Blue Eye Samurai (2023)

Blue Eye Samurai (2023)

I'm sorry but how did this show come out of nowhere?

The animation is stunning, especially the fight scenes and establishing shots.

Just gorgeous.

And it's a revenge plot?

With women with swords?

Who are dressed as men to survive the patriarchal world that has marginalized them?

And if my eyes don't deceive me there's the kernel of an actual enemies-to-lovers subplot?

Oh, I'm so seated for this. Bring on Episode 2.

poems in episode one of the story of kunning palace

in episode 1 of kunning palace, xuening grabs a book of poems in order to trick her maids into thinking she keeps a ledger. my knowledge of classical chinese isn't particularly high level, but it's good enough to at least identify which poems are on the page that she opens to, and i'm certain they were deliberately chosen because of their relevance to the characters and themes of the show 👀 so i thought i'd do a post about them :)

this page contains three poems by the tang dynasty poet wang changling (698–756): 芙蓉樓送辛漸 (farewell to xin jian at lotus tower); 閨怨 (boudoir lament); and 春宮曲 (spring palace song). detailed analyses under the cut:

1 - 芙蓉樓送辛漸 (farewell to xin jian at lotus tower):

my translation

poem summary: the poet's friend came to wu on a night when cold rain was pouring into the river, and departs again at dawn. the poet accompanies him on his journey as far as the chu mountains [but cannot carry on journeying with him because he must stay at his official post in wu]. as he bids goodbye, he asks his friend to tell his family back in luoyang that his heart is still pure and resolute.

key themes: loneliness and solitude; duty; having a pure heart and noble character

analysis: this one is a fairly famous poem about parting before setting off on a long journey. it's particularly notable for its final line, 一片冰心在玉壺, which roughly translates to "my heart is as pure as a piece of ice within a vessel of jade"... which could easily have been written as a summary of zhang zhe's character.

however! while there's a definite emphasis on having a pure and guiltless heart, when you combine with the previous line, the couplet as a whole also gives a sense that the speaker wishes to be remembered by those they love as someone pure and righteous ("tell my family back in luoyang that my heart is still pure etc"). this seems to be a theme of xuening's second life: wanting to correct her past wrongs and treat the people she cares for better, and to prove to zhang zhe that she can be a good person in future

in particular, this poem makes me think of xuening's last moments in her first life. the poet's final request before he bids farewell to his friend? for his companion to tell his family that he is still noble at heart. xuening's final request before she dies? for xie wei to take her life in exchange for that of zhang zhe, as her way of repenting for being dishonourable and ruining his life... 🤔🤔🤔

2 - 閨怨 (boudoir lament):

poem summary: the young wife in her boudoir knows nothing of sorrow, but as she completes her toilette and ascends the emerald tower, she suddenly sees the hue of poplars and willows on the roadside and regrets letting her husband leave home to pursue official position and power.

key themes: love and marriage; abandonment; ambition (and the effect that ambition has on love)

analysis: it's essentially about how the husband's ambition causes him to abandon his wife to grief and loneliness, which seems like a clear parallel with xuening's willingness to abandon her faithful lovers for the sake of her ambition; there's also the implication that political status is ultimately less meaningful than a loving marriage.

i think it's worth noting that the character 怨 (yuan) in the title is fairly hard to translate, as it implies a mixture of grief and anger/resentment, or even hatred. it's fairly common in boudoir poems about women left behind by their husbands, and in that context it's often translated as 'lament' or 'grief', but i think the ambivalence of the term is fairly important, particularly if you apply it to kunning palace and the mix of grief and anger that xuening inspires in her old lovers in her first life.

3 - 春宮曲 (spring palace song):

poem summary: the wind is mild, the flowers are in full bloom, the moon is full and bright. the emperor has fallen in love with one of his sister's singing serving women, and is showering her with imperial favour and bestowing brocade robes upon her to keep out the spring chill.

key themes: happiness, success, security. (however, with contextual knowledge, there's also the implication of future doom, and that nobody can stay on top of the world forever)

analysis: i didn't quite catch the full significance of this one until i googled it and realised it's a poem about a real historical figure: wei zifu, a song-and-dance girl serving the princess pingyang, who wins the favour of pingyang’s brother, emperor wu of the han dynasty, eventually becoming his second empress (the second-longest serving empress in chinese history!).

wei zifu's story is essentially about a young woman of humble origins who survives numerous palace intrigues and eventually manages to ascend to the position of empress, trusted by the emperor to the extent that she was allowed to rule in his absence. however, after maintaining her position for over three decades, she eventually fell afoul of a conspiracy against her and her son, and committed suicide rather than allowing herself to be deposed.

i mean… the way this links to jiang xuening's first life is so obvious i don't even feel the need to explain it.

