The Weasel Grave 鬼吹灯之黄皮子坟 - Episode 8 (Recap)
SakiVI: In which Bayi gets up close and personal with at least three different people.
Trotwood: This is true, so why weren't any of them more exciting? There was even nudity! Also, I'm disappointed. Where were the promised pancakes?
JoAnne: How can you think of pancakes at a time like this? We had death AND nudity!
kakashi: I am so tired. I read "why aren't any of them expecting?" That, plus nudity, made sense to me. Not sure about how to fit in the dead bodies though.
I was SO disappointed. Yes, I wanted them dead and I wanted some deaths, but not off screen second hand hanging from a tree root with your tongue hanging out death. This show made even death by strangulation by weasel ghost gods boring. How is that possible?
Their necks should have been stretched...I was disappointed by lack of grossness.
A total let-down. Much too easy and climax-free, this death.
A little death and yet, not.
Fatty sees the hole the Yuckies fell down through. (see. I told you they weren't in the same spot before. It doesn't make a lot of sense though if they were going by the book and map while Scooby gang were going by compass. Why would they be in different spots? Yeah, only, it doesn't matter one bit) And a white weasel toy watches them all. It's rather cute. But Bayi throws something at it, and it runs. The gang continue walking through the tomb temple place and see more dead bodies. Those bodies look mummified. One of those mummies has half its face cut off (EATEN OFF. By peeing weasels). Fatty asks Qiaoshan what's going on and Qiaoshan pulls some chicken, I think, from the half-faced mummy's throat. No, really, this happened.
I want to know what all the point of this is. I want to know that I will be rewarded for having to pay attention to all of this. We are in a tomb surrounded by dead bodies, and I'm not even remotely scared. What is wrong with this picture?
What is the meaning of anything, Trot?
Oh, it was a weasel body. Exactly. But I do like the idea that it was a chicken much more, because that could have meant this used to be a weasel and the weasel (fairy) chocked on a chicken it stole. Seems the bandits worshiped the weasels and stuffed them down the dead body's throat to help them transform into human shape. Or play some trick to that effect. Our revolutionaries are suitably disgusted.
Hua Mai rolls her eyes and calls them liars. Is she disgusted because she believed the tale and now finds it was a lie?
Bodies were mummified but weasel was fresh...who's down there making offerings?
I don't get any of this. Where is my bed, I need to lie down.
Then, Fatty sees drawings of weasel fairies on the walls. Okay. Yanzi says this is the weasel fairy's copper box that's shown there. Fatty is excited for treasure. But the drawings also show that people who steal copper boxes from weasel fairies get hanged. Fatty still wants to find it.
So if they find it but don't take it, will they still die? Maybe Fatty just wants to see it.
The weasel fairy was really prettily made-up, with lots of jewelry etc. awwww. I instantly liked her.
Bayi quickly lights a candle in case of a ghost. Qiaoshan tells him not to bother. Nothing is there. Then, he throws his torch into small ditch that's around a grave! Lurch, is that you in there? How does Qiaoshan know? He says you can't fight fate. He knows the dead bandits on the floor. Goes on about being old and how it's too far to remember. Fatty says what I'm thinking, see, all for nothing. Someone took the treasure already. Seems someone dug a tunnel from the mountain into the grave.
But why does Qiaoshan light fire to the tomb? It made me suspicious that he was trying to hide something . . . I mean more than usual.
Of course he is.
I really was annoyed at this scene. Throwing a torch and it instantly burns like this. Why.
Bayi says the place is so weird. Yeah, I thought the one in Candle was weirder. This is nothing. Anyway, Bayi goes on to note the place goes up and down and is also bilaterally symmetric. (Sidebar: so, left to right?) Yinzhai is a grave, a house for the dead, while yangzhai is a house for the living. Bayi says that it's called Bazhai Mingjing Geomancy, which, (I looked this up for you) is "True or False Feng Shui." In it, the auspicious and inauspicious sectors within a dwelling are determined simply by the sitting direction of the dwelling.
