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sid_guardian2021-02-27 04:24 pm
nnozomi) wrote in sid_guardian2021-02-27 04:24 pm
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Scene Discussion: Episode 36, Zhao Yunlan's livestream
Episode 36: Zhao Yunlan’s worldwide livestream. (Subtitles via Solo/QC, many thanks; I’m sorry I’m so bad at screenshots, and so prolix.)
Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei have invaded Cong Bo’s sanctum to talk him into bugging Minister Gao’s office at Haixing Inspectorate (“Fine, I’m a whistleblower, I’ll do it!”). They observe Ye Zun’s projection (delicate and elegant with his little ponytail and swagger cane) telling Minister Gao and Professor Ouyang to hand over Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei themselves, as well as the Minister giving Professor Ouyang permission to go ahead with the serum project.
“Let me talk to the whole world,” Zhao Yunlan says. Cong Bo’s look in response is very much “okay, this is above my pay grade,” but he sets it up. Meanwhile, at the Inspectorate, Guo Changcheng has (for once) an experience in a bathroom that is not terrible, meeting Professor Lin Jing there for a secret assignation (not what it sounds like).
Cong Bo’s computer makes science-fictiony noises setting up the livestream, while Shen Wei stares blankly at it. “Forget it, it would take you another ten thousand years to understand these electronics,” Zhao Yunlan teases. Unusually, Shen Wei keeps on frowning and doesn’t react to him at all.
Zhao Yunlan goes live, with his customary flair. We see Dr. Cheng listening in the hospital for a moment, and then, mingling with a crowd outside, Zhu Hong and Da Qing in cute matching baseball caps, a cursory disguise. They both look transported—“I knew you’d come back,” Zhu Hong breathes, while Da Qing, catlike, makes fun of Zhao Yunlan trying to be trendy. Lin Jing tells Xiao Guo “Professor Ouyang’s doing the injections now” while they pick up the livestream on a phone Lin Jing has adroitly acquired.
We cut back to Zhao Yunlan in person, doing his “if you prick a Dixingren, does he not bleed?” bit: “Who are Dixingren? They’re people. Like you, they feel happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy [this is喜怒哀乐, a standard four-character term for the emotions], suffer heartbreak, and suffer death [失身, in some translations “lose their virginity”]. They’re real, living people. Just because they came from a different planet, live in a different place, and have different abilities, do they deserve to be treated as monsters?” During this whole section, the camera focus is not on Zhao Yunlan but on Shen Wei next to him, his attention finally caught, gazing at him with tremendous, almost pleading intensity.
We’re all comrades, Zhao Yunlan says [同胞, which can also mean “brothers”], so I’ll put it to you straight. Everyone’s responsible for having let evil forces in, so I need you all to be strong and help me out now. Here the scene shifts to Lao Chu, watching the livestream alone in the park—until Ye Huo shows up to join him.
“I believe that if we work together, this conflict will not end in war,” Zhao Yunlan says in voice-over, as Fourth Uncle and Ying Chun listen to a battered radio in the Yashou village. “You may not believe me, but I’ve learned that progressive thinking like this already existed ten thousand years ago,” in a tip of his hat to Ma Gui and Fu You and young Shen Wei. [I think the Chinese might actually say “I learned this kind of progressive thinking ten thousand years ago,” 我在一万年前就已经学过这种先进的精神了, which, yeah, Zhao Yunlan, people will probably not believe you…] “Even if we are misunderstood, even if we are betrayed, even if there are sacrifices, I and my SID will fight to the end,” he says, as Inspectorate soldiers (?) stride through the empty SID; on “and my SID,” the camera switches back to Zhu Hong and Da Qing and to Lao Chu. “Because people like us were born for this moment,” Zhao Yunlan concludes, and now Shen Wei’s eyes on him have turned tender.
Back to Lin Jing and Xiao Guo. Lin Jing, the experienced spy, has figured out the message Zhao Yunlan was sending: “Of course, there are some of us who have left the team. I must tell you this: you should run, hide, and live. Your life is more important than your dignity. If you can grasp this point clearly, I can understand any decision you take.” (偷偷苟活去吧，血性是一种危险的尊严，清楚认识到这一点的话，你们做的任何决定我都能理解)
“Steal…the…serum (偷血清),” Xiao Guo translates, with Lin Jing’s prompting. “You mean you and Chief Zhao planned this?”
