cdrama bits, mostly evidence that cdrama TPTB hate Hu Ge or think he angsts really well

[meganbmoore]

1.  This must be done.  The cruelty must be shared.  Exhinits in order of increasing angst.

Exhibit A: Legend of the Condor Heroes:

Ok, not really all that bad.  Ok, sure, his best friend turns evil and tries to kill Hu Ge's pregnant wife, but they end up ok.  And really, 40~+ years of marriage to the love of his life, 3 kids and being the most renown hero in the world should compensate for any angst he endures.  But he DOES spawn Guo Fu, the most despised wuxia character ever (or so I'm assured) and surely that earns him SOME angst/torture points...

Exhibit B: Till Death Do Us Part:

Were I to actually watch this, I'm sure it would be higher on my list.  Heroine learns she's dying of the same disease that killed her father and that she only has 100 days left to live.  Instead of getting medical treatments to try to save her life, she decides to have fun with the rest of her life and meets and falls in love with Hu Ge.  I'm sure they have many cute and fluffy scenes before her illness worsens and they spend the last few eps with him holding her hand while she wastes away in a hospital bed. OTOH, there may also be scenes of fainting and heroic carrying...

Exhibit C: Strange Tales of Liao Zhai

6 stories, 5 angsty romances, 4 end happily.  The other involves the hero, the heroine, and their mentors defeating the Evil Mountain God, but only one makes it despite his having the least kung fu skills...Every other hero(except in Painted Skin, which was all about unpleasant peoplke getting their comeuppance) got an HEA...Hu Ge?  Well, he gets reassured that in another 5 or 10 reincarnations, they MIGHT meet and fall in love again...

Exhibit D: Young Warriors of the Yang Clan:

Most of family gets offed in battle.  Decades later, his nephew kills him in battle with neither having any idea they're related because his brother got amnesia and joined the enemies, never remembering his family or his wife.  Upside?  I don't think his OTP dies on him in this one, but calixais being a weenie about the deaths and putting off finishing it, so I don't know yet.

Exhibit E:  The Little Fairy:

True love is a goddess and forbidden to stay on Earth.  They're allowed 100 days together before she has to return to the heavens and they can never see each other again (there is also extreme angst involving their baby, but that's worse on her.)  Unbelievable amounts of manpain are involved in this that involve slavery, torture, his heart pretty much literally breaking in two, imprisonment for a crime he didn't commit and the death of virtually every friend and loved one he has.  Only two things keep this from being the top of his angst heap, one of which is that Bobby Dou goes through about twice as much angst.

Exhibit F: Chinese Paladin:

Parents abandonerd him with his aunt so they can go be heroes when he's just a little guy.  Bad guys give him amnesia to make him forget he met and married his true love.  This causes problems when said true love shows up looking for him and he doesn't remember her.  As the series progresses, Best Friend A, scholar, infiltrates the bad guys(after having his own parents murdered in front of him) to try to save them all but end up pretty much literally dying in Hu Ge's arms.  Best friend B, fighter (EDDIE PENG!!!) turns into a bird(along with his OTP) to save the world from destruction.  Literally. Other Girl In Love Him him is crushed to death by a pillar after reuniting him with True Love.  The only people he knows who aren't death in the dead are his baby, Old Mountain Man, and the aunt he'll probably never see again.  Oh, his parents MIGHT be alive out there, but who knows, what with their running of and never looking back.  But the thing that keeps this at the top of his angstheap?  True Love is mortally wounded in battle but somehow keeps herself from bleeding to death because she knows her dying will make him sad.  That is, until he's carrying her theough a field of flowers and he realizes she's hurt, at which point, all the blood comes pouring out and soaks the flowers, making a fair chunk of the field red and he just kinda...keeps carrying her even though she's dead *points to icon*...there's some anguished screaming in there, too.

2.  I think Sun Fei Fei's fans have it in for her.  She's very pretty, but they keep saying she's "as beautiful as" or "Just like" Crystal Liu.  I think part of this is because Crystal's untranslated name is Liu Li Fei.  The problem is that when you start saying someone looks like Crystal, people start expecting borderline inhuman beauty, making "very pretty" a touch of a let down...

Crystal Liu in Return of the Condor Heroes:







Sun Fei Fei in Sword Stained With Royal Blood:







Very pretty?  Most definately.  Meeting expectations set by by saying she's as Crystal Liu?  No.  (And this isn't from the perspective of being a Crystal Liu fan, really.  Sure, she's beautiful, but she's a rather limited actress and I always worry that she'll chip.)

3.  Not drama, but movies.  I really wish HK would go back to the Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon style of cinematography.  All the wuxia movies the last few years(from about House of Flying Daggers on, I think) have been rather blindingly beautiful, but I prefer the simpler look of CT/HD.

4.  Back to dramas...it seems all mainland cdramas are wuxia or other ancient series.  Anyone know of any good modern ones?  (Preferably where the leads live)

5.  I think someone in costuming for The Legend and The Hero had it in for Fan Bing Bing.  Otherwise, they never would have put this on her head:



As you can see from her expression, she agrees with me.  Thankfully, she doesn't wear it the whole time(or so other pictures I've gathered tell me)

*wanders off to bed*

Comments

[calixa.livejournal.com]

Of course Princess doesn't die in Yang Saga... they have to get married and have a baby. And when he dies, she's the matriarch of the family for the next generation. She lives forever. Unlike him and their son. YES, EVEN HIS SON DIES YOUNG. Men simply did not last very long back when the Yangs were around.

I think the girl who's going to be Yelu Xie's otp in LOCH is a better contender for LYF #2. She is even more stiff than LYF sometimes. But just as beautiful. And her name is Liu Shi Shi.

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/static/images/7/7e/Liushishi.jpg

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I happen to really like Crystal Liu. She is not the female Laurence Olivier of China, but any roles she plays do not require her to be. This said, the girl in the other pics, is pretty. But yeah, not CL.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I like Crystal Liu, but she's a very limited actress...the main difference in her character in ROCH and in Chinese Paladin is her maturity level(which makes her her much better in ROCH) She's perfect as the otherworldly beauty, but doesn't have a lot of range beyond that(fortunately, there's plenty of call for that role)

I wasn't saying "CL sucks but she's beautiful" just saying that I wasn't saying she was more beautiful because I'm biased in her favor.

[chaos00tryza.livejournal.com]

Exhibit C: Strange Tales of Liao Zhai


6 stories, 5 angsty romances, 4 end happily.

So much angst. I don't think I could handle that! And yet for some reason I keep seeing myself gravitating towards the most angst ridden pairngs and couple backstories. This can't be a good sign.

Huh, I'd like to swap clothes with Sun Fei Fei in the near future. *has nothing she likes to wear anymore*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Heh. Somehow, I always manage to get past wuxia angst(well, except one thing in The Little Fairy)

[kitkat-cat.livejournal.com]

i never realised that chinese paladin ranked so highly on the angst-pile. i've never seen it, well, i gave up after 2 episodes...maybe i need to continue with this...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

CP starts slow but it's really good. Just give it until the supporting characters start making their presence known.