I'm still waiting to understand why I should care about any of this. What does all of this have to do with anything? What I find frustrating is that I really don't know what the quest is, so I don't know what I should be paying attention to so every conversation seems even more random than it should. In Candle, I knew that they were looking for that lost city. What are looking for here except stuff to exchange for candy?
Um, gold? The vein of gold.
Yawn.
Qiaoshan is amazed Bayi knows all this. He and Huamei seem to be plotting something. Or considering something. I can't really tell.
I am annoyed at this aspect of the story the most: Bayi is always claiming he never learned anything from grandpa and only got the book and he knows EVERYTHING from the book, which clearly is complete bullshit, because that book is really short, plus, you do not learn everything from books ever. Especially if it involves tacit knowledge for tomb-robbing.
They go through some hole in a wall. Bayi finds a water bottle from the Kwantung Army. Huamei and Qiaoshan listen to Bayi and Fatty discuss if the tomb stuff was cleared out already.
So now that they've seen the army-issued canteen, can they assume that it was the army that cleaned out the tomb?
It's a big leap.
I will leap into bed, bye.
And then they leave. No, really, that's all that happened in the tomb in this episode. (I literally threw my hands in the air over this.)(I waved mine like I just didn't care.) At least we have a lovely snowy scene. The Educated Youth and Yanzi are pulling the Yuckies in a cart which they got from knows where, and Qiaoshan and Huamei are walking at the back. (This was absolutely gorgeously shot--almost beautiful enough to distract me from wondering about the cart but also where this straight, plowed, road through the mountain forest came from). (That was truly gorgeous.) They discuss how the bear wanted the gold vein and so the man-bear dude was able to kill it. Bayi looks back at Huamei who looks seriously lacking in iron. She has no colour to her face at all, not even in her lips and ears from the cold.
I was hoping she was turning into some frostbite of the head ghost. That would at least be interesting. I can't live on beautiful scenery and cinematography alone!
Qiaoshan visited the tomb with those mummified bandits, years ago. He found Huamei, the beautiful child of the weasel fairies, and was so entranced by her that he fled the tomb with the child and has raised her in the woods ever since.
Snow wins all the scenes.
In a voiceover, Bayi says they burned the weasel temple down, found the cart (somehow) and brought the yuckies' bodies back to the village. He says he always liked going to the bottom of a tomb, until he realized later in life that opening a tomb meant seeing the true human nature.
Blah. Blah. Blah. You're still alive. Shut up.
The truth is out...Trot will not be satisfied until Hu Bayi is dead.
Voiceovers are CHEATING, you stupid show.
Back at the village, the boys are in a bathtub together with Fatty doing something repetitive and rough to Bayi from behind. I bet they peed in that bathwater.
Of course they did. He's really doing a deadly loofa thing on him.
Is that what they call it these days?
I like that they're best friends, pee together, shit together and do rough stuff from behind. PLUS: I noticed (not for the first time) that the actor playing Fatty is quite attractive. If he doesn't speak.
As Bayi lies all spent and exhausted on the edge of the tub, Fatty thinks Qiaoshan is not a simple person. Um, did you miss all his bandit talk? Of course he's not a simple person! The boys frolic in the steam a bit. Then Yanzi comes in and checks how much water they used. SUUUURE. That woke the two bromancers from their loving daze. She says the secretary wants to see them. Bayi tells Fatty to go with a bottle of wine and find out more about Qiaoshan. Fatty looks down. Bayi throws water at him. He says, go check on the village secretary, not me!
Bayi says he will check on something else. Then they frolic some more.
What was the point of this whole bath scene? Why are they so skittish when Yanzi comes in? She can't see anything in all that steam anyway. And I'm with her, where did they get all that water and the ability to heat up that much?
There is so much to say that I don't even know where to begin. I suppose we could start with 'are you KIDDING me?'
