Wuxia/Kungfu Series of the Month?

abcd99 · Post by **abcd99** » Nov 4th, '07, 14:57

I'm just curious how people are interested in getting wuxia series of the month aside of Chinese Series of the Month.

Wuxia is basically martial arts genre. I recognize in D-Addicts, this particular genre is disproportionately underrepresented. There are lots of good and English-translated wuxia series, yet most of them didn't make it to the CSotM. I believe that having a Wuxia Series of the Month (WSotM) would help to alleviate this issue.

As for the seeding issue, I'll ask everyone to participate. I'll be seeding the series that I downloaded too.

So, what do you think?

Ruroshin · Post by **Ruroshin** » Nov 4th, '07, 21:12

We need more Wuxia translated

khmai_kandi22 · Post by **khmai_kandi22** » Nov 4th, '07, 21:36

I agree with abcd on this. At least this way, the wuxia dramas won't be overlooked when being nominated in the chinese series of the month. I know a lot that deserves to be nominated but were overlooked or in this case, it seems to be too new.

It would be great to nominate new wuxia dramas as well, because more exposure to the drama, the public, and d-addicts as well. They will get a chance to start downloading it now instead of waiting way like in the future when there's like 2 or 3 seeders and had just barely been nominated. By then, there will be a lot of new wuxia dramas popping out everywhere. Having a mix of both old and new wuxia dramas will be really nice in this case.

I hope there will be WSotM.

*Edited: Return of the Condor Heroes 2006, Sword Stained with Royal Blood, and plenty of others were never nominiated as well...

Puppet Princess · Post by **Puppet Princess** » Nov 4th, '07, 21:37

The reason there isn't a lot of Wuxia translated is because it's much harder to do. The language is very different. In my experience, most translators are pretty young and don't know a lot of old Chinese.

Post by **jholic** » Nov 6th, '07, 01:36

i think this was a great suggestion, but as Ruro pointed out, it would help to have more Wuxia series translated. we don't want to run out of WSoTM in six months (haha, just joking

)

but, the other reason for having sotw and sotm is to concentrate seeding efforts on older, harder-to-get series. are the wuxia series unseeded? are there volunteer seeders willing to seed them?

i still think it's a great suggestion, but we definitely need to address these issues first.

abcd99 · Post by **abcd99** » Nov 6th, '07, 02:50

The availability of English-subbed wuxia dramas is no problem at all. Take a look at the following selections:

The problem is that recent nominations for CSotM are setup so that certain drama wins. In other words, it is rigged. I really do hope WSotM becomes reality.

Translating it is no problem at all. Given some DVD rips, we don't need to translate them all.

Edit: The series in the list above are never selected as a CSotM. Those who are already selected are excluded.

Ueda Jiro · Post by **Ueda Jiro** » Nov 6th, '07, 15:49

@abcd: I just wanted to point out that not all those listed are considered wuxia strictly speaking. Some of those are just period or historical dramas (and some are just mythical/fantasy stuff) with little to no wuxia elements.

Maybe all the mentioned genres can be combined under one SotM. I'd say we can even include those from Korea and Japan as well.

Regarding the retail English subbed dvds, the subtitles usually suck imo. (I know a lot of people find them acceptable but I'm just that much more demanding.

)

As for the lack of translations, a lot of factors contribute to it. Besides being more difficult to translate, I find that there is a general lack of interested parties. Even when my fansub team have the necessary translators for the job, we may not have sufficient help in the other areas. Wuxia or period series are also much longer, usually spanning up to 40 episodes so that takes a lot of commitment too. Even though we formed a team to focus on subbing wuxia series, things don't look too bright imho.

abcd99 · Post by **abcd99** » Nov 6th, '07, 18:00

I take "general lack of interested parties" as "nobody wants to sub it". But I found that there are lots of people who want to watch it. Otherwise, why would people produce wuxia dramas in the first place, right?

As for the dramas, we could combine historical / period dramas into wuxia. I don't know how it would play out for Japanese samurai / Korean drama, though. I just don't know how we ought to call the genre.

So, all in all, I'd like to exhort the admins/mods to give official blessings upon this project. If now, how about rolling out some "unofficial" / "soft start" version of it?

