Good morning, Readers!
With nothing much happening now except for reviewing files for The Timbercreek Incident, and writing up some new stuff for the subscriber edition of the book to prepare for that launch come October (I'm hoping), I can finally talk about other things.
I recently (actually not that recently, if I'm honest... It's been, like, three weeks) watched a couple of shows that I really loved. Let me talk about them for a sec.
First, I'm back on my Chinese drama ride. I do tend gravitating towards the costume dramas, as it delves into interesting history and fantasy a lot of the time, and I enjoy that a lot. Also, everyone in them are always unfairly beautiful, which has its own fascination. This time around, I watched The Pursuit of Jade. Starring Tian Xiwei and Zhang Linghe, I kept seeing shorts on YouTube (my algorithm is all over the place, which ought to surprise no one), and it piqued my interest enough to give it a shot.
Zhang Linghe and Tian Xiwei as Xie Zheng / Yan Zheng and Fan Changyu respectively
It is a love story between a high-born man and a low-born woman, but more importantly, it's about the rise of Fan Changyu from humble butcher to respected female general. I fell in love with it from the first episode. It is earnest and endearing, and even when it gets dark (which these dramas tend to do), the love between the two main characters is something bright and joyous. There's also a lot of humour in the tale, and Fan Changyu's baby sister steals every damned scene she's in.
I'm particularly fond of the fight scenes. The action in this is a lot more grounded that I've found typically, though there is still wire work aplenty. Still, the action was great, and I enjoyed it very much. I also enjoyed that the male main character is portrayed as very human. He needs time to recover from grievous wounds; and when he gets involved in things he shouldn't, his wounds worsen. He spends a lot of this drama in recovery, which makes for a refreshing change of superhumans running about (this isn't a commentary on C-Dramas specifically. It's a thing across all media that has a lot of action, regardless of country of origin).
If you're looking for an "in" to Chinese costume dramas, I can definitely recommend this one. It has a happy ending, and everyone you care about (save one that I can think of) lives. So it's happier than my usual likes.
As an aside, I recognised Zhang Linghe from another C-Drama I really loved, as the extremely problematic male love interest in The Story of Kunning Palace. The more I observe him in his roles, the more I feel like he'd play an exceptional Cai, if ever I publish The Chronicles of the Great Man... and if ever it was adapted into visual media.
Anyway...
The other show I watched, just to say I did and not because I expected it to be any good, was The Other Bennet Sister. I was expecting to be mildly amused...
I sobbed my way through damned near the entire series.
Ella Bruccoleri shines as Mary Bennet
Focussing on Mary Bennet, the oft forgotten and neglected side character from Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, this is a story about a young woman with absolutely nothing to recommend her but a razor-sharp mind and good heart. Listen, I by no means think I'm hideous, but with two older sisters everyone - friend or foe - constantly informed me were far more beautiful than I, this sympathetic, kind examination of a side character marked as "plain and nerdy" struck a very deep chord in me.
It remains now, as it was then, that beauty is a sort of currency, and I was by no means wealthy as a young'un.
Don't go arguing about it in the comments, or to me personally. I don't want to hear it. That's just the way it was.
Anyway, like Mary Bennet in The Other Bennet Sister, without a pretty face or killer body, I leant hard into the only thing I thought I had; my mind. I was a naturally curious and studious girl, and often far too serious... just like Mary Bennet. I thought I had nothing but my brains, and so resolved to become the brainiest person ever. I never got there. I burnt out before the end of grade 10, and kinda just... coasted through high school a bit because I couldn't function. Undiagnosed depression also had a lot to do with that. So I understood Mary immediately. I understood how it felt to be always on the outside looking in, in every possible group.
Thank goodness I did not have Mary's mother, and thank goodness Mary had her aunt.
I also really loved how this story, through Mary's eyes, humanised some of the other characters that were largely ridiculed in the main story. Mr. Hurst and Mr. Collins, most especially, were profoundly sympathetic in this. Well done to the writers for that.
I would never call myself a romantic, but there was something about watching a character like Mary Bennet blossom, and find love in the poetic soul of a certain Mr. Hayward that just had me hook, line and sinker.
This is a story for all the girls who never fit in, who were invisible, who were never chosen. It was heartbreaking and wonderful.
Maybe make sure there are some tissues on hand, though, if you identify with Mary at all. I was wholly unprepared. There are salt stains on my shirt.
Have you watched either? What did you think? Let me know below!
Slán go foill!
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