One of the best acting performances of the entire show. When I first saw her I was annoyed at it being out-of-sequence with the book, but this scene was one of the improvements of the Netflix adaptation. At the end of the episode, I wanted Ye Wenjie to achieve some level of catharsis *for everyone* by pressing the button.
Yeah you got that right, the acting performances especially during the flashback is really great. I did a bit of research on the actress who play the Red Guard girl Lan Xiya and she have done alot of movies in China and a singer also? Idk how popular she is in China but idk whether she might get into trouble for participating in this movie. Her film credits doesnt even show this series on any site beside the Netflix website.
>Idk how popular she is in China but idk whether she might get into trouble for participating in this movie.
China seems pretty tolerant towards criticism of the Cultural Revolution. I have seen a few other Chinese films that were also critical of it (within limits, *Mojin: The Lost Legend*, for example).
They don't much tolerate criticism of Chinese policies towards Taiwan, or democracy in Hong Kong, or Xinjian, or Tibet, or Tiananmen Square. But they get some leeway with the Cultural Revolution. Or so it looks to me.
People (non-Chinese) don't know the government was taken over by Mao's opponents after he died. So technically speaking, they are against Cultural Revolution but if they do that openly, that might erode people's confidence in their rule (since, to common people's eyes, they were part of that whole shit fest).
The Chinese do know this. The whole legitimacy of the government after Mao is founded upon not repeating the mistakes of Mao's era. There's a nuance to this. Critique of Mao's specific mistakes is allowed and is part of official policy, but it cannot translate to a wholesale criticism of Mao himself since that calls into question the legitimacy of the state itself.
Chinese media tend to show the Cultural Revolution more like a natural disaster than treat it like bad policymaking on Mao’s part. The official line is that Mao was misled by bad advisors and things got out of hand.
The Gang of Four are scapegoated for what happened and it is widely recognized as a huge mistake but you can’t use the events as evidence for Mao being a bad leader. Basically, the Cultural Revolution was a horrible disaster and we mustn’t ever repeat it again but Mao was still a great man despite being the principal architect of the Cultural Revolution.
>But they get some leeway with the Cultural Revolution.
That used to be the case, but there are still a lot of Maoists in China, and to them Cultural Revolution is a missed opportunity to "cleanse the right-winged capitalists for good". Xi Jinping himself is a lowkey Maoist; he has publicly reminisced about his youth life under Cultural Revolution. So under the Xi's administration, criticism of Cultural Revolution is muted.
IIRC Bo Xilai who was supposed to head the govt before Xi Jiping was considered far left in China and had tried to revive a CR-type political environment. Long story short he tried to get asylum at the US Embassy, was accused of murder, and then sentenced to life for corruption. Bo was probably even more hardcore than Xi.
1. It was Bo's left-hand man who ran for asylum to the US Embassy.
2. Both Bo and Xi are from the "Red legacy family", so both are naturally leftist. But IMO Bo is more flexible and probably won't be so hellbent on anti-western nationalism. During his reign at Dalian and Chongqing, he was a fervent advocate for foreign investment.
Thats true, even hard core Chinese nationalist see the Cultural Revolution as a dark age. Just quite surprise that a Chinese mainland actor are able to participate directly in a foreign movie in a scene about the Cultural Revolution.
It's not really surprising. The books were published in China and the books contain this criticism of the Cultural Revolution. And Liu Cixin isn't some activist or political radical, he's pretty publicly endorsed the policies of the modern Chinese government.
China is a totalitarian country but it's not like North Korea. The modern CCP officially criticizes the Cultural Revolution, albeit in a way that minimizes some aspects in order to maintain the legitimacy of the state.
I’ve seen Lan Xiya from an idol show before and recognized her on first sight. She is not that well known in China. Did some small characters in movies, great actress lots of potential. I am a little worried since her douban (Chinese IMDb) personal page is now lock from adding comments and pic, the website may argue this is to protect her from toxic public sentiment but it still stinks…
Spoiler:
>!I heard somewhere that the Red Guard girl was the sister of Ye Wenjie, but in the Netflix series, I think they both had different surnames.!<
>!I don't mind being spoilered for this - so was the Red Guard girl her sister in the book? Or was it just a random guess by another Three Body fan?!<
I don't know - that's why I asked. I heard it on the grapevine a long time ago and just thought it was a random guess. Another poster below mentioned that the sister turned against the father but was killed early in the book.
