miscellany

1/17 dream: i was reading a mutual's tumblr post, it was a story about how on a summer day two years ago they made plans to walk to washington square park to read a book, but on the way they ran into the filming of an episode of paonan and wang leehom was there. then my dream switched to wang leehom's perspective and he just so happened to walk by the home of a childhood friend, then wang leehom turned into a child again and decided to take a nap on the bed on the floor of the friend's house. when he woke up the friend's grandpa asked wang leehom if he wanted some tofu to eat and wang leehom said "no" and then contemplated how he'd remember this moment for the rest of his life and that he needed to make a wise decision. i woke up before he made up his mind! also i barely know who wang leehom even is

other things i found out recently:

• there is a happy together themed cafe in seoul where they play the film on loop all day and decorated the interior with posters of leslie and tony, and i am going to make the pilgrimage there one day
• leslie was the most popular hk idol in south korea in the 1990s
• someone who works for SM (maybe a music video director? not sure) said that kyungsoo from exo reminded them of leslie but.. frankly i don't see it at all except for their small stature and maybe their eyebrows lol

yesterday i also watched lan yu (2001), dir. stanley kwan.. (spoilers ahead)

it was more of a sketch/collection of vignette-style scenes than a typical narrative, and there was a theatrical air to the whole film that sat a bit strangely with the otherwise realist nature of the setting and story.. i think what the film was lacking was interiority, which is also something i felt with rouge. i wanted the characters' motivations to be explored in greater depth.. i wanted to see hu jun cry for a little longer after he finally admits to lan yu that he loves him.. wanted the scene to linger a bit longer on lan yu when he leaves for the final time.. and why did lan yu have to die? it wasn't very .. deserved or emotionally justified(?) by the plot, which didn't even feel that tragic, and they were learning to love each other so why did it have to end so cruelly.. anyways aside from that hu jun's whole beijing rer (人儿) (idk i made up that phonetic translation just now) thing reminds me so so much of my uncle, and also of "home"! i really love hearing strong beijinghua. also liu ye (god i suddenly remembered that there was full frontal nudity in this film that i really wasn't prepared for. now i forgot what i was going to say about liu ye)  

and one last thing:

the thing he does with his voice in the verses.. what is that.. is that normal i have never heard anyone sing like that before but maybe i just dont listen to deeper vocals that often.. either way i've come to the conclusion that leslie was really a wonderful singer and i still can't believe he was so good at both acting and music, like when will anyone top that (no one will, ever).. also i already wear turtlenecks every day because i'm like that but this MV made me really wanna dedicate myself to looking good in turtlenecks.. also if this MV featured anyone but leslie i'd think it was super corny. anyways i really like this song!! maybe my 3rd fav leslie song rn after 风继续吹 (im still drowning in emotions over his 1997 new year's live performance of this song) and bygone love/the farewell my concubine theme, which i love bc every time i listen to it i think of leslie as cantopop idol singing to leslie as cheng dieyi and then i feel too much all over again..