Three Kingdoms (2010) - is it possible to fall in love with a drama starting 2 minutes in?

[dangermousie]

I believe so, because I am barely past the opening credits of the first episode of the 2010 adaptation of Three Kingdoms, the 95-ep (!!!!) adaptation of the 14th century Chinese classic (which Mousie has just obtained for her kindle btw). JiangHu has subbed 30+ eps so far and is actively working on it.

Three Kingdoms is (to quote wikipedia) "based on the events in the turbulent years near the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history, starting in 169 and ending with the reunification of the land in 280."

It has a ginormous cast, a lot of politics and battles. It looks beyond epic. Have a general MV:

Fair warning, not a lot of romance, for obvious reasons. That doesn't bother me, but MMV. Though what little is there, seems to be made exactly to my specs, see below. (I ship them already and I have no idea who they are whatsoever!!!!)

Oh, and alexandral, Peter Ho is in this one.

*buckles down to a new obsession*

I've also been reading comments to random clips/character MVs to this on youtube and most of them seem to be fanboys/fangirls vehemently arguing which guy is the better fighter. Sample "Such-and-such didn't die when he got beheaded. He's tough enough to grow a new head" (paraphrase). LOL. I kinda love it.

Comments

the best 2010 Cdrama by a long shot

[mookiehyun.livejournal.com]

O watch it watch it watch it! I've just finished it finally, it took me almost a yr. THE BEST 2010 CDRAMA! I lovelovelove it, I haven't watched anything more than 50eps, this's broken my rule. One of my draws was the CaoCao, Chen Jian Bin is my C ajhusshi crush.

All the main actors r AWESOME.
The ZhuGe Liang (Lu Yi), Zhao Yun (Nie Yuan) are all very gorgeous ahjusshis as well for our shallow selves, bonus: they r terrifically good actors on top and help scrubbed the memory of the JohnWoo RC fr my brain.

the ZhuGe Liang:
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/8684/u2411p28t3d2187874f326d.jpg

Re: the best 2010 Cdrama by a long shot

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Re: Zhuge Liang. Oh my. Oh my.

I did notice from the trailers ad credits that it seems Ancient China was populated exclusively by good-looking men in their 30s/40s/50s who were majorly into armor.

I can't wait to continue.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I watched...about half the first episode? But I kept not paying attention. I'm hoping it gets licensed and Netflix has it, so I can watch it on my DVD player instead of my laptop. Easier to pay attention to things that don't hold my full attention that way, at times, if that makes sense. (Though, it makes 3 recent cdramas in a row that I've bounced off-it, HSDS, and the newest Book and Sword.)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I think the thing with 3 Kingdoms is it's such a huge story (both time-period wise, I think it covers 100+ years, and cast of characters-wise - it seems half of China is in it) that it does take time to get going. For me, I am not Chinese and not familiar with 3 Kingdoms plot or characters, so it's even more disorienting (compare to if e.g. someone made a TV version of Mallory - I'd be able to follow it easily as I am familiar with it. Or to use a Russian version, a TV epic based on bogatyri cycle - which would actually make a kickass show, seeing they were warriors fighting bandits, mystical forces and Tatar invaders. OK, now I am sidetracked but I want that now). So I can totally see where you are coming from. But I actually like being lost in this strange new world.

I got completely confused and turned off by the new DS&HS and I actually love the actors and the maker's previous drama ROCH is one of my favorites. So you are not alone.

Haven't tried B&S but I confess not being keen on the translation when I read it some time ago.

If you are looking for a fun period cdrama but don't want to stream e.g. Jade Palace, how about Men & Legends - it's on netflix and is set at the turn of 20th century. It's basically a more modern wuxia and while I haven't finished it, is a lot of fun. Has a bunch of kickass ladies too, and stars Dylan Kuo and Peter Ho, both of whom I really enjoy (well, the latter only in period dramas, if Summer Desire is any indication. I've liked him in every period drama I've seen him in, though).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

(Th Mallory mention makes me giggle, as I've been on an Arthuriana kick lately that shows no signs of going away anytime soon. Though, I'm not a big fan of Mallory. I like de Troyes, but largely like the pre-medieval stuff, even if it can be random and often more obscure.)

I watched Men and Legends last year. It was fun, though disorienting in how isolated the leads (not just the 2 mains, but the most major characters in general) were from each other for so much of it.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I prefer de Troyes too. :)

Btw, if you are on a pre/medieval kick, have you tried the Lais of Marie de France. It's a collection of pretty interesting stories by the titular Marie and they are fascinating and often woman-centric (in both good and bad ways). And are you into Icelandic sagas at all? Njal's Saga and Laxdœla saga are expecially excellent. OK, I could babble all day, I majored in Medieval History :)

Re: Men & Legends. I am only partway through but I like it. I am spoiled rotten for the ending though and can't wait for all the aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaangst.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Oh, babble away with recs. A lot of my medieval lit is largely retellings of older stuff, largely Arthuriana. (Basically older Celtic and Irish cycles and myths that get readapted a lot, and then Chaucer and Arthuriana and the Everyman tales, and then I skip ahead to Shakespeare and then skip ahead to late-18th century onward.)

