Xiao Shiyi Lang 蕭十一郎, Episode 1 Recap
Xiao Shiyi Lang (蕭十一郎) is probably my favorite drama of all time. I'm aware that it differs from Gu Long's novel in many ways, which is why I try to see this drama and the novel it's based off of as two different things. Some things I like: the characters are believable, the villains have understandable and sympathetic motivations, and the kung fu is impressive (save for the last episode, but that's for another day). Also, Nicky Wu as the title character is lovable and cute and amazing in every way possible.
First thing to address: the opening theme, namely "Turn" (轉彎), by Nicky Wu. This song is gorgeous. Wuxia themes in general are pretty well done, and this one is no exception. And the music is just exquisite. Nicky does a darn good job with the singing too, and the accompanying music complements his voice well. I could listen to this song on repeat for hours. Probably.
Here is a KTV version of it:
The only beef I have with this song is actually with the video -- the end of the video, to be exact. Could they have picked a worse place to freeze this thing? Nicky is not an unattractive man. I rather like him because he can pull off a legitimate cute face (among other reasons). He normally doesn't look bad. But here, in this one shot, it's like...ew. His eyes are squinty, his nose is protruding and prominent, and his teeth don't look so good. I normally wouldn't notice stuff like this, but when you're forced to see this 40 times, it really starts to annoy.
But now that I've got my nitpicking out of the way, let's get on to the actual show. :)
It seems to be a bright and chipper day at the horse ranch, as reflected by the music (I love this particular piece, by the way; it makes me want to bounce). Everyone is obviously preparing for something, and someone is giving this white horse an extremely thorough rubdown. At that instant, however, a ton of birds arrive and start flapping around in the air and then begin divebombing the place. The farmhands are bewildered.
As if this weren't strange enough, a man appears (hi Nicky!) with the flock of birds and soars toward the barn, landing on the roof and (rather rudely) ripping a hole through it. Clearly, he's here to steal the horse, but the horse refuses to go with him. Undeterred, the guy just mounts the horse and makes his way out of the ranch after a very cool fight sequence that both shows off his kung fu skills and emphasizes his playfulness. The crappy quality on Tudou does not do this fight justice.
After the thief hops the fence with the horse, the farmhand in charge sees a note that the thief somehow left behind and brings it to the owner of the horse ranch, who confirms that the robbery was indeed done by Xiao Shiyi Lang.
There's a drawing of a wolf on the note because the final character in Shiyi Lang's name sounds like wolf, although it's a different character. (If I remember correctly, Shiyi Lang later draws comparisons between himself and a wolf, although that's waaay later.)
In the meantime, Shiyi Lang is riding further and further away. I'd like to note that apparently, Nicky Wu had no idea how to ride a horse and only informed the director of this after they'd cast him. If this is true, his quick learning ability is extremely impressive, as he looks so comfortable riding. Maybe he should have given Matthew MacFadyen some pointers before the latter filmed Pride and Prejudice in 2005.
Anyway, turns out Shiyi Lang had this whole thing planned out with his good friend, Feng Siniang, who goes back to the horse ranch to see if she can sell the horse (Snowflower) back. A random point of interest: this actress, Ma Yashu, is Nicky's wife in real life. They met while filming this drama and got married some time afterward. I normally don't pay attention to celebrity relationships, but I distinctly remember my mom and grandma telling me about this.
[ Edit (Aug 3, 2009): Actually, scratch that about them being married. According to this article (which I happened to find by chance; I was browsing for news about Huang Xiaoming and happened to see a picture of Nicky and Ma Yashu), they're now divorced. I think it says that they agreed to get divorced a year ago. I'm actually quite shocked. ]
All the farmhands act like they've never seen a girl before (I guess it's possible that they haven't). A youngster there, who's called Ni Qiu, claims that he's in charge, but Siniang pretty much walks all over him, and he's forced to call for his master before she can leave to sell the horse to someone else.
NQ: Snowflower is in your possession, miss?
SN: If you can make a suitable bid, then it's in my possession. If you can't make a suitable bid.... then it'll be in someone else's possession.
NQ: ...wut.
