Do you have a favourite c-drama, either historical, modern or fantasy? I really enjoyed watching Everlasting Longing
I absolutely have a favourite, along with 3 other that come really close 😃 These 4 shows I've watched for almost 30 years now and I still keep re-watching them because of how amazing they are.
a) 1994 Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三国演义)
b) 1986 Journey to the West (西游记)
c) 1987 Dream of the Red Chamber (红楼梦)
d) 1998 Water Margins (水浒传)
These 4 series were based off of the classical novels of the same names. They were produced by CCTV, the central broadcasting network in China, so we call them 央视版 (central broadcast version) because there are many other adaptations.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, out of these 4 series this one is my ABSOLUTE favourite. Not only for Chinese drama, this is my favourite show historical, modern, Chinese, English, the top spot in my heart.
This story is set in the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. Out of all 4 classics, this one is the most historical, but the story DOES contain many fictional aspects. Many people say it's 70/30 (70% based on history, 30% made up/tweaked from history). The characters themselves ARE all real in history, and the general direction of the story follows history as well.
Near the end of the Han Dynasty, local warlords started gaining power, eventually splitting the country into 3 Kingdoms. That's pretty much the basis of the story. It goes into strategies used in warfare, psychology of using strategies, famous battles, etc. People also use it to discuss some philosophical questions like, honor, right vs wrong (kill an innocent person to calm an entire army, is that justified? etc.), what is acceptable as a leader, being faithful to your country, not giving up, etc.
I've watched this series no less than 20 times over the past 30 years and every time I still laugh and cry. I also know enough about the background when they were filming to know how difficult it was. The series is 84 eps long, they filmed in 5 groups for 3 years (so basically all 5 groups were filming at the same time to save time), even utilizing the military for some of the larger battles. Main character roles were paid 250 yuan/episode (about $34 USD today), which was fairly good for salary back then but nowhere near the outrageous amounts actors get today compared to average worker. The first few months before filming all actors went through training, horseback riding, fighting, going over the novel with experts, learning etiquette and mannerisms, etc.
This series also has my favourite historical figures, Emperor Liubei and his Prime Minister Zhuge Liang. After researching the actual history of this period, these two are my top historical Emperor/advisor pair. An Emperor who trusted his Prime Minister with his Kingdom, and a Prime Minister who fought to the last breath to fulfill the dream they had together T___T
为什么我的鱼水君臣要 BE...😭😭😭
If you're interested in watching this series, @hanchaozhilang is doing English subs for the whole series
Putting up 2 MVs for them here (combined into 1 video), 我家昭烈帝和武侯有排面！！
Journey to the West is based off of a true event in history, during the Tang Dynasty. A monk went on a journey from Chang'an (now Xi'an) to India for Buddhist scriptures. I'm not too familiar with the actual history, but I can imagine back then it would've been an incredibly difficult journey to make.
The novel took that journey and expanded it. They wrote in 3 disciples for the monk (technically 4...the horse who's the son of one of the Dragon Kings is also one), and put 81 "tests" along the way. The monk and his disciples had to overcome these attempts to thwart their journey to finally reach their goal.
The main character of this series isn't actually the monk but his eldest disciple, the Monkey King (top right). The Monkey King (named Sun Wukong) was birthed from a rock, and learned skills like how to transform into various objects, how to fly, etc. At one point he trashed the Jade Emperor (Emperor of the Heavens) palace and was sentenced by Buddha to be trapped under a mountain, but was tasked to assist the monk on his journey 500 years later.
When they filmed this series they were desperately short on funding, only had 1 video camera to use xD Every single main actor took on several roles (some of the smaller monster roles, once all the makeup was on you couldn't tell anyway). The actor who played the Monkey King, Liu Xiao Ling Tong, he came from a family of Peking Opera performers who specialized in the Monkey King role, so he excelled in it.
The novel Dream of the Red Chamber is originally called Story of the Stone (石头记). It centres around several large, rich, powerful families interconnected through marriage, with members serving in the court and one of the daughters even being a concubine to the Emperor. Although the story doesn't specify a dynasty, most people speculate it's likely set in Ming (the author was from the Qing Dynasty).
There are numerous storylines throughout the story, but the main one is between a young man, Baoyu, and his cousin, Daiyu (top left). This novel is incredibly complicated, with an entire profession dedicated to studying just this book (called "Redology" 红学). It can be viewed as telling the rise and fall of a family, but can also be viewed to describe a society and the rise and fall of dynasties. There are many, many characters in this book all with different story arcs. When I was a child, watching this show was just pretty clothes and hair, but as I grew, every time I re-watched the show I found reflections of life in this story. Family relationships, friendships, colleagues, bosses, this story touches on all of them, so whatever age you read this book/watch this show there's things to think about.
Many of the actors for this show were not actors by profession, literally plucked from the crowd. For two years prior to filming, all of them lived together, learning the script, reading the novel, going over it with experts, learning mannerisms, how to write calligraphy, poetry, etc. Their roles weren't immediately set, so during those two years they all tried out different roles, memorized lines, basically like living in a giant dormitory together, so once filming did start their "acting" was very natural.
