#i doubt anyone will read this

[thenightshadowqueen]

Livestream Watchthrough Thoughts (14-12-2024)

I loved this stream! It was a lot of fun, despite the heckler (they made some great jokes out of it, but it’s still a shitty thing to do), and… Yeah, I don’t have much else to say before I start my thoughts, other than I made a new tag for my watchthrough thoughts, because I’ll probably be making these again. They’re really fun to make, and it seems like there are some people who enjoy reading them, too, so it all works out quite well.

The audio is great!!!

“Lovely little Luke Manning” I love that this is a new thing Sam seems to be doing

Tom has his head in his hands a minute in… this is going to be a good show

Honestly, just settling in and listening to Sam’s intro is so comforting (can you tell my autism likes repetition?)

“I’m taking the joke about German train stations out of my head, because Tom doesn’t want everyone to hate me” this intro has had some edgier jokes and I’m here for it

Callback to the Prime Minister’s First Day!

“I almost understand everything you say!” He said it so earnestly

I know it’s a different tunnel, but… Cliff, is that you?

AJ inserting what’s meant to be a one-off atmosphere-setting singsong and then Sam making him change it over and over is peak SFTH

We made it all the way through munchkin land with Luke without a short joke—amazing!

“Your performance” okay fuck this guy (slight overreaction? …No.)

(They are doing a really good job of handling the heckler, though)

I love the new format of Letters!!!

“Jonathan Rolex” I genuinely have no idea if this is a real person involved with creating Rolex watches (I assume not, but I do not know anything about this sort of thing, so I could be wrong)

“How fucking dare you” Luke is amazing at picking tones of voice; he sounds so politely offended and it’s great

Ooh, we’re breaking the… It’s not really the fourth wall, but kind of?

“You’re. In. …Words.” I love AJ

“Yay!” That was so sweet; Tom is amazing

I love when they do this accent (I’m not sure what part of the UK it’s from and now I fear I’m living up to American stereotypes (I swear I used to know, but I’m exhausted and it’s been a minute since I looked it up))

“Shut the FUCK UP!” Fuck yeah Sam and AJ!

Also Sam indirectly calling the heckler an ass is iconic

“For a wise man, you’ve got to work on your mime” I love it when they insult each other (look insults are a love language, okay, and I like seeing people have friends)

“Tell me a little bit about gold, then” I love that AJ took not knowing what frankincense was (which I assume was genuine, although it could have just been a bit) and turned it into a running joke with the gold

This is so confused and I love it

“I’m Frank; it’s my incense” we can always rely on Tom for wordplay

“Then I put down the hammer” fucking plot twist, Luke, good god

“Cheryl is now…” “Knocked out.” Honestly, I thought they were going to go for ‘dead’, so it’s better than it could have been

“This is becoming a regular occurrence” Tom???

“Is this a robbery, Aaron? Are you robbing the company?” “Only if you force me to get the gun out of my pocket.” This show is gold

“You also have another gun, which is clearly in your belt” I really thought that we were going… somewhere else with that

I’m the tiniest bit sad we didn’t get two lesbians (but obviously I’m also very happy with the scene we got)

Honestly ‘in the round’ is a hilarious suggestion

“I don’t know how to cry. My childhood was bad.” Sam

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Wes Anderson film, but their impressions are always top tier

Luke desperately trying to get Sam to actually understand the Spanish and Sam just failing is amazing

“Get yourself... a drug problem” SAM

Is it a SFTH show if Sam doesn’t unbutton his shirt?

“Calm down” Sam is amazing

“I think I’m going to give Luke the most appropriate book that I've ever given him...” “I Want that Twink Obliterated” oh my god (also, like... I can’t believe that’s a real book) (I absolutely can)

“Pretty sure that's the title of one of our fanfictions” well I’m sure it’s going to be now (also I know they know about the fandom and fandom activities but it still kills me whenever they talk about it)

“Will you please stop trying to have a conversation?” I love that Luke and AJ are just messing up the way the game is meant to work

“Chapter fourteen.” “How did you know we're filing for bankruptcy?” Tom that was an amazing save

This was actually surprisingly wholesome considering the title of Luke's book

The five seconds of pure holding-back-laughter staring between Sam and AJ at ‘egg’

Sam

“I’m going to fuck you up, sun” as a person whose chronic illness gets worse in heat, I don’t think Tom has ever said a more relatable thing

“Well, aren’t we standing in two bland positions” Tom is great

“Here we are. The two men in the world with the longest penises, touching tips.” Well that escalated quickly

I know snake eyes is a dice thing, but... Snakehips?

“Calm down” pt. 2; I love Sam (although I do hope it doesn’t actually bother him)

“If you kiss me now” being interrupted by a kiss is brilliant timing

Also AJ’s still wearing the bracelet ❤️

Fucking hell, Sam (him just grabbing Luke unprompted like that caught me so off guard)

“I’m putting this in a museum” Tom???????

“Now, am I saying ‘see it, say it, sort it’ or ‘see it, say it, sorted’?” “Well, based on that poster, I think it's ‘sorted’.” Look, as an American, I am grateful for the clarification (also hi, SNftHitW)

“The next station is Cockfosters.” “That's not on the Metropolitan Line.” I said in my last watchthrough that I love when AJ makes an unimportant mistake and Sam latches on to it, and I stand by that statement. (Also, they mention Cockfosters station a lot; is that a particularly popular stop, or do they just pick it because it has a memorable name?)

