The Disguiser 《伪装者》 - Hu Ge, Jin Dong, Wang Kai, Liu Min Tao

[poppies]

Well, I don't think the death plan is bizarre's in Ming Lou's eyes. If he can order that plan

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to get his own brother to killed him.

That wasn't very kind of Ming Lou, wasn't it? Poor Ming Tai was struggling with that decision the whole night before the assassination.

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I got the argument that electronic messages weren't entirely secure, but it seemed to me Ming Lou could have simply whispered who the actual target was into Ming Tai's ears when they were at home (that night before the assassination). That should be safe enough.

Plus he knew Ming Tai would suss out that he was Poison Snake the next day anyway.

My mind boggles at Ming Tai's decision to go ahead with that assignment. Killing his brother, when he had doubts about his traitor status to begin with? When he hadn't established that he truly was a traitor?

MCS is probably obsessed with revenge but with some morals left in his hearts

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he can stop himself from carrying more of his plans. At the end you can see there are actually 2 more wooden piece that he burnt without doing anything.

For Mei Changsu, it wasn't about revenge, I feel. I think it was more about justice? For the truth to come out, for the world to know the truth, for their names to be cleared.

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To do that, MCS needed 1)Prince Jing in power, and 2)Enough righteous officials to support the motion.

Taking out the corrupt officials served to weaken the Crown Prince's and Prince Yu's hold on the Liang court, to achieve 1).

Having them gone also meant that he could replace them with good officials, thus achieving 2).

So, by the time that only two wooden pieces were left, he had neither reason nor need to do anything. It was mentioned in passing that those officials used to support Crown Prince, and thus oppose Prince Yu. When MCS, through his political manoeuvring, took the Crown Prince out of the game and helped Prince Jing rise in power to take on Prince Yu, those officials switched to support Prince Jing because they had already made an enemy of Prince Yu - and so they would be better off with Prince Jing as emperor, than Prince Yu.

There are still a few deaths. At least

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Tong Lu, and 4th sister

. And I believe a lot of people died

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during Prince Yu's rebellion.

Oh, yes, I forgot about the

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rebellion. Many did indeed die at the hunting grounds. Poor things. Only about 1/4 of the 3000 troops survived, and there were also quite a few casualties among the accompanying royalty, officials and guards.

Unlike Wang Tianfeng, MCS didn't formulate plans to include deaths, thankfully. Xie Qi's death was unexpected and not in the plan, and Jun Niang's too. Tong Lu didn't die (in the novel).

But then Ming Tai was simply portrayed as a annoying spoiled brat during a big part of the movie.

Agreed. The show is titled The Disguiser after all. That brat repertoire was part of his disguise, which he used successfully on Wang Manchun on more than one occasion.

[poppies]

Ming Jing -she is really like some loud and overbearing sister that I know well. I thought the actress showed versatility in LYB and Disguiser. I love her Mandarin in the latter - I dunno, it sounded musical (I'm not fluent in mandarin).

I felt the same about the musical quality of her speech!

[cherieluv]

[QUOTE=poppies;1121647]That wasn't very kind of Ming Lou, wasn't it? Poor Ming Tai was struggling with that decision the whole night before the assassination.

I agree with you. Not only was it unbrotherly, it was also unnecessary as Ming Tai had already proven his professionalism in the job. By adding on this unnecessary stress, there was a risk that Ming Tai may back-out or miss his target and spoil the big plan. Imo, Ming Lou took an unnecessary gamble.

[lilyla19]

Yep, I think that part was too much stress. May be it's about testing the water. If Ming Tai can do that job, then the death plan won't be a problem?
But that spoil brat image really works on Man Chun! :P

I enjoy both of the series though.

[poppies]

I agree with you. Not only was it unbrotherly, it was also unnecessary as Ming Tai had already proven his professionalism in the job. By adding on this unnecessary stress, there was a risk that Ming Tai may back-out or miss his target and spoil the big plan. Imo, Ming Lou took an unnecessary gamble.

True. I only thought about what he put Ming Tai through, but now that you mentioned it, it seemed to be a rather bad call mission-wise too indeed.

[poppies]

I enjoy both of the series though.

Me too. Beauty abounds in both shows: beautiful themes, beautiful scores, palettes, sets, people, costumes, etc.

[Outsanity]

You need to consider the fact that putting Ming Lou's name on the hit list decreases the Japanese's suspicion on him, making it seem as if he really is a Japan-supporter that the Republicans want dead instead of a triple agent. If it wasn't for that, Ming Lou might not have gotten away so easily when Ming Tai was apprehended.

[poppies]

I got the need for the hit list part. But I'm afraid I don't understand why he couldn't let Ming Tai in on the actual plan back home that night, when Ming Tai was having a hard time coming to terms with the assignment, throwing tantrums and knives and whatnot.

