donutsweeper (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
donutsweeper) wrote2025-03-13 04:02 pm
donutsweeper) wrote2025-03-13 04:02 pm
Entry tags:
Babble, Reviews and Recs
A little more than two days left for h/c exchange signups! I finally got mine in yesterday; of course, me being me, they range from stupidly rare to small (in English fandom circles) fandoms. I need to remember to peruse the requests and alter my offers later, I don't think I'm matching any at the moment.
Last week mother nature decided to dump about a foot of snow here, which made for a lot of very unfun shoveling. Weather being weather though, it's already 90% melted. Fingers crossed the weathercritters are lying and the projected snow on Saturday winds up being incorrect.
I've watched/finished watching a bunch of things since my last post!
Xiao Zhan's 2019 movie Jade Dynasty was pretty terrible, but probably not helped by bad and hard to read subs. This felt like it was a movie version of a long, complicated plot I was supposed to already know the basics of. It was by no means the worst thing I've watched for Xiao Zhan and it did have a brief scene of a monkey riding a dog, but it's not something I would recommend.
The Love You Give Me, a 28 episode, second chance romance story had its ups and down and I can see why people would like it if they liked certain tropes but despite Wang Ziqi looking very fine in wonderful suits and having some wonderful whumpy moments, I didn't really like it. All three 'romances' involved the woman first chasing after their guy to the point of being creepy and stalkery and then, just when the guy started being interested, changing their mind until the man begged and pleaded and threw himself at her until they finally gave in. Add in several misunderstandings and purposeful misinterpretations by the FL (and lying to their kid about it) and eh... not my thing.
I *finally* finished Strange Tales of Jiang Cheng. It was fine I guess? Xia Zhiguang (from Spirealm) was gorgeous and had insane chemistry with both his male and female costar. It's 52 short (15min) episodes so not a huge time commitment at least.
I did end up really liking The First Shot, which also starred Wang Ziqi (yes, making it the third thing starring him I watched in about a month since he was also the star of The Embers but I was happily surprised at how different all his characters were). It's about the formation of a makeshift team of police detectives trying to combat a new drug syndicate that popped up in Northern China in 1997. Interesting setting (the modern, but not quite aspect of it) with great, well rounded characters. Some of the subject material is pretty harsh, so while I do recommend it, it's with caveats. (It's even on legally available on youtube)
I liked it so much, it even inspired me to write something outside of an exchange for it (how *weird* right?): The Visible Marking of Memory. Summary: It was only a scar, but was also so much more. (515 words)
There's been lots of due South on my tumblr dash thanks to the Eleventh of March and I came across one little factoid I never knew before: "Leslie Nielsen, who played Sgt. Buck Frobisher, was the son of a Mountie in real life. During his first appearance on the show, he took Paul Gross aside and told him that he was lacing his boots incorrectly and then proceeded to teach him the proper way for a Mountie to tie his shoes." There was even a picture!
How cute is that?
Here's this week's![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
recthething recs (an MDZS fic and a The First Shot ficlet):
what was once your pain (will be your home) by Jenrose (51k)
Summary: What if Wei Wuxian dragged some of his enemies into Luanzang Gang with him when he was thrown there? What if he and Wen Zhuliu had to work together to survive? (absolutely fascinating canon-divergent AU)
Cuddles in the Cold by psghayleaux (329 words, locked to archive)
Summary: Zheng Bei woke up slowly. The light coming in through the windows gave him no indication of the time, only that there was snow falling. (no canon knowledge is necessary for this soft, sweet ficlet)
Last week mother nature decided to dump about a foot of snow here, which made for a lot of very unfun shoveling. Weather being weather though, it's already 90% melted. Fingers crossed the weathercritters are lying and the projected snow on Saturday winds up being incorrect.
I've watched/finished watching a bunch of things since my last post!
Xiao Zhan's 2019 movie Jade Dynasty was pretty terrible, but probably not helped by bad and hard to read subs. This felt like it was a movie version of a long, complicated plot I was supposed to already know the basics of. It was by no means the worst thing I've watched for Xiao Zhan and it did have a brief scene of a monkey riding a dog, but it's not something I would recommend.
The Love You Give Me, a 28 episode, second chance romance story had its ups and down and I can see why people would like it if they liked certain tropes but despite Wang Ziqi looking very fine in wonderful suits and having some wonderful whumpy moments, I didn't really like it. All three 'romances' involved the woman first chasing after their guy to the point of being creepy and stalkery and then, just when the guy started being interested, changing their mind until the man begged and pleaded and threw himself at her until they finally gave in. Add in several misunderstandings and purposeful misinterpretations by the FL (and lying to their kid about it) and eh... not my thing.
I *finally* finished Strange Tales of Jiang Cheng. It was fine I guess? Xia Zhiguang (from Spirealm) was gorgeous and had insane chemistry with both his male and female costar. It's 52 short (15min) episodes so not a huge time commitment at least.
I did end up really liking The First Shot, which also starred Wang Ziqi (yes, making it the third thing starring him I watched in about a month since he was also the star of The Embers but I was happily surprised at how different all his characters were). It's about the formation of a makeshift team of police detectives trying to combat a new drug syndicate that popped up in Northern China in 1997. Interesting setting (the modern, but not quite aspect of it) with great, well rounded characters. Some of the subject material is pretty harsh, so while I do recommend it, it's with caveats. (It's even on legally available on youtube)
I liked it so much, it even inspired me to write something outside of an exchange for it (how *weird* right?): The Visible Marking of Memory. Summary: It was only a scar, but was also so much more. (515 words)
There's been lots of due South on my tumblr dash thanks to the Eleventh of March and I came across one little factoid I never knew before: "Leslie Nielsen, who played Sgt. Buck Frobisher, was the son of a Mountie in real life. During his first appearance on the show, he took Paul Gross aside and told him that he was lacing his boots incorrectly and then proceeded to teach him the proper way for a Mountie to tie his shoes." There was even a picture!
How cute is that?
Here's this week's
recthething recs (an MDZS fic and a The First Shot ficlet): what was once your pain (will be your home) by Jenrose (51k)
Summary: What if Wei Wuxian dragged some of his enemies into Luanzang Gang with him when he was thrown there? What if he and Wen Zhuliu had to work together to survive? (absolutely fascinating canon-divergent AU)
Cuddles in the Cold by psghayleaux (329 words, locked to archive)
Summary: Zheng Bei woke up slowly. The light coming in through the windows gave him no indication of the time, only that there was snow falling. (no canon knowledge is necessary for this soft, sweet ficlet)