(no subject)

[skygiants]

These are stressful times, which makes it probably more or less inevitable that I would trip and fall facefirst into another gay Chinese webnovel.

The premise of Rebirth of a Movie Star is peak nonsense drama: in the first chapter, after a number of misfortunes and career crashes, low-level actor Bai Lang is dramatically betrayed by his terrible actor-rival boyfriend, mistakenly goes to accuse the hot gay billionaire gangster single dad who previously attempted to hire him as a kept man of ruining his life, and then dies tragically of betrayal and heart attack in the hot gay billionaire gangster single dad's arms!

... after which he of course wakes up ten years in the past with a chance at a do-over, has some vague memories of the hot gay billionaire gangster single dad being surprisingly decent to him while he was dying of betrayal and heart attack, and decides, you know what, why not become a kept man this time around! things can't turn out worse!

And in fact, somewhat surprisingly, things turn out very rapidly for the better, and in a much less cringeworthy way than I expected; by like 30% of the way in, Bai Lang and his hot gay billionaire gangster single dad have a perfectly adult and straightforward conversation about shifting their relationship over from 'transactional sex' to 'committed romantic partnership' and the rest of the book is, like, 50% domestic fluff, 50% Bai Lang expertly using his knowledge of the future and ten-years-more-advanced-than-expected acting skills to play the industry like a fiddle and advance his career while cheerfully collaborating with his hot gay billionaire gangster husband to crush all their mutual enemies.

(Please note: this is very clearly a work of pure id and as such has zero interest in discussing the relative ethics of transactional sex, using your knowledge of the future to manipulate financial marketplaces, or pre-emptive revenge on enemies who in this lifetime haven't actually done anything particularly terrible to you yet.)

To be honest, the domestic fluff levels honestly sometimes verged on the tooth-aching for me, and I also eventually got a little bored of the revenge plots, but I'm here for the devastatingly effective combination of time travel competence porn and entertainment industry competence porn. My personal favorite brilliant technique is when Bai Lang early on decides he needs to build a slush fund in order to stop a movie project from running out of funding, carefully consults his memories of his previous life, and calmly decides to purchase the Chinese translation rights to not!Harry Potter several years before the series explodes into popularity. This is using your future-vision with a vengeance, and I applaud it.

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

This sounds great, thank you!

[skygiants]

You're welcome, I hope you enjoy if you read! :D

(I will issue the more-or-less standard cnovel warnings, let me know if you would like details.)

[alias_sqbr]

Thank you! Having read up to chapter 49 and then skipped ahead to read the final extra- I know this isn't your area of expertise, but do you think the treatment of wheelchair use is going to be unpleasant for me to read as a wheelchair user myself?

[skygiants]

It is indeed not my area of expertise, but to my memory there's really very little of it on-page -- I think Qiu Quan is only using a wheelchair for one more chapter, and it's mentioned like twice as part of general recovery stuff and then not really ever again...

[alias_sqbr]

Thank you! Just wanted to make sure it wasn't like...chapters of "Oh no I am in a wheelchair I might as well be DEAD" etc.

[skygiants]

Oh, definitely not -- it's so minimal that I actually had to go back and double-check what plot point you were talking about!

[alias_sqbr]

nods Cool, thanks!

[aria]

Oh no my tbr pile is two shelves deep BUT ALSO...

[skygiants]

I mean, after reading in a day this work that took no brainpower whatsoever, I suddenly find myself repossessed of the fortitude to look at my TBR for the first time in a week, so .... you know, health benefits, I would say!

[feklar42]

I read that one a few months ago as well. The not!Potter bit was highly amusing.

I did think it was a little weird that rich gangster/director guy held a torch for him for so long in the first life, but, whatever. It got the plot rolling.

My favorite aspect was how they come out to the public – it's pure romance fantasy, but it's also what I want to see from a mature, loving, well-adjusted, couple.

There is something about this breed of novels that strikes me as a bit like revenge porn – not necessarily in a bad way, some can be pretty vicious, but this one wasn't. But it still granted the catharsis of a bullied person being able to go back and turn the tables while getting happily ever after.

[skygiants]

lol, I mean, reading a little against the text, but I found it easy to assume that the hot billionaire gangster seemed upset when he died and went to his funeral because it is a reasonably upsetting thing for an acquaintance to die of a misery heart attack in your arms, and going to their funeral seems like the appropriate thing to do under the circumstances!

I also did enjoy the coming out, it's nice how they competently managed their image around their relationship while also being like 'well, if this backfires and we get harassment it's not a HUGE deal, our relationship is strong enough to handle it and we're millionaires!'

[glitteryv]

There are several things abt the tropes that are pinging my id, so I'm deffo gonna read this v. soon. Thanks for reccing it! :D

[skygiants]

You're very welcome, I hope you enjoy!

[toujours_nigel]

I just bolted it yesterday. Thank you ♥

[skygiants]

I am glad you enjoyed it!

[schneefink]

That was a great distraction, thanks for the rec :)

[skygiants]

It was SUCH a good distraction for me, I'm glad it worked for you too!

[brownbetty]

I'm fascinated by transmigration as a fic trope in cnovels, which seems to fall into two broad categories: a) self insert into my fandom (which might be history) and b) going back and fixing mistakes. And when you think about it, the attraction of both is obvious. But it is also interesting to see them as a sort of portal fantasy but without the angst of "But will we return to our real world, or keep the world and life we built here?" I dunno! I just think it's neat!.

[skygiants]

Me too! I really, really want to read an in-depth essay on the parallel tropes of transmigration and portal fantasy and which works have crossed back and forth to influence the trajectory of the other stream.

[evelyn_b]

Huh, that sounds like a lot of fun! My reading time has gotten weirdly curtailed, but I may try to check it out anyway.

[skygiants]

Same here, honestly -- I spent all last week thinking I would have tons of reading time and instead had almost none because I was too busy adapting schedules/doing Zoom calls/staring into space. But I'm hoping to pick back up again soon!

[annotated_em]

That was so unspeakably sweet that I think I developed cavities. It was exactly what I needed to read today.

[skygiants]

Just two surprisingly functional dudes, crushing their enemies and co-parenting!

[flamebyrd]

Thanks for this rec! I'm up to chapter 48 now and the competency porn is excellent, although I do feel like they could avoid some of their problems by communicating better with those who had wronged them (eg. by actually telling them they uncovered their schemes, as opposed to leaving them in the dark thinking that they're the victim here).

[skygiants]

Yeah, especially in the case of the famous actor ex who actually only did wrong in the new timeline -- I understand it would be more difficult to explain to the evil ex from the past timeline that he is being punished because he acted unethically in an alternate leg of the trousers of time ....

[flamebyrd]

Hah, yes, I give Bai Lang a pass on not explaining that aspect of it, although I think they still could have nipped some of it in the bud by calling him out on the things he did actually do in this timeline. His point-of-view parts were so painful to read as I see-sawed between sympathy and disgust!

[littlerhymes]

Every comment here that says they have read and will read this book is a balm to my troubled soul.

REBIRTH OF A MOVIE STAR YULETIDE, GO

[skygiants]

WE'RE BUILDING THE FANDOM IN REAL TIME

[jiggit]

Oh this sounds like something I absolutely need right now.

[skygiants]

It was indeed very much something that I needed, at this time! Hopefully it works the same for you. :D

[eglantiere]

i just wanted to thank you for introducing me to this peak nonsense, because i spent an entire night devouring it and it was exactly what i needed. so ridiculous! so fluffy! so competent! i could live without the Evil Rapist Boyfriend and his pov, but it was still awesome.