sid_guardian | I am a newbie here, request you all to clarify some doubts (meta stuff)

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I am a newbie here, request you all to clarify some doubts (meta stuff)

I am on my first rewatch, and currently on episode 10 (lot of things begun to make sense only on rewatch, and I cant't believe I missed all those micro-expressions gold nuggets, when I watched first time). I have come back for rewatch after reading the novel on wattpad so everything is better now,. I am beginning to understand lot of nuances and implied contexts, which I had not caught earlier.

1. I read that Guardian team completed filming in three months,everything was completed before the show began to telecast. Is there any interview or reference to how they felt that the show would do upon telecast? I mean did they even imagine the level of love and respect the show was going to get?

2. Did Zhu Yilong and Bai yu know each other before hand? I mean before Guardian filming began? They seem to compliment each other so well, their expressions and even their walk together is so well attuned. I can't believe this is possible for two people who just met during the three months of filming? If that's the case, wow they really are masters of the craft.

3. Inspite of the show's popularity why is Zhu Yilong not having many shows post Guardian? Is it that the show is popular only among international community? I am eager to see them in dramas but post Guardian, I found Fairyland Lovers (Bai yu) and The Story of Minglan (Zhu Yilong) but I felt atleast for Zhu yilong, that the dramas are sporadic and few, is this by choice..? or some sort of bad agency that's not linking him with good roles?

P.S I am not sure about posting etiquette here in this forum, I apologise in advance if I made any errors here. Please let me know if there's anything like that..

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I am on my first rewatch, and currently on episode 10 (lot of things begun to make sense only on rewatch, and I cant't believe I missed all those micro-expressions gold nuggets, when I watched first time)
Nothing breaks my heart quite as much as the expression on Shen Wei's face when ZYL doesn't recognise him in ep 1 now that I know what it looks like from Shen Wei's POV ;;;;;;;

I'm sorry I can't answer your actual questions!

when ZYL doesn't recognise him in ep 1

Yes, especially the way his face falls while he gives his name and ZYL was like, that's a nice name!

Nothing breaks my heart quite as much as the expression on Shen Wei's face when ZYL doesn't recognise him in ep 1 now that I know what it looks like from Shen Wei's POV

I know!!!

/also just starting a rewatch.

Welcome aboard! I missed so much on my first watch, too. And even a year and a half later I still discover new things.

I'm pretty sure they were completely taken by surprise with how Guardian took off, but I don't have any sources to quote. And Zhu Yilong and Bai Yu met for Guardian for the first time - yeah, it's amazing how well they work together, but they really are just that good. And have chemistry that great.

Guardian is hugely popular in China, as far as I know. After Guardian, Zhu Yilong has filmed a whole bunch of shows, not all of which have aired yet, and I think he's actually filmed more than Bai Yu? Check out this list - as far as I know everything above Guardian other than Skynet Action was/is filmed after Guardian. I don't know why he's not getting better shows, though we're all hoping for The Lost Tomb Reboot.

For Bai Yu, I can very much recommend Detective L, which is an excellent drama.

Thank you for this explanatory response! Answers most of my doubts and more.I just saw the list you shared, of Zhu Yilong's dramas. I really had no idea he had done so many. Going to watch them after Guardian, and also Detective L. Which are your favorites in that list? Which would you recommend..?

I am squealing every moment here, discovering little things like Lin Jin saying (while they were driving the jeep) "these two are meant for each other, they keep running in to each other".. and all the face-acting from the two leads. I was so focused on subtitles that its not surprising to have missed all those expressions.

Guardian is such a delight for second watch. The emotional payoff is so good, even when we know what's to come in the end. "It's worth it" to quote Shen Wei.

Edited (ETA- recommendation request) 2020-06-23 13:11 (UTC)

Which are your favorites in that list? Which would you recommend..?

Granting You a Dreamlike Life is very worth watching for Zhu Yilong's character, Luo Fusheng, alone. He is fantastic, completely different in every way from Shen Wei, and I adore him to pieces. The rest of the drama, not so much, but it's all worth it for him. I've also seen part of Shaw Eleven Lang and Border Town Prodigal and enjoyed what I saw of him in there. Border Town Prodigal is the better show, I think, but it's not fully subbed, and also Zhu Yilong's character has a really fascinating arc in Shaw Eleven Lang, even though it takes a while to get going. Basically, I'm seconding everything

sakana17 says. :)

I was so focused on subtitles that its not surprising to have missed all those expressions.

Yeah, that's one reason I'm generally not fond of watching subtitled shows - I always miss half of what's happening on screen while I'm reading! But Guardian is just so satisfying, and I'll gladly watch it five million times to catch everything. *g*

"It's worth it" to quote Shen Wei.

Yes! So, so much. ♥

Welcome! You might find this Bai Yu & Zhu Yilong primer useful - it has a lot of trivia about the filming of the show as well as details about the actors. It's amazing that they had never worked together before Guardian.

