Focus on: Hei Pao Shi rescues/recruits Chu Shuzhi from prison, episode 36

[dorinda]

Location of the scene: episode 36, from 27:58 - 30:11.
(Though actually I'm starting just a little early, with the present-day exchange that triggers Chu Shuzhi's initial memory, beginning around 27:18.)

(Language note: I have no schooling in Chinese—my mentions of the language are gleaned from what other people have written, and are of course completely open to correction. Thanks to sakana17 and thevetia for talking with me about the poem and stuff!)


Recap and pictures

Right before the flashback, Yehuo and Chu Shuzhi are patrolling for invaders from Dixing. Chu Shuzhi thanks him.

Chu Shuzhi: "I mean, you're from Dixing, but here you are helping the SID."
Yehuo: "Every time we work together, I get more convinced I'm doing the right thing. And don't you forget, you're from Dixing, too."



Yehuo warmly grips his shoulder and goes on patrol, leaving the camera to slowly push in on a very thoughtful Chu Shuzhi. Chu Shuzhi thinks to himself, "I used to belong to Dixing..."



And, we're in the flashback! Dijun Palace, in the past. We can hear whipping and see an out-of-focus Chu Shuzhi in the foreground, with our attention on the Regent. The Regent is theatrically wincing as if in pain and sympathy every time the lash strikes. (Ugh, that guy!)

A shirtless, sweating Chu Shuzhi ( :D ) is bound to a column, being steadily whipped (:D :D ). We never see by whom... it could be the Secretary, who we see in ep. 32 whipped him as a boy (if that portion of his dream was accurate), or it could perhaps be one of the guards we briefly see in later shots. This shot is from slightly below him and slightly tilted, dramatic and expressive.



He's reacting with pain and fury. We can see part of that diagonal slash down his chest, which he got in the original bar fight that started his and Nianzhi's whole tragedy (although the direction of the slash looks different here than it was in his dream...on purpose, related to how the dream twisted back and forth? Or a makeup error? Or—?).

We get a closeup of his right hand clenched in a fist, chained to the bloody column; it jerks with every strike. The camera is moving, tilting, giving it a kinetic, effortful, and even queasy feel for a moment.



Interestingly, this closeup echoes a shot from ep 32, when he's being whipped as a boy in his dream: there we get a closeup of his hand (tied with rope this time), clenched in a fist...but then relaxing open as he passes out.



The Regent, still pretending to suffer, holds out a hand to stop the punishment. The camera follows him as he approaches Chu Shuzhi, who is panting, head hanging down.





"Little boy," the Regent says to him. The characters are 小娃娃, Xiǎo wáwá... All viewers of the show will be familiar with "Xiǎo" as a diminutive, "little"— and according to google translate and various online dictionaries, wáwá has meanings like "baby", "small child", and "doll". (!) You can see why, when the Regent came to SID in ep. 15 and called out, smiling, "Is this Xiao Chu here?", Chu Shuzhi grabbed him with teeth bared like he was going to tear out his throat.

The Regent continues, bending over and peering closely up into Chu Shuzhi's face: "You broke out of jail and committed murder. You committed unforgivable crimes. Now your 100-year jail term is ending. Do you repent for your crimes?"



Chu Shuzhi, with pained and exhausted effort, replies, "I avenged my younger brother." He slowly looks at the Regent as he finishes, "What is wrong with that?"



The Regent makes a prissy tut-tutting sound. Now his voice has more force, less of the pretense and wheedling: "You're hopeless! Dangerous persons like you can never be pardoned." He wags his finger in Chu Shuzhi's face. "Get him out of here! Add on life imprisonment for Chu Shuzhi!"

We can see that Chu Shuzhi is bound with rope around his waist, as well as with the chain.



Chu Shuzhi reacts with silent rage, as if he would bite if he were close enough.



BUT THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN! A new voice offscreen says strongly: "His crimes are unforgivable, but one can sympathize with his reasons." (An emphasis on context and sympathy that we've seen in the Envoy we've come to know, when he releases some people in the show rather than imprisoning them... Also, we know what Chu Shuzhi does not, about Shen Wei's personal history with a younger twin brother.)