The house was empty save for the three brothers, thus reducing the risk of enemy spies eavesdropping on them. They could have gone into the altar room, whispered right into his ear or something, to further err on the side of caution.

[Outsanity]

Other than Ming Tai's discomfort, there was no real reason to tell him. I feel that it would ruin Ming Lou's character as someone who is completely in control at all times if he gave in under the tension and allowed Ming Tai to guilt the truth out of him. As a superior in an espionage relation, that would be.. not worthy of respect.
It reflects the drama's overall theme of how there is a country and duty before there is a family.

On the other hand, the Death Plan still baffles me. I get that everyone has to die so the Japanese believe that the thing was real, but really? There couldn't have been a better way? The deaths were also kind of anti-climatic...

[poppies]

Exactly. Wang Tianfeng was hyped up to be this formidable agent and yet it seemed the best he could come up with was everybody dying? I couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed.

One thing I did enjoy about his Death Plan was that it gave us that scene where Ming Tai saw Wang at

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Manli's grave. I really felt for Ming Tai when it dawned on him that Wang was the traitor/rat. Their emotions, what he said, how Wang countered his comments, and when the explosives didn't work. I felt both actors gave a good performance there.

And then the razor part, good grief. I didn't see that coming and so that was a powerful, impactful scene for me.

I wondered why Wang didn't allow Ming Tai to swallow the blade. Was having Ming Tai arrested and tortured by 76 part of his plan? Or did he change his mind at the last minute and wanted to give Ming Tai a chance to make it out alive?

[cherieluv]

I'm a bit confused. Was Ming Tai's recruitment all part of the big plan or was it a coincidence? My daughter translated for me the last few episodes but I am not sure she got it right as it just seemed so unlikely.

[charbydis]

Unfortunately, I did not get to watch the subbed last few episodes as the drama is now blocked on viki, sob. Hence, I really do not get this Death Trap. It just seems unnecessary to sacrifice so many lives and really, it was just too risky.

I think the Death Trap Mission just shows how extreme a person Wang Tian Feng is. He is only focussed on the results and will sacrifice anything in his path to achieve victory, including himself.

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I think he does feel something for Yu Man Li and Ming Tai, and he does show some care for them at times. In fact, he really really likes Ming Tai and you can see his hesitation as he writes down his plan. I actually think that he put himself in a position to be killed by Ming Tai to make the whole plan more believable. But he won't stop at anything once he has started. That is how crazily devoted a guy he is. He is not an evil guy but in his mind, everyone including himself is dispensable. He needed to create the best spy team then crush it to make the plan work. The sacrifice is great and it has to be great and realistic so that the Japanese won't believe it to be a ruse. And it did work.

[charbydis]

I'm a bit confused. Was Ming Tai's recruitment all part of the big plan or was it a coincidence? My daughter translated for me the last few episodes but I am not sure she got it right as it just seemed so unlikely.

It was a plan. He tracked down Ming Tai because he was Ming Lou's brother. Ming Tai's age, face and upper class status met his requirement to be the best spy for the Death Trap to work. But I think he was impressed by Ming Tai's quick thinking, ideas and agility.

[charbydis]

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I wondered why Wang didn't allow Ming Tai to swallow the blade. Was having Ming Tai arrested and tortured by 76 part of his plan? Or did he change his mind at the last minute and wanted to give Ming Tai a chance to make it out alive?

I think it is the latter.

[cherieluv]

Thank you charbydis, poppies and all for clarifying my doubts. If anyone knows where I can watch the last few episodes subbed in english, please do share.

[xiaodan4869]

Rewatched the series, especially the Lou/Cheng cut, over 10+ times.
自封伪装者十级学者 don't hesitate to ask me if you have any questions.

[janna]

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These two have no chemistry even IRL and holding hands! This pairing is mainly responsible for the Disguiser not going down in my all-time drama hall of fame. I'd rather have no romance at all

[xiaodan4869]

There's 楼诚 to be responsible for chemistry, who cares about CJY 😒

[Outsanity]

I personally LOVED the bantering in the beginning and thought they a lot of chemistry at first.
But then there was the thing with the kid and I just thought the girl was really really annoying.
Oh well.

[lilyla19]

These two have no chemistry even IRL and holding hands! This pairing is mainly responsible for the Disguiser not going down in my all-time drama hall of fame. I'd rather have no romance at all

And to think that Hu Ge got plenty of chemistry with everyone but his female lead.

:P

All that male-male CP that actually make him pretty annoyed.
I think that lady looks quite nice in this dress. However, I prefer that lady that plays Man Li. She's really cute dressed up!