NIRVANA IN FIRE: Episode 1

[adisgracetothescholars]

Introduction
moggiesandtea: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

kitsunec4: We’re back, kids.

hollyberries: You mean - we played ourselves.

lazulisong: I think you guys should know this was the first live action Asian series I'd watched since I was still watching Super Sentai and let me tell you I had no idea what the fuck was happening to me.

moggiesandtea: Regular readers may remember that we were all “oh no, we can’t do episode commentaries of Nirvana in Fire right now, we need to emotionally prepare to make that commitment,” like, a week ago.

arrghigiveup: And then our favourite plague vector, rageprufrock, started a rewatch, live-messaged it, and ended up bringing the whole lot of us down with her. Again.

tammaiya: I did point out the fact that alternating NIF and Guardian recaps was liable to give us emotional whiplash, and also take two years of our lives, and yet— here we are. No one could ever accuse us of making good life choices.

rageprufrock: I’M LIKE A SHARK. IF I STOP I DIE.

tactless_yet_lovable: This drama gave me a horribly skewed impression of how good cdramas were. It turns out you can’t start with the Best Cdrama Of All Time and then watch the Second Best because it’s like comparing pearls and fish eyes (thanks, hollyberries, for the best comparison ever).

hollyberries: It’s a Chinese saying, which I felt was apropos.

Plot
A few notes: In classical Chinese narrative tradition, there are so many characters in Nirvana in Fire. To help this along -- all new characters will be bold at their first appearance in the narrative.

moggiesandtea: We open with a battle that’s more like a slaughter. Bodies and flame are spilled across a snowy cliff, and we see an older man clutching at the hand of a younger one, telling him to just live -- both their faces streaked in ash and gore.

rageprufrock: The CGI here is...not great, and some of the qing gong (aka: wuxia flying) is a stretch in this episode, but it’s not indicative of the quality and style of the rest of the series, which is much less dependent on these tricks afterward.

moggiesandtea: The man falls, and the person having this particular dream/flashback wakes up in their room.

rageprufrock: It’s a staggeringly beautiful shot of his profile against the gray, mist-filled square of a window, looking out into the vast infinite of Chinese mountain landscapes -- where their peaks are so old they’re rounded from precipitation and lush green climbs all over. It’s a gorgeous cinematographic decision, and a statement of distinction for this series. It’s one of the first things about this show that got its hook in me, and reeled me in.



moggiesandtea: We then cut to a messenger pigeon flying over a very gorgeously green landscape until it arrives at Langya Hall.

lunatique: Don’t be fooled by the level of bad CGI here. It’s thankfully the worst of it, all in the first 5 minutes.

rageprufrock: I am obsessed with this part because the pigeon that flies into Langya Hall plops down into some sort of...bird...landing area (FUCK OFF I HATE BIRDS) and some charming boys in plain but very nice matching clothes pluck off the messages the pigeons are carrying, and enter them into a vast, wooden, mechanized system that bottoms out into a seemingly infinite library of cubbyholes. This is 100 percent fake but I love it so much I’m treating it as the object of all my narrative desires and I’m going to make it real like an ancient Chinese library Tulpa.

arrghigiveup: Same. Very much same. I’d take the birds too.

moggiesandtea: We meet Young Master Lin Chen as he muses over the report of some sort of political shenanigans that have just taken place in Northern Yan.

tammaiya: I’m not gonna lie, I spent most of the first episode confused because I thought Lin Chen and the guy having the nightmare were the same person. Pro tip: they’re not. I realised this when they existed in the same scene, though I still had trouble telling them apart at first. They have a very similar aesthetic in this episode, which doesn’t help. To anyone having the same issue as me, don’t worry, it’ll get better.

rageprufrock: A note to readers/viewers as we get ready to really kick off here: Nirvana in Fire is among the most densely plotted and vastly complicated dramas I’ve ever watched. Trying to follow it even as a native Chinese speaker runs from requiring attention to requiring notes, so let’s all strap in and get fucked up on some ancient China, bitches.