Of course she could see everything, since they don't use foam or anything. She came to check out their dicks, plain and simple. Sampling the goods. Making an informed decision.
Sidebar: if this bath scene was supposed to be yaoi fanservice, it seriously failed.
That's what I said. Show can't even make a bath scene exciting. Yanzi has a crush on Bayi and even she wasn't excited.
Maybe there just wasn't anything to see, mist or no.
I did think about how nice I find it that we see two friends being friends and being comfortable around each other without anything being "gay" about it.
Cut to Fatty and the village secretary. Secretary tells Fatty not to play any tricks. Fatty says the wine is only because the older man is so nice to him. They talk about the wine. Fatty insists the secretary must drink the wine for Fatty to report what happened in the forest.
Because that is obvious logic. Not.
Maybe in the sense that it loosens your insistence on what can and cannot be? But then again, the whole village seems pretty comfortable with the idea of weasel fairies so why wouldn't there be a tomb and ghosts?
Fatty went there with wine to make the chief drunk, to loosen his tongue. But I forgot what information he was after.
Cut to Yanzi. She's embroidering. And yelling at an absent Bayi. Aw, bless, she's missing her mother. So, she looks in the mirror and imagines her mother is telling her to seduce Bayi so he will be forced to live in the village with her. Yanzi gets drunk for the deed. Pffft, like Fatty will let her near his man.
Poor Yanzi. I can't dislike her taste since seemingly her only viable option for a mate is one of the Yuckies or an equivalent, and we all have to agree that they are better dead than alive. She seems to be interested and interesting, but will never get out of the village. This time with the tombs and the educated youths will probably be the high point of her life. I'm afraid that nothing will live up to this memory unless she decides to leave, but that doesn't seem to be an option that occurs to her.
I thought the whole talking to herself as her mother in the mirror was very sweet and sad, even if the argument being made was questionable. The saddest thing to me is that she obviously doesn't even consider that she could leave the village with Bayi, instead of tricking him to stay.
Yes, I thought it was sad too. But then, I think it's great she wants a little fun with the "handsome" stranger. I hope she knows how to use protection or at least knows about her cycle/fertile days.
Cut to Bayi looking in on the forest ranger's house. Is he there to spy on Huamei? As he tiptoes in his massive red scarf that Fatty knitted him, he tries to enter the house only to back out at the end of Huamei's rifle. She says he slipped in quietly when the house was dark, so what dirty things is he going to do? (She clearly hasn't picked up on Fatty.) Bayi promised nothing. He eventually pushes the rifle away from his face and says he was there to see her. (Fake flirt) So, he wanted to do dirty things? He just says he missed her. Friends-starved Huamei is okay with him in the end when Bayi points out he's a total hero and dares to see her. He asks her why she pointed a gun at him, and she says, quite sensibly, because you are capable. Basically, he's dangerous as a Mojin Xiaowei.
What was he there to do, though? If it was really to see Huamei, he could have just knocked on the door. Well, wall. The door is a sheet.
I think he wants to find out about Daddy's secrets.
Back to the village secretary asking how the man-bear, Huang Bangzi and Erhei died. What about the other two guys? Do they not count? He has to know what to report to his supervisors. Fatty says to ask Qiaoshan since they went with him. He lets slip that Qiaoshan is not a village elder, just someone living there since the Liberalization. Qiaoshan is a good forest ranger, so they kept him.
I wonder about this whole set up. Did Bayi prep Fatty for what to say? Even if he told the truth, would the secretary even believe him?
Sure, why not. Once you accept weasel fairies...
Not sure I care.
Back to Bayi trying to get to know Huamei. He's trying to find out more about Qiaoshan from her. (Sidebar: so slimy.) She realizes this (because she isn't completely stupid) and is thinking whether to answer, when Qiaoshan calls her name, making Bayi jump, pfft. She goes off to bed at her father's insistence. Qiaoshan then says, "Bayi, I have to tell you something." And Bayi gets within a foot of Qiaoshan's face to ask what! No stopping this dude, is there? Again, bad yaoi fanservice. Qiaoshan tells Bayi to get lost, pffft.
