#wu liang

[nunafilms]

You just don't want to be my prince consort, right?

✩ The Double ─ Episode 35 (墨雨云间)

[swiftletinthecloud]

THE DOUBLE 墨雨云间 (2024)

@asiandramanet july bingo: animation (in/sp)

[dangermousie]

I continue to love what the drama did with the husband. It would have been so predictable and boring to make him a villain who would do anything for a promotion but he's just a pathetic broken man who loved his wife but not as much as his own life and perhaps only realized just how much he loved her after he committed unforgivable acts against her.

I love that he's haunted by her even as he knows she's alive. The haunting did not stop after his finding out.

This whole scene was amazing, where he does talk to her in the flesh and she confirms to him that he's nothing to her.

I loved this confrontation for her because she deserves to live free of her past and her pain but for him it's a different kind of liberation - a bleak one but one nonetheless - she is alive so he did not kill her after all, but he's dead to her and he can't even console himself in her past love, not really. She's not dead but she might as well be as far as possibility of ever being together is.

Love him walking through his own music video afterwards.

The thing is, her being alive has dispelled some of his guilt and by that restored some of his sanity but it's not good news for the princess because now the man who's snapped is playing with all his own (bleak as fuck) marbles. With the confirmation of her being alive on top of the confirmation of her understandable hatred and on top of long realized confirmation that the princess doesn't like him or love him or even care if he lives or dies and just wants to torture him for kicks, and with any sort of hope or fear tormented out of him, this is a man with nothing left to lose but a hell of a lot of plans for revenge of his own.

I mean, look at this scene, where he's kneeling in the cold/snow all night. These are some serious Tantai Jin eyes here.

And when he goes in and she keeps slapping him, there is no fear, there is no shame, there is no self loathing, there is not even mute endurance, the way there used to be. This is a man who is letting a lunatic vent as needed to get whatever he wants done.

I mean, look at this man as he says this to the princess. He's barely bothering to conceal how false his words are even if the killing intent is very real. If I were her, I'd sleep with a knife under my pillow but she's so demented she doesn't get it.

Instead she pokes him some more, another confirmation as to how she doesn't see him as human.

Lady, this is the face of a man who would like to wear your skin as a cloak. You are so epically DUMB!!!!

He's got more human emotion imagining his wife than in the whole above scene. And once again, I love love LOVE how he's haunted by the woman he very much now knows is alive. Because what's dead is his chance at happiness and his happy marriage and any real path forward.

It is SUCH an unusual take on the usual villain from past life/evil spouse our FL must overcome and I love it!

[shenzhiheng]

―A Poison Tree, William Blake

↳ for @antique-forvalaka

[xinyuehui]

Ah Qi vs Ouyang Zan

伍六七之记忆碎片 · SCISSOR SEVEN S5EP4

[incorrect-ironwidow]

Zhuge Liang: how are you feeling?

Sima Yi: fine, except for this headache that comes and goes

Zetian: *enters*

Sima Yi: there it is again

[movielosophy]

The Double | That's my ride.

[xiaolanhua]

The Double 墨雨云间 (2024) Dir. Bai Yun Mo, Lu Hao Ji Ji, Ma Shi Ge – Ep. 13

[romchat]

The Double (Ep. 32): You reap what you sow

I'm always riveted when I watch a Shen Yurong scene because not only does Liang Yongqi have electrifying chemistry with the actresses around him but my goodness do I LOVE how the show's visual storytelling reinforces what a pitiful man he is.

Framing, Blocking, Lighting

For example, this episode makes fantastic use of doors and other forms of architectural framing to show Yurong's fundamental flaw: his cowardice.

At the beginning of the episode, we see Fangfei gaze at two doorways, one that could lead to her future (Duke Su) and the other a painful reminder of the trauma Yurong has caused her. It's only when she recalls Duke Su's reassurance ("A'Li, from today onwards, there's no need to be afraid of anyone") that she's able to step forward and face her memories.

But when Yurong enters the hall and offers to open the door for her, suggesting he knows her true identity, Fangfei side-steps him and their blocking slowly changes. Fangfei now faces the light, her back to the door of their past.

They've never been quite aligned as husband and wife, and in this moment the gulf between them is even clearer.

Unlike Fangfei, who fights for survival and will no longer compromise what she believes in, Yurong refuses to see that he has always had a choice to fight for his conscience, regardless of how difficult it might be. His constant need to pass blame instead of choosing the path he knows is right has left him a pitiful shell of the vibrant scholar he once was and so he remains shrouded in the darkness of the hall.

SIDE NOTE #1: I love the parallels between Fangfei's argument with Yurong ("So, in your opinion, the crimes of your mother and sister don't need to be atoned for, while my innocence and grievances don't need to be compensated") and Grandmother Jiang's admonishment of Minister Jiang ("Can you really let this go?...You haven't fulfilled your responsibilities as a father for all these years"). Both are men who have failed their families--my heart broke when Yurong distinguished between Fangfei and his "family"--by choosing who they decide to protect.

Camera Angles

Ok, this scene has GOT to be one of my favorites from the whole show and so much of that is due to the way it plays with camera angles and the visual language of power.

In cinematography, low-angle and high-angle shots are often paired to visually enhance the power imbalance between characters. Low-angle shots make the subject look more powerful and threatening while high-angle shots make the subject look weaker and more vulnerable.

But in this particular scene, that visual relationship is subverted.