hollyberries: I will say that I enjoy this drama’s willingness to just pitch the audience into the deep end and trust that they can follow all the clues and breadcrumbs dropped? It’s so rare to have a drama be this intellectually challenging and tightly woven amidst the blighted landscape of Chinese TV, and especially one that has faith in its viewers’ intelligence.

moggiesandtea: We cut to Prince Yu, the fifth prince of Liang, meeting with one of his subordinates at a courier station.

kitsunec4: Prince Yu, who is absolutely one of my favorite and complicated antagonists. He gets such a great storyline, truly a layered character. The best part is that he’s a smart antagonist.

moggiesandtea: We cut from that to the Liang capital, Jinling, where the Emperor has received word Prince Yu has wrapped up his regional inspection. Prince Yu’s adopted mother, the Empress, and Imperial Consort Yue, mother to the current Crown Prince, are being subtly extra catty to one another. The Emperor makes plans to promote Prince Yu on his return.

We cut to the Crown Prince, who takes the news of this promotion of Prince Yu as a personal insult and moves up the whole plotting against Prince Yu thing.

We go back to Prince Yu and his subordinate, discussing the news from Northern Yan of the Sixth Prince becoming Crown Prince with the aid of “the Divine Talent.” Apparently, Sixth Prince was directed to this divine talent by Langya Hall. Oh, and we wrap things up with an assassination attempt on Prince Yu by one of the Crown Prince’s minions.

rageprufrock: Or as some of my non-wuxia drama watching friends observed, “Oh fuck, they straight stabbed someone in the fucking neck.” Yeah. They did.

hollyberries: It ain’t wuxia if someone isn’t being stabbed and vomiting blood. Also, wire-fu.

moggiesandtea: After this assassination attempt, Prince Yu decides he must go to Langya Hall and get advice of his own. The Crown Prince’s men are not far behind them, also seeking advice for the Crown Prince. Lin Chen directs his subordinate to give both parties the pouches he had prepared.

arrghigiveup: This visit by the princes happened to interrupt Lin Chen’s sword practice (which I am unashamed to say, I replayed multiple times out of a sense of childhood nostalgia for how Chinese movie/drama makers portray martial arts and qing gong. There just isn’t enough flying about with a sword in Western media). Which started me thinking about Lin Chen’s character. I feel like they’re playing with the trope of the wise old mysterious Jianghu elder who lives on a mountain and Knows Stuff. Except Lin Chen’s pretty young, and as we will find out later, also a hilarious troll. I love him.

rageprufrock: I am very into this part as well, arrghigiveup.

tactless_yet_lovable: See, I almost gave up on Nirvana in Fire at this point, between the bad CGI battle and the random flying sword man. It was a “two strikes, you better fucking WOW me the rest of the episode” moment.

rageprufrock: I know what you mean. I actually tried...twice? To get into this series before I succeeded in getting past this first episode. And even then getting to episode four (insert Kill Bill sirens here) was a process the first time.

hollyberries: As you all know, I was committed from day one because Hu Ge. (He has been in some absolute stinkers in the past, but bless this particular role choice.)

kitsunec4: The density of the intro is a lot to get into, and I definitely paused the screen more than once to Pleco search titles like a nerd and remember who is probably related to whom.

arrghigiveup: Yeah I think I only got past these beginning episodes because I came to them with a great deal of knowledge via fandom osmosis, so I was more able to just enjoy the pretty. Even then I had to put it down shortly after because life got crazy and this is not one of those dramas that you can just leave playing in the background. You’ve actually got to pay attention if you want to have any hope of following.

tammaiya: I watched the whole thing in one go— actually I watched it all in about a week, while I was on leave— but it probably helped that I’d been dragged into watching it by multiple people yelling on Twitter about it, so I knew it was worth sticking it out. I was still pretty confused for the first three episodes, but once it starts picking up steam, it just keeps getting better and better. I couldn’t put it down.

moggiesandtea: Prince Yu returns to Jinling and opens the pouch in the company of his strategist, Lady Qin Banruo. In his quarters, the Crown Prince also opens his pouch. In very lovely clerical script is the same basic message: you want to get this Divine Talent on your side.

