BOKURA NO SHOKUTAKU [EP 7 Vs CH 4] Manga By Mita Ori

BOKURA NO SHOKUTAKU [EP 7 vs CH 4] Manga by Mita Ori  

I felt inspired to recycle the best Japanese boop!

hey, this is unfashionably late praise, but i just wanted to say that I loved your analysis of the cinematography of fitymi ep 6 (i only recently binged the show in its entirety and was really blown away). perfectly verbalizes what we as an audience member understand implicitly. the composition of each frame in the show is done so well and intentionally, which is super refreshing!! after reading your post, i became even more cognizant of other ziquan/ying scenes and how the camera is used to build romance between the characters (in addition to the amazing writing and chemistry between han dongjun and cai wenjing). thank you for your lovely post!!

Aww, thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed the analysis.

I adored Fake It Till You Make It. Ziquan and Ying were hands down one of my favorite dramaland couples of 2023. Their scenes were realistic but quietly sexy-- I so appreciate shows that use banter as foreplay and the camera work just reinforced the sharp writing and great acting chemistry.

And that walk-up scene when Ziquan is gazing at Ying through the windows of her walk-up?

Absolute perfection.

Taboo and Metaphor in Unknown The Series: A Serious Take on a Silly Post

(I have been going insane about this show for a while now, and it caused me to make this silly little post a few days ago. Since then, I thought about it too much, and realized I had more to say... and here we are. This meta is basically that post again, but This Time For Serious.)

First of all... does Unknown have the right to be this good?? It feels so deliberate and so sincere - not only the writing, the acting, the cinematography, the pacing, the framing, the choices... what a series so far. I know I'm not the only one feeling insane about it.

Something that struck me when comparing this to other Taiwanese offerings I have enjoyed is the deeper presence of internalized and externalized homophobia within the narrative. I have no presumptions that Taiwan lacks homophobia societally and culturally - even with its relatively liberal view on queer relationships for the region - but to compare Unknown with, say, Kiseki: Dear To Me (which I am currently watching for the first time alongside Unknown), in which everyone is more or less openly queer, from the dedicated student baker to the baddest feral gangster... The filter for strawberry cake is rather pastel, whereas Unknown likes its dark blues and shadowed greys.

Some of this made more sense when I learned that the story originally comes from Da Ge by Priest, a Chinese author. I have admittedly not read the novel (and I would love those of you that have to weigh in!), but it caused me to think a lot about adaptation, and the context of the choices made to give this Chinese story a Taiwanese setting.

Like I joked in my silly post, China is, somewhat famously, troubled by queerness, politically and culturally. Many explicitly queer narratives from China end up censored and rewritten, to specifically exclude the romantic implications of their protagonists' relationship. It's not that China lacks creators willing to tell these stories, or audiences willing to engage with them, it's just the sociopolitical reality is one of censorship. Taiwan, for its embrace of queer culture, still possesses homophobia; China, for its discomfort with queer culture, still possesses passionate and outspoken advocates. We acknowledge the inherent complexity.

So to dive a little into the themes of Unknown, the choices that were made about this adaptation - I love what is being said here.

The story is about brothers who fall in love. Sure, they aren't blood related, but they are unquestionably family. So much of what makes Wei Qian and Wei Zhiyuan good partners is exactly the same as what makes them good brothers - mutual devotion, willingness to sacrifice for each other, a deep understanding of what the other needs and how to show up for them again and again, in spite of everything. And Unknown really makes its audience sit with this! The exploration is layered and meaningful and the entire point. What is taboo, and what is acceptable? Where are the boundaries? Why do we draw them that way?

This is not to say that I am a fan of incest storylines, or even that I seek out pseudo-incest as a trope in general... it's understandably a complex theme, and it really takes a lot of care and intention to navigate it well. But that is what Unknown is doing, every episode so far. The dialogue, the acting choices, the camera shots, the narrative beats - they've thought it through very thoroughly, at every step of the game. No detail is overlooked, and the intentionality is delicious. (Some additional required reading here, with my sincere thanks.)

A handful of pointed questions and statements from the dialogue which drive this theme home, and which for the most part, the audience is left to find their own responses for:

Yuan: I don't and I never will [make things difficult for Qian]. That's why I'm suffering by myself. I haven't told anyone about this. What more do you want from me? (ep 6)

San Pang: What's right with this? / Yuan: What's wrong with this? (ep 6)

Lili: Why can't I [be with him]? San Pang has been protecting me and treating me well since I was little. I like him! (ep 8)

Yuan: Ge. Have you ever thought that we can't accept changes because we're too used to the way things were? (ep 8)

Yuan: Wei Qian, don't you like Wei Zhiyuan? If you do, is it only because we're brothers? This thing about us - is it that you don't want, or you don't dare? (ep 8)

For a Chinese author, through a Taiwanese lens, to ask a bunch of insistent questions about what makes a relationship societally unacceptable... an author whose own works have been the subject of censorship and recontextualization, whose own creative content had to undergo revision prior to being deemed worthy for cultural consumption; to have a platform in which her chosen subject IS a relationship taboo, a metaphor for the way queerness can be as taboo as incest... I've been losing my mind over this implication.

In conclusion, China may continue turning lovers into brothers for a while yet. But sometimes, Taiwan will give us brothers becoming lovers, too. Because isn't it a good thing when two men are as close as brothers? Should the exact nature of their love surprise and discomfort us?

Is it anyone's business but their own?

(tagging some of the Unknown meta squad: @wen-kexing-apologist @lurkingshan @heretherebedork @respectthepetty @romchat Thank you all for your thoughts and for pointing out details about everything, I am lovingly throwing all of you meat buns in my mind)

OMG SHUT YOUR FACE UP 😅

Unknown (2024) visual analysis (ep. 9): Life comes down to a few things

I adore how this show layers meaning through its visuals.

I was wondering when we'd get a cross doorway shot with all those scenes in previous episodes showing Yuan and Qian walking back-and-forth across the hall to each other's rooms, and of course it happens when Yuan tells Qian:

"Life comes down to a few things. Where you come from, where you linger, what you want, what's left."

We know that the show loves using how it frames the characters in their rooms to represent the ebb and flow of their relationship. Here, the doorways to their rooms act as frames within frames, visually directing our attention to what matters in the conversation: them. Qian is all those things Yuan lists off so it's fitting that the doorway frames him as the main subject--he is our focus as much as Yuan's.

And despite Qian's hesitation and their physical distance across the hall--the depth enhanced by these frames within frames-- Qian is also looking directly at Yuan through the door.

They are each other's family (where they come from), home (where they linger), desire (what they want), and all they can rely on (what's left).

And because of this, the fight with Le doesn't end with a shot of Qian once again carrying Yuan but instead clinging to him. They're holding up the world together, fighting against the dark that surrounds them.

IDGAF if the women in my fiction are empowering or aspirational, I'm an adult, I don't need role models, I want the women in my fiction to be interesting, and if that involves being pathetic, hypocritical, amoral, or trapped in a delightfully dysfunctional relationship so be it