I read the Lais in high school and have them on my kindle app to reread, but haven't yet.

The M&L angst made me giggle, not gonna lie. ASnd it was my favorite character, too! But the melodrama was just so over the top and cheesy. (It's like how Saif Ali Khan seems to undergo severe physical damage that he doesn't need to-like trying to punch through a brick wall-in the name of Love in most of the Bollywood movies I've seen him in.)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

As a Russian, I got to plug The Tale of Igor's Campaign (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Igor%27s_Campaign). Nabokov did an excellent translation (not sure if from Russian translation or from the original Slavic).

Of course Song of Roland (though I prefer Oliver).

The Murder of Chales the Good is a great chronicle too.

I'd recomment byliny (Russian epic folk poems) but I don't think they've been translated.

Orlando Furioso (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Furioso) is incredibly entertaining.

Re: Men & Legends. Who's your fave character? Mine was Dylan Kuo's mainly because I have an unreasoning love for him since The Outsiders. Second being Reporter Girl with awesome hats and gruesome form of death. If I had to pick which one of our two heroes got a happy ending, I was glad it was Dylan because see above, but I am amused that I have yet to see Peter Ho get a happy ending in a period drama in any shape way or form. Or actually any drama except for Summer Desire (but the less I remember that one, the better).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I shall look into those.

We share favorite characters, but in reverse order. (Also, I love her hats, but wardrobe did not do a good job at choosing colors for her at times.)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

By drama standards, her outfits were positively amazingly good :) Have you seen the horrors they normally put drama people into?

[stillingfleet.livejournal.com]

The Three Kingdoms is SUCH a classic - in our four years of secondary school we were supposed to read one of the four most famous Chinese classics per year, and The Three Kingdoms and Romance of the Red Chamber in my third and fourth year are tied as my favourites =) I'm really glad that you're enjoying this adaptation (it has been adapted a gazillion times lol).

BTW if you like it I recommend Red Cliff Part I and II by John Woo if you haven't watched them. It's about some of the best characters from the Three Kingdoms and stars Tong Leung Chiu Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Zhen (aka guy opposite Zhang Ziyi in Crouching Tiger), Zhao Wei and Lin Chi Ling (aka Chinese lady in I think Takuya Kimura's last drama). It plays up the love story between Tong Leung and Lin Chi Ling's characters (she's especially awesome in the second instalment) while serving up really exciting political and military drama.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I saw the first movie a long time ago and liked it. Must go track the second one down.

I love LCL!

[elizabennet69.livejournal.com]

Red Cliff is the reason I have read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Tony Leung CW fan here) and I'm very glad that I did since it turned out to be a very good novel and a suprisingly easy and fun read.

The two characters I had a crush on while reading was Guan Yu (imagine my suprise when I found out that this is the guy worshipped both by cops and gangsters in many HK films I have seen) and Zhuge Liang (he is not only a brilliant mind but also one of the good guys).

Takeshi playing Zhuge in the film was dreamy. But John Woo interpreted Tony's character differently from the book. In the book he is a petty general outmatched by Zhuge in everything but in the film he is a wise and talented general and they end up being friends with Zhuge.

Re: Red Cliff

[mookiehyun.livejournal.com]

John Woo claimed he based his RC on Records of 3 Kingdoms (the proper historical records) instead of the novel Romance of 3 Kingdoms. Of course it ended up being mostly a Mr. Woo creation.

In the historical text, Zhou Yu(Tony's character) is considered as smart and arguably prettier than ZhuGe Liang.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I plan to read it as soon as I finish the drama because, bizarrely, I want to be surprised, even if this thing was written 7 centuries ago.

Red Cliff was a cool movie though.

[doozy05.livejournal.com]

Mousie, after reading your posts and mookie's rec, now I'm thinking of watching this. I'm usually not a fan of cdrama but I do like historical shows and especially those where they strategize like there's no tomorrow. Gonna download the first ep. and hope it's good.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

This is really good, IMO. I'd give it 2-3 eps though because it is so huge in scope (also, 2 eps is basically the length of one kdrama ep).

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I am so obsessed just from look at pictures already. Is it downloadable? I like to watch things on my new TV nowdays that does avi well.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yup, Jiang Hu (the same people who are subbing Shanghai Bund as a side-project) are doing this. The subs are excellent and the video quality likewise. They are up to ep 28. You can find torrents/megaupload/rapidshare/mediafire links here (http://jiang-hu.org/).

It's in .mp4 format - I am sure you can convert it to avi easily if you need it.

There is a LOT of politics and battles and some delicious shippiness. Hope you like!