I stayed up late watching Nirvana in Fire (琅琊榜)with my siblings the other night, a Chinese period drama which is the best one I've ever seen, and which I will try hard not to start raving incoherently about as I normally am uncomfortable with 'fangirling.' As it is, I very much appreciate the rich irony, nuances, and psychological focus of the character development. There. I tried not to sound like a fangirl and end up sounding like a film critic.
This became the show which tested our relationships since we decided to watch it together as a family (something that is not easy with six different schedules.) I discover there's a term for this. The Netflix betrayal, according to Blimey Cow; where one party is unable to resist waiting for the others to watch the next installment of a series, and goes ahead secretly on their own. I'm ashamed to confess that we almost stooped that low with Nirvana in Fire--we certainly compromised a great deal. Well, no one has disowned anyone yet.
I have a reputation for getting over-stimulated by intense movie scenes--I remember my teeth literally chattering, however much I tried to stay calm, throughout Xmen Origins. That is why you shouldn't take me to watch horror movies. It's simply a waste of money. I will probably have my eyes closed throughout the most exciting parts, or trying to stop my knees from knocking together. I know that I spent most of World War Z under my jacket and emerged feeling rather like a zombie myself.
During the climatic battle scenes I hid behind a giant pillow, preferring to rely on my sibling's live commentary, and moaning wretchedly that Zheng Ping or Meng Zhi were going to get killed, I knew it, it's too many feels, it's the Chiyan scene all over again, why do they have to slash throats like that, why is it only one of my favourite characters is actually wearing a helmet?? Gosh I love this show. As you can probably tell I am a rather noisy watcher. We like to analyze the plot, characters, and generally air our opinions as we watch; a habit we must have picked up from our grandma, who scolds her Taiwanese drama characters (the bad ones for being so bad and the good ones for being so dumb.)
Update: we've since finished the series and I have been feeling aghast that there doesn't seem to be other Chinese period dramas of the same standard. Seriously. Why not, when you have a genre with such a rich historical background, gorgeous costumes, amazing wuxia, and beautiful language to work with? 54 episodes down my appreciation of Chinese language and culture has shot up terrifically, though I'm afraid my level of proficiency hasn't--unless you count being able to throw around a lordly本王 (the Chinese equivalent of the royal 'we') here and there. English subtitles are still embarassingly important for me.
All the same, I find myself with a sudden urge to learn sword fighting, and improve my Chinese!