Musings of the Obsessive Kind

1. ( A little squee about ep 10 of 49 Days )

2. I continue to be obsessed with K.O. 3an Guo. It's hilarious but also knows how to tug at me. Also, my crush on Guan Yu is sort of insane now. I basically ship him with Diao Chan because I think the boy should have everything he wants, though my interest in Diao Chan herself is pretty much nil. She's tough in her own quiet way, but compared to Xiao Qiao or the recently appearing Shang Xiang (who is all sorts of magnificent), she sort of fades into the background.

( Caps caps caps )

3. A quick bit about New Tales of the Gisaeng.

( A few caps and thoughts here )

4. So, Romantic Red Rouge.

( Here here here here )

5. So yes, I had these Jade Palace Lock Heart caps forever. I confess I haven't finished the drama yet, for the oddest reason. I am hoarding - I don't want it to end!

( Some caps and thoughts )

6. So, more Legend of the Condor Heroes ( here here here here here )

7. I've only been able to watch the tragic parts of Young Warriors of the Yang Clan sporadically because - tragic. But this scene just might be one of my favorites, because I am in awe of Six's ability to forgive and his grace to PM's awful daughter. He's is amazing - under these circumstances, with his family dead, with her trying to kill his soldiers and trying to force him to kill his OTP. He can still forgive and find good in her.

( Scene here )

8. So, Doctor Who first ep of new season. ( Quick thought )

1. ( A little squee about ep 10 of 49 Days )

2. I continue to be obsessed with K.O. 3an Guo. It's hilarious but also knows how to tug at me. Also, my crush on Guan Yu is sort of insane now. I basically ship him with Diao Chan because I think the boy should have everything he wants, though my interest in Diao Chan herself is pretty much nil. She's tough in her own quiet way, but compared to Xiao Qiao or the recently appearing Shang Xiang (who is all sorts of magnificent), she sort of fades into the background.

( Caps caps caps )

3. A quick bit about New Tales of the Gisaeng.

( A few caps and thoughts here )

4. So, Romantic Red Rouge.

( Here here here here )

5. So yes, I had these Jade Palace Lock Heart caps forever. I confess I haven't finished the drama yet, for the oddest reason. I am hoarding - I don't want it to end!

( Some caps and thoughts )

6. So, more Legend of the Condor Heroes ( here here here here here )

7. I've only been able to watch the tragic parts of Young Warriors of the Yang Clan sporadically because - tragic. But this scene just might be one of my favorites, because I am in awe of Six's ability to forgive and his grace to PM's awful daughter. He's is amazing - under these circumstances, with his family dead, with her trying to kill his soldiers and trying to force him to kill his OTP. He can still forgive and find good in her.

( Scene here )

8. So, Doctor Who first ep of new season. ( Quick thought )

Pardon me if this is a bit less metaish and coherent than usual but Mr Mousie and I celebrated my new job by going out and I had a yummy yummy and very strong and ery large drink so...

( Shippy shippy shippy )

To be continued...

This scene in ep 45 is total killer, with YK telling MNC all his fears and issues (his telling her that he was lied to from childhood and as soon as he reached adulthood he started lying in his turn, and if he stopped lying now he wouldn't even know who he was - heartbreaking) and that he's not worthy of her love and trust and her response (and at this point she knows everything) just killed me. Killed me dead.






And his hands are shaking so badly when he reaches to cover hers. Oh. I want him to claw back to sanity and goodness so badly.



But then the freaking idiot Priest shows up and it all goes to hell and I just keep yelling "shut up shut up shut up" every time that moron opens his mouth. Ugh. Yeah, good for you, trying to kill a badly wounded guy at the grave of his parents and instead wounding a pregnant woman. (Nianci is INSANE, holding the bare blade in her hands to protect YK).






So of course that drives YK off the edge again because he has nowhere to go except back to Honglie and another past authority/parent figure has tried to kill him and he can't be with Nianci because she only gets harmed when he's around. Good job, priestly idiot! At least Nianci lays into the useless judgmental pointless freak.

This scene in ep 45 is total killer, with YK telling MNC all his fears and issues (his telling her that he was lied to from childhood and as soon as he reached adulthood he started lying in his turn, and if he stopped lying now he wouldn't even know who he was - heartbreaking) and that he's not worthy of her love and trust and her response (and at this point she knows everything) just killed me. Killed me dead.






And his hands are shaking so badly when he reaches to cover hers. Oh. I want him to claw back to sanity and goodness so badly.



