Chen Ling and Qi Luo centric Mars meta...
Jan. 30th, 2007 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieI was having a discussion with fivil during the course of which I realized that Mars is one of the very few dramas that actually has a sex scene in it (not an explicit one, but still).
And I think it’s actually one of the really rare stories that needs it. Because sexuality and approach to it is, oddly enough, a really really important part of the story.
This is most obvious, of course, in the case of Qi Luo. QL, after the repeated rapes by her stepfather (I still cannot believe they addressed this in a twdrama. Good for them) is obviously someone who’s not only locked her sexuality away and threw out the key, but she is someone so incredibly traumatized when the drama starts that she can’t even bear to interact with boys in any fashion at all.
She is terrified of Ling/dislikes him in the beginning (and it’s a vague general dislike that she shares for the rest of the world) when he does nothing more than politely asks her for directions. After all, this is the girl who used to pray every day that no one speak to her in school.
And yet, paradoxically, part of the reason she is OK with Ling at the very start, enough not to shut him out is that he is so open about everything, sexuality included. I am thinking of that bit at lunch where he is trying to talk to her and she is staying silent so he jokes whether she would like him to open her mouth with his tongue (um, Vic honey. I am quiet all the time. Want to come over?) He is totally a boy!slut. But it’s all open, on the surface, nothing hidden. She knows where she stands. Everything out in the open (well, not his issues but that’s a matter for another discussion) and he doesn’t treat her as a weirdo but an attractive girl, but also his attentions are so good-naturedly out there that she doesn’t have to worry about him pouncing for real. It’s just talk he’ll do with anyone and if she doesn’t take him up on the offer, he’ll find someone else and he is not really pursuing her. In fact, she sees how protective he is of her.
He is not like her stepfather or that teacher (as she tells him). She is terrified of ‘normal’ because she’s seen what horrible things it can hide. With someone like Ling, it’s not hidden at all and the very fact that he doesn’t lie or pretend, that all the weirdness is out there so she knows what to expect, makes her feel safe. And of course, as we later find out that a part of her is drawn to Ling precisely because of the violence, because he is acting out what she so much wants to do, to her tormentors, in her head. Tong Dao might assume she is Ling’s good angel and he is right. He is also right that if she were to disappear Ling would go full blown psycho (even at the very end, when Ling says he wouldn’t get revenge on Tong Dao, I don’t know. It’s tremendous growth that he can even think that but I think he really would snap in some horrifying way if QL died). But, in some ways Tong Dao is very wrong as she has an enormous deal of darkness in her. After all, she is the one who wants the stepfather dead, and it is Ling who stops.
And as she falls in love with Ling, she begins to open up. Emotionally but also physically. Let’s talk about emotions first. Part of the reason she is so adamant about not giving Ling up (when Qing Mei threatens her and tells her she will smash her hand and so QL won’t be able to paint, QL replies that it’s only her right hand and she can teach herself with her left) is because he really is the only connection to humanity and to feeling normal she has. She has so few outlets that she is desperate to keep this. And of course, through being with Ling, through letting in another person, finally feeling secure to feel, she begins to let others in as well: Da Ye, Qing Mei, etc. I love that she will always be an introvert, the reserved one (just as you’d never expect to see her in a miniskirt). But she is so much more functional at the end.
But she opens up physically, too. I am thinking of all the kissing and hugging and the amount of physical contact, which must be such a novelty to her (the scene that kills me is when she later tells Ling that he is the first person she’s kissed because through everything, she’s never been kissed.)
And I think it really culminates with the sex scene (and significantly, the sexuality thing is not really addressed again except in normal fashion of her waking him up in the morning or his father asking about kids blah blah). It’s so crucial that she is the one who makes the first move, because after knowing of her rape, there is no way Ling would make the first move. And I find it really significant, the way she phrases her request: to take her back to the time before she was 16 (which is when she was raped). For her, making love with Ling is really reclaiming herself, fully freeing herself from her trauma, being fully who she is supposed to be, every aspect.
Because I think that is the crucial thing: for her, sex itself is made clean again, and she herself is physically made whole because she is doing it with someone whom she loves and who loves her back. It doesn’t have to be a shameful, dirty, painful thing. And so she doesn’t have to feel shameful and dirty and painful. I love that Ling is so attuned to her that when she closes her eyes he realizes she is beginning to freak out and tells her to open her eyes and look and see that it’s him (GUUUUUUH. *dies*) Or that he tells her he’s never seen anything more pure than she is when she starts freaking out she is dirty…
But I think it’s the look on her face at the end that kills me the most: it’s this total surprise that wow…this can be good.
