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sid_guardian2022-02-19 03:39 pm
Focus on: Episode 24: Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei's argument (and reconciliation)
Alternative titles: "Zhao Yunlan is maximum petty, albeit with good reason", "Shen Wei finally (maybe?) realises what the deal is", or "who needs couple therapy when you have bombs, apparently??" XD
Context: This episode follows That Kitchen Scene during their investigation of the hospital case, with bits of continuing fallout for both SW and ZYL amidst everything else going on. Feather duster included.
In interests of keeping this to a reasonable length and also because I might've, uh, accidentally turned it into a gif essay this post will mainly focus on the opening scene because it has such fun dialogue, plus some observations on how this carries on to the subsequent scenes. (Yes, bomb scene included, though only parts of it – pretty surprised that this doesn't seem to have been discussed yet?)
[All translations my own; timestamps noted in the corresponding sections. Gifs may take a while to load for the first time, because I couldn't bear to split them up and/or downsize them too much XD but patience pays off with pretty pictures. I think?
Also, first go at writing meta! Or at least first in a long while, so hopefully this comes out at least 30% coherent.]
The argument (or: Chief Zhao and the Envoy walk into a hospital…)
Timestamp: 02:13 to 02:56
[The most dialogue-focused section. Also, the one where I will be mildly losing my language marbles, so be duly warned! Though pretty much the main context needed is that Chinese has pronouns with different connotations/levels of politeness, and also that 成语/idioms exist.]
SW and ZYL arrive at the hospital after what must have been the most awkward car ride in all of history. This is the first conversation between them we're shown since Kitchen Scene, since they don't actually speak in the SID at the end of ep 23 when the case report comes in (aside from ZYL's significant staring). And wow, ZYL is definitely not a happy camper at all…
ZYL: 您先请。/ You first. (courteous "you")
SW: 你别这样。/ Don't be like this. (plain "you")
[ZYL pauses, glancing briefly at a doctor and nurse passing by]
ZYL: 我怎么样了？就算您把话说得再不明不白，可您还是我的救命恩人啊。/ Like what, exactly? No matter how unforthcoming you might be, you're still my saviour. (courteous "you" again)
ZYL uses only 您, i.e. the courteous "you" throughout these lines – the first time (that I can recall) he uses it towards non-Envoy SW. Obviously he's being neither polite nor respectful otherwise, but on top of his already-obvious frustration, choosing to use this feels like a deliberate callback to what he said in Kitchen Scene, about whether SW expects him to kowtow in return for his help. Passive-aggressive application of manners!
SW, of course, is not playing ball, and continues to use plain ol' 你.
…not that this slows ZYL in any way, because he barrels on and adds idioms to the mix.
And now for a context note: while there are similarities between Chinese and English idioms, Chinese idioms are also far more commonly used than their English counterparts (unless you do go around citing English idioms all the time, in which case novel!Sang Zan would be delighted to make your acquaintance). So ZYL using idioms isn't unusual in itself, but what strikes me is that 救命恩人 aka saviour/life-saver feels almost… over-the-top? I'd usually only expect him to use it in jest, but it's rather in line with him being overtly too-respectful to SW here.
On the non-dialogue front: of course there could be many practical reasons for ZYL to check for passers-by in the corridor (like, y'know, to make sure no one overhears totally-not-confidential things being discussed in the open). But I can't help associating it with the whole Chinese cultural cornerstone of 家丑不可外扬, i.e. don't air your dirty laundry outside, family matters behind closed doors only. And domestic spats definitely count.
Also, SW has still not looked directly at ZYL so far. Aw.
SW: 我不会骗你，更不会害你。/ I wouldn't lie to you, let alone harm you.
ZYL: 是。可是你瞒着我。/ Yes. But you would keep things from me. (plain "you")
In fairness to SW, lying by omission isn't really covered under 骗… but it is the definition of 瞒, which is what ZYL calls him out on right afterwards. And there's really no denying that, even for SW.
On the other hand, I can't have been the only one to go "aww" at how unhesitatingly ZYL agrees that SW wouldn't ever lie or harm him. Even now he trusts him absolutely on this!!! …which may entirely be part of the problem here, because it'd probably be easier to get over this if he trusted SW less, but anyway. Feelings.
