A Shakespearean Genius of a Drama

Shakespeare wrote these lines:
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts."

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em."

"O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!"

"My brain more busy than the labouring spider. Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies."

And these words are apt to describe the world of The Double, a drama about betrayal, intrigue and revenge. The forty episodes go by fast. Everyone is acting a part or is a part of a scheme. There are movers and shakers (or they think they are) and there are pawns. By the end of the drama, each main character has fulfilled their version of the Shakespearean quotes I gave above.

The characters started simple enough--a wife, a cowardly husband, a debonair high-ranking duke, intrusive and selfish family members, royal bickering, evil princess. However, as the story moved forward, each layer was peeled off and the characters became Shakespearean in their clever verbal sparring, motives, and for some, a slow descension into madness.

The Plot in a Nutshell
The story begins with a woman, Xue Fang Fei, a woman of Talent (cai nue), who loved her scholar husband so deeply, she had suppressed the whole personality to be just a wife, supporting his scholarly ambition with many sacrifices, including pawning her personal property. However, after he became an Imperial Scholar, he (and his family) betrayed her with rape, humiliation (loss of reputation) and finally, the man who professed to love her, whacked her on the head and buried her alive.

Xue Fang Fei survived and was saved by Jiang Li, the daughter of a minister who had been sent to a nunnery-like place for troubled women, also by her own family. Jiang Li had also been suffered from injustice and was bullied. Shortly after, Jiang Li died and Xue Fang Fei assumed her identity and started her journey to avenge Jiang Li and herself.

The Characters
This is the best part of the drama. Every character was memorable and unique. Our heroine, XFF/JiangLi played everyone like a chess game, yet she was also a pawn piece for Duke Su, who had been playing a long political game with various court family factions. XFF/JL first intrigued him, then his interest grew as he realized the dangerous game she herself was playing. Duke Su loved watching plays and this "Jiang Li" was fast becoming his favorite play. So he interfered (and aided) with her plans over and over and through much verbal sparring, the two started the world's slowest burning romance. The chemistry between the two were SIZZLING HOT--the way their eyes met, the puns with words like Qi (chess) with Qi (wife), the progression from sharing of cups to intimate clothing without ever once any actual romantic moment had this viewer laughing and squeeing like a young girl reading her first romance.

KUDOS to WJY and WXY for their portrayal of the amazingly resilient and smart XFF/JiangLi and the crafty and deliciously debonair (every entrance he made was grand) Duke Su and his fan (oh, that fan). WJY as the sincere, eloquent, determined and vengeful, yet at the same time vulnerable XFF/JiangLi was a master class of acting. WXY had such stage presence that, even though his scenes were limited, he commanded everyone's attention and totally owned all the ladies' hearts. Every move he made was perfect , from the narrowing his eyes to the micro-expressions, to the callouses on his hands when he caressed Jiang Li's hand.

The two characters who ultimately stole the show were Shen Yu Rong (the ex? husband) and the Evil Crazy Princess who had corrupted him. I'm going to warn you that the Director had a hard-on for SYR. He had given this villain so much depth, one could end up caught in his web of self-deception. Shen was a villain and also a tragic figure, blinded by power and a need to prove himself the stronger man. Through that one act of ridding his wife, he lost all the happiness he had before becoming the Princess' dog. His final descension into total self-absorbed power-madness was mesmerizing on the screen. Like, I said, the Director had it bad for SYR.

The Evil Princess was also another revelation. She was totally villainous and just as blind to the fact that she wasn't as in control as she had thought. She remained a pawn for all the men around her and her final realization of how she'd lost the game to XFF (she took the latter's man but couldn't make him love her) was tragic to watch.

KUDOS to the two actors' portrayal of these two villains.

BIG SPOILER
If you just want the best ending to this slow-burn romance, watch Episode 40 and stop at Minute 31:16 (or thereabouts). The events after that are stupid and unnecessary. Click Off at that point and just go to the extra half an episode, 40.5, that they shot as fan service of the two lovers. I took off .5 because of the way it ended after Minute 31:16.

I highly recommend this drama if you enjoy twists and turns, clever manipulations and characters with layers. The acting is superb. The script is great. The director wanted to be artsy and framed many scenes like a stage (curtain on top, side panels/pillars, railing at bottom). An example is the Evil Princess room/hallway scenes. The zoom-ins can be very distracting as the characters look straight at the camera, breaking the fourth wall. The closeups are too close, cutting off the top of heads in MANY shots. I'm not sure why the director decided to do this. Eh. Stupid choice, in my opinion, because the shots were jarring. Overall, the cinematography was gorgeous when needed, but not overly expansive. The costumes (esp on Duke Su!) was really beautiful.

