A Little TLC(w): The New Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre: Season 1, Episode 27 (1986)

Not as much Tony Leung Chiu-wai in this episode, though the scenes he does have are good. Some big stuff and important revelations going on here.

While Right Emissary Fan continues his scheme to get the antidote Ming needs, Zhao Min is caught up with Zhang Wuji. Back at Miss Zhao’s HQ, the Ermei Priestess gets serious with Zhou Zhiruo, trying to give her everything she needs to know to take over the sect.

We continue Right Emissary Fan’s plot from the previous episode. In order to get the antidote to help the captured sect leaders, he prepared to deploy everything from clever trickery to blackmail (based on a hook he baited.) There’s some uncomfortable stuff here involving an important man’s “favorite concubine” being dangled at one of his subordinates as an incentive, which is gross. At one point, Fan is literally carrying the concubine in a sack and trying to avoid suspicion while doing so.

The Priestess has lost any hope that she’ll escape her imprisonment, so she sets to work gruffly preparing her successor to take control of Ermei once she’s gone. She has her own reasons for favoring Zhou Zhiruo, and she goes all in on imparting some last-minute teachings to her disciple. She severely warns Miss Zhou away from Zhang Wuji, repeatedly referring to him as “that licentious man,” which feels wildly inaccurate. The best I can tell, she’s looking at Miss Zhou and is reminded of Miss Ji, her former disciple who had a child out-of-wedlock with a Ming warrior. That ended very badly, so the priestess is desperate not to see Miss Zhou go down the same road. She also offers up some juicy info about the Heaven Sword and the Dragon Sabre.

Zhang Wuji inadvertently plays a role in keeping Zhao Min distracted from the goings-on at her headquarters, because she goes looking for him at the inn where he’s staying. She’s not the least bit slick in her interest in him, and Wuji handles the situation as delicately as he can. As I said last week, Miss Zhao’s crush on Wuji can help our heroes when she gets caught up in it, but it can also make her dangerous and unpredictable. Here, they meet up for a drink, and she casually asks him what he’ll do if she kills Zhou Zhiruo.

Obviously, she’s continuing to fish for confirmation that he likes Zhou Zhiruo more than her, but Zhang Wuji doesn’t take the bait. Instead, when Zhao Min wonders if he’d kill her in retaliation, we get a really nice moment where Wuji reflects on his life and how it’s shaped his overall philosophy. As a reminder, his parents both died by suicide when he was just a kid, after spending his childhood knowing only them and his godfather. He tells Miss Zhao about his youthful desire for someone to blame and punish.

But then he says, “Even if those people were the cause of my parents’ death, will my parents come back to life after I kill them all? I’ve been thinking about this every day. Wouldn’t it be nice if all people can stop killing other people in revenge and befriend each other?” And really, I think this is Zhang Wuji in a nutshell. He can come across as overly noble at times, but when you remember all he’s been through and the incredible loss he suffered at a very young age, all over the different sects clamoring for the Dragon Sabre, it’s easy to see why he always wants to find a kinder way to solve things.

There’s one more moment I want to highlight in this scene. Zhao Min asks him who’s prettier between her and Zhou Zhiruo, and Zhang Wuji instantly replies, “Of course you’re prettier.” And as soon as he says it, there’s a something on his face, and I can’t quite untangle what it is. Does Wuji surprise himself to realize that that’s his answer? Does he feel guilty because he knows he’s lying to placate Miss Zhao? Does he think Miss Zhao is objectively prettier but prefers Miss Zhou anyway? His expression really stands out to me here, and I’m curious to see if this is going to be teased out any further in the coming episodes.

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024, R)

*Premise spoilers—I know everything is all over the internet by now, but I’ll still avoid the major stuff in this post.*

In the run-up to this movie, I was looking forward to it but annoyed by the whole “Can Deadpool & Wolverine save the MCU?” narrative. I think that ignores excellent work that Marvel has put out in recent years, and it frames it as the MCU needing to have Straight White Guys out front in order to succeed (not that Deadpool is straight, but an irritating number of people insist on framing him that way.) But putting that baggage aside, I liked it a lot. I thought it was entertaining, the multiverse cameos were mostly well done, and it’s strongly anchored by the chemistry between Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman.

What’s It About?

Wade Wilson has hung up the guns and the katanas, and he’s trying to be content as a regular guy. But a visit from the TVA pulls him back into the superhero game. When he discovers that his universe is dying due to the loss of its “Anchor Being,” Deadpool sets out to get a replacement Variant from another universe. He snags himself a new Wolverine, but the TVA makes it clear that Variants can’t simply be swapped out for one another. He and Logan wind up stuck in the Void, with Deadpool desperate to get back and save his universe while Logan just wants to be left alone.

Who’s In It?

Any Marvel film deeply involving the multiverse is of course going to pull in some cameos. I won’t get into the specifics today, but on the whole, I thought the film struck a good balance with them. While I wouldn’t put it up there with No Way Home, the appearances here range from fun to surprising to meaningful. They pull in some I wasn’t expecting, and while I’d have liked to see a little more from the biggest characters who popped up, the movie does a decent job spreading the love.