His master is a somewhat dimwitted-looking gentleman by the name of Yang Kaitai (played by Wan Hongjie). He takes one look at Feng Siniang and falls madly in love with her. Being Feng Siniang, she totally takes advantage of this and asks a ridiculous amount of money (30,000 taels) for the horse, adding that since Snowflower is meant to be a wedding gift for the Lian family, she considers her price more than reasonable. Kaitai refuses and offers 3000 taels instead.
I picked a slightly more reasonable picture of Kaitai, since he's supposed to be a good businessman -- you just can't tell half the time because he looks dumb and is always getting strung along by Siniang.
Unhappy with the offer, Siniang pretends that, since she can't sell the horse at a good price, she'll just kill it, cook it, and send it to the Lian family as a gift. Which makes Kaitai freak out and immediately agree to her original price. After getting the money, Siniang tells them that Snowflower is in some forest and that they'd better go look for it (lol). She then tells Kaitai her name, saying they can be friends.
Kaitai is equally enthralled with her name as he is with her beauty -- clearly, Feng Siniang is a pretty well-known name around their parts, although I doubt for anything good. Despite Ni Qiu's urging, he doesn't chase her for basically ripping them off and instead stares at the handkerchief that she accidentally dropped. Oh, the things people do when they're in love.
Where did this cabin come from? I have no idea.
Back at a lovely-looking log cabin, Shiyi Lang and Siniang are splitting the day's spoils. Apparently, they'll be able to live comfortably on this money for a year. Siniang, however, thinks they can get more money and wants Shiyi Lang to look into the business of the Ge Lu Dao, the Deer Carving Sword, which she hears is to be another wedding present for Lian Chengbi from the family of his bride, the Shen family.
Of course, all of this flies out of her mind when she realizes that she left her handkerchief at the Yang Family Horse Ranch. I don't know why she's particularly wrung up over this because the handkerchief doesn't even match what she's wearing, but I guess she doesn't want any of her possessions in the hands of Yang Kaitai. Shiyi Lang says he'll get it back and takes a bit of her money as payment. She gives him even more because hey, to her, the handkerchief is just that important.
Nighttime at the Yang Family Horse Ranch. Shiyi Lang decides to drop in, quite literally, and after some more show-offy kung fu moves, maneuvers himself through a window into Kaitai's room. That's why you should always keep your windows locked at night, kids. Kaitai is sleeping, Siniang's handkerchief in his hands, and Shiyi Lang grabs it, waking him up in the process because being chased is a good excuse to run all the way to the Shen family home.
Shiyi Lang taunts Kaitai. You'll never have guessed from this first meeting, but they actually become pretty good friends in the rest of the drama.
More fighting ensues, during which Shiyi Lang executes a perfect back sweep and Ni Qiu breaks a vase. In the next scene, it's morning, and Kaitai is chasing Shiyi Lang through the markets. I just noticed that Kaitai was sleeping in the exact same clothes he wore earlier that day. Maybe this is part of his frugality, though he's certainly not going to win any points for hygienic habits.
KT: Thief! Someone help me catch that thief!
SYL: *looks around to see that no one's even paying attention to them and gives Kaitai a "sucks for you" look*
While we're on the topic of clothes, where in the world did Shiyi Lang get that white vest-jacket he's wearing? Pretty sure he didn't bring that along when he left home the previous day. Then again, he's a thief -- he can steal whatever clothing he wants.
Shiyi Lang abuses Kaitai a bit before flying onto the roof of a building in the Shen home. Surprisingly, Kaitai also has some qinggong (i.e. lightness kung fu) and manages to follow. While flying around, Shiyi Lang catches a glimpse of Shen Bijun, who is being fussed over by her nanny (Lao Lao) and her two servants.
Shen Bijun, the most beautiful woman in the world and the to-be wife of Lian Chengbi.
Bijun says that she never imagined she would be married to a martial arts hero: it's tiring to be a hero, but it's even more tiring to be the wife of one. (How would she know...?) One of the servants accidentally lets slip that Lian Chengbi will be receiving the Ge Lu Dao along with Bijun as his bride.