But then the freaking idiot Priest shows up and it all goes to hell and I just keep yelling "shut up shut up shut up" every time that moron opens his mouth. Ugh. Yeah, good for you, trying to kill a badly wounded guy at the grave of his parents and instead wounding a pregnant woman. (Nianci is INSANE, holding the bare blade in her hands to protect YK).






So of course that drives YK off the edge again because he has nowhere to go except back to Honglie and another past authority/parent figure has tried to kill him and he can't be with Nianci because she only gets harmed when he's around. Good job, priestly idiot! At least Nianci lays into the useless judgmental pointless freak.

If you have more than five seconds of this:



Of course soon you will have this:



I remember when I was ranting and raving when eps back Guo Jing said he'll marry the Mongolian princess because he promised, even though he will always love Huang Rong (thankfully he snapped out of it asap because hating Guo Jing is against the law of the universe) someone told me I'd hate him worse for assuming Huang Rong's father murdered his teachers and breaking up with her.

But I don't. I don't hate him in the least. The man has just lost his parent figures (I think they were lousy parent figures but he obviously loved them) in a horrible, brutal fashion. Everything is leading him (or any person smarter than GJ could ever dream of being) that Huang Rong's father murdered them. It's not as if he calls her an evil murderer or blames her for it or plans to kill her as per vendetta. He even explicitly tells her he still loves her (when she asks him to kill her in vengeance, he tells her he can't bear to because he cannot lose another loved one). But yes - he reasonably believes her father killed his 'parents' and wants to kill the man in return. I have no problem with him deciding he cannot be with her under those circumstances. Rock on, angsty angry Guo Jing (side note - it's like Hu Ge's hotness quadruples when he's angsty).

Weirdly, I don't even hate Yang Kang for the frame-up. There are a lot of things YK does that appall me, this isn't one of them. He doesn't know or care for the teachers from Adam and he's openly told Guo Jing he hates him. So, fair enough game. Oddly, to me, out of everything YK did in LOCH2008, the only unforgivable thing is vis-a-vis Mu Nianci - when he wanted OYK out of the way so he could train with Ouyang Feng and so manipulated Nianci into helping him kill OYK. Because, even at his worst, his saving grace was his sincerity towards Nianci, and when he stooped to using her, when he put her in danger and made her an accomplice all at once - that was the end, the rock-bottom, the nowhere-further-to-go moment, for me. It's interesting, their relationship is like this trainwreck, you can't look away - it becomes more and more codependent and screwed up as it goes on. By the end (before his repentance), she's the sole person he (a) loves (b) more importantly, trusts - even in that despicable user moment, he did both - and I think it's in part because she's the only one who can satisfy his insane PTSD-type barriers/standard of loving, caring and protecting, though of course, Guo Jing also finally breaks through (in LOCH2008, YK with GJ is like a child with a parent, testing the boundaries of GJ's love in any way he can as a weird way to make themselves safe and I just want to tell him to give up - there is literally nothing he can do to make Guo Jing hate him - like the way real family is supposed to be. Significantly, it is when this sinks in, that he's ready to redeem himself).

As if I wasn't watching enough things (half of them seemingly starring Hu Ge :P), I decided I was in the mood for Legend of Condor Heroes 2008 rewatch. More specifically (because LOCH is 50 eps and most of it is so good I dare not fast-forward), I decided to rewatch the last eleven eps: eps 40-50, because when I was doing my epic LOCH marathon, I got so obsesssed/strung-out/sleep-deprived by that point, I didn't post much on them and also sort of sped through them like a maniac without having a time to reflect.

And LOCH is a good enough drama to deserve it. I am sure anyone on my flist with any interest in the topic already knows what LOCH is about but just in case - this is a 2008 adaptation of the famous Louis Cha novel, the first part of his trilogy. LOCH centers on the coming of age of its protagonist - the good-hearted but rather simple Guo Jing. The plot really is very complicated (those 50 eps fly by at a crazy pace) but there is revenge and the emotional toll it wreaks, politics, martial arts (of course), friendships found, betrayed, and found again, multi-faceted villains, and two very different yet amazing OTPs.