The scene starts with Yurong taunting Princess Wanning.

He is at such a low point after being accused of assaulting Fangfei that he embraces the idea of banishment or death. He is shot at a high angle with the Princess looming over him as usual but it's clear that at this moment he has reclaimed some power now that his all-consuming despair has liberated him from his fear.

When she tries to attack him, he pushes her back and then gets up to bow mockingly. It is he who is now shot from a low angle, signifying his dominance.

But then Princess Wanning seductively leans back in the straw. As they trade barbs, she is shot from a high angle but it's clear there has been another shift in power:

Yurong: Your highness, you don't have to save me. You've fooled me for so long, I'm sure you're bored of it. Princess Wanning: I'm not bored. Shen Yurong, in this world, I'm the only one who can decide how you die. Your life is in my hands.

As noted by @dangermousie, Yurong's lack of self-interest just "makes her more interested again, because someone broken is not her thing but someone who she can potentially break more?" And we can see the fear creep over his face again once he realizes that.

Regardless of the temporary relief he might have felt challenging her, it was all an illusion, as demonstrated by the constantly shifting meaning of the scene's camera angles to maintain her power within the scene. He is completely trapped now.

SIDE NOTE #2: The fact that Princess Wanning always finds a way to make a crop out of anything even a piece of straw and bring a man to his knees (literally or metaphorically) cracks me up.

SIDE NOTE #3: This moment? Hot. Am eagerly waiting for the fanfic.

[kdram-chjh]

Tdrama: Meet You at the Blossom (2024)

Ep11 || Meet You at the Blossom #meetyouattheblossom #meetyouattheblossomep11 #bl #boyslove

Watch this video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qamtdMzbOyw

[evilfarmin]

Qiye gang image exploitation dump lmao fortnight summer

[nunafilms]

All things follow the laws of heaven and earth.If one goes against their conscience, no matter how many good deeds they do, they will face Devine retribution. 

✩  The Double ─ Episode 30 (墨雨云间)

[swiftletinthecloud]

─ Oscar Wilde

THE DOUBLE 墨雨云间 (2024)

@asiandramanet july bingo: typography (insp)

[dangermousie]

The dynamic between Jiang Li and her husband continues to be FASCINATING to me and honestly, while man needs both serious jail time and serious therapy, he is the most interesting character in the drama to me. He saved her during the examination (it hinged solely on him whether she lost and had to go to the nunnery or won and stayed) but here this all comes to a boil point blank. Princess Wanning brings the charge of her actually being Xue Fangfei and when her other witness implodes, decides to use Shen Yurong to prove her identity.

(Side note: loving that she managed to put in a dig about him loving her even in the middle of this! She's unhinged as fuck, is this really the time for one of her games?)

The problem is if you push someone enough they will break or hit back and honestly, Shen Yurong is at the stage where he's reached both. Maybe if she did this right after she made him kill his wife, he'd be in such terror etc he'd agree with anything she said and did. But he's been living haunted by what he did and wandering his mansion clutching his hair for months; he's dug up the grave like a mad person, and she's abused and humiliated and ground him down non stop since then (and at one point almost killed him), basically smacking down any time he tried to show any will or idealism and messing with even his career. He's just burned out. And if she can't control him by terror, she can't control him (he may feel some lust for her, who knows, but certainly not enough to derail his sanity or overcome his issues.) This man is a ghost and ghosts are not really controllable.

I love the intercut of him walking towards her in court as to how he walked when he tried to kill her because that is what he is flashbacking to and picturing in his head.

This is a dead man.

I am genuinely unsure as to whether he believes this is his wife who survived and is protecting her (because he didn't want to kill her and doing so thrust him into hell so he's trying to make amends/dealing with regrets/trying to appease his demons) or he's so utterly broken he believes his wife is dead no matter what he sees (because he needs to, to maintain some sanity) and so his denial sticks to that an also is making some sort of protection to his wife's doppelganger in her honor. I don't think even he is 100% sure because he's not 100% sane any longer. But I love it.

Love Li's face as princess loses her marbles in the background. For the rest of her revenge, it's very clear cut for Jiang Li - they are all monsters and for most of them she has no feeling and never had (the Jiangs, the princess, the new magistrate etc.) But the thing with the husband is so complex - she hates him but she loved him, he married her and killed her, he killed her under duress and is living in hell but HE KILLED HER and it's all such a mess. Whether she ultimately kills him or not, this is the target who haunts her the most.

This is amazing. He's found the courage of despair and a spine because being spineless made it all worse. Once again, he's got nothing to lose so what can you threaten him with? (By making his life so bleak, she's taken away a lot of his fear of death.)

OMG, he SNAPS!!! My jaw dropped open.

She's really lost it. It shows what a loose cannon she is btw. Even if Shen Yurong was saner and more terrified of her, at least coordinate with him earlier, psycho! Even a fully rational man with zero pangs of conscience and genuine fondness for you (we are 0 for 3 here with SYR btw) might decide admitting this is his wife would lead to big issues for him and not bother.

I am beginning to heavily bet he murders her. He was fail at first murder (seriously, there is no sufficiently describing the fail - he hit his wife with a shovel and she didn't even get a concussion; he buried her so shallowly and in such loose soil she was able to climb out with arms tied and without any martial skills) but practice makes perfect.

[shenzhiheng]

The Double Cast x Hello Saturday 20240713 ↳ Favorite Moments

[xbethelight]

The Double 墨雨云间 (2024)