arrghigiveup: It’s here that Qin Banruo tells us that this Divine Talent, Mei Changsu, is the first name on the Langya list of gifted scholars, and also--despite not practicing martial arts himself--the leader of the Jiangzuo Alliance, a pugilist sect. I kinda really want to know the story behind just how Mei Changsu ended up founding/taking over a pugilist sect. I imagine it must have involved several wild Shenanigans.

rageprufrock: Imagine me whispering, “butt stuff.”

arrghigiveup: You know, it’s only on rewatch that I realise: did Mei Changsu essentially engineer an entire political coup in another state/kingdom for the express purpose of getting the Da Liang princes to sit up and take notice and try and court him? Because that is very impressive levels of Extra, y’all.

tactless_yet_lovable: The Mei Changsu brand.

moggiesandtea: We cut to a small boat on the Yangtze being chased by several much larger boats full of armed men. The passengers on the small boat--an elderly couple and young man with a sword--look like they’re going to be caught, when out of nowhere comes this tiny, single person boat, with no clear means of propulsion. There is a lone man standing on this boat, playing a flute.

This is how we meet Mei Changsu and Fei Liu, who flies in and basically drops a fur coat on Mei Changsu’s shoulders.




moggiesandtea: The ensuing encounter does not go well for the armed men on the large boats.

arrghigiveup: Can we just talk about how Extra this entrance is? Seriously, how did that boat even work? No clear means of propulsion could’ve just been water currents, but then how does it just stop there, swing around so it faces the ships for the duration of the encounter, and then just swing back round and start moving again once they decided they were done? What kind of hilariously elaborate rigging did he run underwater JUST for this purpose of making Dramatic Entrances™? Is there some poor minion paddling frantically underwater and turning blue from the cold and lack of breath?

I also love how beautifully snide Mei Changsu is. “It’s been so long, yet I’ve never heard such foolish words before,” he says, gently chiding, as a dude literally drowns in the freezing waters of the river in front of him.

hollyberries: If qing gong means you can fly, it probably means you can make your adorable 14 year old human puppy steer your boat of drama and fur cloaks? I mean, alternatively, poor Li Gang and Zhen Ping are down there in a submersible paddle boat. The world is MCS’s oyster, literally.

tactless_yet_lovable: This Extra AF scene saved the entire show for me, after my CGI concerns. The sheer Aesthetic of it. Mei Changsu with his flute, his fluffy ass cloak, and his magic Phantom of the Opera drama boat.

lunatique: I suppose it establishes the very ethereal feeling of the Jianghu, but yes, definitely one of the more dramatic character introductions I’ve ever seen. (Also, for a frail man, MCS has amazing core strength and balance to stand on that boat like that.)

kitsunec4: And we are all about the aesthetics around here, I could go on for eons about how much we get told about the characters based on how they’re dressed. It’s so good for me.

rageprufrock: I was like -- so into it?? He seems so mean? But also so fragile? But also so mean?

tactless_yet_lovable: Some grade A bitch right there. He deserves his Daddy’s Little Bitch tiara from this alone.

hollyberries: The fun thing is, Hu Ge actually filmed another drama as a bitchy pale genius hobbled by ill health, so he’s had practice. (Sadly the only notable thing about Sound of the Desert is the five giant malamutes they brought in to represent wolves.)

moggiesandtea: Moving along, Yan Yujin and Xiao Jingrui have wandered into this story from some kinder, gentler wuxia universe. They have come to Lang Province to meet up with Mei Changsu, who has apparently written to Jingrui about an old illness flaring up. Jingrui has invited Mei Changsu to stay with him in Jinling and recuperate in a better climate. Lin Chen is also visiting Mei Changsu in his role as doctor and scold; Mei Changsu has something he needs to do, and he needs two years to do it in. Lin Chen is not optimistic.

arrghigiveup: Wait, there’s such a thing as a “kinder, gentler wuxia universe”? I thought they all involved copious amounts of suffering and grief at some point. But yes, Yan Yujin and Xiao Jingrui are like excited, innocent, gentle-hearted puppies. For now.

tactless_yet_lovable: So ominous.

kitsunec4: Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that, Jingrui could have been the protagonist of another novel in which things work out better for him. My sweet adorable wuxia prince. (By the way his actor is like, eternal).