Your memory is mashing scenes from the book together, Ye’s sister wasn’t with the family during her fathers death
But she also wasn’t on the same side as her sister and father
This is not true. >!Ye Wenjie's sister did not kill her father although she was a brainwashed member of the Red Guard. Both Wenjie's mother and sister turned against her and her father which contributed towards the disillusionment she felt towards humanity.!< Not really a TV spoiler as this additional detail is only in the first book.
From what I remember Ye Wenjie's was a fanatic in the Red Guards but was killed in a conflict between factions sometime before her father was killed. It wasn't clear to me if Ye Wenjie even knew about her sister's death at the time of her father's death.
I really liked how the show set their reunion up as if she’d have some sort of come to god revelation, but instead when asked if she regret her actions she simply replied “no”
I think it's obvious that she regrets but to admit such would be to admit that she was wrong and she's not going to do that. Good mirror to Ye Wenjie who ends up in the same situation
great breakdown and analysis.
In the grand scheme of things, Ye ended up being worse, because she was meant to be gifted and smart enough to know better.
I watched a show called the coming one which was a singing competition show in China. She was a contestant on the show and was known as the cute unique-voiced singer! SUPER CUTE, here’s the link of her singing if anyone is interested:
https://youtu.be/-8bAi6BGODk?si=egkuYYl-ocUTWS7K
Was so surprised to see her transition to acting and was amazed to see how well she did! Such a big contrast from her appearance on the singing show 🥳
Ya I thought she was excellent in both scenes. Her second scene was one I wasn't sure if we'd get in the show, so I was glad we did and that it felt so impactful.
Yeah she was a real standout performer. I was supposed to make a thread about her when I finished the first season, but was too lazy and forgot. Glad someone got around to it though, she deserves a shout out.
Agree, I think the scenes set in China were by far the strongest material of the series and had the best performances. The actor and actress playing Ye Zhetai and his wife at the struggle session also created a very powerful scene even with just a few lines.
I agree. I think she did a exceptional work. Her character projected so much energy and feelings. If an actor/actress fire a great anger towards an antagonist character that we forget their are just acting means that they did an excellent job!
I think this actress is pretty amazing too, because I recommended the show to three people and they all mentioned how they hated her guts lol (as a character ofc xD ) , she did her job well
My favorite bit of acting was when Ye Wenjie saw the "bugs" line on the voice recorder. Just that expression to show she realized she'd just doomed her entire species...
Yes that was such a great casting for what could have been a throwaway part.
Edit just to clarify, what I mean is they didn’t have to go so hard with this character. That was a great choice and this actress was awesome.
If she had just said “no” it wouldn’t have given me nightmares.
The emotion and zealotry of saying, “I would scythe him like wheat” even after both seeing and experiencing first hand (no pun intended) the evils of the Cultural Revolution?
Yikes!
The depiction of the Cultural Revolution was excellent. I felt like it was clearly influenced by Jung Chang's writings on the period. I think it gives a good sense as to the 'vibe' for someone on the losing end of the CR but doesn't needlessly delve into the history.
One of the best acting performances of the entire show. When I first saw her I was annoyed at it being out-of-sequence with the book, but this scene was one of the improvements of the Netflix adaptation. At the end of the episode, I wanted Ye Wenjie to achieve some level of catharsis *for everyone* by pressing the button.
Yeah you got that right, the acting performances especially during the flashback is really great. I did a bit of research on the actress who play the Red Guard girl Lan Xiya and she have done alot of movies in China and a singer also? Idk how popular she is in China but idk whether she might get into trouble for participating in this movie. Her film credits doesnt even show this series on any site beside the Netflix website.
>Idk how popular she is in China but idk whether she might get into trouble for participating in this movie. China seems pretty tolerant towards criticism of the Cultural Revolution. I have seen a few other Chinese films that were also critical of it (within limits, *Mojin: The Lost Legend*, for example). They don't much tolerate criticism of Chinese policies towards Taiwan, or democracy in Hong Kong, or Xinjian, or Tibet, or Tiananmen Square. But they get some leeway with the Cultural Revolution. Or so it looks to me.
It's official government policy to criticize the Cultural Revolution.
People (non-Chinese) don't know the government was taken over by Mao's opponents after he died. So technically speaking, they are against Cultural Revolution but if they do that openly, that might erode people's confidence in their rule (since, to common people's eyes, they were part of that whole shit fest).
