Anyone here watches wuxia dramas? There are some pretty good ones. I’ll list my favourites.
My favourite so far are the 1996 Laughing Proudly at the World and the 2003 Demi-Gods & Semi-Devils. DGSG got the casting right. I really dislike the scrawny Xiao Feng in the new version.
I don’t like any of them to be honest. Good entertainment but can’t beat the novels.
It depends on how you judge a drama. Do you value it being faithful to the books? Or do you approach it with a clear state, with no bias whatsoever from the novels? These make a big difference on your opinions of the shows.
Hey I’m new to the site. I have always been a fan of Wuxia and so glad to finally find a community that shares my interests.
Do you guys have any recommendations on any good Wuxia drama/ series I should watch?
Here’s a list of the ones I really liked:
Legend of the Condor Heroes 2008
Romance of the Condor Heroes 2014
Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre 2009
Legend of the Ancient Sword
Chinese Paladin 3
Strange Hero Yi Zhi Mei
Thanks!!!
Welcome! I would actually recommend you to read the novels!
You’ve gone through the Condor Trilogy. How about watching something before or after the Trilogy?
My recommendations:
Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils 2003
Laughing Proudly at the World 2001
Reviving this thread. What about the other members? Which dramas do you like?
There are too many adaptations! It’s like almost every book has a show.
Yeah, what can we do? They do it in the name of catering to readers who aren’t so inclined to reading wuxia in the original or close to the original form. Name it so that that group of readers can relate to the characters better. In a way it’s like how movies butcher the books they are based on in order to get better box office results.
You should watch more of the 90s dramas. Good ol’ times
Shhh don’t let your age show
Some of the classics from the 80s are very good. Some TV series I really liked were:
Legend of the Condor Heroes 1983
Return of the Condor Heroes 1983
Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre 1986
Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils 1982
How about the more recent ones? Any thoughts?
FYI, in case one means to check out the recommendations of the 80s series, one thing to keep in mind is that some of these TVB adaptations are not completely faithful to the book. They really are adaptations, not just a literal re-telling of the books, but I do feel that they still capture the spirit of the story well.
Personally, across all of the adaptations I have seen, I find the LOCH adaptations the most enjoyable. I do not know why, if that is because LOCH is the most adaptable or what. For example, I also enjoyed LOCH 2008 and 2017. I keep meaning to check out LOCH 1994 too, but I need to find the dubs. And alas, I do not think one can find LOCH 1976 anywhere.
Hi Jenxi, how recent are you asking about? But if we use after 2000 as a cutoff, let’s see. I do feel like we should use a later cutoff, if talking about recent, but I cannot decide when. A note that many things are more enjoyable with the fast-forward button.
Lian Cheng Jue 2004. I keep meaning to watch this. Sara K on mangabookshelf has a review of the story, which peaked my interest.
DGSD. I enjoyed 2003. 2013 I have not watched and do not really have a strong desire to watch. I’ll probably wait for the next adaptation to try again.
XAJH. I keep meaning to watch 2001, since it is supposed to be a good adaptation. 2013, I kind of enjoyed that they cast Chen Qiao En as DFBB. One of Brigitte Lin’s iconic roles was as DFBB, so I thought it could be interesting that they cast a woman as DFBB again and centered more of the story around that character. But overall, regarding this series, I do not know if that is enough that I would recommend it. 2018 was ok.
ROCH. I enjoyed 2006. 2014, I tried watching but did not like. Part of the reason is kind of superficial. I thought that Liu Yifei really looked the part of XLN, but Michelle Chen did not.
HSDS. 2003 was ok, not that great. 2009, I did not like. 2019, I have only tried to watch some of it, but one problem I had was I had a really hard time telling ZM and ZZR apart. Many times I would have it on, look away to do something, come back and have no idea who was on the screen.
Anything not mentioned, I have not seen.
This ended up way longer than I expected. Sorry about that.
No particular cut off, just recent since most that you mentioned were from the previous decade. Part of my curiosity is because I haven’t seen the recent ones and reviews I come across are often by drama/celebrity fans rather than wuxia fans. Moreover, you’ve seen the old ones so that adds more weight to your reviews.
TLBB 2003 is still my favourite. 2013 pales in comparison because Xiao Feng is too scrawny. Feeling positive about the 2019 version and I’m looking forward to it.
XAJH 1996 is the best so far IMHO, though I haven’t seen 2018. 2001 is pretty good, but '96 Linghu Chong feels more carefree and '96 Ren Yingying is better cast as well. I do recall liking some elements and character portrayals in 2001 though I can’t remember what exactly now. It’s been years.
LOCH - I agree that it seems to do well. The cast are also right each time somehow. Enjoyed 2003 and 2017 (the most recent Jin Yong drama I’ve seen). I realise I haven’t seen 2008
ROCH - 2006 is pretty good. I like Michelle Chen in 2014 to be fair. I felt Chen Xiao was less suited for Yang Guo’s role but he made the role his own albeit different from the Yang Guo in the novel. Again, waiting for the 2019 version.
HSDS 2003 did well with Alec Su and Alyssa Chia (my favourite Zhao Min to date, if not female Jin Yong lead). Been meaning to watch 2009 because it’s by director Zhang Jizhong who did LOCH 2003 and ROCH 2006. Head mixed reviews of 2019 so I’m not sure if I’ll watch this, especially if I devote time to 2009.
That’s interesting. They don’t look that similar actually.
Nah, it’s always good to see such sharing.
Actually I’d like to correct myself. Every book has at least one show!
For those which were adapted from JinYong’s novels specially the Condor Trilogy, I just could not watch them without having bias judgment.
When I read a novel, my brain would generated images of the scenes and the characters from the storyline. If I like the novel, the main reason would be because I like the images which my brain generated and the storyline.
For quite a few adaptations from JinYong’s novel, I have read the novels before watching them, hence I ended up having bias against the adaptation, because scenes might not look like what I have imagined when I read. The actors and actresses who portrayed the characters might not act or looked like what I wanted them to be, so I ended up dislike the adaptation.
For example, I was watching the 2019 adaptation of HSDS, I like it at first until about the third end of the episodes which I really hate. The storyline in the adaptation was drastically changed from the novel. Zhang Wuji was made into a stupid figure head, Zhao Min was a sorry and spoiled teenager who begged for love from Zhang Wuji and Zhou Zhiruo was made into a super jealous she-devil. It made me felt like, the script writer was a soap writer who was told to lengthen the adaptation in a very stupid way.
However, upon talking with others, many was drawn into the novels from watching the adaptations. I considered this to be positive thing, since personally I like reading more than watching.
Thanks for reading.
psksvp
The portrayal of the characters are based on the understanding the director, actors and actresses have of said characters. Likewise for the casting call.
I haven’t seen the 2019 HSDS, but I believe the target audience’s age group and trying to make sure the show gets good ratings play a part in how they adapt the novel.
This is so true. But, but I still judge. We all have how own imagination of what the characters look like, or at least based them on our fave actors, actresses. Oh, this gives me an idea for a post!
I saw where your idea took you. And I’ve decided to start with HSDS haha.