When the grandma is carrying a cane like this, you know she's badass.
Speaking of the Ge Lu Dao, Bijun's grandmother is at the time leading two old men into an extremely fake-looking cave. The music here is rather epic and sadly does not seem to be included on this drama's soundtrack. Oh well.
I hope they're getting paid good money for this, because this looks like a boring day job. Plus they look ridiculous.
Shiyi Lang drops by, kicking at two extremely fake-looking rocks in the process. These rocks actually have a reason for looking fake, however, as they're the disguises of these two young men. I'm about convinced that this disguise was inspired by Team Rocket. Anyway, Shiyi Lang leaves after seeing all the guards present, since he needs to find a way to get them away. One of the rock men wants to barge in and grab the sword, but the other rock man says they should wait to see if it's really the Ge Lu Dao.
The first case of fail CGI in this drama, though certainly not the last.
Inside the cave, the Ge Lu Dao is inside this weird shield thing that's shaped like the cover the Beast put over his beloved rose in Beauty and the Beast. Except the shield zaps lightning at random intervals and stuff.
The two old men try to grab the sword but are blasted away upon touching the shield. Bijun's grandmother, who I'll call Lao Taijun from here on out, uses her kung fu to turn off the shield (accompanied by more epic music that's not on the soundtrack). She graciously allows the old men to try to pull the sword out of its scabbard. Though their efforts are amusing, all are ultimately fruitless.
Meanwhile, back on the roofs, Shiyi Lang is still trying to get Kaitai off his trail. Kaitai throws something at Shiyi Lang's feet, which causes that part of the roof to explode and Shiyi Lang to fall into the room. Which happens to be Bijun's room, where she is undoubtedly admiring herself in the mirror or doing something equally useless. She screams because Shiyi Lang manages to tear her clothing on his way down. Oh, and because some guy just crashed through her ceiling. I guess that's a legitimate reason for concern.
When Shiyi Lang sees that Bijun is falling, he reaches out to catch her, and they do this romantic twirl sort of thing. An extremely fancy hairpin, which I think was a gift from Chengbi, falls out of Bijun's hair, and Shiyi Lang catches that as well.
I'm beginning to think it's required for all wuxia heroes to be able to spin like this without getting dizzy.
She pushes him away, running her palm against the hairpin by accident and drawing blood. Oops. Being the wuss that she is, she can't stand the sight of herself bleeding and just gapes at Shiyi Lang, who is kind of speechless. Adorably speechless, I might add. He wants to see her hand, but Bijun refuses and rips her hairpin out of his hand, cutting his palm as well. Good going, you jerk. By the way, Shiyi Lang's gloves must be of really bad quality if a simple hairpin could rip through them and reach his skin. That, or the hairpin has a razor edge. Hm.
Gotta give props to Bijun for not crying her head off over this wound, because I certainly would be. Although maybe not, if Shiyi Lang were holding my wrist like that.
Shiyi Lang makes a very unfunny joke about how they now have the same palm crease and then shakes some medicine onto her hand, wrapping her hand with some red cloth that he rips from her clothing. (Bijun makes a startled noise when he does this, and Shiyi Lang is like, "Ah, your clothes are torn anyway.") Then, since he can hear her two servants coming, he jumps out through the hole in the ceiling. Bijun stares at her hairpin after he leaves, admiring their mingling blood on the end of it. Wow, that sounded weird.
Back at the cave, the two old men ask Lao Taijun how she can bear to give the Ge Lu Dao to the Lian family. She explains that the Shen family no longer has the capability to protect the sword. Ever since her grandfather passed away, no one has been able to pull it out from the scabbard.
At that point, Lao Lao is causing a ruckus outside because she wants Lao Taijun to go see Bijun in her new clothes. After they leave the cave, Lao Taijun requests that the two old men bring the Ge Lu Dao to the Lian family. This would be a perfectly fine plan if the two young men disguised as rocks weren't sitting within earshot, but unfortunately for everyone else, they are. The rocks attack and eventually get broken apart, and the two men inside float up to the trees and hang there like bats. Or something. Unsurprisingly, they're here for the Ge Lu Dao.
