Allow me to start with how I fell into the depths of drama addiction. Growing up, my dad would relive his days of reading wuxia novels by marathoning HK serials with me. I was amazed by this fascinating world of swordplay and martial arts that my childhood heroes easily became iconic characters created from Jin Yong’s imagination.
Back then, wuxia series were far from mainstream, yet my guilty pleasure grew far and wide, amassing a sizeable collection that have become too many to count. I usually just lump everything historical under wuxia, but there’s actually different distinctions. Here’s a handy guide if you’re new to the genre.
Wuxia 武俠
Wuxia is particularly appealing to me because its more “realistic.” It’s about ordinary men and women well-versed in the art of fighting because of their practice of ‘chi’, a word that will surely ring a bell if you like Asian-infused action flicks. ‘Chi’ or ‘qi’ means air. It signifies the life force that allows practitioners to perform all sorts of incredible feats.Of course, people flying in the air is not possible in real life, but wuxia is at least grounded in the practice of martial arts albeit to an exaggerated extent. It is not uncommon to see kung fu manuals in shows like this. There are also different factions and sects mastering their own thing.
Chivalry is also very much alive and kicking. People could die in the name of honor but I notice that this thinking is not restricted to wuxia but rather spans across most period dramas because apparently, people from the olden days are better versions of ourselves. I’m an old soul.
For newbies, I recommend Lan Ling Wang 蘭陵王 starring Feng Shao Feng, Ariel Lin, Daniel Chan, George Hu and many more. Lan Ling Wang is a beautifully-packaged romance drama with noticeable modern influences.
Edited:
There’s been some contention on my choice of Lan Ling Wang so let me explain why I chose it. I felt that a nice introductory drama for anyone new would be something still mainstream with a taste of heroes who can “fly.” Lan Ling Wang is actually more of a historical romance though the lead to me, has the qualities of a chivalrous hero. However, the comments are valid is saying that it’s not really wuxia. For that, I say you can’t go wrong with Jin Yong novel adaptations.
Xianxia 仙俠
Xianxia can encompass anything supernatural with the latest trend being adaptations of role-playing video games and the sky’s the limit in terms of subject matter that can include demons, fairies, gods, magical realms and what not. If you thought that wuxia was fantasy because the heroes appear to fly when they make very exaggerated leaps, in xianxia, they literally can fly in the air.
For my second pick, I recommend Chinese Paladin 仙劍奇俠傳 starring Hu Ge, Crystal Liu, Ady An and Eddie Peng. It might be a bit older but it is the first of its kind and the best one in my opinion.
Xuanhuan 玄幻
Even now, there are times when I get confused between xianxia and xuanhuan. Is Chinese Paladin which is considered xianxia technically xuanhuan? The two are almost interchangeable in that both are high fantasy. Perhaps the biggest difference is that xianxia has influences of Daoism and Buddhism. In Chinese Paladin, the main character Ling Er is a descendant of Nuwa, known as the mother goddess in Chinese mythology.
I basically take it that all other fantasy would fall into the category of xuanhuan. Usually, these are stories completely up to the imagination of the author. Xianxia and xuanhuan are not my preferred genres as I can’t get over silly pet peeves like the characters being able to video chat via magical portals in a historical drama. However, I understand the innate appeal of an idol-cast so I continue to be hook, line and sinker’ed nonetheless.
Historical Dramas 古装剧
I was torn between Scarlet Heart versus Nirvana in Fire despite the two being so different that they shouldn’t even be compared. What holds true is that both are extremely successful dramas. I ultimately decided to go with Nirvana in Fire because it is too good to miss out.
Nirvana in Fire is a massive 54-episode revenge drama that is a masterpiece of epic proportions so brilliantly written and thought-provoking. Lest I run out of adjectives, I will let the drama speak for itself so please, please check it out.
Anonymous
I wouldnt recommend lan ling wang as an intro to wuxia though…it's not wuxia at all, more a palace drama with bucket loads of romance?
