow into each other definitely throughout the show.
• 37:17
  But honestly, the betrayal, his betrayal is, I think in you
• 37:24
  understand her point of view way more than you're inclined to
• 37:29
  maybe get behind him and his point of view.
• 37:33
  OK, I agree with you. There was one moment where I
• 37:37
  think she finally figured everything out and she's like
• 37:40
  you've been using me as a shield.
• 37:44
  That moment broke me so much because I felt for her and it
• 37:48
  also made me question wait, does he love her?
• 37:52
  Like why are you always making comments and and telling her,
• 37:57
  trust me, I want to be here for you.
• 38:00
  I want to be this. I want to be that.
• 38:01
  That was the. Whole thing.
• 38:03
  Was that he was so. He loved her deeply from
• 38:08
  foresight, but he was almost training her to believe in him,
• 38:16
  to trust him, and to let her to to share her burdens with him
• 38:25
  and let him know when shit goes down.
• 38:28
  Like, let me know, let me know at least.
• 38:31
  You know, it was what he was saying and he was constantly
• 38:36
  like things were happening to her and she would just like
• 38:38
  handle it on the deal and he would be like, I want to know,
• 38:43
  please tell me, I love you, We'll handle it together.
• 38:46
  I'm not going to, I'm not going to take away the satisfaction
• 38:49
  from you. I just work, work a team.
• 38:52
  And he really instilled that in her and so when he didn't do the
• 38:56
  same. Could it be that he didn't think
• 39:01
  he deserved. I don't.
• 39:03
  I don't know. He's it's I don't think we had
• 39:06
  yeah we didn't have that opportunity to explore that.
• 39:09
  It's. Questionable We don't see into
• 39:11
  his mind the way that we see into Shawshank's mind and she is
• 39:14
  has this wonderful conversation. This is way late in the show.
• 39:17
  After the clifffall she heads into the palace to argue on his
• 39:22
  behalf because the third Prince shows up with his people and
• 39:25
  he's like you need to talk to. The emperor, you need to smooth
• 39:28
  this over because he's still missing and he could be alive
• 39:32
  and you know, he's it's not over till it's over, basically.
• 39:36
  And they have this wonderful conversation where she's like, I
• 39:40
  bet you're happy now to the third Prince because you're
• 39:43
  going to get what you want. This whole thing makes the Crown
• 39:46
  Prince look bad. And you've always wanted to be
• 39:47
  the Crown Prince. And he starts saying like, well,
• 39:51
  you're really, really well adjusted for having basically
• 39:54
  the love of your life. Be missing and possibly be dead
• 39:59
  and like he's throwing it back in her face and she turns around
• 40:02
  and she goes ah ah let's get it straight and she dresses down
• 40:08
  Ling Bui's character. She says he is open and candid
• 40:12
  but also cold and gloomy. He is bold and heroic but also
• 40:15
  detail minded. He can disregard everything to
• 40:18
  save me, but he can also betray me without any regard.
• 40:24
  That's what I mean, She was. She after that incident, she was
• 40:28
  like, I get you now, I got it. Yeah, yeah.
• 40:31
  And that's something that I really loved about her
• 40:34
  character. Like we said in the beginning,
• 40:36
  she wasn't educated in the ways that they were educated, but she
• 40:41
  had a deep understanding for the human psyche.
• 40:45
  She was intuitive, yeah. Very intuitive and she could
• 40:48
  read the room and. I remember her adoration for the
• 40:54
  emperor's consorts when she shows up and she gives her
• 40:58
  speech and just the way she was looking at her, like, that is
• 41:01
  who I want to be. That is, that's who I'm trying
• 41:05
  to be. This woman doesn't care about
• 41:07
  anything. I can do that.
• 41:09
  And her understanding of Liam Bouie eventually was.
• 41:16
  She nails him in that moment with the third Prince and she
• 41:19
  goes on and she's like, I love this, that she says if he dies
• 41:25
  then I'll die. You know, I already said that if
• 41:27
  I can't live, that if he can't live, I will pay with my own
• 41:30
  life. Like I have no qualms with dying
• 41:34
  with him. However, if he lives, I will
• 41:40
  live on and this debt that we owe each other is done.
• 41:45
  She says with or without Lingui, I am a woman who can live well.
• 41:48
  She just said I can build, I can create, I can like make a living
• 41:56
  by myself. I have talents and she goes.
• 42:00
  I have parents. I also have parents and siblings
• 42:02
  to take care of. Like she got responsibilities.
• 42:05
  OK, like dying with this man is fine for the moment, but if he
• 42:08
  lives, I got stuff I got to do. She says.
• 42:13
  But just because I am a woman shouldn't be questioned.
• 42:15
  I shouldn't be questioned aggressively by others.
• 42:17
  Why don't you die with him? I love?
• 42:19
  She ends up by saying one day, if I want to die, if I want to
• 42:24
  die, she says that will be because I've lived enough and
• 42:28
  not because I want to live and die with anyone.
• 42:31
  Lingui is my most beloved person in this world, but I am still
• 42:36
  me. Yes.
• 42:39
  Oh my oh, that just gave me shivers again.
• 42:41
  That she doesn't lose her sense of self, That was another
• 42:44
  concern of hers throughout their relationship was that her sense
• 42:49
  of identity was being lost because his identity was
• 42:52
  consuming who she was. Everyone knew her as his wife to
• 42:56
  be his fiancee, and she didn't have, couldn't do anything on
• 43:01
  her own without people mentioning him in the same
• 43:04
  sense. And she's like, I'm the one.
• 43:06
  Who did this great thing? But you're rewarding him.
• 43:10
  Why am I not getting credit? It's my thing.
• 43:13
  Yeah. So she was very calling out
• 43:17
  this, this double standard that if he does something good, it's
• 43:21
  all attributed to him, but if she does something good, it's
• 43:25
  attributed to him. Why?
• 43:28
  Instead of her, she did the work.
• 43:29
  Exactly So it's so freaking frustrating for and I was
• 43:33
  frustrated too on her behalf. And she makes that distinction
• 43:37
  in this moment with the third Prince, where she's like, I love
• 43:40
  the man, but I'm not going to pause my life for him.
• 43:45
  No. If he did something, he got to
• 43:48
  pay. Like it is what it is.
• 43:50
  Yeah. But he was also very much the
• 43:52
  same way, too. And I think that's that's what
• 43:55
  worked for them because I know he deeply loved the emperor and
• 43:59
  that family that he had been brought into, but he was also
• 44:03
  very much about. Hey, if there's accountability
• 44:07
  to be taken, we're gonna take it.
• 44:10
  It's it's gonna be they were a good match, They were a good
• 44:13
  match for each other. Something that I remember, and
• 44:16
  this was in the early episodes because they sort of like the
• 44:19
  second or third brother, her uncle who was madly in love with
• 44:24
  his wife. Do you remember the uncle they
• 44:27
  like sideline him? We never see him again or the
• 44:29
  aunt but. The aunt had this crazy love
• 44:33
  story where she was waiting for seven years for this man and
• 44:39
  then the man was like caught up with some other lady.
• 44:41
  He didn't love her but the optics were bad even though she
• 44:45
  was waiting for seven years for him to come back and marry her.
• 44:49
  And she tells Xiao Shang like after she after Xiao Shang
• 44:53
  learns all this drama, she goes, she basically says don't ever
• 44:58
  like lower yourself for a man. Like, self respect is the most
• 45:05
  important, right? Yeah, yeah.
• 45:08
  She already humbled herself for seven years for the man, and now
• 45:12
  it's really iffy. If you're going to come back,
• 45:13
  there might be another woman in place.
• 45:15
  She was like, fuck this. And she left.
• 45:16
  She did. And that's that was exactly what
• 45:21
  Shawshank did at the end of the day with her and Ling Buii.
• 45:25
  Like, she couldn't it. It would have done something to
• 45:30
  her if. She just went back to the way
• 45:33
  things were after all this. I agree.
• 45:37
  I mean, there's a lot of things at play for how she sort of
• 45:41
  handled the situation later. But I think we need to pause
• 45:45
  here and return to some of like the more technical parts of the
• 45:47
  show because I really want to compliment them before we get
• 45:50
  too deep into the characters. So the cinematography of the
• 45:54
  show. What are Buttes?
• 45:58
  What the hell? From from the first time he see,
• 46:03
  oh, the first time he sees her and like the Lantern Festival
• 46:07
  thing that shot where she's just like, you can see her in her
• 46:12
  element, she's just having fun. She's carefree.
• 46:16
  That was a beautiful shot. And then when he gets her from
• 46:20
  the fire and she is looking at him with the fire behind him and
• 46:26
  just his face, yo, I was like. What kind of shots is this?
• 46:33
  What kind of shot is this? Yes, I love the cinematography.
• 46:38
  It looked amazing and it looks like any money that would have
• 46:42
  been spent if this was a Shansha, they would have spent
• 46:44
  this money on CGI, right? They did not spend it on CGI,
• 46:49
  they spend it on getting a good ass DP director of photography
• 46:53
  because these were technically difficult shots.
• 46:57
  Throughout the show, beautifully lit, immaculately crisp.
• 47:01
  And I remember they had this shot, I think this was like Part
• 47:05
  2. It was a Part 2 shot towards the
• 47:07
  end of the show and they had this close up of Shawshank
• 47:11
  walking. So the camera is on a track or
• 47:14
  handheld like, I'm not quite sure, but they're moving with
• 47:17
  her and since they also had this in slow motion, they've kind of
• 47:23
  slowed down the shots, not real time.
• 47:25
  We can maybe guess that the camera might be like high speed
• 47:28
  so that there's no loss of resolution when they slow down
• 47:31
  the shot. So fine, add add to that that.
• 47:35
  But in the background of the shot out of focus is linguyi
• 47:40
  walking away in a diagonal direction and the camera changes
• 47:45
  moving, mind you, but it changes focus to Linguyi walking away.
• 47:54
  And they, I can't believe they did that.
• 47:55
  Like they changed it so that he's in focus just as he's
• 48:00
  passing through the opening of some panels in this hallway
• 48:03
  where Xiao Sheng is, and then the camera comes back into focus
• 48:07
  on Xiao Sheng. It is an incredible shot.
• 48:12
  The timing, the choreo, the poet, the poetic nature of the
• 48:15
  shot of them walking away from each other.
• 48:19
  And I'm like, that would have taken me.
• 48:23
  Like a week to do that, but it was they were shots like that
• 48:28
  all the time in the show and really stunning.
• 48:33
  Beautiful shot. The shot of Linguyi in the pine
• 48:35
  tree Grove. The pine tree lined garden.
• 48:40
  With the sunlight coming with the sun the.
• 48:42
  Fucking golden hour sun that's there.
• 48:45
  I was completely engaged with the way that this was shot.
• 48:52
  Also later on in the show they have this the revenge bloodshed
• 48:58
  that had the carnage shot where the cameras like on a.
• 49:02
  Track. The cameras on a track and it's
• 49:05
  getting all these blood splatters.
• 49:07
  And then there was another shot of them just zooming out slowly
• 49:10
  as you see the silhouettes of all the people that are in the
• 49:14
  building, all the warriors and stuff that are fighting the
• 49:17
  three guys like Lingui and his two Hench men.
• 49:21
  The blood splattering on the white screen doors.
• 49:24
  It is an amazing feat to see this much detail and conviction
• 49:34
  in the shots. I also want to talk about the
• 49:37
  choreography. Oh yeah, go for it.
• 49:41
  Oh my gosh, there was my favorite scene.
• 49:46
  Two of them where the the scene we just talked about.
• 49:50
  So his final revenge, but also when she is bitten by not
• 49:57
  bitten, but when she's thrown into the river and at night he
• 50:00
  comes to visit her and he's like, it's so hard to see you
• 50:04
  these these days. I thought it would be easier
• 50:06
  when you're in the palace and she turns around and you can see
• 50:11
  she's holding her. Tears and.
• 50:15
  And then he comes over, he figures it out, he's And she's
• 50:18
  like, hug me, hug me harder, hug me harder.
• 50:21
  I can't breathe. And then they have that whole
• 50:23
  sequence of, OK, teach me how to fight.
• 50:27
  Oh, like when he pulls her in and all of a sudden they end up
• 50:33
  on the bed. I was like.
• 50:34
  Whoa, whoa, whoa. I wasn't prepared.
• 50:38
  Rewind. Let's see that whole thing
• 50:40
  again. I think I watched that scene
• 50:43
  like three times just to understand.
• 50:45
  The shots and the choreography that went into it, I thought it
• 50:48
  was. I thought it was amazing.
• 50:50
  It's so spicy. So spicy, yes, but absolutely
• 50:54
  great choreography because you don't really see it coming.