(hollyberries: His actor is two years older than the actress who plays his mother?!!)

arrghigiveup: I also love the scene with Lin Chen just for Mei Changsu’s super sulky “could you not make that face every time you’re done taking my pulse?”, which, lol.

moggiesandtea: Jingrui, Yujin, and Mei Changsu are almost to the walls of Jinling, Jingrui and Yujin riding horses, Mei Changsu in a carriage, when Grand Duchess Mu Nihuang rides up and proceeds to beat up Jingrui and Yujin (in an affectionate way).

lunatique: Go ahead and take a moment to develop a world-ending crush on Grand Duchess Mu Nihuang. Go on.

Nirvana in Fire is most of the time a Serious Show with Very Intense Emotions, but I think it’s these light-hearted moments between characters that makes everyone’s relationships so relatable and believable.

kitsunec4: Nihuang is the best and scariest jiejie, beating up on young upstarts because they deserve it tbh. It’s character-building.

moggiesandtea: We later learn that she’s been called back to the capital because the Emperor wants to get her married off now that her brother’s of age. Mei Changsu hides behind the drapes of his carriage and has a feeling.

Speaking of feelings, Mei Changsu is introduced to Jingrui’s dad, Xie Yu, the Marquis of Ning, and if looks could kill, hooboy.



Also, Mei Changsu insists on being introduced as Su Zhe, since he wants to recuperate incognito.

rageprufrock: Also because he wants to be a fucking pain in our recapping asses.

arrghigiveup: Not to mention those of the AO3 tag wranglers. His character tag is fucking hilarious.

tactless_yet_lovable: Unnecessarily Extra Alias Count: 2

hollyberries: /puts on nerd hat/ so his two aliases are both EXTRA AF, LEMME TELL YOU WHY.

tactless_yet_lovable: REGALE US, NERD <3

hollyberries: Let’s start with Su Zhe because that’s the less complicated one. So in the Song dynasty there was a super genius minister who could do everything - astronomy, gastronomy, literature, poetry, governance. Basically he was the Swiss army knife of scholars. His name was Su Shi, or more commonly known as Su Dongpo (of braised pork belly fame; look, I said he was a gastronomist). His father and brother were also accomplished scholars of considerable acclaim, and his brother is actually named Su Zhe - different zhe character but the sound is the same. Now, Su Zhe was a political essayist from Meishan. Are the puns making you dizzy yet?

tactless_yet_lovable: Yes, but I also want to interrupt with “He should be Su Dongpo because the boy is a Snack”.

hollyberries: Lol. MCS’s genius is definitely meant to be underlined by his use of Su as his pseudonym, though at the time of this drama, Su Dongpo had not yet been born. But for audiences, the reference is clear.

tactless_yet_lovable: … Sure, instantly got that reference.

kitsunec4: Yeah like, maybe Holly did. Me, not so much lol

hollyberries: Sorry, for Chinese audiences at home? Also I’m going to hold off explaining the significance of Mei Changsu as a name until we have a bit more information, don’t worry, it’s coming guys. For now, please accept this alias as the reason why I lifted my head and screamed WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU LIKE THIS at my ceiling.

arrghigiveup: Yeah, that one flew right over my head, but I am honestly a disgrace to my ancestors and the only poem I know is that one Li Bai one about the moon. I do know Su Shi’s name, but did not know the bit about his brother, so this is really cool!

moggiesandtea: The final scenes of the episode involve the Emperor and Nihuang negotiating how her husband-to-be will be selected, Xia Dong of the Intelligence Bureau arriving and being tasked with investigating a complaint made against the Duke of Qing by the old couple we earlier saw huddled in a boat, and Nihuang and Xia Dong walking out together. We learn Nihuang used to be engaged to a man named Lin Shu, and Xia Dong’s husband died with the Chiyan army when its commander in chief, Lin Shu’s father Lin Xie killed him.

rageprufrock: Jesus fucking wept.

moggiesandtea: deep breath Yeah. A lot happens.

arrghigiveup: And yet, we still haven’t even caught a glimpse of the other main character of the show yet!

tactless_yet_lovable: Heavy breathing intensifies at the reminder

Character Beats
kitsunec4: For being a very dense character intro and exposition dump, the show actually does give you a lot of context about the characters and who they are very quickly.

