Slo-Mo Rewatch: Guardian episode 1, part 1

[china_shop]

Hi, and welcome to the Guardian drama Slo-Mo Rewatch! Join us to watch half an episode a week (at your leisure) and then come and chat about it here in comments. If you already know the drama, of course you can jump in without rewatching if you prefer!

Episode 1, up to 22:28

Summary
The prologue explains Haixing's history. Professor Shen Wei presents a public lecture and turns down a job offer. Guo Changcheng reports to the SID in the middle of the night, where Zhao Yunlan is outrageous and the rest of the team scares Changcheng into fainting. Twice. An unseen threat chases Li Qian through the night. Zhao Yunlan investigates a murder at the university, where he and Da Qing dangle Guo Changcheng out a window while they discuss the case. Guo Changcheng's cries draw Shen Wei's attention. Cat!Da Qing gets strokes. Shen Wei is very intense, and Zhao Yunlan notices. Afterwards, Zhao Yunlan interrogates Li Qian about the murder; Shen Wei comes to pick her up for class and further arouses Zhao Yunlan's suspicions in the process. Zhao Yunlan sends Guo Changcheng to tail Shen Wei.



Quote
ZYL: By the way, I'm Zhao. I'm handling this case. What's your name, sir?
SW: No "sir". I'm Shen. Shen Wei. I teach here.
ZYL: Shen Wei? A good name.

Detail
I love the contrast between:

Zhao Yunlan: Damn Fatty.
Li Qian: What a fat black cat!
Guo Changcheng: It can speak?! *faints*
Shen Wei: *strokes* This is a very intelligent cat.

:D :D :D

Questions
Do you have any thoughts or feelings about the prologue? What was your first impression of Shen Wei -- good guy or bad guy? First impression of Zhao Yunlan -- would you trust him? Do you empathise with Guo Changcheng's fear? (If someone turned into a cat in front of you, would you be terrified, delighted, or both?) When Guo Changcheng falls from the window, is he unhurt or does Shen Wei surreptitiously heal his ankle? From Zhao Yunlan's POV, what is the most suspicious thing about Shen Wei at this point?

Do you have a favourite scene or quote? If you're familiar with the novel, any thoughts about how the drama adaptation starts? The absolute perfection of the casting? :D :D :D Anything else?

(These are all just conversation starters - feel free to answer all, some, or none, and to say as much or as little as you like! You don't have to be keeping up with the rewatch to join in!)

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Comments

[china_shop]

YAY REWATCH!! *twirls us and everyone*

(I completely skipped over the credits. Bad habit from streaming things. /o\ I'll watch them for ep 2.)

the narrator's "we", situating us in a Haixing POV

Oh, yes, great point. So much! That's part of the arc of the show, isn't it -- moving towards a more encompassing "we".

And come to think of it, I wonder if the Dixing woman might have turned up there, too ...

Ooh, they could have had a YOHE case to investigate! Ooh. *wants*

I love that both Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan get very ominous intros!

Ha, yes. <3 <3 <3

Favourite line: "I need to have something in my mouth", AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

Hee! There seems to be consensus about that line. :D (So sad it's not in the VIKI subs; they read, "I just quit smoking. I need to eat something.")

I love Li Qian touching her pendant when she senses something amiss!

Do you think that's for comfort or because she senses/guesses her pursuer is after it?

And that we see her running, then we get info about a dead girl, and we have a five-second misdirect where we might think it's Li Qian, before we get to see the dead Lu Ruomei.

Oh, great point. By this stage, it never ever occurs to me that it could have been LQ. I can't remember if it did the first time. Surely it must have.

And both ZYL and DQ refer to Dixing as "over there" in their conversation, I wonder why that is ...

Again, the VIKI subs are a bit different:

ZYL: This was surely done by those people.
DQ: Those people? Are their reins loosening? How could they allow their people to escape up here?

(Oh noooo, we're back in the drama but we still have translation variants! LOL!)

Whereas in the drama, it looks like they're re-enacting Lu Ruomei's death, since Li Qian saw her dangling from the window (held by shadows rather than rope).

Yes, although this is before they interview LQ, so they must be going off the police report. Maybe LQ de-mysteried her explanation for the cops so they'd believe her.

Shen Wei musts recognise Da Qing in cat form, since he's got the bells on, right? Especially since he's just seen "Kunlun" in the window.

100%! :D

and then after he does let go, Zhao Yunlan standing there still sticking out his hand for another long moment, hee! ♥ ♥ ♥

Aww, I had to go back and rewatch that. ZYL lets his open hand hover there a moment, and then he curls it closed and pulls back. That speaks to some kind of feeling, I think. I wonder if anyone's ever tried to hold on to him before; he does so much being prickly and keeping people at a distance...

And he absolutely subconsciously recognises Shen Wei for a moment, doesn't he?

Something is rustling in the back of his mind, for sure. (I love that Shen Wei can quite plausibly go around calling anyone who looks under 30 "student" -- so convenient for pretending he doesn't know what's going on. :D (I mean, for Xiao-Guo, he didn't know what was going on, but still.))

I always wonder about "the technology explosion 10,000 years ago" that Shen Wei mentions. And very cool that Haixing history not only goes back that far, but is well enough known that he can casually mention this, without it being suspicious in its own right!

