Winter Begonia
Feb. 1st, 2021 20:25![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
superborbtl;dr Mixed feelings: loved the acting and characters, the plot is scattered and uneven.
The premise: in the Republican era (i.e. right before WWII, the Japanese are in the process of invasion), Shang Xirui is an up and coming Peking opera dan performer (i.e. he sings the female part). He's childish but extremely passionate about opera, and has brought his troupe to Beijing to make his name. There, he meets Cheng Fengtai, an extremely wealthy businessman, who becomes his financial backer and the two share a deep friendship. The story begins with a substantial amount of opera world drama, but slowly the Japanese occupation / Second Sino-Japanese War begins to overshadow everything.
The things I liked:
The acting was TOP NOTCH. Nearly everyone was extremely good and believable; IMO Gu Dali was a bit overacted, but that's basically it? They also did a good job with the production values; the Peking opera clothing and makeup was obviously gloriously beautiful, and when it was the gloomy Beijing winter, it felt like gloomy Beijing winter. All the clothing that the Cheng and Fan ladies wear (as upper class women) are so beautiful too. The aesthetics of the Republican era are also really interesting, a mix of Western influence but still very traditional in some ways.
Although this is based on a BL web novel, this show is more on the friends-who-are-soulmates (知音) side in portrayal. The core relationship is very nuanced, where you really see why they've developed such a deep friendship: they understand each other at a level that no other person in their lives do.
I generally really liked the characters; they did a good job of being flawed yet realistic. For example, there's a major subplot where CFT's wife is jealous over his opera going, and the show depicts why she is upset in an unflinching way. I also really loved Du Qi and Fan Lian, who are kind of dramatic in a way I enjoy. (Sorry, I acknowledge SXR is also dramatic, but he's too childish for me to enjoy the same way sdjflk.)
It was also interesting in terms of how the Republican era is viewed. Because of course-- the CCP then fought a civil war against them, but it's still highly praised in-world to be patriotic. The Japanese portrayal does give you a sympathetic character who's then [mild spoiler] used to show how even with the best intentions, war will put you on opposite sides with no way to bridge the gap.
Also, this is just personal for me, but my grandparents don't watch period dramas (and obviously not modern trash for girls lol) so this is the first drama I could really discuss with my grandpa. (His opinion on CFT: 放荡不羁的公子哥儿. He translated that to "a bit of a lad", but it's like... a rich scion who uninhibited and dissolute. He was aware the novel was BL, but it's unclear if he just looked that up after. Also then he went on to send me a lot of celebrity gossip about the actor for CFT lolol.)
The things I disliked:
While the show tries to portray complexity and usually does well in presenting the conflict, it'll often shortcut its way out of resolving the problem. It does the common cdrama thing of finishing off minor subplots rapidly without letting them breathe! Of course, this is my own sensibility entering to make me feel this way, but I do think that a lot of the solutions are too pat.
I heard that the novel is also very uh, scattered in how it approaches the plot, and while the adaptation smooths over a lot of it, I think it's still visible in the edges where the subplots rub against each other.
There's also some inconsistencies. Some of the characters flip flop in intelligence in order to make the plot continue, which is a little frustrating. And more minor, some of the smaller details can be inconsistent, e.g. in how money is valued throughout the series (largely unimportant for plot, since the answer to everything that can be fixed with money is that CFT will pay).
More seriously, the portrayal of mental illness is extremely questionable. Some of it is period typical attitudes / characterization choices, some of it is... not. It isn't like, terrible in a flat way -- they do still do well in displaying complex morals -- but it falls into the "and then it resolved itself cleanly" issue I mentioned above.
Overall, I have no regrets in watching it! It's definitely a more serious show than a lot of stuff I watch, which raised my expectations perhaps too high. I did think I'd come out of it liking Peking opera more, but I think I might like it less now sdjfslkj. Would be really interested in watching the accompanying "opera explainer" show, but it seems to be unsubbed everywhere, and I think the discussion would be too high level without subs for me.
