So, what shall my next wuxia be?

[dangermousie]

Yes, I am only halfway through LOCH but as you can tell, I am obsessed.

If you need to gauge my tastes, I've seen and loved (in addition to LOCH), Return of the Condor Heroes 2006, Handsome Siblings (the Nic Tse parts, the Dicky Cheung ones were horrifying), Da Ren Wu, Red Dust. Did not care for Chinese Palladin.

[Poll #1574391]

I am sort of broke at the moment so buying a pricy DVD set is rather out of the question. Anything you recommend has be either downloadable or streamed (except for Littly Fairy, LWVB and PK - I have DVDs of those already).

Comments

[seven-trees.livejournal.com]

Do you have a dl site for Patriotic Knights? Because I've only been able to find old torrents and streaming sites.

[seven-trees.livejournal.com]

Nevermind. I just read what you put on the bottom about having the dvds.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Sorry :(

[walkwithheroes.livejournal.com]

How about The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber the third and final series/book in the Condor Trilogy. I've never seen it, but it's bound to have the same type of elements from the first two series and you liked those.


There is also The Myth which stared Hu Ge. A 2000 year-old artifact transported Yi Xiao Chuan and Gao Yao from the year 2010 to the Qin dynasty. They traveled the ancient kingdom trying to find their way back to the modern day, or at least die trying. Back in 2010, their family, Yi Da Chuan and Gao Lan, were piecing together clues from ancient artifacts that could help bring them back while avoiding attacks from mysterious masked men. - I've heard good things.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I've heard the hero of Dragon Saber doesn't have one otp but a series of gf which is a bit of a turnoff but not sure how accurate that is. I am going t check it out.

The Myth sounds awesome. Off to locate!

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think Dragon Sabre will be your cup of tea. It's focus more on the "politic" with all the sects fighting each other to get the Dragon Sabre. As you know that the hero has 5 girlfriends, he came off as a bit of a wishy-washy to me, rather uncharismatic. I prefer the story of his parents actually which started the story.

The Myth is based on a Jackie Chan's movie (he produced this drama). Of course since it's a Jackie Chan movie it's a bit of a comedy so I was rather surprised they turn this into a wuxia drama, but I have to admit the hero (in the ancient time) is pretty badass and awesome.

I of course still recommend Wind and Cloud but maybe it's too long for you (70+ episodes coz it's 2 seasons).

Ai

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

70 eps OMG. But if it has subs, I am in for W&C.

Cannot wait to watch The Myth. I am preliminarily obsessed.

[walkwithheroes.livejournal.com]

The Myth is one I really want to watch. It's streaming with subs at the usual place, I do know that.

[slashedsilver.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you found what you were looking for already, but Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre is one of my favourite wuxia dramas ever :) He has four girls who love him a lot, whom he kind of likes as well, but there's only one person he truly loves, and it really shows as the series progresses. I tend to start watching from the second half, after he's grown up and all the girls are finally in the picture. You can tell right off the bat the girl he has chemistry with, and it's awesome to watch her finally win his heart (and to watch our adorable lead realise who he's loved all along -- which has been entirely obvious to the audience, of course).

I like the 2003 version, because it has some of my favourite actors (it's a Singapore-Mainland-Taiwan production with Alec Su, Alyssa Zhao and Gao Yuanyuan as the leads), but I heard the 2009 version was good too.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Sword Stained With Royal Blood: http://community.livejournal.com/jdramas/1647963.html#cutid1

I thought I knew where you could get Young Warriors without torrenting, but no luck. Maybe I can figure out how to rip my DVDs.

Also, the problem with Chinese Paladin is that neither Hu Ge nor Liu Yi Fei could act, and while their characters were ok separatel, they were annoying together, and the secondary cast acted circles around them and had better characters on top of that.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

You are a life saver!

Re: CP. I've loved both of them in other things (Hu Ge in LOCH, LYF in ROCH) but their characters were unbearable in CP and there was not much acting to cover it :P

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

CP, I think, was the first lead role for both, and it shows.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes. And also, the roles were written/directed poorly. A better, more experience actor could have salvaged it a little, but not much.

