Sudden unexpected recognition [azdak]

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It has taken a post on Tumblr to make me realise that Gu Seung-jun in Crash Landing on You is played by the same actor as King Cheoljong in Mr Queen. In my defence, he looks very different.

Gu Seung-jun

Cheoljong
(that's the titular queen behind him, being her usual ultra-feminine self)

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There are 36 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

To be fair to you, that is quite a different style! Though that rifle looks like it might fit the time period of Mr Queen.

I'm often hopeless at recognising when I've seen actors before even in UK dramas.

It says something for my recent viewing that I can now recognise way more Korean and Chinese character actors and the roles they specialise in than Hollywood ones. To the point where the current viewing feels like Midsomer Murders in terms of 'Oh, that's X! And y! And isn't that....' etc

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I realise there's a good deal of selection bias in play (that is, I'm likely to choose dramas based on writers, lead actors or directors I know, so I suppose it makes sense that they have a pool of supporting actors whom they draw on) but from the regularity with whom certain people bob up, it feels as though the pool of actors who get cast regularly is at least as small if not smaller than the corresponding British pool, and you only have to rewatch the HP movies to see how small that pool is.

Take for example Zhang Yan Yan.

She was Princess Li Yang in NiF, the covert poisoner in NiF2, the serial killer aunt in Minglan (and I really do think that there ought to be a sort of Chekov's Gun rule for murderous family relations: Madame Wang appeared briefly in Ep One as "standard older female relation stirring family drama unhelpfully" and then vanished for fifty or so episodes before reappearing as full on batshit serial killer whose husband has been covering up her murders for years) and Ming Tai's future MiL in the Disguiser.

Edited Date: 2021-04-23 07:53 am (UTC)

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The Disguiser is basically a trail run for whether the NiF cast could get along with each other, though! I even Spotted Li Gang in it. Casting Zhang Yan Yan in NiF2 was ridiculous, though - were they thinking Liyang was just an insignificant female character so no-one would notice if someone with her face cropped up in the sequel?

I also get the impression that the casting pool is small, though (and I read that some of the minor roles in Nif, including Zheng Ping, Li Gang and Xia Jiang, were played by members of the production team because they were going to be at hand for the entire 50 episodes and not disappear off to do other jobs, which also suggests that there isn't a huge pool of actors to draw on). Perhaps a lot of people who fancy their chances at fame and fortune go the influencer route rather than sweating away at the supporting actor chalkface for years?

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One of the things that amused me about The Disguiser (apart of course from the entire "Fucking Hell that man can tango" factor) was that never since the first series of Torchwood have I seen the revolver so frequently used as the workplace management tool of choice.

The really jarring casting choice for me in NiF2 was the Donghai assassin also being Xia Dong.

Edited Date: 2021-04-23 08:36 am (UTC)

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Who tangoes in The Disguiser? I might have to watch that scene.

Xia Dong annoyed me in NiF2 because she looked much more the right age to play Xia Dong than she did in NiF1.

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Ming Tai (Hu Ge). He also does some form of ballroom dance while holding an AK47 negligently above one tailored-to-swooning-point shoulder.

Edited Date: 2021-04-23 09:19 am (UTC)

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Cha-cha-cha (that looks astonishingly silly when one writes it out).

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Presumably that was what he was learning in Paris when he was failing Latin.

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To be fair, it also sounds quite silly when you say it. Or it would if I did.

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Thank you! I found that one on YouTube. I'm not sure I would have been entirely comfortable with that AK-47 as an onlookers, but if one has an AK-47, onlookers' opinions aren't a problem.

Though I can't help thinking if Chinese actors can wear beautiful suits so well, and Chinese tailors can make beautiful suits so well, why the hell do Chinese actors wear such astronomically terrible suits on formal media appearances???

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It's to show they're cool. It's like being thin in consumer capitalism - it says "I could eat all I want but I can afford to choose not to". That' my best guess anyway.

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Re. Li Gang, apparently he is the son of the actor who plays Xia Jiang!