• 50:58
  I don't know. I don't know how to put it.
• 51:01
  This is like the theme of escalation throughout the show,
• 51:04
  that even in these little shots, it starts one way and ends like
• 51:09
  a completely other way, and there's not that much in the way
• 51:13
  of. Or I guess there is a lot in the
• 51:17
  way that these are like set up, how these are staged.
• 51:24
  And something else that really blew me away was the musical
• 51:27
  score. I'm not talking about OST music
• 51:33
  with words. I'm talking about orchestral
• 51:36
  musical score. You know, the John Williams good
• 51:40
  stuff. And I was.
• 51:43
  Oh my God, I'm such a nerd when it comes to music scores, and
• 51:48
  this one was one of the best that I've heard, if not the best
• 51:53
  that I've. I wonder, I wonder if they have
• 51:55
  like an OSD album, because I would play that shit over and
• 52:00
  over again. The moment to me that sticks out
• 52:03
  for score is this is post revenge carnage she so she shows
• 52:09
  up. Bust open the doors.
• 52:12
  It's the whole like, who are you?
• 52:15
  And he's telling her that this is their final farewell.
• 52:19
  I don't have a recourse. I don't have a way out.
• 52:22
  I've sort of gone off the deep end here and this is it.
• 52:27
  Like, I'm going to leave. I'm going to die, probably.
• 52:31
  And he leaves the room and the music swells.
• 52:36
  It caught me like a knife. It caught me like a knife
• 52:39
  completely. And I have that moment on my
• 52:43
  TikTok because I was like, I I need to share this.
• 52:45
  Like I I, But does anybody else feel this way that this scene,
• 52:49
  the acting, the way that it's shot, like we said before, and
• 52:54
  the musical score, it makes it one of the best dramas that I've
• 52:58
  ever seen. Yeah.
• 53:00
  You know I. Was.
• 53:04
  I was livid. I was in awe.
• 53:06
  I was very much feeling like, how dare you do this two days
• 53:10
  before our wedding. I get why you did it, but how
• 53:14
  dare you? And the other part of me too was
• 53:18
  like, I was very angry because I felt like he chose a very
• 53:24
  difficult path. The Emperor loved him so much.
• 53:30
  Like I remember when he was saying, oh, I want to leave.
• 53:33
  I want to quit or retire and go live with you and your family.
• 53:39
  And the Emperor is like the fuck no.
• 53:41
  Excuse me. You're not going nowhere.
• 53:43
  I'm not dead. But the Emperor loved him so
• 53:47
  much and and took his opinions and and played matchmaker that I
• 53:53
  feel like if he had told the Emperor, yo, this is who I am.
• 53:58
  This is what I want. The Emperor would have let him
• 54:01
  do that. I do, and I don't agree with you
• 54:07
  because yes, he was very close with the Emperor.
• 54:10
  He was a proxy father to him, treated him like a son, and he
• 54:15
  valued his opinions and of what he brought to the table military
• 54:20
  wise, but time and time again in part one and in portions of Part
• 54:25
  2. The Emperor took the easy way
• 54:30
  out of punishing those who deserved death and more.
• 54:36
  That's true. And it was proven to Linguyi
• 54:39
  that he can't rely on the Emperor to exact the type of
• 54:43
  revenge that he is looking for that he craves.
• 54:47
  He wants basically annihilation, and even if they deserved it for
• 54:54
  different offenses. The emperor never went that
• 54:58
  hard. But could it be because the
• 55:01
  Emperor didn't really have a reason He's sort of like, well,
• 55:06
  the whole, the whole family is gone.
• 55:08
  So there's no, there's no real points because it's not going to
• 55:14
  bring them back. So he's just like, it was sad
• 55:19
  I'll have the memorial service and stuff but it's it's
• 55:23
  unfortunately not that deep for me because.
• 55:26
  There's no one there, you know, except the wife.
• 55:31
  His wife who's ill, you know what I mean?
• 55:35
  But should he have known that the son is still there?
• 55:40
  Would that have given him more option?
• 55:46
  I think that they hit on something, and this is
• 55:48
  throughout the show, not just with Ling Buii and his mother,
• 55:53
  Slash Aunt I. I think the power dynamics are
• 55:57
  really complex in the court. Let's talk.
• 56:02
  About that for. A moment the The Shawshank
• 56:04
  really goes hard with the power play, especially in their
• 56:07
  relationship. But Linguyi understood
• 56:11
  inherently that he's not a son, he's not a blood relative, and
• 56:16
  he is responsible for all of his actions.
• 56:19
  And even if, like the sons and the daughters were doing crazy
• 56:24
  shit. The emperor and the every
• 56:28
  Princess was a was a hot mess and the emperor never punished
• 56:33
  them to the degree that they should have been.
• 56:36
  And Ling Bui Yi was like, I don't have backup, right?
• 56:40
  I can't count on the emperor. And he says this later when he's
• 56:46
  everything's revealed. He's like, I couldn't tell you
• 56:48
  people could easily. It's word of mouth.
• 56:50
  It's hearsay. Someone else could come and say,
• 56:53
  no, I'm not. I didn't.
• 56:54
  I wasn't there. I'm not responsible.
• 56:56
  There's no evidence. And he was all about finding
• 56:59
  evidence for 15 years, gaining skills and esteem so that he can
• 57:05
  dig into the matter further through more reputable means.
• 57:09
  And it wasn't enough. And that's what he was saying
• 57:13
  later was like. It wasn't.
• 57:15
  And I still don't have the evidence that I need.
• 57:19
  To convict these people in this court, what I have is my my
• 57:26
  grief and my memories, which means nothing to these people.
• 57:32
  Here, yeah, OK. So that's why I'm like, I can
• 57:37
  understand why he didn't tell the Emperor.
• 57:40
  But why did he tell Shao Shan? That's the thing, girl like why?
• 57:44
  Why did he tell his girl his ride or die?
• 57:48
  Ride or die because she would never.
• 57:50
  She was literally a ride or die. And like, he still didn't tell
• 57:54
  her. Yes, that was so upsetting for
• 57:58
  me because I just felt like it was uneven.
• 58:02
  And maybe, maybe he was coming from a I'm a guy.
• 58:05
  I need to be strong. I need to like.
• 58:07
  I'm the provider that that kind of thing.
• 58:10
  I need to be stoic, handle my own shit.
• 58:13
  Here's my thing. I think he knew.
• 58:17
  And with this picture becomes clear way later in the show when
• 58:20
  shit hits a fan. But he knew that shit was going
• 58:24
  to hit the fan eventually, and that he was not going to be
• 58:28
  satisfied until things were taken care of.
• 58:33
  And he wanted, like I said, like annihilation for anyone involved
• 58:38
  in this, this coup, this thing that happened to his family and.
• 58:47
  Why would he still get involved with her if he knew that this
• 58:51
  was gonna blow up in his face eventually?
• 58:55
  Exactly. He still decided I love her
• 58:58
  enough to just marry her, go through the motions, get
• 59:03
  engaged, go through the proper protocol.
• 59:07
  She moves into the palace to learn etiquette from the Empress
• 59:11
  herself. And why would she go through
• 59:13
  that trouble if it wasn't to be with him?
• 59:17
  Yeah. And still he didn't tell her,
• 59:21
  hey, this is coming down the pipeline I.
• 59:25
  Just so you know. Just so you know, my real name
• 59:29
  is Huawe Shan. I am the last descendant of the
• 59:34
  Hua clan who was annihilated by so and so Fulano, Manolo and all
• 59:40
  these people and I think. That you should know I am on
• 59:48
  this warpath and if you want to stick around, that's great.
• 59:52
  I love you regardless. But you know this is the full
• 59:56
  picture. Yes, he never.
• 59:59
  Know she deserved that. She deserved that, especially
• 1:00:03
  after he had already made such a big stink about her not doing
• 1:00:08
  the same shit that he was doing. And it was.
• 1:00:12
  Let me skip down to my notes because I I, like, have this
• 1:00:14
  full thing here. Oh, oh, here we go.
• 1:00:18
  It was all about these themes of abandonment and trust which were
• 1:00:22
  littered throughout the show. Right, Because Xiao Sang was.
• 1:00:29
  Irrevocably scarred and traumatized by being abandoned
• 1:00:32
  by her parents and growing up in this hostile environment without
• 1:00:36
  a loving family. She even tells him, like, I'm
• 1:00:39
  sorry that I am this way to you and I'm pretty, you know,
• 1:00:42
  resistant to you, even if you are so great and nice to me,
• 1:00:48
  kind to me, save me multiple times from death and all this
• 1:00:51
  stuff because I don't know how to love.
• 1:00:55
  I was never taught and. She goes through these really
• 1:01:01
  big growing pains with him and Lingui's decision to abandoned
• 1:01:06
  her. However Noble was hitting her
• 1:01:10
  where it hurt the most, and he knew that.
• 1:01:14
  He says it later. I knew that doing this would
• 1:01:20
  would hurt you the worst way. See, I just want to shout out
• 1:01:25
  our coffee, Prince. Conversation because I had said
• 1:01:30
  the main character hurt her, hurt like going Chan where he
• 1:01:36
  knew it would break her. And this guy did the same thing
• 1:01:41
  and I hate it. Like, yeah, I I was very
• 1:01:46
  disappointed. And she valued trust.
• 1:01:49
  She valued loyalty. And like I said, it's something
• 1:01:53
  Lingui insisted on in their relationship.
• 1:01:55
  It was earned over time by him and the fact that she grew to
• 1:02:03
  share her life with him, but he did not reciprocate.
• 1:02:06
  Yeah, was. Detrimental.
• 1:02:08
  Detrimental. Make honestly, why did you make
• 1:02:11
  her technically run to you while you were getting your ass beats
• 1:02:18
  and. You know, scream and shout and
• 1:02:21
  that whole scene, I was just like, my sense is down bad.
• 1:02:26
  Down bad. No recovery.
• 1:02:30
  She's lost at sea. OK, so that whole thing do this.
• 1:02:35
  To. Me then turned around.
• 1:02:36
  It was a breach of trust. And she gave him multiple
• 1:02:40
  chances to come clean about his revenge objectives, his true
• 1:02:44
  identity, how he used her as a smokescreen for his underground
• 1:02:48
  LON con revenge. And him also simultaneously try
• 1:02:54
  to remove the Crown Prince from his position, which looked bad
• 1:02:57
  on the Empress. And the Empress becomes this
• 1:02:59
  surrogate mother to her like he never took the chance, he never,
• 1:03:04
  he never did tell the truth, and he doubled down.
• 1:03:08
  On lying to her, they did that whole like promise in front of
• 1:03:14
  his ancestors and they bite each other to like seal the promise.
• 1:03:19
  And it was very meaningful and poignant.
• 1:03:21
  And still she's like, I am willing to die with you.
• 1:03:26
  I love you. We're in it together.
• 1:03:29
  He's constantly saying I consider you my wife already and
• 1:03:33
  that's not enough for him to come clean.
• 1:03:37
  That's not enough. Still didn't trust her with the
• 1:03:40
  truth. Yeah, I really loved that.
• 1:03:43
  She held to her guns and she walked away from him because
• 1:03:47
  she's like, no, this, this was too much for me.
• 1:03:51
  This is beyond disappointing and for that I'm walking away, even
• 1:04:00
  though it kills her. She.
• 1:04:02
  Still did it. Right.
• 1:04:03
  I think most people would be. I think most, I don't want to
• 1:04:07
  generalize, but I think that the people who are upset that she
• 1:04:13
  didn't get back with him and forgive him for years don't feel
• 1:04:20
  like the betrayal was a betrayal, or maybe don't place
• 1:04:25
  as much emphasis on it as the character did.
• 1:04:27
  And we understand the 50 episodes, right, that we've been
• 1:04:32
  with her. I think we should probably the
• 1:04:37
  writers want us to maybe take her side and understand why
• 1:04:45
  she's fucking furious that he did this and then he's.
• 1:04:51
  I mean, he's kneeling in front of the Emperor, and the Empress
• 1:04:56
  is asking him point blank, are you not going to regret this,
• 1:05:00
  that you've done this? Like abandonment abandoned her
• 1:05:05
  literally. He would rather commit suicide
• 1:05:08
  than face this together with her, and he says I will not
• 1:05:14
  regret it. Oh my gosh.
• 1:05:17
  And she overhears it, obviously. Like that's she's definitely
• 1:05:20
  standing right there. And she was like, OK, fine.
• 1:05:25
  I think she's, she gave some. So many, there are so many
• 1:05:29
  things that she says. That she never reneges on it.
