Megan's itty bitty wuxia primer

[meganbmoore]

 I think I'm about to embark on a wuxia binge(sure, I only have 3 series waiting, but I could probably make that last a month)  As several people have friended me since I last watched wuxia(not that it's been that long) and some probably didn't know what I was talking about when I was posting, I have slapped together a wuxia guide-type post.

It

Comments

[lostopenwindows]

I didn't watch Handsome Siblings but my dad did. I happened to catch glimpses of it though but couldn't get past the fact that Dicky Cheung (born 1965) plays the twin of Nicholas Tse (born 1980).

[meganbmoore]

One of many problems with the eries. Actually, most of the problems boil down to "a 40 year old comedian was playing a 18 year old"

[lostopenwindows]

True. I felt deep down something was not quite right with this series when someone whose series I had watched when I was little was trying to playing a young man when I was 20. Oh well, at least my dad thought that aside from that the series was okay to watch.

[meganbmoore]

Honestly, if they hadn't made his character so extreme and had had a better balance between the brothers, it would have been great, and maybe one of my favorites. But they approached it purely as "Dicky Cheung being funny"

[dangermousie]

Oh, such harsh comments on ROCH, my favorite of the bunch :( *sob sob sob* I liked both leads a lot :(

But hmmmmm, I really need to check out more wuxia.

[meganbmoore]

Heh...they are harsh, but they're also true(but you'll note I was harsher on other series.) On their own the plot and characters hold up well(I can deal with his brattiness and her leadability because I can at least get where they're coming from with it) but not as much so when compared to other wuxia. A large part of it is that there really isn't as much plot as most wuxia has. But I do like it and think it's a good intro wuxia(and probably the best way to make it a favorite, like some anime) I was just trying to be honest about all, good and bad(though that did kinda die off the further I got into it due to exhaustion.)

PS

[meganbmoore]

I've actually, surprisingly seen a lot of hate for any version(but esp. the one we've seen) of ROCH while poking around various wuxia boards and threads. It was rather odd and sometimes very rabid(esp some comments about XLN)

Some of it, I'm sure, is because it's so overwhelming popular and gets remade every few years while others that they like better are lesser known and not remade as much, but it was something of a shock when I first started seeing it.

[ladysaotome]

The only wuxia-ish things I've seen are the movies Hero & Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon. I didn't care for the latter (although the ending, despite the cheerylessness, was perfect) and loved the former. That has led me to think I probably wouldn't care for wuxia much. But I still enjoy reading your posts. I get to know what happens and what was cool without actually watching it. I have to admit, your's and Damgermousie's posts on ROCH had me very close to watching it.

[meganbmoore]

Hmm...I'm the opposite...I like Hero, but it focuses too much on the visuals and how it's saying what it's saying that what it's actually saying, whereas I view CT/HD as almost the perfect wuxia movie.

ROCH is plot-light for a wuxia series, but a very good intro series.

[meganbmoore]

ROCH is a good intro wuxia, and they explain what you need to know from ROCH. The things that get annoying about it probably wouldn't be annoying if it were your first, and that's actually probably the best way to watch it.

But it's also one of the best examples that most wuxias should only be 30 episodes.

[meganbmoore]

ROCH is just over 40 eps.

OTOH, Damo, my favorite korean drama, is wuxia-ish and only 14 eps.

[walkwithheroes]

This is horribly late, but I was looking at your list and I have to ask: where do you get your wuxia dramas from? There are a couple of here (Face to Fate, and a couple of others) that I want to see. However, they aren't on jdramas.

[meganbmoore]

response pmed