Story Of Kunning Palace Ep. 24-25: Over The Threshold Of Regret And Possibility

Story of Kunning Palace Ep. 24-25: Over the threshold of regret and possibility

There are very few things I love more than a good doorway shot.

Doorways symbolize many things. They're the boundary between what is seen and unseen, what is known and unknown. They're the threshold between the pasts we leave behind and the futures we seek ahead. They're full of regret and possibility.

And we see them everywhere in Episodes 24 and 25.

Seeing how one of the threads that connect Jiang Xuening and Xie Wei is their ability to truly recognize the good and bad within one another, something that struck me about Episode 24 was the ways in which doorway coverings were used to represent the barriers to that fragile understanding. These coverings allow the characters to gaze at one another from a distance (and avoid confronting their feelings) while also obfuscating the reality of what they’re looking at.

For example, after apologizing to him about her role in the Tongzhou battle, Ning-er doesn't quite know how to interact with Xie Wei. On one hand, his quick thinking not only saved her and Zhang Zhe but also everyone on the mountain. It's just one more addition to the increasingly long list of good deeds Xie Wei has done for her. And yet she still doesn't see the significance of those acts.

And for Xie Wei, gazing at Ning-er and Zhang Zhe walking through the snow together catapults him into a fit of jealousy, not realizing that would be the night Ning-er starts pulling away from Zhang Zhe. Because he shut his door, he completely missed how she returned to her room alone.

Side Note: I want to take a moment to appreciate the actor blocking and camera language in this rejection scene. It's subtle but devastating.

When Ning-er first sees Xie Wei through the door coverings, we get a close-up shot of her hopeful face. She steps towards the door so Xie Wei can see her as Xue Dingfei asks if he wants to attend her dinner. She is waiting FOR HIM.

But when Xie Wei declines, we get a long shot showing the seemingly irreparable distance between the two of them before the camera settles once again on her face. This time her expression is hurt. For a moment, she thought things could be different between the two of them.

When Xue Dingfei asks Xie Wei again, we see he is about to say no, but then he notices Ning-er outside and he pauses FOR HER. He wants confirmation that she wants him there. The camera then racks focus on Ning-er through the doorway. Stung by his earlier rejection, she gives him an excuse not to come.

I adore how the camera work starts intimate with all those close-up shots of Ning-er and Xie Wei's faces and gets more and more distant to represent their inability to communicate. He didn't want to stay away and she wanted him to be around but they missed each other's cues. These two are a bittersweet comedy of missed opportunities. And poor Xue Dingfei has to play wingman sober.

While some thresholds can be crossed with little thought, others require courage.

And we finally see that courage in Episode 25 when Xie Wei notices Ning-er through the doorway of Zhang Zhe's home and chases after her. His comforting embrace is pivotal for her awareness of him as something more than a tentative ally in her schemes.

Neither knows what is next but they have crossed the threshold into possibility.

Story of Kunning Palace Ep. 18: Observing you observing me

When you've always seen yourself as the villain, is it harder to accept kindness or accept that others see kindness within you?

Hands down my favorite parts of Episode 18 were these two back-to-back scenes with You Fangyin, Jiang Xuening, and Xie Wei. For our two deeply scarred leads, the ability to find someone who truly sees them for who they are and what they could be feels unattainable, and yet in this episode they both find that.

The day after being attacked by a delirious Xie Wei, Xuening goes to visit You Fangyin in prison. Feeling guilty about not being able to stop Yan Lin from being exiled, Xuening also expresses guilt about keeping Fangyin in "another prison" to protect her from her family. Like Xie Wei with Yan Lin, she believes her scheming has shackled Fangyin to an even worse fate.

But Fangyin just smiles and gently corrects her, arguing that Xuening has actually made her life better. She also notes that while "death is the end of everyone's life, the process could have thousands of possibilities." The conversation is a good reminder for Xuening that not only is Yan Lin's disastrous fate not locked into place, but also that perhaps Xie Wei's actions, like her own towards Fangyin, might not be as nefarious as she had originally assumed.

I think that's why when Xie Wei confronts her outside the prison, she's angry but it's more from feeling betrayed than anything else.

Side Note #1: This woman though. Xuening literally saw Xie Wei murder a man and almost gets stabbed/strangled herself, but she's more upset that he kept his plan to protect Yan Lin a secret from her. She might idolize and be attracted to Zhang Zhe's virtuousness but she and Xie Wei are two peas in a pod when it comes to embracing the idea that sometimes the ends justify the (bloody) means.

Side Note #2: I love how Xie Wei is wary enough of Xuening's reaction that he keeps his distance but the moment his guard, Qing Feng, starts criticizing her he moves to her side.

Side Note #3: Zhang Linghe's profile is magnificent. That jawline is sharper than the dagger Xie Wei used to kill Gongyi Cheng.

