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sombredancer · 1 year ago

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Asian dramas and my favorite types of characters

There are my favorite types of characters as a list. A villain with a fatal weakness

Drama: The Scholar Who Walks the Night /밤을 걷는 선비 Character: Gwi Screentime: Secondary Gwi is an ancient vampire and a master of puppets (and Joseon's king is the main of them). He is merciless, invincible and scheming all the drama long, until he accidentally kills a girl, who was his hostage and recalcitrant puppet from her childhood on and was the only one who could scold him and deny him. Nothing about it is said directly in the drama, but after her death he goes insane, kills all of his puppets and this way causes his own death. So, I suppose, she was his only weakness, and I like this type of a personal drama for a villain.

Drama: Moonlight Mystique /白月梵星 Character: Mo Li Screentime: Minor The shell of Devil lord Mo Li (which has got his own consciousness) falls in love with the demon girl (and has a very complex enemies-to-lovers relationship with her). Later, Devil lord occupies his shell, cornering shell's consciousness into the darkest corner of his mind, and treats his shell's girlfriend with no particular interest (but better than he could). However, he ends up unintentionally killing her off, and it becomes his doom, because her death releases the ancient weapon, the only thing that can kill him, and the main heroes use it to destroy him. So, she was his only weakness, literally.

Punch-Clock Villain / the Dragon

Drama: 100 Days My Prince /백일의 낭군님 Character: Moo-yeon Screentime: Secondary Moo-yeon works as an assassin for the killer of his father, who is constantly threatening him with the life of his sister. Moo-yeon is a man of a very ill fate: his family was accused of a treason and executed, his sister became a fugitive, he was forced to sell his conscience for his and sister's lives and, as a cherry on the top of this cake, fell in love with the daughter of his captor. And died trying to save her... His story is sooooo sad, but it makes me feel for this character fully. Also, he is the king of whump because the half of the drama he is injured and suffers from his wounds. The whole sad story of this guy is analyzed by me here, here and here.

Drama: The King Loves /왕은 사랑한다 Character: Moo-suk Screentime: Minor Koreans, obviously, like this type of characters, too, so there is another Dragon of the main villain, Moo-suk. In his free from dirty deeds time he h̶e̶l̶p̶s̶ ̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶l̶a̶d̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶c̶r̶o̶s̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶o̶a̶d̶ literally saves cute children and restores self-confidence of young ladies. And then he falls in love, rethinks his life and dies from the hand of his master. Predictable and sad. Still a memorable guy, though.

Drama: The Legend of Shen Li /与凤行 Character: Mo Fang Screentime: Minor A son of the main villain has been groomed from his infancy to plot against the main heroes to avenge his father. Later, he falls in love with the main heroine and rethinks things he was taught about. His resistance, however, doesn't help him much - his body ends up being possessed by the evil spirit without even an opportunity to kill himself in order to break free... No HE, as you understand. 50 shades of a Byronic Hero

Drama: The Wolf / 狼殿下 Character: Chu Youwen Screentime: Main A Mowgli boy was adopted by a wicked emperor, brought up like a cruel beast and was forced to do some dirty stuff for the emperor. He is mysterious, severe and you never know what's on his mind. As a true Byronic hero. He is some kind of Dragon, too, but it's a Chinese drama and he is a main hero in it, that's why he doesn't really do anything bad during the series. His soul is kind and his heart is pure, but he hides it from his love and deals with all of his problems on his own. It's the reason why all of this drama is a masochistic tango between him and his love. Whump lovers will be happy, too, because he is constantly in chains, pierced by arrows like a hedgehog or works as a slave in mines. As any other Dragon, he has a BE.

Drama: Lost You Forever /长相思第一季 Character: Xiang Liu Screentime: Secondary A mysterious demon general, whose name makes everyone shake in fear. A former demon slave, who is true to his word enough to fight for his benefactor even if he knows crystal clearly that it's hopeless and he and his army will die in the end. A man who has huge problems with expression of his emotions in a socially approved way. Edward Cullen of Chinese dramaland. He is enigmatic, with thick vibes of a bad guy, yet very loyal to his benefactor as well as his love and very selfless. Because of this loyalty he will die and the love of his life will never-ever find out about anything he has done for her during the story.