If I had to pick one, LOCH2008 would be my favorite wuxia ever (my favorite cdrama is The Myth but that's a pure period drama with a little fantasy thrown in). Everything in it just works. It is not as visually beautiful as Return of Condor Heroes 2006, which remains the single most beautifully filmed drama I have ever seen, but it's still gorgeous and it possesses the strong narrative coherency, the perfect pacing (the first two eps of backstory aren't my thing but after that it never lets me down, not once), and the casting - ah, the casting. This drama's biggest strength is its cast. They are all good actors, of course, but it's the way they play off each other that really makes a difference. Casting Hu Ge and Yuan Hong as friends turned enemies was perfect. Apparently, the two have been friends in real life for years and so their chemistry really is something. The same goes for two OTPs - Hu Ge and Ariel Lin as Guo Jing and Huang Rong are effortlessly warm and perfect together - it's not their first drama pairing and, let's just say, I can see why they have RPShippers. And what can I say for Yuan Hong and Liu Shi Shi as Yang Kang and Mu Nianci? If Hu Ge/Ariel Lin are sweetness and friendship and joy, they are all tormented dark passion and dependence and the edge of sanity. Their chemistry is off the charts. I have rarely seen anything in dramaworld to match it. And then there is Lee Jia, who plays the ambiguous, smart, tragic villain Ouyang Ke, and steals the show entirely, and my heart with it.

It's interesting what such a specific rewatch does to skew priorities - obviously, I remember all the stuff that happened but my emotional connection to what happened in e.g. eps 10-20 is much less. It mainly affects my relationship towards Yang Kang - it's been a long time (emotionally, for me - months, when I last watched early eps of LOCH) since he's been a good person who was forced to slide into darkness and thus my patience with him is less than it was upon initial watch. But, ah, Guo Jing and Huang Rong are as perfect as ever. One of the reasons I love their pairing so much is that it is so rare to see a drama where the leading man wins over his OTP through sheer goodness. Smart, tricky Huang Rong falls for Guo Jing because he's a good person. How wonderful and healthy is that? GJ/HR is a gender-reversal in so many ways, though. Sure, GJ is on his way to becoming the top dog of the martial arts world, but he's the unworldly one, the trusting and kind one, who's mentally not HR's equal. Huang Rong is the brains, the cynicism, the worldly knowledge. It's the typical "good girl wins over prickly/ambiguous/problematic woobie who is super smart and has a troubled background, simply through simplicity and goodness" only the genders are flipped.

( Enough of my blabbing, have caps of ep 40 )

In conclusion, have this wonderful shippy MV for Guo Jing/Huang Rong, one of the most functional, wonderful drama OTPs in existence.

As if I wasn't watching enough things (half of them seemingly starring Hu Ge :P), I decided I was in the mood for Legend of Condor Heroes 2008 rewatch. More specifically (because LOCH is 50 eps and most of it is so good I dare not fast-forward), I decided to rewatch the last eleven eps: eps 40-50, because when I was doing my epic LOCH marathon, I got so obsesssed/strung-out/sleep-deprived by that point, I didn't post much on them and also sort of sped through them like a maniac without having a time to reflect.

And LOCH is a good enough drama to deserve it. I am sure anyone on my flist with any interest in the topic already knows what LOCH is about but just in case - this is a 2008 adaptation of the famous Louis Cha novel, the first part of his trilogy. LOCH centers on the coming of age of its protagonist - the good-hearted but rather simple Guo Jing. The plot really is very complicated (those 50 eps fly by at a crazy pace) but there is revenge and the emotional toll it wreaks, politics, martial arts (of course), friendships found, betrayed, and found again, multi-faceted villains, and two very different yet amazing OTPs.

If I had to pick one, LOCH2008 would be my favorite wuxia ever (my favorite cdrama is The Myth but that's a pure period drama with a little fantasy thrown in). Everything in it just works. It is not as visually beautiful as Return of Condor Heroes 2006, which remains the single most beautifully filmed drama I have ever seen, but it's still gorgeous and it possesses the strong narrative coherency, the perfect pacing (the first two eps of backstory aren't my thing but after that it never lets me down, not once), and the casting - ah, the casting. This drama's biggest strength is its cast. They are all good actors, of course, but it's the way they play off each other that really makes a difference. Casting Hu Ge and Yuan Hong as friends turned enemies was perfect. Apparently, the two have been friends in real life for years and so their chemistry really is something. The same goes for two OTPs - Hu Ge and Ariel Lin as Guo Jing and Huang Rong are effortlessly warm and perfect together - it's not their first drama pairing and, let's just say, I can see why they have RPShippers. And what can I say for Yuan Hong and Liu Shi Shi as Yang Kang and Mu Nianci? If Hu Ge/Ariel Lin are sweetness and friendship and joy, they are all tormented dark passion and dependence and the edge of sanity. Their chemistry is off the charts. I have rarely seen anything in dramaworld to match it. And then there is Lee Jia, who plays the ambiguous, smart, tragic villain Ouyang Ke, and steals the show entirely, and my heart with it.