The Regent gasps and lowers his eyes and body in frightened respect. And now we see who is speaking: a familiar black-robed form. ♥



"Since you want him out of the way, why not hand him over to me?" The Regent cringes and nods. Chu Shuzhi, head thrown back against the column, watches this new player warily.

Hei Pao Shi approaches him, speaking calmly and rhythmically (see the next section, "Way too much about the poem" :D ): "Life and death come and go like puppets dancing on a table. Once their strings are cut, they easily crumble."



Chu Shuzhi is still watching him with his head pressed back, breathing hard, his teeth bared. These moments remind me of someone gentling a wild animal.



The Black-Robed Envoy goes on: "The line of Chu Puppet Masters has a long tradition in Dixing. I cannot let it end here." The Regent is making a face as he listens, as if something smells bad.



In a wider shot, we see that Chu Shuzhi has lowered his head slightly now and is looking up at him, at a more respectful angle. And at last, Chu Shuzhi speaks, breathy and effortful: "You are...the Black-Robed Envoy?"



"I am," says the Envoy. Chu Shuzhi listens, looking dazed. The Envoy says: "I can see your dedication to your brother in your eyes. Do you want to take this dedication to another place to let it shine?" Chu Shuzhi's breathing picks up again, his eyes gleam, the ghost of a smile almost moves his mouth. He says slowly, "I..."



The Envoy is watching him, his eyes steady and intense. The camera is slightly tilting/rising, while staying solidly on the Envoy; see how the background moves. It adds another of those almost-subconscious kinetic feelings.



Chu Shuzhi finishes, definitively: "I want to."



The Regent makes another stinkface. Uggggh that guy. Somehow I think he might not truly believe in rehabilitation!

The Envoy lifts his hand and passes it through the air in a smooth, regal gesture. The shot is slightly tilted, expressive; the guard and the palace walls all seem to be bowing toward the Envoy.



The chain and ropes vanish, and Chu Shuzhi collapses to the floor on his hands and knees, head bowed low. Whether intentional or not, his posture here is full prostration, kowtow, showing respect and reverence. The camera angle is extremely canted! Expressive camerawork, visual interest, a feeling of disorientation. He is small, and the Envoy's robes in the foreground are so dark and big.



In the foreground, we see the Envoy turn to go, the layers of his robes billowing.



Still on hands and knees, Chu Shuzhi slowly raises his head just enough, turning his eyes up to watch the Black-Robed Envoy leave. He's breathing hard. The camera subtly tilts to the right and then the left, as unsteady as he is.



From a low camera angle, canted on a diagonal—Chu Shuzhi's ground-level, dazed point of view—the Envoy departs up the steps in slow-motion. His robes flutter majestically behind him.



Chu Shuzhi watches him; the music swells. And he suddenly has a memory of Nianzhi, when Nianzhi was taking his punishment in their youth with the jar, saying, "Brother, we have to make a difference above ground. In my heart, you're forever a hero."



Chu Shuzhi on hands and knees, eyes turned up and locked on the place the Envoy has gone, promises—to Nianzhi, but maybe also to his new lodestar, the Envoy—"Don't worry." (放心, fàngxīn: set one’s mind at rest, be at ease, rest assured.)






Way too much about the poem

As Shen Wei walks toward Chu Shuzhi, he recites a poem. In the Solo-QC subtitles I have, the translation is:

{斗转星移 / 生死去来} Life and death come and go
{棚头傀儡} like puppets dancing on a table.
{一线断时} Once their strings are cut
{落落磊磊} they easily crumble.

In a discussion here in 2019, a contributor mentioned that this same poem (or at least, with the differing first line) is used in "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence". The first line of the version there is 生死去来.

A commenter on the Chinese site douban mentioned that the poem appears in a book by the Japanese Nō master Zeami (1363-1443). This book, Kakyō (also known as "The Mirror to the Flower", "A Mirror of the Flower", "Flower Mirror", etc.) is a manual on Nō acting. A 1984 translation of the poem (aiming for a prose style), reads "Indeed, when we come to face death, our life might be likened to a puppet on a cart [decorated for a great festival]. As soon as one string is cut, the creature crumbles and fades." (On the Art of the Nō Drama: The Major Treatises of Zeami by J. Thomas Rimer, Yamazaki Masakazu, Princeton University Press, 1984). Zeami draws an analogy between that and the skills of Nō performance, writing about the actor creating and supporting illusions without revealing the 'strings' of his spirit powering them.