Anne J
I chose it mainly for its popularity. Figured lan ling wang could forcibly pass the criterias of martial arts? check. hero? check. Tho I know what u mean, a Louis Cha adaptation would've been a better representation of wuxia in the truest sense.
Anonymous
I rather agree with Anonymous1 above. 🙂 Palace drama, political period drama, Minguo series, other period drama series are not really wuxia. They are period drama or costume drama. Doesn't wuxia generally discuss Sects/clans, good vs evil, chivalry, this and that skill/fist, the ultimate skill, yin yang energy, chi/qi, special kungfu manuals (9 yin, 9 yang, etc), blocking acupoint? I thought it's implicit that wuxia has to have the elements mentioned above, plus you have to have Shifu, Shixiong, Shijie, Shidi, or Shimei. More focus on the lead hero's advancing kungfu skills. 😀 Scarlet Heart is really more of a idol drama set in the period setting. Similar to Lan Ling Wang, Fairy from Wonderland. For me, Nirvana is a lot better than Scarlet. Scarlet is rather Jane Austensy. Plus Nirvana has much stronger cast and direction. Just my 2 cents.
Anne J
I agree with both you and anonymous 1 actually but couldn't think of a new one that's really good. Do u have any suggestions? I would wanna add it above 🙂
I promise I'm not just blindly agreeing but agree with the second point as well about NIF being better than scarlet heart overall. Haha but I was thinking more of my friends who would never watch wuxia on what will entice them to switch to the genre which would be Jane austen and lan ling wang coz of the idols and romance.
Anne J
hope you don't mind I will add the elements you suggested to add more color to describing the genre. Thanks:)
Anonymous
Dear Anne,
Unfortunately it seems like Mainland had been making better series outside of the traditional Wuxia genre lately. Which is actually a good thing. More diversity. I'm afraid my taste is too "out there" to be helpful to you. The last few more traditional Mainland wuxia series I liked were Tian Long Ba Bu (Hu Jun, Liu Tao version) and LOCH (Ariel Lin, Hu Ge version. I'm not fond of Yuan Hong's portrayal of Yang Kang though.) Both are older than Scarlet. I like 3 kingdoms (Chen Jianbin version), but it's not wuxia. Actually, the Lang Ya Bang portion of Nirvana is wuxia-like, but that portion is under-represented in the TV version. For 2014-2016, some contemporary and period Mainland drama series had been reasonably good. 生活启示录, 长大, or the Minguo-era Wuxin FaShi. I have only seen the first part of "Addicted". So far it seems charming and poignant enough.
Palace drama Zhen Huan Zhuan is also better than Scarlet, but I understand how it has less appeals to idol crowd. 😉
An overwhelming number of people say the old TVB versions are best, but I find that actually Hu Ge, Wallace Huo, Jin Dong, etc. are more serious in their TV drama work than, say, Tony Leung, Andy Lau's classic TV performances. (Perhaps bc TVB didn't have much competition in the '80s?) I'm not sure why people compliment Raymond Lam's performance in A Step into the Past that much. (I generally prefer his later work.) To each his own. 🙂
Anne J
Thanks for commenting:) A true wuxia would be Romance of the Condor Heroes which I actually enjoyed a lot but I know a lot of people hated so I didn't want to recommend as an introduction piece. Plus I know it had many flaws since I found myself skipping tons of side stories that felt more like fillers. I liked TLBB as well but I still like the TVB one better and yes both are quite old already.
I keep hearing about Zhen Huan Zhuan though, might give it a try but it's a lot of hours isn't it.
juliaridzwan
hi all where to watch all these period wuxia dramas?
