Even though I don’t even really like watching dramas anymore, because tv is a draggy medium, I wanted to spend some time recapping the series coming out this summer. I’m doing this because I feel like non-wuxia Chinese dramas need more love. More than mainland music or mainland movies. Chinese television has been a well established industry much earlier than either of those mediums, and there are some really great series, that for the life of me I don’t understand how they are so unknown. I also just like being snarky and recapping is a nice chance to do that.
And luckily this is summer, which means slightly more free time for me, there are plenty of exciting releases with a variety of subjects . You can vote more than once, but please limit your choice to two. I have more information for these series below the cut.
Disclaimer, the poll is for my reference only and may not actually influence me to recap, depending on when the series airs, in conjunction with my schedule.
Also this is only a small sampling of what will actually be airing in China this summer. I cut out all wuxia dramas and dramas that I don’t think fit the demographic of visitors to this site. If you had a series you liked that’s not on this list, then sorry.
In the order I believe they are appearing:
An Xiang – Wang Luodan, Huang Xiaoming
Mystery and romance are intertwined in this series about a family with demons and secrets.
A Tribute to Stephen Chow – Jing Boran (BOBO), Yang Zi
Parody of Stephen Chow movies; very tongue in cheek
Chinese Paladin 3 – Hu Ge, Yang Mi
Fantasy series based on a Chinese RPG
Nonstop – BOBO
Sitcom about teenagers produced by SMG and Korea’s MBC.
Nv Lang Zhi Nv – Ady An Yixuan and Tian Liang
Ancient drama based on ancient Chinese folklore
Always Smile! – Ming Dao, Zhang Jiani
Modern day Hunan TV romance series revolving around a hotel
Infernal Lovers – Deng Jiajia, Mike He, Jing Dong
Idol/ serious mainland drama mix, produced by bigshots across the strait. Period drama.
Meteor Shower – Zhang Han, Zheng Shuang, Yu Haoming
Idol drama.
A Tribute to Stephen Chow…
@nepheliad – Yeah, I think my first exposure to Japanese entertainment was Sailor Moon. Tuxedo Mask <3
I just wish Asian entertainment could be looked at as good when it's just normal, rather than something you can't get from America.
The wuxia people can be pretty elitist, and that's the problem.
I’m sorry for carrying this discussion so long… If you’re tired of seeing me babble, tell me to shut up.
I dunno; have you been keeping up with the overseas J-sector in recent years? Initially, Japanese entertainment was marginalized to anime/manga and the bizarre, but now, it’s expanded – from J-horror to J-drama to J-comedy to J-sci fi to J-game shows, and with J-rock, J-indie, J-pop, J-electronica, etc. I don’t prefer either fangirls or fanboys; I guess I’d just rather have both.
Aside from K-horror, Korea entertainment’s range in global eyes seems to be pretty limited to the pop/drama stuff. I think it’s that which distresses me with the fangirls concerning Chinese media – it might be off-putting to non-fangirls of both genders and non-Chinese people in general. A crude example – in the early days, there were fangirls of Sailor Moon and fanboys of DBZ. The former go on to J-drama and J-pop; the latter go on to J-games and J-rock, leaving room for a wide spectra of influence. Korean media aborad, however, seems so saturated with K-drama and pop that the guys and non-fangirl types just ignore it.
As for the quirky – well, that kinda goes for every nation regardless; as the Japanese are known for their type of quirky (which has its own range overseas, from weird humor to giant mecha to animation to horror), the French have their “mindscrew art” flicks, India has its Bollywood style, and Britain has its “Brit-humor”. I’m sure the US has its own overseas. However, I feel like Korea is especially pigeonholed, because coverage seems focused on drama, without much sign of expansion, at least as far as I can tell.
And the problem with the wuxia community is that they’re too focused on wuxia. I’d love for some of those folks to diversify, because they do their research and are well-versed. Thing is, a lot of ’em seem only interested in that particular aspect of Chinese culture. Their existence does make me hopeful that there will be a broader range of Chinese media/culture flowing outwards, though.
As for the gory stuff, I mean, I’ve got a strong stomach for it (though I’m on Twitch for its artsy stuff more than its horror), and even I was shocked by how gory some of Asian media is… It’s not even rated in China? That’s a little disturbing…
I wish Chinese entertainment can get a lot of the more sophisicated fangirl/boys… like wuxia. The wuxia translators I’ve seen seem to be have more of those really knowledgable ones that knows all the little nuances of the Chinese language and culture, and knows how to express them in English. It was so refreshing compared to fangirls who knows neither language well enough to be able to display the true beauty of the script.
A lot of Asian movies do go out even more than American ones. And Japanese horror films are a lot scarier than American ones.
Well, twitch is very much blood and guts when it comes to Asian dramas, I think, which is what I feel a lot of western (guys) zone in on when it comes to Asian entertainment.
For supposedly being so liberal, the US really does self-censor its movies. I remember it being Kill-bill being called bloody, but I mean the Asian movies are way more disgusting. I watched Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and I was like 0_0. I really did not need to see the revolting prison lesbian rape in such graphic detail. That kind of stuff would never fly in the US.
And so it seems those in the US like to get their fix elsewhere, namely Asia, and Asia gets kind of built up as some sort of quirky-film factory, rather than a normal functioning movie industry with a lot of variety.
I’d rather take the fangirls tbh.
And I think South Korea pigeonholed themselves, which was what in turn made it easier for fans to get into kpop, because it was so commercial and about idols.
Hmm, well, I remember seeing something about a Taiwanese horror movie recently, but I could be remembering wrong. It’s definitely not covered nearly as much as J/K/HK, though.
I wasn’t talking about blood and guts, specifically (do I come off that way? ^^;) – and there’s more of that than I’d really want in some of the period/wuxia shows, really. I was wondering about the ratings system (or lack thereof), since some of those shows seem to be airing during the prime-time hours…
I think fangirls will be the first thrust of overseas promotion, but I can’t say I’m happy about it, haha… It’d be kind of distressing to me if the effect ends up being that Chinese entertainment coverage gets a kinda pigeonholed reputation like Korean entertainment, rather than somewhat more diversely covered like Japanese entertainment, and one of the reasons for the difference, far as I can tell, is that Japanese entertainment’s first thrust was through anime/gaming, drawing in fanboys at least as much as fangirls. Certainly, fanboys can be just as active, if in different ways.
I dunno. I suppose it all evens out in the end, and maybe the difference between the two is just a function of time. Any coverage, certainly, is better than no coverage. Or else, like you said, without sites like yours, people like me who have a spark of interest would just lose it.
@nepheliad? Really? Twitch covers Tw movies? Which ones?
I always went to Twitch even though I didn’t really like most of the things they covered, but it was still a source of Asian news. But then I started arguing with one of their posters for posting too much tv news and stopped visiting. Ahem.
I guess if we’re talking weird blood and guts type stuff then yeah, China doesn’t have that, mostly due to the lack of a rating system which I despair at. They better get one in the next year or two years or it will be ridiculous for country with their market to not have one.
Not that I was thinking about this when I started Cfensi (I had no concrete plans then) but I think I want cater to fangirls now. Why? Because they are they best at being active for their fandom. They will be the ones subbing, the ones promoting artists the most, etc. I do not plan on running Cfensi forever, and I really want more people to be active.
There are lots of people who know Chinese, but they’ve never had anywhere to channel their efforts (except for subbing Korean vids from Chinese subs -_-) because like you they didn’t think there was anything. I blame this in part because of the diversity of Chinese-language entertainment…HK, TW, SG …etc.
LOL, I was talking about a few forums, actually – there aren’t any others like this one, far as I know, which is why I come here. And no, they don’t – those cover mostly T/HK stuff, which gets covered plenty without ’em. I mean, I frequent twitchfilm since it does cater more to my tastes (ONEDREAMRUSH, my god), and it’s pretty much J/K/HK/T… It’s like I want to like mainland Chinese entertainment while I like the genres that I do, but the two don’t overlap. There are plenty of sites covering those regions, but what coverage there is of mainland entertainment gravitates to wuxia, dramas, and movies.
And agreed, they do. I just like the galas because they’re something that I don’t see on US television aside from ones from the capital on PBS – an organized performance and festivities without an annoying awards show in between.
@megan – You may be confusing Nonstop with Young Gods of Cookery? Which is a movie? Nonstop has 100 episodes, so no way am I recapping all of it, but I’ll recap ones I like for sure since quite a few seem interested in it.
And yeah, lol, that’s why I’m afraid of watching Princess Returning Pearl.
@nepheliad – What other Chinese websites are you speaking of? This is really the only one I know…except for the ones on my blogroll which are more topical.
I feel like foreign-run websites on Asian cinema, like twitchfilms.net for example cover more of the stuff you’re looking for.
The galas are…. a tradition I guess? They really need to start getting younger artists on there.
@cfensi: Megan and i are subbing it =) If anyone wants to help, that’ll be great!
Ah, I pretty much figured as much about the sci-fi stuff – figured I’d just have to wait on it, haha. Didn’t know it was popular among the kids, though – hearing that makes me plenty happy.
And I remember seeing the espionage stuff while in China, and I’m just lukewarm towards that genre. You cover it well enough, anyhow, by just mentioning it every now and then. As for what else there is, I guess I simply meant to see more variety (or quality/notablity therein, and in the industry, not your blog), and shows more tilted towards their own genres than in the drama genre (because as noted, that can encompass a lot). I’ll be looking deeper and playing a waiting game, it seems.
Haha, I know I’m kinda the odd one out when it comes to the demographics of these sites covering Chinese media. Makes me feel kinda isolated when looking around on them, but they keep me interested in Chinese entertainment. And yeah, I know you couldn’t possibly cover so much; the trend of comments on the site made that pretty clear what people are usually interested in, and besides, no point in covering what you’re not interested in, anyway. ^^;
I love the big galas – so lavish!
Meteor Shower if possible but I wouldn’t mine Nonstop either
@cfensi
Princess Returning Pearl is the best drama ever. It was like the first drama I ever watched…and sure enough I am in love Vicky, Ruby and Alec even now.
Anyway, so the Bobo one is a sitcom? Ok then…just don’t mind me…c:
@idarklight
That post on Meteor Shower was such a long time ago wasn’t it? That’s when I starting pming you like crazy.
I am afraid to watch Princess Returning Pearl. I am afraid I will be forever in love with Zhao Wei, Ruby Lin, and Alec Su afterwards.
@megan
Well, BOBO’s drama is more of a sitcom, and thus, I don’t know how good it will be.
@julie: I’ll help you sub ;p
No one’s said this, but I am really, really, really, looking forward to the Bobo drama. I’m sort of anticipating Meteor Shower too, but a lot of people will be recapping this one, I think.