#Painted Skin

[divineandmajesticinone]

Painted Skin: The Guo Jingming Edition 画皮 (2020) Ding Chengxin as Xiao Wei, the fox demon

[arjengelly]

That intro was sus 👼🏻

The shower scene too 🚿

I thought he was going to be like THEM

Especially cuz of his Stolas ass looking legs 😭

NOT LIKE HIM!!!!

[rose-morose]

well gang, I thinks it's time we had another chat about Kit from Jentry Chau vs the Underworld

this will be a lot less serious than the last post I made, it's less of an analysis and more just me gushing about how neat Chinese mythology is and my love of how it's portrayed in the show

if you only read one of my posts today, you should make it that one which can be found here

there is another post that someone else made about Kit and how his winged portrayal in the intro relates to Chinese mythology that you should totally check out and you can find it here

anyways...

(long spoilers under the cut as per usual)

I'm gonna preface this by mentioning that I am an aroace adult and I mostly hang out with queers, so I find most allo(especially teen hetero allo)romantic relationships to be cringe and weird, so when people are saying that the romance in this show is poorly written, I don't really see any difference between it and other romantic writing so I'll just defer to the popular opinion in this case

anyways, regardless of the quality of the romance, there is one point that everyone seems to agree on, and that is that Kit's violent and threatening behaviour towards Jentry after she rejects him in favor of Michael is seemingly uncharacteristic and entirely out of left field

now personally, I mostly agree and don't necessarily think that it was the best writing choice for his character, but I do think there is a pretty good explanation for this portrayal

so for those of you who don't know, painted skin is not a type or classification of demon in Chinese mythology nor is it the name of a demon, it is instead a reference to a short story titled "畫皮", which in English directly translates to "painted skin" where a single unnamed demon disguises itself as different humans by wearing painted skin over its demonic form

so a quick summary of the story is that a man finds an attractive homeless woman and agrees to let her stay with him and they have sex, his wife is upset by this affair but he won't change his mind, then one day he finds the door to his home locked, but when peering through a window he sees the pretty woman's skin with attractive features painted on to it separate from a horrible ghoul looking monstrous demon, the man panics and gets a charm to ward off demons from a Taoist priest but it doesn't work, enraged by the man's attempt to ward it off the demon kills him and rips out his heart, it then flees and pretends to be an elderly servant where the man's wife and the Taoist priest find it and kill it, then the man's wife brings him back to life somehow

now Kit's character being based off this story would of course draw many parallels between him and the demon from the story

he is seductive and manipulative, he is afraid of showing his true form, he pretends to be an attractive human to get what he wants, he becomes enraged when he isn't accepted, he dies at the end of the story, and he has historically killed people that do not accept him because he isn't human

setting his character aside, if you were purely going for a parallel to the original story, Kit's enraged and violent behaviour towards Jentry actually makes a lot of sense

however in this case, Kit is not exactly the same as the demon from the story, he is motivated by a want to be human, despite the fact that he has killed humans for centuries his method of killing is far less gruesome and impulsive, he requires qi from other living creatures to survive, he doesn't turn to smoke when he dies, he (mostly) voluntarily reveals his true form to Jentry, he never physically harms Jentry, and he does have actual feelings for Jentry (I actually can't remember if the original demon had feelings for the man but I don't think it did)

so while his behaviour makes sense when drawing parallels to the story, not having the context of the story and solely relying on information from the show makes it seem completely out of nowhere

and like I said, I think the show probably should have made this one of the parallels of the story that they ignored and it would have been better for his character to not be this toxic, but it doesn't ruin the show and is laregely resolved (but not necessarily justified or made up for) by Kit's sacrifice to save Jentry's life

additionally, since the original short story is the only recorded case of a demon wearing painted skin, I'm not sure if Kit is supposed to be the original demon or not

the demon's death at the end of the story would imply otherwise, but the fact that Kit has lived for centuries would place him in the right timeline for being the same demon, and the implication that it seems like he is the only one of his kind (I don't think his "parents" were meant to be painted skin demons but then again there is an entire painted skin entry in gugu's bestiary so maybe he isn't the only one) leaves no other options, and this all seems especially plausible if the story teller was exaggerating true events

and while the story demon is largely femme presenting in contrast to Kit's typical masc presentation (even in demon form), his ability to change his voice and appearance to match Jentry would imply that gender identity and sex are not limiting factors to his transformation

anyways I just thought it was a fun thing to think about, and it could explain certain writing choices that made less sense to the audience

I just love Chinese mythology and I love this show and how it uses that mythology to create complex and interesting stories and characters

not to mention the fact that I love the subversion of the "femme fatale"/"sexually promiscuous women are evil" trope/theme by instead making a (seemingly) male character also seductive and able to use his attractive features to manipulate people, and the idea that seductive and manipulative people are shown to in fact also be people that have their own complex motivations and dilemmas and who, despite their selfish behaviour, are not inherently "evil"

I mean, Kit even uses his looks to manipulate the fandom into not examining his character in an objective light /lh (just a joke please don't hurt me)

honeymoon phase still isn't over, so I still won't be examining this show quite in an objective light yet, but maybe one day...

anyways, thanks for putting up with my rambling, I love any opportunity to educate people on Chinese culture and mythology and this show is the perfect excuse to do just that

[watesigma-0]

hello jcvtu fandom here's some kit art for my first post :)

[skinteresting-enough]

I finished watching Jentry Chau vs The Underworld. Very good show, though I do feel like the last three episodes were a bit disjointed from the first ten. Perhaps the show would have worked better as two seasons with ten episodes each, though admittedly I'm not sure how all seven additional episodes would be filled up without the plot feeling stretched too thin. So perhaps it's for the best that it's one thirteen-episode season.