For those who are either a little faceblind, or overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters, focusing on the costuming and hair decorations is always a good way to go as they indicate a great deal about the rank, wealth, and tastes of the character in question.

From the get-go, we first see Lin Chen and immediately get whacked over the head with the jianghu, devil may care, attitude from him and in his outfits with sweeping fabrics and loose hair (that hussy).

hollyberries: Loose hair is a legit life choice, kitsunec4.

kitsunec4: Sure, for delinquents in the jianghu like Lin Chen.

But then let’s say, look at how Prince Yu is dressed, very formal, very rich. Actually a bit more gold and red than entirely appropriate seeing how that should be the colors for a Crown Prince...conveniently enough, pointing us at Yu’s ambitions. Okay, he’s also not very subtle about it, leave me alone.

Let me sit here, seething with longing to swan around in layers of beautiful hanfu.

hollyberries: I mean when MCS shows up to dramatically bitch at the giant angry boat full of armed militia dudes, his hair is half down as well? It’s just that he’s also wearing a jade hairpiece, which elevates his hairstyle choice a little.

arrghigiveup: Lol but that just proves the idea because at that point, he’s mostly being a jianghu delinquent too. He only puts up his hair when he actually has to go live with respectable company.

hollyberries: Since we’re on the topic of gorgeous hanfu -- I love that MCS, despite being as rich as a prince, goes around in humbler fabrics in colour and in the gloss of their weave (cotton was available in China since as early as the Han dynasty, so it’s entirely possible his robes were cotton as silks were restricted to those of higher status). The lovingly detailed embroidery, however, tell us that he’s well-off, just not noble.

kitsunec4: That choice is also arguably a humblebrag. Look at my tasteful wealth and refined bearing. I could throttle him, I love him. He’s the best worst. This is gonna be a recurring theme about Mei Changsu.

rageprufrock: I was about to say, the deliberate reserve and plainness is as much as aesthetic choice as anything else. Honestly, second whoever said above that the costuming in this show deserves its own thesis-length digression. Every choice is specific and meaningful, from Mei Changsu’s staggeringly expensive and nearly translucent jade headpiece to his pale but richly textured clothes to -- eventually -- the relative plainness of his private quarters, but piled high with books. It also can’t be understated how deliberate and significant it is that our first flash of Mei Changsu is intended to feel disorienting and a step to the left of reality. Is he real? Is he a spirit? He’s 90% legend and 10% material. The whole thing is great. I fucking love it.

hollyberries: His gentle, almost ethereal paleness plus his first appearance in the fog and mist reminds me a little of the fox demons in Liaozhai Zhiyi (Note from moggiesandtea: Frequently translated in English as Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, for those of us not up on the Classics). Also kudos to the production for making 6ft-tall, likes-to-work-out cat papa Hu Ge look like a waif wasting away from tuberculosis.

lunatique: If at his point, like me, you are feeling overwhelmed at the amount of symbolism and cultural subtext you have missed, don’t worry about it and stick it out. (I was basically faceblind and dumb to 70% of what was happening on my first watch, and still it was the best thing I’d seen in a long time.) This is a show that holds up extremely well to rewatches, and in fact, it is needed in order to make all the connections you’ve missed before and truly appreciate the amount of detail that went into this show.

Production Choices
moggiesandtea: I really liked the floating red seals during the opening, it gave it a very nice ink painting aesthetic. And then there is my running tally of how many goddamn taotie are being used as set decoration and costume ornamentation throughout.



arrghigiveup: Seriously, this show is so pretty. SO PRETTY. The scenery is pretty, the outfits are gorgeous, and I have a crush on Mu Nihuang.