It's interesting what such a specific rewatch does to skew priorities - obviously, I remember all the stuff that happened but my emotional connection to what happened in e.g. eps 10-20 is much less. It mainly affects my relationship towards Yang Kang - it's been a long time (emotionally, for me - months, when I last watched early eps of LOCH) since he's been a good person who was forced to slide into darkness and thus my patience with him is less than it was upon initial watch. But, ah, Guo Jing and Huang Rong are as perfect as ever. One of the reasons I love their pairing so much is that it is so rare to see a drama where the leading man wins over his OTP through sheer goodness. Smart, tricky Huang Rong falls for Guo Jing because he's a good person. How wonderful and healthy is that? GJ/HR is a gender-reversal in so many ways, though. Sure, GJ is on his way to becoming the top dog of the martial arts world, but he's the unworldly one, the trusting and kind one, who's mentally not HR's equal. Huang Rong is the brains, the cynicism, the worldly knowledge. It's the typical "good girl wins over prickly/ambiguous/problematic woobie who is super smart and has a troubled background, simply through simplicity and goodness" only the genders are flipped.

( Enough of my blabbing, have caps of ep 40 )

In conclusion, have this wonderful shippy MV for Guo Jing/Huang Rong, one of the most functional, wonderful drama OTPs in existence.

I got to ep 31 and you give me this? This? Young Warriors, you are ON NOTICE. Leave seven alone or I am going to...well...there's nothing I can do but still, please? Leave him alone?



To make the long story short, Seven gets caught and dragged to idiot Emperor who listens to Pan Ren Mei instead of...you know...anyone trustworthy or with a logical explanation for things and decides the best thing to do is to have Pan Ren Mei use some sort of super-special super-powerful whip to whip Seven? What? Huh? The hell? Has the maker of this been hanging out with whoever made Four Women Conflict? Do they like going to fetish clubs together or something? Because, guys, quit it, for the sake of my own sanity.




(Still, nothing is ever going to top the disturbing of that sequence in LOCH2008 with Yang Kang putting metal hooks through his own shoulders and dragging a ginormous boulder as a sign of penance to his evil stepfather as a crazy psychotic way of trying to get back into his books so he can get his revenge. Ugh. I shudder just thinking of that. Ah, wuxia. I never could really hate Yang Kang turning to the dark side after all that crap he went through - it's to his credit he snapped out of it at all and/or didn't just randomly start walking through the city killing people at will and gibbering. He chose to find agency through becoming a villain because it was better than being a victim. Anyway, how did I get on LOCH2008?)

And then, Papa Yang, being the amazing amazing man he is, sees his kid isn't going to last the full punishment but is going to die, and volunteers to take the last two lashes for him. Pan Ren Mei is happy to oblige. Die die die pig person! But seriously, how do I love the familial relationships in this drama? They are the core of the drama, even more so than the romances.




Bonus cap with Four, because he's still my favorite brother and because I totally love the big bro-little bro he and Seven have going. Out of all the siblings, Four is closest to Seven - and it so so makes sense.



In other news, PRM's daughter has finally shown her true murdering psycho colors. Poor Six, he doesn't know what a horror show is about to come after him. Seriously, the whole Pan family is genetically diseased! Too bad it's not deceased instead.

NOTE: I will sticky this entry in a day or two so it will be on the top of my LJ.



I thought it would be fun to do another drama watchalong. And I really would love for more of my flist to be familiar with the awesome world of wuxia. So how about the 2008 version of Legend of Condor Heroes? I think LOCH2008 is the best choice because it is most easily accessible - both in terms of finding on-line and in terms of story with its shades of grey, strong women, and awesome production values.

The set-up of LOCH is fairly simple. Both the male protagonists of LOCH, Guo Jing and Yang Kang, are sons of dead Song heroes killed by Jin treachery who were supposed to become sworn brothers, avenge their parents, and redeem the Song. But Guo Jing has been brought up a bit too simple-minded on the steppes of Mongolia while Yang Kang has no idea of his parentage and his been brought up by the very Jin prince he is supposed to kill. The quest for vengeance and freedom is not going to go smoothly. And then there is Huang Rong, arguably the most awesome wuxia heroine ever created - trouble-making, unscrupulous, and whip-smart, Huang Rong is won over by Guo Jing's kindness and joins his quest. And gives him her heart.

If you are not sure if this is your thing (it is!!!!), I made quick little character profiles with pics of all the main characters.

( It is behind the cut )

So, what are you waiting for? There are battles! True Love! Bromance! Hurt/comfort! And other good things!

LOCH is 50 episodes, but each episode is only 40 minutes each. So I was thinking if we do 4 eps a week, that is eminently reasonable. I will sticky this post and we can just come here and discuss the drama (or if someone wants to discuss later eps, they can do so if they label their reply).

You can find LOCH at ( links behind the cut )

Schedule ( is behind the cut )