Secrets in the Lattice – An Edward & Bella Perspective

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Secrets in the Lattice – An Edward & Bella’s perspective sans Vampires and Werewolves

Warning: Minor spoilers ahead!

When Twilight was released, eons ago in 2005, it generated a phenomenal appeal amongst teenagers and young adults. The forbidden, not-forbidden love story between 17-year old Bella and a 103-year old vampire named Edward in an ever-rainy town was epic. Human/vampire relationships are per se tales that draw audiences in crowds with the romantic longing of inter-species dating and happy endings a must, otherwise, Shakespeare might have been so utterly baffled that perhaps Romeo and Juliet would’ve become a comedy.

The thing with Twilight is that it is told through Bella’s perspective, making it too one directional and way too na na na filled with Edward’s ‘got to be you’, never enough, nobody compares, perfect moments. Her fixation on him is unreasonably, obnoxiously intense, highlighting Edward’s existence as the centre of her universe. Bella seems to live off psychological opioids on Planet Cullen, cultivating her mind on the study of vampires and werewolves. It could be worse; she could have decided to become a psychiatrist.

As Bella is one-dimensional, Twilight is an ever-going recycling of her emotions for Edward. He has plenty of story time given that he is the male protagonist so it’s all good, but not quite. If he was a bland, spineless character, it might not have mattered overly to fawn over him across the series and getting hyped over Robert Pattinson, but Edward was anything but weak and uninteresting. In 2020, Midnight Sun aka Twilight but from his perspective was released, enabling fans to enjoy the story harmoniously told from both perspectives in two novels of 498 and 658 pages, respectively.

The 572-page Secrets in the Lattice, like Twilight, is a book adaption of a coming-of-age school story. Based on the same-titled novel by Er Dong Tu Zi, it tells the story of Ding Xian and Zhou Si Yue, two high-schoolers in Guilin, China, from the time they met and fell in love in high school to how they reconnected in another world, at university.

The drama is a far-cry visual representation of Er Dong Tu Zi’s work in comparison to Stephenie Meyer’s tit-for-tat story depiction, particularly when it comes to locations. Twilight is set in the town of Forks in the state of Washington in both the novel and film while Secrets in the Lattice is located in Guilin, Guangxi, China as well as Beijing in the manuscript while in Shen Hai, presumed to be Shanghai (as Shen Hai apparently doesn’t exit as a geographical area), in the drama.

Si Yue and Ding Xian’s story is written in the third person and traditionally told in one novel. Bella and Edward’s, on the other hand, is written in the first person and told through the course of several novels. Two very different styles and representations bar one. Secrets in the Lattice has a flashback which is shown through Ding Xian’s diary, written in the first person and told in the third, presenting both her and Si Yue’s emotional expressions and her ambivalences, which Bella is an expert at in Twilight.

Chen Zhe Yuan’s performance as Si Yue is interesting, particularly when contrasted with his 2020 historical works, Handsome Siblings and Renascence (not related to the European economic, political, cultural, and artistic post Middle-ages period), where he seemed a happy fish swimming in the big wide ocean. He was steady throughout the 24 episodes and convincing bar an awkward kiss scene which the director ought to have re-filmed, but that’s rather endearing and not a deal breaker. Zhe Yuan’s acting shops are visible and Si Yue became memorable thanks to that.

Rainbow’s performance was consistent from beginning to end. Ding Xian is not mesmerizing but Rainbow has definitely made her a very likeable character and with time and the right projects, her performances are bound to improve.

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, what can be said that hasn’t been conveyed already? Nothing. Their casting was bang on the money as evidenced by Twilight’s box office numbers and the endless pages written about the artists.

As it reveals their points of views alternately and equally, Secrets in the Lattice can be considered a combination of Twilight and Midnight Sun in one volume sans the razzmatazz popularity that goes along with it. Stephenie Meyer’s novels are written in English with a translation into several languages, while Er Dong Tu Zi’s work is only available in Chinese. The screen adaptations are two abstract forms of essence with love poetry expressed through a clear narrative similar to Clair de Lune, a sentimental stroll that transforms into an ethereal beauty only eclipsed by the realistic notions of love.

