The MV for "Like Smoke" opened with a lengthy text crawl—apparently some backstory—
"Wait..." Sumi Nanako hastily paused. Her Chinese was decent, but skills like "speed-reading ten lines at a glance" or "quantum reading" remained beyond her.
After parsing the 200-300 word prologue, enlightenment dawned: "Oh—the Heavenly Emperor ruled tyrannically, exterminating sects and slaughtering countless until an alliance defeated and sealed him."
"So epic! It's like a film with proper lore."
"The Heavenly Emperor is the villain, he—"
Nanako's muttered commentary died mid-sentence when the emperor's face appeared. Her eyes bulged, jaw slack.
There's a poem: "Search a lifetime of jade steps and frost-laden trees—still, none in this world shall match your grace."
Even as someone who'd consumed every flavor of Japanese ikemen—sugar-sweet, mayonnaise-mild, salt-faced, miso-charming—this visage struck like lightning.
"Is this CGI?" Her first thought, swiftly dismissed.
Real vs. synthetic was obvious. This was just... raw beauty.
"Chu-san's historical look surpasses even Ariwara no Narihira as the ultimate beauty standard." Nanako decided even as a villain, such majesty fit an emperor.
(Ariwara no Narihira—Heian-period poet, famed less for verse than for allegedly bedding 3,700 women. The original playboy, Japan's eternal symbol of male beauty.)
"The song's distracting." Nanako muted it, laser-focused on the visuals.
MV Plot Dive:
The tyrannical emperor, now imprisoned, flashed back to his youth—
A prodigious cultivator, he'd forged the Flawless Golden Core and inherited the Wine Immortal's legacy. His childhood sweetheart (average talent) contracted the Demon's Ugly Curse during a treasure hunt. Only the forbidden-land-dwelling Medicine God could cure her.
So he braved the lethal zone. After tribulations, the Medicine God refused: "Her talent's too meager." Solution? Transfer his Golden Core to her.
"Dogblood." Nanako inhaled the clichés like oxygen.
The young master—wine gourd at hip, hair loosely tied with wood—exuded untamed charm. Chu Zhi lacked Tony Leung's acting chops, but director Liao compensated with iconic posing:
Untamed: Wine-dribbling lips, wind-tousled hair, sword-toasting gestures.
Unbridled: Costuming and makeup.
"He suffered so much for her..." Nanako's eyes misted at the Golden Core transfer scene—agony etched on his face.
Injured from the forbidden lands and coreless, his swordsmanship path ended. Yet his genius pivoted: as a prince's strategist, he manipulated empires, then reinvented cultivation through chess.
When demons ravaged the land, he re-emerged as the Demon-Subduing General—saving humanity.
Plot Twist: The curse was cleansed, but his love remained possessed by Outer Realm Demons—existential threats beyond human-demon conflicts.
Too late—she'd infected her entire clan. To save the city's 300,000 lives, he exterminated her family, then purified her via core extraction.
"He bore all the blame so she wouldn't know she doomed her family... A true man." Nanako's tears fell freely. (She paused constantly to read subtitles.)
The tragedy hit harder because Chu's beauty amplified immersion.
Third Act: Demonization Arc
Seeking a cure, the hero embraced demonic power. The MV showcased:
Bare torso, spine twisted with an extra arm.
Deliberately blurred facial contours except for that razor-sharp nose bridge.
Peach-blossom eyes radiating androgynous allure.
Between moonlight and snowfall—he was the third kind of sublime.
Like chugging baijiu on an empty stomach, the visual impact left Nanako intoxicated.
Her earlier sorrow vaporized. Throat bobbing, she swallowed hard.
Poisoned by beauty.
The demonized hero found a way to seal the Outer Realm threat—but had to eradicate all infected, including implanted "demon seeds." Hence his emperor-era massacres.
Nanako rewatched it five times. The subsequent emptiness resembled... post-clarity clarity.
"Chu-san in period costume is therapy. Twice daily for stress relief and eyesight improvement."
But such beauty had to be shared.
She translated all subtitles into Japanese and posted to Mixi (Japan's equivalent of Tieba/Reddit) under:
[Unrivaled Visuals—Chu Zhi]
The film/TV subforum initially ignored it—until Koguchi Yoshihiro, Japan's top singer, shared it to his millions.
Viral Comments:
🐋 "Came angry at 'unrivaled'—left convinced. How does a Chinese star unify aesthetics?"
✈️ "First MV that made me cry. A general who saved humanity twice, dying besieged? Perfection."
🎬 "Why isn't this a movie? Has he acted in others? Need more."
🌿 "Pre-click: 'No face is unbeatable.' Post-click: 'What face can beat this?'"
🗡️ "Even as a man—his emperor portrayal matches my fantasies of ancient Chinese rulers. I want to kneel."
If Japan fell this fast, imagine China.
The MV and song "Like Smoke" trended separately—each a standalone phenomenon.
Chu Zhi's popularity surged further. Meanwhile, Li Xing Wei's fandom showed defection symptoms...