“Sh!” Lin Jing hisses, grinning, and we get a flashback to Lin Jing’s confrontation with Zhao Yunlan in the bathroom (seriously, there are at least half a dozen important scenes which take place in men’s bathrooms in this series, what gives). It turns out that Zhao Yunlan was inviting Lin Jing to become a triple agent for him. “Are you really willing to do this for us (我们)?” Zhao Yunlan tests him, using the general “we” word. “Not for you—for us (咱们),” Lin Jing corrects him, using the word for “we” that includes the person being addressed, admitting how much he cares about the SID.
Flashback over, we find Zhao Xinci and Minister Gao watching the livestream as Zhao Yunlan says “I’m willing to risk my life.” Cong Bo tells him to hurry up and finish before they trace the IP address. “I’m the wanted criminal Zhao Yunlan,” he wraps up, “and this is my confession,” with just a trace of a sideways smile. Zhao Xinci closes his eyes and sighs. “Can’t look at the long term, can’t tell right from wrong or life from death, and he says he’s willing to risk his life. Idiot!” Minister Gao wants to know if, the IP address having been traced, they should arrest them; Zhao Xinci tells him not to bother, they’re not important, and diverts his attention to the serum experiment.
The next scene is the epic struggle in the lab.
Not going to lie, I find this whole scene immensely moving, even if half of it is Zhao Yunlan being sneaky; he’s using his whole personality to draw everyone in the city in, giving them a framework they can understand and act upon, one that is based essentially in his own compassion and decency. He gets the necessary information to Lin Jing and Xiao Guo in the process, but you can see from Shen Wei’s face—and Zhu Hong and Da Qing, Lao Chu and Ye Huo and even Zhao Xinci—how much the whole of his message means.
Questions
1. What was Zhao Yunlan’s main purpose—to get the message to Lin Jing and Guo Changcheng, or to spread clear information about Dixingren, or both at once?
2. How much effect did his discussion of Dixingren have on the general public?
3. Was Zhao Xinci’s “Don’t bother” sponsored by Zhang Shi, or was it Zhao Xinci himself?
4. What did Zhao Yunlan have in mind when he was teasing Shen Wei about needing another ten thousand years plus to understand electronics? Making light of the amount of time that’s passed in Shen Wei’s life, to show that he’s assimilated the situation and is okay with it? Just trying to lighten the atmosphere? And why doesn’t Shen Wei, normally ultra-Zhao-Yunlan-sensitive, react to him?
5. What is going through Shen Wei’s mind while he listens?
(I couldn’t think offhand of any fanworks explicitly referencing this scene, but please rec and/or self-rec and/or write some?)
Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei have invaded Cong Bo’s sanctum to talk him into bugging Minister Gao’s office at Haixing Inspectorate (“Fine, I’m a whistleblower, I’ll do it!”). They observe Ye Zun’s projection (delicate and elegant with his little ponytail and swagger cane) telling Minister Gao and Professor Ouyang to hand over Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei themselves, as well as the Minister giving Professor Ouyang permission to go ahead with the serum project.
“Let me talk to the whole world,” Zhao Yunlan says. Cong Bo’s look in response is very much “okay, this is above my pay grade,” but he sets it up. Meanwhile, at the Inspectorate, Guo Changcheng has (for once) an experience in a bathroom that is not terrible, meeting Professor Lin Jing there for a secret assignation (not what it sounds like).
Cong Bo’s computer makes science-fictiony noises setting up the livestream, while Shen Wei stares blankly at it. “Forget it, it would take you another ten thousand years to understand these electronics,” Zhao Yunlan teases. Unusually, Shen Wei keeps on frowning and doesn’t react to him at all.
Zhao Yunlan goes live, with his customary flair. We see Dr. Cheng listening in the hospital for a moment, and then, mingling with a crowd outside, Zhu Hong and Da Qing in cute matching baseball caps, a cursory disguise. They both look transported—“I knew you’d come back,” Zhu Hong breathes, while Da Qing, catlike, makes fun of Zhao Yunlan trying to be trendy. Lin Jing tells Xiao Guo “Professor Ouyang’s doing the injections now” while they pick up the livestream on a phone Lin Jing has adroitly acquired.
We cut back to Zhao Yunlan in person, doing his “if you prick a Dixingren, does he not bleed?” bit: “Who are Dixingren? They’re people. Like you, they feel happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy [this is喜怒哀乐, a standard four-character term for the emotions], suffer heartbreak, and suffer death [失身, in some translations “lose their virginity”]. They’re real, living people. Just because they came from a different planet, live in a different place, and have different abilities, do they deserve to be treated as monsters?” During this whole section, the camera focus is not on Zhao Yunlan but on Shen Wei next to him, his attention finally caught, gazing at him with tremendous, almost pleading intensity.
