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superborbI have trouble expressing just how close to my heart hikago is. Beyond just being a great anime and manga, it was my first real fandom, so tied up in my memory of the story are all the layers of long nights of discussing character motivations, reading fic, and making friends. Coming back to fandom after a decade away, it really feels like fate that the cdrama started airing right after.
Luckily, the cdrama is good both in its own right AND in contrast to the animanga. I therefore whole heartedly recommend Qi Hun to both fans of the original hikago and new folks alike.
The premise: As a small child, Shi Guang (Shindo Hikaru) finds a go board where the spirit of Chu Ying (Sai), an expert go player from thousands of years ago, has been trapped. At first, Shi Guang is uninterested in this boring game, but the dedication his friends have to it intrigues him. Eventually, he too learns to love the game and aims to become a pro.
The major themes:
1. Friendship!! There are two main friend groups for Shi Guang: the go club at his high school and the fellow students of Yi Jianghu Club. (The Yi Jianghu students are aiming to become pros, and yes, the jianghu in the name is that rivers-and-lakes Pugilist world, and yes, there are a lot of jianghu jokes in the show.) The friendships within the groups and with Shi Guang are just so caring and mature. They have arguments, especially once they're in the high stakes go games, where losing means losing their chance at fulfilling their dreams, but they never forget how important their friendships are. In some ways, they're a little unrealistically good at friendship (and feelings in general); who has the maturity to take care of their friends so well in high school?!
2. More to life than just go. This is one of the most important adaptation changes, in my opinion. From the director's interview, the drama meant that they needed to dig deeper into the characters' motivations as compared to the manga. The result of this is that Qi Hun is an exploration of what it means to dedicate your life to a game, how to enjoy go instead of just wanting to win, and learning there is more to life than just go. And sometimes, how real life is more important than go and they have to move on. I don't think they lightly treat this as just a metaphor for enjoying life though; go is still central to the characters! Just, not go alone.
3. Growing up and past your parents / mentors. This is the other big adaptation change, bringing more of the older generation into the spotlight. Fang Xu (Ogata)'s character is significantly expanded and placed in a very much shixiong / big brother type role to Yu Liang (Touya Akira). On the less cute side, some of the parents and mentors do really edge that line of emotional abuse. I personally think this issue was handled in a complex way, showing how teenagers want to break free of the constraints set on them, while also wanting to respect and show filial piety. It never went too far in either direction for me, though YMMV. And, of course, the major Chu Ying plot line that is the same as the animanga, which I will not spoil.
4. Rivalry. Don't worry after all those adaptation changes: Yu Liang and Shi Guang still have their passionate rivalry and chase after each other. Everyone around them knows! So many cute moments that I will not spoil because they're so good.
I think most of the adaptation changes were good: there are some new subplots, both of the fanservicey kind (valentines trip let's goooo) and of the more serious kind. Some adaptation changes were well, being produced in China, there are some obvious effects: the Hong Kong handover is used to set the time at the beginning and end of episode 1 (never mentioned after) and the whole ghost thing has to be retconned into a handwavy science thing.
As a result of aging characters up, everyone is a bit more mature. As mentioned above, the director clearly took a lot of time to consider how the relationships would work in real life, so in some ways, the characters feel more grounded and realistic. Some characters are significantly expanded (see theme 3), and I also want to call out that they make Shi Guang's mother an Actual Character in this!! And she's so great, a single mom who really loves her kid and supports him.
I do think they sometimes veer too far into making the unspoken spoken, but I think that's just the norms of cdramas. (See above the complaints about how they know their emotions a little too well for teenagers.) Also, when real people are acting, there are of course a ton more subtle implications you can read off facial expressions and set design than in an animanga.
The acting is really great here too; I really felt that they were awkward teenagers (or small children in the first two eps). While at first, I thought Chu Ying didn't embody the "cute" aspects of the character well, he really did grow on me! (Wish his eye makeup was more consistent though lol.)
OK I have a lot more thoughts, but they start to veer into spoilers!! I love Qi Hun a lot, and I hope you'll watch it and come back and talk with me about it!!
You can watch on iQiyi or dramacool. It's 36 eps long, and the last four eps are still unsubbed, but they should be subbed by Tuesday at their normal rate!
Luckily, the cdrama is good both in its own right AND in contrast to the animanga. I therefore whole heartedly recommend Qi Hun to both fans of the original hikago and new folks alike.
The premise: As a small child, Shi Guang (Shindo Hikaru) finds a go board where the spirit of Chu Ying (Sai), an expert go player from thousands of years ago, has been trapped. At first, Shi Guang is uninterested in this boring game, but the dedication his friends have to it intrigues him. Eventually, he too learns to love the game and aims to become a pro.