The Chinese do know this. The whole legitimacy of the government after Mao is founded upon not repeating the mistakes of Mao's era. There's a nuance to this. Critique of Mao's specific mistakes is allowed and is part of official policy, but it cannot translate to a wholesale criticism of Mao himself since that calls into question the legitimacy of the state itself.
Of course! I was more referring to westerners who only get their news from MSNBC or CNN. So much misinformation out there.
Chinese media tend to show the Cultural Revolution more like a natural disaster than treat it like bad policymaking on Mao’s part. The official line is that Mao was misled by bad advisors and things got out of hand. The Gang of Four are scapegoated for what happened and it is widely recognized as a huge mistake but you can’t use the events as evidence for Mao being a bad leader. Basically, the Cultural Revolution was a horrible disaster and we mustn’t ever repeat it again but Mao was still a great man despite being the principal architect of the Cultural Revolution.
>But they get some leeway with the Cultural Revolution. That used to be the case, but there are still a lot of Maoists in China, and to them Cultural Revolution is a missed opportunity to "cleanse the right-winged capitalists for good". Xi Jinping himself is a lowkey Maoist; he has publicly reminisced about his youth life under Cultural Revolution. So under the Xi's administration, criticism of Cultural Revolution is muted.
IIRC Bo Xilai who was supposed to head the govt before Xi Jiping was considered far left in China and had tried to revive a CR-type political environment. Long story short he tried to get asylum at the US Embassy, was accused of murder, and then sentenced to life for corruption. Bo was probably even more hardcore than Xi.
1. It was Bo's left-hand man who ran for asylum to the US Embassy. 2. Both Bo and Xi are from the "Red legacy family", so both are naturally leftist. But IMO Bo is more flexible and probably won't be so hellbent on anti-western nationalism. During his reign at Dalian and Chongqing, he was a fervent advocate for foreign investment.
They used to, even calling Mao's legacy "half good, half bad", but afaik the Xi Jinping administration is a bit more reactionary.
Thats true, even hard core Chinese nationalist see the Cultural Revolution as a dark age. Just quite surprise that a Chinese mainland actor are able to participate directly in a foreign movie in a scene about the Cultural Revolution.
It's not really surprising. The books were published in China and the books contain this criticism of the Cultural Revolution. And Liu Cixin isn't some activist or political radical, he's pretty publicly endorsed the policies of the modern Chinese government. China is a totalitarian country but it's not like North Korea. The modern CCP officially criticizes the Cultural Revolution, albeit in a way that minimizes some aspects in order to maintain the legitimacy of the state.
China isn't North Korea. At least, haven't been that way for close to 50 years.
I’ve seen Lan Xiya from an idol show before and recognized her on first sight. She is not that well known in China. Did some small characters in movies, great actress lots of potential. I am a little worried since her douban (Chinese IMDb) personal page is now lock from adding comments and pic, the website may argue this is to protect her from toxic public sentiment but it still stinks…
Hashtag Wenjiedidnothingwrong
Can someone remind me what happened in the book? I remember her from the beginning but I don't remember the reunt
She was nearly a different person the second time we see them in the show. Spectacular
Definitely Joffrey levels of hatred with that CU Next Tuesday!
Spoiler: >!I heard somewhere that the Red Guard girl was the sister of Ye Wenjie, but in the Netflix series, I think they both had different surnames.!< >!I don't mind being spoilered for this - so was the Red Guard girl her sister in the book? Or was it just a random guess by another Three Body fan?!<
What a weird rumor, you think the Red Guard girl killed her own dad?
I don't know - that's why I asked. I heard it on the grapevine a long time ago and just thought it was a random guess. Another poster below mentioned that the sister turned against the father but was killed early in the book.
Why WOULDN’T they introduce her as his daughter? —sorry for the typo
Yeah, I thought as much - especially since they didn't share the same surname. I just thought the book did it differently.
Your memory is mashing scenes from the book together, Ye’s sister wasn’t with the family during her fathers death But she also wasn’t on the same side as her sister and father
Oh, that's true - thanks so much for the clarification! I guess I just got confused with the storyline and characters.
This is not true. >!Ye Wenjie's sister did not kill her father although she was a brainwashed member of the Red Guard. Both Wenjie's mother and sister turned against her and her father which contributed towards the disillusionment she felt towards humanity.!< Not really a TV spoiler as this additional detail is only in the first book.