Drama: My Journey to You /云之羽 Character: Gong Shangjue Screentime: Secondary A guy was through trauma in his childhood and it made him look intimidating and unfeeling. A tsundere is born! He coped with his trauma by taking extra responsibilities for everything and everyone and turned to be a walking killing machine instead of a man. But an enemy assassin comes to his life and teaches him how to be a human once more. It's a painful experience, but it`s necessary in order to grow up as a character and is beautifully fulfilled. It was a great joy to know that he survives at the end of the story, it's a rare thing for this type of characters, so even if there is season 2 someday, I will not watch it in order not to spoil my impression of the first one. I wrote about him detailed here, here, here and here.

Drama: Princess Agents / 特工皇妃楚乔传 Character: Yan Xun Screentime: Secondary It's the transformation story, too, like a previous one, but this time it's transformation from an ordinary man to a villain. Prince Yan Xun is a hostage colony prince in a metropolis empire, but he enjoys a noble life along with other nobility youth. The society around him is awful, each of these noble youths is a psycho who appreciate human hunt and so on, but cheerful and easy-going Yan Xun doesn't think their bloodthirstiness could turn against him. When relationship between the metropolis and the colony become tense, though, Yan Xun's friends of yesterday are happy to drink his blood. He loses his whole family and, insanely longing for revenge, slowly turns to one of those monsters himself.

Drama: Fangs of Fortune / 大梦归离 Characters: Li Lun Screentime: Secondary The Great Demon was dumped by his boyfriend because of his aggressive ways of protecting people of his own species and still can't get over their break-up. He goes through all five stages of acceptance of their break-up while being a villain of the story. In the end his obsession brings him to his doom, because he loves his ex-friend too much. He is morally grey yet a versatile and interesting character. I wrote about him here: 1 , 2, 3 and 4.

Drama: A Journey to Love / 一念关山 Character: Li Tongguang Screentime: Minor This guy has got a very realistic personality and background: he is a bastard who was deprived of mother's love since he was a child. The first circumstance made him power-hungry, scheming and outwardly emotionless, the second one made him longing for mother's love on insanely level. So he is invincible outwardly, but turns into a teary mess when it's about his female tutor, who is a mother figure for him. The contrast between these two personalities is enormous and makes this character very alive and interesting. During the drama he will not cope with his Oedipus complex but circumstances will solve this problem for him.

A pure-hearted hero

Drama: Creation of the Gods Ⅰ / 封神三部曲 Character: Ji Fa Screentime: Main It's maybe strange to find this type of characters in the list of my favorite types, but morality and selflessness of a character is very important for me, too. This story is some kind of King Arthur's legend, but in a Chinese way. The emperor is bewitched by a demon and is bringing the kingdom to it's downfall, the Gods are here to find the savior with the help of a magic scroll that can be opened only by a true king. Ji Fa, a hero of this story, doesn't care about scrolls, but his heart is loyal to his kingdom and to his family (in this very order). He genuinely wants to help his friend-prince to be a king his kingdom deserves and, despite awful things that were done to him and his family, doesn`t harden his soul and betray his ideals. And, I suppose, although he isn't aware of this, he IS the future King Arthur of China.

Interesting character decisions

Drama: The Legends/招摇 Characters: Jiang Wu Screentime: Minor This character is something like a rival of the male lead. He is a xinmo - an inner demon of some other character and represents the darkest features of a human's soul. He is a ruthless killer, a dark sorcerer without conscience, but what was very unique, being literary the worst part of a human personality, he values his assistants a lot and genuinely cares for them. A villain is usually a lone wolf. He doesn't trust anyone and doesn't value anyone, his loneliness is usually his weakness and a key to his downfall. So I was pleasantly surprised that sometimes a villain is capable of building healthy relationships with his subordinates.