• 1:05:33
  She says. Unless you leave me first, I
• 1:05:37
  will not leave you. And he hears that and still
• 1:05:41
  decides later to jump to his death and leave her, and leave
• 1:05:47
  her in the dark about the situation, about his true self,
• 1:05:54
  his true goals. He still decides I can't trust
• 1:06:01
  her. I won't do it.
• 1:06:04
  Man. It's like a vulnerability issue
• 1:06:08
  because she was like I have laid bare.
• 1:06:11
  What did she tell the Third Prince?
• 1:06:12
  She was like, if I could, I would take my heart out and I
• 1:06:16
  have give. I have done this.
• 1:06:18
  I've given it to him. Yeah, I've given him everything.
• 1:06:22
  Yeah, and he still doesn't do that with me.
• 1:06:30
  That's her soul. That's a hard man for her to be
• 1:06:36
  like, you know? That's the man I choose.
• 1:06:40
  That's why she chose an easy one her first Tuesday.
• 1:06:45
  Her first fiance was such a gem. So cute.
• 1:06:49
  He was so cute. She was like, I can do as I
• 1:06:51
  please. He's not controlling me.
• 1:06:53
  He not telling me I gotta exercise, he not telling me I
• 1:06:56
  can't eat my bread at night. He's over here feeding me honey
• 1:07:00
  buns and making me gain weight cuz he'll just do anything I ask
• 1:07:05
  and get me anything I want to eat.
• 1:07:08
  Be super. Supportive of me.
• 1:07:10
  He was such a golden retriever of a.
• 1:07:12
  He. Was of a dude so sweet to her.
• 1:07:17
  And yeah, she was a bit of a the power play there.
• 1:07:22
  Like I said before, the power play was in her favor.
• 1:07:25
  It was like Nora and Hey Song. All over again.
• 1:07:31
  For those who don't know, Nora and his song are from Past
• 1:07:36
  Lives, the movie, The 824 movie, and we'll be talking about it
• 1:07:40
  very soon on the Kage Raman Musings podcast, Carol's podcast
• 1:07:46
  Yeah, The Power. Again, the Power play is very
• 1:07:50
  similar. It's not.
• 1:07:54
  She has the final say she had. She wears the pants, if if you
• 1:07:59
  want to call it like that. And he was learning not to do
• 1:08:07
  that with her. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:10
  And I like that time in their engagement when he's learning
• 1:08:14
  how to because they don't. I mean, all the way up to the
• 1:08:18
  engagement. They are not.
• 1:08:20
  They don't really know each other.
• 1:08:22
  No, they don't really spend that much time together because he's
• 1:08:28
  off doing something or another, clearly.
• 1:08:32
  And she's just with the Emperor and the Empress, oh gosh, I
• 1:08:36
  loved her relationship with the emperor And the way she just
• 1:08:41
  talked back to them and they'd be like, whoa, other people
• 1:08:45
  would say that's not cool. And she said, oh okay, if it's
• 1:08:49
  not cool. It is what it is.
• 1:08:51
  I said it. I.
• 1:08:53
  She took liberties with them and the way she communicated with
• 1:08:58
  them, and I loved that for her. I think we have to talk about,
• 1:09:02
  let's talk about the marriages, and in particular, let's start
• 1:09:06
  with the emperor's marriages. OK, Now there's like a running
• 1:09:12
  theme, right Of we already said the abandonment of trust.
• 1:09:15
  There's also the marriage. What is what is a marriage?
• 1:09:20
  Yes. And.
• 1:09:22
  Xiao Shang herself was like there are all kinds of
• 1:09:26
  marriages. You don't have to love someone
• 1:09:28
  to be married to them. And the show did its utmost to
• 1:09:35
  show us all kinds of marriages, right Including the emperor with
• 1:09:41
  Empress Schwan and Consort Ue. This is a very unique royal
• 1:09:48
  marriage. It is.
• 1:09:51
  Royal Harem. Because the Emperor himself is
• 1:09:56
  not this stern, commanding presence.
• 1:09:59
  He is very goofy, very lighthearted.
• 1:10:03
  Work hard, play hard sort of dude.
• 1:10:05
  Which is very interesting to me because he is sort of the
• 1:10:09
  founder of the nation and for him to be that carefree.
• 1:10:15
  That didn't add up completely for me, but I enjoyed the
• 1:10:20
  humanizing of him through his goofiness, through his almost.
• 1:10:28
  When the women are talking, he's like, I ain't got shit to say,
• 1:10:33
  just just let them do their thing, you know?
• 1:10:36
  I'll just be like, oh, it's OK, Just it's OK, Let it go or
• 1:10:39
  something like that. But often times he'd just be
• 1:10:43
  joking. He'd just be.
• 1:10:45
  Play matchmaker. He yeah, he was a great emperor.
• 1:10:49
  Such a cool guy who was very much content to sit back and let
• 1:10:56
  others argue. He was a listener and then also
• 1:11:00
  just very likable and charismatic and down to earth.
• 1:11:05
  He wasn't. He was very approachable.
• 1:11:07
  I think most emperors in Siege Rama's historicals are not
• 1:11:12
  approachable, very intimidating. And he's not that way at all.
• 1:11:16
  You feel such a closeness to him from the get go.
• 1:11:20
  And his relationship with his wives is really entertaining and
• 1:11:27
  super unique. Because in royal harems, in
• 1:11:31
  these stories, you usually have a lot of power play, a lot of
• 1:11:35
  politics happening, the ladies are getting involved with each
• 1:11:39
  other, are jealous of each other, are at odds with each
• 1:11:42
  other. And that was not the case at
• 1:11:46
  all. Yes, there were power plays, but
• 1:11:48
  it had nothing really to do with the ambitions of his wife.
• 1:11:53
  Wives and the Empress was such a sympathetic figure because she
• 1:12:02
  came in. She was the second wife.
• 1:12:05
  She came in after the fact. It was a marriage alliance.
• 1:12:09
  And even if he cared for her, he did not love her.
• 1:12:14
  The same way that he loved his first wife, Concert UA.
• 1:12:18
  And it could be said that he made her the Empress to spare
• 1:12:24
  his first wife the responsibility.
• 1:12:27
  And this sort of like the sword is constantly being pointed at
• 1:12:31
  her because the position of Empress is so grand and heavy
• 1:12:37
  burden, right? But he spared Concert UA this
• 1:12:42
  sort of. I don't want to say death
• 1:12:44
  sentence, but it's such a overbearing responsibility.
• 1:12:49
  It is because when you look at how both women show up in the
• 1:12:55
  world, the Empress is very calm. Not calm.
• 1:13:02
  That's not the right very muted. Passive.
• 1:13:05
  Passive. That's the world.
• 1:13:06
  Thank you. She's very passive.
• 1:13:08
  She's very accommodating. She's not really sharing her
• 1:13:12
  opinions. You don't get to see her
• 1:13:15
  outwardly upset or angry in the presence of others.
• 1:13:19
  She doesn't really call people out like that.
• 1:13:23
  But concert you are, she's like, I know this is Peach, but you'll
• 1:13:30
  find out Dash and you'll find out.
• 1:13:33
  You can say it. You can say it.
• 1:13:35
  I think I've said the F word, but fuck around and find out,
• 1:13:38
  because concert ue does not mince words.
• 1:13:40
  She is super strong and outspoken and it was like you
• 1:13:48
  wouldn't even see it coming. Like there was lightning.
• 1:13:50
  And then her words came, like you understood what she said
• 1:13:53
  later. Thunder happened later.
• 1:13:55
  She was powerful. She was commanding.
• 1:13:58
  She had her little like she had the Emperor wrapped around her
• 1:14:02
  little finger, and she didn't use her powers for evil.
• 1:14:07
  No. She was, yeah.
• 1:14:09
  It was very fair and she was extremely fair and I just loved
• 1:14:17
  them together. There were so many moments where
• 1:14:20
  she would walk in a room and just dress down everybody in the
• 1:14:23
  room. I shouldn't.
• 1:14:26
  Care. Her kids.
• 1:14:27
  Empress's kids, yo. Kids.
• 1:14:29
  The neighborhood's kids. Nobody was safe.
• 1:14:32
  Nobody's wife was safe. Nobody grandma safe.
• 1:14:35
  She was vicious and in a in a believable way.
• 1:14:40
  You know, like she wasn't vicious for her own sake.
• 1:14:43
  Like she was righteous righteously vicious.
• 1:14:48
  Yes, yes, I agree 100. And then I think the moment that
• 1:14:53
  I was like, oh, this is cool, this is such a cool, like royal
• 1:14:56
  family. Was the emperor was talking out
• 1:15:01
  loud in her room about Boo Ying and his love life and him and
• 1:15:06
  Xiao Sheng. He's like, how do I get them
• 1:15:07
  together? Blah, blah, blah.
• 1:15:08
  He was like going on and on like a broken, broken record.
• 1:15:12
  And she just, like, rolls her eyes and pushes him out of the
• 1:15:16
  room. She's like, I I'm tired.
• 1:15:18
  I went to sleep and she like, pushes him out.
• 1:15:22
  And I was like, if I don't feel that in my bones, it's like.
• 1:15:26
  Shut up already. Like we're done.
• 1:15:30
  She completely understood him. But at the same time, she's not
• 1:15:34
  going to, like, she's not going to bend over backwards to please
• 1:15:39
  him. And that was the draw.
• 1:15:43
  I think of him to her was that she didn't need him, She wanted
• 1:15:48
  him. And that's like, very.
• 1:15:53
  I think that was very enticing for the Emperor.
• 1:15:56
  And honestly, their whole dynamic with the them being very
• 1:16:01
  sisterly toward each other for the concert and the Empress,
• 1:16:06
  When the Empress died, I was in shambles.
• 1:16:09
  I was crying and their relationship and the emperor and
• 1:16:17
  I was like, this is so rich. Yeah, they had love for each
• 1:16:23
  other. They had love for each other,
• 1:16:27
  they supported each other. And if Empress's kids needed a
• 1:16:32
  beating concert, UA was there, ready with the chunk.
• 1:16:36
  Laughed 5th Princess. Come on, I was like and then
• 1:16:43
  she's like, oh, I'm. Sorry.
• 1:16:45
  I took care of it for you. Yeah, yeah, because Concert UA
• 1:16:51
  doesn't let her people walk over her.
• 1:16:56
  No. The way that Empress Yuan would
• 1:17:00
  let people kind of manhandle her.
• 1:17:04
  Yes, but it's because she was empressed.
• 1:17:08
  She felt like she's. So proper.
• 1:17:10
  She's very yeah she's non confrontational.
• 1:17:14
  Carnes are you a was a very much a fuck around and find out she's
• 1:17:17
  like if you try it you're going to catch these hands.
• 1:17:21
  Yes. Easy.
• 1:17:23
  Easy. So such a cool marriage between
• 1:17:27
  the three of them and I don't feel like, not that I advocate
• 1:17:32
  for emperors having like a giant harem and having these really
• 1:17:37
  complex personal relation, interpersonal relationships it.
• 1:17:40
  But in drama land this is really cool.
• 1:17:45
  Yeah, it worked. It worked, yeah.
• 1:17:49
  Xiao Sheng's parents, the Marquis of Xu Ling and his.
• 1:17:54
  General of a wife. Yeah.
• 1:17:58
  Cool. Marriage.
• 1:17:59
  Too. That's a cool fucking marriage,
• 1:18:01
  you know? Fighting together, coming back
• 1:18:05
  together, raising, trying to raise Xiao Shang.
• 1:18:10
  I think her dad was very much more understanding of neonal and
• 1:18:17
  more accommodating versus the mom who's like.
• 1:18:21
  No, I'm going to tame you. I'm going to this and.
• 1:18:26
  There are, I mean, they was constantly the good cop, bad cop
• 1:18:31
  thing, and the mom was a bad cop and the dad was the good cop and
• 1:18:36
  their marriage was really cool. Obviously he knew his mother was
• 1:18:39
  ridiculous and he was constantly taking his wife's side and he
• 1:18:45
  was, you know. Not advocating but.
• 1:18:51
  Was the cop. No.
• 1:18:52
  Yeah. But I was thinking of like, like
• 1:18:58
  mitigating between them, yes. Yes.
• 1:19:03
  Anyway, that's a cool marriage. And then the Crown Prince with
• 1:19:06
  his Princess consort, which like crashed and burned, that was
• 1:19:10
  another very interesting marriage.
• 1:19:12
  Sis was evil. There was something.
• 1:19:18
  About her that was super suss and when they revealed that she
• 1:19:24
  had been sending these gifts to his ex for like 10 years, like a
• 1:19:28
  decade and cause it purposely causing issues in her marriage
• 1:19:35
  which was super shaky to begin with.
