Remarks and Observations Directed at the Clouds – Chinese TV Shows

Rookie Agent Rouge Image:  https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/rookie-agent-rouge

When I want entertainment, I look for lighthearted, escapist entertainment. I don’t need drama in my life. Adventure, mystery, intrigue, humor, and romance, when handled deftly, are always welcome, at least in books and shows. I value, clever, witty writing, plotting, and good acting. I dislike gaping plot holes, trite, and predictable stories.

I like spending my time in the company of likable characters. Life is too short to put up with jerks, even in books and TV shows. Some unpleasant characters might be unavoidable as antagonists, but as long as I have pleasant characters to carry the story along, I’ll put up with a few rotten eggs. Some of the rotten eggs might even be redeemable.

I like stories that take their time in the telling. Stories that give me a chance to know the characters. I often find that good characters are usually more interesting that the story.

Plus I appreciate high production values – in sets, scenery, costumes, and cinematography.

These are the characteristics that I judge a show, or a book by. Right. On with the reviews.

The first two shows listed below served as my introduction to Chinese TV. They exhibit many of the chief characteristics of Chinese TV shows that I’ve observed over time.

These characteristics include intricate, 20 to 50 hour long, stories. They fall into the soap opera formula, featuring a number of plot threads woven into one long story. They’re in no rush, and will half a minute with nothing more than a character silently pondering his or her situation. Romance is a slow, slow burn. Plus, they are not afraid to make a mix of genres, with drama, action, romance and comedy alternating throughout the story. Another characteristic is that the male lead is of the strong, silent variety. He says very little. Heck, if he ever said what he was thinking, they could cut the number of episodes in half. On the downside, the stories may run a tad too long, and the endings are a bit over the top, at least to my tastes. And well, they have lame titles in translation.

Rather than summarizing the shows myself, I’ve included links that will take you to the wikapedia entry for all the TV shows I mention.

The Disguiser Image: http://dr-myri-blog.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-disguiser-episode-11-recap.html

Rookie Agent Rouge (Netflix – not currently available) 45 episodes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rookie_Agent_Rouge

The Disguiser (Netflix – not currently available) 41 episodes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Disguiser

Both of these shows stories of the Chinese resistance to the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and northern China in the late 1930’s to early 1940’s. Rookie Agent Rouge has a rather pulp story feel to it, while the Disguiser, based on a novel, portrays more of the political aspects of the situation. Both shows show the harsh, and often cruel, nature of this occupation, with torture being the fate of any enemy of Japan.

I enjoyed both of these shows, and I’d rate them 4 stars out of 5

The Rise of Phoenixes  Image: https://meaww.com/the-rise-of-phoenixes-fans-reveal-makes-this-netflix-c-drama-beloved-all-over-the-world

The next two shows I watched were also historical dramas, but this time set in ancient China. A China that is probably more fantasy than historic. They are:

The Rise of Phoenixes (Netflix 70 episodes)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_of_Phoenixes

The Princess Weiyoung (Netflix 54 episodes)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Weiyoung

The Princess Weiyoung  Image: https://zuriest.wordpress.com/2019/07/30/chinese-drama-the-princess-weiyoung/

These shows set in the imperial court or surrounding palaces, and mostly involve court intrigues. Since Chinese emperors had not only a wife but many concubines, they had numerous of sons – all of whom, it seems, wanted to be the next emperor. And who don’t mind bumping off their step brothers to clear their path to the dragon throne. Since they had to conceal their actions from their father, their deadly schemes needed be elaborate, making for much of the drama and intrigue in these shows.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I enjoyed science fiction for its exotic locales, and these versions of ancient China, with their exotic costumes, customs, along with the occasional kung-fu movie style of action, they manage to create a very exotic setting for their stories. Heck, I enjoy seeing all the exotic costumes and interior designs of these shows offer the viewer.

The romantic leads in The Rise of Phoenixes, one is just dressed up like a man... Can you tell who?
Image; https://ninja-reflection.com/2018/10/01/rise-phoenixes-novel-ending-ii/

I like my stories to be semi-realistic, without gaping plot holes. However, if I like a show, I’ll cut it some slack, as for example in The Rise of Phoenixes where the female lead does her hair differently, and dresses like a man (though there isn’t all that much difference) to pass herself off as a man. Realistically, this would only work in a kingdom of the blind. But it’s all in good fun.

I’d rate both these shows 4 stars out of 5 as well.

There are many more shows along these lines on Netflix, many of them pure Chinese fantasy, complete with supernatural beings, demons,gods, and all kinds of beings in between. I’ve sampled several, but most are too strange for me. I can, however recommend trying the one listed below.

The Legend of White Snake  Image: https://www.viki.com/tv/36277c-the-legend-of-white-snake

The Legend of White Snake (Netflix 36 episodes)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_White_Snake_(2019_TV_series)

It had some strange, supernatural elements, but it also had interesting and likable characters as well. Another 4 out of 5 show.

