Hacker Cinema
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
三国演义
1994 · TV series · 45 min episodes · 1 season
Created by Wang Fulin
Adapted from the classical 14th century novel of the same title by Luo Guanzhong, Romance of the Three Kingdoms is part historical, part legend, and part mythical – romanticises and dramatises the lives of feudal lords and their retainers, who tried to replace the dwindling Han dynasty or restore it. The focus is mainly on the three power blocs that emerged from the remnants of the Han dynasty, and would eventually form the three states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu.
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5 comments on Hacker News
Another Chinese classic is The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and I think that might be one of the oldest character-rich media franchises of all times. Drawings of Cao Cao and other characters have been identifiable for hundreds of years. They are still making video games (Dynasty Warriors) and TV shows based on it.
Chinese here, I would highly recommend the TV series made by CCTV in 1994[1]. There's an unofficial English translated subtitle out there[2]. Cried every time I watched it.
[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms_(TV_series) [2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nzg2uzV03s
Thanks for the recommendations — John Cho was also great in "Searching" (a thriller about a Korean-American who tries to find his daughter who disappears). Old classical literature from China (especially "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" about the power struggles in the fall of the Han dynasty) has been a good source for positive role models, too.
I wish the Wolf Warrior movies could be a way to guide China's government to what it could be (a positive geopolitical force that can help). They're more fantasy than reality, though; I can't ever trust them as a Canadian, after they arbitrarily detained two fellow citizens (the two Michaels) [0] for over 1,000 days as part of a geopolitical game [1].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_of_Michael_Spavor_and_Michael_Kovrig
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58687071
As a Chinese person who grew up with the works of Jin Yong and Tolkien, I bristle a little bit at this comment.
For one, I think the marketing term is really used to explain Jin Yong's scope and impact, rather than a flat comparison of genre. In this sense, Jin Yong is, to Chinese literature, as impactful Tolkein is to Western literature.
It is a tradition within Chinese literature to prefer setting your work within our history. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is perhaps the most well-known in this vein. So to be critical of "creativity" here, is, I think a little bit short-sighted. It's like saying a Ken Burns documentary lacks the creativity of The Avengers, because magic powers and superheroes don't exist in the prior. Or trying to compare a book about the personal relationships of a cancer patient (I'm thinking "The Fault In Our Stars" specifically here) to the Harry Potter series. They are just fundamentally different things where creativity is executed in different ways. Who is to say that it is not equally powerful or creative to create characters that are deeply relatable, like Jin Yong's? In my opinion, his characters tended to ask morally difficult questions more often than Tolkein's.
Jin Yong wrote stories that were rooted in Chinese tradition, but his impact among young Chinese minds is greater than what even I can describe in a Hacker News comment. He wrote books that were about strength of self, moral character, freedom, and defiance in a time when the Chinese government strictly punished all of these things. I confess that I know nothing about Tolkein's backstory or history, but I can plainly see his impact. I think it is reasonable to say that Jin Yong's impact is as important and wide spread as Tolkein's.
The "Four Great Classic Novels" from 14th-18th century China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Chinese_Novels
Specifically:
Water Margin
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Journey to the West
Dream of the Red Chamber
They are referenced in everything in asian media and there a bajillion tv/movie adaptations of them but they are relatively unknown in the west.