Why does everyone in this drama have highlighted and/or dyed hair??? Well, except Bijun, I guess.
Shiyi Lang ditches Kaitai by sending the security guards after him. I absolutely love this scene because Nicky is just adorable during it, applauding and shouting out words of faux-encouragement as Kaitai fights off the guards. Anyhoo, he finds his way to where everyone is fighting for possession of the Ge Lu Dao.
Boys, you should be ashamed of treating an elderly woman like this.
One of the intruders manages to overpower Lao Taijun and forces the two old men to give the sword up. The younger intruder wants to kill Lao Taijun, but the older one reminds him that her grandson-in-law will be Lian Chengbi, who isn't someone you want as an enemy. I guess it's okay to steal a sword from him, though.
After hitting Lao Taijun's acupoint, the intruders hightail it out of there, but not for long because they both start to suffer from the poison that one of the old men planted on them. The old men gloat over their victory, but then a young girl (whom the old men -- and everyone else -- apparently mistake for a young gentleman) comes up and screams that they've killed the two intruders (who by now are lying on the ground, motionless). She tricks the two old men and gets the antidote for her two "brothers."
If the two brothers are Jesse and James, then this is Meowth.
The two young men wake up and groan upon realizing that they've been rescued by their partner-in-crime. She tells them that they now owe her a life debt. Pretty sure this is played for laughs, but you can already tell that they're not happy working together and that each group is always trying to one-up the other. The villains are actually fleshed out quite well, so we'll see more of this later.
Not only is their day job terrible, they also have to deal with an annoying co-worker.
While she's occupied with that, Shiyi Lang uses a stone to strike her acupoint and then literally twirls in and takes the Ge Lu Dao. Easiest bounty ever, especially since everyone else did all the work.
SYL: You've been working so hard -- you ought to take a little break.
Shiyi Lang runs off, and the two brothers run after him. Beforehand, however, they release their partner-in-crime, essentially repaying their life debt. lol. Instead of following them and Shiyi Lang, she jumps back into the Shen house, where she bumps into Bijun, pretends to be a scared little boy, and then abducts her. Kidnapping #1.
Shiyi Lang finally manages to shake off Kaitai and arrives back at Siniang's log cabin, where he sees Bijun being taken away by her abductor. He rescues her, rather easily, and they do one of those catch-twirl things again. I'm not sure how many more of those I can stand. Anyway, he pulls off a beautiful jump inside kick to secure his victory and rides away with Bijun. (I wish I had a gif of that kick. It's beautiful.) That must've been one of the shortest kidnapping attempts I've ever seen.
Bijun is happy to see him, and Shiyi Lang...well, just look at him. I don't think we see him smile like this ever again.
The two talk, and Shiyi Lang realizes that she, the lady he's developing a crush on, is Shen Bijun, who's supposed to get married in a few days. If you're smart, you'll see a plot point developing here. He brings her to his house, which is located near a creek and small lake so Nicky Wu can show off his swimming skills. He doesn't do so yet, however, although Bijun does show that she needs help climbing stairs. The episode ends as Shiyi Lang tells her that the Ge Lu Dao is with him and that he'll give it back.
- This drama, for some reason, has two ending themes. When I watched it on TV, it was another song by Nicky Wu, called Hidden Pain (隱痛), which, while not as good as the opening theme, is still a likable, catchy, and upbeat song. The ending theme that came with my VCDs, however, is another song, sung by Athena Chu (who acts out Shen Bijun). I don't like it very much, so I'm not going to bother linking to it. I'll never understand why they changed songs because Athena doesn't even sing that well.
- If you haven't already noticed, I absolutely adore Nicky Wu's performance in this drama, which is why I constantly rave about him. It helps that I also really like Shiyi Lang as a character -- he easily tops my favorite non-modern drama boyfriends list.
- On the other hand, I have a strong dislike for Shen Bijun. She's tolerable in this episode, but she gets irritating later on, and you'll probably often hear me say she doesn't deserve Shiyi Lang. Athena Chu portrays her well enough, however, although it sometimes annoys me that her voice was dubbed because I hate it when mouth movements don't match up, but oh well.