The premise: in the Republican era (i.e. right before WWII, the Japanese are in the process of invasion), Shang Xirui is an up and coming Peking opera dan performer (i.e. he sings the female part). He's childish but extremely passionate about opera, and has brought his troupe to Beijing to make his name. There, he meets Cheng Fengtai, an extremely wealthy businessman, who becomes his financial backer and the two share a deep friendship. The story begins with a substantial amount of opera world drama, but slowly the Japanese occupation / Second Sino-Japanese War begins to overshadow everything.
The things I liked:
The acting was TOP NOTCH. Nearly everyone was extremely good and believable; IMO Gu Dali was a bit overacted, but that's basically it? They also did a good job with the production values; the Peking opera clothing and makeup was obviously gloriously beautiful, and when it was the gloomy Beijing winter, it felt like gloomy Beijing winter. All the clothing that the Cheng and Fan ladies wear (as upper class women) are so beautiful too. The aesthetics of the Republican era are also really interesting, a mix of Western influence but still very traditional in some ways.
Although this is based on a BL web novel, this show is more on the friends-who-are-soulmates (知音) side in portrayal. The core relationship is very nuanced, where you really see why they've developed such a deep friendship: they understand each other at a level that no other person in their lives do.
I generally really liked the characters; they did a good job of being flawed yet realistic. For example, there's a major subplot where CFT's wife is jealous over his opera going, and the show depicts why she is upset in an unflinching way. I also really loved Du Qi and Fan Lian, who are kind of dramatic in a way I enjoy. (Sorry, I acknowledge SXR is also dramatic, but he's too childish for me to enjoy the same way sdjflk.)
It was also interesting in terms of how the Republican era is viewed. Because of course-- the CCP then fought a civil war against them, but it's still highly praised in-world to be patriotic. The Japanese portrayal does give you a sympathetic character who's then [mild spoiler] used to show how even with the best intentions, war will put you on opposite sides with no way to bridge the gap.
Also, this is just personal for me, but my grandparents don't watch period dramas (and obviously not modern trash for girls lol) so this is the first drama I could really discuss with my grandpa. (His opinion on CFT: 放荡不羁的公子哥儿. He translated that to "a bit of a lad", but it's like... a rich scion who uninhibited and dissolute. He was aware the novel was BL, but it's unclear if he just looked that up after. Also then he went on to send me a lot of celebrity gossip about the actor for CFT lolol.)
The things I disliked:
While the show tries to portray complexity and usually does well in presenting the conflict, it'll often shortcut its way out of resolving the problem. It does the common cdrama thing of finishing off minor subplots rapidly without letting them breathe! Of course, this is my own sensibility entering to make me feel this way, but I do think that a lot of the solutions are too pat.
I heard that the novel is also very uh, scattered in how it approaches the plot, and while the adaptation smooths over a lot of it, I think it's still visible in the edges where the subplots rub against each other.
There's also some inconsistencies. Some of the characters flip flop in intelligence in order to make the plot continue, which is a little frustrating. And more minor, some of the smaller details can be inconsistent, e.g. in how money is valued throughout the series (largely unimportant for plot, since the answer to everything that can be fixed with money is that CFT will pay).
More seriously, the portrayal of mental illness is extremely questionable. Some of it is period typical attitudes / characterization choices, some of it is... not. It isn't like, terrible in a flat way -- they do still do well in displaying complex morals -- but it falls into the "and then it resolved itself cleanly" issue I mentioned above.
Overall, I have no regrets in watching it! It's definitely a more serious show than a lot of stuff I watch, which raised my expectations perhaps too high. I did think I'd come out of it liking Peking opera more, but I think I might like it less now sdjfslkj. Would be really interested in watching the accompanying "opera explainer" show, but it seems to be unsubbed everywhere, and I think the discussion would be too high level without subs for me.
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Date: 2021-02-02 22:00 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-02-03 01:10 (UTC)