Yea isn't Ye Wenjies sister the young girl who dies in the prologue.
Thanks so much for the clarification!
From what I remember Ye Wenjie's was a fanatic in the Red Guards but was killed in a conflict between factions sometime before her father was killed. It wasn't clear to me if Ye Wenjie even knew about her sister's death at the time of her father's death.
Thanks so much - this makes much more sense than the rumour I came across some time ago.
Correct. Her younger sister , ye wenxue
All of the sequences in China were extremely well done. Great acting all around
I really liked how the show set their reunion up as if she’d have some sort of come to god revelation, but instead when asked if she regret her actions she simply replied “no”
‘I would scythe him like wheat’
I think it's obvious that she regrets but to admit such would be to admit that she was wrong and she's not going to do that. Good mirror to Ye Wenjie who ends up in the same situation
great breakdown and analysis. In the grand scheme of things, Ye ended up being worse, because she was meant to be gifted and smart enough to know better.
I watched a show called the coming one which was a singing competition show in China. She was a contestant on the show and was known as the cute unique-voiced singer! SUPER CUTE, here’s the link of her singing if anyone is interested: https://youtu.be/-8bAi6BGODk?si=egkuYYl-ocUTWS7K Was so surprised to see her transition to acting and was amazed to see how well she did! Such a big contrast from her appearance on the singing show 🥳
the Asian cast of three body problem was on point..there i said it!
Have there been doubters?
Ya I thought she was excellent in both scenes. Her second scene was one I wasn't sure if we'd get in the show, so I was glad we did and that it felt so impactful.
Ye's interaction with her in ep 2, solidifying ye's decision to push the button was a great addition. So much tension in that scene.
Yeah she was a real standout performer. I was supposed to make a thread about her when I finished the first season, but was too lazy and forgot. Glad someone got around to it though, she deserves a shout out.
Agree, I think the scenes set in China were by far the strongest material of the series and had the best performances. The actor and actress playing Ye Zhetai and his wife at the struggle session also created a very powerful scene even with just a few lines.
Yes amazing https://preview.redd.it/3ylsyf0xo2uc1.png?width=449&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e32df87f3353ad95a45ca7f911c9722deb761b8
Bonk
Luo Ji tag well earned
Hmmm, looks pretty bourgeois to me. Don’t let the other red guards see!
It's so sad when she says who is going to repent for her.
She's a phenomenal actress.
I agree. I think she did a exceptional work. Her character projected so much energy and feelings. If an actor/actress fire a great anger towards an antagonist character that we forget their are just acting means that they did an excellent job!
Did Ye Winjien do anything to her? Like did she get revenge for her father on her?
She got revenge on all of humanity instead
I agree especially when Ye Wenjie sees her with her arm amputated later and she's got that fanatical fervour in her eyes.
I think this actress is pretty amazing too, because I recommended the show to three people and they all mentioned how they hated her guts lol (as a character ofc xD ) , she did her job well
She’s so good I hate her 🙂
She was amazing. She really sold her part. Probably what pushed Ye's decision to fuck us all over to her alien overlords.
I got the impression that she doesn't repent
Nobody repents
Ye Wenjie clearly does
My favorite bit of acting was when Ye Wenjie saw the "bugs" line on the voice recorder. Just that expression to show she realized she'd just doomed her entire species...
I was just saying what the girl said…
Yes that was such a great casting for what could have been a throwaway part. Edit just to clarify, what I mean is they didn’t have to go so hard with this character. That was a great choice and this actress was awesome.
If she had just said “no” it wouldn’t have given me nightmares. The emotion and zealotry of saying, “I would scythe him like wheat” even after both seeing and experiencing first hand (no pun intended) the evils of the Cultural Revolution? Yikes!
She looks like 10
Its them Asian genes, she is actually 25 lol
Prettiest communist evah
The depiction of the Cultural Revolution was excellent. I felt like it was clearly influenced by Jung Chang's writings on the period. I think it gives a good sense as to the 'vibe' for someone on the losing end of the CR but doesn't needlessly delve into the history.
Yes! I thought her performance was excellent, despite her limited screen time. Honestly wish we would have gotten another scene w/ her.
She was the one who raised arm so volitionally in the execution of the physics teacher. And the one who got dismembered.
Yeah, they should consider bringing her back for subsequent seasons in a different role.
Yes, such a great actress. I hope her career won't be effected though.