But wait, there's more! People online typically say that the poem is by Zeami, but, in the 1984 translation of the Zeami book I saw, the poem is in quotation marks; Zeami is quoting something older. A footnote reads: "A saying attributed to a priest of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism in Japan, Gettan Sōkō (1316?-1389)." That's as far back as I've been able to trace it at this point.

I'd love to know more about that changed first line. The first line used in Guardian (斗转星移) might be thought of more literally as something like, "The Big Dipper revolves, the stars shift" (using xīng, star, as in Haixing and Dixing), which still has that sense of time and change, coming and going, but with interestingly different imagery.



Why I chose this scene

Okay, well, first of all I'm not made of stone! I was enjoying Chu Shuzhi's handsome shoulders all through the show in his sleeveless shirt, and then I got a chance to see him barechested and sweating and gasping and bravely/furiously suffering? Sign me up!

But there are also other reasons, believe it or not. :D The dynamic between the Envoy and Chu Shuzhi is set out for us very early in the show, in the meetings that end episodes 2 and 4. There is a lot of history and powerful feeling hinted at there, especially when Chu Shuzhi kneels to the Envoy, and the Envoy reminds him that it is not about obligation, but a friendship between gentlemen. On top of that, we have the brief but important moments in ep. 21 when Shen Wei apologizes to Chu Shuzhi. So now we get a chance to see where all of that started!

I am also fascinated by the Envoy saying to Chu Shuzhi, "The line of Chu Puppet Masters has a long tradition in Dixing. I cannot let it end here." There are a few references throughout the series to Chu Shuzhi being famous (and frightening) to Dixing people. But here, we get a sense of something more, hinting toward his family and his history, which is treated so respectfully by the Black-Robed Envoy himself.

And speaking of respect: I absolutely love how the Envoy sees Chu Shuzhi in this scene, sees him and values him, respects him—he doesn't see a half-naked chained feral beast, or a "dangerous person" who can never be pardoned like the Regent does. The Envoy doesn't command—he speaks courteously (as well as dramatically), he tells him that he knows and appreciates who he is, he asks him if he wants to come and help. He leaves the decision up to him. You can see that from the very beginning he saw it as a friendship between gentlemen.

Finally, more and more I've noticed the direction in this scene. Real attention is being paid to the camerawork—placement, angles, movement. There's a lot going on, but not for show or distraction, always suiting the story and feelings: pushing closer during a shot to build drama, fluid tracking that follows a character, expressive canted setups, tilting during a shot for emphasis or disorientation, slow motion for the emotion in the point-of-view, etc.



Questions

In ep. 18, Zhao Yunlan says to Shen Wei, "If you hadn't commuted his sentence and brought him to the SID, he'd still be doing penal labor for the Regent in Dixing." What do you imagine Chu Shuzhi's prison sentence has been like? What penal labor might he have done?

Why doesn't Chu Shuzhi lie to the Regent that he repents? (This certainly makes me think of our discussion about Zhu Jiu trying to recruit Chu Shuzhi in episode 19...)

What do you think about "the line of Chu Puppet Masters"? Do you have ideas about Chu Shuzhi's family? His/their hereditary powers? His/their fame in Dixing?

How and why do you think the Black-Robed Envoy chose Chu Shuzhi?

Did Shen Wei learn that poem in university? :D



Fanworks

I don't know of fanworks that are about this scene, so I would love to hear it if you do! I will say that I wrote a short piece about Chu Shuzhi working for Shen Wei set not long after his rescue, and pieces of this event are still very alive in his heart: Some bright place.

EDITED TO ADD!: I only just now got to read, and highly recommend, china_shop's story, starting right after the rescue. A series of 7 perfect drabbles!:

The Envoy's Man (700 words) by china_shop
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Chu Shuzhi & Shen Wei
Characters: Chu Shuzhi, Shěn Wēi, Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Loyalty, Dixing Powers, POV Second Person, Drabble Sequence
Summary:

Lord Envoy brings you, dazed and trying not to stumble, through the gateway into cool damp Haixing.