The interesting thing is, for Mars the whole point is sex with love is the good thing. The rest? Blah. Just look at Ling. He is all about meaningless fun sex before Qi Luo. He would never force a girl or even chase one that’s not interested and he is very into having the girls have a good time as well, but the whole point is, his whoring around is a symptom of some of his problems: he doesn’t want to make emotional connections. He doesn’t want to feel, to be vulnerable, to open himself up to loss again (I bet part of the reason he ran as fast as he could from Qing Mei is because she wanted to get serious). In his extravert, gregarious way, he has walls even thicker than Qi Luo. But that’s the whole role reversal in effect in their relationship: loving him makes her able to open up physically. Loving her makes him patient about this with her. And makes him incapable of being with others (physically, no less!!!) Because it’s all about being able to connect.
You know what I find interesting? You’d never think so from the first ep, but the outgoing daredevil Ling is much more messed up and fragile than Qi Luo. The results of her trauma are very very visible: withdrawal from the world, lack of interaction, almost pathological shyness.
Ling, when we first meet him, appears to be a fun extravert, popular if a trouble-maker. But as we get to know him, we see that his demons are so much much worse even than Qi Luo’s. One doesn’t get locked away in a mental institution for nothing.
Ling is terrified. He isn’t terrified of physical things (though he is not an adrenaline junkie. He loves riding motorcycles because he loves the feeling of speed and freedom not for the adrenaline rush). But he is afraid of himself: he is afraid of losing his mind (with good cause), he is afraid of the kind of person he is. If Qi Luo has loathing for her sexuality (or her lack/presence thereof), Ling things of himself as completely unworthy as a human being. He thinks he is useless academically yes. And a failure as a son and brother, true. But what really is the crux of the problem is that he thinks of himself as a monster. This is something Tong Dao latches on. There is an enormous potential for darkness in Ling. I love that the drama doesn’t gloss it over. He is the guy who almost shot someone when he was a kid, he used to get into these completely awful fights which made Domyouji’s seem like mild temper tantrums (and before his committal they were getting worse and worse) and he is the one who almost chokes Tong Dao and stubs a cigarette out on his hand.
But that is why he needs Qi Luo. Qi Luo has seen him at his worst or knows of his worst actions and still loves him, and still believes in his goodness. In fact, she never lets him put himself down even as an offhand joke. Qi Luo loves him for him, not for the image he might project or because he’s cute or whatever. Just as QL is sometimes puzzled as to why he’d want to be with her, you can tell that a part of Ling is permanently astonished that someone who is ‘good’ and knows him so well actually continues to love him.
If Ling is Qi Luo’s ticket to normalcy, to interaction, Qi Luo is likewise a ticket to sanity for Ling.
He is someone who grew up in a horrible unstable environment, with a crazy mother and a father who tried to be distant. His almost pathological dependence on his brother, as they were sent away from family while still kids, is understandable but considering what Sheng was like, only led further down to trouble. Sheng is what really screwed Ling up, I think. Not just the suicide (though that is horrific enough) but because Sheng used Ling as his ‘id’ to act out his revenge fantasies/bad side, an outlet to everything the model son could not do, but he also would prevent Ling from developing a separate healthy identity. Just look when Ling tried (in high school).
I think Qi Luo is the first person Ling has who both loves him and cares for him (in many ways, from the most physical: she takes care of him when he’s sick and I realize that no one probably has before, or she cooks from him and he says that he doesn’t remember his mom but she’s unlikely to have cooked. I love that she makes him a silly, pink, ‘hello kitty’ lunch box and he looks at it and grins and is totally happy and you can tell that’s when he really thinks he wants to marry her), but she is also the first person in his life who loves him without manipulation or hidden motive and expresses her love as support and wanting what makes him happy for him. He has worth in someone else’s eyes for the very first time as a person, not an expression of something, or a symbol or what not. And I think that allows him to discover stability in himself.
Stability and tenderness. So much tenderness. The scene that really stays with me on rewatches is a very little one. It’s where she is alone at home and he knows she is afraid (though he doesn’t know why) and he stays by her bed the whole night, keeping her company, only to leave quietly in the morning.