• 1:19:38
  Yo. That is really hard.
• 1:19:43
  Definitely giving Why are you so obsessed with me?
• 1:19:48
  I could not. I could not understand the level
• 1:19:53
  of, you know, viciousness. I thought the 5th Princess was
• 1:19:58
  vicious but. Me too.
• 1:20:00
  Truly, truly the Crown Princess girl.
• 1:20:05
  She did too much. She did too much, Yeah.
• 1:20:10
  She did the most and but at the same time, I kind of felt.
• 1:20:15
  For her situation, because she was third Wheeling in the
• 1:20:20
  marriage, she felt that this she could never compete with this
• 1:20:25
  ex, the first love that the the Crown Prince had.
• 1:20:29
  But listen. Listen.
• 1:20:31
  But what he was saying was is dead and buried.
• 1:20:34
  Exactly. He's like, I've made my
• 1:20:37
  decision. You're it.
• 1:20:41
  You're it. What's the big deal?
• 1:20:44
  No, but I want your heart. But yeah.
• 1:20:47
  She wanted, she wanted like a all consuming love for her and
• 1:20:53
  what she got was a mutual respect and a general caring
• 1:21:00
  that they would do life together.
• 1:21:01
  He wouldn't drag her down. He would support her.
• 1:21:04
  He but he not in love with her. And that's what I mean by there
• 1:21:08
  were a bunch of different marriages.
• 1:21:10
  In she got this show, yeah. She got what the Empress and the
• 1:21:16
  Emperor had. And she's like, no, I don't.
• 1:21:20
  It's not good enough. It's not good enough.
• 1:21:23
  Right. And so Shawshank is seeing all
• 1:21:25
  of this and she's like, well, it's fine that I marry, you
• 1:21:29
  know, this. What was the name of the first
• 1:21:31
  Beyoncé? I can't remember.
• 1:21:36
  I wanna say something. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:21:40
  Yeah, was his nickname. So Ayo, fine.
• 1:21:43
  If I marry Ayo and her mom's like, don't do you love him?
• 1:21:46
  And she's like, what is love? Like she didn't understand.
• 1:21:50
  And it's no fault of her own that she was like, well, we like
• 1:21:55
  each other and we're friends and we we can do life together.
• 1:22:01
  It's fine. If I link up with this guy, even
• 1:22:03
  if I don't love him, not everyone can have what you guys
• 1:22:07
  have, like what you and dad have.
• 1:22:12
  Very cool. And then she redefines love and
• 1:22:15
  marriage for herself. When she gets in with Lingui,
• 1:22:18
  it's cool. It's complex.
• 1:22:21
  It's complex. It is complex.
• 1:22:26
  And what I like is that the Empress and her mom, even though
• 1:22:29
  they have vastly different marriages, they try and steer
• 1:22:32
  her in the right direction and ultimately teach her that
• 1:22:34
  marriage is a partnership. Yeah.
• 1:22:37
  That it can make or break your life.
• 1:22:38
  Your her mom was like Are you sure this is a big decision if
• 1:22:42
  he goes down you go down to like you need to choose wisely it can
• 1:22:47
  make or break your life in this era.
• 1:22:50
  And her mom and the Empress say like love and affection is
• 1:22:55
  crucial because the two of you become one and an equal
• 1:23:00
  partnership is best. Coming from experience from both
• 1:23:07
  of them, from both of them, they basically come to the same
• 1:23:13
  conclusion when they're telling Xiao Sheng how to comport
• 1:23:17
  herself and how to choose the man in her life.
• 1:23:22
  I remember when I was watching this, I was very tickled, if you
• 1:23:28
  will, by how? They were constantly telling
• 1:23:33
  women how to comport themselves, and these women in their own
• 1:23:40
  various ways were like, I ain't doing that shit, like, no, But
• 1:23:47
  it was almost like the older women were always trying and
• 1:23:51
  women in power, we're always trying to teach like you, said
• 1:23:55
  Xiao Shang the way she should be.
• 1:23:58
  And she struggled with it and decided eventually, I'm gonna
• 1:24:03
  just do me. I'm gonna just do me.
• 1:24:06
  I'll take your advice. Where it works, I'll I'll enact
• 1:24:10
  it. Where it doesn't, it's me.
• 1:24:13
  Yeah, yeah, I think you touched on something which was her mom
• 1:24:20
  and we have to talk about her, her and her relationship with
• 1:24:22
  her mom before we circle back and like swoon worthy moments
• 1:24:25
  and her and lingui. I have two pages of soon worthy.
• 1:24:28
  Oh, perfect. Perfect.
• 1:24:30
  OK, so her and her mom. Well, you see Consort UA and and
• 1:24:36
  Pershwan, even though they're vastly different women, they're
• 1:24:38
  both bad mothers. They spoiled their children.
• 1:24:42
  Or, like in Consort Ua's case, she was indifferent to them.
• 1:24:47
  And you see Xiao Chang's grandma, she's overbearing.
• 1:24:50
  She's a drama queen. She's smothering, She's
• 1:24:52
  unreasonable. She's played favorites.
• 1:24:55
  She never accepted her daughters in law.
• 1:24:56
  She was utterly ridiculous. Then you get to Xiao Shang's
• 1:24:59
  mom. And this is the crux of I think
• 1:25:02
  part one was her being at odds with her mom.
• 1:25:09
  And I think that a lot of people hated the mom.
• 1:25:14
  Did you hate the mom? I did.
• 1:25:17
  I let me, let me, let me add some new ones.
• 1:25:21
  I think that the mom chose the wrong pathway in trying to build
• 1:25:27
  a relationship with her. Her comparing her to her more
• 1:25:33
  educated, gentle cousin was BS and intentionally doing it in
• 1:25:40
  front of Xiao Shang. You could see that Xiao Shang
• 1:25:44
  really wanted to have a relationship with her mom where
• 1:25:47
  she is. Adored.
• 1:25:50
  But the mom was intentionally, almost intentionally, not doing
• 1:25:54
  that. And that's what I mean by she
• 1:25:59
  chose the wrong path. But in Part 2, I I begin to see
• 1:26:07
  just how much she cares for Xiao Sheng.
• 1:26:11
  Because here's a mom who wasn't really a mom.
• 1:26:15
  You know. She went, yeah, she's a boy mom.
• 1:26:17
  She went to war. That's all she knows.
• 1:26:19
  So she doesn't necessarily know. And she's a general.
• 1:26:22
  She doesn't necessarily know how to be a mom for a girl.
• 1:26:27
  And Shao Shang also threw that in her face a couple of times.
• 1:26:32
  Right. But I I appreciated.
• 1:26:37
  The growth and the worry that she had for Xiao Sheng and even
• 1:26:43
  like challenging her, you don't love him and no marry this
• 1:26:47
  person instead. And then now she's like, OK
• 1:26:49
  fine, I'll marry ibuyi and now you have a problem with it.
• 1:26:53
  What do you want? Yeah, what do you want from me?
• 1:26:56
  Yeah. Everything I do disappoints.
• 1:26:59
  You exactly exactly. And I think everyone can relate
• 1:27:03
  at some point to having a parent.
• 1:27:06
  Be disappointed with you when your best efforts were not
• 1:27:10
  enough. Exactly.
• 1:27:13
  Exactly. I agree with you completely that
• 1:27:16
  she chose the worst method to teach Xiao Shang and it was like
• 1:27:21
  trying to break a horse. Like she had no empathy, no
• 1:27:23
  sympathy for her. She was quite strict with her.
• 1:27:26
  She never bothered to establish rapport, like she came in with
• 1:27:31
  the rod immediately. And didn't bother to gain her
• 1:27:35
  trust or love. It was like to make up for lost
• 1:27:38
  time. She just chose to be beat her
• 1:27:41
  into submission and block her at every turn.
• 1:27:46
  But Xiao Shang is not her brother.
• 1:27:49
  She's not a soldier in the army. She is headstrong and rebellious
• 1:27:54
  and clever and she reads her mom as oh I can't depend on her.
• 1:28:01
  As I've waited my whole life to meet her and wow, what an what
• 1:28:07
  an underwhelming. Like mother.
• 1:28:12
  She doesn't support me. She looks like she doesn't love
• 1:28:15
  me. She abandoned me for the in the
• 1:28:16
  1st place so she might not love me anyway.
• 1:28:20
  But now that she's here, I see that you know, I can't even rely
• 1:28:24
  on her. She's constantly bitching at me.
• 1:28:28
  So. I remember early on in the
• 1:28:30
  episode, she like, it's constant, the beratement that
• 1:28:36
  she receives from her mom. And she says, well, I know that
• 1:28:38
  I can't depend on anyone else, so I'm just going to depend on
• 1:28:40
  me. I'm just going to.
• 1:28:42
  I'm just going to do me. Yeah.
• 1:28:44
  And that's a very big statement for anybody to make.
• 1:28:48
  But in this context, in this culture, in this time period,
• 1:28:52
  she's like, well, fuck everybody else.
• 1:28:58
  Pretty much. And her deciding to go to be
• 1:29:02
  with the Empress over her mom. This is hurtful.
• 1:29:07
  This is hurtful. It is very hurtful to the mom.
• 1:29:12
  Yeah, to her mom. But at the same time, I'm like
• 1:29:15
  you. You brought it upon yourself.
• 1:29:17
  You did it to yourself. First impressions are
• 1:29:19
  everything. They are and you are not it.
• 1:29:23
  And she was very callous. Toward her and again when you
• 1:29:29
  juxtapose her with how she treated the cousin who was
• 1:29:32
  traditionally feminine, who was compliant and well educated
• 1:29:37
  already like Sasha, and kept saying like, I don't know what
• 1:29:40
  you want me to do. You want me to learn everything
• 1:29:42
  in a day? And how about you take some
• 1:29:46
  responsibility and me being uneducated because I was left
• 1:29:49
  here to. Deal with my aunt who was nasty
• 1:29:56
  and my grandmother who's ridiculous and nasty and they
• 1:30:00
  didn't love me, they didn't train me.
• 1:30:02
  And now you want to make up for last time?
• 1:30:04
  Like, how you gonna do that? I'm already cooked.
• 1:30:07
  Like the egg is already cooked. I'm already me so just adjust.
• 1:30:13
  Yes, so I think in the latter episodes, she says.
• 1:30:19
  I can see that you can only choose in life.
• 1:30:22
  You can only choose between filial piety and loyalty.
• 1:30:27
  And I'm going to choose loyalty. And that's when she goes to sort
• 1:30:32
  of in the palace for the five years after the she dissolves
• 1:30:36
  the merit, the engagement, and she goes to be with the Empress
• 1:30:41
  for five years. And I mean, what does that say
• 1:30:46
  about how she. Perceives her mom and how she
• 1:30:50
  feels. Super unneeded and unessential.
• 1:30:54
  Nonessential to the family, right.
• 1:30:57
  She's like, y'all didn't love me or care about me for 15 years.
• 1:31:00
  And when you come finally, you know, I had all these
• 1:31:06
  expectations that we were going to be this family and even
• 1:31:08
  though we're close, we ain't that.
• 1:31:09
  We ain't all that. That's true.
• 1:31:13
  And I think there was a time where she, she's like the
• 1:31:16
  emperor says go home. And she's like, I don't need to
• 1:31:18
  go home. Yeah.
• 1:31:19
  Why? The house is filled with, you
• 1:31:21
  know, nephews and nieces and and.
• 1:31:24
  Everybody got married. Everybody.
• 1:31:26
  Exactly. Literally everybody got married.
• 1:31:31
  They all did, so there's nothing there for me and.
• 1:31:34
  I think that's, yeah, exactly. There's nothing there for me.
• 1:31:36
  They've moved on. They don't need me.
• 1:31:39
  I love when. Not that I love, but the scene
• 1:31:42
  where she gets humiliated, Lingui proposes marriage in
• 1:31:46
  front of the Emperor, in front of all the royal kids, and it's
• 1:31:51
  this huge deal. And the mom comes in and she
• 1:31:56
  humiliates her in front of the whole.
• 1:31:58
  Entire court. And says she's unworthy of this
• 1:32:01
  marriage. She's headstrong, she's
• 1:32:04
  uneducated, she's pretty vile, you know, Don't give it to her.
• 1:32:09
  Don't bestow this marriage. It's it's not good for her.
• 1:32:12
  She's not good for for it. But was that said in like, no,
• 1:32:19
  she's not good? Like, was that said in a
• 1:32:21
  malicious way or was that said in a I don't want you in this
• 1:32:26
  space because. It's that's what I think.
