#snow maze

[qpjianghu]

The First Shot (2024)

Ep. 15 ~ Gu Yiran whump + bridal carry

[movielosophy]

The First Shot | them.

[lunarriviera]

hi hey hello i have started watching a new crime drama and I AM OBSESSED. it's called 雪迷宫 or, for some reason, The First Shot, although it should be more properly Snow Maze. it's a period piece set in 1997 and it's produced by ZHANG YIMOU which must be why the production values are actually good??? anyway i am here to tell you all about it and why you should be watching it okay here we go

first of all there's a big hot dumb cop, zheng bei. yes that's huang jingyu and you might not like him because of his apparently quite sketchy personal life but all i care about in this case is that he's tall, and thoughtful, and a police captain who's protective of his people and a little bit of an idiot. my catnip tbh. (i guess he was in addicted too? somehow breaking the you-can-only-be-in-one-BL rule?)

(ETA that by "dumb" of course he's not dumb at all, only by comparison; cf. my own stupid meta on this fascinating topic)

then there's an effete genius consultant, gu yiran (wang ziqi), who knows everything there is to know about drugs. he comes from the south to help these ignorant northerners form an anti-narcotics unit. he's such a massive nerd, the team doesn't like him until they realize that he runs 10k every morning and can outrun motorcycles and is actually quite useful. then suddenly it's no longer "gu-laoshi" but is all "ran-ge" this and "ran-ge" that. he can't dance for shit. i adore him.

there's a superb seven-samurai style Assembling The Team sequence in which this cop is brought in as the muscle. Her nickname is mad dog yao and she kicks the ass of an entire club at one point. we love her. her only problem is that, not unlike zhang haixing in tibetan sea flower, she will in fact fight a wall. here's gu yiran's face after a drug dealer mistakenly underestimates her and she stomps on him.

one of my favorite things about this drama so far is how poor the police are. it's 1997 in a dinky northern precinct and these cops ain't got shit. no computers. rudimentary cellphones. barely any forenic analysis, and most of that is on pieces of paper. no bullpen. no interrogation rooms. they have to interview suspects at their desks.

captain zheng is so underpaid he can't even afford a real pointer for his situation board, he has to go outside and get a literal stick.

drives his dad's chicken delivery van. has to slam himself against the front door to open it. everything about this is absolutely perfect.

i'm only on episode 7 but this shit is already brotastic. please behold:

yes that is an actual line from the show. yes gu yiran has to live with captain zheng, they can't afford fancy accommodations for him. turns out there's a trundle bed made out of paper clips but that's okay, they still get plenty of cosy domestic time together.

and that's also what i already love about this drama—in spite of being about anti-narcotics, it's also very slice of life, very daily city life, with meals and neighbors and friends and family and did i mention food, there is so much eating in this drama. it's gorgeous. also i'm improving my colloquial chinese by leaps and bounds.

of course you are you stupid service top, now take care of the baby.

and those are just some of the reasons why you should be watching the first shot, which is funny and suspenseful and unexpectedly brainy and well-cast and has beautiful opening credits. there are 19 episodes on youku's youtube channel right now and the subs are shockingly high quality. i'm hooked, and also so mad at my day job because i can't just binge it, pls join me in this handbasket

[melodious-tear]

"That smile is as fake as a store mannequin's. He smiles like this. Is it creepy?" - The first shot ep. 5

[superwholockian93]

In the middle of a serious drug busting case, they out here on a night market date

[fluffy13-4]

I created a poll for our little The First Shot fandom here to vote for our favorite queer BeiRan moment.

This is my very first own post on tumblr so a) this is an experiment for me and b) I have zero reach. Therefore I am mentioning literally everyone that I found who posted about The First Shot. I am a bit worried but doing it with good intentions and hope that everyone is ok with it!

@ataraxetta @bananaproved @cnladies @good--merits-accumulated  @hideyseek

@hidey-writes @joyouslee @kylinym @lilianhuas @linjingshu

@lizzymayi @lunarriviera @melodious-tear @moononmyfloor @mostotherthings

@movielosophy @numerodix @numerodixe @omaenanimonoda @oncopper

@pi-ying-xi @qpjianghu @rageprufrock @soberbutsleepless @superwholockian93

@thelaithlyworm @whumperer-86

Spoiler Warning: This poll contains spoilers for The First Shot - see poll after the cut.

[kylinym]

〖 姜小海 Jiang Xiaohai | 章宇 Zhang Yu 〗

雪迷宫 | the First Shot ~ episode 4

雪迷宫 | the First Shot ~ episode 32

[thelaithlyworm]

So I started watching The First Shot | Snow Maze because some tumblr moots were screaming about it (this is the way) and it's been interesting so far. Aaaaah, it's a cop show -- there's a city in Northeast China facing an influx of meth dealing, they have no expertise in this and so recruit an expert from warmer climes, a bespectacled young professor.

I found the first two eps okay but not particularly gripping, and then I got to ep 3 which is almost entirely our new team getting to know each other and I think I'm in for the long haul now.