“Yes, well, he does make a lot of promises, doesn’t he?” Oooh, drama (and sass)

“Good evening and welcome to Chip Harrington. I’m Chip Harrington—” Is Chip Harrington related to André Beetroot? (Also I love Chip Harrington already)

I realise AJ stumbling over his words is probably an accident, but I feel like it’s important characterisation for Chip

Also is Chip Harrington grown-up Chip from the Cardboard Stegosaurus? (Seems unlikely, but it’s possible)

Luke causing trouble is the best

“Be very scared” wow, what a news reporter

I adore the way AJ just said ‘~metropolitan~’ (and Chip Harrington and André Beetroot are definitely related, because that was almost a Beetrootian accent slip)

Luke as a child does the most adorable, innocent little faces, and it kills me

“Oh, I needed to tell you something...” see now i really want to know what that was

Luke’s abduction technique is… interesting

“I’m going to copy your face” Luke???

“Just because I fucked your wife Cassandra—” plot twist! (“You didn’t know that.”)

“I was going to give you anaesthetic before I did this; now I’m not so sure” Sam taking his cues from the audience’s response and going “kinky” killed me

“I’ve always thought you were a handsome fellow” hello (god damn it, another niche ship to add to the collection)

“These noisy streets” I love Tom’s passive aggressive way of calling out the people talking at the back

“You always say ‘this is Chip Harrington, and I’m Chip Harrington’, but it’s actually called the news?” I love Tom’s character, and I don’t think we got a name for her, but she deserves one

“I’m Chip Harrington” look he may not have any idea how but he’s trying to help

“I thought you were going to say anal” Tom

Okay so Sam’s acting as Luke’s character pretending to be Sam’s character is incredible

Tom’s baffled/disgusted face as he tries to figure out where they are is everything

“I need to be outside at all times” I know this is meant to be a bit character, but I’m genuinely really intrigued by this storyline

I can’t be the only one who feels like Chip and the mum have a bit of chemistry…

AJ messing up his name after saying it a thousand times might be my new favourite thing

I know we talk a lot about AJ’s singing—as we should—but Sam is also really good

“It’s like that, but really much weirder” AJ is amazing

Chip Harrington is the best

This is chaos

Honestly Tom’s character is a great mum

“There’s a man out on my lawn who won’t shut the fuck up” I love Tom

I genuinely think the mum might be the most sane character we’ve ever gotten

“The audience will ~never know~” god damn it, I’ve been entrapped by another play

I love that the Underground Murderer didn’t actually kill anyone

Tom and Sam’s high-pitched-voice bit at the end is amazing

“We’ll never see some of you ever again. Hopefully that motherfucker.” Fuck. Yes. Sam!

I really hate that they had to deal with that heckler (but they did do an amazing job)

[eliothedud9000]

this is a thing i wrote for school. cw death and sad themes

the bolded date is the title, not when this takes place. yes the date has symbolism in the numbers

December 16th, 1997 

He’s sitting on an ornate wooden chair. I am across from him. 

From every angle, he is, undeniably, me.

He has the same brown hair, dry and tangled. He has the same tattoo on his forearm, the small star blurring at the edges. The same mole right below his left eye, the same crooked smile, the same shy green eyes. 

I look at the rug underneath us. It’s the one Mom had in her house when we were younger. I loved that rug, I always played on it.

There’s a puddle in the center of it. The murky water moves towards my feet.

“Mind the water,” He says, “It has a bad habit of clinging.”

I put my feet up and sit criss-cross. I am wearing pink ankle socks, the same as his.

“What time is it?” I ask.

The lamp between us dims ever so slightly. I remember this lamp. It was the first thing I bought for my dorm when I went to college.

“Late enough,” He replies, “You can sleep now.”

“I’m not tired.” I pick at my nails, avoiding his gaze.

He shifts in his chair, moving his feet away from the spreading puddle. 

“Okay then. We can wait.” 

“Really?” I ask warily.

The lamp flickers. The puddle licks the bottom of the chairs.

“Yeah. We’re in no rush.” He smoothes down his T-shirt. It’s the same one I’m wearing, the one we got at the concert a few summers ago. 

We sit in comfortable silence for a bit, listening to the gentle lapping of the water against the chairs. It stops increasing at about ankle height. 

“What’s your greatest fear?” I ask breaking the quiet.

“Same as yours.”

“Well then, what is it?” 

He thinks for a moment, brow furrowed.

“I think… rejection.” He responds solemnly. 

“Why?” I ask. I know the answer.

“From the people who left us. No one ever liked us.” The lamp flickers and dims slightly.

I feel pressure on my lungs. “That’s not true,” I murmur. A drop of water lands on my nose, dripping onto my lip. I wipe it off.

“Isn’t it?” He asks.

“I don’t like your answers.” I cross my arms. 

“They’re your answers though, remember?” He sits up straighter and pushes back a strand of loose hair.

Some small weeds have grown in the murky water underneath us. Little fish dart around them, weaving through the thin grass. 

The lamp dims more. His face is barely illuminated.

“What happens when the light goes out?” I ask. Something drips down my cheek. Is it a tear or water?

“We’ll find out soon enough.” His voice is muffled.

I inhale sharply and cough, wet and hard. Water dribbles down my chin.

“I’m scared,” I whisper. The air smells like the lavender oil I spray on my pillow every night to help me sleep.

“I know.” He replies quietly.

The puddle is still.

“Do you?” I ask.

“I’m you. I know everything about you. About us. We live in the middle of nowhere. We sing in public like no one is watching because– no one is. We’ve slept with a stuffed animal every night of our life, just so we don’t have to be alone. We cry in public bathrooms when a friend interrupts us. We’ll change every aspect of ourselves for an ounce of praise.” He pauses and takes a deep breath. 

“We are lonely, incoherent, and desperate. We have never been enough.”

“Stop.” I bury my face in my hands.

“What good would that do? The light will still turn off. Why can’t we reflect?”

“Because it hurts.” Something green and slimy is wrapped around my forearm. I don’t look down.

“Without pain, you can’t appreciate the good moments.”

He slowly places his feet in the water underneath the chair. His pink socks darken in color.

“You need to let go.” He looks me in the eye, holding out a hand. 

I grip the chair tightly.

