Scene discussion: Shen Wei and Zhu Hong talk about love (episode 19)

[trobadora]

Location: episode 19, 18:42 - 20:17

I did the scene following from this one last round (Shen Wei and Zhu Hong talk to Fourth Uncle), and it made me want to look at this one more closely!

Context:

Lao-Chu, Xiao-Guo and Ye Huo have been kidnapped by Zhu Jiu. The SID make a plan to capture Zhu Jiu, but need to keep Ya Qing out of the way so she can't rescue him when they cut the lights and stop him from teleporting away. Shen Wei says he'll go, but he needs to borrow Zhu Hong.



Our scene:

Shen Wei and Zhu Hong are walking slowly on a paved path through a park. Zhu Hong ducks her headn and does an an embarrassed huff/smile combination. Shen Wei looks at her and asks her what's wrong.



Shen Wei: 怎么了？
What is it?

Zhu Hong sighs. Shen Wei watches attentively as she speaks.

Zhu Hong: 今天是这段时间以来赵云澜给我的第一个任务。没想到是跟你一起。
This case today is the first in a while that Zhao Yunlan assigned me to. I didn't expect it would be with you.

At that last bit, Shen Wei lets out a small huff himself, and puts his hands in his coat pockets, turning away from her. She glances at him, measuring his reaction, and looks down again.

Zhu Hong: 你是不是觉得我特别可笑？
You must think I'm very ridiculous.



Shen Wei hesitates for a moment, then looks at her.

Shen Wei: 没有啊。
I don't.

Zhu Hong: 别装了。 现在是个人都看得出来我喜欢赵云澜。真不知道那家伙怎么想的，都表现得这么明显了，他还天天装傻充愣。
Stop pretending. By now everyone can see I like Zhao Yunlan. I really don't know what that guy is thinking. It's all so obvious, and he still plays dumb every day.

They walk side by side during this, not looking at each other. Only when she says Zhao Yunlan is playing dumb does Shen Wei look at her, and then turn away again. He opens his mouth, then stops walking and finally starts talking. His hands are still in his pockets!

Shen Wei: 爱情关系上面的事情我不太懂。
I don't know much about matters of love.



Zhu Hong is turned towards him, but not quite looking straight at him here. He takes his hands out of his pockets and turns towards her. She looks less and less directly at him as he speaks (and looks a bit like she's about to cry). He's also not quite looking at her directly.

Shen Wei: 但是从生物工程上面来说，少则三天，多则三年，多巴胺和去甲肾上腺素就会停止分泌。或许到时候你对他就没什么感觉了。
But from the perspective of bioengineering, within three days at least, or three years at most, the secretion of dopamine and norepinephrine will stop. Maybe when that time comes, you won't have feelings for him any more.



Zhu Hong: 长则三年，真够短的。
At most 3 years. Really short.

She huffs a small laugh just before "Really short". She's still not looking at him, and now he looks away as well, seemingly lost in thought.

Zhu Hong: 真不知道这个世界上有什么感情是长长久久不会变的。
I really don't know if there are feelings in this world that can last and won't change.

Now she turns to look at him directly:

Zhu Hong: 友情。
Friendship.

At this (one word that does a lot of work here in terms of (im)plausible deniability!), Shen Wei meets her eyes.



Zhu Hong: 像你跟赵云澜这样共患难的。
Like you and Zhao Yunlan, going through thick and thin together.

He looks down with a smile, lets out a breath, then looks up at her again.

Shen Wei: 也许吧。
Maybe.



She adjusts the strap of her handbag and starts walking, considerably more energetically than before. Shen Wei stays standing there for another moment before he looks in the direction she's gone, and then follows after her.


Thoughts/questions:

• Like I said last time, it's important to remember that Zhu Hong doesn't yet know who Shen Wei really is. He's close to Zhao Yunlan, and he's been heavily involved with the SID and its cases, has even been to Dixing with Zhao Yunlan - but even so, there's no way Zhu Hong could have foreseen him taking such a lead role in their plan to capture Zhu Jiu, even going to meet the Snake Tribe leader to convince him to help the SID. Can't blame Zhu Hong for being taken aback that she's being assigned to work with him!


