chinese tv
Jun. 18th, 2020 12:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
issenlloWatching:
Romance of Tiger and Rose: It's kinda cute? There's a femdom which is not very well developed but it's still fun. It's essentially a light-hearted romance (24 episodes) which plays with some drama tropes enough to make things fresh and I'm enjoying the costumes and being intrigued by Chen Qianqian's braids. Quick review at Cfensi here
2019 Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre. I'm just skipping to my favourite parts*: when Zhang Wuji fights off the orthodox sects at Bright Peak, not-so-incidentally defending the Ming sect; when he 'returns' to Wudang and meets Zhang Sanfeng and learns taiji in an hour; when Yang Buhui decides she wants to marry Yin Liting; when the lady in yellow comes to kick Zhou Zhirou's ass. Glad to see that the Ji Xiaofu/Yang Xiao relationship is a little less rapey this time round; there's a bit of Stockholm syndrome, but compared to previous versions/interpretations, I'm willing to let that go. Somewhat.
- I'm always kinda disappointed in Xie Xun at the end, when he decides he'd rather be a monk because apparently all that time of being imprisoned by Shaolin monks and listening to their Buddhist scriptures have... changed him? Well, Louis Cha puts it down as 'reforming' but from my perspective, isn't it brainwashing instead? I'm like, damn, even Zhang Wuji later realises he'd have to get away from the Ming sect***, and you? You'd decided to throw in your lot with a bunch of hypocritical monks instead? (I hasten to add that the monks in Heavenly Sword are portrayed as arrogant, prejudiced, self-righteous assholes, and this is something that Xie Xun and many of the other characters know well, and yet...). Also this version of Xie Xun, the 'Gold-haired Lion King' (:-P) has really nice, shiny hair for someone who's been imprisoned in an underground dungeon for months. ^____^;;;
*There have been so many TV versions of Jin Yong's Condor trilogy that unless that version is really spectacular**, I'm quite ehh and happy to skip the parts I'm bored by and re-watch the parts that tug at my heartstrings. E.g. I'm forever soft for Yang Guo/Xiaolongnu, especially their reunion at the heroes' meet and the one 16 years later; also when Yang Guo tells the world to fuck off about his and Xiaolongnu's relationship; and Xiaolongnu kicking Quanzhen ass; and Xiaolongnu and Zhou Botong friendship - it's the only time when Zhou Botong doesn't seem tedious to me. Total avoid: the rape scene. Total cringe on the giant condor - I cannot watch it except as parody: condor as transport device in the 2006 version, for example.
**The results have been generally mixed.
***I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't read the newest revised version of Heavenly Sword but Zhang Wuji's little speech at the end when he declines to be emperor is pretty good: that the Ming sect made their living (so as to speak) by fighting against the ills and corruption of those in power and it's totally self-serving to now hype yourself as emperor on the basis that since we're the 'good' guys, we're gonna be a good emperor. It doesn't work that way because of that thing about power corrupts. (Of course as history proves, this was why they got systematically wiped out - because one of theirs rose to power. Zhu Yuanzhang who became first emperor of the Ming dynasty totally knew how dangerous religious-based rebel sects were. Whereas if the Ming sect had not meddled in politics, they could have muddled along as a halfway accepted jianghu religious-based sect, y'know, like Shaolin.)
Romance of Tiger and Rose: It's kinda cute? There's a femdom which is not very well developed but it's still fun. It's essentially a light-hearted romance (24 episodes) which plays with some drama tropes enough to make things fresh and I'm enjoying the costumes and being intrigued by Chen Qianqian's braids. Quick review at Cfensi here
2019 Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre. I'm just skipping to my favourite parts*: when Zhang Wuji fights off the orthodox sects at Bright Peak, not-so-incidentally defending the Ming sect; when he 'returns' to Wudang and meets Zhang Sanfeng and learns taiji in an hour; when Yang Buhui decides she wants to marry Yin Liting; when the lady in yellow comes to kick Zhou Zhirou's ass. Glad to see that the Ji Xiaofu/Yang Xiao relationship is a little less rapey this time round; there's a bit of Stockholm syndrome, but compared to previous versions/interpretations, I'm willing to let that go. Somewhat.
- I'm always kinda disappointed in Xie Xun at the end, when he decides he'd rather be a monk because apparently all that time of being imprisoned by Shaolin monks and listening to their Buddhist scriptures have... changed him? Well, Louis Cha puts it down as 'reforming' but from my perspective, isn't it brainwashing instead? I'm like, damn, even Zhang Wuji later realises he'd have to get away from the Ming sect***, and you? You'd decided to throw in your lot with a bunch of hypocritical monks instead? (I hasten to add that the monks in Heavenly Sword are portrayed as arrogant, prejudiced, self-righteous assholes, and this is something that Xie Xun and many of the other characters know well, and yet...). Also this version of Xie Xun, the 'Gold-haired Lion King' (:-P) has really nice, shiny hair for someone who's been imprisoned in an underground dungeon for months. ^____^;;;
*There have been so many TV versions of Jin Yong's Condor trilogy that unless that version is really spectacular**, I'm quite ehh and happy to skip the parts I'm bored by and re-watch the parts that tug at my heartstrings. E.g. I'm forever soft for Yang Guo/Xiaolongnu, especially their reunion at the heroes' meet and the one 16 years later; also when Yang Guo tells the world to fuck off about his and Xiaolongnu's relationship; and Xiaolongnu kicking Quanzhen ass; and Xiaolongnu and Zhou Botong friendship - it's the only time when Zhou Botong doesn't seem tedious to me. Total avoid: the rape scene. Total cringe on the giant condor - I cannot watch it except as parody: condor as transport device in the 2006 version, for example.
**The results have been generally mixed.
***I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't read the newest revised version of Heavenly Sword but Zhang Wuji's little speech at the end when he declines to be emperor is pretty good: that the Ming sect made their living (so as to speak) by fighting against the ills and corruption of those in power and it's totally self-serving to now hype yourself as emperor on the basis that since we're the 'good' guys, we're gonna be a good emperor. It doesn't work that way because of that thing about power corrupts. (Of course as history proves, this was why they got systematically wiped out - because one of theirs rose to power. Zhu Yuanzhang who became first emperor of the Ming dynasty totally knew how dangerous religious-based rebel sects were. Whereas if the Ming sect had not meddled in politics, they could have muddled along as a halfway accepted jianghu religious-based sect, y'know, like Shaolin.)