“I’m not ready for the dark,” I reply.

“Neither am I, but we can go together.”

Another droplet of water lands on my face. This one is tinted red.

“Okay.” 

I slide my feet into the murky puddle, shivering slightly from the cold liquid. The pressure on my lungs increases. 

I stand up and meet him in between the chairs. He grips my hand tightly. Finally, someone who won’t let go.

“I love you,” I say quietly.

“No, you don’t.” He smiles, not reaching his eyes.  

The lamp flickers once more, dangerously dim. Then we are plunged into darkness. I still feel his cold hand in mine. 

I hold my hand until there’s no hand left.

The water ripples.

A small fish nibbles a lakeweed.

The moon casts a pale beam on the surface.

Wails of red and blue break the spell.

A young man is pulled from the muck by grim reapers in dark coats and surgical gloves. 

A star hides on his forearm, blanketed by seaweed.

Boots discarded on the lakeside, pink socks covered in mud.

[yibocheeks]

A Completely Biased Fan’s Opinion (and Interpretation) of 无名

I’ve tried to keep my reviews online mostly neutral when it comes to my fangirling over Wang Yibo in the movie, as I really do feel that the movie is well done, the entire cast did a remarkable job, the cinematography and set details are commendable, the music compliments the scenes really well, and there are many interesting parallels and clues along the way that make each rewatch rewarding. 

@faery-snow​ requested a long post and after watching the movie three times, I will henceforth enter full fangirling mode with my thoughts on the film (there will be spoilers). I have also summarized the sequence of events, based on analyses from Chinese fans online (but again this is still open to interpretation) ↴

I’ve summarized a spoiler-free version of some historical background that is relevant to the film here and will note below when I start getting into plot spoiler content.

The opening scene begins with Tony Leung’s character (Director He) sitting on a bench. He appears to be deep in thought, and behind him we see the grid of a prison window. We are then introduced to an array of other characters, and the who/where/when are all still unknown to the audience. 

We then meet Yibo’s character (Mr. Ye), who is having what seems to be a casual breakfast with his colleague, played by Wang Chuanjun (Captain Wang). They are speaking Shanghainese, and upon first hearing Yibo’s Shanghainese I was grinning to myself from ear to ear. His Shanghainese is really very cute, and if you speak to people who are actually Shanghainese they will be able to identify immediately that he is not from Shanghai. 😂 Still, for him to be able to speak Shanghainese to this degree is not easy, considering he only just learned it for the film. And of course from watching all the behind-the-scene footage and interviews, I was already very fond of this 阿呆 and 阿瓜 pair. We see the scene where they are sitting in the car together, on their way to collect the corpses (whom we at this point do not yet know the identities of), and the moment when they both look down at their watch at the same time, which was unscripted. The conversation about every man for themselves, although discussed in the context of breakfast, can be applied to the situation of the times as well.

We are shown the bombings in Guangzhou and there is a scene here that is difficult to watch every time (this, as well as another scene later in the film are particularly difficult to watch; all I can say is that the suffering that ordinary citizens experienced during wartimes really leaves one speechless.) Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, there is a ominous sense of heaviness that is felt as the Pacific War wages. In Shanghai, the foreign concessions, which had once been free from occupation, are also taken over by the Japanese.

Cheng Er does not shy away from showing the violence and cruelty of the time, and we see that Mr. Ye’s job is a rather bloody one. It is such a delight to watch Yibo play this type of role, and although his face was splattered with blood, all I could focus on was how much the yeekies vibrated 😂 (I’m hopeless, I know.)

We see Mr. Ye observing Ms. Fang at the dancehall, and at this point it is not yet clear what their relationship is (although from the article that Cheng Er has written before in GQ, we know that they were engaged, but have grown apart over the years due to conflicting interests - Ms. Fang works together with other progressive youth to assassinate Japanese officers, while Mr. Ye is working for Wang Jingwei’s regime. Thus, in Ms. Fang’s eyes, Mr. Ye is a traitor.)

Tony Leung’s performance is also incredible. He is lauded as having eyes that can tell stories and this is so true. I think he is one of the greatest actors of his time, from every expression to every posture - and it is really amazing that Yibo is billed as co-lead in a film with him. 

Plot spoilers begin here:

After Wang Jingwei’s death in 1944 and towards the end of WWII, Minister Tang tells Director He that he will enter negotiations with the Japanese as a representative of the Kuomintang (KMT) - Minister Tang is a character who truly is a fence-sitter (in the GQ interview Da Peng reveals that he was once part of the CCP, then the KMT, before becoming Minister of the Political Security Department for the Wang Jingwei regime). This poses a potential threat to the Communists. It is at this time that Director He utilizes the list of important Japanese people living in Shanghai, which he had received from Ms. Jiang, the KMT agent whom he spared the life of back in 1941. We see Mr. Zhang deploying men to assassinate the Japanese prince. The next morning, Mr. Ye and Captain Wang go to dispose of the bodies. Officer Watanabe gets the call that the prince has died, and the peace talks between the KMT and Japan end. This series of events is part of the story that Cheng Er has written for the film, and as far as I know is not based on any actual event. Mr. Ye accompanies Officer Watanabe to the Communists’ warehouse, only for a bomb to go off. They find that the Communists have already abandoned the warehouse. At this time Officer Watanabe speaks with Mr. Ye and says that anyone who does not join you in killing immediately becomes suspicious - Captain Wang had been at home for his father’s birthday and because of his absence, Officer Watanabe begins to doubt Captain Wang’s allegiance. We see drunken shrimp being served at Captain Wang’s father’s birthday dinner, a traditional dish from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai regions.

Interestingly Yibo is the only one who speaks multiple languages throughout the film, and perhaps it shows his presumed allegiance to the Japanese as he is able to adapt to their food and language. Hearing Yibo’s Japanese was also such a treat.

