Why you need to watch "Guardian"

[marycrawford]

So after a million years of not writing much in the way of fanfic or staring longingly at screencaps, I fell for a new show.

And to even explain what this show is... I feel like that's going to require a lot more words than I have brainspace for right now? Also I'm not the best authority on the subject, having only picked up bits and pieces of its backstory through fannish osmosis, but still, I'll try.

Short version: it's called Guardian, and it's a Chinese TV series based on an online supernatural gay romance novel.

However, gay content isn't permitted to be shown in China, nor is anything truly supernatural unless it's in a historical epic (I think?). Anyway, you can imagine that the show’s writers had their job cut out for them. Especially since they had their budget cut to pennies halfway through.

Miraculously, what resulted is a show that is a BONFIRE of newly subversive old-school slash: hurt/comfort, angst, epic fights, self-sacrifice, secret identities, supernatural shenanigans, and lingering closeups on gorgeous men staring at each other, manhandling each other and tucking each other into bed, with no “girlfriend of the week” bullshit, and just enough plausible deniability to somehow get away with it.

Dirtbag Lollipop aka Zhao Yunlan is chief of a supernatural investigations team, very smart, very intuitive, the Kirk to Shen Wei's Spock, having five different ideas and strategies playing out in his head at any given moment, and fearlessly confrontational, even while pretending to be a dumbass bro. Also, he has a terrible car that could star in "Pimp My Ride", and somehow this doesn't lessen my intense affection for him.

Glasses McPretty aka Shen Wei is a beautiful, quiet, buttoned up professor whose micro-expressions are lighting up my life, and who is clearly just very unlucky, because he keeps showing up at crime scenes that he has nothing to do with and frustrating Zhao Yunlan's investigations. And yet somehow Zhao Yunlan doesn't seem to mind:



The two fantastic actors for Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei pretty much carry the entire show on their backs, and I basically only started watching because I thought that the professor in the glasses was hot, but I quickly succumbed.

Still, the first couple episodes are not as full of h/c and angst as the later ones, and I don’t think I would have kept watching if I hadn’t run across spoilers for the one crucial show element: that Shen Wei, as well as being this sweet harmless academic:



is also this sexy BAMF


(gifs courtesy of qikiqtarjuaq


and that's because he is also Batman the Black-Cloaked Envoy, a supernatural ambassador between the surface world and the hidden one below:



And yeah, then I was lost. I am a total, total sucker for the secret identity trope, especially when both sides of the mask are competent and sexy in their own way.

Shen Wei reminds me of Leslie Howard in The Scarlet Pimpernel (another cast-iron favorite of my heart and id) and I could watch him change his face in the minutest ways to express the most complex emotions all the livelong day.

Where to find the show:

Guardian is on Youtube, all 40 episodes, with fanmade English subtitles that range from okay to terrible.

BUT because fandom is awesome, there are also HD downloads for the full show with subtitles that solo has painstakingly improved, available here.

The show is also on Amazon Prime (with hilariously terrible cover art that doesn't even seem to feature the right actors? Oy.)

And I wrote a story! Despite not even having watched the entire show yet? O_o. That's upcoming in the next post. :D

Bonus gif and commentary from qikiqtarjuaq : "You know how TV shows have commercial breaks? Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan have silent breaks during lulls in their conversations to have thirsty flirting interludes."

Comments

[sakana17]

OMG I love your choice of caps and gifs!!! ♥____♥

WTH is that Amazon Prime cover art!?! Is that dude even in the show as an extra??? I'm morbidly curious to know which set of subtitles they're using. This seems... suspicious. OTOH, the rights holders were probably desperate to make some money and if Amazon came a-calling...

BONFIRE of newly subversive old-school slash

It is SO VERY THIS and I think that's why I love it so!
(Also for the heaping portions of GORGEOUSNESS.)

[marycrawford]

I'm morbidly curious to know which set of subtitles they're using.

Certain People with Amazon Prime (ok fine, it was dorinda :) have looked at a couple subtitles and compared them to the Youtube version and the improved fan version, and concluded that the fan versions are better. I think they hired a translator, so the AP version is okay, competent, but the fan version is just snappier, and leaves (for example) the diminutives/nicknames like Lao in when they can, which I appreciate.

For example, in ep 8: Da qing says “as if you don’t know Old Zhao. So thick-skinned, has an evil heart, and plenty of bad ideas in his mind.” in the AP version. And in the fan (Solo) version he says: “Don’t you know Lao Zhao? Thick skin, black heart, bad intentions.”

I really don't want to see Zhao Yunlan call Shen Wei "little Wei", it would just feel bizarre.

[marycrawford]

OMG I love your choice of caps and gifs!!! ♥____♥ Aw you know I love all yours, too, they are sooooo good to stare at <3

I also love the gif sets that qikiqtarjuaq has been putting up, and the first cap in this post is mine - just a quickie off the ipad, because they were being so cute.

Amazon's subtitles

[sakana17]

I had to check and at least for key scenes in episodes15 and 39, we've got:
Brother Black
Sacred Items
Undergrounders
"bug (a computer programming abnormality)"
the Underworld
Black Robe Envoy
Master of the Guardians
Lord Black Robe
Underworld Monarch Registry
Chu (omitting "Lao" entirely, though it is in the dialogue)
Brother Chu

... I mean, if they are consistent throughout the series, then it's not the worst set of subs out there, though I much prefer the set from solo. Also, despite Prime claiming it's in HD, it's SD quality, and does not look nearly as pretty as even the smaller files from solo.
For anyone curious about the show who has Amazon Prime, it's a convenient entry point! And assuming consistency of terminology throughout, it's more accessible than the mixed bag on YouTube.

ETA: I had this typed up, got interrupted & hit post before I saw your response about the Amazon subs. Yeah, so agreed! The fan subs are snappier and more... personal? Like, it's easier to get a feel for characterizations from them.

Re: Amazon's subtitles

[marycrawford]

Oh and it's SD quality too! Ha, I had no idea. Good to know!

[umadoshi]

Hello! This is an "I'm subscribing to you because I loved your fic with all my soul and hope that encouragement could maybe-perhaps-if-you-feel-inclined lead to more" comment. ^_- (But it's hope, not assumptions/pressure.) Besides which, it's always lovely to see people on Dreamwidth.

[marycrawford]

Aww, that is super sweet and I appreciate the support! <3
I am currently strategizing to watch the actual rest of the series with my friends in such a way that I won't be left on tenterhooks for a week...because I don't think I could survive it.

[umadoshi]

I am currently strategizing to watch the actual rest of the series with my friends in such a way that I won't be left on tenterhooks for a week...because I don't think I could survive it.

GOOD CALL. I wish you luck!

(Do you know anything at all about the ending?)

[marycrawford]

No! NO spoilers please, I am trying to avoid them! I don't know how it ends, but I fear they're going to break my heart.

[umadoshi]

Oh gosh, no, I would never spoil you! (Which...I belatedly realize is not obvious, since you don't know me from a hole in the ground.) I'm vehemently anti-spoiler for myself, and so resistant to spoiling anyone else for anything that friends who I know actually prefer spoilers (?!!) still have to drag them out of me if they want info.

Anyway, I'm sorry for the alarm! Guardian happens to be a case of some people knowing a lot about it in advance, so I was just curious about what your status was.

(I don't get to use this icon often, but I keep it for just such occasions.)

[marycrawford]

Aw no no, I wasn't alarmed, no worries! And even though I'm a spoilerphobe (it's not like you could have known that either :) I have accidentally scrolled past some screencaps that do not make me believe that the series is going to end with Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan opening a teahouse together and living happily ever after. I'm just in denial about it. They can totally have a teahouse if I WANT. Hmf.

That icon is excellent :D

[umadoshi]

(I only just realized when I clicked back over to this post to reply that I did not, in fact, hit the subscribe button when I intended to. *facepalm*)

I've certainly been in love with several stories where I've had to mentally toss the endings entirely out the window, even though it always makes me sad. But those make me all the more appreciative of canons that wind up beautifully, I guess? ^^;

And regardless of which way Guardian actually goes, you've now given me a yearning for teahouse fic, just so you know. *g*

[marycrawford]

Aw, I love your snek icon!

Yeah, I know what you mean about canons with bad endings. Though at least there is the option for fans to fix things and make it all better, and I am a total sucker for "He Was Dead But He Got Better" stories.

And yes, teahouse! <3 I guess when canon brings all the epic angst, I lean toward coziness in fic, and vice versa.

[umadoshi]

One of infinite reasons why fandom is The Best. ^_^ Teahouses or resurrection, we've got it all.

[yantantether]

"Dirtbag Lollipop and Glasses McPretty" are PERFECT descriptions of them! :DDD

I am a total, total sucker for the secret identity trope
SAME omg and Shen Wei has so many secrets and levels of identity that you can roll around in them gloriously.

[marycrawford]

Hee, I needed a name for them to use in chat, and that is what came out. (I feel a little guilty because Zhao Yunlan is gorgeous in his own right, but he is my favorite dirtbag in the world.)

Shen Wei has so many secrets and levels of identity that you can roll around in them gloriously.

Yes, and I love that they actually resolve the masked-identity story so successfully and so comparatively early on - I like that so much better than dragging it out for 40 episodes, not least because it makes me appreciate Zhao Yunlan's smarts. But then there were more secrets, and as you said more levels of identity to unravel. Sigh.

[china_shop]

I can't remember how I found this post, but it's giving me cartoon heart-eyes. ♥___♥

<3 <3 <3

[marycrawford]

Awww I have fallen so hard, so naturally I know the feeling :D I'm so grateful to the fans who make caps and gifs for me to stare at! <3