And there is protectiveness. Part of the reason Ling is first drawn to Qi Luo is not just her painting which makes him think of his mother, but it's because, at his base, Ling is a very protective person. Sheng has twisted that, one of Ling's best qualities, but it's still there and he's found another outlet for this, only this time she is worthy. Just as he is worthy of her trust.
Anyway, this meta is running insanely long so I better stop.
And I think it’s actually one of the really rare stories that needs it. Because sexuality and approach to it is, oddly enough, a really really important part of the story.
This is most obvious, of course, in the case of Qi Luo. QL, after the repeated rapes by her stepfather (I still cannot believe they addressed this in a twdrama. Good for them) is obviously someone who’s not only locked her sexuality away and threw out the key, but she is someone so incredibly traumatized when the drama starts that she can’t even bear to interact with boys in any fashion at all.
She is terrified of Ling/dislikes him in the beginning (and it’s a vague general dislike that she shares for the rest of the world) when he does nothing more than politely asks her for directions. After all, this is the girl who used to pray every day that no one speak to her in school.
And yet, paradoxically, part of the reason she is OK with Ling at the very start, enough not to shut him out is that he is so open about everything, sexuality included. I am thinking of that bit at lunch where he is trying to talk to her and she is staying silent so he jokes whether she would like him to open her mouth with his tongue (um, Vic honey. I am quiet all the time. Want to come over?) He is totally a boy!slut. But it’s all open, on the surface, nothing hidden. She knows where she stands. Everything out in the open (well, not his issues but that’s a matter for another discussion) and he doesn’t treat her as a weirdo but an attractive girl, but also his attentions are so good-naturedly out there that she doesn’t have to worry about him pouncing for real. It’s just talk he’ll do with anyone and if she doesn’t take him up on the offer, he’ll find someone else and he is not really pursuing her. In fact, she sees how protective he is of her.
He is not like her stepfather or that teacher (as she tells him). She is terrified of ‘normal’ because she’s seen what horrible things it can hide. With someone like Ling, it’s not hidden at all and the very fact that he doesn’t lie or pretend, that all the weirdness is out there so she knows what to expect, makes her feel safe. And of course, as we later find out that a part of her is drawn to Ling precisely because of the violence, because he is acting out what she so much wants to do, to her tormentors, in her head. Tong Dao might assume she is Ling’s good angel and he is right. He is also right that if she were to disappear Ling would go full blown psycho (even at the very end, when Ling says he wouldn’t get revenge on Tong Dao, I don’t know. It’s tremendous growth that he can even think that but I think he really would snap in some horrifying way if QL died). But, in some ways Tong Dao is very wrong as she has an enormous deal of darkness in her. After all, she is the one who wants the stepfather dead, and it is Ling who stops.
And as she falls in love with Ling, she begins to open up. Emotionally but also physically. Let’s talk about emotions first. Part of the reason she is so adamant about not giving Ling up (when Qing Mei threatens her and tells her she will smash her hand and so QL won’t be able to paint, QL replies that it’s only her right hand and she can teach herself with her left) is because he really is the only connection to humanity and to feeling normal she has. She has so few outlets that she is desperate to keep this. And of course, through being with Ling, through letting in another person, finally feeling secure to feel, she begins to let others in as well: Da Ye, Qing Mei, etc. I love that she will always be an introvert, the reserved one (just as you’d never expect to see her in a miniskirt). But she is so much more functional at the end.
But she opens up physically, too. I am thinking of all the kissing and hugging and the amount of physical contact, which must be such a novelty to her (the scene that kills me is when she later tells Ling that he is the first person she’s kissed because through everything, she’s never been kissed.)
And I think it really culminates with the sex scene (and significantly, the sexuality thing is not really addressed again except in normal fashion of her waking him up in the morning or his father asking about kids blah blah). It’s so crucial that she is the one who makes the first move, because after knowing of her rape, there is no way Ling would make the first move. And I find it really significant, the way she phrases her request: to take her back to the time before she was 16 (which is when she was raped). For her, making love with Ling is really reclaiming herself, fully freeing herself from her trauma, being fully who she is supposed to be, every aspect.
