Binge watched a few series lately on Netflix whilst stuck at home a bit sick and holy shit!
Some of these series are actually pretty bloody good!
The Good: Plotlines can be very well written with excellent character development and progression giving nuance to many of the players in the over-riding plotline. Fairly decent infusions of humour and some great moments of villainy! Seriously in one of the shows I watched I was literally moving onto the edge of my seat when the chief bitch what was coming to her
The universes the shows paint with Heavenly Realms, Demon Realms and other assorted places vying for power and influence with the Mortal Realm used as a battleground and testing place are new to me and I really enjoyed the unique quality of it.
The cinematography in many of the scenes is absolutely gorgeous, the costumes incredible, the lead actresses invariably beautiful and the male leads (with one possible exception of the lead guy in Legend of White Snake who looks like a gumby 😆) put in great performances selling their stock characters well.
The battle scenes of the Army of Heaven launching its assault on the Demon Realm in 'Ashes of Love' was great as was the Great War between the Realms in 'Eternal Love'. The shows all have corny names by Western norms as they all have great romances at the centre of their plotlines (a fair few of which endure great tragedies) with stock characters seemingly in most of them. Typically you have the fay, spritely young girl. The young, capable male lead with responsibilities. The female antagonist who wants the male lead but can't have him and gives into plotting and jealousy. The interfering mother, the hard headed ruler type who needs his heart opened etc.
But all great story traditions have types of characters and as long as they're well written on an absolutely epic stage thats even better, which leads me to my next good thing.
The lack of SJW identitarian bullshit or to put in Chinese 'Baizuo' bullshit. I'm getting over Western tv shows because they put politicised identity politics bullshit in almost every show, every show seemingly needs a gay or lesbian main, the token oppressed ethnic minorities etc. Honestly its like the leads should turn to the face the camera directly every five minutes and deadpan go "Racism/sexism/homphobia is bad"🥁 and then toss in some shitty story telling and a lack of strong male leads for good measure.
Some issues: The CGI can vary from movie quality to not the best at times, the music is actually pretty good in many cases but gets repetitive with only a few tunes/songs per series it seems to set the different moods. Of course you will probably need sub-titiles to understand what is going on and the enjoyment of that depends a lot on the translator. There are some Chinese/Asian show quirks that you will need to get used to such as the extensive use of flashbacks and some soapie like camera angles and shooting styles at times during dialogue heavy scenes. Oh and who could forget the spitting out blood when injured or really sick thing 😁
But overall I would definitely recommend giving these series a try, some of them are already completed and are like 50-60 epsiodes in length.
The best thing though! This means that Asia is now making epic fantasy series that are enjoyable to watch. Hells yeah. Fucking Hollywood and Western studios finally have some competition which will maybe finally make them up their game.
Series I've seen so far in the order I watched them
'Legend of White Snake' historical romance with fantasy elements. A re-telling of a classic Chinese legend and very enjoyable despite the male lead having a punchable face. Its got humans, snake and fox spirits in human form an awesome buddhist monk who kicks arse and takes names etc.
'Eternal Love' Epic fantasy series with several great romance stories spanning thousands of years in the realms of Heaven and the Mortal World with some fantastic plot lines and character development.
'Ashes of Love' Another fantasy epic set chiefly in the Heavenly, Demon and Mortal Realms with more scheming, lies and murder than you could poke a stick at but also some great comedy and love stories. Genuinely enjoyable characters and a great triangle involving the royal family of Heaven which threatens to turn the various realms into battlefields (and eventually does).
(trailer contains spoilers)
Some of these series are actually pretty bloody good!
The Good: Plotlines can be very well written with excellent character development and progression giving nuance to many of the players in the over-riding plotline. Fairly decent infusions of humour and some great moments of villainy! Seriously in one of the shows I watched I was literally moving onto the edge of my seat when the chief bitch what was coming to her
The universes the shows paint with Heavenly Realms, Demon Realms and other assorted places vying for power and influence with the Mortal Realm used as a battleground and testing place are new to me and I really enjoyed the unique quality of it.The cinematography in many of the scenes is absolutely gorgeous, the costumes incredible, the lead actresses invariably beautiful and the male leads (with one possible exception of the lead guy in Legend of White Snake who looks like a gumby 😆) put in great performances selling their stock characters well.
The battle scenes of the Army of Heaven launching its assault on the Demon Realm in 'Ashes of Love' was great as was the Great War between the Realms in 'Eternal Love'. The shows all have corny names by Western norms as they all have great romances at the centre of their plotlines (a fair few of which endure great tragedies) with stock characters seemingly in most of them. Typically you have the fay, spritely young girl. The young, capable male lead with responsibilities. The female antagonist who wants the male lead but can't have him and gives into plotting and jealousy. The interfering mother, the hard headed ruler type who needs his heart opened etc.
But all great story traditions have types of characters and as long as they're well written on an absolutely epic stage thats even better, which leads me to my next good thing.
The lack of SJW identitarian bullshit or to put in Chinese
'Baizuo' bullshit. I'm getting over Western tv shows because they put politicised identity politics bullshit in almost every show, every show seemingly needs a gay or lesbian main, the token oppressed ethnic minorities etc. Honestly its like the leads should turn to the face the camera directly every five minutes and deadpan go "Racism/sexism/homphobia is bad"🥁 and then toss in some shitty story telling and a lack of strong male leads for good measure.Some issues: The CGI can vary from movie quality to not the best at times, the music is actually pretty good in many cases but gets repetitive with only a few tunes/songs per series it seems to set the different moods. Of course you will probably need sub-titiles to understand what is going on and the enjoyment of that depends a lot on the translator. There are some Chinese/Asian show quirks that you will need to get used to such as the extensive use of flashbacks and some soapie like camera angles and shooting styles at times during dialogue heavy scenes. Oh and who could forget the spitting out blood when injured or really sick thing 😁
But overall I would definitely recommend giving these series a try, some of them are already completed and are like 50-60 epsiodes in length.
The best thing though! This means that Asia is now making epic fantasy series that are enjoyable to watch. Hells yeah. Fucking Hollywood and Western studios finally have some competition which will maybe finally make them up their game.
Series I've seen so far in the order I watched them
'Legend of White Snake' historical romance with fantasy elements. A re-telling of a classic Chinese legend and very enjoyable despite the male lead having a punchable face. Its got humans, snake and fox spirits in human form an awesome buddhist monk who kicks arse and takes names etc.
'Eternal Love' Epic fantasy series with several great romance stories spanning thousands of years in the realms of Heaven and the Mortal World with some fantastic plot lines and character development.
'Ashes of Love' Another fantasy epic set chiefly in the Heavenly, Demon and Mortal Realms with more scheming, lies and murder than you could poke a stick at but also some great comedy and love stories. Genuinely enjoyable characters and a great triangle involving the royal family of Heaven which threatens to turn the various realms into battlefields (and eventually does).
(trailer contains spoilers)