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No!!!! My mind is officially blown!

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Yup! I think I came across it on some forum, and tis true. Oh the AU fic potential.

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Especially since Xia Jiang canonically has a missing son.

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Madame Wang appeared briefly in Ep One as "standard older female relation stirring family drama unhelpfully" and then vanished for fifty or so episodes before reappearing as full on batshit serial killer whose husband has been covering up her murders for years)

Minglan has form for this - there was also the unwanted concubine who spent years languishing in a minor courtyard before being revealed as a ninja assassin in the final ep.

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Oh, good lord, yes. Her.

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My proudest moment was when I identified the Emperor in NiF2 as Sheng Hong, Minglan's deadbeat dad, from his VOICE.

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The actor I think of as "Disillusioned Bloodhound Chap."

The person I absolutely did NOT recognise in each of her three roles was the actor who played Ae-Sin in Mr Sunshine is also one of the two leads in The Handmaiden and also Captain Jang in Spacesweepers (though, tbf, if anyone was going to have a descendant who turned into a space vigilante for greater justice, that would be Lady Ae-sin.)

Edited Date: 2021-04-23 08:36 am (UTC)

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Of the three, I've only seen Spacesweepers but Mr Sunshine is on my one-day list. I'm a bit trepidatious, though, having heard it's terribly ad.

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There are a lot of good jokes along the way, but given the time period it is obviously not going to end well.

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I don't cope well with sad. Unless it's Nif1-type sadness, in which case I revel in it.

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Fix-it fic for comic purposes aside, NiF1 had absolutely the right emotional beat - the man has a galloping case of survivor's guilt, he's been in constant horrific pain for the last 12 years; I think going out in a blaze of glory makes logical and emotional sense.

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I would have been hugely disappointed if he'd survived - it would have wiped out the whole risen-from-the-dead vengeful-ghost layer to the story, and besides the whole point of coming back is he has a very limited period of time in which to accomplish this one specific thing at great personal cost. I still enjoy a good fix-it fic, of course, but the original made the right choice.

It also makes a big difference that we know all along he's dying. Unlike certain other series I could mention which spring a sudden unexpected death on you in the final episode, Mei Changsu's death is EARNED.

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I still enjoy a good fix-it fic, of course, but the original made the right choice.

This, absolutely.

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Fourthed! I'll take any well-written fix-it fic, comic or otherwise (and I must write that chapter 2 some day), but in terms of a satisfactory narrative ending, it had to go that way.

I do get that some people don't like sad endings, but then don't watch a series in which you're told the lead is dying in episode 1 and he continues to be seriously ill while knowledgeable people comment about his illness being incurable and he's definitely dying for 50+ episodes.

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I totally failed to make the connection, even though I thought I'd got quite good at spotting actors I've seen before.

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Even when they're wearing stupendously silly hats?

Though in defence of the hats I like the way they make a virtue of necessity and shoot through them to the face of the wearer or an interlocutor, with some interesting effects.

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Also there are some periods (or maybe it's a Chinese thing) when they have simply enormous stiff bows on them and apparently this was an invention of the then monarch to stop the ministers from whispering to each other during court sessions.

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There was a line in passing in the history of China I am reading about the introduction of a minsterial dress code which persisted down the centuries, but can I find it now? I cannot. Must have been pre 220-ish BC, though, because that's as far as I have got.

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ETA: Got it. "The very symbols of governance, 'caps of office and formal dress for governors' are traced back to King Yu." Which is to say, possibly (or possibly not, they're now finding actual written evidence) legendary monarch pre 1000 BC. The silly hats have provenance.

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I am deeply impressed that the silly hats are that historical. Or possibly not.

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And, in the case of Korea, polyester robes.

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I suspect the rifle is intended to convey "pre-Korean War looted antique firearm" in that particular shot. Comrade Cousin Gu from England may be slumming it, but he has standards.

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He can count himself lucky it isn't made of wood. The Lao army has to practice with wooden guns and I bet the North Koreans do too.

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May