It's just so very... so very Not Glossy in its cinematography. Desaturated colours, if someone wears a uniform it ain't flattering, the furniture fits awkwardly in its spaces, there's, there's background noise from other rooms during conversational scenes. Got a strong 'there is a documentary team quietly filming this in real-time' vibe to a lot of it.

And. And it's set in the fucking 90s. The clothes, the equipment, the little sister in High Fashion with her big earrings and blow-dried hair. This is a cop show set in a country I do not live in which I must read subtitles to understand and I Am Drowning In Nostalgia Right Now. Kind of a dizzying experience.

I can see why Zheng Bei (one of the male leads) is the team leader, too. He's bluff, solid, reliable, down-to-earth -- but we also see him soothing feelings when there's a culture clash with their Southern Expert and being quietly kind to the Expert in turn. He's got interpersonal skills without making a show of it, you feel me? Quietly kind. Seems like the kind of CO who'll turn up to underlings' five-year-old daughters' dance recitals for decades to come.

Early Verdict: would recommend.

[bouncinghedgehog]

[lizzysbrain]

I swear to god this man comes back to get me at least once a year EVERY SINGLE YEAR I CONVINCE MYSELF HES NOT THAT CUTE BUT THEN IT HAPPENS AGAIN. AND AGAIN. AND FUCKING AGAIN.

[niamhloveshs]

i feel like the ballad of songbirds and snakes saved the whole dystopian genre, like we haven’t had a good dystopian movie in ages but everything about tbosas was literally perfect. the songs, the acting, the casting, the whole storyline, everything was amazing, i haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since i watched it

[movielosophy]

The First Shot | Stop worrying.

[lunarriviera]

homecoming by lesamys 雪迷宫 | the first shot 6.5k, E 北燃 | zheng bei/gu yiran post-canon, first time, getting together, huazhou, zheng nan

» https://ao3.org/works/59843608 y'all, this fic is so good i can't even be coherent about it. it's lyrical and beautifully paced, thoughtful in all the best ways and such a plausible continuation of their story—everything unfolds so simply and organically, like a flower unfurling. every time i read it there's a lump in my throat and an ache in my chest. it also gives you the exact same slice-of-life feelings as the drama, only this time in huazhou as well as halan—and you will have jiang xiaohai emotions as well as beiran ones, too. if you need more of them after the drama and lbr who doesn't, this is absolutely gorgeous and highly recommended.

[melodious-tear]

[superwholockian93]

Look, I love Beiran but

But I also love whatever is also going on with them

Their size difference is amazing

[fluffy13-4]

Hi @silviakundera, I follow your blog (but it’s the first time I am contacting you) and usually I watch the kind of dramas you mainly blog about. I haven’t watched a Chinese cop drama before but I watched this particular cop drama and I am glad I did.

Yes, the plot is about police people trying to bust a drug cartel but underneath that it’s a study about the complexity of the human nature. The main drug people are fully fleshed out characters with families and backstories. And there‘s very little “drugs-are-bad-and-our-national-heroes-save-us“ education - maybe it needs to be there because of censorship requirements? - but it takes up maybe 1% of the total runtime so it’s barely annoying.

The queer vibe that people here on tumblr have been talking about intensely is definitely there. It’s queerplatonic and VERY subtle but it goes well with Huang Jingyu‘s very best “very-tall-very-muscular-very-manly-making-other-tall-and-sporty-men-look-soft“ mode.

And it takes place in the nineties! I don’t know how old you are but if you have any kind of nostalgia for the nineties then you‘ll definitely find many enjoyable things in The First Shot.

I look at anything regarding cinematography from a purely amateur point of view. But from what I can judge, this drama is very well made cinematography-wise.

But the best thing about The First Shot is without any doubt Zhang Yu. He gives an INCREDIBLE performance. I am still high because I watched the final two episodes last night but I think in a few days or weeks I will still think that his performance was one of the very best performances I have watched ever and in any context (not only among performances of Chinese actors but among any performances I have watched). He is VERY VERY VERY good and truly amazing. And Huang Jingyu can keep up. He‘s not on the same level as Zhang Yu but he gives a strong performance, as well. He and Zhang Yu have some scenes together that impressed me so much that they may be engraved in my brain forever. If none of the things I wrote about above sounded appealing - it’s basically worth watching this drama for Zhang Yu‘s performance and his scenes with Huang Jingyu allone.

So if The First Shot is still somewhere in the back of your mind, I recommend giving it a try. It was an unusual watching experience for me too but I am glad I watched it.

I really doubt anybody on Tumblr is watching but The First Shot or 雪迷宫 is making me LOSE MY MIND. I’m on episode like 10 and just yelled WHAT IN THE LANYU IS HAPPENING HERE IN 1997 DONGBEI. The first and second male leads are the dude from Addicted and the guy who plays all the mean cold CEOs and also was in Imperial Coroner. They live together and somewhere in the next four eps someone is getting kidnapped by drug dealers and tortured and handsome rough northern drug cop from Addicted is going to princess carry his six foot tall delicate southern nerd wife. This show is produced by Zhang Yimou and is ruining my life.