I think Kit is my favorite character. I've been looking into what his "species" is based on, and I'm probably going to buy the story collection that contains the Painted Skin story, but I was wondering if there are any other stories (of any medium) that feature creatures similar to it? Help an enby out.

[sombredancer]

Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt.2)

There are my favorite familial and (supposedly) non-romantical dynamics as a list.

Brotherly love

Drama: The Untamed / 陈情令 Characters: Wei Wuxian & Jiang Wanyin Screentime: Secondary

My favorite brother couple! They tore my heart into million pieces and it's still broken. There is jealousy and love and difficult moral choices between them. Wei Wuxian is an extraordinary man, as the main hero should be. He is brave enough to go against the rules if he feels it's right thing to do, also he is ready to sacrifice himself for the greater good and hides all of his pain tightly inside. Jiang Cheng is a mere person. He is not strong (or insane) enough to put everything on the line, because he shoulders responsibilities for his sect. Although they love each other, Wei Wuxian is ready to die for the truth and chooses to fight if fight is inevitable. Jiang Cheng tries to go the path of "minor evil" and sacrifice his sense of justice in order to save as much as possible. The both views are OK and each goes the chosen by himself path and bears consequences of this choice. Consequences are awful. They are traumatizing. And, what is the biggest pain of mine, they never discussed it. They never found out about sacrifices they both made for each other. They never found out that they still love each other as brothers.

Drama: My Journey to You /云之羽 Characters: Gong Shangjue & Gong Yuanzhi Screentime: Secondary About these two I wrote two posts here and here . In a nutshell: one is carrying the responsibilities for everything and anything, strictly follows the rules and teaches his younger cousin how to live this life. The little cousin is yandere, who is obsessed with his older cousin, has no conscience and does his best to make his cousin's life better. I like this unusual dynamics: they both love each other and care for each other on the same level, even if one of them is yandere.

Master-servant relationship

Drama: Word of Honor / 山河令 Characters: Gu Xiang & Wen Kexing Screentime: Secondary I like this type of dynamics when servants become someone more than just servants to their masters. Chinese drama makers love it and use it a lot, but this scene was so powerful that made me cry. Beautiful transformation from a servant to a family member (unfortunately, post mortem).

Seeking out love

Drama: Fangs of Fortune / 大梦归离 Characters: Li Lun & Zhao Yuanzhou Screentime: Secondary

Once Li Lun and Zhao Yuanzhou used to be boyfriends. Then they broke up for reason not really understandable (at least for Li Lun), but Li Lun can't get over it and tries to get attention of his ex friend back with pretty villainous means. Him not being able to leave this situation and to move on will be the main reason he will die in the end.

Drama: Word of Honor / 山河令 Characters: Xie Wang & Zhao Jing Screentime: Secondary

Zhao Jing adopted a very skillful and absolutely ruthless killer as his son. The killer is self-confident and does his job playfully, but his weakness is his passionate desire to be loved by his adoptive father. He feels that Zhao Jing just uses him for his skills and will throw him away as soon as his adoptive father will not need his skills anymore, so he even paralyze his adoptive father to force him being always near. He ends up not being capable to choose his life over his father's and dies with him. A very sad type of addiction with "A little mermaid" type of moral: you can bring the whole world upside down, but if one doesn't love you, one will not, no matter what.

Drama: Painted Skin 2020 /画皮 Characters: Wang Sheng & Xiao Wei Screentime: Main In this B̶L̶ version of Painted Skin Chinese legend the fox demon is male and wants to get one of the humans that brought him home. But humans love each other, no one is interested in a fox demon, so he makes them pay for their previous kindness with blood, sweat and tears. In the end the demon gets a human heart, feels something (e.g. how hard it is to be a human) and makes up one more lie, giving to the soul of the man he wanted for himself a strand of his own hair instead of human's wife's hair in order to meet him in another life. The same moral as in the previous drama. The same sadness.

Also you can see: Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 1) Asian dramas and my favorite types of characters Asian dramas and Love tropes Enemies to Rivals/Lovers recipe

[lyselkatzfandomluvs]

Zhou Xùn 周迅

V magazine March 2024

[douqi7s]

Painted Skin-inspired video directed by Liu Yun Rui, starring Sheng Wei and Ai Ye. Watch with English fan subtitles here.

[coalaspy]

[candidsoup]

Anyway y'all go watch this if you haven't and I hoped you ignored my last post okay if you've never seen this you have to just watch it it's 30-odd minutes just go do it now.

[club-cheongyang]

[arjengelly]

Kit working for Mr. Cheng 😈

Jentry telling Kit he has a soul of his own/ he’s his own person 😳🥰😍

Jentry finding out he’s a demon 😭🥺

[xamenh-sto-vlemma-sou]

2024 started

Did you get your tattoo yet ?

[mhearaithedreamer]

I just cannot stop myself from repeatedly watching this movie. Especially the subtle way the director said ' Yeah, they are in love. The guy is just here.'

Still working on this one, but considering I started yesterday, I feel like I'll have fun.

[parasite-of-sentience]

"Stop slaughtering men who fall for your charms"

excuse me? I'm lit tormented and vengeful.

[misterlemonztenth]

08-10-23 | balive2u-blog. https://misterlemonztenth.tumblr.com/archive