Freud will have a field day with me
1. I am in a dream series of doom. Let me explain for the benefit of the un-intiated: dreaming is to me what watching telly is to most people. I I dream in third person, and they tend to be extremely vivid - better yet, they are also serialised: each episode takes off from the episode I had the night before. Usually the dreams are inspired by books and manga I have been obsessed with. The longest series ran for six months odd, the short ones are two parter movies. Yes, I am that escapist and unsociable. Even my subconscious create alternative universes that I am not a participant in. It has been some time since my last dream series, which had been about a special victims crime unit investigator trying to rescue a young mother and her two sons from a murderer out for revenge (inspired by: a couple of FBI thrillers I was reading, Dark Knight, my first taste of CSI - which is infuriatingly illogical - and news reports on family murder.)
The current dream series, which started a few nights ago, is the first I ever have in Chinese. Lord. It is a wuxia pian. (Please read below if you have no idea what an wuxia pian is). The main character is this physician 雪傲义峰， aka 医仙银峰, who was on a trip to visit his father's friend only to discover a massacre at the latter's place (and yes, this is very typical of wuxia films). I usually don't recall the names of characters in my dreams, and he probably has a Japanese like name because I have been reading Japanese novels recently, and I have no idea how that moniker came up. But anyhow, naturally he is now embroiled in some random tussle in the pugilistic world, as he links up with this other chap ( 龙萧天, the name is familiar - I have no idea where it came from). The dream stopped last night, with his frantically trying to save a young child - and I am in a bloody cliffhanger. The wonderful thing about this dream series? It is already heavily loaded with slashy undertones - I just wonder if my subconscious will make it 'canon'. Obviously I have been watching too much wuxia pian (I've been rewatching all the old ones Tony Leung was in) and reading too much Colourcloud Palace and Chinese novels - but still, my subconscious is awesome!
2. For the benefit of the non-Asian folks on my flist, let me explain the concept of wuxia shows. Wuxia literally means, Kungfu Hero. (how do you translate "wu?"?!) It does not describe a character as much as it does a genre - it largely refers to swordfighting drama or stories set in ancient China, and for much of the genre, before the Qing dynasty. It is a very specific form of period drama. The interesting thing about wuxia films and books is that it pretty much crosses all boundaries. No age, gender limitations, because the wuxia books/film usually incorporates a little of everything: violence, romance, intrigue, humour, drama, even poetry, travelogue. Just two main things determine if it's a wuxian film: 1) swordfighting/martial arts as the central theme and 2) costumes (yes, I'm being superficial here). The most famous writer to date in the wuxia literary world is Louis Cha, followed by Gu Long (my bias, sue me - I'm not a fan of Liang Yu Sheng), and many telly dramas, movies have been based on these books.
To make it easier to understand, let's use an example. Now many of you will know Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Lots of sword fighting, lots of prancing around in the air, a bit of angst, a bit of acting and NO plot. It was a hit in the Western market, but when it hit the Chinese market, the response among my friends at least was largely "Good try, but WTF was that?!" CTHD was a dump-down version of wuxia film - the ones the Chinese in Asia grew up on are the broad-sweeping, long, highly developed plot lines with very distinct characters. Ask any Chinese in the Chinese/Cantonese speaking world and I'd bet they know who Yang Guo is and what the Condor Heroes is. I was completely horrified when I first caught CTHD and then, Hero. Man... plotless, pointless, and not even good swordfighting to boot.
But yes, getting back to the point - the wonderful thing about wuxia shows? The cool, beautiful, occasionally angsty MALE characters! The females I find annoying, because in the Chinese/Asian context, there are only that many roles the female can play, and more so, in the period dramas for it to be remotely believable. (Don't start, my feminist friends have already given me a round of lectures on this aspect.) The male characters however have a run of the field. Woohooo.
The current dream series, which started a few nights ago, is the first I ever have in Chinese. Lord. It is a wuxia pian. (Please read below if you have no idea what an wuxia pian is). The main character is this physician 雪傲义峰， aka 医仙银峰, who was on a trip to visit his father's friend only to discover a massacre at the latter's place (and yes, this is very typical of wuxia films). I usually don't recall the names of characters in my dreams, and he probably has a Japanese like name because I have been reading Japanese novels recently, and I have no idea how that moniker came up. But anyhow, naturally he is now embroiled in some random tussle in the pugilistic world, as he links up with this other chap ( 龙萧天, the name is familiar - I have no idea where it came from). The dream stopped last night, with his frantically trying to save a young child - and I am in a bloody cliffhanger. The wonderful thing about this dream series? It is already heavily loaded with slashy undertones - I just wonder if my subconscious will make it 'canon'. Obviously I have been watching too much wuxia pian (I've been rewatching all the old ones Tony Leung was in) and reading too much Colourcloud Palace and Chinese novels - but still, my subconscious is awesome!
2. For the benefit of the non-Asian folks on my flist, let me explain the concept of wuxia shows. Wuxia literally means, Kungfu Hero. (how do you translate "wu?"?!) It does not describe a character as much as it does a genre - it largely refers to swordfighting drama or stories set in ancient China, and for much of the genre, before the Qing dynasty. It is a very specific form of period drama. The interesting thing about wuxia films and books is that it pretty much crosses all boundaries. No age, gender limitations, because the wuxia books/film usually incorporates a little of everything: violence, romance, intrigue, humour, drama, even poetry, travelogue. Just two main things determine if it's a wuxian film: 1) swordfighting/martial arts as the central theme and 2) costumes (yes, I'm being superficial here). The most famous writer to date in the wuxia literary world is Louis Cha, followed by Gu Long (my bias, sue me - I'm not a fan of Liang Yu Sheng), and many telly dramas, movies have been based on these books.
To make it easier to understand, let's use an example. Now many of you will know Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Lots of sword fighting, lots of prancing around in the air, a bit of angst, a bit of acting and NO plot. It was a hit in the Western market, but when it hit the Chinese market, the response among my friends at least was largely "Good try, but WTF was that?!" CTHD was a dump-down version of wuxia film - the ones the Chinese in Asia grew up on are the broad-sweeping, long, highly developed plot lines with very distinct characters. Ask any Chinese in the Chinese/Cantonese speaking world and I'd bet they know who Yang Guo is and what the Condor Heroes is. I was completely horrified when I first caught CTHD and then, Hero. Man... plotless, pointless, and not even good swordfighting to boot.
But yes, getting back to the point - the wonderful thing about wuxia shows? The cool, beautiful, occasionally angsty MALE characters! The females I find annoying, because in the Chinese/Asian context, there are only that many roles the female can play, and more so, in the period dramas for it to be remotely believable. (Don't start, my feminist friends have already given me a round of lectures on this aspect.) The male characters however have a run of the field. Woohooo.