If nothing else, watch Duke Su, Duke Su, Duke Su. His fan. His eyeliner. His voice when he says "A'Li," his whipped-puppy expression when his lady love called him "Xiao Heng." That is all.

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The Road To Revenge Is Full Of Plotholes

THIS HALF-RANT IS FULL OF SPOILERS and is written by one in need of vengeance against these scriptwriters who don't communicate with each other about what the drama they're writing is about.
***
Come here, sit down and have a cup of the lovely Undying Flower Soup while I rant a wee bit.

Kill Me Love Me is touted as a revenge drama. The novel had a Blackest Flag male lead and an abused female lead who loved him in spite of being treated like dirt by him, and anyone who read this story knew there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell C-Dramaland was going to have the real version show up in their adaptation. Nonetheless, the first five episodes of Kill Me Love Me delivered an exciting promise of a different kind of male lead--one who was a bit depressed (about his loss of self and reputation), plenty angry (about his condition, the betrayal of his brother) and quite, quite ruthless in his ten -year plan to exact revenge.

Liu Xue Ye delivered Murong JingHe as he should have been THROUGHOUT the book in these five episodes and got many, many viewers hooked. He handpicked and trained an assassin in a secret assassin school, spending years making sure she was one tough nut, to be a tool in his plan. This assassin was a victim of a city siege fire that MRJH had been framed for setting, killing 100000 citizens in its wake, so this woman, who willingly underwent very brutal training would attempt to assassinate HIM, MRJH. This woman was Mei Lin, who had lost her parents, who hated MRJH, the General of the WeiBei army, so much for the death of her parents and friends, that she swore to kill him. The fascinating angle to this whole buildup to the revenge was Mei Lin having no idea that her Master Trainer/Lord was MRJH himself, who always appeared as a shadowy figure.

The set up was Gothic, full of darkness and ravens, of people screaming at an indolent and uncaring MRJH in his wheelchair, of the watchful hate in Mei Lin's eyes as she got nearer to her target. It was akin to the Madhatter's Party in Alice in Wonderland, where every character was questionably insane, yet all the colors were pretty and there were pretty cakes and silly rhymes and we the viewers were getting highly entertained by the push and pull of the sexual tension between our leads as they confronted each other in the flesh.

Then POOF, Alice in Wonderland took a pill and became tiny. The Gothic story disappeared and our ride became bumpy with the first set of plotholes before we were suddenly plunged into a ROMCOM world of happy village people living the idyllic life of happy unaffected people, and our two leads were suddenly in couple clothes and doing very romantic things. Which was all fine and dandy, except, without any transition from the danger of almost dying a few days agp from hunger and cold, of almost being killed by the evil brother, we were left scratching our heads with these three or four episodes of Happy Couple, tralalala-ing in the fields.

Then POOF. Alice in Wonderland took a pill and we were back in the Palace of Intrigue. The stakes were high and our leads' revenge was nigh. We were so ready for it because this was what it was all about--the truth would come out and the Evil Brother would die a good bloody death, etc. etc. Oh wait, Plothole ahead. Bump Bump. And I'm at a loss at how to explain what happened next.

The revenge? A whimper. The Evil Brother's death? Kinda peaceful, in the arms of the woman he freaking lied to and seduced, no less. And the ten-year plan? Long gone, actually--it disappeared in the first five episodes because Mei Lin already found out MRJH wasn't the one who ordered the fire. We were led to this point where we'd expected the PAY OFF--these two would face Evil Brother TOGETHER and get their vengeance. That's what a revenge drama is all about!

And Poof! Poor Alice. Small again. Our ML went and did the "noble savior" act and denied the assassin HE trained any of the revenge action! My head about exploded here. Mei Lin was sent off as Princess in marriage. WTF? What the loving frack?! The plothole here cannot even be filled in. Yes, yes, the noble savior trope was the cement bridging the next segment of this sad story, but can we get back to the Mad Hatter Murong Jinghe? This man, our slightly crazy hero of those first episodes, who wore vengeance with a casual sexy ruthlessness, had turned into the emo-child of some grunge festival, crying about angsty self-hatred. And Mei Lin, the amazing assassin we've grown to love was no better. She was suddenly some regal lady of the court, with the mannerisms of nobility, speaking of "different paths" and changing her focus to saving another man, her sudden betrothed.