Please do come and discuss! Any and all thoughts are welcome, definitely including "Ohhhhh myyyyy".

Comments

[maggie33]

This is a wonderful post about one of my favorite scenes - for shallow reasons (because how can I resists half-naked Chu Shuzhi :)) and for emotional reasons - there is so much angst and we find out how exactly collaboration between Chu Shuzhi and the Black-Cloaked Envoy started.

Chu Shuzhi is still watching him with his head pressed back, breathing hard, his teeth bared. These moments remind me of someone gentling a wild animal.

Yes, exactly. I always thought so, too, watching this scene.

And thank you for talking (definitely not too much to me :)) about that poem. It's fascinating.

[dorinda]

I agree with all of your reasons! ♥

And yes, I was so interested in the poem. At first I didn't know what it was that he was saying there, but eventually once I rewatched it and didn't have to concentrate on reading the subtitles, I could hear the rhythm and rhyme in Shen Wei's speech. So then I started asking sakana17 and thevetia, and we all snooped around. Such an interesting tidbit to include!

[shadaras]

Unsurprisingly, I also love this scene! :D I was looking forward to learning more about Chu Shuzhi's relationship with the Envoy throughout the whole show, and this scene definitely delivered. (And, of course, I'm also here for shirtless Chu Shuzhi like this...)

I love all the discussion and background information about the poem Shen Wei quotes! And I love the idea that he learned it from his time in Haixing! :D

I'm also so here for you starting with the interaction between Chu Shuzhi and Ye Huo; their relationship is one of my favorite minor relationships in the show, and I'm delighted to see it highlighted. :) I wonder if Ye Huo's line of "Every time we work together, I get more convinced I'm doing the right thing." is something that Chu Shuzhi himself felt, either with the Envoy or with the SID itself, in his early days working with them.

The length of Chu Shuzhi's sentence has always interested me, because of how it's also tied to the generally ambiguous lifespan of Dixingren. It's been a hundred years! For humans that's basically the same as a life sentence! Yet, for Chu Shuzhi it's enough for him to grow to adulthood but still be fairly solidly in the prime of his life. How long does an average Dixingren live? (The Regent has also been around for a long time, of course...)

Based on what Chu Shuzhi looks like, I imagine his penal labor was indeed hard labor. Mining is traditional, or some form of construction perhaps.

I do think that the Envoy picked Chu Shuzhi because he saw why Chu Shuzhi had been sentenced to prison to begin with. (Which happened before he woke up again, iirc.) Shen Wei would certainly have feelings about someone being punished because he cared for his brother that much, and from there it'd just be a matter of waiting and watching to make sure that Chu Shuzhi is a moral person and not a wild murderer. I imagine he figured that out before the sentence was up, but waited to take him out of prison until his sentence was over anyway because it probably wasn't that long to wait. (Especially on the scale of Shen Wei's lifespan, let alone a normal Dixingren's lifespan...) That he then needs to rescue Chu Shuzhi from the Regent's desire to keep him in prison forever is unexpected—Chu Shuzhi's pledge of loyalty is useful, but not what he'd been imagining—and that's likely part of why he treats Chu Shuzhi as an equal from the start. He'd intended it that way, after all.

Chu Shuzhi not repenting is because, as we discussed with Zhu Jiu's attempt to recruit him, he doesn't like to lie. xD Why would he say he's sorry for something he doesn't regret? That he holds to this stance even when tortured (they can't treat him like this normally if they expect him to do hard labor!) is an impressive moral center, and I have to believe that Shen Wei respects him more for it. :)

[dorinda]

I'm also so here for you starting with the interaction between Chu Shuzhi and Ye Huo; their relationship is one of my favorite minor relationships in the show

Me too! The more people talk about their dynamic, the more I'm paying attention to them in recent rewatches. And your story about the boxing school was very inspirational. :D

I wonder if Ye Huo's line of "Every time we work together, I get more convinced I'm doing the right thing." is something that Chu Shuzhi himself felt, either with the Envoy or with the SID itself, in his early days working with them.