(I have such a raging wuxia obsession right now, it's insane. I am not watching any kdramas or anything else, I just want to load up on wuxia).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm in the mood for a huge sweeping historical (wuxia, sageuk, BBC, whatever) or genre, and have plenty DLed, but won't have much viewing time next week, and so an in a state of viewing frustration and am trying to dullthe urge with movies and queen of swords.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've been watching romcoms a lot lately and just got really fed up with them (it turns out a genre I can only take in small doses).

Btw, don't know if you have it, but I highly recommend Queen Seon Deok - you can stream it on dramafever.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I have a very limited tolerance for RomComs, though Bollywood seems to do them in a way that doesn't irritate me too much.

QSD is on my list.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I used to have much more of a romcom tolerance but lately it's been getting less and less - ditzy romcom kdrama heroines begin to annoy me, and even in dramas where the heroine is perfecty fine, I can't seem to get too invested.

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry but bollywood sucks now with this "actresses" like kareena, katrina, priyanka...

[hollyxu.livejournal.com]

I dunno if you'd like Sword Stained with Royal Blood, but it is written by Jin Yong, who did both LOCH and ROCH. There's the 3rd installment to the LOCH-ROCH trilogy, which is 2004's Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber - it's not as interesting (personally), and I haven't checked out the 2009 version yet.

In other Jin Yong wuxia, there's The Laughing, Smiling Wanderer, which is my personal favourite, but can't be found for love or money.

If you like Hu Ge, do not watch Fairy From Wonderland. It's overdone both in the saccharine and angst sense. You might like the Myth, though the concept is similar to Paladin - but so much better! I think it's being picked up by a sub group, but am uncertain which.

I've heard good things about Warriors of the Yang Clan, which can be found here: http://www.am-addiction.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9264

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

meganbmoore did a pretty detailed series of recaps of Sword when she was watching it and I remember being interested so hopefully I'll like it.

TLSW - K, now you got my competitive spirit going - I am going to look for it.

Thank you for Yang Clan link, I really want to watch that!

Re: Fairy. calixa and lesbiassparrow did detailed posts as they watched and I know I will enjoy even if not for the reasons the makers intended (only thing I love as much as good quality drama is cheesy drama).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

You can netflix most of TLSW, which may also be floating around the internet as Laughing in the Wind or Xiao Ao Jiang Hu. Another that I haven't seen yet is in Chinese Ghost Story, which I believe is a supernatural romance. It has Barbie Hsu as the heroine, and I think it's supposed to be good. jdramas has it.

I'm quite fond of Little Fairy, too.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads-up. Yay!

[(Anonymous)]

You can watch all Young warriors of the yang clan episodes on youtube from the begining to the end. Someone who is nice downloaded it there with subtitles.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[magiccard-1.livejournal.com]

I like the story of THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER/LAUGHING IN THE WIND based on the TV series (1996 TVB version). I adore the hero very much. I like the fact that though he was brought up in the traditional and honorable martial art party, he could not consider himself and his clan superior and just simply despise those so-called “villains” as others did. He questioned the dichotomy of black and white taught by his master. He made friends with the villains and weirdoes (those not in the normal canon) and treated them as equal once he found nothing really wrong in their doings. Finally, he stepped out the white world (? Actually he was forced to do so, a long story), and binged with his quirky and weird friends in their own bizarre world. I like that he never became a cynical anti-hero even after he was questioned, wronged and punished by the people in the same clans he belonged to. I like that he never became a judge of morality or was pushed to that position even after hypocrisy and misdeed pervaded the screen. All he wished to do was a simple thing: just breathed in the free air and enjoyed fun with new congenial companions.

I find the 2001 Mainland version.
http://f60s.com/forums/t/197485.aspx

I have downloaded episode 1 and checked the video. No big problem. But I am uncertain about this adaption (actors, script, camera works, etc).

And I doubt you will like it.

p.s. thank you for your LOCH posts. I enjoy this drama so much.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thank you for liking my post. Smiling Wanderer sounds super awesome - I am certainly going to track it down.