• 1:32:28
  Yeah, exactly. The second part, that she was
• 1:32:31
  truly looking out for Shawshank. In that moment, she knew that
• 1:32:36
  the family situation for Ling Bui was shitty and volatile.
• 1:32:40
  And he's got a high position in the court and her daughter's
• 1:32:44
  going to get dragged into whatever shit that he is.
• 1:32:48
  You know, he's a military man. And that brings its own
• 1:32:51
  challenges, as the mom knows. And her daughter was like
• 1:32:59
  beating up on kids in the court like yesterday.
• 1:33:02
  So she's like, how can she can't handle this?
• 1:33:05
  She's not ready for this. She's raw materials still.
• 1:33:11
  She's not this polished gem yet, and so she turns down the
• 1:33:15
  marriage and again the the what? She says.
• 1:33:19
  The content of what she says is very biting and Xiao Shang he's
• 1:33:24
  they have this shot of Xiao Shang's hand like clinching.
• 1:33:27
  Yes, Like, damn this. This lady really doesn't like
• 1:33:32
  me. Yeah, I don't think she could
• 1:33:35
  have. The mother could recover after
• 1:33:37
  that. No.
• 1:33:40
  Right. I don't, I don't.
• 1:33:41
  There was number and. Well, technically she did.
• 1:33:43
  At the end, she did. Rebound of way at the end.
• 1:33:46
  But yeah, she was like cooking her honey honey bars and was
• 1:33:52
  like please like eat them and she was taking a sweet approach.
• 1:33:56
  And she went to war for her. And she went to Bath for her.
• 1:34:00
  Definitely the whole family came through at the end, which is
• 1:34:03
  what I like about the family dynamics that you see them like
• 1:34:06
  bickering and fighting and. Really learning each other
• 1:34:12
  because she had she didn't have her brothers, she didn't have
• 1:34:14
  her twin the whole time that she was growing up, and the tongue
• 1:34:21
  siblings are really fun to be around.
• 1:34:24
  You think the Chung family looks like a mess from the inside with
• 1:34:27
  the grandma and the everybody. Everybody's crazy, but if you
• 1:34:31
  take a macro view, they are very close knit and they're fiercely
• 1:34:37
  protective of each other. And they presented a united
• 1:34:40
  front every time someone came to stir up for trouble.
• 1:34:45
  And they stand in stark contrast to every other family in the
• 1:34:49
  show. Yes, especially the Emperor's
• 1:34:53
  family. Yeah, because they got each
• 1:34:56
  other's back. And what I like, that's what I
• 1:34:58
  really appreciated about the show was like, every family has
• 1:35:01
  their shit, but you know, the ones that are close are going to
• 1:35:05
  be like. You can't talk shit about my
• 1:35:08
  family. You can't come against my.
• 1:35:10
  Only I can. Yeah, and I love when they come
• 1:35:15
  to save her at the end of the show.
• 1:35:18
  Agreed and. I love when they were support
• 1:35:20
  her when she's like, yo, Lingui's in trouble.
• 1:35:22
  I gotta go to this the Ling Mansion and figure it out and
• 1:35:25
  they're like, we'll get you there.
• 1:35:27
  Yeah. Yeah, no questions asked.
• 1:35:30
  Where you know. Nariel feels like she's losing
• 1:35:35
  the war, and then her mother and dad and brother like.
• 1:35:39
  They take orders from her. Ooh, that was so I got shivers
• 1:35:44
  just now. That was so beautiful to also
• 1:35:47
  see her mom be a general. Oh, them fighting, those little
• 1:35:51
  vignettes of them fighting. When the sword play and stuff.
• 1:35:55
  I was like in my veins. In my veins, Yeah, good shit.
• 1:35:59
  And it's it's interesting that. Every other family looked down
• 1:36:05
  on them because, oh, you're a military family, which was to me
• 1:36:11
  ridiculous, because I'm seeing it like, ooh, they're military
• 1:36:16
  family. They're very important in the
• 1:36:20
  grand scheme of things for the Emperor.
• 1:36:23
  And you can see the Emperor respected them too.
• 1:36:26
  And there are contributions and so.
• 1:36:29
  For them to be looked down upon, while technically like you said
• 1:36:35
  their family was the best one, made me made me laugh.
• 1:36:40
  Yeah, they reminded me of my family, which not that we're in
• 1:36:43
  fighting like that, but we're super close and I love hanging
• 1:36:49
  out with my family and I love the concept of extended family.
• 1:36:54
  I'm a Hispanic and like, that really spoke to me.
• 1:36:56
  And I'm sure it spoke to you as well, Carol.
• 1:36:58
  Yeah. One thing that was cool that I
• 1:37:02
  just thought of was there were a couple moments where, of course,
• 1:37:05
  she's hasn't been with her mother or her father pretty much
• 1:37:09
  her entire life for the 15 years that she's been alive.
• 1:37:12
  And there were a couple moments when they did.
• 1:37:16
  They made the same gesture. Oh, yes.
• 1:37:20
  So I think her and her dad like did the same sort of like they
• 1:37:23
  like went like this and smoothed out their shirt or their their
• 1:37:26
  blouse or something. And I was like, oh, that's so
• 1:37:30
  fun. And then the same thing with her
• 1:37:32
  mom. They the mom slaps the Iyo's
• 1:37:37
  like aunt or something. I came for what it was.
• 1:37:41
  Going to say so they had so she slaps her and and the daughter
• 1:37:47
  is like you slapped the daughter was going to come up and slap.
• 1:37:53
  And Xiao Shang slaps her and she's like, I'm a deal with you.
• 1:37:56
  And just again. And they, like, turned the same
• 1:37:59
  way. That was what I mean by.
• 1:38:01
  And then the mother had a moment like that too in that scene
• 1:38:04
  where they, like, turned the same direction in the same
• 1:38:08
  manner. And I was like, this is great,
• 1:38:11
  this is so easy to understand that even though they're blood
• 1:38:16
  relations, they this is learned behavior, right?
• 1:38:21
  This is something like, oh, I tie my shoes the same way as my
• 1:38:24
  dad, oh, I have the same this as my mom, and they show that
• 1:38:30
  without saying explicitly what this is.
• 1:38:34
  I love that level of detail, because even now I see myself
• 1:38:38
  doing things my mom did in the same way, and I'm just like,
• 1:38:46
  ooh. I was.
• 1:38:47
  I also had beef with my mom when I was growing up.
• 1:38:51
  She was a teacher. I did not like teachers.
• 1:38:55
  Funny. Now I'm a teacher.
• 1:38:57
  But anyway, it was very much. Oh, I'm never gonna be like her.
• 1:39:03
  I'm never, never, never. No one wants to be like their
• 1:39:06
  parents and especially their mom.
• 1:39:07
  If you're a girl, you don't want to be like your mom.
• 1:39:10
  Exactly. And then now.
• 1:39:12
  I see myself standing like my mom, like doing the things she
• 1:39:17
  did at anytime I I catch myself doing it, I take a picture and I
• 1:39:22
  send it to my siblings and I'm like, what is happening with me?
• 1:39:25
  I'm doing this just like mom, so yeah.
• 1:39:29
  So I love those moments, and I love the moments that her mom
• 1:39:32
  stood up for her and was in that moment when she slaps them, the
• 1:39:36
  aunt and then Shawshank comes in and slaps the daughter.
• 1:39:40
  I was like. Satisfying.
• 1:39:43
  Turn up. So satisfying.
• 1:39:45
  Did you think any of the family members would die by the end?
• 1:39:50
  Any of the family. Members 'cause I did.
• 1:39:54
  I did not because grandma is to Shawn's.
• 1:39:59
  Grandma is to out there to die. Like that Lady was strong.
• 1:40:07
  You could tell that she was she's.
• 1:40:10
  Like a weed. Yes, she would never go away, so
• 1:40:15
  I did not think anyone in Shao Shan's family would die.
• 1:40:19
  I did think that either the Empress or Consorts Eua would
• 1:40:24
  die, and I was curious to see how that would affect the
• 1:40:30
  Empress interested Emperor. Right.
• 1:40:33
  I didn't think that far. I think when they were
• 1:40:35
  incarcerated, when the family Chun was incarcerated, I was
• 1:40:39
  like. Someone might die because they
• 1:40:41
  did one of these shots. It's like a farewell shot of all
• 1:40:46
  of the family together looking back at Xiaocheng, who is not
• 1:40:51
  going to be incarcerated with them.
• 1:40:53
  Her mom just slapped the shit out of her and said live, you
• 1:40:56
  must live on. And I was like, oh, this family
• 1:41:01
  is never going to be the same. Someone's going to die, they're
• 1:41:04
  going to be tortured or something.
• 1:41:06
  And it was my thigh shot. True.
• 1:41:09
  What if they had died and now you have the sole, you know,
• 1:41:16
  living survivor in Li Ling Buii and now you have the sole
• 1:41:21
  survivor for now. Now.
• 1:41:23
  And how I was expecting like this, Yeah.
• 1:41:26
  Yeah. But.
• 1:41:27
  How would that have affected? You brought up Ling Buii.
• 1:41:30
  Let's talk about Speaking of family that when he gets engaged
• 1:41:37
  to her. He tries his best to get it's
• 1:41:39
  assimilated into the family, that she gets mad that he's
• 1:41:45
  interfering in her life and making them wake up early and
• 1:41:49
  the fans exercising and he's making them do all this stuff.
• 1:41:53
  She can't eat what she wants and when she wants, and she has this
• 1:41:59
  big fight at with him after she gets drunk and she wakes up the
• 1:42:04
  next morning and she's like over it.
• 1:42:07
  And he goes, you know, your family's so great.
• 1:42:10
  I've never had a family before. And he's like, I'm learning,
• 1:42:17
  Can't you see that? I'm.
• 1:42:19
  I'm trying and she's like, yeah, try, but don't make us exercise.
• 1:42:25
  Yeah, she was basically like fuck off.
• 1:42:27
  But she says, So what if I have family members?
• 1:42:29
  This is my family, not your family, And she puts up a line.
• 1:42:35
  She puts up a wall between them and says this is not your
• 1:42:40
  family, this is my family. What does it?
• 1:42:42
  What's the to you? Exactly.
• 1:42:46
  And that is very brutal of her to say because he just finished
• 1:42:53
  saying I don't have a family. I've never had this support
• 1:42:57
  before. I'm learning.
• 1:42:58
  I'm trying. I've never had to discuss my
• 1:43:00
  affairs with anybody before. It's just been me and.
• 1:43:05
  You know, what you have here is so great and so loving.
• 1:43:08
  And she was like, well, she threw it in his face.
• 1:43:12
  But she did throw it in his face because also she didn't really
• 1:43:17
  understand what she had has to her.
• 1:43:20
  She was a spare part in her family, so she doesn't really
• 1:43:27
  put value. She's like, yeah, So what?
• 1:43:29
  She didn't understand what she had exactly, yeah.
• 1:43:33
  And gradually the family does assimilate him into their
• 1:43:38
  affairs and their their lives. They support him as if he was
• 1:43:41
  already one of their own. And that was also a concept that
• 1:43:44
  was explored of males marrying into the family into the wife's
• 1:43:51
  family, which is only done in certain situations.
• 1:43:55
  And when there's no other males in the family to carry on the
• 1:43:59
  family name or what have you the.
• 1:44:01
  Husband will marry into her family and they buck that whole
• 1:44:07
  societal thing with lingui, jumping headlong to be part of
• 1:44:14
  her family and wanting to be, you know, in this loving group.
• 1:44:21
  And at the end of the show you have that shot of the whole
• 1:44:23
  family. Yeah, it was.
• 1:44:26
  It was amazing the whole. Family.
• 1:44:29
  And he's like, you have such you have such great sons or you have
• 1:44:32
  such great children is, I think, what he told the parents.
• 1:44:36
  The Chung family has such great children.
• 1:44:39
  It's not funny or he's only funny.
• 1:44:43
  To Yeah, he's criminally unfunny because he told this morbid
• 1:44:48
  joke. It's a dinner team.
• 1:44:52
  They were like, he's trying to. He's trying to kill us.
• 1:44:56
  He's saying he's gonna kill us. We're in trouble.
• 1:44:59
  It's great. It's so great.
• 1:45:04
  Fantastic scenes. I know there was a lot of comedy
• 1:45:09
  in the front half of the show like the Petty girls fights and
• 1:45:13
  Xiao Shang like gives herself 2 black eyes and is trying to get
• 1:45:17
  out of the situation where like doing the cross eyed thing.
• 1:45:20
  Like, she was like crossing her eyes and she had two black eyes.
• 1:45:23
  It was crazy. And I love the drunk piggyback
• 1:45:27
  scene when they're already engaged and he goes, I don't
• 1:45:31
  know how he finds her. He's got tabs on her.
