Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #365

Anne: This week has been a very slow drama week for me. Mostly due to work. I spent a lot of time editing protocols and trying to streamline validation so that each person don't have like 150 samples and won't have to stay like 12 hours in lab. So this week's post will be very short, limited to the one show that I did finish. Hopefully, other readers were able to catch some interesting dramas that seems to be pouring out of production companies lately. I do wonder how much stock they have on the shelves. One of these days, someone should just buy the entire lot and start airing the ones that never made it on to the screen.

Before we get started on the one show I finished, I have one little, little, tiny rant. What in the world is going with Chinese drama depiction of overseas research?! Is this some kind of coordinated propaganda? Why does every single scientific related show recently starts with some wacko western lab trying to "prevent" their Chinese researcher from leaving or to steal their idea? And the way they do it is a bit ridiculous! Where is the freaking lab that would allow a gun inside the building?!

Even in the state of Texas where you can open carry without a permit, most private businesses (and the government houses, ah the irony) can and do prevent people from bringing guns into the work place. We already have people mini gun battles in road rage incidents, we're not crazy enough to allow guns into a potential hostile environment. I don't even want to say what show this is, and the ML is another favorite actors of mine....sigh.... Can someone please explain to me the ridiculousness of these openings? Yes, there is a severe shortage of certain scientific talent (that started last year and only has gotten worse). But I don't think this is the correct way to attract the talent you need.

The Ferryman -- Legends of Nanyang

Episode 30 and 31 was about a mermaid...sort of... The wife was lost at sea, and when the "mermaid" fed on her, she took on her memories (and apparently carried her consciousness too). The mermaid wanted to know what love is, and came on land to experience it with the husband. The mermaid finds out what she wanted, and the wife's younger sister was able to raise her niece with her brother-in-law whom she was in love with. (A bit odd...really...but I kind of expect with this show by now. I mean after the "alien"... a mermaid is just normal.) Episode 32 and 33 is part of a longer story. The Japanese doll that escaped earlier is back! She and her little henchman are taking the "best" parts of each women to make the doll a body. There is an entire back story on the doll's spirit and why she is so determined to bring "her" world back. It is here that we see the background story for Zhao Li, who was a monk (1000 years ago) who fell in love with a demon spirit he hid inside his zither (he was trying to save her life). The demon spirit spent every lifetime looking for him, carrying the zither that only Zhao Li can play (the instrument remains silent in anyone else's hands...and this is important...). The demon spirit dies at the hand of the henchman and her head was the final body part, so we get to see the actress for the last 3 episodes. 

I want her outfit!!

For Episode 34, 35, and 36, we get the back story on Xia Dong Qing. Remember that his pair of eyes was given to him by Zhao Li. Xia Dong Qing was blind and lived at an orphanage when a car accident caused the death of his parents and younger sister. If you remember several episodes back, his sister had the Ferryman, Zhao Li, give her eyes to Xia Dong Qing, hence why he can see ghosts and whatnot. (We also find out what role his girlfriend played in the car accident.) However, his eyes are very special, as through out the series, many demons kept trying to take them. A few episodes back, during one of these attempted thefts, the demon "killed" Dong Qing, and Zhao Li was able to keep him "alive" by binding Dong Qing to him as an "assistant". Dong Qing would only be alive again once he helped Zhao Li escort 88 spirits to the underworld. Long story short, Zhao Li was the 88th spirit that Dong Qing "escorted". (The reason why Dong Qing's eyes were so special was because they were the vessel that held the Hell "Queen's" elder brother, who was such a mess that the elders wanted to have him executed. But his younger sister, in order to save him, hid him inside a pair of eyes. Dong Qing's little sister was just the most current reincarnation of the Hell Queen's brother. And Dong Qing was destined to be nothing more than a vessel.)

So after the defeat of the Doll and saying goodbye to Zhao Li, Dong Qing is back alive again and going off into the sunset with his girlfriend (whom you really should just ignore, she's a bit of a screecher)... when on the bus, a little boy asked Dong Qing what was in the bag.

And he said that it was a friend's zither. When the little boy asked if he can play it. Dong Qing said no.

And then Dong Qing plucked a string. The little boy immediately turned around and said "You CAN play it!"

Zhao Li!! You are such a bad, bad man...

On a different subject...did anyone watch Our Times? It's not really my sort of drama, but Leo Wu looks very good in these clothes! He looks so hip! (And I must not remember the 90s very well...)

Have a great week everyone. I just need to get through this week with my brain intact. Wish me luck!