Following the prince’s death, the Communists are under further scrutiny by the Japanese, and so it is at this time that Mr. Ye goes to the dancehall to warn Ms. Fang that the situation is dangerous and that she should suspend her activities of targeting Japanese officers. There is a moment here where Yibo drops Mr. Ye’s usual cool countenance and shows a moment of vulnerability as he looks at Ms. Fang - we see that he still cares for her, but that he can not give her any further explanation nor refute her when she calls him a traitor and tells him to go die. His babyface looks extra vulnerable in that brief moment 🥺 He lets out his suppressed anger and helplessness by beating up the Japanese officers he encounters on his way out, and I can only say that after filming that continuous-shot scene for several nights in a row, the outcome is very satisfying to watch as Yibo fully immerses himself into the character. At the end he pulls down his tie again, returning to his prim and well-dressed appearance (although still slightly rumpled 🤭).

The moment when Mr. Ye finds out about Ms. Fang’s death is a devastating moment - Ms. Fang is probably the only person left whom he cared about, and his colleague whom he had considered his friend was the perpetrator. In this moment he is now truly alone.

Officer Watanabe sends Mr. Ye to the docks to investigate the assassination, and Mr. Ye goes to sit silently at a food stall on the docks. Beside him is a member of the Communist underground network, who then goes to warn Mr. Zhang (Huang Lei), the secretary for the Communist underground network, that the docks, their liaison station, have been compromised. Mr. Zhang becomes nervous and asks Ms. Chen (Zhou Xun) to runaway with him. He says he knows someone of high ranks in Nanjing who can help them, and by so doing he becomes immediately suspicious, as at this time Nanjing is still the capital of the Wang Jingwei regime. I must say that Zhou Xun’s performance here is splendid, and this exchange between them always makes me laugh. 

Mr. Zhang calls Minister Tang and says that he knows something about the incident surrounding the Japanese prince, thus betraying the Communists. Minister Tang informs Officer Watanabe and Director He, and between the three of them it is decided that Director He will go to interrogate Mr. Zhang. It is here where the scene from the beginning of the movie takes place, when Director He meets with Mr. Zhang. After getting rid of the traitor Mr. Zhang, Director He knows that his identity as a Communist will be exposed, at the same time he had no choice but to do what he did in order to protect the Communists’ intelligence. 

Officer Watanabe then invites Minister Tang, Director He, Mr. Ye and Captain Wang to dinner. The tension created in this scene was excellent. Mr. Ye turns to Officer Watanabe to ask for permission to leave the dinner in order to get rid of the Communist in their midst, whom Officer Watanabe suspects to include Captain Wang. Here we see Yibo’s tears again as he hears the click of the gun behind him, confirming his friend’s betrayal. Interestingly Mr. Ye and Captain Wang are wearing the same ties as the ones they wore from when they shared breakfast together. Things have certainly changed between them since then.

The reunion between Mr. He and Ms. Chen is a touching moment, and here we see how Zhou Xun and Tony Leung truly shine as the veteran actors that they are, being able to convey such deep emotions in such a brief scene. We are instantly able to feel how much the two have sacrificed in the time that they’ve been apart, separated by the situation of the times and in their hopes to fight for a better future. I really wish we were able to see more from the female actresses, as their time to shine felt really limited.

Then we have the fight scene between Mr. Ye, who is on the Japanese side, and Mr. He, who has revealed his identity as a Communist. This fight scene was filmed so well. Yibo was choked many times, he got to touch Tony Leung’s face, and the music accompanying him is quite fitting for the villain role which he has taken on during this part of the film 🤭 Cheng Er alludes to this in interviews and through camera angles that there may be eyes and ears observing their fight peripherally.

Following this fight, Officer Watanabe seems to trust Mr. Ye completely as he reveals the map of Manchuria and the Kwantung Army’s operations. The scene after this is one of my favourite scenes and gives me chills every time, when Mr. Ye walks up to the office of the Director of the Political Security Department. What a glorious moment for him! 

For the classical music nerds like me, the piece that plays here is Mozart's Requiem. How very fitting.

Shortly after, Japan surrenders and Mr. He gets released. On his way out, he sees Mr. Ye being brought into prison along with Officer Watanabe. Mr. Ye gives Mr. He a taunting look, which is followed by the skirmish between them and Mr. He’s slight smile afterwards - this and the following scene were both delicious.

At the end of the movie, we see that Mr. Ye has moved to Hong Kong, where many spies fled to for safety after the war. He enters a restaurant and says thank you in Shanghainese, revealing that he is from Shanghai. The server turns to him and recognizes this, and we realize that he is at Captain Wang’s family restaurant. The family moved to Hong Kong, not knowing the fate of their son whom they believed to be still in Shanghai. Mr. Ye is served the drunken shrimp and we get a feeling of nostalgia - perhaps he wishes to pay homage to his former friend, or to the homeland from which he came from where he is no longer welcomed. The way in which he eats the shrimp while they’re still jumping, and the persistence with which he chases after the shrimp that has tried to escape - all of this is so true to character and really a memorable scene, particularly with the red from the fermented tofu brine. We get the sense that the past still haunts him, despite living in a new city. (As to the question of whether or not one should spit out the shell when eating drunken shrimp, this seems to be a question of debate. 😂)  Of course the shrimp jumping out of the bowl was not scripted, and Yibo again demonstrates an excellent understanding of his character.

We then see Mr. Ye at a temple where he is burning incense. I tear up every time when I watch this scene, at the silent tears he has shed as he grieves - perhaps he’s grieving the loss of his ex-lover, or the loss of someone whom he had thought was his friend, or the loss of his own self and who he was before 1941, or the loss of the times before the war, or all of the above. He has had to make so many sacrifices along the way as he strived to pursue what he believed in. Why is Yibo so good at expressing silent repressed sadness? 😭

In one Ningbo roadshow, they were asked the following:

When Yibo has a crying scene at the end in Hong Kong, how had CE directed Yibo?