We’re all comrades, Zhao Yunlan says [同胞, which can also mean “brothers”], so I’ll put it to you straight. Everyone’s responsible for having let evil forces in, so I need you all to be strong and help me out now. Here the scene shifts to Lao Chu, watching the livestream alone in the park—until Ye Huo shows up to join him.
“I believe that if we work together, this conflict will not end in war,” Zhao Yunlan says in voice-over, as Fourth Uncle and Ying Chun listen to a battered radio in the Yashou village. “You may not believe me, but I’ve learned that progressive thinking like this already existed ten thousand years ago,” in a tip of his hat to Ma Gui and Fu You and young Shen Wei. [I think the Chinese might actually say “I learned this kind of progressive thinking ten thousand years ago,” 我在一万年前就已经学过这种先进的精神了, which, yeah, Zhao Yunlan, people will probably not believe you…] “Even if we are misunderstood, even if we are betrayed, even if there are sacrifices, I and my SID will fight to the end,” he says, as Inspectorate soldiers (?) stride through the empty SID; on “and my SID,” the camera switches back to Zhu Hong and Da Qing and to Lao Chu. “Because people like us were born for this moment,” Zhao Yunlan concludes, and now Shen Wei’s eyes on him have turned tender.
Back to Lin Jing and Xiao Guo. Lin Jing, the experienced spy, has figured out the message Zhao Yunlan was sending: “Of course, there are some of us who have left the team. I must tell you this: you should run, hide, and live. Your life is more important than your dignity. If you can grasp this point clearly, I can understand any decision you take.” (偷偷苟活去吧，血性是一种危险的尊严，清楚认识到这一点的话，你们做的任何决定我都能理解)
“Steal…the…serum (偷血清),” Xiao Guo translates, with Lin Jing’s prompting. “You mean you and Chief Zhao planned this?”
“Sh!” Lin Jing hisses, grinning, and we get a flashback to Lin Jing’s confrontation with Zhao Yunlan in the bathroom (seriously, there are at least half a dozen important scenes which take place in men’s bathrooms in this series, what gives). It turns out that Zhao Yunlan was inviting Lin Jing to become a triple agent for him. “Are you really willing to do this for us (我们)?” Zhao Yunlan tests him, using the general “we” word. “Not for you—for us (咱们),” Lin Jing corrects him, using the word for “we” that includes the person being addressed, admitting how much he cares about the SID.
Flashback over, we find Zhao Xinci and Minister Gao watching the livestream as Zhao Yunlan says “I’m willing to risk my life.” Cong Bo tells him to hurry up and finish before they trace the IP address. “I’m the wanted criminal Zhao Yunlan,” he wraps up, “and this is my confession,” with just a trace of a sideways smile. Zhao Xinci closes his eyes and sighs. “Can’t look at the long term, can’t tell right from wrong or life from death, and he says he’s willing to risk his life. Idiot!” Minister Gao wants to know if, the IP address having been traced, they should arrest them; Zhao Xinci tells him not to bother, they’re not important, and diverts his attention to the serum experiment.
The next scene is the epic struggle in the lab.
Not going to lie, I find this whole scene immensely moving, even if half of it is Zhao Yunlan being sneaky; he’s using his whole personality to draw everyone in the city in, giving them a framework they can understand and act upon, one that is based essentially in his own compassion and decency. He gets the necessary information to Lin Jing and Xiao Guo in the process, but you can see from Shen Wei’s face—and Zhu Hong and Da Qing, Lao Chu and Ye Huo and even Zhao Xinci—how much the whole of his message means.
Questions
1. What was Zhao Yunlan’s main purpose—to get the message to Lin Jing and Guo Changcheng, or to spread clear information about Dixingren, or both at once?
2. How much effect did his discussion of Dixingren have on the general public?
3. Was Zhao Xinci’s “Don’t bother” sponsored by Zhang Shi, or was it Zhao Xinci himself?
4. What did Zhao Yunlan have in mind when he was teasing Shen Wei about needing another ten thousand years plus to understand electronics? Making light of the amount of time that’s passed in Shen Wei’s life, to show that he’s assimilated the situation and is okay with it? Just trying to lighten the atmosphere? And why doesn’t Shen Wei, normally ultra-Zhao-Yunlan-sensitive, react to him?
5. What is going through Shen Wei’s mind while he listens?
(I couldn’t think offhand of any fanworks explicitly referencing this scene, but please rec and/or self-rec and/or write some?)