[(Anonymous)]

Here are my opinions on the ones that I've seen in the poll above.
YWotYC: Pretty entertaining, too bad Yuan Hong's character wasn't the main character.
PK: I enjoyed it when I watched it, but looking back it was nothing special.
LWVB: Loved this so much and this would be my vote, it has a lot of angst, but I thought one of the female leads was a bit boring.

As for other dramas (I don't know if there are eng subs for these):
- Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber: Not sure if it is your thing, but you did like LOCH and ROCH so why note try to complete the trilogy. There may be 4 girls who the main guy all cares about, but he loves only two of them, and in the end there is only one OTP. Plus one of the girls goes through a very interesting transformation.
- The Laughing, Smiling Wanderer: The 96 version is one of my favorite wuxias, one of the best OTPs in this one, and the secondary OTP has a guy who becomes pretty twisted (This may be your thing, and the 2001 version's secondary guy is played by Li Jie ).
- World's finest: Four main leads where the girl lead crossdresses 80% of the time. It has a very angsty OTP among the three OTPs and actual kissing, around 2min mark of this video:


I must say that my taste differs from yours 50% of the time, so take this with a grain of salt c:

[walkwithheroes.livejournal.com]

I'd second World's Finest. It's one I've always wanted to watch. But, there are no English subtitles for it, are there?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Now I am officially intrigued

OMG DID I JUST SEE TONGUE IN A WUXIA?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I want WF badly, after this vid. Is there any version with subs?

I WANT WANT WANT *makes grabby hands*

[lain7.livejournal.com]

I'm obliged to vote for Patriotic Knights because my beloved Wallace is the second male lead, but only because. To be honest, I would rather watch the gazillion MVs Wallace fans made than the drama itself.

have heard good things about Young Warriors of the Yang Clan

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

PK sounds like silly fun, I may check it out.

If it's Wallace in your icon, I am all the more interested :)

[lain7.livejournal.com]

Yes it's Wallace. I really dig his look in PK; too bad his character doesn't get much screen time.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

A cute SSWRB MV:



(The ones I used to have bookmarked appear to be gone...)

Also, regarding a comment someone else made in the post: I agree, Patriotic Knights is fun while you're watching, but it's not incredibly memorable. But I remember enjoying it a lot, though the main heroine got less badass and more damsel in distress later in the series, as sadly tends to happen.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

That MV is awesome. So glad I had first ep.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

IIRC, the first ep (maybe ep and a half) is kinda cluttered because they crammed about 10 chapters in to get the backstory and politics established and on to the main story. It gets good once he's wandering around and runs across his crossdressing future girlfriend. (It's as convincing as most wuxia crossdressing!)

MV of the heroine's parents, which is an awesome flashback arc:



(You may recall calixa and I commenting about bunny courtship.)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I remember the parents! In fact, I am even more interested in them then in the main OTP (who do sould cool too). I am a total sucker for intense wuxia assassin/antihero type with an OTP obsession (see my obsession with Yang Kang in LOCH, Flower in Handsome Siblings etc).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Wuxia is the main place I tend to end up liking it. (It's also one of the couple in Face to Fate, which also has a pairing where the lady is a former thief, and the dude has some obsessive monomania going at one point. Not that he gets over that, but it normally doesn't come out as much.) Though I tend to prefer it as assassin/heroine to assassin/lady. (I love the non-combatant ladies, too-tons-but that particular trope tends to work a bit better that way.)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I think outside of wuxia (or sageuk) it is not a trope I see much or, if I did see, I would like - I agree with you.

All the ones I've seen like it tend to have the heroine who can kick butt incredibly well.

Oh, must add Binchunmu to that list.

Tamra

[ockoala.livejournal.com]

dangermousie

I tend to prefer wuxias over sagueks (more action, more romance, usually). But I think your next period drama should be finishing Tamra (if you can get the 21 ep DC).

I've been guestblogging for Thundie, and just posted a review of Tamra:

http://thundie.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/tamra-the-island-mbc-2009/

Check it out, might just be your cup of tea. After LoCH (misery, heartache, pathos), Tamra might just be the breath of fres summer air your are in the mood for.