I like that idea. In my imagination, Chu Shuzhi had a rough time getting used to the others in SID at first, especially Zhao Yunlan (as Shen Wei points out, sometimes their barging-ahead/rushing-in flaws can be similar!). So I can easily imagine that discomfort being a distraction for a while, until, after he's worked with them long enough, he looks around and realizes he has started to feel like he's doing the right thing, like he's making a difference.

The length of Chu Shuzhi's sentence has always interested me, because of how it's also tied to the generally ambiguous lifespan of Dixingren.

Yes, ditto for me! When we get clues as to time, we do see some who live quite a long time (even disregarding Shen Wei and Ye Zun, who were 'buried' or otherwise in special holding). I think worldbuilding could base a lot on the Dixingren ancestors being 1) alien to the planet, and 2) genetically mutated. That does make me wonder if Dixingren with powers (their mutation 'activating', sort of) might even live longer than those without. It would add an extra level to the chauvinism we see in Zhu Jiu's background, with the captain calling him trash because he has no powers...even a bit like separate castes, the empowered/long-lived, and the normies.

Regarding Chu Shuzhi not liking to lie: he really doesn't!! Not even to someone he completely disrespects and hates! Agreed on Shen Wei surely respecting his morals as well as his endurance. ♥ Although it always strikes me as intriguing that Shen Wei ends up choosing someone who spurns lying, and then puts him undercover as a spy. It's a passive form of lying, true, and more about keeping a secret than about actively saying false things aloud. But still, it's not something that seems to mesh well with Chu Shuzhi's nature! (However, since he's doing it for the Black-Robed Envoy, not lying to protect himself, I'm sure he was totally willing--the way that in the freezer, he lied for Changcheng but not for himself.)

[trobadora]

That does make me wonder if Dixingren with powers (their mutation 'activating', sort of) might even live longer than those without. It would add an extra level to the chauvinism we see in Zhu Jiu's background, with the captain calling him trash because he has no powers...even a bit like separate castes, the empowered/long-lived, and the normies.

Oh yeah, that's an exellent point! I do think it's quite likely ...

[shadaras]

<333 I'm so glad you enjoyed my Ye Huo & Chu Shuzhi story! I had to get my feelings out somehow.

I can easily imagine that discomfort being a distraction for a while, until, after he's worked with them long enough, he looks around and realizes he has started to feel like he's doing the right thing, like he's making a difference.

Oh, that's all really lovely! I like this idea also. :)

That does make me wonder if Dixingren with powers (their mutation 'activating', sort of) might even live longer than those without. It would add an extra level to the chauvinism we see in Zhu Jiu's background, with the captain calling him trash because he has no powers...even a bit like separate castes, the empowered/long-lived, and the normies.

Yeah! I'd also been thinking about that! :D And oof, I love the idea that it adds to Zhu Jiu's bitterness and anger... He's such a terrible angsty man, and it's cool seeing places where more layered characterization is possible. :)

Although it always strikes me as intriguing that Shen Wei ends up choosing someone who spurns lying, and then puts him undercover as a spy.

Right? I'm endlessly fascinated that Chu Shuzhi was chosen for that role. Were there simply not any other people Shen Wei trusted enough to work in Haixing without going rogue? (Which would've hit Chu Shuzhi really hard, seeing as he was imprisoned for going wild...) Did Shen Wei not have many recruits in general? Did he ask Chu Shuzhi trying to make it a "you can say no" type of deal and Chu Shuzhi's different sense of hierarchy mean that he just said "yes" even though it wasn't really suited to his nature?

[trobadora]

The length of Chu Shuzhi's sentence has always interested me, because of how it's also tied to the generally ambiguous lifespan of Dixingren.

Right? And it makes me wonder about the timeline regarding the Hallows too - if I'm remembering correctly, Zhang Shi says in this very episode that the Hallows were lost "decades ago" because the Guardian Lantern was extinguished, which means 100 years ago it should still have been on, but the flashbacks to Chu Shuzhi's childhood don't look that way. Which makes me wonder if there are temporal shenanigans going on. Maybe Dixing prison has temporal distortions, so the sentence might last longer on the inside than on the outside ...

[china_shop]

Or maybe Zhang Shi is so old that his sense of time passing is a bit off? He might well think of 100 years or more as being "decades ago", mightn't he?