Because I think that is the crucial thing: for her, sex itself is made clean again, and she herself is physically made whole because she is doing it with someone whom she loves and who loves her back. It doesn’t have to be a shameful, dirty, painful thing. And so she doesn’t have to feel shameful and dirty and painful. I love that Ling is so attuned to her that when she closes her eyes he realizes she is beginning to freak out and tells her to open her eyes and look and see that it’s him (GUUUUUUH. *dies*) Or that he tells her he’s never seen anything more pure than she is when she starts freaking out she is dirty…
But I think it’s the look on her face at the end that kills me the most: it’s this total surprise that wow…this can be good.
The interesting thing is, for Mars the whole point is sex with love is the good thing. The rest? Blah. Just look at Ling. He is all about meaningless fun sex before Qi Luo. He would never force a girl or even chase one that’s not interested and he is very into having the girls have a good time as well, but the whole point is, his whoring around is a symptom of some of his problems: he doesn’t want to make emotional connections. He doesn’t want to feel, to be vulnerable, to open himself up to loss again (I bet part of the reason he ran as fast as he could from Qing Mei is because she wanted to get serious). In his extravert, gregarious way, he has walls even thicker than Qi Luo. But that’s the whole role reversal in effect in their relationship: loving him makes her able to open up physically. Loving her makes him patient about this with her. And makes him incapable of being with others (physically, no less!!!) Because it’s all about being able to connect.
You know what I find interesting? You’d never think so from the first ep, but the outgoing daredevil Ling is much more messed up and fragile than Qi Luo. The results of her trauma are very very visible: withdrawal from the world, lack of interaction, almost pathological shyness.
Ling, when we first meet him, appears to be a fun extravert, popular if a trouble-maker. But as we get to know him, we see that his demons are so much much worse even than Qi Luo’s. One doesn’t get locked away in a mental institution for nothing.
Ling is terrified. He isn’t terrified of physical things (though he is not an adrenaline junkie. He loves riding motorcycles because he loves the feeling of speed and freedom not for the adrenaline rush). But he is afraid of himself: he is afraid of losing his mind (with good cause), he is afraid of the kind of person he is. If Qi Luo has loathing for her sexuality (or her lack/presence thereof), Ling things of himself as completely unworthy as a human being. He thinks he is useless academically yes. And a failure as a son and brother, true. But what really is the crux of the problem is that he thinks of himself as a monster. This is something Tong Dao latches on. There is an enormous potential for darkness in Ling. I love that the drama doesn’t gloss it over. He is the guy who almost shot someone when he was a kid, he used to get into these completely awful fights which made Domyouji’s seem like mild temper tantrums (and before his committal they were getting worse and worse) and he is the one who almost chokes Tong Dao and stubs a cigarette out on his hand.
But that is why he needs Qi Luo. Qi Luo has seen him at his worst or knows of his worst actions and still loves him, and still believes in his goodness. In fact, she never lets him put himself down even as an offhand joke. Qi Luo loves him for him, not for the image he might project or because he’s cute or whatever. Just as QL is sometimes puzzled as to why he’d want to be with her, you can tell that a part of Ling is permanently astonished that someone who is ‘good’ and knows him so well actually continues to love him.
If Ling is Qi Luo’s ticket to normalcy, to interaction, Qi Luo is likewise a ticket to sanity for Ling.
He is someone who grew up in a horrible unstable environment, with a crazy mother and a father who tried to be distant. His almost pathological dependence on his brother, as they were sent away from family while still kids, is understandable but considering what Sheng was like, only led further down to trouble. Sheng is what really screwed Ling up, I think. Not just the suicide (though that is horrific enough) but because Sheng used Ling as his ‘id’ to act out his revenge fantasies/bad side, an outlet to everything the model son could not do, but he also would prevent Ling from developing a separate healthy identity. Just look when Ling tried (in high school).
I think Qi Luo is the first person Ling has who both loves him and cares for him (in many ways, from the most physical: she takes care of him when he’s sick and I realize that no one probably has before, or she cooks from him and he says that he doesn’t remember his mom but she’s unlikely to have cooked. I love that she makes him a silly, pink, ‘hello kitty’ lunch box and he looks at it and grins and is totally happy and you can tell that’s when he really thinks he wants to marry her), but she is also the first person in his life who loves him without manipulation or hidden motive and expresses her love as support and wanting what makes him happy for him. He has worth in someone else’s eyes for the very first time as a person, not an expression of something, or a symbol or what not. And I think that allows him to discover stability in himself.
