Sugardy Candy

Went on to watch My Heroic Husband (trailer) while waiting for Word of Honor updates and it's... entertaining?

Ning Yi is supposedly a contemporary businessman that somehow gets hit on the head and wakes up in the body of Ning Yi, a poor scholar in Hengdian feudal China who is a 'zuixu' 赘婿, i.e. who 'marries into' the wife's family due to poverty. The set-up is undoubtedly sexist, and it's meant to be, with many digs being made at him being the son-in-law who lives with his wife's family (and similar digs made at his friends who are in the same position), and his business accumen is supposed to all the more surprising because of this. The implication being that since he's so capable, he shouldn't have had to 'lower' his position to be a 'zuixu' in the first place. Hmmm. The patriarchy is still there but we're supposed to ignore it. There's some mockery in the way that he's initially meant to be in a subservient position but later as he triumphs, he 'regains' his position. *sigh*

( More thoughts )

Speaking of male-male interactions (and btw, My Heroic Husband is a very male-intense, albeit heterosexual-only show: about 70% of the characters are male), I was still squeeing over Word of Honor and vaguely wondering how HiStory4 was going to stack up, since WoH is doing its best to show that the main leads are clearly a pair so in one way, it's as explicit as we get - in jianghu at least.

Then I caught HiStory4 trailer (beware spoilers). And I was wrong, okay? Going by the trailer, HiStory4 is loads better in acknowledging male-male attraction, being gay, stress of coming out, family tensions, society expectations, and changing relationships, romantic and friendship and familial. It's still rather idealised - it's BL after all - but at least I didn't have to keep raising my eyebrows at every instance of 'we're bros' and 'we're soulmates' and mentally do the nudge-wink 'actually this means they're into each other' interpretation for them**. But of course, HiStory4 is a Taiwanese production and they don't have to fear China's censorship***. I was just smiling dreamily while watching the trailer without even realising it. I watched it twice in a row, which I hardly ever do. OMG. I need it now like chocolate****. Of course, it's just the trailer and caution is called for. My expectations may be dashed. Drama aside, anyone remembers HiStory3: Makes Our Days Count? >__< Yeah.

( footnotes )But HiStory4!!!!!