[trobadora]

Sure, that's always possible! The Mountain-River Awl was in Hanga territory for longer than just a few decades, too, so that would make sense. But I like temporal shenanigans. :)

[trepkos]

OMG that frightful Regent! *shudders*
Also, I got confused by Chu Shuzhi and Nianzhi's story; which one of them was mostly the disobedient one?
Thank you for the caps and the recap - I hadn't even noticed all the amazing camerawork, which is probably a sign of how good it was.

[dorinda]

which one of them was mostly the disobedient one?

Very confusing, to give us identical twins and then tell us the same story twice while switching them around! At least Shen Wei and Ye Zun (mostly) wear different outfits! :D The short answer is that Shuzhi, our guy, was the disobedient one.

What happened was: inside Chu Shuzhi's dream, he first dreamed his youth in a wish-fulfillment way: he was the sweet, obedient boy, and Nianzhi was the aggressive, violent boy. So Nianzhi got arrested for the bar fight, and Shuzhi slashed his own chest and tried to pretend he was Nianzhi, to save him. The Regent didn't care who was who, so he had them both whipped and burned. But inside his dream, Chu Shuzhi insists to (fake) Guo Changcheng that he saved Nianzhi (even while also admitting that Nianzhi is dead now).

Later, we see Chu Shuzhi remember his youth again, the way it really was (and also as he describes to Changcheng after the Dial healing, at the start of ep 34): Nianzhi was the gentle/sweet boy, and Shuzhi was the aggressive/violent boy. Shuzhi got arrested for the bar fight. (We don't know for sure if the bit with Nianzhi cutting his own chest and pretending to be Shuzhi actually happened, because the second dream-within-a-dream skips showing that part.) One of the people from the bar fight sees Nianzhi passing by, thinks he's the criminal Shuzhi, and kills him (Chu Shuzhi says the guy locked Nianzhi up and set him on fire, and as he died, Nianzhi shrank himself down inside the little doll Shuzhi had given him, the one and only time he ever used his power).

And that's why Chu Shuzhi got such a long prison sentence, because he broke out of prison (killing innocent guards in the process, as he says in ep. 34), and killed the guy who had killed Nianzhi.

[trepkos]

Thank you so much! That makes perfect sense now. So is his little brother still in some sort of half-life in the doll, do you think?

[dorinda]

As far as we know, he's actually dead--or at least, Chu Shuzhi thoroughly believes he is. When fake-Changcheng in the dream is trying to motivate Chu Shuzhi by telling him he can resurrect Nianzhi, Chu Shuzhi insists that it isn't possible, Nianzhi's dead, etc. And fake-Changcheng doesn't spin a story of Nianzhi having been alive/suspended in there all this time (like Ye Zun in the pillar or something), he only says that there's a loophole that can resurrect him because his body was intact.

However! It's definitely something someone could write if they wanted--we don't know anything about it for sure. And given the other examples of people being put inside mysterious spaces for long periods of time (Ye Zun, Shen Wei, Sang Zan, for instance), Nianzhi could totally fit that trope.

[china_shop]

This is a wonderful post, and I'm also grateful for your explanation of Chu Shuzhi's backstory in the comments above, because I was confused on that point too (having just rewatched those episodes, even). ♥

Also, ohhh, your fic is gorgeous!! I especially love your depiction of the Envoy (much more than my own take!) -- that thoughtfulness and respect ring very true! Many hearts!

[dorinda]

Aaaaah, how had I never read "The Envoy's Man" before! I love it, it is beautiful and has such deft characterization and worldbuilding all packed into a graceful and economical space. Thank you for mentioning it, because it makes me very happy indeed.

[china_shop]

(So belated, sorry!) Thank you so very much!! <3 And again, thanks for pointing out Chu Shuzhi's judginess, because it's one of the things I enjoy hugely about him.

[trobadora]

This is a fantastic post! I really enjoyed your write-up. And the screencaps – I will never complain about shirtless Lao-Chu! :D

The diagonal slash on his chest looks way more recent than that the one he got in that bar fight, so I think it's a different injury that looks somewhat similar in order to evoke the previous one.