He's a close talker, Bayi is.
I really don't like him here at all.
Back to Fatty learning that Qiaoshan is a grave robber. GASP! The shock. The village secretary tells Fatty about catching a bandit years ago who was part of the Clay society grave robber group. ( I haven't checked, but they might be on Facebook.) That robber said some old grave robber called KnowItAall is hiding in the mountains. I think they mean that Qiaoshan is that grave robber, Knowitall.
Does the secretary know this or we assuming this? Would he put up with even a tomb robber as long as he is a good ranger? or has he not made a connection that it appears that even Fatty is making?
It seemed kind of 'let the past be', to me.
Back to drunk Yanzi. She hears Fatty, thinks he is Bayi and declares her love for him. Then she gets into bed with Fatty, still thinking he is Bayi. She says she knows he doesn't love her and will go back to the city, but she still wants to be with him for a few days (poor Yanzi). Then she and Fatty both fall asleep. How annoying, I feel bad for Yanzi.
I do, too. But I am relieved that she doesn't mistakenly sleep with Fatty. That would make it even worse.
That would have been horrible and not funny at all. I do not want the show to make a fool of Yanzi.
It was pretty funny to me because Fatty, as usual, doesn't even realize what's going on.
Bayi comes back and calls to Yanzi that he is back. Great. He lights a lamp, and sees Fatty and Yanzi sleeping in the same bed. Oups. He wakes Fatty, who sees Yanzi and screams.
Why? He has to know they didn't do anything. You'd have to be far more awake and far less drunk than either of them to get off all those clothes. Pfft. You'd be lucky to have her, Fatty.
That reaction is always SO STUPID. You wake up dressed next to a person in bed - so what?
Don't like them at all. Only like Yanzi.
Did the kids you grew up with get exactly the same experiences and information passed to them from their families as yours passed to you?
I don't like Bayi either and I even grow less attracted to him as the show progresses. As for knowledge ... Bayi got if from the BOOK, and he hasn't given it to Fatty, so there. He's a knowledge hogger.
Finally, I wonder if the village elders were hoping to force a marriage by having the Educated Youths living with Yanzi?
I'm thinking that they like her and want to offer her a better possibility than Yuckie land.
Or they think she's their best bet for landing and keeping an Educated Youth in the village.
They probably get money for having the Educated Youth there or something. I hope so at least, for them.
Trotwood: This is true, so why weren't any of them more exciting? There was even nudity! Also, I'm disappointed. Where were the promised pancakes?
JoAnne: How can you think of pancakes at a time like this? We had death AND nudity!
kakashi: I am so tired. I read "why aren't any of them expecting?" That, plus nudity, made sense to me. Not sure about how to fit in the dead bodies though.
Episode 8
We continue in the underground weasel temple. Qiaoshan says they have to watch out for delusion under weasel pee's effect. A Scream! It was Yanzi! Bayi goes to look. This takes quite a while. Oh, the Yuckies are all dead. They're hanging from tree roots. This was less exciting than I'd hoped, to be honest. But still, at least it's done. I think Bayi got his book back.I was SO disappointed. Yes, I wanted them dead and I wanted some deaths, but not off screen second hand hanging from a tree root with your tongue hanging out death. This show made even death by strangulation by weasel ghost gods boring. How is that possible?
Their necks should have been stretched...I was disappointed by lack of grossness.
A total let-down. Much too easy and climax-free, this death.
A little death and yet, not.
I want to know what all the point of this is. I want to know that I will be rewarded for having to pay attention to all of this. We are in a tomb surrounded by dead bodies, and I'm not even remotely scared. What is wrong with this picture?
What is the meaning of anything, Trot?