Stability and tenderness. So much tenderness. The scene that really stays with me on rewatches is a very little one. It’s where she is alone at home and he knows she is afraid (though he doesn’t know why) and he stays by her bed the whole night, keeping her company, only to leave quietly in the morning.
And there is protectiveness. Part of the reason Ling is first drawn to Qi Luo is not just her painting which makes him think of his mother, but it's because, at his base, Ling is a very protective person. Sheng has twisted that, one of Ling's best qualities, but it's still there and he's found another outlet for this, only this time she is worthy. Just as he is worthy of her trust.
Anyway, this meta is running insanely long so I better stop.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 09:45 pm (UTC)it's blowing my mind to picture Lei and Shancai doing it
LOL. Unlike everyone else, I saw Mars first and then Meteor Garden. I remember being worried whether I would be able to buy such an amazing OTP (still in my Top 5 otps in any genre: tv, movies, books) as platonic friends and the whole story being about her love with someone else, but the characters are so different I had no problem at all.
And yeah, dl it!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 10:49 pm (UTC)That is very impressive.
I am also trying to imagine Vic as a boy!slut and that is really freaking me out as well because in my head he is still Hua Zhe Lei.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 10:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 10:19 pm (UTC)Both Ling & Qi Luo are such intriguing characters and I loved seeing their growth throughout the series. Watch is asap, it's excellent!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 10:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 09:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 09:56 pm (UTC)I am fighting a huge urge to rwatch this (I am alreayd watching half a dozen dramas as is). I really haven't seen anything so good before or since.
I really love how it's so complicated and nuanced and you don't think drama can be that way, but in this case, yes it can.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 10:14 pm (UTC)And on a random note I have to say Da Ye and Qing Mei also made this drama for me because all the way through they provided the comic relief to help the drama flow without becoming too dark. All in all it's tied with Hanadan for my most favourite drama.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 10:36 pm (UTC)Mars is what led me into dramas in the first place and my week was gone, eaten by my watching this and not able to stop.
they're ying and yang and serve as each others anchor
So true. And I love how being with him gives her strength and being with her frees him to be vulnerable.
And I was cheering when she was smashing his face in. Indeed.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 10:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 10:34 pm (UTC)That is probably my favorite Vic icon ever.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-31 01:33 am (UTC)I know we'll overcome her objections in time if we continue on hammering how good Mars is *g*.
That is probably my favorite Vic icon ever.
Thank you. If you want to steal it, go ahead. I love it, too, which is why I use it so often :).
no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 11:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-30 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-31 12:14 am (UTC)But, yes. I agree very much with almost everything you've said. They are my top OTP for so many reasons, but the main reason is that they are drawn together like magnets - they are opposites in many ways, but their differences fill the void in the other. I love so much that their initial connection, the thing that draws him to her, is that picture of the mother and child, that the emotion and beauty she was able to express in the drawing (at this point, her ONLY emotional outlet/way of speaking to the world). When she asks for the guy who stole it to give it back, beyond just his promise to protect her in return for the oil painting, she's desperate to get it back because that drawing has literally changed her world. It brought her Ling, and she's so afraid to lose it now that she's got it. And I agree with you that she really is his first taste of unconditional love, and when she says everything she does before the first time he kisses her, once you know more about him, you understand that surprised expression on his face and the way he acts like he just can't help it, because she has to be the first person to ever be so open and frank and say nice things about him.
I also love the fact that Ling's influence allows Qi Luo to take risks - she never would have ran after him and gone to seek him out after their "break-up" when she moves back with the stepfather, and Qi Luo's influence makes it HARDER for Ling to take risks - like when he tells her that he's always afraid now, especially when she's on the back of his motorcycle. There are just so many facets to their relationship, so many ways that they are tthe right person for the other.
Opening the door to Mars discussion is always a dangerous thing, because I can go on and on and on...
no subject
Date: 2007-01-31 01:23 am (UTC)You are so right about that! And I think this is actually true for both of them (unless QI Luo's father was a good Dad and died when she was old enough to remember him). Ling had Sheng *shudder* and Qi Luo? Had a mother who sold her out for a nice place to stay (I love how the last time Ling takes QL away from her mother you get the sense that is the last time they will really see each other and the Mother has made her choice and ultimately she cannot break free).