Secrets in the Lattice is imbued with the fermentation of romantic flavour, Si Yue’s dream of love, Ding Xian always, always, always loving him, and their furthest happiness together, finding each other’s mare, allowing their love for one another to replace the sadness like an alluring beam of light.

Twilight is all about decode, a spotlight that leaves out all the rest, a supermassive black hole, full moon, ‘libiamo ne’ lieti calici’ of love. On her own, Bella is screaming she loves Edward so but he cannot read, cannot decode her thoughts. The truth of his love for her hides in her eyes, hanging on his blushed tongue, boiling in her veins but Edward thinks Bella cannot see. When they met they found each other and a love of a thousand years forever.

Ding Xian and Zhou Si Yue are desk mates who initially shared a mutual dislike for one another, kind of like the one Edward initially felt for Bella, but personality-related rather than their unbearably tantalizing, fragrant smell. With love stories, twists are equal to ice-cream in 40-degree Celsius temperatures, non-abundant. Ice melts, cream melts, ice-cream melts. This is so logical Si Yue’s and Edward’s genius mathematical knowledge here would be wasted. Their beauty, however, would not.

Both are model-like idols, the ones fans scream at compulsively, jumping up and down giggling as if they were in a high-intensity aerobics class, which is really healthy to maintain and loose weight. Apparently, perfect men often provoke ecstatically happy moments. Si Yue and Edward possess a high IQ with a strong interest in science, otherwise, they would be taking arts.

In contrast, Ding Xian and Bella are common in appearance with an average level of intellect. Next to Si Yue and Edward, brilliancy, both are at the opposite end of the scale, but while Ding Xian is a hard worker at school, studying well into the night, Bella’s attention is focused on Edward, vampires, on becoming one and in being young forever and ever with him. At least Ding Xian has professional goals while Bella has an obsession for a man. Ding Xian and Bella are also quite flat and one dimensional, giving the impression that they’re rather simple, which they are, wardrobe aside.

Si Yue and Edward are complex with intrinsic emotional layers that are very expressive. Si Yue is not afraid to show his emotions and he’s not afraid to cry. To watch a male protagonist cry is refreshing. Hello, men cry all the time, everywhere around the world, but that somehow tends to elude storytellers and screenwriters. Edward is not afraid to die (when he thought Bella had departed the physical world) as the pain of being alive alone would be a worse kind of hell than being reduced to ashes. This live together or die together is a form of contemporary romanticism that appeals to the celebration of earnest affection and that both stories explore well, showing that beautiful beings can have the most inner scars and battle a plethora of personal demons. They experienced pain to such a visceral level that they don’t wish others to live it. It’s strength of character, it’s benevolence to themselves and to others, it’s respect, it’s truth, it’s love.

Si Yue and Edward could not contemplate living without Ding Xian and Bella, neither could they without them. They loved one another truly madly deeply. They cared for one another like magic, but at the end of the day, they are integral in their family and friends’ nucleus.

Si Yue is an only child while Edward has a ‘brother’, Emmett, and a ‘sister’, Alice. Both reside with their parents during high school. Si Yue lives in a middle-class neighbourhood in an apartment building and walks to school whenever he’s not driving his bicycle. Edward lives in a upper-class contemporary mansion in a secluded forest natural area and drives a Volvo to school. Si Yue’s father, Zhou Zong Tang, is a well-off university professor while Carlisle Cullen, Edward’s ‘father’, is a doctor. They’re both respected in their fields; however, Zong Tang’s life takes a toll when he decides to venture down a road of no return by plagiarizing a body of work, eventually ending up in hospital, impacting Si Yue’s emotions and his university life by being labelled the son of the professor who was being investigated, regardless of his academic credibility. Si Yue and Edward’s mothers, Li Jun Yun and Esme, respectively, provide emotional support to their husbands and children. Alice and Emmett, Edward’s siblings, reside with their significant others, Jasper and Rosalie, in the family’s abode in the forest.