Leaving the past behind, we come to stories set in modern China, which, as I mentioned in previous post, is a very futuristic place, since many of its major cities have been largely built within the 21^st century. With these contemporary shows I find it interesting to note the cultural differences and similarities between China and the West.

Many of these stories are set within the upper 1% of the Chinese society. You see a lot of wealth on display in these shows – mansions and luxury flats, expensive foreign cars, and high class restaurants. I may have missed some of the gritter shows, but still, for a communist country, they seem to like celebrating their wealth in their TV shows.

I also found the glimpse of college life and life in the dorms rather interesting as well. It is these little glimpses of real life that I find fascinating. From the shows Netflix serves up to me, there are a whole lot of Chinese YA and college age shows. I’ve sampled a few, but that’s not really my thing.

When a Snail Falls in Love  Image: https://blog.onehallyu.com/drama-review-snail-falls-love/

When a Snail Falls in Love (Netflix 16 episodes)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_a_Snail_Falls_in_Love

This show is part mystery, part police procedural, part adventure, and part romance. I enjoyed all the parts.

Again, 4 out of 5 stars.

Next, are the two soap opera style, romantic comedies that I and my wife have watched to their conclusions.

Well Intended Love   Image: https://pikdo.info/p/coupletaichi_/2131893516545024143_14013427399

Well Intended Love (Netflix 20 episodes)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-Intended_Love

UPDATE: Well Intended Love has, of 15 April 2020 a "second season." Unlike most second seasons, this show has the same actors playing the same roles as in the first season, but is set two years later -- as if the first season doesn't exist. It essentially starts all over again with more or less the same premise; an aspiring actress agrees to marry, in the first season, and be the fiancee, of a very rich man in the second season. I've only watched two episodes, and I don't think it has the spark of the first season. I might well give it a miss this time around.

Put Your Head On My Shoulder (Netflix 24 episodes)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Put_Your_Head_on_My_Shoulder_(TV_series)

As I mentioned before, the male romantic lead is the strong, silent type which drags out the romance. My feeling is that these stories run a little too long. Well Intended Love had kind of a creepy premise, and a very over the top ending that seemed entirely out of place. I liked the characters, which is my first priority in a show. Put Your Head On My Shoulder is an example of a college romance story.

I’d give them, almost, 4 out of 5 stars, their run times and endings drag them down a bit.

Put Your Head on My Shoulder   Image; https://www.justwatch.com/ee/tv-show/put-your-head-on-my-shoulder

But as I said, there are many more similar romance/comedy shows from China involving young people to choose from on Netflix.

One last show, that I’ve watched, but not to its end, is The King’s Avatar. If you are into computer games, you might be interested in this show as it concerns professional esports players and teams in China. It has “in game” play in the show, and lots of intrigues within and between the teams and such. I’m not into video games, but it does have the key ingredient that I like in a story – likable characters. If I run out of shows, I might continue on with it.

The King’s Avatar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King%27s_Avatar_(2019_web_series)

The King's Avatar  Image: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10732794/

Remarks and Observations Directed at the Clouds – Asian TV (Part 1)

Image credit:https://ninja-reflection.com/2018/09/24/rise-phoenixes-novel-ending/

After trashing the TV sf show, Vagrant Queen, in the last post, I’m going to tell the clouds about something positive this time around. I’m going to talk about how much I enjoy Asian TV shows, mainly Chinese and Korean TV shows – and why.

But first, a little background on how I came to discover them. I can draw a direct line back sixty years to grade school, and to the fact that I can not memorize by rote. I could not, and still can not, spell words, because spelling, in English, anyway, makes no sense. Rules have been broken at will, (though you dare not try it yourself) and a word’s spelling is not necessarily connected to its modern, or its regional pronunciation. Correct spelling can only be achieved by rote memorization. See Dr Gerard Nolste Trenite’s poem “The Chaos” here: https://the-digital-reader.com/2020/03/03/if-you-can-correctly-pronounce-every-word-in-this-poem-actually-most-people-can/

But enough of that, I’m trying to remain positive in this post. However, I must also mention that to pass a language class in high school, rote memorization was also necessary, at least back in my day. I failed freshman year Spanish in high school, and so I had to take five semesters of a foreign language in college. Given that I could not spell English, it seemed unlikely that I would be able to correctly spell French or German words correctly, (Spanish was a non-starter after my high school experience.) even if I had managed to memorize enough of the grammar to have a chance of passing any test. Faced with this reality, I signed up for Chinese.