I find Matthew Macfadyen rather fascinating as TVA Agent Paradox—his performance keeps me guessing. And I’ll admit that I haven’t seen the later seasons of The Crown or anything else that Emma Corrin has been in, so I didn’t realize they were the one playing Cassandra. However, they’re effective as the creepy, megalomaniacal mutant. Naturally, we also get some (very brief) appearances from Deadpool mainstays like Morena Baccarin, Karan Soni (Pavitr!), and Leslie Uggums.

But unsurprisingly, the headline is the interactions between Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as Deadpool and Wolverine. I know Reynolds offers up a very particular shtick, especially as Deadpool, but it largely works for me, and I thought he was a lot of fun here. And Jackman is as good as he’s ever been as Logan. The way Reynolds and Jackman play off each other is excellent from start to finish.

What Do I Love About It?

·        The opening action sequence. There are a number of good fight scenes in the film, but this one is just deliciously Deadpool! I love the outrageousness of it, how it’s paced to the soundtrack, and of course, how Deadpool takes periodic breaks from the carnage to dance it out.

·        Of the more fanservice-y parts of the film, my favorite was probably the montage where Deadpool searches for a new Wolverine. Fast and funny, with one of the film’s best fourth-wall breaks for me.

·        The relationship between Deadpool and Logan. Plenty has been said already about these two, and I’m in agreement with those who think it’s the film’s strongest asset. I really dig the love/hate thing they have going on, with the gruff/tortured Logan grumbling about being saddled with the perpetually unserious Deadpool. And both characters are able to bring out surprising things in one another, leading to a nice payoff in the third act. Whether you ship it or not, these two are great together.

·        It’s a little thing, but I love the moment where Logan asks Deadpool if he’s been tested for ADHD. Delightful!

Warnings

Copious amounts of the old ultraviolence, tons of language, sexual references, drinking/smoking/drug references, gross-out humor, disturbing images, and thematic elements.

Other Doctor Lives: Jessica Jones: Season 1, Episode 3 – “AKA It’s Called Whiskey” (2015)

*A few spoilers.*

Another stellar episode. Rewatching the first season of Daredevil, I wasn’t quite able to muster the enthusiasm I’d had the first time around, but each revisited episode of Jessica Jones just reminds me how much I loved this season.

Even as Jessica grows closer to Luke, her first priority remains defeating Kilgrave. In trying to accomplish this, she has several balls in the air. 1) Obtaining a means to stop him. 2) Finding his location. 3) Mitigating some of the damage he caused to his last victim. On the third point, Trish agrees to help out, but as her approach extends beyond Jessica’s control, Jessica worries that the maneuver will put her friend in danger.

I feel like I keep using the phrase “reel out” in these reviews, but it’s apt. With the way this arc is constructed, each episode feels like it’s letting out a little more of the fishing line. We learn a bit more and are drawn in a bit further as the picture is painted in more, always remaining on the hook. This time around, we gain an important puzzle piece from Jessica’s past experience with Kilgrave, one that helps us gain a greater understanding of how her time with him wrecked her even beyond the enormous violation of her autonomy. Jessica carries around shame and humiliation from that time, and guilt and grief, and anger (at him, but at herself too,) and even as she’s bound and determined to bring him down, he still terrifies her.

Similarly, more is filled in with relationships both new and old. It’s a strong episode for Jessica and Trish’s relationship, as Jessica discovers more of what Trish has been shaped by her own “experience” of Kilgrave through her knowledge of what happened to Jessica. The arguments between them are deeply reflective of how they still care about each other, and when they clash, it’s ultimately because each badly wants to protect the other. Jessica needs Trish’s help, even as she both hates that she needs to ask anyone for help and is worried about putting Trish in the middle of it, while Trish is determined to prove that she doesn’t need Jessica fighting her battles for her. On the Jessica/Luke front, we get some really enjoyable scenes of them getting to know one another better, but at the same time, we also see the things that are standing in the way of true closeness between them, at least on Jessica’s end.

Much of the episode continues with the same sort of teasing presence for Kilgrave that the first two have, and it’s as effective as ever. We see his effects, both the physical ways he’s bent others to his will and the lingering psychological marks he leaves on his victims, and we get menacing hints of the man himself. But this is also the first time he see him head-on, in full view, in all his brutality.

A couple things strike me here. First, while Kilgrave is undeniably, viciously malevolent, the world is probably lucky that he’s as self-centered as he is. With his powers, he could wreak untold havoc on the entire world, but he’s mostly content to use them just to satisfy his own desires, leaving discarded people in his wake as he plays with their lives. Second, there’s something about David Tennant’s appearance that’s just chameleonic. It’s not unusual for me, in praising his work or that of his fellow actors, to say I don’t see their Doctor at all in other performances of theirs, and when I say that, I typically mean that in terms of their acting. And that holds true for Tennant as well—obviously, Kilgrave is nothing like Ten or Fourteen, and Tennant does a bang-up job here. But I mean it physically too. I look at him in this role, and I can’t see his Doctors. It’s not just the different hair or clothes. I don’t know how he does it, but it’s so effective. Even as he still looks like David Tennant, he’s completely different from the most beloved roles I’ve seen him in. Kudos to Tennant for that.