- The only reason there are gifs in this post is because some nice person posted them on Baidu. The videos I have aren't of high enough quality to produce such nice animations, so don't expect any for future recaps. :|
First thing to address: the opening theme, namely "Turn" (轉彎), by Nicky Wu. This song is gorgeous. Wuxia themes in general are pretty well done, and this one is no exception. And the music is just exquisite. Nicky does a darn good job with the singing too, and the accompanying music complements his voice well. I could listen to this song on repeat for hours. Probably.
Here is a KTV version of it:
Click to viewThe only beef I have with this song is actually with the video -- the end of the video, to be exact. Could they have picked a worse place to freeze this thing? Nicky is not an unattractive man. I rather like him because he can pull off a legitimate cute face (among other reasons). He normally doesn't look bad. But here, in this one shot, it's like...ew. His eyes are squinty, his nose is protruding and prominent, and his teeth don't look so good. I normally wouldn't notice stuff like this, but when you're forced to see this 40 times, it really starts to annoy.
But now that I've got my nitpicking out of the way, let's get on to the actual show. :)
It seems to be a bright and chipper day at the horse ranch, as reflected by the music (I love this particular piece, by the way; it makes me want to bounce). Everyone is obviously preparing for something, and someone is giving this white horse an extremely thorough rubdown. At that instant, however, a ton of birds arrive and start flapping around in the air and then begin divebombing the place. The farmhands are bewildered.
As if this weren't strange enough, a man appears (hi Nicky!) with the flock of birds and soars toward the barn, landing on the roof and (rather rudely) ripping a hole through it. Clearly, he's here to steal the horse, but the horse refuses to go with him. Undeterred, the guy just mounts the horse and makes his way out of the ranch after a very cool fight sequence that both shows off his kung fu skills and emphasizes his playfulness. The crappy quality on Tudou does not do this fight justice.
After the thief hops the fence with the horse, the farmhand in charge sees a note that the thief somehow left behind and brings it to the owner of the horse ranch, who confirms that the robbery was indeed done by Xiao Shiyi Lang.
There's a drawing of a wolf on the note because the final character in Shiyi Lang's name sounds like wolf, although it's a different character. (If I remember correctly, Shiyi Lang later draws comparisons between himself and a wolf, although that's waaay later.)
In the meantime, Shiyi Lang is riding further and further away. I'd like to note that apparently, Nicky Wu had no idea how to ride a horse and only informed the director of this after they'd cast him. If this is true, his quick learning ability is extremely impressive, as he looks so comfortable riding. Maybe he should have given Matthew MacFadyen some pointers before the latter filmed Pride and Prejudice in 2005.
Anyway, turns out Shiyi Lang had this whole thing planned out with his good friend, Feng Siniang, who goes back to the horse ranch to see if she can sell the horse (Snowflower) back. A random point of interest: this actress, Ma Yashu, is Nicky's wife in real life. They met while filming this drama and got married some time afterward. I normally don't pay attention to celebrity relationships, but I distinctly remember my mom and grandma telling me about this.
[ Edit (Aug 3, 2009): Actually, scratch that about them being married. According to this article (which I happened to find by chance; I was browsing for news about Huang Xiaoming and happened to see a picture of Nicky and Ma Yashu), they're now divorced. I think it says that they agreed to get divorced a year ago. I'm actually quite shocked. ]
All the farmhands act like they've never seen a girl before (I guess it's possible that they haven't). A youngster there, who's called Ni Qiu, claims that he's in charge, but Siniang pretty much walks all over him, and he's forced to call for his master before she can leave to sell the horse to someone else.
NQ: Snowflower is in your possession, miss?
SN: If you can make a suitable bid, then it's in my possession. If you can't make a suitable bid.... then it'll be in someone else's possession.
NQ: ...wut.
His master is a somewhat dimwitted-looking gentleman by the name of Yang Kaitai (played by Wan Hongjie). He takes one look at Feng Siniang and falls madly in love with her. Being Feng Siniang, she totally takes advantage of this and asks a ridiculous amount of money (30,000 taels) for the horse, adding that since Snowflower is meant to be a wedding gift for the Lian family, she considers her price more than reasonable. Kaitai refuses and offers 3000 taels instead.
