I just finished watching this, so please have some very disorganized thoughts while it's all still fresh in my mind.




Okay, to get the griping out of the way first: that Wu Xie was too old and it frequently took me out of the story. Whose idea was this? Baffling. And it wasn't just that Zhang Luyi was literally too old for the point in the timeline we were dealing with*; it also took me a long time to warm up to his acting. Also, hair and make-up did him no favors? He looked pale and stiff for the first handful of eps, and then seemed to settle into his role once he had more stuff to do. But it took a while.

(* Qin Hao was technically older than mob widow Wu Xie, wasn't he, and Zhu Yilong was definitely a bit too young. And those recent movies with the baby actors going on post-Reboot adventures only confirmed that this is Whose Tomb Is It Anyway, where everyone's ages are made up and the casting doesn't matter. I was prepared for some wonkiness! But.)

I think on some level I can rationalize that we meet him at a low point and he only comes out of his obsessive research shell once the adventure sucks him in, but Zhu Yilong did something similar in Reboot, in a really bad wig, and managed not to be entirely lifeless!

Also, one of the main points that's driven home over and over again is that Wu Xie is Just Some Guy (but also the most special little birthday boy), and why did the Zhang patriarch pick him, he's just a homely dude with a bad haircut, WHAT MAKES HIM SO SPECIAL. And the answer is, of course, he once swallowed some mummy blood that gave him superpowers he's the protagonist, so he's kind and determined and smart and loyal to a fault, which is more important than looks or whatever.

At least that's what I took away from this casting, you know, to explain it to myself. Still didn't like it very much.

The other thing is, and I know this borders on fandom heresy, is that I never warmed up to Chen Minghao's Pangzi. I thought maybe I'd like him more in TSF, but turns out I did not.

Some more negative thoughts about Reboot!Pangzi

I went into DMBJ expecting to be very into the threeway marriage/queerplatonic polycule vibes that is the Iron Triangle, but I just really could not deal with Chen Minghao's constant yelling and over-the-top facial gymnastics, and I didn't think his sleaziness was particularly funny or cute. The Piaopiao storyline was also very 😬. But really it was mostly the yelling and the hoarse shouting during the quiet moments. We all have our things, I guess! So when the yelling and the wacky ad-libs and excessive face-scrunching started again in TSF, I was like, oh no. And then just kind of stayed there.

Also, just to put this here, I was looking forward to Janice Man, and it would have been nice if she had been given a more compelling storyline, but here we are.



Man, those Zhang siblings, eh? What was that all about. I understand Zhang Haixing was a dude in the books, and I assume some other stuff was changed around, but that whole thing made so little sense? They were Zhang Qiling's friends for like five minutes, but then Zhang Haike was so easily duped into hating him and Zhang Jiuri just generally went off the rails, and Zhang Haixing kind of went with it all against her better judgement? Okay. Oddly paced redemption arcs for everyone, I guess!

I found Zhang Nian's descent into madness a bit more believable and thought he was an interesting antagonist. I also assume there was some historical context to the choices he made about his appearance, education, and family-in-law.

But also, what.

Also, the fact that we roll into episode 31 of 32 and are literally told, and I quote, "I found some more scrolls," and those scrolls have all the answers we were looking for? Just amazing. Nobody does it like NPSS. King shit, honestly.



My god, the love.

Once I was done complaining about the casting, one of my first tweets about the drama was: "There's been this tenderness to the first two episodes that I really appreciate. Obviously a lot can happen in the next 30 eps, but it sets up the whole thing as an adventure story about love, and very openly so. There's tomb critters and humor and wire work, but also. The love."

And I didn't really have to revise that assessment! Something Zhang Luyi is extremely good at is this sort of wistful tenderness Wu Xie feels for Xiaoge, and that guides almost everything he does. There were so many scenes where he just kind of sits with his own feelings for Xiaoge, the friendship and the regrets and the guilt, and it just makes him go quiet because it's so much. Xiaoge's absence haunts him.

(Also, Liu Chang sings this song during the most tender moments, so that's all a lot.)

I also enjoyed the quieter friendship moments between Pangzi and Wu Xie, where you can really tell how much they love and trust and enjoy each other, how close they are after all those adventures and near-death experiences. And also, the sense that Xiaoge is always there with them, that they leave a space for him.

A lot of the story is driven by Wu Xie's obsession with finding out more about Xiaoge's past, to atone for the sins of the Jiumen and the Zhangs and what he perceives to be his own part in Xiaoge's fate. So we get a lot of Xiaoge backstory, which! OH MY GOD. So much Xiaoge. So much Zhang Kangle being beautiful and lonely and outwardly emotionless, and keeping bunnies in his coat, and just generally being fucked over by life a lot. (I think the three days of silence were rather well done, for something as devastating as that whole premise.)

I had a few more random notes, but it's past 1am and I'm flagging, so here's my whole watch thread (accessible without a Twitter account) for more screencaps and spoilers.

I give this one 7.5 stars and I'm looking forward to more tomb nonsense from NPSS and his many, many issues. Apparently a complete redo of The Lost Tomb 2 (originally with Bai Shu) is in the works? I didn't even know you could do that. This franchise, man.