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1. What was Zhao Yunlan’s main purpose—to get the message to Lin Jing and Guo Changcheng, or to spread clear information about Dixingren, or both at once?
I think it's both, and more, and I'm not just saying that because I love the livestream as a declaration of where Zhao Yunlan stands—of where the SID stands—but also because, if he only needs to send the message to Lin Jing and Guo Changcheng, there are other, less public ways to do it, especially considering what Cong Bo can achieve with a computer and the Lorem ipsum.
2. How much effect did his discussion of Dixingren have on the general public?
I think this depends on what the average Haixingren already knows about Dixingren, if they know anything at all. Did the general public know nothing about Dixingren before all this?* Are Dixingren the cryptids of Haixing? Is their existence a sort of diffuse possibility in the public's mind? Or are they like, "Xiao-Li's neighbour can grow plants with just a touch, but we don't talk about it." Zhao Yunlan's speech would land differently in each of these scenarios, although I don't know how impactful it would be, overall.
[*I think this is what the show is going with, but some of the reactions to Dixing powers in earlier episodes are a bit too nonchalant, in my opinion, so there's room for different interpretations.]
3. Was Zhao Xinci’s “Don’t bother” sponsored by Zhang Shi, or was it Zhao Xinci himself?
Heh, why not both? (It reads more like Zhao Xinci to me—I feel like protecting via insults is more his style.)
4. What did Zhao Yunlan have in mind when he was teasing Shen Wei about needing another ten thousand years plus to understand electronics? Making light of the amount of time that’s passed in Shen Wei’s life, to show that he’s assimilated the situation and is okay with it? Just trying to lighten the atmosphere? And why doesn’t Shen Wei, normally ultra-Zhao-Yunlan-sensitive, react to him?
I think Zhao Yunlan is trying to lighten the atmosphere; it could also be a way of telling Shen Wei to stop worrying, although it doesn't seem to work as intended. I wonder if they talked about Zhao Yunlan's plan beforehand. Perhaps Shen Wei's lack of reaction is him trying very hard not to tell Zhao Yunlan not to do this.
5. What is going through Shen Wei’s mind while he listens?
What wouldn't be going through his mind?! I get a bit overwhelmed just thinking about it. He must be extremely moved.
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Yes, very true! You could say that getting the message to Lin Jing and Xiao Guo gives him an excuse to make his declaration on Dixingren, if anything.
It's such a good question, how much do people actually know about Dixingren in Haixing? I like what you describe as Or are they like, "Xiao-Li's neighbour can grow plants with just a touch, but we don't talk about it", if only because there seem to be quite a lot of Dixingren around, some of them for many years (see Wu Tian'en etc.), and it seems like word would travel. (Also it makes for more interesting fic ideas!). But I don't think we have evidence one way or another.
It reads more like Zhao Xinci to me—I feel like protecting via insults is more his style.
Ha! Absolutely. Effective bad cop ZXC.
Perhaps Shen Wei's lack of reaction is him trying very hard not to tell Zhao Yunlan not to do this.
That seems very very possible. I tend to take it as him still kind of reeling from seeing Ye Zun flaunting his power in Haixing, but it could very well be all of this at once. Poor Shen Wei. Overwhelmed, as you say. ;(
Thank you for the thoughtful reactions!
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Second, I super enjoyed your post and the insights into the original dialogue, thank you for writing it up! I'm kind of bad at the questions, but I do remember watching that scene and having a lot of EMOTIONS!!! about Shen Wei having EMOTIONS about Zhao Yunlan having emotions about our shared humanity. What a speech!
And I'm gonna say the "Don't bother" was Dad. Just because.
(seriously, there are at least half a dozen important scenes which take place in men’s bathrooms in this series, what gives)
What's more, it's all the same restroom? Like, the one where Zhao Xinci met his personal Venom what, twenty years ago? Was exactly the same set?
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And I'm gonna say the "Don't bother" was Dad. Just because.
Agree ;)
It is all the same restroom, isn't it? Or there might be one more--is the one where Xiao Guo gets serially menaced by Zhu Jiu and then Ye Zun a different one? (Poor Xiao Guo, it's amazing he doesn't end up with a complex.)
