Our Shining Days - Blog Posts

weishenmewwx

3 years ago

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Last song - #357 of a 413- song Zhou Shen playlist. I’m working my way through ALL of Zhou Shen’s songs!

One of my favorite recent discoveries (I am truly grateful to all those Youtubers who put these long playlists together) is when some show had some people in costume trying to sing 芒种Mang Zhong and doing a terrible job of it -- like, it sounded like me trying to sing, and my kids won’t even let me sing them lullabies --, and then Zhou Shen struts in with an entourage, singing with confidence, power, perfect pitch, and crazy charisma. It’s worth it to hear the bad singing in the beginning just to more fully experience and understand just how different and special Zhou Shen’s singing is.

And then he sang a little bit of 左手指月(Left Hand Pointing at the Moon). Wow.

Last movie - The last movie I watched that was new to me was 刻在你心底的名字 Your Name Engraved Herein, on Netflix. It was crazy good. It was so good that I spent the next week obsessing over it and not feeling the slightest bit tired (my new measure for how strongly something affects me: if it can replace sleep, it’s Good). Some reviews mention that the movie is sad, but I watched through to the last second and actually found it quite positive. It ends with happiness and hope. That’s enough for me to look forward to a(n emotionally wrenching but ultimately sweet) re-watch.

The last movie that I actually watched was 闪光少女Our Shining Days (no longer on Netflix, but still free on Youtube!). It’s the perfect antidote to all emotionally wrenching media, while still being beautiful and subtle and, actually, kinda deep and meaningful, especially for those of us who really care about traditional Chinese arts. And it’s hilarious and the music is Awesome.

Currently reading - 镇魂 Guardian by Priest. I’m only on Chapter 4, but I’m totally enamored. I am still getting used to the new vocabulary and sentence structures of Priest (new to me) vs 墨香铜臭Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (魔道祖师 x2!), though, so it’s slow going right now.

Currently watching - ...still on Street Dance of China Season 3. Someday I’ll finish Episode 9. I really like it, honestly! I just really like to give it my full attention, read all the cute little pop-up comments, and, well, I haven’t figured out yet just when I’m (stealing my kids’ ipad and) doing that.

Currently craving - Anything Asian. Please!

Tagging: @herr-zhou, @coffintownkids, @bimingjue

18 notes

Our Shining Days - Review

This review is for the movie from 2017, not the TV series from 2019. I really enjoyed this. It’s silly (very silly), but it’s fun. If you’re a trained musician maybe close your eyes during those parts but I assume you do that anyway (other than for the guzheng player anyway, since the word is she can actually play). Pros:

Funny! It was properly funny for me

Largely focused on the musical angst rather than romantic angst

GREAT music

Generally enjoyable leads

Cons:

I mean, it is silly, so if you don’t like silly then that’s a con for you

Bad miming of the western classical music esp, if that bothers you (I tend to space out and just listen)

Female lead’s hair slightly bothered me most of the movie (but they didn’t give her a makeover, which I appreciate)

A little over the top in the school western vs Chinese instrument hierarchy, but that IS the point of the movie (the folk music department is literally behind a gate, which I found hilarious).

This was mainly on my watch list, because I figured the music would be good (I love a traditional instrument), and it turned out to be really enjoyable over all. Just a quick, fun watch. Most of the cons aren’t things that bothered me much, but I try to think about what might bother other people.

I just noticed there’s a flute/recorder part in that video and none of them play that… Luckily that stuff doesn’t really bother me if I’m enjoying the media.