#erazmus foams at the mouth about tv

[ijustwantagoodurl]

OKAY FOLKS WOH CINEMATOGRAPHY META INCOMING

Today we are over analyzing THIS shot from Word of Honor, or ShanHe Ling, episode 12.

the following presentation will be broken into THREE parts, shittily pointed out here with color coded lines and arrows. There are HEAVY text boxes and I will attempt, later, to make it more intelligible <3

Ready??

Let's GO

THE WINDOW. Lighting is SO important, and as a side note later on in the episode when ZZS reveals he is gonna die and has long accepted it, half his face is in shadow. The half light/shadow thing is because to WKX he is, for the first time, almost gone already. <3

THE TREE. Idk if china has a bonsai-like culture but I've taken it here to be generally a symbol of life. She grows over both of them!!

The Outer-wall thingy! She frames everything else we've already talked about, and bc she does that she sort of...reframes those two ideas as one!

I know this was SO ugly <3 feel free to come ask me questions if anything was unintelligible, or questions or whatever. If the pictures don't load im gonna commit crimes <3<3<3

[ijustwantagoodurl]

Overanalyzing WoH ep 1

Hey folks! Name’s Erazmus, I’m a chicano ex-cinema major, and was in a few AV camps/programs so lemme share my “i am thinking about the crew” thoughts w yall. i need yall to know the LOVE and THOUGHT that went into everything you see in this show. Spoilers for each episode, obviously.

This first shot isn’t like . particularly “CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY DID THAT?” i just appreciate it. its the governer’s lil lamp- a moth gets caught in the flame just as window of heaven comes knocking, and the moth dies just as he attempts to flee for safety. It’s an additional lil “this guy AINT surviving the night” a few min before he dies and it really struck me the first time I watched it. something so apt about how the moth dies without any fanfare i think?

but THIS. THIS is the shot I need yalls attention for. this. its just SO much. this is when ZZS is leaving the lil Makeup Hut as I’ll go ahead and call it, after leaving Window of Heaven and after doing his lil transformation. I didn’t quite catch it, but the beginning of this shot is ENTIRELY dark. and as Zhou Zishu steps forward, away from the camera, he lets in all this VIVID light and takes a moment to adjust his robes and enjoy the sunlight.

LOOK!

THAT BRIGHTNESS? The way the green and the bright sun and the soft brown of the building and finally Zhou Zishu himself is ALIVE? the way this shot goes from Complete Darkness to Bright and Colorful... the c a r e. the love the crew had . the way Zhang Zhehan’s blocking starts off this shot, this moment in the story, in absolute darkness and how he has to step forward first into the light so that it comes in on the edges first as he steps into the middle of this pavilion the editors and script not only allowing us the time to slowly adjust to the light and the colors with Zhou Zishu himself, in this moment in his own story, but the way the next shot is STILL letting us breathe with him and his freedom.

This? how we are ENCOURAGED to sit a moment, in this place with this character. Zhou Zishu taking a moment to breathe, close his eyes and simply feel the sun on his face (his new face!!) and . how Simple it is to enjoy the sun, and how much Light is a thing in word of honor. The Respect the script writers and actors and camera and lighting crews, not to even fuckin mention makeup and costume designers, the Respect and Love and Care they take with this, with us, with them and their story and their world. its insane.

I’m trying to keep it to about one shot an episode for now but this HAD to be the shot. I’m about to cry just thinking about this shit. the fucking. ghghhh.

anyways. I also made a google slides about ep 1, its got a few extra shots and the various counters I have for visual cues/symbols they have here.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GOo2a1vrUq1WGhA_NuEJKj-qvqjvjGChiN0HXWQWtOw/edit?usp=sharing

Uhh lemme kno if that doesnt work. anyways have a very good brainrot <3

[ijustwantagoodurl]

FOLKS IVE DECIDED SANITY IS NOT AN OPTION WORD OF HONOR EPISODE ONE, IM GONNA COLLECT THE TITLES AND NOTES FOR THE SCREENSHOTS IM TAKING WORD OF HONOR EPISODE ONE.

like. 3 minutes in- the moth in the latern (LIGHT, struggles/death)

[ijustwantagoodurl]

ERAZMUS MY MAN I'D LIKE SOME OF UR WISDOM...... i've been wanting 2 get into cdramas 4 a while now (especially the ykno.... 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨 ones) but idk where the hell to start </3

my extent of Consuming is just tgcf's donghua which i did like but i don't have the energy to continue onto the novel </3

Okay this turned out kinda long AJDH and sorry if this is a day or two late!! Im staying w fam and its a bit hard to find time to gush about cdramas ajdhdh BUT AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

YYY lets be real im Only watching the gay ones but if you're looking for het ones I've been meaning to watch Ashes of Love on Netflix? Its got an Excellent track called "the right hand refers to the moon" i think?? thats just. SO sexy

AND ONTO THE GAYS we've got the Untamed (Necromancer is repressed and somehow gets the devotion of jianghu's Hottest Bachelor, the ost is excellent for putting you in that world but tbh the album w all the character songs kinda sucks until you know the characters then it Slaps ofc) , Word of Honor (two men attempt to retire and adopt a son together, ost slaps and from what I can tell the album w character songs n such is alright) (which is also my current poison) Gaurdian (idk. Idk what to tell you theres a catboy and time shenanigans?? Also sexy masks ngl. The intro FUCKS) and if you want absolute garbage Advance Bravely (gong jun has nice hands/abs)

Most of my friends in cdrama fandoms rn started with the Untamed, but id suggest word of honor since its mostly fun and fluff until the end, there's a HAPPY ending, AND the set/crew really went off, its very easy to tell the characters apart which was something the untamed struggled with,, and also the WOH concert was fucking INSANEE. Plus its less than 40 episodes, the soundtrack/album FUCKS and have i mentioned this is my current insanity??

Untamed walked so Word of Honor could run, so pay the Untamed your respects!!!!! but I guess I'd suggest starting w either Word of Honor or Untamed. I don't have the patience to read the books but if you do then my friend @lingzhu keeps reading all the books somehow KSHDHD so go to them for advice??

There's a lot of cultural signals and stuff that westerners like me missed but people have been great about making meta!! Aksjd im not sure what made u think IM the source to come for on cdramas but thank u for your TRUST BESTIEEEE

And last thing, both Untamed/Word of Honor are /Wuxia/ dramas. Theres better sources on this but essentially (from my understanding) wuxia is this genre of magical realism, qi manipulation for example, and often shows the folly of Capitalism/Jianghu. /Jianghu/ is this idea of essentially the political world, sect leaders and their right hand men, the idea of like "the room where it happened" just. Big wig leaders making decisions somewhere.

again this got kinda long JSDHD but I love this shit SO so much its. NABDHDDB whatever u start LIVE BLOG IT i wanna see what u think 👀💖

ALSO I know there's lesbian ones out there and there was a movie length one doing its rounds a while back, but as a gay man I didn't get into that. If/when I find that lesbian show ill rb this with its name!! Any suggestions from my followers would be much appreciated!!

[ijustwantagoodurl]

I DIDNT SPEND ALMOST HALF MY LIFE IN VARIOUS FILM PROGRAMS TO NOT MAKE WORD OF HONOR SHOT ANALYSIS POSTS. FUCK YOU INFODUMP TOMORROW

[ijustwantagoodurl]

Strap in gang im making another over analyzation post and boy is it long