CE: I didn't make too many requests of him in that scene, I wanted to see how he would portray it, which is what you now see

Yibo: It felt very complicated, after experiencing everything that had happened prior, when I arrived alone at Hong Kong, I think it was a very complicated feeling. 

So what we see is Yibo’s own emotional interpretation of Mr. Ye’s experience  😭

We end the film listening to Yibo’s voice singing as the ending credits roll. The song is truly such a striking song and so fitting. Many people left the theatre as soon as the movie ended, and those who remained until the end of the credits were likely fans 🤭

All in all this was a fantastic film, although it may not be for everyone as it is one that can be hard to follow. If you pay attention to the details and have a basic understanding of the different parties in play, I think it will be an enjoyable watch as there are many hints along the way for the viewer to piece together. The character of Mr. Ye has really challenged Yibo with a different role from what he has played before, and he really stepped up to it. He’s not a perfect character either - Cheng Er makes it clear that along the way Mr. Ye commits a lot of immoral acts and has a violent streak as well. Many of the characters are morally grey, which is a bit refreshing to see in a film that was funded as part of a trilogy for the CCP’s centenary. 

I can’t gush enough about Yibo in this film, so if you have more thoughts, my messages are always open!

Addendum: In interviews for GQ and 人物, Cheng Er says that the biggest compromise he has had to make for a film was Wu Ming. It sounds like there were many bumps along the way that he encountered during the film review process. The 人物 interview suggests that this may also include the choice of the ending scene, which is not in keeping with Cheng Er’s usual style of film narrative. There’s been mentions of a director’s cut potentially being released at some point in the future (perhaps with the DVD/Bluray release) and I would be so curious to know what this film looked like prior to the film review!

Addendum #2:

Some other thoughts:

There is one line that Mr. Ye says that left an impression, a line he says in Japanese that goes along the lines of, “No matter how much we strive, what’s lost is lost.” This feels like a rare moment of truth that he says casually in a scene wrapped up in deception.

In speaking to others, many people say that a scene that really disturbed them was the scene with the injured dog. In a movie where we see the torment and death of so many people as a result of war, it is still this scene that leaves an impression on people. Is it that we as an audience have become desensitized to human suffering? It is certainly a memorable scene, and perhaps this is partly why Cheng Er chose to include this in the movie.

Many of the characters remain largely unnamed, even Mr. Ye himself. The only time we see his name is when he gets the appointment letter to become the new director.

Ms. Jiang is seen wearing a ring, and later on in the movie we see Minister Tang wearing a matching ring. Ms. Jiang is thought to be based on Zheng Pingru, a well-known KMT spy who was involved in a plot to assassinate the security chief of the Wang Jingwei regime (The movie Lust, Caution is also thought to be inspired by her).

In the scene where Mr. He speaks to Mr. Ye, there's a line that Tony Leung says, "我无法继续下去了." The English subtitles translate it as, "I can't cope anymore," but a more accurate way to translate this given the context would be, "I can no longer continue." It's a subtle difference, but implies that there may also be other external reasons for why Mr. He can no longer continue what he is doing, rather than just personal.

Another minor translation error in the subtitles is in the restaurant scene in Hong Kong, when Captain Wang's mother says that their family moved over in the 1930s. She actually says that they moved over in the 30s of the Republic of China calendar, which would be the 1940s, so likely sometime after the dad's birthday dinner scene that we see. (Note that the subs in the online version are correct here)

Addendum #3:

There is a scene that was added to the international release that is not in the mainland version or the version that was released on Chinese streaming platforms. It takes place after they get the call about Pearl Harbor, after we see the invasion of the Japanese Army into the concessions. There is a conversation between Officer Watanabe and Mr. He, where Officer Watanabe discusses the politics of what occurred. He comments that Mr. He was late to their meeting and Mr. He says it is because he went to pick up pastries. Officer Watanabe asks him where the pastries are, and Mr. He says they are in the car. There is a moment of dramatic suspense as Mr. He walks slowly towards the car, brings out the pastry box, and gives it to Officer Watanabe, who opens it to see only the Napoleon cakes.

There are also many places in the movie where Cheng Er has changed the music for the international release, which is different from the mainland and online versions. He has cleaned up the timing in some parts and changed it in others to better fit the mood. Let's hope these changes get incorporated into the DVD release when it comes out! Still, I don't think that this takes away from the viewing experience of the mainland/online versions.

[ellie-mutterings]

google search: how do i get my life back in order

okay, but let's be real for a second. my head has been spinning for months now, and now it's just finally slowing, and i'm not sure it'll land straight yet.

to be super real, my grandma passed a couple months ago. it wasn't wholly unexpected, but it was still an emotionally taxing few days while we waited to see how things would go. i wasn't particularly close to my grandma, how close can you be to a woman who has nearly twenty grandchildren, but it was still hard. wakes, funerals, packing up her things. my schedule disappeared overnight and i didn't realize how scattered i was until a couple weeks had passed.

to add an extra challenge, my sister was getting married! in a different country. and our pets have never been apart from us for more than, say, twelve hours? so then i had to handle a couple weeks of prep to make sure they were both cared for while we were away from home for a week and between fall weather starting here and having been so disrupted at my grandma's passing, everything was a mess and i couldn't handle it anymore. so i spent basically all of my free time cleaning so that we would be able to come back to a clean home. which i don't regret at all.

so then we're gone for a week, and the trip is great, and the wedding was beautiful, and my love, who has been having a tough year at work takes an extra week off to recover. im glad he did, he's been so burnt out lately, but i work from home, so him being home during the day means my entire workday is different.

and now hes back at work and im still working from home. alone. and i look at everything around me and i just don't know what to do with it. there are a few things i should probably clean, but that feels exhausting just to think about. and i could probably work on a few craft projects, but i've learned my lesson from sewing when i can't offer something all of my attention. and when i try to write, i just start at the screen. i can see things happening in my head, but trying to convert that to words is impossible. nothing comes out.

and im tired. this time of the year is hard with the holiday prep and the changing seasons. even in the best of circumstances, my mental health can really falter but now i feel like i need to do something, i can't just sit and feel like this and do nothing, but everything is just... out of reach.

i doubt anyone will read this, i wouldn't, but i just needed to feel for a second, let those feelings out into the world. i will be fine, i know i will, but right now, how the hell do i start putting my normal life back together?