Also, ZYL switches back to regular 你 at last – perhaps because SW is actually sort-of acknowledging what's going on? Don't let that fool you, though, because ZYL is still very much Big Mad.
Has SW actually looked at ZYL yet? Verdict: still nope!
ZYL: 我都说了。只要你说，我就相信。可即使这样，你还不是一言不发嘛！/ I already told you. Whatever you say, I'll believe it. But even so, you still won't utter a word!
[ZYL stops walking, and SW stops too and looks at him, but has to go save the nurse from death via needle before anything more can happen. ZYL doesn't move to help at all; he turns to look when SW speeds past him, but otherwise just leans against the corridor wall, and claps sarcastically.]
ZYL: 天衣无缝啊。/ How seamless.
Has-SW-looked-at-ZYL-yet tally: yes! Finally!
Alas, any inching-forward progress they might've made is set back right then – it's not like sarcasm is rare for ZYL, but his reaction here takes it to a nearly-caustic level, on top of the incredibly atypical moment of not trying to help at all. A really bold writing choice! 10/10 effective demonstration that this isn't something to be resolved easily, and that SW rushing off to save someone has probably reminded ZYL all over again about how this started in the first place.
(Though ZYL not interfering also goes to show his confidence that SW can handle the situation, because once again, this argument isn't about a lack of trust, not really. So many mixed messages…)
And finally, as with the "saviour" bit above, ZYL's last line contains another idiom that feels slightly over-the-top for the situation: 天衣无缝 aka perfection, which comes off exaggerated even as a compliment of SW. (Sidetrack to note that 无缝 literally means "seamless", which is trivia that may not be funny to anyone else but me but there it is anyway.)
The in-between (highlights edition)
In which ZYL continues to be very pointed at SW while investigating the case (yay multitasking!), but also they keep forgetting that they're arguing because relationships are complicated.
(Also aka "maybe I got distracted into making All The Shen Wei gifs, and can you really blame me for that??")
ZYL unsubtly calls out SW at least three times…
Timestamp: 04:11, 04:40, 05:48
ZYL: 你说这小姑娘活得好好的，为什么要自寻短见啊。/ Say, why did this young lady try to end her own life, when it's a perfectly fine one? [turns to stare at SW as he says this]
ZYL: 坏消息就是，有些人比鬼更可怕。/ The bad news is, some people are even scarier than ghosts. [camera cuts back to SW on this line, with an excellent view of him going to grab ZYL's arm in frustration]
(I live for SW's straight-up eyeroll here, LOL.)
ZYL: 何止啊。这件事就是生命的奇迹啊。/ Oh, more than that. It's a practically a miracle of life itself! [said while looking pointedly at SW, who can only smile politely given the audience.]
ZYL has never heard of subtlety in his life and is definitely not about to start now! It's anyone's guess what Dr Cheng even thinks is going on at this point, except that she's probably noticed that something's definitely going on there.
On the other hand: so much looking. So Very Much. It's like they had to make up for the first one minute of not-looking or something, and that's even excluding the silent-argument-glances from above.
Timestamp: 05:08, 29:00, 29:32
Also, I feel the need to point out at this juncture that the nurse's name is canonically 卫蓝, i.e. Wei Lan…
The reconciliation (or: in which some communication is demonstrated, wow!)
No matter how bad with technology you are, Professor Shen, what on Haixing-and-Dixing-combined possessed you to pick up a live bomb with your bare hands!? This is what happens when you don't watch enough/any TV for genre savviness, see.
There's a lot to unpack in this scene, obviously, and I won't even try to get into half of it here because there's no way I'd do it justice. So for the purposes of this post, the three moments I thought nicely mirrored the earlier scenes:
Timestamp: 31:19, 31:36, 32:56
ZYL turning away because he physically Cannot Deal right now while SW tries to sacrifice himself again… hello Kitchen Scene 2.0!
Which doesn't turn out anywhere near as badly, of course, but the similarities are definitely there. We're not often shown ZYL being overwhelmed in reaction to things (at least not that I recall), but it happens twice in close succession in response to SW failing to evidence any sense of self-preservation whatsoever. Or an understanding of why ZYL is mad about it, because apparently the previous hints were not unsubtle enough.