Ding Xian lives with her parents, Ding Wen Cheng, a high school teacher, and Ye Wan Xian, a housewife, and her brother, Ding Jun Cong, a couple of buildings away from Si Yue. Bella lives with her father Billy, a police officer in Forks. Ding Xian normally walks to school but sometimes she catches a ride on the back of Si Yue’s bicycle. Bella drives a red 1963 Chevy truck to school and she’s best friends with Alice, Edward’s ‘sister’. Ding Xian is best friends with Kong Sha Di, the girlfriend of Si Yue’s best friend, Song Zi Qi.

Si Yue’s family, contrary to Edward’s, who has a strong impact in Twilight, can be credited solely for introducing him and Ding Xian in high school and impairing his self-esteem at university to the point where he thought he and Ding Xian were better off away from one another. Edward’s family significantly impacts and drives Twilight’s story development, particularly Carlisle and Alice. The first one is the most experienced and knowledgable vampire in the ‘family’ and an encyclopaedia of wisdom, and the second has predictive visions about the future.

Ding Xian’s family and in particular Ye Wan Xian are very strict. Bella’s father, on the other hand, is more liberal like Ding Wen Cheng. Their relevance is limited to the parental education that Ding Xian and Bella have obtained which moulded their late adolescence upbringing and contributed to their character formation, nothing else.

Their friends, except for Sha Di and Alice, appear to be accessories marinating in the background. Sha Di has been there for Ding Xian through thick and thin like Alice for Bella. They’re the supportive BFFs that make it or break it for them any time any place. Sha Di is girlishly immature but loyal, contrary to the mature, emotionally stable, loyal Alice, both on team Ding Xian and Bella’s, respectively.

Ding Xian and Bella’s personalities and innocence attract two other males to their presence. Su Bo Cong and Jacob, correspondingly, both their childhood friends with whom they spent time growing up. Bo Cong comes from Ding Xian’s hometown and is an arts senior at her high school. He has been infatuated with her for quite a while. Jacob is a Forks native who, upon re-encountering Bella again, becomes smitten for her. He’s a werewolf, a natural enemy of the vampires.

Bo Cong’s presence in Secrets in the Lattice and Jacob’s presence in Twilight add tension and climax to the smart boy meets average girl starring a cliché epic love story that Shakespeare had the foresight not to pen on paper and the sense not to conceive in his mind, perhaps conjecturing their contemporary profusion in modern literature.

As a second male lead, Bo Cong is rather stale. He doesn’t advance the storyline nor does he enhance it, merely antagonizing Shi Yue to bring out his jealousy, sense of proprietorship, and protectiveness towards Ding Xian who has always only shown a romantic interest in Shi Yue. Shi Yue is visibly irked by Bo Cong’s presence until the time he’s completely certain that he and Ding Xian are a done deal and Bo Cong has been relegated to his insignificance in Ding Xian’s life.

Jacob is the opposite. He fills the pages of Twilight with profundity and presence. Jacob is not content about living in the sidelines of Bella’s life, so he pushes in. He challenges Edward and he protects Bella when he’s unable to. Eventually, their mutual distaste and disdain for one another transmutes into respect and friendship, which hasn’t happened between Shi Yue and Bo Cong. Sadly, not sad at all.

Jacob and Edward demonstrate that pacific coexistence is a mere historical term outdated by mutual assistance, understanding, and a genuine form of friendly love which doesn’t happen in Secrets in the Lattice where Bo Cong and Shi Yue remain stuck in the cold war.

Fan Zhi Xin’s performance as Bo Cong was not ideal. The spunk, backbone, vigour, vitality, and energetic fortitude that were present in Taylor Lautner’s Jacob were all amiss in Bo Cong. Either Zhi Xin was the wrong actor for the role or the character was poorly written as the result was very disappointing. In a visual adaptation where every other supporting character does better than the ‘second male lead’, something has gone erroneously astray. In Twilight, the supporting roles were executed to high standards, but then again, acting chops and experience have quite a lot to do with it.

As Konstantin Stanislavski observed, “there are no small parts, only small actors.”

Shi Yue and Ding Xian’s history, like Edward and Bella’s, was pure infinity, irresistible; their love, better than words, the best song ever! What a feeling… ‘the story of my life’… happily.

“She’s like a little sun and always emits the heat. I’ve been frustrated, fallen into abyss, but she always smiles and says, I believe you.” – Zhou Siyue