Drama: Sh**ting Stars / 별똥별 Characters: Do Soo-hyuk Screentime: Minor

This guy truly surprised me. Firstly, he is supposed to be something like a third wheel in relationships of the main couple, but he just calmly got a refusal from the female lead, said "OK" and, absolutely relaxed, proceeded to live his life further. It's something unbelievable for me, because I used to see the insanity caused by an unrequited love to be the plot engine of a lot of dramas. Secondly, he is well-written as a character, straightforward, principled and has tsundere-ish or Byronic vibes - all the character features that I like =) Also you can see: Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 1) Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 2) Asian dramas and Love tropes Enemies to Rivals/Lovers recipe

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areuils · 3 months ago

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Creation of the Gods 2: Demon Force Review (Contains Spoilers)

Given I’m unsure of what is considered major spoilers or just expected of the movie given it’s based on a Ming Dynasty novel, I will just say you have been warned

Plot summary: It’s the traditional siege(s) of Xiqi plot line. Lead by Deng Chanyu (best known for bullying Huang Tianhua and Nezha with a rock) and then later Wen (taishi) Zhong (best known for having a lot of friends), they try to break through Xiqi’s defences and capture Ji Fa and get the fengshen bang. The four Mo brothers are also there and dies to super Yin Jiao who got resurrected by Kunlun and absorbed Yuanshi Tianzun’s power. Deng Chanyu turncoats over to Xiqi after Ji Fa talks to her about her motivations for combat and together, along with Jiang Ziya’s advice, beat Wen Zhong and one of the ten absolute formations he set in place (the one that seals souls).

Plot wise, overall it’s fine. It’s basically what I expected after the director said that the sieges of xiqi was going to be one big battle. What I didn’t expect was that the only ones of the Kunlun disciples that actually fight are Leizhenzi and super Yin Jiao. The funniest thing ever was when Nezha, yes that Li Nezha of Chentang Pass who will commit 1700 killings, saying killing is prohibited by immortals. Later on, Yang Jian says drinking is prohibited, so maybe they’re just really careful of rule following in case they end of going against the way of heaven. I would’ve liked to see Wen Zhong hit people with his sticks instead of doing the Jie Sect classic: formations, but given the actor is old, too much active and violent movement is probably bad for him.

Okay time to address the biggest issue in the movie (outside of horrendous cgi but I’ll get to that). The strange romance subplot between Ji Fa and Deng Chanyu. I’ve taken to calling this movie a high budget costume cdrama movie entirely because of this subplot. For those who don’t know, the strong independent who needs no man woman having a badly written romantic subplot with the protagonist who makes bad decisions due to falling in love is almost a key corner stone of cdramas.

Ji Fa I know you’re nice and all but all of Xiqi got their souls sealed and is currently getting massacred by Shang soldiers (thinking back why were you affected little lotus root? It’s one of your key advantages in the book too) and you’re hesitating to kill Wen Zhong because it’d also kill Deng Chanyu. Deng Chanyu had to go help you while she was bleeding out because you were that hesitant. What happened to you! In the beginning of the movie, you’d rather die than let the people of Xiqi suffer and now you’re willing to sacrifice all of Xiqi (and the world) because of a woman whom was your enemy like 3 days ago and you don’t even know very well! Ji Fa stop reminding me of the version of you from The Legend and the Hero 2. It’s not a good look.

On a lesser note, the horrendous cgi! Well it’s mostly fine except …

This monstrosity. Trust me it looks worse in motion. This is what I’ve taken to calling super Yin Jiao. Given that he and Leizhenzi are the only ones who fight a lot with cgi, you’d hope it looks good. It does not and every time he came on screen I wanted to burst out laughing. Please note this movie had been delayed due to cgi reasons. If this was the best that they’ve got, I just hope less of super Yin Jiao in part 3.

