Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Laughing In The Wind
Available as D-Addicts Chinese Drama Series Of The Month (torrent) and also through Netflix (DVDs, not streaming).
I rented it through Netflix and found the forty episode series to be among the best in it's genre, so far. Based on Louis Cha's novel, also called Smiling Proud Wanderer and a few other things, it's way more faithful than the movie versions from the nineties ( Sworsdman, Swordsman 2 (U.S. title - Legend Of The Swordsman), and sequel/spin-off, The East Is Red. I base this only on a few chapters of an online (uncompleted) translation. The book, like most of Cha's (AKA Jing Yong) work, is unavailable to the English speaking world save for TV series, and movies like these.
The story's mostly about the hypocrisy of those who would proclaim themselves righteous, and also that friendship (like righteousness) transcends partisanship. It's interesting that the word party is used in the subtitles (on the DVD), where sect, or clan would traditionally be used for groups like Shaolin, Wudang, Hua Mountain, and others portrayed in this series. Gives it what I would imagine to be an unintended relevance to modern political situations, considering this show was produced on the Chinese mainland.
I rented it through Netflix and found the forty episode series to be among the best in it's genre, so far. Based on Louis Cha's novel, also called Smiling Proud Wanderer and a few other things, it's way more faithful than the movie versions from the nineties ( Sworsdman, Swordsman 2 (U.S. title - Legend Of The Swordsman), and sequel/spin-off, The East Is Red. I base this only on a few chapters of an online (uncompleted) translation. The book, like most of Cha's (AKA Jing Yong) work, is unavailable to the English speaking world save for TV series, and movies like these.
The story's mostly about the hypocrisy of those who would proclaim themselves righteous, and also that friendship (like righteousness) transcends partisanship. It's interesting that the word party is used in the subtitles (on the DVD), where sect, or clan would traditionally be used for groups like Shaolin, Wudang, Hua Mountain, and others portrayed in this series. Gives it what I would imagine to be an unintended relevance to modern political situations, considering this show was produced on the Chinese mainland.
Labels: Awesome, downloads, DVD, kung fu, tv, wu-xia, youtube and other video
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