• 1:45:33
  She's drunk as a skunk in public with her friend who becomes her
• 1:45:37
  later, her sisterinlaw. And she is, He's like.
• 1:45:42
  Let me take her to her room. And her parents are like, super
• 1:45:44
  embarrassed. The whole family's like, Oh my
• 1:45:46
  God, it's so inappropriate for you to take her back to the
• 1:45:48
  room. And he's like, well, there's
• 1:45:50
  really no other choice. And he goes like this and she's
• 1:45:54
  hanging. She's hanging.
• 1:45:55
  On him. And they're super embarrassed
• 1:45:59
  like, Oh my gosh, what is wrong with this girl?
• 1:46:03
  I love that moment. It is so funny and she like
• 1:46:06
  starts like going like this and like shaking him up and
• 1:46:09
  pretending he's a horse. It's great.
• 1:46:12
  It's great, 10 out of 10. Yeah.
• 1:46:16
  OK. Are you ready to talk about our
• 1:46:18
  soon moments? I am so ready.
• 1:46:23
  I think we might wrap the episode like this.
• 1:46:26
  Oh oh and the end game, I guess. Like Oh yes, the high emotional
• 1:46:31
  stakes of the end game. So we'll talk about that too.
• 1:46:33
  But soon. Worthy moments.
• 1:46:34
  Let's go. Give me.
• 1:46:35
  Give them to me. I'm.
• 1:46:37
  Ready. OK, my #1, not #1.
• 1:46:40
  I can't. Put them, rank them.
• 1:46:43
  But that scene where he's like from now on my gate of life will
• 1:46:49
  be in your hand. Yes.
• 1:46:55
  Yo. Girl, girl, This is when they
• 1:46:58
  like. He maneuvered them onto the bed.
• 1:47:01
  Yes, and she's like use two hands, use one hand, use like
• 1:47:06
  and he oh. I folded so hard.
• 1:47:14
  I was on my knees, girl, girl. That was a beautiful moment.
• 1:47:21
  That whole scene, well that whole scene is they changed the
• 1:47:26
  tone of the scene like 2-3 times.
• 1:47:29
  Yeah, because right he cut. This is after they humiliate her
• 1:47:32
  and bully her and she gets bit by the snake and this whole
• 1:47:35
  thing. Yeah.
• 1:47:36
  And so she is reeling from this day that she's had.
• 1:47:41
  And he comes in, he's really sweet.
• 1:47:42
  He's like all this stuff, like talking sweet to her.
• 1:47:45
  And she's holding back tears. We talked about that shot where
• 1:47:49
  he she's turned away from him. Yeah.
• 1:47:52
  And choking back tears as he's talking to her.
• 1:47:56
  And then he realizes something's wrong.
• 1:47:57
  And he's like, what's wrong? He's super concerned.
• 1:48:00
  And she's like, can you just hug me?
• 1:48:03
  And it was like, oh, tighter, tighter.
• 1:48:04
  You have that whole scene of. How do you deflect from an
• 1:48:08
  attack from behind because they pushed her from behind?
• 1:48:10
  Yes. And he's like what?
• 1:48:12
  Like this and it just escalates. Up till now they're on the well.
• 1:48:17
  The gate of life thing was also really sensual because he, like,
• 1:48:21
  moves her hair. To to, like, get to her back.
• 1:48:25
  Yet to touch the her back or gate of life or whatever, I was
• 1:48:30
  swooning, swooning so hard. But yes, even her saying hug me,
• 1:48:38
  hug me tighter and then she's like, yeah, I can't breathe now.
• 1:48:44
  So yeah, I felt like he was definitely caressing her back.
• 1:48:48
  Oh my God. Well, he.
• 1:48:49
  And then when they were hugging, he was like burying his face in
• 1:48:54
  his in her shoulder. And I was like, this is the the
• 1:48:57
  crack moment, the C drama crack moments that, yes, really stick
• 1:49:02
  out. And then when he, they're in
• 1:49:05
  court and he's like, I'm gonna marry her.
• 1:49:08
  And he says in my eyes, you're the best woman in the whole
• 1:49:12
  world. I will only marry her in this
• 1:49:15
  life, yo. I'm, I'm against the wall, yeah,
• 1:49:23
  he says. Shawshank may not be what
• 1:49:26
  everyone considers an obedient and amicable lady, but in my
• 1:49:28
  heart, in the capital city, in the entire world, she's the
• 1:49:31
  best, the very best lady. Yes.
• 1:49:34
  She is innocent and resolute. She cares.
• 1:49:36
  She dares to love and hate. She is the only person under the
• 1:49:39
  heavens who can walk alongside me in my life.
• 1:49:41
  I shall marry no one else but her.
• 1:49:43
  Ah. What a line, What a line.
• 1:49:48
  You know how you know. If men, they say if men like
• 1:49:51
  you, you'll know if they. If they don't, you'll be
• 1:49:55
  confused. And let me tell you, she was not
• 1:49:57
  confused. She could not be confused
• 1:50:00
  because the proposal, very clear, was.
• 1:50:03
  Deep and real, okay, very sincere in public.
• 1:50:07
  And I think that's what threw her, was that it was like sudden
• 1:50:09
  in public. But there was that scene early
• 1:50:13
  in part one, like episode 12 or 13, where they just went through
• 1:50:16
  the whole Hua City thing and he got shot by an arrow in his
• 1:50:24
  chest. And then his henchman comes up
• 1:50:26
  and it's like, yo, she's missing.
• 1:50:28
  They were supposed to be here. In Hua City, On this date,
• 1:50:32
  they're like missing her. Her uncle, her aunt.
• 1:50:35
  They're gone. And he stands up.
• 1:50:38
  He's like, what did you say? And the way that he maneuvered
• 1:50:43
  his sword to cut off the back of the arrow and then leapt onto
• 1:50:48
  his horse, I was like, I was in a body bag at that point.
• 1:50:54
  But then, but then this man. Is shirtless.
• 1:51:00
  They have to dig out the arrow from his chest and she goes, I
• 1:51:05
  think I have a method and they were the quick to be like, you
• 1:51:10
  know, this is medical, it probably won't work or whatever.
• 1:51:15
  And he immediately says it, it'll work.
• 1:51:19
  The confident, The confident in her.
• 1:51:22
  That he has in her is blowing me over.
• 1:51:27
  And then. You know, she digs the arrow off
• 1:51:29
  from his chest. It's a super sensual.
• 1:51:32
  There is so much sexual tension here.
• 1:51:34
  Yes, with a thread called Xiao Shang.
• 1:51:37
  Xiao Shang, we find out how she was named after this very strong
• 1:51:41
  seventh string of the zither and he says, oh, because she took
• 1:51:48
  apart the necklace that she was wearing and inside was the IT
• 1:51:51
  was holding it together was the Xiao Shang string and he says.
• 1:51:57
  Was this a token from a lover, from a beloved one?
• 1:52:02
  And she goes, yeah, you could say that.
• 1:52:07
  And then she clarifies and says, oh, it was from my friend who?
• 1:52:13
  The one who later becomes the sisterinlaw.
• 1:52:15
  And she has a lot of foresight, actually, because of, you know,
• 1:52:19
  now I'm using this string and the.
• 1:52:22
  Emotions that play on his face as she's talking, right where
• 1:52:26
  he's like very gentle, gently asking if basically she got a
• 1:52:31
  lover, does she have somebody? And then she says yes.
• 1:52:34
  He's a little bit like Oh no. And then she clarifies and he
• 1:52:38
  again, like gets very soft and tender with her bitch.
• 1:52:43
  I was living for it, living for it and the whole thing where
• 1:52:48
  she's very hesitant to take the, the.
• 1:52:51
  Arrow out and he's like, it's fine, just do it and he pulls
• 1:52:54
  her closer. Bitch.
• 1:52:57
  The temp was rising, The temp was rising.
• 1:53:00
  So that entire scene and I put a TikTok up about it because I was
• 1:53:04
  like, this is chef's kiss. It is.
• 1:53:09
  It is. I also you touched on it, but
• 1:53:13
  when she said yes it's from a lover.
• 1:53:16
  You could say that I value that she.
• 1:53:20
  Had romance in her friendships. Loved that for her?
• 1:53:29
  Exactly. We don't.
• 1:53:30
  Grow. We don't see that and we don't
• 1:53:33
  even like a lot of people don't even do that often.
• 1:53:38
  I'm in a group chat with four of my middle school friends and so
• 1:53:43
  two guys and two girls and anytime.
• 1:53:46
  Me and my friend are talking in the group chats.
• 1:53:49
  The guys are just like I don't understand what's going on with
• 1:53:53
  you guys because I truly feel like you're you should have
• 1:53:59
  romance in every relationship you had and Shao Shang had that
• 1:54:03
  for the people she cared for and even her like hand handmade or
• 1:54:10
  maiden waiting the the person who was with her in the
• 1:54:15
  beginning. Like they had such a wonderful
• 1:54:18
  friendship to. Yeah, very caring of each other.
• 1:54:21
  So shout out to her. That's deep when he shows up at
• 1:54:28
  her engagement party and asked to meet her in the like, pine
• 1:54:33
  tree lined yeah walkway. The pure romance of this scene
• 1:54:39
  and nothing overtly happens between them, but it is.
• 1:54:45
  I'm in like in enthralled, yeah. And he asked her what are her
• 1:54:50
  goals? Oh Oh my gosh.
• 1:54:53
  When he asked her that, I went to heaven.
• 1:54:57
  Me too. Because he genuinely wants to
• 1:55:00
  know about her and what her goals are, what are her
• 1:55:04
  aspirations? And she says I want to do this,
• 1:55:07
  I want to do that, I want to create a like she had all of
• 1:55:13
  these grand plans. That are very much not about
• 1:55:19
  romance or you know things. Becoming of a lady, she was
• 1:55:24
  like, I want to build, I want to do this and he was like wow and
• 1:55:28
  he goes are we're very different.
• 1:55:32
  And she in a sense, he tells her that they're they're different
• 1:55:38
  but as an audience member as you go through the length of the
• 1:55:40
  show, you're like he is very much stuck in the past.
• 1:55:45
  Yeah. And she represents a very bright
• 1:55:48
  future. Yes.
• 1:55:50
  She's always looking ahead and it's very powerful.
• 1:55:56
  It is. It is.
• 1:55:57
  And I loved how he wanted her to realize her dreams because soon
• 1:56:03
  were the moments when she sneaks into the war camp.
• 1:56:09
  And, you know, every soldier is in on it, sort of giving her
• 1:56:13
  directions on the side to get to his tent.
• 1:56:16
  And then they walk around and he's like, you think they don't
• 1:56:20
  know you're here? Like, what are you talking
• 1:56:22
  about? What are you talking about?
• 1:56:24
  But they go just above the campsites and he's like, when we
• 1:56:29
  win this. This is I'm going to ask the the
• 1:56:33
  king for this land and we're going to build that house.
• 1:56:35
  We're going to build that garden we're going to.
• 1:56:37
  And I was just like this man is listening, he's listening to
• 1:56:44
  her, he is taking notes. He's all it was so.
• 1:56:50
  Beautiful. I was swimming.
• 1:56:53
  I I don't have words because I completely agree she's overcome,
• 1:56:59
  right? She's in tears and he's like,
• 1:57:02
  ohh no what's wrong? And she just gives him a kiss
• 1:57:06
  like she's just like I you know, this is everything.
• 1:57:09
  Yeah, of course I like this gift, right?
• 1:57:14
  Your idea for our future and building this house that I would
• 1:57:20
  be the architect of and like I would be the architect of our
• 1:57:25
  lives. Exactly, exactly.
• 1:57:28
  He. He was ready to lay it out all
• 1:57:31
  for her, like in the market scene where he gets all the
• 1:57:36
  soldiers to stop traffic, but he could go to the store.
• 1:57:44
  This man, so I loved that. I loved when he he sort of saves
• 1:57:49
  her multiple times and he saved her just before he proposed
• 1:57:52
  marriage in the in the royal palace.
• 1:57:56
  He saves her from falling on this pottery.
• 1:57:59
  And he puts her shoe back on. She's like, I'll do it.
• 1:58:01
  And he's like, no, let me. The Cinderella thing will always
• 1:58:06
  sort of hit. OK.
• 1:58:08
  It's it's accuracy 100% for me. So that was very soon worthy And
• 1:58:16
  then I think we get we already talked about the proposal scene.
• 1:58:21
  Did you have any other moments that you wanted to talk about?
• 1:58:23
  Because I have a whole thing. Yeah.
• 1:58:25
  Whole bunch. That was a scene during the
• 1:58:29
  Empress's birthday where she gets him to.
