I am literally losing my mind over Lu and Mei, the yearning, the tenderness, the resolve, the isolation. Even tumblr buzzwords feel alive again bc their dynamic is just so good. I watched the al l the lillies compilation bc I don’t have time for the whole show LOL but the final picture…iconic…I wish I could talk about this with someone because it’s a cosmic entity I stg
I know! I just keep repeating the same words, the pining, the yearning, the selflessness, the romance, but they apply so completely to them. I mentioned before how stripped down their scenes are and how that actually highlights just them and like, remember that Renault ad that briefly went viral, with the two childhood best friends that fell in love? One of them was a redhead and it was set to a slowed down female cover of Wonderwall? This is like that, where because the flashback scenes are deliberately limited, you feel their significance all the more, like these are the moments when things Changed, when huge pivotal shifts happened.
Like, even with the huge jump between the very start of the calligraphy lessons and the night before the launch, you know they’ve passed these two YEARS without making a move or acknowledging what’s been them, just silently aware, because Mei bringing it up now is a new thing. The way she brings it up, having made the decision and picking the quote, practicing the calligraphy for it, engraving the ring and preparing that little speech, it’s so moving. And Lu, who’s usually so decisive and knows the right to do, helplessly giving in because she wants it tooooo. Not only will they be apart for three years, it’s not impossible that she’ll die up there, and she can’t help but want this to be her last night on Earth too. ;_;
And then, anon! They lie next to each other without making a move! By the time they meet again at the end of the mission, having been in love with each other for FIVE years, they STILL WON’T EVEN HAVE KISSED. That’s why I need the fic, lol, get me to that place, please. Mei so in love she’s carrying that ILY note around with her so it can be found in her desk, and for Lu to know the depths of Mei’s feelings for her at the same time she realizes Lu’s being punished because of her sentimentality in leaving that note. It’s too, too much.
Oh, and tbh, while it’s nice to see Lu through the season, you’re actually fine just watching the compilation, removing Mei cut down a lot on what could have been sprinkled throughout the rest of the scenes. 😡
You can talk about it with meeee! I can’t stop thinking about them.
boocita so i checked out Away and it was way better than the trailer!! ok yeah bit of a family melodrama but also a story of ppl coming together and accepting one another ? with Lu’s character i was eyerolling at the start bc the whole china’s honour thing always reeks of chinese market PR to me now but i loved her arc of deciding what she wants. the photo at the end was really lovely it perfectly encapsulated her growth. oh my god and the wlw pining!!! can you say slow burn? mei asking just to be beside her for a night, oh my god! exquisite
Yeah, the marketing did the show a bit of a disservice! But on the other hand, I thought the show would have a lot more of what we saw in ep 2, action thriller in space but it really pulled on that going forward. Maybe it was trying to draw in the emotional drama crowd that loves This Is Us so much or something. A lot of it was hopeful and, as you said, people coming together.
I actually was thinking something similar about Lu’s character originally except from the opposite perspective, wondering if she was going to be an American’s version of a cold, Honor Above All Chinese stereotype, but mannnn, the way they humanized her and let her grow too.
The WLW PINING WAS THE BEST. God. I really cannot praise it enough in the writing and acting. The only thing I’d change was Mei’s disappearing completely, at the LEAST show a couple of seconds of her reacting to the Mars landing in ep 10? But the two actors sold this true, abiding love story so well. So romantic and beautiful and all about the other person’s wishes. It was just the one ep (for the most part) and I’m still thinking about them.
Lu’s backstory in Away ep.3 portrayed much more accurate representation of Asian Chinese individual’s duty/responsibility towards one’s family, society, & country, than Mulan(2020) did. That Disney movie is just a lame attempt to show film+cast diversity & playing out Westerners fetish on Ancient China. I am just so mad at how they didn’t bother to put in any effort. The movie’s dialogues are just TRASH. It’s like preschool kids’ skit. Ppl are better off watching old HK movies on Netflix w subs.
Oh, that’s a great point, it’s such a relevant and recent comparison. Such an effective and moving portrayal, as bittersweet as it was, you get that it’s all wrapped up in not just, like…a burden, but an actual sense of wanting to do it. Which, obviously, there are so many nuances and layers to that and I truly do hope that once Lu gets back, she finds a balance that lets her and Mei be together (I’m gonna need all the fic here), but I get her decisions.
Although, isn’t Away also through a certain lens? Where Emma is the good guy through it all (and I mean, like, I loved her as a character, but stepping back a bit at what she represents) and you have the CNSA so hateable. I was literally telling my friend as I was watching, I’m hating this fictional Chinese woman written by Americans, not sure how to feel about that. Especially because then on the other hand, in real life, it probably WOULD be like that so it’d be a disservice to paint it too differently. I guess we landed on the best outcome being that while the homophobia in China shouldn’t be glossed over, the US’s flaws shouldn’t be either.
Full disclosure, I have not watched the new Mulan at all barring the parts with Gong Li, but I assumed she went because her father is sick? But yeah, Disney really went and didn’t hire a single Chinese writer for it. I guess that showed, from the criticism I’ve been reading.
Omg is there f/f in away?? (Spoilers pleeaase :D)
Yes! The main cast are five different astronauts, the actual lead being Hilary Swank’s American mission commander, and also men from India, Russia, and Ghana/Britain, and then a woman from China, Wang Lu. She has a husband and young son but we see in flashbacks how she met the team comms person on the ground, Chen Mei.
Mei’s in the first couple of eps as mostly a background character but ep 3 is when we really delve into her and Lu, and although she’s sent away and not in the remaining 7 eps (boooo), there’s still hope for them after this three year mission to Mars is over. It’s…really sweet and specific to these characters, who and what they are, where they’re from. I liked it.
As always, All the Lilies did the work and put together their story for anyone who just wants to watch that:
https://twitter.com/_allthelilies/status/1302607861579567104