Xie Wei is an excellent people reader, and when she accepts his invitation back to his home, he knows she's angry. So it takes him aback when she extends a bit of kindness despite that.

The beginning of this scene has such lovely subtle acting by Zhang Linghe. Xuening sees Xie Wei struggle with setting down the qin because of his injured hand so she reaches over and gently places it on the table for him. That cautious lift of Xie Wei's head and the wonderous look on his face like he can't believe she'd offer care after witnessing his violence...that broke me. It says so much about his character and the low expectations he has for the people around him to care.

But when it comes to Xuening, Xie Wei doesn't want her to have those same low expectations of him. He tells her not to trust him, that he's not a good person, and yet he

Risked his life to take pills that would treat his delirium enough that he could approach her the morning after he attacked her;

Is willing to risk his revenge plan by explaining parts of his strategy to someone with links to the Ministry of Justice just so that she doesn't turn away from him;

Gets visibly frustrated when she assumes he just wants to shut her up about the murder rather than explain about Yan Li.

And he tucks it away in his heart that she admits to observing him like he observes her. Although his identity is an illusion, it is enough for him that he is an illusion she truly sees and can be kind to.

Look at that boyish smile.

How she is so oblivious about his feelings at this point is beyond me but Minister of Justice and Cheekbones is pretty distracting so I guess I get it.

If someone told me before this drama aired that my favorite man in the drama would be Yan Lin, I would have thought they consumed some serious shrooms but here we are. I don't ship him with the FL because that's not what she wants but he is so my favorite. If Xie Wei is her mirror, Zhang Zhe is her aspiration, Yan Lin is her childhood and her innocence and her chance to make amends.

The more we see him, the more I get why she's so desperate to save him not from death (he did not die in life 1), but from becoming the monster he became in life 1 because this Yan Lin is so full of sunshine and warmth and life.

The bit where she visits him in jail, sees him beat all to hell and he issues this wry shrug as if laughing at himself and this situation "what did you expect" and there is no anger in him.

And her indignation

And the fact that he ping-pongs with her, still just happy to see her. Irrepressible is the word that comes to mind.

And he tries to minimize it, for her sake...

I love them so much!

I think what I like about Yan Lin in life 2 so much is that he's just such a very alive person. I don't know how to phrase it - XW is intense, ZZ has his integrity etc, but Yan Lin feels like the one who lives his life to the most full out of the three.

And I loved this convo, where he finally talks with her head on about the fact that she is his friend but does not see him as a romantic prospect. I love that he knows, not deluded, and just asks, genuinely wanting to know - not bitter, or angry or anything, just wanting to know.

I love that her explanation makes it clear that it's not his lack somehow (and I equally love that he listens to her when she says she's a bad person, does not believe it, but instead of denying it, just asks her why she thinks that - he genuinely listens.) If you think her explanation doesn't really rationally make sense to a non-reincarnator but YL is the kind of guy who takes "in the dream I did awful things and you did them back" explanation with acceptance and even wry amusement (how are you the one who's bad, clearly I was the bad one) and it's that ease in letting go because he knows she's telling the truth and that's all he wanted. Logical or not, these are her true reasons and feelings, and one cannot argue with them.

Those two kill me together; I don't ship them romantically, but their relationship is just the BEST!!!

Really long ramble ahead: I really enjoy the quote that the main similarity between Xie Wei and Ning is that they’re loyal. Because on one hand, their main similarity is that they’re both ruthlessly manipulative and have serious trust issues and identity problems, but on the other hand, comic relief business guy is right. They’re both extremely loyal and motivated by their loyalty.

Ning is trying to save all of her friends no matter what because no matter the terrible things they did, like Yan Lin, in life 1, she is still loyal to them. She is motivated by her loyalty to Zhang Zhe and the promise she made to him. Xie Wei is motivated by a loyalty to his family, to avenge them, to betray everyone and Lord Pinging to do so, to the risk of death.

Not only this, but as demonstrated by their relationship, neither expects loyalty from others, ever. Xie Wei is loyal to her, his saviour, he does not kill her and tries to protect her out of loyalty to their connection and friendship (among other things), and Ning is completely unaware of this. She trusts he has the same goals as her, and is loyal towards the Yan family: she does not trust he would ever be loyal to her, they simply share a goal.

Ning is loyal to Xie Wei in a more intrinsic sense; that being she could easily sell him out to Zhang Zhe, or set him up, or any of that, and be rid of the main cause of the rebellion and life 1, but she never even considers it. She clearly is not averse to setting people up and does it many times, but still she helps him instead. Her whole “im not interested in your secrets” speech exemplifies this, because by all rights, she should be interested, he is behind the rebels, he slaughtered countless people in life 1, she believes he is capable of killing people again, but she isn’t. She threatens to reveal his secrets but it’s entirely half hearted and Xie Wei knows it. Still, he does not realise this is loyalty: she is scared of him, it is fear (except she hasn’t been scared of him for a while now but still). Or it is trust in his loyalty and that they have the same motivations (which it also isn’t).