[5ummit]

AO3 Ship Stats: Year In Bad Data

You may have seen this AO3 Year In Review.

It hasn’t crossed my tumblr dash but it sure is circulating on twitter with 3.5M views, 10K likes, 17K retweets and counting. Normally this would be great! I love data and charts and comparisons!

Except this data is GARBAGE and belongs in the TRASH.

I first noticed something fishy when I realized that Steve/Bucky – the 5th largest ship on AO3 by total fic count – wasn’t on this Top 100 list anywhere. I know Marvel’s popularity has fallen in recent years, but not that much. Especially considering some of the other ships that made it on the list. You mean to tell me a femslash HP ship (Mary MacDonald/Lily Potter) in which one half of the pairing was so minor I had to look up her name because she was only mentioned once in a single flashback scene beat fandom juggernaut Stucky? I call bullshit.

Now obviously jumping to conclusions based on gut instinct alone is horrible practice... but it is a good place to start. So let’s look at the actual numbers and discover why this entire dataset sits on a throne of lies.

Here are the results of filtering the Steve/Bucky tag for all works created between Jan 1, 2023 and Dec 31, 2023:

Not only would that place Steve/Bucky at #23 on this list, if the other counts are correct (hint: they're not), it’s also well above the 1520-new-work cutoff of the #100 spot. So how the fuck is it not on the list? Let’s check out the author’s FAQ to see if there’s some important factor we’re missing.

The first thing you’ll probably notice in the FAQ is that the data is being scraped from publicly available works. That means anything privated and only accessible to logged-in users isn’t counted. This is Sin #1. Already the data is inaccurate because we’re not actually counting all of the published fics, but the bots needed to do data collection on this scale can't easily scrape privated fics so I kinda get it. We’ll roll with this for now and see if it at least makes the numbers make more sense:

Nope. Logging out only reduced the total by a couple hundred. Even if one were to choose the most restrictive possible definition of "new works" and filter out all crossovers and incomplete fics, Steve/Bucky would still have a yearly total of 2,305. Yet the list claims their total is somewhere below 1,500? What the fuck is going on here?

Let’s look at another ship for comparison. This time one that’s very recent and popular enough to make it on the list so we have an actual reference value for comparison: Nick/Charlie (Heartstopper). According to the list, this ship sits at #34 this year with a total of 2630 new works. But what’s AO3 say?

Off by a hundred or so but the values are much closer at least!

If we dig further into the FAQ though we discover Sin #2 (and the most egregious): the counting method. The yearly fic counts are NOT determined by filtering for a certain time period, they’re determined by simply taking a snapshot of the total number of fics in a ship tag at the end of the year and subtracting the previous end-of-year total. For example, if you check a ship tag on Jan 1, 2023 and it has 10,000 fics and check it again on Jan 1, 2024 and it now has 12,000 fics, the difference (2,000) would be the number of "new works" on this chart.

At first glance this subtraction method might seem like a perfectly valid way to count fics, and it’s certainly the easiest way, but it can and did have major consequences to the point of making the entire dataset functionally meaningless. Why? If any older works are deleted or privated, every single one of those will be subtracted from the current year fic count. And to make the problem even worse, beginning at the end of last year there was a big scare about AI scraping fics from AO3, which caused hundreds, if not thousands, of users to lock down their fics or delete them.

The magnitude of this fuck up may not be immediately obvious so let’s look at an example to see how this works in practice.

Say we have two ships. Ship A is more than a decade old with a large fanbase. Ship B is only a couple years old but gaining traction. On Jan 1, 2023, Ship A had a catalog of 50,000 fics and ship B had 5,000. Both ships have 3,000 new works published in 2023. However, 4% of the older works in each fandom were either privated or deleted during that same time (this percentage is was just chosen to make the math easy but it’s close to reality).

Ship A: 50,000 x 4% = 2,000 removed works Ship B: 5,000 x 4% = 200 removed works

Ship A: 3,000 - 2,000 = 1,000 "new" works Ship B: 3,000 - 200 = 2,800 "new" works

This gives Ship A a net gain of 1,000 and Ship B a net gain of 2,800 despite both fandoms producing the exact same number of new works that year. And neither one of these reported counts are the actual new works count (3,000). THIS explains the drastic difference in ranking between a ship like Steve/Bucky and Nick/Charlie.

How is this a useful measure of anything? You can't draw any conclusions about the current size and popularity of a fandom based on this data.

With this system, not only is the reported "new works" count incorrect, the older, larger fandom will always be punished and it’s count disproportionately reduced simply for the sin of being an older, larger fandom. This example doesn’t even take into account that people are going to be way more likely to delete an old fic they're no longer proud of in a fandom they no longer care about than a fic that was just written, so the deletion percentage for the older fandom should theoretically be even larger in comparison.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the author of this "study" KNEW the data was tainted and chose to present it as meaningful anyway. You will only find this if you click through to the FAQ and read about the author’s methodology, something 99.99% of people will NOT do (and even those who do may not understand the true significance of this problem):

The author may try to argue their post states that the tags "which had the greatest gain in total public fanworks” are shown on the chart, which makes it not a lie, but a error on the viewer’s part in not interpreting their data correctly. This is bullshit. Their chart CLEARLY titles the fic count column “New Works” which it explicitly is NOT, by their own admission! It should be titled “Net Gain in Works” or something similar.