Separately, while Nirvana in Fire is not technically a wuxia drama, it’s got a fair number of fight scenes, and I’d just like to state again how much I unironically love the way it seems to be an accepted, established Fact in Chinese historical movies/dramas that kungfu allowed you to fly. This gave me very strange ideas as a child, let me tell you. I genuinely wanted to grow up to be Xiaolongnu from Return of the Condor Heroes, and seeing Fei Liu fly around like a--to quote hollyberries--“salty angry bird” thrills my inner 8-year-old.

hollyberries: Salty angry bird only takes sweet melons and headpats from his beloved Su-gege, accept no substitutes.

tactless_yet_lovable: I accepted the flying because I’d seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon when I was younger, so it wasn’t too jarring. In moderation. Fei Liu flying around, I accepted. Lin Chen was on thin fucking ice after that nonsense.

hollyberries: The level of worldbuilding and plotting this show was built on drew me in and immediately set me to figuring out family trees (EVERYTHING IS COUSINS) and researching the Northern and Southern Dynasties. I love how immersive the show gets at the outset and will roll around in the detailed planning until the cows come home. A small note: rumour has it that the original novel was first posted in draft form on a BL novel forum, which I wholeheartedly believe, and you will see what I mean as the show rolls on.

ohbthr: EVERYONE should have a crush on Mu Nihuang. I would ride into battle and die painfully for Mu Nihuang.

rageprufrock: The production design of this show -- before anything else -- was actually what got me to watch. I was wandering around my tumblr dashboard, which is comprised of 50% pictures of dogs, 45% smut of some kind and 5% aesthetic, photography and Asian historical fashion (don’t ask), and someone began posting pictures from this series during the height of its popularity. Because we live in the hellscape of the 2010s, nobody understands how to give sources or the importance of them, and for weeks, I would be plagued by these stunningly beautiful, blue-saturation images of steam rising from teacups and Chinese mountainous vistas, and have no idea where it came from: snapshots of sleeves, the folded curl of a blue-covered book. All of it was so delicious to me. Eventually I cobbled together enough information to realize that some show called Nirvana in Fire was making people insane, but having served my time in the shitty Chinese drama mines, I assumed someone had kidnapped a competent cinematographer and design team and perhaps these stills were visual cries for help within a larger, pure trash show. I have never been more pleased to be wrong.

There are a lot of beautiful production choices already to discuss at length -- see: my out-loud gasp of pleasure at the shot immediately after Mei Changsu wakes from his nightmare -- but I’ll hold fire to lose my mind once we start getting into the domestic interiors for this show. They’re so fucking telling of all the characters -- from palace to secret tunnel and all.

Final Thoughts
tactless_yet_lovable: Is this how Frodo felt setting off on the Fellowship? There is so much ahead, and a lot of it is going to hurt me in the feels.

ohbthr: I’d believe it, since I’m less than ¼ through my first watch and I’m very concerned about my mental well being.

kitsunec4: This is going to hurt so much, by which I mean, I have an ingrained response to cry at certain swells of the main theme so rewatching all of this is gonna go gr8 for me.

hollyberries: /hands you tissue/ I remember following this drama in the fever haze of post snow fight frenzy and sneaking off to the bathroom at work to check if the episodes had updated, and then scrunching myself up into archives to watch them at lunch. This show is a delight to unfold and every rewatch brings up new details I hadn’t noticed before.

tammaiya: It dragged me wholesale back into fandom, in a way I hadn’t been in YEARS. Just envision some magnificent beast rising from the depths to haul me down into Feelings hell. I did not see that coming, honestly. But it’s just SO GOOD, I recommend it to anyone who will listen without reservation.

rageprufrock: I get called out a lot for “plague vectoring” people into “terrible” “trash television,” but I think Nirvana in Fire is a different beast. I truly and genuinely love this story, and however it’s aged in terms of technical production -- it came out in 2015, and 3 years is an eon in film and technology -- the story and acting are still top shelf, surpassing all but its own sequel. I love this show. I am sincerely excited we get to share this with you. I hope you love it, too.



Join us here in two weeks for a discussion of Nirvana in Fire: Episode 2 and the ever expanding cast of characters. Also the pretty. And the goddamn taotie.

Comments

[adisgracetothescholars]

The different types of bows were tracked from historical records in the Jin dynasty, as records from the Northern and Southern Dynasties was, mixed, to say the least. Jin dynasty itself takes a lot of customs from the late Han dynasty, and that also shows in the styles of costuming they went with.