Neither expects loyalty from others I believe because their loyalty was hard won. Xie Wei is loyal exclusively to people from his childhood, before his walls were built. Ning is loyal to the people she betrayed, they won her loyalty and appreciation through her acts of disloyalty and cruelty. Ning is only loyal to people she saw before her walls went up, before everyone who ever loved her betrayed her, before she was consumed by guilt. So the budding loyalty between Ning and Xie Wei is unexpected and unacknowledged by either party.

But, given their conflicting goals, I have this feeling their mutual loyalty is gonna be an issue in the future. As is exemplified by ZZ and XW’s enemy/rivalry thing, XW’s actions are progressively going more and more against Nings goal of a good ending, and she is going to have to deal with that at some point.

TLDR: Ning and Xie Wei’s loyalty underpins their motivations and their budding loyalty to each other is big for both characters, who so far are mainly just loyal to people they met before their walls went up, but this mutual loyalty will become a plot issue as both of their motivations begin to diverge.

Ripe Town Ep. 12 visuals: The ghost of one's conscience

“Conscience is such a thing. If you want to sell it, it won’t sell for much. But if you want to keep it, then it is expensive." -Captain Leng

Goddamn, Ripe Town has some of the best cinematography I've seen on tv in YEARS. The show's meditations on (in)justice are beautifully rendered through its visual storytelling with not one frame wasted.

The final episode is no exception. As the show progresses, our main character, Qu Sangeng, becomes increasingly disillusioned with the justice system he has been charged to uphold. Like the serial killer he is hunting, Sangeng is caught between wanting to avenge the murder of his mentor and seeking justice in a system that is inherently unequal and unjust. What struck me about the finale was the way it evokes this tension through its symbolic representation of Judge Song, Sangeng’s superior. Even when the actor isn't on screen, Judge Song's character serves as a ghost who haunts Sangeng's conscience.

But before we dive into all that, I want to give a shoutout to the uncredited star of Ripe Town: this donkey, a symbol of Sangeng's unraveling sense of ethics.

I thought it was really clever of the show to bookend Sangeng's slow descent towards revenge with these two scenes from Episode 2 and Episode 11.

In the first scene, Sangeng meets his mentor, Captain Leng, in the forest with some money Captain Leng had asked for (possibly a bribe from the local crime lords?). Captain Leng is surprised Sangeng got him the money when he usually avoids doing so, which leads Sangeng to ask whether it's possible to "catch the bad guys" while keeping his conscience intact. It's clear from their conversation that Sangeng is principled and idealistic but his sense of loyalty could lead him to compromise those principles.

We eventually see this happen in the later part of the show. After a skirmish with the killer, Sangeng tracks down the donkey in a marsh and finds an important clue about the killer's identity. Not only does Sangeng hide this clue from the other bailiffs and Judge Song, but he also decides to collude with another mass murderer to dispose of the killer and avenge Captain Leng.

He has sold his conscious to get the "bad guy."

And yet Sangeng has the ability to choose an alternative path, and that moral decision is symbolically represented by Judge Song.

Despite being betrayed by the judicial system and living a life of bitterness and remorse, Judge Song still chooses to uphold justice for those similarly ensnared in the system. As the killer notes, "those who cannot serve the people, cannot serve the spirits”, and so Judge Song uses the law to punish the guilty regardless of their status. Every day, he fights against the urge to become the monster the judicial system and society tried to make him out to be.

In moments where Sangeng seems to deviate from a more righteous path, we always see Judge Song hovering in the background.

Even when he's not in the scene, his judge's chair and interrogation platform is placed front and center as an anchor. He is the show's moral compass even in death.

Side Note: One of my favorite scenes of this episode (and really the entire show) is when Sangeng visits the coroner's after his revenge plot accidentally leads to the death of Judge Song and other colleagues.

The first time we visited the coroner's in Episode 1, there was one slab for Captain Leng's body. But now, after Sangeng's misguided plan has failed, there are nine. Surrounded by the unnecessary death his desire for revenge caused, Sangeng breaks down.

And how ironic it is that the killer he was hunting is the one who is respectfully observing him put Judge Song's body to rest.

As Sangeng later confesses his misdeeds to his partner, we once again see Judge Song's chair and interrogation platform gently illuminated in the dark. No one gets true relief in this justice system, neither the ones who sell their conscience out of greed and desperation nor the ones who suffer with it still intact. And yet there is always the choice to hold a light up to injustice.

Addams Family Values (1993) dir. Barry Sonnenfeld