I picked a slightly more reasonable picture of Kaitai, since he's supposed to be a good businessman -- you just can't tell half the time because he looks dumb and is always getting strung along by Siniang.
Unhappy with the offer, Siniang pretends that, since she can't sell the horse at a good price, she'll just kill it, cook it, and send it to the Lian family as a gift. Which makes Kaitai freak out and immediately agree to her original price. After getting the money, Siniang tells them that Snowflower is in some forest and that they'd better go look for it (lol). She then tells Kaitai her name, saying they can be friends.
Kaitai is equally enthralled with her name as he is with her beauty -- clearly, Feng Siniang is a pretty well-known name around their parts, although I doubt for anything good. Despite Ni Qiu's urging, he doesn't chase her for basically ripping them off and instead stares at the handkerchief that she accidentally dropped. Oh, the things people do when they're in love.
Where did this cabin come from? I have no idea.
Back at a lovely-looking log cabin, Shiyi Lang and Siniang are splitting the day's spoils. Apparently, they'll be able to live comfortably on this money for a year. Siniang, however, thinks they can get more money and wants Shiyi Lang to look into the business of the Ge Lu Dao, the Deer Carving Sword, which she hears is to be another wedding present for Lian Chengbi from the family of his bride, the Shen family.
Of course, all of this flies out of her mind when she realizes that she left her handkerchief at the Yang Family Horse Ranch. I don't know why she's particularly wrung up over this because the handkerchief doesn't even match what she's wearing, but I guess she doesn't want any of her possessions in the hands of Yang Kaitai. Shiyi Lang says he'll get it back and takes a bit of her money as payment. She gives him even more because hey, to her, the handkerchief is just that important.
Nighttime at the Yang Family Horse Ranch. Shiyi Lang decides to drop in, quite literally, and after some more show-offy kung fu moves, maneuvers himself through a window into Kaitai's room. That's why you should always keep your windows locked at night, kids. Kaitai is sleeping, Siniang's handkerchief in his hands, and Shiyi Lang grabs it, waking him up in the process because being chased is a good excuse to run all the way to the Shen family home.
Shiyi Lang taunts Kaitai. You'll never have guessed from this first meeting, but they actually become pretty good friends in the rest of the drama.
More fighting ensues, during which Shiyi Lang executes a perfect back sweep and Ni Qiu breaks a vase. In the next scene, it's morning, and Kaitai is chasing Shiyi Lang through the markets. I just noticed that Kaitai was sleeping in the exact same clothes he wore earlier that day. Maybe this is part of his frugality, though he's certainly not going to win any points for hygienic habits.
KT: Thief! Someone help me catch that thief!
SYL: *looks around to see that no one's even paying attention to them and gives Kaitai a "sucks for you" look*
While we're on the topic of clothes, where in the world did Shiyi Lang get that white vest-jacket he's wearing? Pretty sure he didn't bring that along when he left home the previous day. Then again, he's a thief -- he can steal whatever clothing he wants.
Shiyi Lang abuses Kaitai a bit before flying onto the roof of a building in the Shen home. Surprisingly, Kaitai also has some qinggong (i.e. lightness kung fu) and manages to follow. While flying around, Shiyi Lang catches a glimpse of Shen Bijun, who is being fussed over by her nanny (Lao Lao) and her two servants.
Shen Bijun, the most beautiful woman in the world and the to-be wife of Lian Chengbi.
Bijun says that she never imagined she would be married to a martial arts hero: it's tiring to be a hero, but it's even more tiring to be the wife of one. (How would she know...?) One of the servants accidentally lets slip that Lian Chengbi will be receiving the Ge Lu Dao along with Bijun as his bride.
When the grandma is carrying a cane like this, you know she's badass.
Speaking of the Ge Lu Dao, Bijun's grandmother is at the time leading two old men into an extremely fake-looking cave. The music here is rather epic and sadly does not seem to be included on this drama's soundtrack. Oh well.