Spelling was not a problem in Chinese. True, I had to rote memorize characters, but they, at least, appealed to my artistic side, and how they were constructed was interesting as well. (And since our professors were Taiwanese, we were learning the original characters, not the simplified ones from Mao’s mainland China.) However, I found, as I went along, that Chinese grammar is nice and simple. There are no tenses in Chinese. You simply say when the action occurred without changing the word, i.e. “I yesterday go, I today go, I tomorrow go.” Plus, there is no male or female words, or different social caste conventions, and other such nonsense. The spoken language did depend on how one said the word – it could have four different meanings depending on how it was pronounced – so one has to train one’s ears to catch the subtle differences in the four tones. Still, all in all, it had, for me, a lot of advantages over most other languages. Not, mind you that I was any good at it, for I wasn’t. But, it had one other advantage in 1968 – China was still under Mao and was not playing the large role in the world as it now plays – so that the East Asian department at the University of Wisconsin, wanted students, and was reluctant to flunk them out. Where the French or German departments would’ve had me out on my ear, I managed to get my five semesters in, more or less on the basis that at least I was trying… So I was able to earn a BA in international relations, in which I took all the course I could on China and East Asia, because I knew then, as I know today, that China would be the central power of the 21^st century. I did not pursue a career in the foreign service – I didn’t have the right connections, wasn’t motivated enough, and well, it was 1972 and I was not in agreement on how America conducted its foreign policy – and probably will never be.

So, fast forward 40 some years and I discovered some Mandarin language TV shows on Netflix, and decided to give one a try –if only to hear the spoken language to pick out the six words I remembered from two and a half years of college Chinese. And I discovered that I liked the way the Chinese told their stories on TV for a number of reasons.

One of the major reasons is, to put it in a nutshell; they take their time telling stories. One of the first shows I watched was set in Shanghai in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s when the Japanese occupied the city. It was a story of Chinese collaboration and resistance to the Japanese occupation, and was based on a novel. The TV show from this novel probably had a running time of around 35 hours. I liked that they took the time to establish characters and motivations, and allow those characters and their motivations play out over time. The Chinese shows generally have about 40+ episodes of 45 minutes to an hour each. I could watch one a day for a month and a half, allowing it to play out like a soap opera. I doubt that this pace is for everyone, but it is for me – in most cases. I have found that some shows do seem to drag things out and run too long to fill in their time slot, especially the romantic comedies, but still, I’d rather them err on the side of longer than shorter. The Korean shows, on the other hand, run 16 episodes of an hour or more, which is a little more manageable.

The second major reason I enjoy Asian shows is that they portray a different society. Stories set in an exotic world was, and is one, of the major draws of science fiction for me. Stories set in China, and Korea, be it ancient or modern, are set in an exotic world. Neither country scrimps on sets or costumes when they shot a historical show, and their modern settings are both familiar and different at the same time. Chinese cities look like 21^st century cities – cities of the future – because they are. And the Korean shows show a lot of different cityscapes, from ultra modern to picturesque neighborhoods with houses seeming piled one on top of the other.

But of course, the differences don’t stop with architecture. I find it fascinating to observe all the little cultural differences as well, from the food they eat, and how they eat it, how they dress and the various social customs these shows display.

For example, one thing all the Chinese shows seem to have in common, is that when one of the characters gets hurt, say a skinned knee, another character will show how much they care for them, by treating their injury, be it only dressing it and putting on the bandage. You can count on someone getting injured and treated by their romantic opposite in every Chinese show. Another way of showing kindness and affection, is giving a person a piece of food. The Chinese each have a bowl of rice, with all the main course of the meal set in the middle of the table. Everyone uses their chopstick to pick out pieces of these dishes to eat, or to place in the rice bowl of the person they wish to show their regard or affection for. It is also, apparently, not considered impolite to speak with your mouth full, and both the Chinese and Korean shows often have characters talking as they eat. And eating very eagerly apparently shows one’s appreciation for the food and hospitality. In short, there are plenty of these little cultural differences to make the shows just that much more interesting. Another surprising thing is how often an English word or phrase is used on conversation, often to emphasis a point – illustrating how common English language in school must be. Americans, at any rate, rarely, if at all, insert a foreign word into their conversations, unless it is that German word one uses when someone sneezes. Which I can’t spell.

Another thing I like about Asian shows is that they take their time to develop their romances. Romance is almost always a very slow burn. Kissing is very rare in Chinese shows. When people are jumping into bed in western shows, the Chinese may be experiencing their first kiss, if that. I’m a fan of the chase in romances, and the chase in these Asian shows is a long, sometimes rocky, sometimes sweet one.

Oh, well, I guess I’ve gone on long enough, talking to the clouds. So to sum up this installment; I like Asian TV shows because they take their time to develop characters and tell a story, I like that they are set in exotic lands, and that, after several hundred hours of watching Chinese shows, I sometimes don’t need the subtitles…

In my next episode of this series, I will tell the clouds about the shows that I've watched, really liked or loved and can recommend.

Image credit: https://www.thailandtatler.com/style/chopard-steals-the-show-in-crash-landing-on-you