About the kunlun disciple shaped mascot in the room: Nezha and Yang Jian. What they do in this movie is mainly stand around and watch things happen. They help out with protecting the citizens of Xiqi during Wen Zhong’s attack, though ultimately fails to the soul sealing moonbeam lasers (Book Nezha: ???) and that’s it! Oh wait, Yang Jian also rescues Jiang Ziya once after Jiang Ziya called out water escape several times as a gag. Speaking of which, eight-nine technique, nine turns technique, what’s that? All Yang Jian knows is the 5 methods of escape. He literally does nothing but that and rescue people and calls them out too.

Also I think they ended up taking out a romantic subplot involving him because he was offered alcohol, denied due to reasons above, and then purposeful accidental kissed by the woman who handed it to him. As one commenter said, which of the four words of Qingyuan Miaodao have to do with love? He later rescues her and she tries to say something but he just goes off to save more people. Nezha gets a better showing with huntian ling and blots out the sky to stop the moonbeams from hitting people. Truly the mascots to bait people who had no interest previously but do have interest in one or both of these characters into watching. Unfortunately I’m a Huang Tianhua fan too so I’m just eternally suffering.

Characterisation wise, outside of Ji Fa, everyone important is fine. Ji Fa’s characterisation aside from the strange romance subplot is workable? He’s way too self sacrificing, especially as King Wu, but outside of that being annoying, just acts like part 1’s version.

Given what I remembered of Nezha and Yang Jian’s personalities and roles in the first movie, it was to be expected they be passive rather than how they acted in the book (missing Nezha’s violent personality and Yang Jian’s love of viewing the scenery and being a smart asshole). Group together because they are basically a set.

Jiang Ziya stops being comedic relief and starts doing his job as being the guy who does military strategies and also fills the quota for fish allegories.

Yin Jiao I don’t remember much from the first movie or the book. He gets a lot of people shipping him with absolutely everyone after the first movie so that probably says something about his personality. Standalone, he’s fine. Usual angsty guy out for revenge. This movie actually made me realise Yin Jiao is Taisui Xingjun, hence the form super Yin Jiao has. Super form has 3 personalities as a gimmick and it’s fine, not anything majorly important. Lets me suffer the bad cgi more however.

Newcomers Wen Zhong, Duan Chanyu (and to a lesser important extent, the four Mo brothers).

Wen Zhong, less friends, got a huge power buff. He’s the one who stayed most to the book version. Loyal supporter of the Shang Dynasty, though not to Yin Shou, and comes out of retirement to secure the future of the Shang Dynasty. Didn’t have his condemnation of Yin Shou’s sins here but Yin Shou comparatively has done less sins compared to the book before Wen Zhong returns from suppressing the northern uprising. Dies by getting stabbed through the third eye. Enthusiastic supporter of following the rules.

Deng Chanyu diverges from the book a lot. Her core motivation is to follow her dead father and die on the battlefield too and bring honour to the Deng family name. Her reason for turn coating is due to not wanting to kill civilians because her father never did. Poor Deng Chanyu, freed from Tuxingsun and right into Ji Fa’s hands. She kept her rocks at least.

Brief note on the Mo family. Why can’t they talk and why do they have zero brain cells. That’s all I have to say on them. Yin Jiao kills the remaining three single handedly after they were terrorising Xiqi.

Yin Shou and Daji are in the movie but don’t do much so I won’t talk about them.

Overall

Well I didn’t have high expectations going in after I got spoiled about the romantic subplot and people saying the movie was badly written. It basically matched my expectations. Is it better or worse than the first one? I’d say worse but I’d have to rewatch the first one. I’d say the director achieved their goal of showing what can the average human do against cultivators and giants, though that came to the downside of basically only the normal humans doing the fighting. Hope the third movie is better and no badly written shoehorned in romantic subplot that destroys characters thanks.

#fengshen yanyi #creation of the gods #investiture of the gods #creation of the gods 2: demon force #ji fa #yin jiao #deng chanyu #wen zhong #nezha #yang jian #jiang ziya #sure was a movie that existed #i want to see the nezha one instead sigh #big ramble

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