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In my Black & White fan fiction, I’ve left poor Ying Xiong down a ravine in a national forest, suffering from imminent hypothermia, whilst his partner scours the trail above, searching for him in vain. I’ve been really gratified that so many fans are reading my series, and I apologise for leaving you cliff-hung for so long. Last weekend, I had planned to write Episode 4, in which Ying Xiong is rescued only to land in a very slashy situation, possibly involving a jacuzzi.

However, first I had to come to terms with some very bad show biz news. According to a recent UDN report, the much anticipated feature film that was supposed to serve as a sequel to the high rating television series is no longer going to be filmed as such: Vic ‘Zai Zai’ Zhou has dropped out, signing on with other projects and will not after all reprise his role as the flamboyant but troubled Chen Zai Tian. Mark Zhao (Chao) will still be in it, though, with a new male and a new female lead from the mainland. Alas!

Vic 'Zai Zai" Zhou (left) and Mark Zhao in the title sequence from Black & White

There had been rumours about the project faltering for awhile. The tabloids always put a deeply personal and melodramatic spin on situations that in reality more often than not centre on investors, contracts and scheduling. Thus, the on dit was that Zai Zai had his nose well and truly put out of joint when the egregiously talented and undeniably handsome newcomer, Mark Zhao, won the the 2009 Golden Bell for best actor in a television series. Zai Zai had also been nominated for the award, and he is said to have felt very keenly the consequent loss of face at losing to Mark, given that the role Zai Tian (Pizi)  was not only the top billing but had also been expressly written for him. The tension between the two stars was further increased by allegations that perhaps Mark’s father, Zhao Shu-Hai, who has a lot of clout in the industry, had waved some red envelopes in the vicinity of the judges to sway their decision in Mark’s favour.

I have no idea how much substance there is in this version of affairs (though I strongly doubt the bribery charge), but clearly there was a misunderstanding between the two stars at the Golden Bell awards ceremony. When Mark gave his acceptance speech, he cried. I haven’t seen any images of this, but I’d imagine it was his trademark technique, where a single fat tear spills down his cheek, out of only one of his startling, ‘Korean’, single-lidded eyes.* Anyway, having sobbed, Mark then invited Zai Zai up on the stage, as if to share the award, but he refused, whether out of his usual diffidence or out of anger and humiliation at losing is unclear.

Wu Ying Xiong (Mark Zhao) in a lachrymose scene from Black & White

Neveridol may as well belatedly weigh into the debate over who should have won the much-disputed Golden Bell. On the first viewing of the series, I gave the honours to Mark over Zai Zai. Mark played his role with an open-hearted sincerity and a fierce intensity, and I came to believe in Ying Xiong’s angst-ridden perfectionism and occasional impulsive sorties into action. On the other hand, I thought Zai Zai’s performance was overly melodramatic and extremely hammy, and not up to the very high benchmark for range and nuance he had set in the role of LIng in the psychological thriller Mars.

The second time around, as I tried to follow the details of the extremely convoluted plot that forms the ‘canon’ for my fan fiction, I changed my mind. Zai Zai’s character was a very complex and volatile; he often put up a façade of joking and showing off while at his most serious. And Zai Zai had to convey these levels of meaning while also trying to render the gothic horror elements of the plot realistic and sympathetic.

In considering Zai Tian’s transformation from ugly homeless scavenger to handsome playboy at the hands of expert South Korean plastic surgeons, I was reminded of a line from an Ann Schlee novel, The Proprietor, in which the omniscient narrator says about a young woman castaway that she is so beautiful it is almost a disfigurement. Zai Zai conveys this sense of shock in that most Lovecraftian of all scenes when he regains consciousness in a swish waterfront apartment and catches a glimpse of his new visage in a mirror. He is of course horrified at this violation of his identity, but in fact he may also be confronted by having been made so alarmingly beautiful. This a tremendously affecting scene and on second viewing I would have given the acting prize to Zai Zai based on that one moment alone. (BTW, gents, if you ever want a little work done, Seoul is obviously the place to go.)

It’s a shame the sequel project has broken down because in fact I’m a fan of both the leads. And whether or not a viewer is inclined to acknowledge a homoerotic subtext in the series as some reviewers have, it was the relationship between Pizi and Ying Xiong more than any of the pairings in the plot’s web of hetero amours that was the most dynamic, had the most chemistry and was the only one that after all really mattered. Director Tsai Yueh Hsun has been quoted as saying there could be no future Pizi Ying Xiong without Pizi, and he is right. However much I admire Mark Zhao’s acting, I will not be seeking out the new, so-called sequel.

I had thought to scupper my fan fiction, too, but then V and another slashy blogger both pointed out to me that the demise of the sequel gives me more scope to play around with the characters and plot of my fan fiction. They reminded me that most great slash fan fiction has been written about series that are long over with: Star Trek, Man from UNCLE, Firefly, etc., etc. Moreover, the prompting from the Muse to write the further adventures of Pizi and Ying Xiong is still there, as urgent as ever. I might revisit the two or three drafts I’ve already written of the jacuzzi scene and see if I can get Ep 4 out there this week. Or next weekend. But, diis volentibus, soon.

*(Mark has emerged as one of the industry’s worse watering pots, perhaps even eclipsing the lachrymose James Zhu. Meanwhile, a talented young fan fiction writer informed me recently that the tear-from-one-eye thing is also popular in Western series, and is in fact the stock in trade of Jensen Ackles, who plays Dean Winchester in Supernatural).

Credits: Screen caps from Black & White box set: Deltacom.com and Prajna Works

Series production credits: here

Translation credit, UDN article: fufu@CpopAccess

Early rumours of project breakdown: MediaCorp TV, 26 November 2009

Additional source: May Seah, Today, 14 August, 2009

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