Of Zhu Yilong's other series, Granting You a Dreamlike Life is worth it for *him*, but maybe not so much for the series itself. But Luo Fusheng is such a different character than Shen Wei, which is interesting to watch. Although eventually I cared about some other characters in the series, Luo Fusheng is the highlight! (But fair warning: the series has a slow start where Luo Fusheng isn't the central male focus.)

I'm watching The Story of Minglan right now, and it's an excellent series, but his role is definitely secondary. He's really good in it, but there are a lot of episodes he's not in.

I loved him in Shaw Eleven Lang, which predates Guardian. His character, Lian Chengbi, goes through a complete character arc I didn't expect at first. He's not the lead in it at first, but by the end, the show is as much Chengbi's story as any other character's.

I highly recommend the short performance he did for Phantacity. He's mostly made up as a clown in it, and he sings. It's a poignant short story. It should be on YouTube. There is a version with English subtitles.

I haven't watched My True Friend yet, but the scenes I've seen with him look good. Again, he's not the male lead, though.

For Bai Yu, so far the non-Guardian role I've loved the most is Detective L. He's so great as Luo Fei! Such a compelling character, and I enjoyed the series so much.

Even watching all of the other shows, though, I keep rewatching Guardian :D because it's so good, and every time I watch it I notice new things. ^____^

Thank you for all the drama references. I would be checking out these shows. It seems like Zhu Yilong had been mostly on secondary or non-main lead kind of roles. But I also get a feeling that he is not that pushy/ambitious as an actor. He seems to just enjoy his work. I saw in an interview where he said he is planning to cut down and focus on one role per year so that he can give more attention to the character development.

Edit: Oh god, the primer is just wonderful! so many tidbits of info I had no idea about !!!

Edited 2020-06-23 14:25 (UTC)

As others have said, I think the Guardian team was shocked by how popular the drama became. It was huge in China! It was released in mid-June 2018, and by early August it had over 1.8 billion views (source - Guardian was pulled in China but eventually re-released there). Zhu Yilong and Bai Yu are now some of the highest-paid spokespersons for various brands in China - international brands like L'Oreal, Coke, and Pizza Hut have hired them to be the faces of their products. (Here's a great thread with images of Z1L's advertisements all over China, and Here's one with Bai Yu.

You can find a ton of wonderful behind the scenes footage, interviews, facts and tidbits about the actors, and timelines at this awesome link.

Before Guardian Z1L was in a lot of terrible shows early in his career, and some mediocre ones (I recommend following

sakana17 in particular for her reviews of various shows he's been in, as well as picspams). I've read that he was locked into a bad contract with a cheap studio when he was just starting out a decade ago, and they basically had him working all the time in whatever crappy schlock they were putting out. I don't know how accurate this is, it's what I've heard/picked up mostly from other English-speaking fans. After Guardian, he's gotten more options and gradually gotten the opportunity to choose roles that are more interesting to him (again, according to what I've gleaned; please take this with a grain of salt). His newest show is supposed to be released in July and has 72(!) episodes, so he's been working on that for awhile. ^_^ I don't know much about it, but it has a bit of an Indiana Jones vibe from the clips I've seen.

I recommend friending fellow Guardian fans from the friending meme here on SID Guardian and also the Love and Friendship meme here. There are lots of us, and I get wonderful Guardian content on my DW reading list every day! There is also a strong Guardian fan community on Twitter if you are familiar with that platform.

Welcome to the fandom! :)

Thank you so much for this!! Every bit of information was new to me!! I will follow exactly as you said. I don't think I can ever get over Guardian. It's not just a drama but a whole emotional experience.

Your links are a treasure for me, loving all of them! I am so glad to have found this wonderful community here.

Edit: Came back to thank for the links on ads. I am grinning so much, it's such a delight to see the ads.

and to think I landed on Guardian so late in 2020. Missed two years of fan community spirit. But again, I am at the right time because all the fanfics have been written, all resources have been created by community, and novel has been translated fully. So I am atleast spared the pain of waiting. I feel like such a noob trying to decode scenes, while others have already gone ahead with multiple rewatches and contributing to discussions.

Edited 2020-06-23 14:32 (UTC)

Better late than never,hehe!I don't think I can ever get over Guardian. It's not just a drama but a whole emotional experience. Aaahhh!!Absolutely agree with the sentiment. :D
LMAO!Yeah, you do have a lot of fics to read,new ones to look forward to and even participate in events.

brush_and_lantern is a place you can check out a lot of things going on too. :)

Everyone's already answered your questions so I have nothing helpful to add,lol. But I definitely have to rewatch it from episode 1 properly.I've rewatched a lot of it but not in order.

Isn't it amazing though how the show became so popular?I was surprised myself since it was the first Chinese show I'd watched because I got curious about the gorgeous guys in the icons tinny made.:) I honestly didn't expect much since I could see the special effects weren't that great and you know, that sort of thing and OHMG, now I can't imagine ever having missed out on it! :)

I too did not expect that I'd fall for it THIS hard. I am someone who got bored with the much hyped Untamed (if fans are here,don't scold me please, I just couldn't connect with it) So I went in to Guardian not expecting much..

by the way, I explored around the archiveofdixing link that was given above, https://archiveofdixing.com/resources/highlights.html this seems a wonderful resource full of micro expressions catalogued for each episode!