• 1:58:32
  Play. No no.
• 1:58:33
  Stop Stop Stop. OK, I'm not ready.
• 1:58:37
  Go for it. Just talk me through it because
• 1:58:39
  I have this scene as well. Oh my gosh.
• 1:58:43
  So he meets up with her and. She's episode 36 for some
• 1:58:48
  reason. I have this one the actual
• 1:58:49
  episode number for this. She meets up with him and she's
• 1:58:53
  like, I need you to do one thing for him, for me.
• 1:58:57
  And he's like, yeah, whatever and.
• 1:59:00
  He says. For you, I'll promise anything.
• 1:59:02
  Yes. And we see him playing this sit
• 1:59:07
  there in front of this waterfall feature that she had created for
• 1:59:15
  the Empress, which was amazing, amazing.
• 1:59:20
  And and then he plays. And everyone in court is like,
• 1:59:24
  we've been wanting you to play for so long and you said you'd
• 1:59:29
  lost your skills and this and that and look at you, that was
• 1:59:33
  beautiful. Anyway, they go on, they give
• 1:59:37
  the gifts and she sits down and they have that drink from the
• 1:59:44
  wine that she made and she drinks from his cup.
• 1:59:49
  Yo-yo. And then she gives him a kiss.
• 1:59:54
  It's the way that it was shot as well.
• 1:59:56
  Yes. The closeups of his lips, the
• 1:59:59
  closeup of her eyes looking at him, the slow motion of like
• 2:00:05
  wine dripping from his mouth. And wow and.
• 2:00:09
  Then she. Wearing it, wiping it with her.
• 2:00:12
  The sleeve of her dress super intimate.
• 2:00:16
  They have this private moment. In the Empress's birthday
• 2:00:20
  banquet, they are not alone in this room.
• 2:00:23
  They're like it, but it might as well just be the two of them in
• 2:00:27
  the middle of the room. She drinks from his cup very
• 2:00:31
  purposefully. It's super suggestive and
• 2:00:35
  intimate. And they are so in love.
• 2:00:37
  Yeah, so in love. I love that scene.
• 2:00:41
  That moment again. If only you could have these
• 2:00:47
  moments in public that are just very intimate and private.
• 2:00:52
  And I love to in. Public.
• 2:00:55
  So maybe not. I would be completely
• 2:00:58
  obliterated on a daily basis if so, we didn't talk about this,
• 2:01:03
  but I'll mention it now before we get further into the sooner
• 2:01:06
  the moments but he linguy, seemingly very stern and cold.
• 2:01:14
  But he's mesmerized by her, and I am not sure how Zhao Lushi the
• 2:01:20
  actress could stay on her feet the way that he was looking at
• 2:01:24
  her, because I would have buckled.
• 2:01:27
  OK, he was stare at the it's the intensity of his gaze that
• 2:01:33
  struck me. Beautiful, beautiful, I think
• 2:01:41
  before that moment in the Empress's.
• 2:01:45
  Birthday party, there are a couple of scenes that I have, so
• 2:01:49
  they have a fight and they they reconcile and he says, look, I'm
• 2:01:54
  not going to cancel this marriage, I'm set on you, is
• 2:01:57
  what he says. And she also, you know, despite
• 2:02:01
  her sort of like misgivings, she says, who said anything about
• 2:02:04
  canceling the marriage? I'm not canceling the marriage.
• 2:02:09
  She got raised too. Yeah, and she goes.
• 2:02:14
  She says something like you're not as frightening as the
• 2:02:17
  Emperor, as His Majesty, meaning that she's not afraid of him
• 2:02:23
  anymore. He's despite how intimidating he
• 2:02:25
  is and may seem, she's not scared of him anymore.
• 2:02:28
  It's a huge sort of step in the right direction.
• 2:02:31
  And he follows this up with I know you will always question
• 2:02:37
  our unequal status and be worried if I will oppress you.
• 2:02:41
  Today I want to tell you I, Lingui, regard you as my wife.
• 2:02:46
  All of what's mine belongs to you.
• 2:02:49
  In the future, I will only use my authority to protect you.
• 2:02:52
  I will never oppress you. I will let you believe me.
• 2:02:59
  I'll stop right there. But then she responds.
• 2:03:02
  This is so key, She responds. Whether or not I believe you
• 2:03:06
  depends on how you act in the future.
• 2:03:09
  Bitch. I got my money's worth.
• 2:03:13
  I'm leaving now. Show's over.
• 2:03:16
  So again, she never deviates from what she says.
• 2:03:21
  She is completely honest and she tells him outright.
• 2:03:26
  Like, act right and we'll be good.
• 2:03:29
  Yes. Don't, don't, I'll believe.
• 2:03:33
  In you don't mess it up, yeah. So I love that.
• 2:03:38
  And then the post tiger tally thing.
• 2:03:40
  That was like a whole debacle with the tiger tally and this
• 2:03:46
  part I also put on TikTok because she realizes in
• 2:03:50
  conversing with her cousin and the future sisterinlaw that she
• 2:03:54
  cares for him and she starts running.
• 2:03:58
  She's like gonna go see him immediately and she walks
• 2:04:01
  outside of her house and he's already there.
• 2:04:08
  That was a beautiful moment because he walks up to her to
• 2:04:11
  talk and all. The Wait, no, let's talk about
• 2:04:14
  the fact that the kids. So he's on his horse.
• 2:04:17
  He looks super dashing. Yes.
• 2:04:19
  And then. I think when he gets, as soon as
• 2:04:22
  he gets off the horse, this soldiers turn around.
• 2:04:25
  Yes, to give them privacy. This is so niche, but I love it.
• 2:04:32
  Anytime there is a period piece that has soldiers and there is
• 2:04:37
  going to be a private moment between a couple and they turn
• 2:04:40
  around to give privacy, I lose my shit every time like this is.
• 2:04:46
  I don't know why this is. Speaking to me and hitting all
• 2:04:49
  the right buttons, but like, I love that.
• 2:04:51
  Then they had this conversation. Yes.
• 2:04:58
  I just I they reconcile, right? And she says, you know, I was
• 2:05:03
  about to go to your house and talk to you.
• 2:05:06
  And he says, well, I was wrong first.
• 2:05:08
  So he admits guilt and says I was wrong in this matter, wrong
• 2:05:13
  that what I clearly love is the reckless and brave you.
• 2:05:18
  But I still restrict and constrain you now, now, her
• 2:05:22
  nickname. Closeness, he says in my
• 2:05:25
  presence. You don't need to humble
• 2:05:26
  yourself. You don't need to follow anyone
• 2:05:28
  else's example. What I love is the way you are.
• 2:05:33
  Now listen, viewers or listeners.
• 2:05:36
  This is like the bare minimum I know in the.
• 2:05:39
  Real world. It's the bare minimum, the.
• 2:05:42
  Bare minimum. But in this period piece, with
• 2:05:46
  the context of culture and just how relationships work, I am
• 2:05:51
  swooning and over the moon. Yes, she follows that up with,
• 2:05:58
  she says. I have two.
• 2:05:59
  I wanted to tell you two things. Here's the two things.
• 2:06:03
  One, from now on, I will try my best to treat you well, so well
• 2:06:07
  that you will feel annoyed and, he says.
• 2:06:11
  OK, I'll keep that in mind. When tomorrow comes, right?
• 2:06:15
  Like, we'll see how it, how it goes down.
• 2:06:17
  I'll remind you of this number one thing.
• 2:06:20
  He's like, what's the second thing?
• 2:06:21
  And she goes when we get very, very old.
• 2:06:25
  So old that our hair whitens. When I remember how well you've
• 2:06:29
  treated me. I will never forget today.
• 2:06:35
  The moments I fell in love with you.
• 2:06:38
  And he is. So in love, like, this is
• 2:06:43
  exactly what he needed to hear. And then he sort of, like brings
• 2:06:46
  her closer and says Xiao Chang, let's get married sooner.
• 2:06:51
  And again, there's electricity in the air, OK?
• 2:06:55
  There is tension, there is chemistry.
• 2:06:58
  And that moment really stuck out.
• 2:07:02
  Yeah, I want to talk about as we end the.
• 2:07:10
  Hench men of Ling Bui and half. It was like dumb and Dumber a
• 2:07:18
  little bit and there was a scene where Shawshank comes with her
• 2:07:24
  blankets to after he's been beat to his room.
• 2:07:29
  And one of the Hench men were there, was there, and it was
• 2:07:33
  just like. He's like, why are you so
• 2:07:35
  worried? Like we were.
• 2:07:37
  We live in the cold. We do this.
• 2:07:39
  And Ling Bui gives him a face. Like, dude, what are you doing?
• 2:07:44
  Can you shut up? Can you go away?
• 2:07:47
  I lived for that moment because he wanted her to care for him
• 2:07:53
  and he felt like he was being blocked by he.
• 2:07:55
  Was waiting for her. I love that scene.
• 2:08:00
  That's one of the last, like soon were.
• 2:08:01
  The things that I have on here is that after she, he gets beat
• 2:08:05
  and it's this whole sadistic matchmaking thing from the
• 2:08:08
  Emperor where he's like, she has to realize that she loves him,
• 2:08:12
  yes. And I'm gonna make her realize.
• 2:08:15
  Yeah, and so he punishes Lingui for dealing personally with all
• 2:08:21
  and violently with the families of all the girls who assaulted
• 2:08:24
  Xiaoxing. And that night she visits him.
• 2:08:27
  They kissed that night in his room, on his bed.
• 2:08:32
  And what does he say? He says like, shouldn't we wait
• 2:08:36
  until our marriage, after our marriage?
• 2:08:37
  Should do this. And I was like.
• 2:08:44
  That made me laugh because I'm like, oh, here's that purity
• 2:08:47
  culture again. But.
• 2:08:51
  And he but she goes. I remember what she says.
• 2:08:54
  But he says maybe we should do it again.
• 2:08:56
  Yeah, And like, moves to kiss her again.
• 2:08:58
  And she goes in your dreams and like, moves away.
• 2:09:01
  And I was like, bitch, handle it.
• 2:09:03
  Handle it. OK, Like, oh God.
• 2:09:08
  What an entertaining cat flushing.
• 2:09:11
  So hard. She she did good.
• 2:09:16
  She did good. Missy.
• 2:09:18
  Missy. Keep 'em leaving Wanted more.
• 2:09:22
  Exactly. OK, so I think that's a lot of
• 2:09:28
  the soon worthy moments I have to give a shout out to after
• 2:09:32
  shit goes down. They do this epic montage of
• 2:09:35
  everybody getting married in the Chung family and he's off
• 2:09:38
  fighting wars in the Northwest Territory and they changed up
• 2:09:41
  his styling and he is with the hair down.
• 2:09:47
  And the 5:00 o'clock shadow and the stubble and the wispy's in
• 2:09:52
  his face. And I was like, sometimes I'm
• 2:09:59
  like, I don't gotta type. Yes, I do have a type.
• 2:10:03
  And it's post breakup lingui. OK, like, I think he was on
• 2:10:11
  screen for 30 seconds in this look.
• 2:10:15
  I ate it up. I ate it.
• 2:10:18
  Up. Oh God.
• 2:10:22
  OK now let's get to the end game where shit hits the fan.
• 2:10:27
  He has like a very quick descent into madness and I think we got
• 2:10:34
  to talk about it. So the revenge lead up and the
• 2:10:40
  revenge carnage and the post revenge is some of the.
• 2:10:44
  Best parts of the show and the best parts of NEC drama I've
• 2:10:49
  ever watched. Ever.
• 2:10:51
  How did you feel about this succession of scenes?
• 2:10:54
  I thought they were a masterpiece.
• 2:10:58
  I thought they were beautiful, heartbreaking, vengeful.
• 2:11:06
  I could feel his anger and his like.
• 2:11:11
  I have done it. I have reached the summit.
• 2:11:14
  When he cuts, well, yeah. When when he finally kills him
• 2:11:20
  and he gets up and he has like, his hands splayed out and you
• 2:11:26
  sort of get a silhouette with him, with the music, and he
• 2:11:29
  looks diabolical. I was, I I was sitting there
• 2:11:35
  like, how is this man giving this to me right now?
• 2:11:41
  I was. I was so enthralled.
• 2:11:43
  I was so shocked. It felt like I was watching one
• 2:11:47
  of those Roman Empire movies. Like back in the day.
• 2:11:54
  Yeah, it was beautiful. What do you think?
• 2:11:58
  I think it well you see this sort of train wreck happen in
• 2:12:01
  slow motion, but in the context of the show, he falls off the
• 2:12:05
  wagon so quick and he shows up at his.