Fortunately, ZYL gets right for the point soon after…
ZYL: 大哥，咱俩的命现在是连在一块的。你死了，你觉得我能好吗？ / Da-ge. Our lives are joined together right now. Do you think I could be just fine if you died?
ZYL calls him 大哥 or literally big brother here (…not in the surveillance sense), because you can only pick one between being serious and demonstrating emotional honesty! Not both! But it is the polar opposite of the false formality he was pulling at the start of the episode, and also much closer to the way he usually talks, non-agitated gesturing included.
And not to hyperfocus again on language details, but on the choice of 咱俩 in this line: 咱 and its derivative terms are inclusive of the listener, as opposed to 我-terms which can be either inclusive or exclusive. ZYL uses the latter (我们 for "us") in the rest of the scene and elsewhere even when he's still referencing himself and SW, so the 咱俩 here feels a lot like… the converse of 您 from earlier? An implied reminder that it is the two of them he's talking about? I dunno how to put it I just have feelings ok.
In response, SW does one of his blinks (it's the eyelash-flutter-of-realisation one, because apparently something got through to him this time). He's got great blinks, at risk of stating the obvious.
And finally:
SW: 对不起。我瞒你的事情，总有一天会让你知道的。/ I'm sorry. The things I'm keeping from you… I'll let you know about them someday.
Which, aside from the lovely focus on their respective expressions, also serves as a nice bookend to the argument right at the beginning, with SW finally acknowledging the fact that he is hiding things from ZYL and apologising for it. Though possibly "acknowledging" isn't the right word here, since he wasn't really denying it before either, but more the realisation that yes, keeping Potentially Life-Threatening Things from ZYL is actually an upsetting thing to do.
That in turn makes me wonder if this realisation came via the fact of ZYL being very unusually honest in this scene, down to his evaluation of their chance of survival – literal learning by example, haha. And while I don't see ZYL as the kind of person who needs to hear apologies, his little smile after SW says all that? Aww.
Consequences in fiction is something I like both in general, and definitely in this case too! I mean, sure, you could have everyone walk it off no matter what they've gone through (physically or emotionally), and sometimes that's a necessity for the story to proceed without dragging on. But where's the fun in doing that all the time? Let them screw up and have to work through the ramifications of it! As a treat! To me, at least.
Though it also does leave some missing gaps that are fun to think about, such as…
- What is ZYL referring to in the "I already told you" bit? Did they have a conversation offscreen on the way to the hospital? Or before that, en route to the SID?
- What would SW have said and/or done if he hadn't had to go save the nurse at that very moment? More deflection? Or might he actually have (gasp) decided to talk properly?
- Is that arm-grabbing scene their first significant physical contact since The Kitchen??? Inquiring minds need to know.
- What happened in the glaringly empty patch of time between their initial visit to the hospital, and ZYL returning only to get forcibly recruited to the game?
- What did ZYL mean about their lives being joined together?
…and on a practical note, am I the only one who thought the window from the bomb scene was an external one? Especially with the way they cut to the external shot with the crow. But nooooo, it's an internal one, you can see the entire corridor behind ZYL! How loud were the crows, LOL.
Thoughts and related fanworks very welcome! In the meantime, I'll return to making little flappy hands at gifs…
ETA: Gifs will be posted over here at my Tumblr staggered out over several posts, in case anyone wants rebloggable versions!
no subject
(me, innocently: oh I'll make some gifs to illustrate! like, five max) (narrator voice: she did not)
Obvious, yes, but also never not worth mentioning.
明知故问 but without the 问-ing… a critical pillar of society.
putting them right in a row really drives home the fact that Zhao Yunlan is just not going to drop this.
…gotta admit, I think I noticed this right away on my first watch because I am also exactly the same kind of petty as ZYL in this regard, so it was an instant LOL of familiarity.
Language flailing! Yes, I figured the usual gang(?) might enjoy this XD
"Wait, that's exactly the same as the English."
RIGHT?! Sometimes the word stars align. Even if they do spend most of their time being a pain in the ass.
today I learned that in Mandarin 您 and 你 are actually pronounced differently
…well today I learned the reverse is true in Canto then haha. And 咱 is still in use, yes, but it's also a region-specific thing. Cribbing off Wikipedia:
Which checks out – I only ever hear it from a subset of Mainland speakers?