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However, he does look very intent and focused as you say - "tremendous, almost pleading intensity" siiiiiiiiigh yes. I think he just feels overcome with the weight of Zhao Yunlan's message as well as the man himself, and possibly is trying very hard to look focused on the mission at hand and not like he's dying of love and devotion. Uh. Literally. (sob)
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I wonder how much Shen Wei's intensity is also about the idea of a world-wide broadcast (as well as being about ZYL). He's so used to holding his secrets close, for the good of himself, the timeline and presumably, to some extent, for the good of the Dixing people. This is the diametric opposite of that! What if Haixingren react badly to this? Who can predict the outcome? And what if it blows up in Zhao Yunlan's face -- it would be something Shen Wei couldn't protect him from. So, especially to start with, I think there's a lot of a) uncertainty, and b) this is SO FAR outside my skill set, I can't fix it if it goes wrong kind of feelings?
And because I've been thinking about Zhao Yunlan's performance of self recently, I kind of love that at the start of the broadcast he's totally using that! This is what glib charm is for, after all!
Guo Changcheng has (for once) an experience in a bathroom that is not terrible, meeting Professor Lin Jing there for a secret assignation (not what it sounds like).
Hee! <3
Awww, it must be really meaningful for Shen Wei that Zhao Yunlan isn't just speaking good about him, but about Dixing generally. He doesn't mention the Black-Cloaked Envoy at all, or the work he's done. Zhao Yunlan is putting everything on the line to defend Shen Wei's people. Awwww!
“Even if we are misunderstood, even if we are betrayed, even if there are sacrifices, I and my SID will fight to the end,” he says, as Inspectorate soldiers (?) stride through the empty SID; on “and my SID,” the camera switches back to Zhu Hong and Da Qing and to Lao Chu. “Because people like us were born for this moment,” Zhao Yunlan concludes, and now Shen Wei’s eyes on him have turned tender.
Awwww, and Cong Bo is nodding along, totally caught up in the stirring speech and the moment! ♥
/my random reactions, hi, I haven't rewatched the back half of the show in so long, this is a bit out of context, but hopefully I still made some kind of sense, and seriously, I love your write-up!
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He's so used to holding his secrets close, for the good of himself, the timeline and presumably, to some extent, for the good of the Dixing people. This is the diametric opposite of that!
Oh yes, that's an excellent point! Shen keep-everything-secret-on-principle Wei is being faced with total open disclosure and it really would disconcert him, wouldn't it.
Zhao Yunlan's performance of self
I owe you a comment or two on that and your other posts, but in the meantime, one of the reasons I love the livestream scene so much is that Zhao Yunlan is performing himself on a grand scale--it's very much a performance and it's also absolutely about who he is and how he works.
Awww, it must be really meaningful for Shen Wei that Zhao Yunlan isn't just speaking good about him, but about Dixing generally.
Oh yes. (I wrote a short fic a while back imagining how it would be if Dixing and Haixing had different dialects, and it has a deleted (or mostly never-written) scene in which Zhao Yunlan threw in a few phrases in Dixing dialect during this part of his livestream--the Haixingren might not even notice but it would reach the Dixingren listening, beginning with Shen Wei. I don't know.)
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Oh, I love that idea! I'd really enjoy reading that if you ever felt like writing it after all.
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“What the hell are Dixingren anyway?” Zhao Yunlan asks the world, and Shen Wei forgets how to breathe. “Don’t believe the nonsense rumors you hear online. I can tell you straight up, they’re people. And just like you, they laugh, love, rage, and grieve, they break their hearts, they die, they live like people.”
The constant drumbeat of fear in Shen Wei’s chest is slowing at last, taking on a new tempo, resonating to that familiar, that cherished voice. They laugh, love, rage, and grieve—He can’t take his eyes off Zhao Yunlan’s unwontedly serious face.
“Just because they come from a different planet, they live in a different place, they have different powers—should they be treated like monsters?” Zhao Yunlan draws breath. “I’m telling it like it is,” he says, gentler, “we’re tongbao.” Brothers. Comrades.
He says it in Dixinghua.
Shen Wei can feel himself go still with shock, his head ringing. Such small changes—tonbao for tongbao, ji for zhi...the Haixingren listening to the broadcast may have noticed nothing, but for Shen Wei—and for the others, he realizes, the many Dixingren who live quietly in Haixing and never draw the Black-Cloaked Envoy’s overt attention, Professor Shen’s silent tongbao...
Tears are coming to his eyes. He blinks, swallows hard, focuses again on Zhao Yunlan’s, Kunlun’s, Zhao Yunlan’s face and voice, listening once again to his heart.
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Yesss! It's so good! *flails a little*
Oh, that's awesome, and I'd love to read it if you ever resurrect it. And wow, I'd never thought before about the Dixingren who must be listening in to the speech (other than Chu Shuzhi) or how that would feel for them. Wow...
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It took a while, but I've posted a little bit in response to trobadora's comment above!
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That is such a good point!