Even if it were correctly titled though, the general public would not understand the difference, would interpret the numbers as new works anyway (because net gain is functionally meaningless as we've just discovered), and would base conclusions on their incorrect assumptions. There’s no getting around that… other than doing the counts correctly in the first place. This would be a much larger task but I strongly believe you shouldn’t take on a project like this if you can’t do it right.

To sum up, just because someone put a lot of work into gathering data and making a nice color-coded chart, doesn’t mean the data is GOOD or VALUABLE.

[hootyhoowoo]

A little 15 min doodle but first post of the year has to be Bingqiu!

[tooies]

i think probably the reason i like the idea of like a girl secretly being a dragon but still trying to just have a life in society and be normal is because it's kinda a transfem narrative of the whole like everyone thinks you're a terrifying monster but you just want to be a girl. and the other reason is due to i'm otherkin

[dendroaspis-viridis]

I'm begging you, BioWare... Learn from the mistakes of Baldur's Gates past...

[luckylocus]

I know I know I haven't done anything in ages. Say thank you to @ihni for more Billy pain in video format! Shes a sweety that in the nicest way possible motivated me to give video edits another go. Song is Ghosts Spillways

[surreal-duck]

live drama adaptations part 2 (prev)

cast reveal and girls movie night 🔥

[arom-antix]

Hey, just wanted to reach out to say that I found you pointing out and calling this person was really great and you shouldn't have apologized. It was incredibly true what you said, and to be honest it seems out of touch with the reality of a great deal of the japanese fandom, the nuances and their culture. Also, it was as you pointed out, extreme and may I say rude. I want to mention too that the way it was written, as if entitled of the knowledge and the 'explanation' made it all worse in context of the 'fucked up'. The original poster always gets away by using the 'well-written academic'' statement of their 'metas' as an excuse to do or say and make everyone else agree and if not, uses victim narrative and discourses exactly selecting wording for people to agree on it or feel bad.

I don't know if they tagging you in the way they did made you reblog and apologizing/backing up, but no one thought bad about you pointing it out. On the contrary, a lot of people had been bullied and discriminated by this person when they called them out/disagreed going onto lenghts of sending their friends to harass people, and the other persons can't even defend themselves because they are effectively blocked. To quite a few people in the fandom has been done, even accusing them as 'acephobes' (when they're not) or even Nazis by spreading lies. So yeah, I just wanted to say that. I think you were right to call them out publicly.

Thank you very much for this ask. To be completely honest I agree with everything you said here and don't actually feel bad about pointing anything out. I mainly apologised because I didn't want any potentially poor phrasing from my side to cause unnecessary hostility and because I myself have gripes with this person's behaviour but didn't want to cause a scene.

My honest opinion is that they have a serious issue with taking accountability for their own mistakes and highly overestimate their own intellect. If you're reading this, @thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai, sorry if I seem harsh, but it's true. I saw your post lamenting how you're the only academic meta writer / fan in the fandom and I didn't interact then because I honestly do not care enough to start that drama but with the information Blonndiec has just given me, I think it's necessary that someone calls you out.

You're not an academic. You're not beyond the mental capabilities of other fans. You're actually incredibly childish in your metas and analyses and I am not kidding when I say that I was halfheartedly writing essays more academic than every analysis I've seen from you when I was barely a teenager. I don't know how old you are and I frankly don't care. You're not as clever as you think you are.

Also, don't think I didn't notice that you didn't reblog my correction (link here to my correction and here to their "response" for those who didn't see that exchange) of your post so that you could control what your followers saw of the exchange. You're the opposite of an academic. You control information to tailor the narrative, you don't cite your sources properly if at all, you don't format your posts in anything close to how an academic analysis would be, you make unbased claims, you reference posts and canon material without in any way indicating where that information is from, you reference your own (equally unacademic) metas and your conclusions from them without indicating what post it's from or that it's your own theory this new one is based on and instead present it as a common fact, and I could go on and on and on. Your posts are also riddled with logical fallacies and you talk in absolutes and opinions when there's no canon basis to claim such things. I'm sorry, but that's not academic in the slightest.

To be clear, you don't have to be an academic to post on the Internet. You don't have to be anything at all. You could up front be a genuine idiot with no remorse and that's fine. But when you claim to be an academic and also put down the rest of the fandom for not being on your level, you have to be able to back that up. It'd still make you sound like a prick but at least your arrogance would have a basis. It currently does not.

I haven't personally seen the discussions that Blonndiec is referencing and I'm not going to claim anything definitive (because that would be unacademic of me, take notes) but if what they're saying is true and did happen as described, which I have empirical, if anecdotal, evidence to believe could very well be (a friend of mine has personally been blocked by you after they criticised you without actually mentioning your name which I of course can't prove is the reason for the block but the timing is awfully convenient), you should know that you should be ashamed of yourself.

If there's context missing, feel free to enlighten me and call out any incorrect accusations. You have every right to defend yourself. However, I encourage you to cite your sources since you're such an academic. If you don't, then it's just your word against Blonndiec and anyone else who might comment's word and that doesn't prove anything. Don't misunderstand, acephobia and nazi rhetoric should absolutely be called out but only if it's actually happening. False accusations can ruin lives. I hope you know that.

I'm not a fan of calling people out publicly and, again, thank you for this ask, Blonndiec. But considering many of the issues I've personally seen and those I've been informed of by second hand sources were posted publically, I don't really feel bad about calling this out. I could do a full breakdown of just the insulting "academic" comments alone and how there's no academia to be found in said academic metas and, Samurai, if you give me reason to, I will show exactly what I mean point by point (and academically just to give you an example of even low level academia).