The major themes:
1. Friendship!! There are two main friend groups for Shi Guang: the go club at his high school and the fellow students of Yi Jianghu Club. (The Yi Jianghu students are aiming to become pros, and yes, the jianghu in the name is that rivers-and-lakes Pugilist world, and yes, there are a lot of jianghu jokes in the show.) The friendships within the groups and with Shi Guang are just so caring and mature. They have arguments, especially once they're in the high stakes go games, where losing means losing their chance at fulfilling their dreams, but they never forget how important their friendships are. In some ways, they're a little unrealistically good at friendship (and feelings in general); who has the maturity to take care of their friends so well in high school?!
2. More to life than just go. This is one of the most important adaptation changes, in my opinion. From the director's interview, the drama meant that they needed to dig deeper into the characters' motivations as compared to the manga. The result of this is that Qi Hun is an exploration of what it means to dedicate your life to a game, how to enjoy go instead of just wanting to win, and learning there is more to life than just go. And sometimes, how real life is more important than go and they have to move on. I don't think they lightly treat this as just a metaphor for enjoying life though; go is still central to the characters! Just, not go alone.
3. Growing up and past your parents / mentors. This is the other big adaptation change, bringing more of the older generation into the spotlight. Fang Xu (Ogata)'s character is significantly expanded and placed in a very much shixiong / big brother type role to Yu Liang (Touya Akira). On the less cute side, some of the parents and mentors do really edge that line of emotional abuse. I personally think this issue was handled in a complex way, showing how teenagers want to break free of the constraints set on them, while also wanting to respect and show filial piety. It never went too far in either direction for me, though YMMV. And, of course, the major Chu Ying plot line that is the same as the animanga, which I will not spoil.
4. Rivalry. Don't worry after all those adaptation changes: Yu Liang and Shi Guang still have their passionate rivalry and chase after each other. Everyone around them knows! So many cute moments that I will not spoil because they're so good.
I think most of the adaptation changes were good: there are some new subplots, both of the fanservicey kind (valentines trip let's goooo) and of the more serious kind. Some adaptation changes were well, being produced in China, there are some obvious effects: the Hong Kong handover is used to set the time at the beginning and end of episode 1 (never mentioned after) and the whole ghost thing has to be retconned into a handwavy science thing.
As a result of aging characters up, everyone is a bit more mature. As mentioned above, the director clearly took a lot of time to consider how the relationships would work in real life, so in some ways, the characters feel more grounded and realistic. Some characters are significantly expanded (see theme 3), and I also want to call out that they make Shi Guang's mother an Actual Character in this!! And she's so great, a single mom who really loves her kid and supports him.
I do think they sometimes veer too far into making the unspoken spoken, but I think that's just the norms of cdramas. (See above the complaints about how they know their emotions a little too well for teenagers.) Also, when real people are acting, there are of course a ton more subtle implications you can read off facial expressions and set design than in an animanga.
The acting is really great here too; I really felt that they were awkward teenagers (or small children in the first two eps). While at first, I thought Chu Ying didn't embody the "cute" aspects of the character well, he really did grow on me! (Wish his eye makeup was more consistent though lol.)
OK I have a lot more thoughts, but they start to veer into spoilers!! I love Qi Hun a lot, and I hope you'll watch it and come back and talk with me about it!!
You can watch on iQiyi or dramacool. It's 36 eps long, and the last four eps are still unsubbed, but they should be subbed by Tuesday at their normal rate!
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Date: 2020-11-30 13:49 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-30 15:04 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-30 16:24 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-30 16:47 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-01 17:01 (UTC)Chu Ying's entire set-up is...*sigh* I do like his character, though! I'm find myself ff-ing his scenes just to ensure nothing more cringey appears, then I rewind and watch it at normal speed. The whole show really does grow on you after those moments.
It's so good that I wonder why people are watching Queen's Gambit, heh.
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Date: 2020-12-01 17:58 (UTC)Chu Ying really got less cringe over time! I was skeptical at first (cute was hard to pull off IRL I guess), but I enjoyed him in the later scenes.
Hah, another show that I should watch eventually... But then I don't have the excuse that I'm practicing my Chinese haha
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Date: 2020-12-01 17:16 (UTC)I also didn't like the added drama with Ogata/Fang Xu drinking and focusing on business/entertainment and all that. Ogata was a very interesting character in the OG, I feel like they ruined his character. same with Papa Touya, he's awful to Yu Liang, why? just to add more drama. he was a good dad in the OG. and don't get me started on the director adding a whole new location and characters (the temple) just so he could be in the show...
the ending also annoyed me. I saw a lot of Chinese fans really mad about how much ship-based fanservice there was and I totally agree with them. the director said he changed Akira's character in the end because he couldn't see how someone could just love Go for 36 episodes. Akira's passion for Go isn't something that should just be written away.... the whole double Go thing is such a bizarre choice too.
anyway, I plan to share the show with a friend who's never experienced the OG series, to see what someone who has no background knowledge thinks of it. she might win me over on some of the changes, haha.
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Date: 2020-12-01 18:04 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-01 18:09 (UTC)glad you and other fans enjoyed it though :)
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Date: 2020-12-02 11:24 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-02 13:47 (UTC)