Hua Mai rolls her eyes and calls them liars. Is she disgusted because she believed the tale and now finds it was a lie?
Bodies were mummified but weasel was fresh...who's down there making offerings?
I don't get any of this. Where is my bed, I need to lie down.
So if they find it but don't take it, will they still die? Maybe Fatty just wants to see it.
The weasel fairy was really prettily made-up, with lots of jewelry etc. awwww. I instantly liked her.
But why does Qiaoshan light fire to the tomb? It made me suspicious that he was trying to hide something . . . I mean more than usual.
Of course he is.
I really was annoyed at this scene. Throwing a torch and it instantly burns like this. Why.
I'm still waiting to understand why I should care about any of this. What does all of this have to do with anything? What I find frustrating is that I really don't know what the quest is, so I don't know what I should be paying attention to so every conversation seems even more random than it should. In Candle, I knew that they were looking for that lost city. What are looking for here except stuff to exchange for candy?
Um, gold? The vein of gold.
Yawn.
I am annoyed at this aspect of the story the most: Bayi is always claiming he never learned anything from grandpa and only got the book and he knows EVERYTHING from the book, which clearly is complete bullshit, because that book is really short, plus, you do not learn everything from books ever. Especially if it involves tacit knowledge for tomb-robbing.
So now that they've seen the army-issued canteen, can they assume that it was the army that cleaned out the tomb?
It's a big leap.
I will leap into bed, bye.
And then they leave. No, really, that's all that happened in the tomb in this episode. (I literally threw my hands in the air over this.)(I waved mine like I just didn't care.) At least we have a lovely snowy scene. The Educated Youth and Yanzi are pulling the Yuckies in a cart which they got from knows where, and Qiaoshan and Huamei are walking at the back. (This was absolutely gorgeously shot--almost beautiful enough to distract me from wondering about the cart but also where this straight, plowed, road through the mountain forest came from). (That was truly gorgeous.) They discuss how the bear wanted the gold vein and so the man-bear dude was able to kill it. Bayi looks back at Huamei who looks seriously lacking in iron. She has no colour to her face at all, not even in her lips and ears from the cold.
I was hoping she was turning into some frostbite of the head ghost. That would at least be interesting. I can't live on beautiful scenery and cinematography alone!
Qiaoshan visited the tomb with those mummified bandits, years ago. He found Huamei, the beautiful child of the weasel fairies, and was so entranced by her that he fled the tomb with the child and has raised her in the woods ever since.
Snow wins all the scenes.
Blah. Blah. Blah. You're still alive. Shut up.
The truth is out...Trot will not be satisfied until Hu Bayi is dead.
Voiceovers are CHEATING, you stupid show.
Of course they did. He's really doing a deadly loofa thing on him.
Is that what they call it these days?
I like that they're best friends, pee together, shit together and do rough stuff from behind. PLUS: I noticed (not for the first time) that the actor playing Fatty is quite attractive. If he doesn't speak.
Bayi says he will check on something else. Then they frolic some more.
What was the point of this whole bath scene? Why are they so skittish when Yanzi comes in? She can't see anything in all that steam anyway. And I'm with her, where did they get all that water and the ability to heat up that much?
There is so much to say that I don't even know where to begin. I suppose we could start with 'are you KIDDING me?'
Of course she could see everything, since they don't use foam or anything. She came to check out their dicks, plain and simple. Sampling the goods. Making an informed decision.
That's what I said. Show can't even make a bath scene exciting. Yanzi has a crush on Bayi and even she wasn't excited.
Maybe there just wasn't anything to see, mist or no.
I did think about how nice I find it that we see two friends being friends and being comfortable around each other without anything being "gay" about it.
Because that is obvious logic. Not.
Maybe in the sense that it loosens your insistence on what can and cannot be? But then again, the whole village seems pretty comfortable with the idea of weasel fairies so why wouldn't there be a tomb and ghosts?