What? WHAT? I get it. She was mad about the Big Sekrit of who had trained her. I get the angst. But shouldn't she be angrier about NOT BEING INCLUDED in their revenge? What was this about her agreeing to be saved? She was Mei Lin! She didn't need saving! She was the one saving everyone, remember? This essential change in her character gave me the second whiplash. Because...Plothole. Where were the other assassins who had trained with her? Why would she just meekly go off when she had never done so before? And if she was so clever in the beginning at figuring out that MRJH wasn't all bad, why was she not clever in figuring out that her betrothed, the Xiyan Green Tea Prince, wasn't all good?

(I know you're wondering what gave me the first whiplash. I wish I have time to include other character plotholes. But the first whiplash belonged to a secondary character, who was almost (ALMOST, if only the darn writers could decide together) the 2FL. One moment she was hankering after our ML for 13 years and then she took a whiff of sexy incense, and she was in love with Evil Bro. Y'all just have to hatewatch the drama to see what I mean)

And you know what? Alice never got big again throughout the drama. Mei Lin remained weak. MRJH said (and rightly so) that he was to be blamed for killing her. But dude, you had the cure. Why let that Other Guy take the credit?

The rest of the plot after the revenge was added on for lovers' angst, which was fine. I admit, I enjoyed MRJH's anguish because Liu Xue Yi was hella sexy when he suddenly turned Heathcliff and ran off digging up the "dead" Mei Lin. Now, THAT was a memorable scene. Where did we ever see a ML carrying a "corpse" around, drinking wine and trying to feed her medicine? THAT was the MRJH from the first few episodes--a man unafraid of the darkness within him--but this Gothic Self was merely bookends to the drama. In the middle was some other persona.

The romance was sexy at first, then turned rom-com sweet, then went all angsty. The loss of sexual tension really hurt the push and pull of these characters. They just jumped from one segment of episodes to another segment like they were in different dramas. I love the actors' chemistry, and boy, did they hard-carry this show, but many, many balls were dropped while we traversed this road full of plotholes.

Did I enjoy the drama? Yes, mostly. It had many entertaining scenes. But these stitched up scenes lacked coherence. So many things had to be explained away, until we all got a bit silly and started asking silly questions, like Where did the pet dog go? Or, how did the village people change our couple's clothes while they were unconscious and when Mei Lin wouldn't let go of Jing He's hand for days? Or, shouldn't rigor mortis have set in--why was her "corpse" so malleable?

So, yes, I was entertained, even at the "ending of repeated deaths." They should have titled the drama Kill Me Kill Me Again And Again. Just ignore the Plotholes. And the writers' attempt at making ironic symbolism like the Undying flower for the couple.

It's more 7.2 than 7.5. I'm kinda torn. I want to avenge MRJH and Mei Lin for what the writers did to them.

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Youth Xianxia Provides All The Feels

The Last Immortal's Chinese title (and its first title before they changed it) is Hidden God. I'm disappointed they didn't keep it because it was very apt and would have given the viewers clues about the plot.

Hidden God (TLI) has many hidden gems. It starts out with a mysterious ghost/spirit on her way to being reincarnated. She seemed fine with all her unhappy endings, somewhat cavalier in fact, while discussing it with the god in charge. Seeing an image of a handsome but sad young god in a magic mirror which appeared and, upon learning that he was using it to look for the leftover spirit essence of an immortal he once killed, she remarked that if she were said woman, she would never want to see or talk to this god again.

Thus begins the story of Ah Yin/Feng Yin, the hidden god(dess), the Fire Phoenix going through her tribulation of death and rebirth. Her story is easy to follow, the xianxia cycles of innocence and misunderstanding, pain through injustice and loss, and finally wisdom and responsibility. Its complication lies in the nuances projected by its characters, how actions in this drama mirrored each other (and giving new discoveries in each rewatch) and the unexpected pleasure of enjoying the growth of four friends who were the Scooby Gang of the Immortal World, all four reveling in their youth, suffering in their trials and still ending together as four strong immortal friends who helped each other in times of need.

For me, as a fan of xianxia, my topmost demand for this genre can be distilled to one question: does the drama deliver the xianxia feels?