So this is their first time with experiencing someone caring more for the other's happiness than for what that person wants him/herself. I keep thinking of their own Gift of the Magi sequence, when they give up what they want most for the other person: when she goes back to the stepfather in hopes of persuading him to not file charges against Ling, though it would be so very easy to run away. And when Ling goes to literally beg to his father and gives upall his dreams to become the person he hated, a corporate drone, no motorcycles, to save Qi Luo (and that's the thing precisely: he thinks of her happiness before his own. He doesn't go and kill the stepfather because what good would it do QL) And of course QL frees him from the sacrifice once she finds out, even though she is terrified every time he goes on the track. Because she wants him to be the best he can be as a person and the happiest. And I love that neither he nor she mentions this to the other. Ling never told her about it, and she has never told him that she was the one who persuaded his father to relent. It's as if they want to free the other person from any feeling of guilt or obligation).
I also love the fact that Ling's influence allows Qi Luo to take risks - she never would have ran after him and gone to seek him out after their "break-up" when she moves back with the stepfather, and Qi Luo's influence makes it HARDER for Ling to take risks
I love that too. They are finding common ground. It is good for QL to begin to live, to begin to feel, to put herself forward. And for Ling, the fearless attitude is quite destructive and would result in an early grave: he doesn't care about anything because he values nothing, and not even himself.
Ling is someone who needs a goal and just racing is not enough, because he also needs emotional framework: he needs someone to love him and to care for him and to make him secure in this. One of the things that makes the OTP so amazing is how functional they are together. It's rare in a dramaland where often the otp spends half the time figuring out if they want each other or someone else. In Mars, Ling and Qi Luo are each other's oasis. The stresses to their relationship come from outside and their pasts, but their love for each other is never in doubt, to each other or to themselves.
Your point about the painting is really well taken and I never thought of it that way: that what Ling first notices is really Qi Luo's 'essense' something she cannot express in any other way at the time.
And please, more discussion is a great thing!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-31 02:22 am (UTC)Oh, definitely. And I love just how subtle and normal their relationship is, despite everything else that interferes and how messed up each of them are... There are no huge, flowery declarations of undying love, it's all spoken by their actions (okay, well there are speeches, but they're less about undying love and more about other issues). And oh, how their actions speak! (And I love his very simple "let's get married" proposal)
Further to the unconditional love, you later see Ling reciprocating this in a huge way, when he tells her that now that he knows about her past, it doesn't change who she is to him and how he feels about her. And, with your point about the way they sacrifice for each other, they never use that against each other in any way (as a "hey, I did this for you so you should do X for me"), it's all an unconditional action.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-31 03:45 pm (UTC)And I love his very simple "let's get married" proposal
I do too. Because they aren't about flowery speeches but about actions. Just as I love that they don't really show the weddings because with QL and Ling it's really not about the trappings and formalities but the feelings they have for each other.
Side note: I also love how Mars allows Ling to be a guy. You know, he might love QL more than anything, but he is still not going to be reciting poetry to her, he still likes to go out drinking with his friends, etc etc.
he knows about her past, it doesn't change who she is to him and how he feels about her
Oh, how much I love that scene. And I also love his approach to it. He doesn't tell her it's going to be allright, because it manifestly isn't. And he doesn't even tell her she is fine, because she's far from fine. But really, what he does tell her is that he loves and wants her just how she is, that everything about her is fine with him, and that she might be a freak but he is a freak too. And if you think about it, that is true. The reason they work so well together is because they both have been broken into so many pieces. A well-adjusted, happy healthy person would probably get tired of putting up with a partner with so many issues as each of them have. And it also wouldn't be an equal relationship. But here, it's mutual give and take.
(It always breaks my heart, a little, that QL assumes that he takes her to that beach to break up with her. She expects so little, doesn't she? It takes the whole drama for it to sink in, for either of them, that the other person will love them no matter what).
Btw, a tangential thing. I always wondered why Ling burned that sketch of Mother and Child when QL finally gave it to him. Is it so no one else could take it and twist it, a la that guy who stole it? Or what?
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Date: 2007-01-31 05:09 pm (UTC)That's something that never really made sense to me. I think it works on many levels, because his whole promise to protect her was in return for the painting, so when the painting is no longer an option and he still continues to protect her, it's just Ling being Ling, and protecting her because he WANTS to, and not because he feels obligated to do so.