• What strikes me the most about this scene is the way it parallels and contrasts Shen Wei's relationship with Zhao Yunlan vs. Zhu Hong's feelings for Zhao Yunlan. Despite that one mention of "friendship", the way Zhu Hong reacts to Shen Wei is very much as to a love rival, and she knows there's no competition - Shen Wei already has what she always hoped she might one day, and she sees that clearly. I really admire the way the drama manages to use Zhu Hong's feelings not to set up a love triangle, but to put a spotlight on the central pairing even though censorship demands it remain unspoken. (And I especially admire that they manage this without turning Zhu Hong into a figure of ridicule, even though she herself feels that way here.)


• Speaking of Zhu Hong feeling ridiculous - her reaction to this is not to hide, but to confront it head-on, and to confront Shen Wei with it. Why do you think she makes that choice to speak to Shen Wei here? She wants to be seen, yes - but what does she expect from him? She has seen him less than kind - in the interrogation room scene in episode 4, he very quickly and expertly hit her sore spots, and at the time she stormed out. So perhaps she has reason to worry, and wants to get it over with, force the issue and see how he reacts. What do you think she's hoping to get out of bringing this up to him now? Is it better that she does (in-universe, where concerns of parallels and censorship don't apply), or would it have been better if she hadn't?


• It's really striking how much they both don't look at each other during all of this, sometimes just awkwardly walking side by side, sometimes actively looking away, sometimes just not quite meeting the other's eyes. This is an uncomfortable conversation for both of them! Actually, Shen Wei seems most comfortable when he takes refuge in a bioengineering lecture. *g*


• Regarding said lecture, I know nothing about bioengineering (or indeed biochemistry), but this fits at least with what pop science I've read around falling in love and lovesickness - that initial rush. (You get it, too, when you fall in love with a new fandom! Eventually it mellows out even if you're still in love.) You could say it's a bit insulting that he suggests her feelings might just go away once the initial rush has passed - that there's nothing but that - but Zhu Hong did put him on the spot by bringing this up to him. He's trying to deal with the awkwardness, and deflecting because he really didn't sign up for talking to someone else about their unrequited feelings for his boyfriend, taking refuge in the clinical. Even so, he's also trying to be kind about it, trying to make her feel better without getting more deeply into this "talk about Zhu Hong's feelings" thing he doesn't actually want to do. And, as china_shop said last time, he's probably hoping her feelings are just a crush that will fade soon. *g*
  
  Do you think he handles it well? What else could/should he have said?


• Why does Shen Wei claim not to know much about love? He could have delivered all the rest of his speech without that, so why that little bit of deflection? To me it feels like he's trying to distance himself from the topic - he really doesn't want to talk about his own feelings to Zhu Hong (or anyone, really).


• Does Zhu Hong really not understand why Zhao Yunlan pretends not to notice her feelings? In the end it will turn out that putting it all out into the open and acknowledging it is what allows them to move forward with their friendship, and it's clear that she wants to have her feelings acknowledged even if he can't reciprocate, but still - his reaction is pretty much what you'd expect from him, especially up to this point in time.


• What is Shen Wei thinking about, there at the end when he's lost in thought as she walks ahead? The question of whether there's "forever" for him and Zhao Yunlan, or whether it will all be over the moment Zhao Yunlan travels to the past and becomes Kunlun? The hope that it will last, that Zhao Yunlan will return to him?

Comments

[trobadora]

as if for her it would be worse to have everyone/Shen Wei thinking it but not saying it than to go ahead and lay her feelings on the line, even if she's risking mockery or pity or whatever

Yeah, she's very honest and very brave! And good point about her not being that likely to be alone with Shen Wei again soon ...

I always feel that Shen Wei is deliberately switching into advisor-with-tearful-undergraduate mode, for his own comfort and to add a little distance.

Oooh, yes, that's a great way of framing it!

maybe he is thinking about how strange and mysterious his own experience with Zhao Yunlan has been, and how little "sense" his feelings make in logical terms

Yeah, that would make sense too! His entire relationship with Kunlun/Zhao Yunlan is so fundamentally shaped by the time loop, what does he know about falling in love "normally" rather than with someone who already knows you and loves you? *g*

I think whether he returns her feelings or not, what she wants is the acknowledgement, and maybe the emotional catharsis of having a big showdown with him, what she eventually gets later on, is it ep. 30? 31?. Sweeping it all under the rug means she's stuck feeling what she feels without being able either to get what she wants or to move on.

Yeah, 100% agreed, and I love that she does get that acknowledgment eventually. Now that I think of it, this scene is a great set-up for that resolution, showing us what she needs! (It's episode 31, IIRC.)