LMAO!No scolding,yo,not every show/movie is for everyone or at the same time. :)
!I actually watched The Untamed after Guardian and after a few episodes dropped it because I wasn't loving it. Until one day when I had nothing to watch and restarted it. Once I found my favourite characters,a favourite pairing (Lan Xichen/Jiang Cheng) I got into iconing it and also the fandom side so I'm still very much into it.
That thread is so cool and useful,thanks for linking it!I hadn't come across it.

Thank you for highlighting about Lan Xichen and Jiang cheng. I had dropped the show early on so I hadn't noticed this possibility. I googled a bit now to see what I missed. found this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_25ub6bJ_I and more. Seems Untamed is worth a watch before I drop fully.

I watched Untamed after I watched Guardian and was disappointed, because from the hype I'd pretty much expected it to be "Guardian 2" in terms of the central relationship, and it really wasn't that. BUT in the end I was glad I watched it, partly because I can participate in the fandom conversation about it and partly because some of the side ships are interesting to me.

You're not alone in your feelings re: Guardian and The Untamed; people who love The Untamed REALLY REALLY love it, but I know quite a few Guardian fans who continue to love Guardian and found that The Untamed didn't really do it for them.

I totally get what you mean. In terms of central relationship, Supernatural US Tv show kind of gave the guardian vibes but I had stopped watching it once i realised that they were just baiting us with that relationship and were never going to make it canon. There is no justification for a western show to tease a potential relationship like that, when Guardian team was dealing with heavy chinese censorship and still managed to show a genuine, mutually caring central canon relationship without having access to any heteronormative tools to portray the relationship. Guardian in my view is above and beyond Supernatural.

You're very welcome! I feel the same way about Guardian! I'm glad you liked the links; I didn't compile them but I'm happy to share them!

Don't worry about coming in late! I only watched the drama at the end of last year, and I felt the same way when I started! There was already so much meta and people had been involved for so long; had I missed the wave?

I'm happy to say that the Guardian fandom love is still going strong. There have already been TWO Guardian Exchanges in 2020, the Sundial Exchange and the 520 Exchange. And besides the

sid_guardian and

sundial_exchange communities, there are two more active comms:

merit_brush_recs for Guardian fanwork recommendations and

brush_and_lantern, a community to encourage creative works in the fandom and related fandoms. So don't feel like you've missed out - jump right in and join us! :)

Thank you for this, I am so thrilled to know about communities still vibrant!!

The fandom is still going strong! You'll have all the backlog to read, plus a regular dose of new stuff.

And everyone's already linked you to the other relevant comms on DW, as well as the friending memes. I hope you have fun here!

Also, Dreamwidth is good for backreading old posts - you can find lots of older discussions on this comm, and personally I'm always happy to get comments on an older post and revive that conversation. :)

Dreamwidth is good for backreading old posts

I found the episode discussions , may be I should backtrack a bit more and find older discussions. Already thrilled about just finding you all here! Everything else is added bonus.

I am seriously taking up that older discussions suggestion, thank you so much. This is so exciting!

Yay, that's great to hear! :D

I saw that several people answered your questions/provided you with links to what I would have linked you, so I'm just dropping by to say hi! I'm also pretty new to the fandom (I started watching in, what, March or April of this year?) and am already VERY DEEP IN IT, so don't feel intimidated/like the fandom is dead! It's quite alive and we're glad you have you! <3

Wow, so glad to hear am not alone! Are you on first rewatch like me or have rewatched more? how do you handle it, this new obsession? I am on multiple tabs with discussion threads and the youtube episode, plus rewinding the scenes.. and checking this https://archiveofdixing.com/resources/highlights.html link for scene by scene gifs.. just on ep 14 still.

Edit: One thing am sure of, eventhough the episodes are available on viki, Guardian is NOT to be watched on phone. I am constantly checking episode discussions and other posts.. watching on phone will not do justice to this show.

Edited 2020-06-24 08:02 (UTC)

I haven't done a rewatch yet by myself -- I sporadically join glymr's rewatches on discord and micelle's rewatch via another vidshare site. I'm also part of a Guardian discord server for general chatting purposes (most people on it are twitter users) -- if you use discord & want in, lmk and I can PM you a link! I'm actually (slowwwwwly) re-reading the novel in the original chinese, so that's taking up most of my time. Hahaha.

Each rewatch I definitely notice many more expressions and little details I missed before, though! So I'll probably do a coherent, continuous rewatch for myself eventually instead of jumping into everybody else's group rewatches. And I love archiveofdixing -- so useful.

I actually originally watched it on youtube via my tablet, but then downloaded the eps and fansubs so in the future I can watch offline, probably with VLC on my PC.

I too just downloaded the subbed videos uploaded by Solo in this forum. It's a tremendous improvement on other subs and I am already enjoying the little anecdotes and extra explanations added by solo.

Thank you for the suggestion on discord and other options!

Hope to see you around in further discussions!!!

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I am a newbie here, request you all to clarify some doubts (meta stuff)

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