Anonymous
I think you meant Mama Yuzheng's version of ROCH, right? Congrats to you then! I browsed a 5-10 minutes of a few episodes but couldn't even watch one whole episode, irregardless of which episode it was. I'm not a Michelle Chen hater, but still couldn't take Yu's ROCH. The only Mama Yu series that I managed to watch to the end was MeiRenXinJi / Beauty's Scheme. I got allergic of Feng Shaofeng and half-allergic to Ruby Lin a year after that though. I didn't like Mama Yu's LuZhen either although I like Zhao Liying and Chen Xiao. I had similar problems with Mama Yu's XiaoAo JiangHu. It makes me half-allergic to Joe Chen. It didn't help that Joe Chen still takes on super-cutesy girly roles 14 years into her acting career, despite her advancing age. When she acted serious, carried a gun around with her in Cruel Romance, it didn't make any sense and she looked as silly as she was playing the piano with gloves on. Just not my cup of tea. But I have to be careful watching Mama Yu series. It'd be hard to have to keep avoiding more actors. 😀
ZHZ's context is rather heavy. I had to take a break from the plotting and bickering in the middle of the series. But it's well-produced. Don't start watching near the busiest points of your life. 😉 Buried into the series, there's a subplot where Li Dongxue sacrifices everything for Sun Li. I'm guessing you should like that part.
You are a different Anne than this Anne, right?
( http://annedarmawan.com/ ) I'm not sure if you live in multiple countries for your job or something.
Anne J
Lol at becoming totally allergic to Yu Zheng dramas and the cast. Gasp, does that mean you also have to avoid Wallace Huo and Yang Rong ?
And yes, I meant exactly the Yu Mama Roch. I think my appreciation for it is a combination of sorts since roch is one of my all time favorites. i only haven't seen the version with Andy Lau but I plan to eventually.
I also really liked chen xiao and michelle chen to begin with and having skipped all the parts that were just too cheesy, it was kind of a no brainer that i'd ended up enjoying it.
As for swordsman, liked it as well but ultimately gave up halfway coz i was getting anxious that he was gonna ruin the drama and i didn't wanna see that.
And no I'm a different Anne.:)
Anonymous
A little late, but just to add to this – I would recommend Return of the Condor Heroes (Liu Yi Fei and Huang Xiaoming). The CGI is a bit dated but the plot is good so it's truly worth watching. I also enjoyed Sword Stained with Royal Blood starring Dou Zhi Kong and Eva Huang. These are from the last decade but are much better in terms of wuxia.
I suppose if you want something very recent, then Journey of the Flower is pretty good. Starring the amazing Wallace Huo, I was hooked! However, nowadays, it's hard to get a good action scene which isn't just a lot of CGI. There's definitely a dearth of good wuxia at the moment.
Btw, I'm not the same person as the previous Anonymous.
Anne J
Thanks for the recommendation:) I have yet to watch Sword Stained with Royal Blood but agree with ROCH, I pretty much love all the adaptations of ROCH: 1995, 1998, 2006 as you mentioned and even the most recent one in 2015.
Anonymous
In the 2015 ROCH I actually enjoyed the side stories more then I did of yang guo and long-er. I think that's the reason why they picked michelle chen as long-er, because everyone knows their story so as not to draw attention away from the other story lines who had way more beautiful actresses. I should probably state that I am not a michelle chen hater I actually enjoyed her a lot in the Legend of Qin drama series, but she's your everyday cute girl not what I would call an outer worldly beauty type. I usually don't enjoy li mu chou's story line but having Viann Zhang Xinyu who is super beautiful play as her got my attention. I also enjoyed how they had actual actors/actresses to portray long-er's master's and I definitely enjoyed their love side story too. I mean the actress that plays as Long-er's great master is also gorgeous too and I liked her in that one drama called my sassy wife something I think it was called. I also liked how they went into Ouyoung feng's love story too and it kinda makes you think he isn't that bad of a dude especially since in legend of the condor heroes he is portrayed as the ultimate bad guy.
Anne J
thanks for commenting. truly find it interesting to hear a different opinion. Most people including me don't seem to like the side stories but it really makes me think that a show, no matter how it is supposedly good or bad, just needs to find the right people who appreciate it.
Though to that end, I actually liked Li Mo Chou's side story a lot, same as you, thought Viann Zhang was gorgeous and her acting is good too. I found a deeper appreciation for Li Mo Chou as a character especially since it was my first time learning about her backstory and I'm glad they decided to keep it in the show.