The First 10 Episodes-Youthful Friendship
***
Because a good xianxia starts with innocence and fun. YES THE LAST IMMORTAL DOES. It was humorous and Lu Si as baby hatchling and the teen Ah Yin was funny, sweet innocent but smart FL. Also, the story gave an unexpected twist--Gu Jin, the ML, was equally naive in his expectation of life and love. He was only a few hundred years old at the beginning of this journey and he acted it. He had a foolish boy-crush. He acted impulsively. He wasn't the usual cold and calculating 60000 or how-many-zeros-added-on year-old ML who held all the power. He didn't. He was going to make the mistake of his life as his tribulation as the god of Chaos. He was the other Hidden God of this story.

The other unexpected twist was the 2ML and 2FL. There were no toxic friendships and betrayals. Both were from different realms and had their own challenges, but 2ML was also a naive young immortal who showed a soft heart for those he cared. The 2FL did not play the jealous card, like any number of 2FLs in other historical dramas. She was always the supportive friend, with no other agenda. I LOVE THIS about the drama.

The Second Ten Episodes--Youthful Love
***
Because a good Xianxia must make me feel good about love and to worry about their future. YES THE LAST IMMORTAL DOES. This segment of episodes had a quest-like feel to it as our friends went around the world looking for pieces of FengYin's soul. We as the audience know the irony of the Hidden God: that Ah Yin was looking for herself. Gu Jin was already being shown his fate: he was going to be looking for Ah Yin and never seeing the real her. We could see the horrible thing called tribulation coming up as our couple went about building loving memories.

The Third Ten Episodes--End of Innocence and Youthful Love
***
Because a good Xianxia must deliver Epic Angst. YES THE LAST IMMORTAL DOES. In heaps. Oh my god, does it deliver. The pain built into a crescendo as the misunderstandings grew through the evil Hua Shu and her father's manipulation. Everything was against our young couple and their friends. There was so much pain, we wonder how Ah Yin was going to make it. We forget that Ah Yin was Feng Yin, the Fire Phoenix. And what do phoenixes do to achieve rebirth? Yes. You got that as a clue.

And our Gu Jin, having giving the oath to accept any tribulation from the Magic Rock to get Feng Yin's soul pieces back, had no idea what that meant. But did he find out. These ten episodes built to a crescendo that kept this xianxia fan clicking to the next episodes. And the tears. Get that box of tissues ready. Zhao LuSi was amazing in these episodes. I don't remember crying while watching her sad scenes in Love Like A Galaxy, but here? She made my heart hurt for her character. As for Wang AnYu as Gu Jin/Yuan Qi who paid the price of being young and noble, trying to fit in his parents' big shoes, he played the role of bum-turned-tragic-god masterfully. A two-hundred year-old master of all five realms who had to learn that being fair and just was a difficult balance in a world where the adult immortals play for power, whatever the price.

The Last Ten Episodes--Rebirth, Retribution and Love
***
Because a good Xianxia must give me back my couple, must make things right, and punish the Big Bad. YES THE LAST IMMORTAL DOES. Everything came back full circle. It's the same and not the same. Our Scooby Gang has grown up. How are they now that 1000 years have come and gone? Are they any better at dealing with these more experienced immortals who played them like a deck of cards?

The surprise of Feng Yin being the cold and more calculating character here was a good twist. Yuan Qi had to figure out how to chase his wife. He was the God of Chaos, whose duty was to sacrifice all for the realm. We learn in these episodes how much he had sacrificed for those he loved, especially Ah Yin. She was the Phoenix Queen now, who had fulfilled her death and rebirth tribulation to rule as a demi-goddess. Having gone through 1000 years of tribulation, she was in no mood for love and Yuan Qi and immortal games. But she knew, to put Ah Yin to rest, she must investigate what had happened 1000 years ago. And thus the Scooby Gang came back together, but no longer the fresh-faced four. They were now the God of Chaos, the Phoenix Queen, the Demigod and King of Demons, and the Eagle Queen. No one could stand in the way of their quest now! Esp. Hua Shu, that Peacock Bitch who was the root of all the pain. Was it fun to see her smackdown by Feng Yin and then, Yuan Qi!

There are two more Hidden Gods in this drama. I'll let you figure it out for yourself. I've rewatched several times as the hidden gems kept coming. And the OST was one of them. It snuck into one's subconscious and although at first I thought it was just all right, I ended up loving it, with all its lyrics.

Way to go, TLI cast! You've made this drama very memorable for this viewer.

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