I think, also, that it wasn't just the fact that the artist who stole it twisted the way it connected the two of them, but also his violent reaction that is trying to erase by burning the picture. And, again, once the picture no longer exists, and Ling and QL still have the same type of connection (except, it's even stronger now), it just makes it all the more powerful, because it's a genuine connection between the two of them, not through a drawing.
It always breaks my heart, a little, that QL assumes that he takes her to that beach to break up with her. She expects so little, doesn't she? It takes the whole drama for it to sink in, for either of them, that the other person will love them no matter what).
Oh definitely! The scene that always gets to me is when she starts freaking out when they were making out and then just keeps apologizing, telling him she doesn't mean to be that way and please not to hate her? It kills me, that she could honestly be worried about that and later (during their 1 day break up - as a side note, I love the fact that they can't even last one day apart), when Ling asks her if she sees all men the same way, that they all just want to consume/possess her, he's right to ask that, because even though she knows that Ling is different - is drawn to him because of that - instinctively, she still has the defense mechanism, and I think, later, its his adamnant willingness/determination to stay 'hands off' because he doesn't want to see her miserable again, that really shows that he IS different. That he can love her even if there is no physical contact.
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Date: 2007-02-01 04:24 am (UTC)I watched MARS because I knew it's from manga. And it turns out to be GREAT. I love it. I think everyone should simply watch it because it's that awesome. :) Like you said, I'm happy they included the sex scene because that's how it shows audiences that the things have changed for both of them and destiny makes they meet therefore they can heal and complete each others.
Bravo for the excellent meta/review/whatever it's called!
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Date: 2007-02-01 05:28 am (UTC)But Mars? I fell for Ling like a ton of bricks. And it's just such a gorgeous complicated story. Made me a total Vic fan...
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Date: 2007-02-01 07:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-01 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 04:33 am (UTC)I would like to add that I love your icon and want to steal it. ;) I love that scene in the show. It's wonderfully subtle and evocative at the same time, walking that tightrope between overplaying the initial attraction between the two characters and underplaying how important that step is for both of them. On the one hand... Qi Luo voluntarily holding onto a guy! Chen Ling letting a girl ride his bike! But on the other, hey, it's just a ride home.
Kinda masterful, actually. And the actors nail it. They do such good "let's not look each other in the eye and also let's pretend this isn't the big deal it really is, okay? okay."
*sigh* Love that moment. Second only to Qi Luo's casual acceptance that the kiss didn't really "mean anything," and the Chen Ling's subsequent attitude of "You're okay with it? I mean, you're okay with it! That's... good?" I think he has such a knee-jerk reaction of WARNING FEMALE GETTING TOO CLOSE MUST FIGHT OFF that when Qi Luo doesn't push or presume, he actually has the space to realize, hey, he actually wants to get closer to her.
And then he deals with that world-rocker by trying desperately to pawn her off with his "nice guy" friend... seriously, almost every beat of this drama is so pitch-perfect. Maybe one day when I have oodles of time I'll do an episode-by-episode meta, like yours. ;)
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Date: 2007-02-02 05:21 am (UTC)Qi Luo voluntarily holding onto a guy! Chen Ling letting a girl ride his bike! But on the other, hey, it's just a ride home.
Exactly. It's like a lot of things in the show: small and prosaic but of enormous significance considering who these characters are. And their eventual healing of each other actually allows them to get to a space where actions that are everyday for everyone are everyday to them too (like being painted ot looking in a mirror for Ling or being touched for QL. These are big things for them while not for anyone else).
I think he has such a knee-jerk reaction of WARNING FEMALE GETTING TOO CLOSE MUST FIGHT OFF that when Qi Luo doesn't push or presume, he actually has the space to realize, hey, he actually wants to get closer to her.
Exactly. I think it's her utter lack of pretense but more importantly any lack of emotional threat (he can move at his own pace, she doesn't want a piece of him etc etc) that allows him to relax. And yes, the scenes with Da Ye are perfect. DY is a nice guy but it's clear that it needs someone both messed up (because he has the extra perception of someone who's been in a weird headspace) and also very outgoing and determined to breach QL's walls. And hs jealousy is great.
I also really love when Da Ye tells Ling that even if QL gets hurt (and I love that Ling is terrified of that, putting her happiness above what he wants), it's her choice. I am so sick of Bolly movies with the whole 'we'll decide for the little woman' thing so this was great.