Your analysis of SOKP is amazing, can't wait for more. Also I haven't read the novel but lmfao I was under the impression that this was a love story between her and XW but I think I was sorely mistaken because how are we halfway through and she's in love with another man. I was all ready for my broken woman and even more broken man love each other enough to make up for everything because we don't get a lot of that but it seems it's going to be for him but not for her , the show is great nonetheless and I hope it stays that way until the end.

Thanks for the kind words, OP 🙏🏼

I haven’t read the novel either but I’ve been told it’s even more skewed towards Ning-er’s relationship with Zhang Zhe? So given the source material I think the drama has been doing an ok job at setting up her eventual shift towards Xie Wei because it’s clear he’s always been attracted to if not in love with her while she’s starting to clarify her own preconceptions about him and even sense his feelings.

And honestly I’m ok with the slow burn. Up until this point, Ning-er still remembers what happened in her first life and all the awful things that Xie Wei did. To me, she almost got too comfortable too fast given what she knows. It’s interesting how to a certain extent she must have always trusted Xie Wei in the original timeline because she believed he would honor her request to save Zhang Zhe after she died but outside of that we still haven’t seen flashbacks that would indicate she’d feel anything besides fear, disgust, or hate towards him. I’m enjoying the little nuggets of cute in the current timeline but as someone who LOVES angst I would have preferred seeing these two broken people rage at each other a little more before settling down as bantering partners in crime.

That said, I think the shift should happen soon. We’re going to get the rebel infiltration arc after Episode 20, which means Ning-er will not only have time to realize that she and Zhang Zhe might not be a good match but that she misses Xie Wei’s jawline and ruthless support. I’m also getting very bad in-law vibes from Zhang Zhe’s mom and we know how sensitive Ning-er is to maternal figures disrespecting her…

Story of Kunning Palace: Xuening's Harem

Story of Kunning Palace is really making me ship Jiang Xuening with everyone aren't they?

Her harem is even color-coded.

I chuckled when I saw how the composition for Xie Wei's scene was reused for the princess. Very subtle, show. Like including their meet-cute on a bridge under the moonlight in the opening credits sequence.

Xuening really was an equal opportunist in her former timeline.

Xie Wei started the story as the least likely to ever marry anyone, much less Xue Ning, especially out of the the men vying for her heart, but it turns out he's been the most suitable for her all along. It's not that she is merely oblivious to his feelings for her, she is blind to her own as well. She hasn't realised how much influence and sway he holds over her, a woman so fiercely independent and stubborn even to her own detriment, and how much he has been affecting her and her life.

She keeps quoting him, follows his advice and adopts his opinions and strategies, she learns to like go (which she previously hated) and even became a decent qin player. It shows he attracts her because she can sense how similar he is, she can identify and relate to him in many ways. In comparison, Zhang Zhe, who she put on a pedestal and glorified, never influenced her actions with his skills, opinions and behaviour. Her actions towards him were guided by guilt and regret.

A lot of people can see that Xie Ning has Xie Wei wrapped around her little finger, because he loves her (even if she doesn't know it yet), she is the only one who can reign him in, but it goes both ways. He is the only one who manages to control and tame her, an feat not even Zhang Zhe, the emperor or her father have never accomplished. She changes her mind and opinions, listens to him and follows his advices. She can uses their stock excuses, it's because he is her teacher, but that would be a lie. Xue Ning has never treated anyone else in both of her lives this way - with respect and almost unconditional trust that he would never betray or hurt her. If she put Zhang Zhe on a pedestal, where she can't never reach him, she put Xie Wei right next to her, as her equal, so close and touchable.

Wo while Xie Wei might have fallen first, but Xue Ning is falling hard without knowing, by the time she realises how much he means to her, she will be so irrevocably bound to him, she won't be ever able to live him.

When you find yourself at your most desperate and helpless moment, you always run to the person you trust or love the most, usually a lover or a family member, and Xue Ning time and time again runs to Xie Wei in such moments without fail. Because she trusts him unconditionally and believes he can accomplish miracles, even though he still doesn't hold the ultimate power as in the previous life. On a purely subconscious, instinctive level, she must feel that whenever she falls and gets her, he is there to catch her, raise her up, and comfort her. Xie Wei is not so much her teacher, but a guide or a guardian angel.

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