Water Margins is set in the Song Dynasty. This story, to me, is darker than the other 3. The story depicts a court that is very corrupt and unjust, which forces a lot of otherwise good people to resort to criminal activity. Over 100 of them gather on a mountain in the middle of a lake, called Liangshan, where they essentially become a gang.
The traditional view of them tended to be kind of like Robinhood, raiding local cities and distributing the wealth to the people but if you actually read the book it's darker. Before joining the group, some of them would kidnap women and **** them, or one person had a restaurant where she murdered customers and made them into meat buns O.O;; So...yeah, dark stuff.
But anyway, the story goes into how this group take on the courts, lots of fighting, lots of bloodshed, the ending's really tragic T_T
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Given the quality of everything up until episode 27, I expected the back half of Pursuit of Jade to be pretty rushed, but I figured that was really the only fault it would have. Like things would happen really quickly, but the logic would still stand.
But given how things panned out in EP 29/30..... Oof.
These last 10 episodes are clearly going to be rough as we move on to the court politics. I never expect much when it comes to politics in idol dramas, but given that coherent logic went completely out the window these past two EPs just in terms of Fan Changyu's choices and decisions and how everything moved around her, I am massively adjusting my expectations even further.
Even if we get a nice happy ending, we are clearly tripping, falling flat on our face, and knocking out all our front teeth to get there.
okay will zhan zhao adventures finally deliver to me a new c-drama threesome to obsess about
as of episode 12, odds are good
(and yes, I adore the rest of the show, huo linglong my beloved in particular, but the trio dynamic is top tier and oh how I've longed for a new one, as much as I love difanghua)
Felix Kemmerer reminds me of Mark Eydelshteyn, He looks very much homme fatal like him , big curls a bit androgynous, beautiful shiny fabrics , I think felix could be a soft dramatic like Mark. Plus he's over 183 cm apparently. ( the face shape in the 2nd pic reminds me of jude law who's a pure classic I think , like you mentioned )
felix is likely a soft dramatic. both FN and D clothes don't quite match him, the tailoring is "randomly hanging down": but typecasting puts him in roles where the fabrics are shiny and the waist is defined. SD needs structure, too, not just drapes and silk and satin.
e.g. SD raúl julá's wonderful sharp shoulders in that great dark yin fabric. his gomez is as dramatic as morticia, but far more supple and less "stark". SD guys, they can handle the glitz, but with lines to it 💡
so hard to overdress this type, love it! and i mean this in a good way: this image ID is so glamorous that even a massive pearl necklace makes them look plain. this is styling level 1 of 10 for SD men, it's crazy. the villain from "the cell" movie, that's level 10.
what strikes me with mark and felix, those very defined dramatic "alien" features that appear yin/androgynous; the lack or overpresence of strong brows is SO typical for extreme yang. the most gorgeous soft dramatics of them all, lee pace and bella hadid, are the prime example. drama is all or nothing. zero brow or full on. (bella's eyeshadow compensates with contrast, as does lee's wig, very important.)
congruently, the bleached brow trend works on the dramatic-gamine aka FG as well. it's beautiful on gaga with the spring tones!
back to felix, though: the big curls are a soft dramatic man's signature. ♥️ would love to see him do bridgerton, the series favors yin clothes but funnily enough casts many classics instead.
soft dramatic actors are pretty much THE chinese costume/historical drama staple instead. (note how we see strong brows again, and waist emphasis, angular shoulders, and long hair, dark palettes, and high decor).
PS: a lot of things said here can be applied to austin butler (SD). the brows, curls, under/overdressing...
Am I imagining things, or are there no gratuitous shirtless scenes in C-dramas anymore? None of the 4 dramas I've watched in the past year has had one. Am I just watching the wrong ones, or is this a new normal?
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It's not Friday, but I'm on holiday tomorrow so it's Friday for me. TIME FOR A COVER REVEAL.
This stunning book has a STUNNING cover and you best bet that Brendan is strutting around the office pleased as punch that another one of his titles has showed up and SERVED.
It's out in JANUARY, and you can pre-order it HERE.
House of the azalea, where thorn meets bud;
Brother betrays brother, blood forgets blood.
Young rice farmer Yin Wei was forced to become concubine to Prince Guan Terren - a monstrous wielder of poetry magic, and heir to the Azalea throne - to save her family from the famine blighting the land of Tensha.
Now confined to the imperial court, Terren's cruelty is not the only danger Wei faces. He and his honourable older brother are locked in a deadly succession war, while Terren's thirty concubines are fighting a war of their own, for the position of future empress.
To survive, Wei must harden her heart, rely on her wit, and become dangerous herself - even if it means learning the one forbidden poem that can kill Terren and save both herself and the nation.
But there's a problem - for the spell to work against a man she hates, it must be written with love.
