Red Cliff; The Three Kingdoms

[rachelmanija]

I watched part I of Red Cliff, John Woo's adaptation of a teeeeeny bit of the story of the Three Kingdoms, a famous epic about how China was split into three warring kingdoms. It is so excellent

Comments

[spectralbovine]

A man fights with a spear in one hand and a baby he's protecting in the other!
Doesn't that happen in Shoot 'Em Up?

[lnhammer]

I have been eyeing the Foreign Language Press box set edition of the unabridged Three Kingdoms for a month, since I had excellent lock with their Journey to the West. The only reason I've held off is suspecting I don't have a brain for a cast of (literally) a thousand named characters just now.

---L.

[flemmings]

I have that one. I'm assured it's better than the other one and it does have helpful notes, but... 3K is indeed a cast of thousands with, in English, no hanzi to help you keep Who's Who straight, supposing you know hanzi in the first place. Not to mention, battles, politics, battles, politics, shifting alliances, strategies, blah-blah-blah Boys 'n Their Toys stuff does not make for page-turning must reads.

Truly, I can't recommend reading Three Kingdoms. I do recommend watching Three Kingdoms-based films or series, that give you all the Best Bits that everyone remembers; or at the very least reading up on the Dynasty Warriors game, if not actually playing it. This will give a face to all those names. For which manhwa, however many-volumed, is probably a better bet than a standard translation.

There's also an online version of the Brewitt-Taylor translation here (scroll past the pictures of Obama- I have no idea what they're doing there.) Also has fun marginal notes from various contributors with what would be spoilers galore if one

[lnhammer]

For "lock" read " luck". Oy -- proofreading, man -- PROOFREADING.

---L.

[kateelliott]

[lady_ganesh]

You took the words out of my mouth. Or fingers, as it is.

[tool_of_satan]

I believe there are only two published translations of the entire Romance of the Three Kingdoms. One of them, which I read, is by C. H. Brewitt-Taylor. I recommend the other one.

It occurs to me to ask - you do mean Romance, right? Because there is also Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, which is more of an actual history as opposed to a historically-based story.

[rachelmanija]

I see! ;)

Yes, I meant Romance.

[tool_of_satan]

Brewitt-Taylor is not awful but he(?) has a fairly stiff style which gets tiring to read after a while. Also, he sometimes has a tin ear, as when he has Cao Cao use the phrase "gang aft a-gley" (it may not bother you when a 3rd-century Chinese warlord says that, but it does me).

The other translation is apparently by Moss Roberts, and general opinion seems to be that it is preferable. As

[keelieinblack]

Oh dear, I was going to rec Ravages of Time because it is full of cool military things even though it takes some liberties with its sources, but then I saw your last paragraph. I am not sure an ongoing manhua series with 33+ volumes, only a third of which are translated, would be any easier to follow.