#qingya

tl;dr background: Yumemakura Baku is a Japanese writer who's written a billion historical fantasy stories about an enigmatic wizard-priest named Abe no Seimei who may or may not be half fox-spirit and a cornfed terribly earnest young nobleman named Minamoto no Hiromasa, who are both real people but were never particularly connected (let alone shipped lmao) until Yumemakura's books. Among the MANY adaptations of his work are the Japanese films Onmyouji 1 (2001) and 2 (2003), and the Chinese film The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity/Qingyaji (2020).

tl;dr point of the rambling: Watch both the Chinese movie and the Japanese media, and also read the stories, but proceed as though the Chinese movie and the Japanese source material are unrelated.

I have now watched YYM:DOE/Qingyaji like 3 times and I absolutely imprinted on Boya and Qingming. I <3 them. They are S-tier blorbos for me. And I love the aesthetic, and let's face it, I understand archaic Chinese language much better than I understand formal or archaic Japanese. (Which isn't to say well, but whatever.)

But also I finally watched Onmyoji 1 and 2, and the Netflix Onmyoji anime, and read all the existing English translations of the original stories that I could find, and I cannot imagine going from the OG stories to YYM: DOE/Qingyaji and not being disappointed by it. They're just two entirely different things and if you're only familiar with one you're better off thinking of the other as only a distant cousin (or I guess you could call the Japanese stories an ancestor rather than a cousin).

OG Onmyoji is so embedded in the Heian era, or vice versa, that just taking it out of the setting would have resulted in an entirely different story. That's even if they hadn't essentially replaced the character originally known as Hiromasa with an entirely different person, Boya, who just happens to share the characters of his name with OG Hiromasa. (Qingming is different from Seimei as well, just not to the same extent.)

Anyway, I feel bad for all the OG Onmyoji fans who wound up (reasonably!) disliking a movie that they might have enjoyed on its own merits if not for (reasonable!) expectations.

Although tbf it's also pretty jarring if you've imprinted on hypercompetent if emotionally unbalanced warrior-mage Boya and then you meet earnest and naive himbo nobleman Hiromasa 😅 As it turns out, I was also pretty attached to the more equal-feeling relationship between Qingming and Boya, so that jarred me too. Though it's not like I don't see the appeal of the larger chasm between Seimei and Hiromasa! (Admittedly, I kind of got a preview of himbo-Hiromasa by watching the other Chinese YYM movie, the one directed by Li Weiran. That one is pretty skippable and is really neither fish nor fowl.)

Anyway, YYM:DOE/Qingyaji fans should also be forewarned, and also know in advance that the anime is pretty shounen and IMO not one of the more beautiful 2020s anime I've seen (it really feels like something from the 90s-2000s to me). But it did pick up partway through and I enjoyed it overall. For that matter, you should also know that the special effects in the Onmyoji movies have aged very poorly, though the casting of Seimei is incredible and you can't go wrong with Umebayashi Shigeru music (yes yes the guy Wong Kar-Wai is so fond of).

My personal recommended order for the least disorientation would be:

Watch YYM: DOE

Read the fan translations of the Yumemakura Baku stories (they've never been licensed)

Watch Onmyoji 1 and 2

Then, if you're committed at this point, watch the anime and various other adaptations. Don't even ask me about the games or the drama, I practically just got here.

And of course read some fanfic! There are some excellent fics out there! I'll post some recs for both the Chinese movie and the Japanese media in a separate post because whew this has gotten WILDLY out of hand.

~*~Boya Can't Look Away From That Fox-Like Smile ~*~

I recently watched Yin Tang Masters: Dream of Eternity and got a bit obsessed with learning to draw these two - it's always fun to trying and put a real person's likeness into my style and I think I succeeded here with Qingming and Boya <3

Bonus:

I recognize that sometimes we simply must cook our own food, but since I don't have time to write such a thing in full right now, here is the vaguely sketched out snack-sized version:

Modern AU

Qingming and Boya have both been hired to work on the TV show debut of an idol/pop star (aka the princess)

Qingming is her stylist

Boya is security

They arrive in Hengdian the night before and meet in a bar

There is a group of stunt performers doing enthusiastic but increasingly drunk karaoke (they appear to be working on some xianxia show, judging by the way they keep calling each other by their character names of Killing Stone, Snow Hound, Mad Painter, etc.)

Killing Stone in particular appears to have just gone through a breakup and decides to perform an overly emotional rendition of a ballad

Boya makes a pained face, Qingming tells him to be more sympathetic, Boya insists if he was truly heartbroken he could at least get the words right

Qingming challenges him to do better

Boya does

Qingming has to, you know, reward him

The next day...

Boya wakes up alone, which he is not annoyed about, tyvm, much less awkward, he can go about his morning routine in peace, etc.

He arrives at the studio and starts getting shown around by the princess-actress's manager and introduced to all the people who will be on her regular team this time...

...including her new stylist, Qingming

Well, now it's awkward

As yet undetermined plot would have to happen from here, but it would definitely have to include:

Qingming in work mode, being extremely flirty with everyone (because he thrives on industry gossip)

I call this: Boyfriends have an emotional goodbye and forget one of them can teleport

(I’ve been thinking about yym lately and suddenly couldn’t remember if I ever posted this on here? So here it is! I did it the night after I watched this movie for the first time and this scene was just so funny to me, they’re so dramatic and for what? xD I love them)

bonus: