Chinese vs Japanese vs Korean Period movies/dramas
I was talking to my husband yesterday about why we like the Korean drama Ballad of Seodong so much compared to most TV dramas and period movies we have seen in the last 4 years and even more than Jumong. It's because the Ballad of Seodong imparts a wish of an emperor-to-be to develop a nation of technology and progress, unrivaled by anyone and in its course, he had to overcome neverending obstacles to become emperor. Compared to his hardship, we as viewers could understand how miniscule our daily troubles are. That is what is so neat about this drama series.
Jumong is a drama about how Jumong ascended the throne through constant shifting of political alliances but the drama concentrated on the warring aspect of the Three Kingdoms. Now that we have watched the Ballad of Seodong, we realize how much richer the Ballad of Seodong drama is.
Compared to these Korean ones, we watch a couple of Japanese period ones and they too stress the constant shifts of political alliances. Nothing new. The Chinese period drama and movies disappoint us the most in terms of content.
Many of the Chinese period drama/movies are based on the pugilistic world and jianghu 江湖 centering on revenge, the hegemony of a sect and warring sects. The Condor Hero, Seven Swords, Book and Sword are all along these same lines. So is the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Perhaps we have watched too many of them and the action choreographers are not giving us anything new.
Daniel Lee, the director for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, that Andy Lau and Maggie Q star in, said that the Three Kingdoms is a rich period that 100 films could be made from it and still there would be much to be said. But that is exactly the point. In recent years, Chinese movies when they are about emperors and empresses, are about their cruelty, incest. What else could they give us? Emperors are dictatorial people and that's what they do - killing others to come to power, to stay in power.
But is that all the Chinese filmmakers could offer us? I don't have high hopes of watching the manoeuvrings of battles in the Battle of Red Cliff, no matter how I like Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Chang Chen. I worry about Andy Lau's depiction of Zhao Zi Long because the film might be about the war and not the character.
That is why now we appreciate good period dramas more than movies. In a short 90 mins or even 2 hours, filmmakers could not show much character development and the filmmakers have to put in the grandscale action scenes to make it worth the investment and exporting to overseas to dazzle the viewers.
Why can't the Chinese filmmakers show us the virtues of the Chinese people in their development of art and science instead? How many massacres of Nanjing do we have to review? How many times do we have to watch the downfall of the Qing dynasty or the Manchurian period? They can't even make Genghis Khan because it would celebrate the Mongols instead of the Chinese. And how many times do we have to be subjected to weird versions of the monkey king? And of course, China would never make movies about Mao Ze Dong or the Gang of Four. No one would watch them because of the huge association of death tolls associated with the Chinese population. So the present Chinese period movies could only show us the negative aspect of China?
Corey Yuen is rumored to be making Iron Mask with Andy Lau. It is a love story with a lot of action but I don't know if I even want to watch that. I think we as viewers in this family are getting more and more critical of what is offered by the Chinese. Just because it has action and period costume doesn't mean it's worth watching. Very soon, I might only review Korean movies and dramas because at least, many of the non-teenage typical triangular love ones have a heart and purpose especially the period dramas.
Previous in This Category: Online Polls I - Junichi Okada, Kinki Kids, SMAP Next in This Category: Kurosagi (the movie) by Yamapi