Interestingly, this closeup echoes a shot from ep 32, when he's being whipped as a boy in his dream

Oh, how, cool, thank you for pointing this out! So much great stuff to find in the details. ♥

"Little boy," the Regent says to him. The characters are 小娃娃

Ouch! I never noticed this before. That fucking Regent ... grrrr!

You can see why, when the Regent came to SID in ep. 15 and called out, smiling, "Is this Xiao Chu here?", Chu Shuzhi grabbed him with teeth bared like he was going to tear out his throat.

RIGHT????? It all fits together extremely well, and I really appreciate that in the script.

And everything about the camera work that you point out – it’s really cool, and very effective. Guardian is so beautifully shot!

Whether intentional or not, his posture here is full prostration, kowtow, showing respect and reverence.

Yeah, it’s presumably not entirely intentional on Lao-Chu's part here because he simply lands in that position, but it's absolutely deliberately framed that way, opposite the imposing Envoy, and it fits his emotional state perfectly, and – just, it's all so well put together; I love this whole scene.

Way too much about the poem

Thank you so much for tracking down all that info! That is super fascinating.

Why doesn't Chu Shuzhi lie to the Regent that he repents?

I think he's just not willing to give the Regent even an inch of compromise, even to his own detriment. He hates the guy that much (and not without reason). Lao-Chu isn't a very calculating person, when you get right down to it ... *g*

What do you think about "the line of Chu Puppet Masters"? Do you have ideas about Chu Shuzhi's family? His/their hereditary powers? His/their fame in Dixing?

I have no specific ideas,. but I love the concept and what it says about inheritance of powers and Dixing history. We don't really have an example of powers running in families, other than Shen Wei and Ye Zun having similar/mirrored powers – which, actually, come to think of it, makes me wonder if perhaps one of their parents might also have had a related power, if not necessarily a strong one ...

(Dixing worldbuilding is so much fun!)

[dorinda]

Shen Wei and Ye Zun having similar/mirrored powers – which, actually, come to think of it, makes me wonder if perhaps one of their parents might also have had a related power, if not necessarily a strong one ...

I love the two sets of identical twins, and the mirroring gives us possible insights into Nianzhi's share of the family power--he put himself inside the doll, became it, rather than animating it and fighting/killing with it. Nianzhi is nonviolent and inward (Chu Shuzhi describing him as shy and kind, etc.), Shuzhi is aggressive and outward.

I'd never even thought about the role a family/inherited power might have played with Shen Wei and Ye Zun's parents! That is fascinating to consider.

[marycrawford]

Love love your attention to camera angles and movement, and to the poem, which is just fascinating. That SW chooses to recite a poem in this moment feels wonderfully epic and dramatic, on a whole different level from the Majestic Cloak Drama, but it also strikes me as a way to immediately change the tone of the meeting.

A wild, angry looking half naked man is being whipped, but SW meets him as if they're both sitting at a teatable discussing poetry. And it works! Like you said, he meets CSZ with courtesy, putting them both on the same level (and leaving the Regent out of the conversation completely, ignoring him like furniture, as is only right, ha).

An interesting (maybe farfetched) counterpoint to the scene where Ye Zun does sit at a table with ZYL, serving him liquor in a courtly manner, but it's a complete mockery of anything civilized, and the emotions are pure raw hatred and anger.

[dorinda]

A wild, angry looking half naked man is being whipped, but SW meets him as if they're both sitting at a teatable discussing poetry.

Aww, I adore that image, the civilized tea table. ♥ Shen Wei certainly knows how to defuse and refocus a moment. Sigh!

[trobadora]

A wild, angry looking half naked man is being whipped, but SW meets him as if they're both sitting at a teatable discussing poetry.

Oh, that's such a good point, and I love how you phrased that!

[sakana17]

A wild, angry looking half naked man is being whipped, but SW meets him as if they're both sitting at a teatable discussing poetry.

Oh, wow, that is perfect, yes. It never really sank in for me before exactly how SW is taking total control of the moment here.

[sakana17]

This is a fantastic post! I love this scene. The information about the poem is fascinating. I would love to know the backstory about the first line that was changed, but I like the star imagery in the line in Guardian.

