Ok last Pursuit of Jade thoughts for the night because unfortunately life but I want to praise director Zeng Qingjie and scriptwriter Zou Yue's ability to traumatize us WHILE ALSO offering pointed commentary on the corrosive nature of unfettered elite power. During Episodes 18-19, one of the ways they do this is by juxtaposing Qi Min and Yuan Qing's perverse notion of family with Fan Changyu's.
Something that this drama has done particularly well for a romance-focused story is portray the devastation war between elite factions has on common folks. It’s reflected in the food scarcity, local political corruption, pillaging, violence, etc. that Fan Changyu’s village and other similarly located ones face at the drop of a hat.
But despite this struggle, these people still find ways to support each other.
This is why those pillaging scenes hurt so much. In their final moments, many of these characters let go of old grudges and sacrificed themselves for others to have a chance at survival. Granny Kang, what an arc.
And we doubly feel the weight of each death because when Changyu discovers what happened, the camera does this absolutely gorgeous tracking shot (no seriously thank you for the cinema, Director Zeng) that slowly follows her as she sees each body and mourns them, giving us the audience time to grieve these lovely side characters alongside her.
But what is particularly poignant in this scene is that although it starts with Changyu isolated thinking she is the only one who made it as she observes the carnage around her, the scene ends with the remaining survivors greeting her, the warm village glow surrounding their group not yet extinguished.
They will rebuild their community in spite of it all.
(Side Note: For whatever reason, that beautiful scene where Changyu tiredly digs each person a grave reminded me a bit of Akira Kurosawa's famous grave scene in Seven Samurai. Actually, now that I think about it, several shots Zeng has used to film Changyu's village resemble shots from that movie...I wonder if those are meant to be referential given the similar setup of villagers learning to protect themselves from exploitation…hmm something to analyze another day perhaps.)
Now contrast all of that with these evil mother fuckers and their concept of family:
Or even the sarcastic, subtext laden interactions of these two who were raised and trained together under Hot Uncle:
The difference in how these elite characters communicate, ally amongst themselves, and betray each other is stark.
Qi Min hunting down Yu Qianqian, the mother of his child, and psychologically torturing her to the point that she no longer resembles the confident woman who befriended and mentored Changyu. Yuan Qing taking up with the bandit leader's sister despite obsessing over Changyu and wanting to violently conquer her. No loyalty, respect, or mutuality here. These elites are callous and unrepentant, almost grotesque in how they flaunt their power over others--even Qi Min's maid seemed to pity Qianqian. And refreshingly the script makes no excuse for them.
These are the antagonists of this story and the juxtaposition of them with Changyu's village escalates the stakes of the story.
