In Limbo

[marycrawford]

I have watched all but the four last episodes of Guardian. I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS.

The one that is uppermost in my mind right now, though: Zhu Yilong had better have gotten paid A FORTUNE for his work on this show. Fucking hell.

Comments

[xparrot]

Zhu Yilong is a treasure and I am so glad he got Guardian, so I could discover him, and also because I don't know if I would've fallen quite this hard for Shen Wei and the show without him. Has anyone mentioned that he was actually a last-minute casting, someone else was cast as Shen Wei but had to step down, and apparently knew Zhu Yilong so asked if he wanted the role (or so I've heard! as a non-Chinese-speaking fan I'm getting all this second/third/eighth-hand). I cannot imagine another actor as Shen Wei...

...or as bb!Shen Wei, or as Ye Zun, which you should have seen by now? I love how Ye-Zun-dressed-as-Shen-Wei is completely recognizable from Shen Wei himself, to the point that I forget that Ye Zun is the same actor and not just a guy who happens to look really similar...

[marycrawford]

I am so glad too, because he is AMAZING. His micro-expression emotive acting feels like it's on a Jeremy Brett level, and that's about the highest praise I have.

And yeah, same here, I fell first and foremost for Zhu Yilong, especially once I realized he was also the BCE (I am not ... fast at these things? And then when we got to Ye Zun I was like "this can't be him too, right, am I crazy, or...") And Ye Zun is just a whole 'nother level of amazing. I agree, I LEGIT forget that in the fight scenes, it's the same guy on both ends?

I saw a pic somewhere of the other actor, and ofc that doesn't show the actor's range or anything, but MAN. I can't imagine anyone else either.

That said though: I can't imagine that he would have this amazing screen chemistry with anyone other than Bai Yu, either. The SFX may be terrible but the casting just elevates the show to enormous heights.

[xparrot]

I have a friend who didn't get he was the BCE either! And I'm honestly not sure I would've myself, except the pimp post I read before I saw the show mentioned it; I'm curious how long it would've taken me to guess, otherwise, considering how bad I am at faces (I also had trouble recognizing Shen Wei the first time he shows up without glasses? ^^;)

And oh, yes -- Zhu Yilong is my special obsession but Bai Yu is absolutely as integral to their chemistry, and his performance is a match to Zhu Yilong's throughout. I think they elevated each other, even (Zhu Yilong is great in everything I've seen him in, but Shen Wei just has so many layers! He's always experiencing like at least three strong emotions at any given time, and you can see all of them in his face even when he's always trying to hide all of them, too...)

[marycrawford]

(I also had trouble recognizing Shen Wei the first time he shows up without glasses? ^^;)

Yes, me too! IIRC that was the super hot closeup scene where he's mending those scratches on his shoulder with dark energy, and the first time I watched that, I didn't realize that was even the same guy as Professor Shen aka Glasses McPretty. But when I saw it on a rewatch, I finally twigged.