What do you think about "the line of Chu Puppet Masters"? Do you have ideas about Chu Shuzhi's family? His/their hereditary powers? His/their fame in Dixing?

Before, I thought Chu Shuzhi's fame was tied to his crimes, but now I'm wondering if his fame could also be tied to how the Envoy took him away to work for him on Haixing. "The line of Chu Puppet Masters" suggests the family is well-known already. If Dixing powers are inherited, perhaps they evolve across generations and split or mirror with twins. The Chu family doesn't seem noble (the kids wear average clothes, their house doesn't seem fancy) but now I'm thinking about getting accepted to work inside Dijun Palace. I bet not just any family can even try to work there, so maybe they were a respected family (and that might have made Chu Shuzhi's crimes worse, if he were from a family that others looked up to). Or maybe they were a noble family, for Dixing values of nobility. (All we know is that An Bai isn't noble, which is an objection to him becoming the next Dijun Lord).

Thinking about Dixing respected families, etc., sent me down a mental rabbithole where I ended up mulling over the line in episode 11 when Zhao Yunlan says to Da Qing that Chu Shuzhi shows more respect to Professor Shen than to Zhao Yunlan. It reminds him of the respect Chu Shuzhi shows to the Black-Cloaked Envoy. If Chu Shuzhi doesn't know Shen Wei is the Envoy until after Reunion Night, when Zhu Hong tells the SID (and I don't think he does), then it's a good question: why does Chu Shuzhi show respect to Professor Shen? I thought about what Chu Shuzhi knows about Professor Shen, and maybe Chu Shuzhi sees him as from the Dixing noble class (educated, polite, etc.). Though he may not know Shen Wei is even from Dixing until the reveal about him being the Black-Cloaked Envoy. So many possibilities here.

[china_shop]

why does Chu Shuzhi show respect to Professor Shen? I thought about what Chu Shuzhi knows about Professor Shen, and maybe Chu Shuzhi sees him as from the Dixing noble class (educated, polite, etc.). Though he may not know Shen Wei is even from Dixing until the reveal about him being the Black-Cloaked Envoy.

I've wondered about that line, too... I thought it might be because Shen Wei's cool composed attitude in the interview impressed Chu Shuzhi. He does give Shen Wei a backhanded compliment then.

Chu Shuzhi's family power is referenced in episode 2, as well, btw. When the attacker from the hospital runs outside and faces Chu Shuzhi, he says, "You are a Puppet Master of the Chu. I've heard of you guys in Dixing." (Viki subs say "of the Chu clan.")

[trobadora]

why does Chu Shuzhi show respect to Professor Shen?

My impression was that it wasn't conscious on Lao-Chu's part. In the interrogation in episode 4, he says Professor Shen reminds him of the Envoy, but then immediately turns it around and says Professor Shen can't even compare to the Envoy's toes. But I assume subconsciously that association was still there for him, even if he didn't want to admit it to himself (because after all he thought Professor Shen was just some Haixingren). And so he treated him with more respect than anyone else without even deliberately meaning to.

[dorinda]

Before, I thought Chu Shuzhi's fame was tied to his crimes, but now I'm wondering if his fame could also be tied to how the Envoy took him away to work for him on Haixing.

I never thought of that! I like it, and I think the two aspects could totally go hand-in-hand. 'OMG it's that guy who was hand-picked to serve the Envoy on the surface, from the well-known family!'

Speaking of which, I love your mental rabbithole about families. I had forgotten the issue of nobility that comes up re: An Bai--I can totally see the Chu clan being nobles, or otherwise respected/influential (and I can also see their seemingly ordinary house and clothes still being appropriate for, as you say, Dixing values of nobility...we never do see any very fancy real estate other than the Palace itself). Chu Shuzhi's crimes and Nianzhi's fate would have been a very big scandal!

It makes me wonder what happened to the rest of the family (we hear at least of a mother, during the jar punishment). We never have any sense that any of them are still living--but, if she/they did something like cast Chu Shuzhi out when he multiple-murdered and didn't repent, maybe they're just permanently sundered. I'd sure hope they didn't end up suffering from any old-school traditions of punishing/demoting/exiling/executing the family of a terrible criminal, but I would totally believe it if they did, because man, Dixing is not friendly.