Fatty went there with wine to make the chief drunk, to loosen his tongue. But I forgot what information he was after.
Poor Yanzi. I can't dislike her taste since seemingly her only viable option for a mate is one of the Yuckies or an equivalent, and we all have to agree that they are better dead than alive. She seems to be interested and interesting, but will never get out of the village. This time with the tombs and the educated youths will probably be the high point of her life. I'm afraid that nothing will live up to this memory unless she decides to leave, but that doesn't seem to be an option that occurs to her.
I thought the whole talking to herself as her mother in the mirror was very sweet and sad, even if the argument being made was questionable. The saddest thing to me is that she obviously doesn't even consider that she could leave the village with Bayi, instead of tricking him to stay.
Yes, I thought it was sad too. But then, I think it's great she wants a little fun with the "handsome" stranger. I hope she knows how to use protection or at least knows about her cycle/fertile days.
What was he there to do, though? If it was really to see Huamei, he could have just knocked on the door. Well, wall. The door is a sheet.
I think he wants to find out about Daddy's secrets.
I wonder about this whole set up. Did Bayi prep Fatty for what to say? Even if he told the truth, would the secretary even believe him?
Sure, why not. Once you accept weasel fairies...
Not sure I care.
Back to Bayi trying to get to know Huamei. He's trying to find out more about Qiaoshan from her. (Sidebar: so slimy.) She realizes this (because she isn't completely stupid) and is thinking whether to answer, when Qiaoshan calls her name, making Bayi jump, pfft. She goes off to bed at her father's insistence. Qiaoshan then says, "Bayi, I have to tell you something." And Bayi gets within a foot of Qiaoshan's face to ask what! No stopping this dude, is there? Again, bad yaoi fanservice. Qiaoshan tells Bayi to get lost, pffft.
He's a close talker, Bayi is.
I really don't like him here at all.
Back to Fatty learning that Qiaoshan is a grave robber. GASP! The shock. The village secretary tells Fatty about catching a bandit years ago who was part of the Clay society grave robber group. ( I haven't checked, but they might be on Facebook.) That robber said some old grave robber called KnowItAall is hiding in the mountains. I think they mean that Qiaoshan is that grave robber, Knowitall.
Does the secretary know this or we assuming this? Would he put up with even a tomb robber as long as he is a good ranger? or has he not made a connection that it appears that even Fatty is making?
It seemed kind of 'let the past be', to me.
I do, too. But I am relieved that she doesn't mistakenly sleep with Fatty. That would make it even worse.
That would have been horrible and not funny at all. I do not want the show to make a fool of Yanzi.
It was pretty funny to me because Fatty, as usual, doesn't even realize what's going on.
Why? He has to know they didn't do anything. You'd have to be far more awake and far less drunk than either of them to get off all those clothes. Pfft. You'd be lucky to have her, Fatty.
That reaction is always SO STUPID. You wake up dressed next to a person in bed - so what?
Comments:
Okay, so Fatty grew up with Bayi, and here's where I'm confused: wouldn't Fatty get the same training Bayi got as a Mojin Xiaowei? Why doesn't he know anything the way Bayi does, especially considering how close they both are? Also, Bayi is really slimy, even if everyone in the show is fanboying & fangirling over him.Don't like them at all. Only like Yanzi.
Did the kids you grew up with get exactly the same experiences and information passed to them from their families as yours passed to you?
I don't like Bayi either and I even grow less attracted to him as the show progresses. As for knowledge ... Bayi got if from the BOOK, and he hasn't given it to Fatty, so there. He's a knowledge hogger.
Finally, I wonder if the village elders were hoping to force a marriage by having the Educated Youths living with Yanzi?
I'm thinking that they like her and want to offer her a better possibility than Yuckie land.
Or they think she's their best bet for landing and keeping an Educated Youth in the village.
They probably get money for having the Educated Youth there or something. I hope so at least, for them.