Of Swords and Parasols

 I think I'm about to embark on a wuxia binge(sure, I only have 3 series waiting, but I could probably make that last a month)  As several people have friended me since I last watched wuxia(not that it's been that long) and some probably didn't know what I was talking about when I was posting, I have slapped together a wuxia guide-type post.

It ended up rather longer than planned, but is still much shorter than it could be. 

Here is wikipedia's entry on wuxia.



meganbmoore's much less informative but more succinct description:  Wuxia are coming of age adventure stories set in ancient and medieval China.  The heroes are (in my experience) usually young men raised in near or total seclusion, or who led simpler lives before starting on their adventures.  Most are motivated either by a need to fulfill a promise to a parent or master, or by revenge(or both.)  Though they don't always start out that way, they usually end up being one of the greatest fighter's of their time.  Romance always plays some role, but with varying importance to the plot.  Sometimes it will be a main focus, others, a more background thing.  Most heroes, though, have several girls in love with them throughout the series.  Some will love more than one girl(usually in succession, not simultaneously) and others (the good ones) will only love one girl throughout.  If a series has 2 major heroes, there will usually be at least one of each kind. Some wuxia are straight up fantasy, and others historical dramas.  Most, however, still have a touch of the fantastic, and all, even the most strictly historical, involve fantastical acrobatics, including impressive aerial feats(called "wire-fu.")

I'm not going to get into wuxia movies(except to say that Hero seems to be the most popular but, IMO, none come close to matching up to Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon) but most that have been released in the US in recent years-Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower, etc.-are of the straight historical drama with amazing acrobatics variety.

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


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...


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*

Ok, seriously, does this production company just like to make it's characters suffer? Do they think Hu Ge angsts well?  Ok, he does, but...

Really, not quite the great ball of angst that was Chinese Paladin, but pretty close(and really, a much happier, sweeter ending than what I'd expected, given that it was a romance between a goddess and a mortal with every other god opposed to it)


Also, I found a 46 page gallery of Chinese Paladin pics...expect a picspam soon.

No, seriously.

Up to ep 14 and...uhm...yeah...

Also, I possibly found the first 5 minutes on Hana Kimi unsubbed on youtube and possibly watched it...

I'm somewhere in ep 5 of The Little Fairy now.  It's very cute and fun, but a little slow so far(plus, Ariel Lin's character is kinda annoying me right now, but then, she's pretending to be a boy and convince everyone-many who briefly met her as a girl-that she's a boy, so I'm forgiving, esp. as I really liked her when she was being herself)  Mostly though, it's reminding me of Chinese Paladin and making me think of that.  Which makes sense, really..Hu Ge is the hero in both, and the same actors are playing his mentor and the villain as did in CP, though all 3 characters couldn't be more different from how there were in CP, and only Hu Ge looks remotely the same.  Incidentally, dangermousie, the guy who plays Little Fish's sidekick in Handsome Siblings is the villain in both TLF and CP(of the 3, I think HS is the weakest role for him, though)  Also, the two series are shot and colored almost exactly the same and have many similar effects, and both focus a lot on friendship alongside the romance, and the friendships have a similar vibe.

I must say, though, that I adore the secondary OTP...she's a very shy but very pretty waitress who has a crush on one of Hu Ge's friends, who's impossibly serious and focused but has some pretty good martial arts skills.  Which, naturally, have only been used to save her from kidnappers so far.

And, on a completely shallow note, Tae is very pretty(even if he is mostly just ARiel Lin's ounching bag so far in the series)

Anyway, mostly, I come bringing pics of much cute and pretty. Click on them and they get bigger.

Just finished the first ep(and about 10 minutes) of this one.  It's a wuxia drama with Huge Ge and Ariel Lin about the 7th daughter of the King of Heaven, who's exiled to earth for being naughty all falls in love with a mortal there, and has to decide if she wants to stay on earth and give up her mortality, or leave him and stay immortal.

The combined power of the cute of Ariel Lin and Hu Ge could almost kill a person.

And I swear, Hu Ge is either a great actor or he likes Ariel Lin in RL, because that was just about to most convincing "besotted stare" ever.

 

DBY info is actually dated, as I typed this up at work last night but couldn't post it until now.  Commentary is through ep 8, I'm up to 14 now(hey, there's not much to do out there except watch something, stroke the cats and read, and reading makes it difficult to stroke the cats)