The truth is, we’re both bad. C-Drama isn’t the most refined entertainment there is, but then, neither is Community on Netflix.
So far, I have watched...
- Yanxi Palace (3 times)
- Love and Eternity (3 times)
- Nirvana in Fire 2 (3 times)
- Princess Silver (once)
- The New Shanghai Bund (once)
- Ashes of Love (3 times)
Today, I started watching, “The General and I.” I always start the series with the last episode. This is because it makes me very upset to watch sad endings. If the ending is sad, I don’t want to get attached to the characters. Yay! “The General and I” ends happily, with the male lead and the female lead happily married to each other, and ruling as King and Queen.
So, I settled in to enjoy my junk.
By episode 2, I was seriously disturbed. The male lead, a General of the opposing forces, takes the female lead into custody, forcibly kisses her within a few days of meeting her and then forces her to marry him. Wah! This kind of courtship ritual is freaky! My skin crawled so badly that I stopped at Episode 3. There is such a thing as Too Persistent and Come On Too Strong. Part of me worries. What if young persons watching it learn that it is ok to be forcibly kissed (can still live happily ever after) or to kiss people forcibly (and still live happily after). If it is a son, he can end up with molest charges. If it is a daughter, I think I will set upon the kisser with my garden shears.
Shhhh... don’t tell The Daughter what I watched this day! I will never hear the end of it!
2 comments:
Haha. Welcome to Chinese dramaland.
I see the list comprises entirely period drama. There are happy fluffy contemporary dramas too :)
Back to period or costume dramas, I generally prefer 武侠 to 仙侠. Louis Cha practically created and founded the 武侠 genre. Am now in the middle of the 2017 version of Legend of the Condor Heroes and am enjoying it. I consider Legend of the Condor Heroes (the first book of the trilogy), as well as Tianlong Babu to be his best works. While the characters and stories are fictional, the setting is historical. 仙侠 - I can't relate as well to immortal realms and beings.
I'm sure you will also enjoy modern Chinese dramas - not all of them are sweet fluffy dramas. If you enjoy a drama about modern family relations, I'd highly recommend All is Well.
If you enjoy palace dramas like Yanxi Palace, then the classic must watch is Empresses of the Palace (also known as the Legend of Zhen Huan).
I'd better stop here. Watching dramas can be emotionally very draining - I think I get too engrossed.
@Rachel... Dramas of any sort give me anxiety. What others seem to experience as moving, I experience has heartbreaking. What others experience as suspense, I experience as unbearable stress. This is why I have to knit and cycle at the same time as watch C-drama (or any drama). This is also why I become very anxious watching the very explicit sexual scenes in Western historical dramas, and the very explicit blood and gore.... or even the over the top sexual references in American stand up comedy. It would be not just emotionally draining for me to watch C-drama without cycling&knitting, I often get up to switch off the TV or look away from the screen, just to calm down.
Western historical drama like Gae of Thrones is simply traumatising. I could not get beyond the 2nd episode of GoT.
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