I hope they're getting paid good money for this, because this looks like a boring day job. Plus they look ridiculous.
Shiyi Lang drops by, kicking at two extremely fake-looking rocks in the process. These rocks actually have a reason for looking fake, however, as they're the disguises of these two young men. I'm about convinced that this disguise was inspired by Team Rocket. Anyway, Shiyi Lang leaves after seeing all the guards present, since he needs to find a way to get them away. One of the rock men wants to barge in and grab the sword, but the other rock man says they should wait to see if it's really the Ge Lu Dao.
The first case of fail CGI in this drama, though certainly not the last.
Inside the cave, the Ge Lu Dao is inside this weird shield thing that's shaped like the cover the Beast put over his beloved rose in Beauty and the Beast. Except the shield zaps lightning at random intervals and stuff.
The two old men try to grab the sword but are blasted away upon touching the shield. Bijun's grandmother, who I'll call Lao Taijun from here on out, uses her kung fu to turn off the shield (accompanied by more epic music that's not on the soundtrack). She graciously allows the old men to try to pull the sword out of its scabbard. Though their efforts are amusing, all are ultimately fruitless.
Meanwhile, back on the roofs, Shiyi Lang is still trying to get Kaitai off his trail. Kaitai throws something at Shiyi Lang's feet, which causes that part of the roof to explode and Shiyi Lang to fall into the room. Which happens to be Bijun's room, where she is undoubtedly admiring herself in the mirror or doing something equally useless. She screams because Shiyi Lang manages to tear her clothing on his way down. Oh, and because some guy just crashed through her ceiling. I guess that's a legitimate reason for concern.
When Shiyi Lang sees that Bijun is falling, he reaches out to catch her, and they do this romantic twirl sort of thing. An extremely fancy hairpin, which I think was a gift from Chengbi, falls out of Bijun's hair, and Shiyi Lang catches that as well.
I'm beginning to think it's required for all wuxia heroes to be able to spin like this without getting dizzy.
She pushes him away, running her palm against the hairpin by accident and drawing blood. Oops. Being the wuss that she is, she can't stand the sight of herself bleeding and just gapes at Shiyi Lang, who is kind of speechless. Adorably speechless, I might add. He wants to see her hand, but Bijun refuses and rips her hairpin out of his hand, cutting his palm as well. Good going, you jerk. By the way, Shiyi Lang's gloves must be of really bad quality if a simple hairpin could rip through them and reach his skin. That, or the hairpin has a razor edge. Hm.
Gotta give props to Bijun for not crying her head off over this wound, because I certainly would be. Although maybe not, if Shiyi Lang were holding my wrist like that.
Shiyi Lang makes a very unfunny joke about how they now have the same palm crease and then shakes some medicine onto her hand, wrapping her hand with some red cloth that he rips from her clothing. (Bijun makes a startled noise when he does this, and Shiyi Lang is like, "Ah, your clothes are torn anyway.") Then, since he can hear her two servants coming, he jumps out through the hole in the ceiling. Bijun stares at her hairpin after he leaves, admiring their mingling blood on the end of it. Wow, that sounded weird.
Back at the cave, the two old men ask Lao Taijun how she can bear to give the Ge Lu Dao to the Lian family. She explains that the Shen family no longer has the capability to protect the sword. Ever since her grandfather passed away, no one has been able to pull it out from the scabbard.
At that point, Lao Lao is causing a ruckus outside because she wants Lao Taijun to go see Bijun in her new clothes. After they leave the cave, Lao Taijun requests that the two old men bring the Ge Lu Dao to the Lian family. This would be a perfectly fine plan if the two young men disguised as rocks weren't sitting within earshot, but unfortunately for everyone else, they are. The rocks attack and eventually get broken apart, and the two men inside float up to the trees and hang there like bats. Or something. Unsurprisingly, they're here for the Ge Lu Dao.
Why does everyone in this drama have highlighted and/or dyed hair??? Well, except Bijun, I guess.