• 2:12:11
  Presumably father's house. It's not his father, it's his
• 2:12:15
  uncle. And he is to blame for a lot of
• 2:12:22
  most of the the carnage and death that happened to the Hua
• 2:12:26
  family and in this moment of him fighting and getting through all
• 2:12:33
  of the guards and hench men that he put in this pagoda or room
• 2:12:39
  with him. They were not guests at this
• 2:12:41
  50th birthday party. They were, you know, the uncle
• 2:12:45
  had suspected that he was going to do something because the mom
• 2:12:50
  died. Who was really his aunt.
• 2:12:53
  And rule of thumb if someone makes you promise something on
• 2:12:59
  their deathbed. You have to do it.
• 2:13:02
  You have to do it so, she said. Remember our What was it?
• 2:13:07
  It was like our. I think remember our pain maybe.
• 2:13:10
  Something I can't remember what the word is, but she said
• 2:13:13
  basically held him too. You gotta see this through.
• 2:13:17
  You have to avenge us. The Hua family.
• 2:13:22
  And he says of course, yes. She passes away.
• 2:13:25
  Shit's gonna go down and you see this room They pan through this
• 2:13:30
  room of just bodies, bodies on the ground.
• 2:13:36
  And he gets up. And it this is like
• 2:13:39
  Shakespearean exactly with him talking with his uncle before he
• 2:13:45
  offs the uncle. And it is 15 years of rage in
• 2:13:52
  the pent up aggression and he acted his bun off in this series
• 2:13:59
  of scenes that I was shocked that he had it in him to do this
• 2:14:06
  and. I love when he walks up slowly
• 2:14:11
  to the uncle and says all of the names of the people, the
• 2:14:15
  politicians and different players that he took to took the
• 2:14:19
  task and he gets up to the uncle, says his real name.
• 2:14:24
  My name is like whole shying and the slow stab and the noises of
• 2:14:34
  the stab. As he's slicing him, it was
• 2:14:41
  maniacal. It was poised.
• 2:14:44
  It felt a lot like Russell Crowe.
• 2:14:47
  It was giving Russell Crowe and Gladiator.
• 2:14:50
  Yes, yes. You know, husband to a murdered
• 2:14:52
  wife, father to a murdered son. Like that whole thing felt very
• 2:14:57
  gladiator, which is high praise from me.
• 2:15:00
  I am a gladiator lover. Fucking love that movie.
• 2:15:04
  It's gotta be my top 10 movies. And the revenge also felt a lot
• 2:15:11
  like kind of Monte Cristo level revenge, especially when he
• 2:15:16
  listed off all the other players that he offed.
• 2:15:18
  It was not just a one person thing.
• 2:15:21
  It was a long con. It was well planned out,
• 2:15:24
  methodical and him laughing, him laughing while he's crying and.
• 2:15:37
  Very diabolical and loose, just like he's crazy with the complex
• 2:15:48
  emotions, the grief of losing the clan, the satisfaction of
• 2:15:52
  the revenge, the relief that it's finally over, everything.
• 2:15:56
  And the loss. And the loss that he knows he's
• 2:15:58
  about to encounter. Oh, oh, that.
• 2:16:02
  He did this two days before the wedding.
• 2:16:06
  Because he did not want their family to deal.
• 2:16:10
  To get implicated, Yeah, he didn't.
• 2:16:13
  I get that. What a beautiful moment.
• 2:16:19
  It was a stunning thing. Oh my God, yeah.
• 2:16:23
  Tell us what you thought of this moment, the revenge porn moment
• 2:16:28
  that happened here in episodes 48 through 49 or 48 through 50s
• 2:16:34
  or so. Is when really shit hits the fan
• 2:16:38
  for the couple and for Lingui to actually finish the job and
• 2:16:47
  accomplish his ultimate goal and the trauma and things that he
• 2:16:53
  experienced as a child. You get that really big
• 2:16:56
  flashback sequence of him telling it exactly how what
• 2:16:59
  happened and. Really intense.
• 2:17:06
  I think a comp for the show could be Princess Way Young
• 2:17:11
  where Princess Way Young she has a similar thing happen where she
• 2:17:15
  gets she loses her entire family, her clan, her country
• 2:17:20
  and she goes to a different country and assumes another
• 2:17:24
  identity to be able to complete her revenge and.
• 2:17:30
  Get that retribution that she's looking for, Plus an entire love
• 2:17:34
  intense love story that happens. So if you're looking for this,
• 2:17:39
  this blueprint you can find. It may be in Princess Way Young,
• 2:17:43
  which is one of my favorite see dramas as well.
• 2:17:46
  I think this is a master class in acting.
• 2:17:52
  I agree. I agree.
• 2:17:53
  It was a. I hope he wins many awards for
• 2:17:57
  it. That's that's the first thing.
• 2:17:59
  And I I'm so excited to see where he'll take his career
• 2:18:04
  after this because the intensity he brought to the role and just
• 2:18:11
  the finesse he brought to his character and the portrayal, he
• 2:18:16
  can go places. He can go anywhere in my book,
• 2:18:19
  I'd I think. He's going to be an interesting
• 2:18:20
  one to watch. I think he might delve more into
• 2:18:23
  making. See dramas and then making
• 2:18:25
  movies. I looked on his MDL and it
• 2:18:28
  seemed like he has some producer credits under his name and I was
• 2:18:32
  like, that's pretty unique to see someone's doing that.
• 2:18:37
  So got to keep an eye out for Leo Wu and.
• 2:18:42
  Leo Wu, if you're listening to this, please pay your taxes.
• 2:18:46
  Please don't. Don't do any.
• 2:18:49
  We know China's a problem, but they don't play.
• 2:18:53
  With the taxes, yeah, just pay the taxes.
• 2:18:57
  So the post scene as well where she shows up.
• 2:19:04
  In her red. Room on the Red Wedding gown.
• 2:19:09
  My girl. My girl.
• 2:19:11
  My girl and again we talked about this moment with the score
• 2:19:15
  swelling and him saying his for well and.
• 2:19:18
  Walking off to certain death and she's a lot left alone and.
• 2:19:24
  And and for him to come back and the thread is still like it's
• 2:19:29
  now embedded in his wrist. Shawshank.
• 2:19:36
  Yeah, the Cliff scene, I'll tell you.
• 2:19:38
  The TikTok that I saw, they got me to watch immediately, was her
• 2:19:43
  escaping with him on the horse. With her and him.
• 2:19:48
  Just jumping to his death. That was the edit.
• 2:19:51
  It wasn't the entire scene uncut.
• 2:19:54
  It was like some bits were taken out.
• 2:19:57
  But it was so stunning to me. I was riveted by the scene and
• 2:20:03
  when I actually finally watched the full scene, I was still I
• 2:20:07
  could not tear my eyes away. You know, I just want to say I
• 2:20:11
  love my K dramas. I really love them.
• 2:20:15
  But they don't fly enough for me.
• 2:20:17
  Like they don't the character. I need more actual, like flying
• 2:20:22
  the way I see in my sea dramas. And I just love those fight
• 2:20:27
  scenes. And I know it just may be
• 2:20:29
  particular to Chinese dramas, but those scenes have me seated
• 2:20:37
  and so excited when I know they're being, like, airlifted.
• 2:20:43
  And they are using a lot of stamina and strength and core to
• 2:20:48
  make it look seamless and not like they're being flabbed
• 2:20:53
  around in the air, but yeah. Yeah, I see what you're saying.
• 2:20:58
  There's some skill involved here.
• 2:21:00
  And yes, he survives the fall. Yes, this is a nitpick, because
• 2:21:06
  for me, this is not a Wusia. This is not a Shyansha drama.
• 2:21:11
  There. This is a true sort of
• 2:21:12
  historical period piece. Nobody's flying around all that
• 2:21:16
  much, so him hooking himself to some vines and surviving this
• 2:21:21
  giant Cliff fall is very much a suspension of disbelief.
• 2:21:25
  Maybe. I think some people might shut
• 2:21:27
  their brain off or not shut their brain off, be upset that
• 2:21:31
  they kind of went this cliched route, but I never suspected for
• 2:21:36
  a minute that he was dead. No.
• 2:21:40
  No, I never suspected either. I think that in that moment it
• 2:21:46
  was about saving her and what he was willing to do.
• 2:21:50
  Jump off the Cliff for you. Yeah, he was like, well, they
• 2:21:54
  were going to be pelted with arrows in like a second.
• 2:21:56
  That's true. And I mean, he could, he
• 2:22:01
  thought, maybe I can save her if I just take myself out of the
• 2:22:06
  equation. So, and that's what happened, I
• 2:22:09
  mean. She was saved.
• 2:22:12
  They did not kill her. But yeah, to see him and then
• 2:22:17
  they show him on the cliffside, which I thought was a surprising
• 2:22:19
  shot. They show him like half frozen
• 2:22:23
  on the on the cliffside, clinging to this vine.
• 2:22:27
  And he ever since. She saved him in episode 12
• 2:22:31
  using the Shawshank string, he saved it.
• 2:22:36
  And he was wearing it on his wrist and it sort of caught on
• 2:22:39
  the vine as well, which was helping him to stay on.
• 2:22:44
  And you see him just kind of like, come to for a second, say,
• 2:22:47
  say her name, slash the string shouting, and then dip out into
• 2:22:53
  unconsciousness again. And I was like, all right, all
• 2:22:59
  right, so. We have talked at length about
• 2:23:05
  love Like the Galaxy. It is probably going to enter my
• 2:23:09
  Mount Rushmore of C dramas. I don't know what I'm going to
• 2:23:12
  bump or if I'm just going to bump something off my second
• 2:23:14
  tier of Mount Rushmore C dramas. It is epic and large in scale
• 2:23:22
  and does so many things, right? So how did you, how did you want
• 2:23:28
  to wrap up? Did you have anything else you
• 2:23:30
  wanted to? Say about love like the Galaxy.
• 2:23:33
  No, Except just watch it, Watch it and tell.
• 2:23:36
  Us what you think. I think especially being on
• 2:23:39
  TikTok people are quick to be like, comment and say 56
• 2:23:43
  episodes and I hear you, I hear you and I hear the complaints
• 2:23:50
  about part one being boring or not very doesn't have as much
• 2:23:55
  momentum as Part 2 or whatever, but I enjoyed.
• 2:23:59
  All of the dynamics that were happening in part one that
• 2:24:02
  informed Part 2, and I don't feel like you can get into Part
• 2:24:06
  2 without watching part one. I say give it a chance.
• 2:24:09
  I say everything that you think is going to be wrong with a show
• 2:24:13
  that's 50 something episodes. Yes, there are so many C dramas
• 2:24:18
  and period pieces and historicals that are boring that
• 2:24:22
  I end up dropping, that are high in episode count and you lose
• 2:24:25
  it. You just can't get through it.
• 2:24:28
  This is not one of them. Yes, I agree.
• 2:24:31
  Just give it a chance. Just give it a chance and again
• 2:24:35
  shout out to Liliana from Tea and Soju and Caitlin from No
• 2:24:39
  Sleep for dramas because you guys have been talking to us
• 2:24:43
  about see dramas and love like the Galaxy in particular and
• 2:24:47
  it's been a really fun time on the socials with you guys.
• 2:24:51
  And again if you are looking for another K drama podcast please
• 2:24:56
  please please. Listen to K Drama musings
• 2:25:01
  wherever you can find podcasts and her Instagram and TikTok and
• 2:25:06
  all of the rest will be LinkedIn, the show notes.
• 2:25:09
  So, Carol, I want to thank you again for doing a really long
• 2:25:12
  episode, 2 1/2 hours. But we did it.
• 2:25:15
  We talked at length about the show and I hope we didn't leave
• 2:25:19
  anything out. Please.
• 2:25:21
  Come back. We've talked about a lot of what
• 2:25:24
  was it? Search www.love between fairy
• 2:25:27
  and devil coffee prints and now love like the Galaxy we are K
• 2:25:33
  drama slash C Drama girlies. Yes, we are.
• 2:25:36
  Through and through. And I love that for us.
• 2:25:39
  I love that for us. I think we bring a certain level
• 2:25:43
  of excitement and perspective, different perspectives.
• 2:25:47
  So thank you for having me. Thank you for coming by.
• 2:25:51
  And that's it. This has been our show.
• 2:25:55
  I'm Jessica and this has been the Tebaki Rambos Podcast.
• 2:26:20
  So considered your life, you won't jump with one's life if
• 2:26:29
  you're a high it should not hold.
• 2:26:36
  Up. Oh, Shan true.
• 2:26:58
  How much I go. Yeah, one bogus say.
• 2:27:11
  No.