Oh, true! We never hear more about that, do we? Presumably a reference to some of Ma Gui's inventions, since his portrait still hangs in Haixing Admin??

do we think he actually thinks Xiao-Guo can do that? Or is he setting him up to fail?

I think if Shen Wei were ordinary and oblivious, GCC could maybe have done it, so it's a test of both of them. If ZYL were really worried, he'd have sent DQ, though.

I'd think it was some elaborate kind of prank at first, some kind of Candid Camera thing, tbh.

Ha, that makes sense. <3

Too calm about the murdered student. And also that handshake is weird! *g*

:D :D :D

[trobadora]

(I completely skipped over the credits. Bad habit from streaming things. /o\ I'll watch them for ep 2.)

Hee! I usually skip them too, so I decided to deliberately watch them this time. Worth it! :D

That's part of the arc of the show, isn't it -- moving towards a more encompassing "we".

Oh yes, that's an excellent point!

Ooh, they could have had a YOHE case to investigate! Ooh. *wants*

Me too! More YOHE, yes!

Hee! There seems to be consensus about that line. :D (So sad it's not in the VIKI subs; they read, "I just quit smoking. I need to eat something.")

Oh, how very weird! I just looked at the Chinese again, he says 嘴里非得叼一点什么, so the other translation is spot on.

Do you think that's for comfort or because she senses/guesses her pursuer is after it?

Huh, that's a good question. Do you think she does realise at that point that the attacker is after the Sundial? I didn't think so, but she might ... Either way, I do think on some level it's definitely for comfort, whether there's another reason or not.

And that we see her running, then we get info about a dead girl, and we have a five-second misdirect where we might think it's Li Qian, before we get to see the dead Lu Ruomei.

And both ZYL and DQ refer to Dixing as "over there" in their conversation, I wonder why that is ...

Again, the VIKI subs are a bit different:

Original subs: "This is definitely someone 'over there''s handiwork.
Solo's subs: This was definitely done by one of them.
Viki: This was surely done by those people.

Funnily I was watching with Solo's subs, and got "over there" directly from the Chinese! Sometimes the original subs are closer to the Chinese wording. *g* Anyway, what what the Chinese actually says is 那边人 (ZYL) and 那边的人 (DQ), both meaning literally "the people (from) over there".

(Oh noooo, we're back in the drama but we still have translation variants! LOL!)

LOL! But unlike with the novel, there is only one Chinese version, and we can easily check it for ourselves. *g*

Maybe LQ de-mysteried her explanation for the cops so they'd believe her.

Yeah, that would make sense!

ZYL lets his open hand hover there a moment, and then he curls it closed and pulls back. That speaks to some kind of feeling, I think. I wonder if anyone's ever tried to hold on to him before; he does so much being prickly and keeping people at a distance...

Yes! And oh, that's a good point. Awwww. *pets him*

I love that Shen Wei can quite plausibly go around calling anyone who looks under 30 "student" -- so convenient for pretending he doesn't know what's going on. :D

Yes! And I love how he uses that with Da Qing. :D

We never hear more about that, do we? Presumably a reference to some of Ma Gui's inventions, since his portrait still hangs in Haixing Admin??

I don't remember it ever coming up again, no! And yeah, presumably Ma Gui, possibly in combination with a general boom after the end of the war?

I think if Shen Wei were ordinary and oblivious, GCC could maybe have done it, so it's a test of both of them. If ZYL were really worried, he'd have sent DQ, though.

Oh, true on both counts! He's suspicious and testing, but not seriously worried about SW possibly being dangerous. Fascinating ...

[china_shop]

Oh, how very weird! I just looked at the Chinese again, he says 嘴里非得叼一点什么, so the other translation is spot on.

Maybe they were downplaying the innuendo for some reason...

Either way, I do think on some level it's definitely for comfort, whether there's another reason or not.

Yes, agreed. I feel like she might well subconsciously sense her grandmother's spirit there.

And both ZYL and DQ refer to Dixing as "over there" in their conversation, I wonder why that is ...

I guess they're being discreet out of habit -- or because they're in semi-public.

LOL! But unlike with the novel, there is only one Chinese version, and we can easily check it for ourselves. *g*

Well, you can. (And then we can debate whether a literal word-for-word translation is most accurate or not, in terms of getting the meaning and nuance across. ;-)

Oh, a further thought about ZYL leaving his hand sticking out -- it's not completely unlike how he lets his arm hover after GCC pushes him away at the start of the arriving-at-the-SID scene.

And yeah, presumably Ma Gui, possibly in combination with a general boom after the end of the war?

Ooh, yes. That would be nice. *wishes good things for post-war Fu You and Ma Gui*

[trobadora]

I feel like she might well subconsciously sense her grandmother's spirit there.

Oh yes, I like that! ♥

And then we can debate whether a literal word-for-word translation is most accurate or not, in terms of getting the meaning and nuance across.

I mean, I think generally it's ideal to have both word-for-word and a more idiomatic translation, to get as much as possible across. *g*

*wishes good things for post-war Fu You and Ma Gui*

*joins you in the wishing*