Shiyi Lang ditches Kaitai by sending the security guards after him. I absolutely love this scene because Nicky is just adorable during it, applauding and shouting out words of faux-encouragement as Kaitai fights off the guards. Anyhoo, he finds his way to where everyone is fighting for possession of the Ge Lu Dao.
Boys, you should be ashamed of treating an elderly woman like this.
One of the intruders manages to overpower Lao Taijun and forces the two old men to give the sword up. The younger intruder wants to kill Lao Taijun, but the older one reminds him that her grandson-in-law will be Lian Chengbi, who isn't someone you want as an enemy. I guess it's okay to steal a sword from him, though.
After hitting Lao Taijun's acupoint, the intruders hightail it out of there, but not for long because they both start to suffer from the poison that one of the old men planted on them. The old men gloat over their victory, but then a young girl (whom the old men -- and everyone else -- apparently mistake for a young gentleman) comes up and screams that they've killed the two intruders (who by now are lying on the ground, motionless). She tricks the two old men and gets the antidote for her two "brothers."
If the two brothers are Jesse and James, then this is Meowth.
The two young men wake up and groan upon realizing that they've been rescued by their partner-in-crime. She tells them that they now owe her a life debt. Pretty sure this is played for laughs, but you can already tell that they're not happy working together and that each group is always trying to one-up the other. The villains are actually fleshed out quite well, so we'll see more of this later.
Not only is their day job terrible, they also have to deal with an annoying co-worker.
While she's occupied with that, Shiyi Lang uses a stone to strike her acupoint and then literally twirls in and takes the Ge Lu Dao. Easiest bounty ever, especially since everyone else did all the work.
SYL: You've been working so hard -- you ought to take a little break.
Shiyi Lang runs off, and the two brothers run after him. Beforehand, however, they release their partner-in-crime, essentially repaying their life debt. lol. Instead of following them and Shiyi Lang, she jumps back into the Shen house, where she bumps into Bijun, pretends to be a scared little boy, and then abducts her. Kidnapping #1.
Shiyi Lang finally manages to shake off Kaitai and arrives back at Siniang's log cabin, where he sees Bijun being taken away by her abductor. He rescues her, rather easily, and they do one of those catch-twirl things again. I'm not sure how many more of those I can stand. Anyway, he pulls off a beautiful jump inside kick to secure his victory and rides away with Bijun. (I wish I had a gif of that kick. It's beautiful.) That must've been one of the shortest kidnapping attempts I've ever seen.
Bijun is happy to see him, and Shiyi Lang...well, just look at him. I don't think we see him smile like this ever again.
The two talk, and Shiyi Lang realizes that she, the lady he's developing a crush on, is Shen Bijun, who's supposed to get married in a few days. If you're smart, you'll see a plot point developing here. He brings her to his house, which is located near a creek and small lake so Nicky Wu can show off his swimming skills. He doesn't do so yet, however, although Bijun does show that she needs help climbing stairs. The episode ends as Shiyi Lang tells her that the Ge Lu Dao is with him and that he'll give it back.
- This drama, for some reason, has two ending themes. When I watched it on TV, it was another song by Nicky Wu, called Hidden Pain (隱痛), which, while not as good as the opening theme, is still a likable, catchy, and upbeat song. The ending theme that came with my VCDs, however, is another song, sung by Athena Chu (who acts out Shen Bijun). I don't like it very much, so I'm not going to bother linking to it. I'll never understand why they changed songs because Athena doesn't even sing that well.
- If you haven't already noticed, I absolutely adore Nicky Wu's performance in this drama, which is why I constantly rave about him. It helps that I also really like Shiyi Lang as a character -- he easily tops my favorite non-modern drama boyfriends list.
- On the other hand, I have a strong dislike for Shen Bijun. She's tolerable in this episode, but she gets irritating later on, and you'll probably often hear me say she doesn't deserve Shiyi Lang. Athena Chu portrays her well enough, however, although it sometimes annoys me that her voice was dubbed because I hate it when mouth movements don't match up, but oh well.
- The only reason there are gifs in this post is because some nice person posted them on Baidu. The videos I have aren't of high enough quality to produce such nice animations, so don't expect any for future recaps. :|