If you respond to this, do it in a reblog. That's what a real academic would do. If I'm wrong and you can prove it, you'd have no reason to not show my post in your rebuttal. If I'm right, you'd have every reason to be upfront about your mistakes and how you intend to rectify them. There's nothing wrong with being wrong but there's a lot wrong with refusing to admit to it in a way that lets others peer review you (academic thing, look it up) and come to their own conclusions about the situation. That's what you did when you just @'ed me instead of reblogging my response. A true academic wouldn't hide a peer review. You'd know that if you were one.

I swing in many academic spaces and yet that doesn't make me any kind of expert and I don't claim to be one because I'm not. But since you want to be one so badly, reblog this with a response and show us all how smart you are. I'm dying to know what your academic take on this is.

[boviform]

Okay, sorry but is anyone else going insane over the new longform on the latest Patreon livestream?? I absolutely love the dynamic of weird mortician and lonely assassin - literally 'me and the bad bitch I pulled by being autistic'. And the whole confrontation at the end!! I mean, can you imagine what could've been if Pyotr had agreed to give up his ways?? They could have been so happy! I want them to go on holiday around Europe and hold hands!!

[science-lings]

okay this has been going through my mind for days and I have to get my thoughts out before I explode

Disclaimer, this is not talking about a specific artist/person and would never condone or participate in anon hate or online bullying for any reason but especially this one. 

I get why people are mad about Link being portrayed as this buff, hypermasculine, tall guy. I am too (again don’t fucking attack people over it though) and it seems like such an infuriating way to change the character just to fit into some ideal of hypermasculine attractiveness or to make a ship fall into a more hetero lense by making him a decent foot taller than whatever girl he’s being paired with. 

The world of video games and action movies and every form of media ever is extremely saturated with male characters that are swole and manly and whatever other descriptors people are trying to push onto Link that don’t fit into his actual character. There are so many characters out there that already fit this male standard and having a clearly androgynous elf guy was like a breath of fresh air. 

Link was literally designed to be a character whose lines on gender were blurred, ‘a girl with a masculine touch or a guy with a feminine touch’ so that anyone could project themselves onto him. His physical design in botw/totk was specifically made to be feminine enough to wear a certain outfit to pass as a woman (which includes a nearly mandatory cutscene where he puts on the clothes and blushes after being called pretty, like you have to be blind to think that its an experience that he doesn’t like at all) and in totk there are a bunch of outfits made for Link that are blatantly gnc, ones that are practically dresses, include nail polish and lipstick, you can even dye his hair bright and vivid colors and that’s half way to giving him new pronouns. The whole reason Linkle isn’t included in more mainline loz games was because her existence would force Link into a gender dichotomy, if there's a clearly female version of the main hero, that means the main hero has to be a man, and they would rather abandon a potential reoccurring character than make Link conform to a gender binary. 

So pardon me when it feels disingenuous and even malicious for him to be morphed into these clear masculine ideals, where he towers over any female romantic partner (even when in canon he is regularly depicted as noticeably shorter than her) or even in m/m fanworks he’s really beefed up, perhaps to make the scene feel more gay or something. 

Perhaps it’s because his more twink-y/ femboy body type is so heavily sexualized (though obviously when people are sculping abs on him it’s totally not because they’re horny about it) and that’s an issue in itself that bothers me. But it’s just so tiring to see one of the very few popular main characters who is short and feminine and androgynous be molded into just another bland muscle-headed action hero over and over and over again. 

I’m not mad at the creators for portraying him differently than how I like him portrayed, I’m mad because we really do get so few characters like him in good popular media, and to be honest, I really like him the way that he is. I love that he’s tiny and has long hair and has the option to dress any way the player likes. It seems a little distasteful to make him taller than a female love interest just because that’s how straight couples have to be, there’s just never been a real straight couple where the guy is shorter than the girl, that’s just Impossible! (/s) 

[theirloveisgross]

28op trousers?!

musician bradley simpson's new photoshoot for principle magazine.

28 clothing was tagged in the photo and mentioned in the caption.

thanks to this tweet for bringing it to my attention.

[horsemeatluvr23]

the juppet !! i just realised he is jerma posing i swear that was unintentional...... i spent so long digging thru muppet concept art and looking at old puppet designs just to end up doing a rly simple drawing but. i love joehills!! i have only been watching them for like 4 years but their videos r so special to me :3

[my-fancy-hat]

My last remaining hope for asa's recent characterization about her sudden unthoughtfulness (from a character who trait is overthinking) and extreme adaptation to the point of comformity has to do with famine's influence. Ever since she started working for the church asa has become indifferent and apathetic toward kiga actions as well the consequences of hers. Only last chapter asa reacted against yoru but that quickly brushed aside without further conflicts between them like an expected breaking point in their trust for each other. Who would accept on keep on living inside the same mind as her assaulter? who not only hurt you but the person you love?

In moments of huge revelations asa doesn't bother to think much about them: a initial reaction and she still keeps on working for the church/kiga, and well she doesn't reflect on her romantic conflicted feelings for denji/CSM. The guy who dumped you and, due to it, pushed you to suicide, is the same who save you and you been dedicating your life to...

One may say this is the result of character development due falling devil arc, but "progression" shouldn't feel this negative, plain and out of screen. Maybe it has to do with a trauma response but that option requires more work and time to elaborate on it. Either asa is just sadly getting eclipsed by denji to give him the maximun attention writting-wise, or she's been influenced by something else in the story. Like nobana said, after all she went through it's not normal to be this normal. Suddently, asa has become a fami-like person.

She has become less a human and more an animal who just accept anything coming to her. Losing her roof, personal belongings (important things like her mom memories) and her right arm, that just happened. Devils(!) aren't capable of feeling pain or sadness, quoting Barem. Isn't that just... tragically boring on purpouse? A case of devilhood where for denji is bloodlust and for asa is apathy at cruelty?

Maybe Asa has already starved and kiga molded her into her doll without no one noticing, and next on the list is Denji.