Post by **jholic** » Nov 7th, '07, 01:38

abcd99 wrote:The problem is that recent nominations for CSotM are setup so that certain drama wins. In other words, it is rigged.

My torrents. Wuxia is an unwanted bastard in D-A.

well, don't sugar-coat it. tell us how you really feel.

we are in the process of discussing the possibility of Wuxia, as i post.

Ueda Jiro · Post by **Ueda Jiro** » Nov 7th, '07, 07:01

abcd99 wrote:I take "general lack of interested parties" as "nobody wants to sub it". But I found that there are lots of people who want to watch it. Otherwise, why would people produce wuxia dramas in the first place, right?

Yes and no. It is true that most people are not interested in lending a hand whatsoever. I even find that those who possess the dvds seem reluctant to rip it and share with others, or to provide the subbers with better quality material to sub with.

There are a lot of people interested in wuxia dramas, but I bet the number of people on D-A who are only interested in idol romantic comedies/soap operas etc. outnumber the former astronomically. Make a poll on it and you'll see. On another note, only 11 people voted on this topic and 9 of them voted yes. It is a clear indication of how many people actually care about this or make an effort to get involved.

Ruroshin · Post by **Ruroshin** » Nov 7th, '07, 07:30

I'm sure there are enough interested ppl out there for wuxia series...just that they're are not on this forum unfortunately. I guess if there were more discussion on wuxia series that might draw in more that are interested and increase the fan base here but in order to do that you need more discussion so its kinda a chicken and egg problem.

I wonder if it would help if we made a wuxia subform.

Btw with the current torrent page design there is no more room for another SOTW/M however I am in the process of trying to do a new site design from scratch in my spare time so I will try and make it so more SOTW/M can be promoted if need be.

Well keep up the polling and discussion, if there's critical mass of interest then I'll make sure it'll happen.

coldfate · Post by **coldfate** » Nov 7th, '07, 07:56

Wuxia has its gems like the condor heroes trilogy and a few others. Unlike the series of the month, where each language has a huge pool of genres to choose from, wuxia is a but a genre.

I am all for it but I would be a little weary for all post 1990 wuxia series as they've begun to introduce "photoshop" like graphics and near earthquake like camera movements during the martial arts scenes. As such, I doubt the genre contains much in terms of new stories. Most of the good ones are generally taken from classic novels, i.e. LoTR equivalent trilogies. And as far as I can tell, whenever they've finished producing a "good" classic, they start again with an new cast.

It'll be really funny to see a WoTM containing a list of:

Legend of the Condor Heroes 1982
Legend of the Condor Heroes 1994
Legend of the Condor Heroes 1997
Legend of the Condor Heroes 2003

abcd99 · Post by **abcd99** » Nov 7th, '07, 08:37

@Ueda: I agree with you. Idol / romantic drama seems to dominate here.

@Ruro: Take your time. I understand you're busy. Subforum is probably a good idea.

@coldfate: The list wouldn't be that silly.

Also, "photoshop" graphics can enhance the wuxia drama, if used correctly. Some series use it gratuitously that wuxia fans decried it. But I don't think having those effects would automatically disqualifies a series from being a wuxia.

"Classics" are just time-tested quality material. However, as we see remakes after remakes, I would think that the audiences would eventually bored and demand something new. I can see this breakpoint not too far in the future. In addition, there are some good "new" wuxias too, like "Tian Xia Di Yi" (which unfortunately unsubbed yet as for now). Also, goodies from relatively unknown writers like "Ni Shui Han" from "Wen Rui'an". I think this genre is pretty much alive and not regurgitate something fairly familiar.

Ueda Jiro · Post by **Ueda Jiro** » Nov 7th, '07, 09:47

Tian Xia Di Yi aired in Singapore with English subtitles. Too bad no one recorded it.

coldfate · Post by **coldfate** » Nov 7th, '07, 17:36

abcd99 wrote: But I don't think having those effects would automatically disqualifies a series from being a wuxia.

Not disqualify, more like distract. They like to use it as a crutch. Nothing is more annoying than watching a someone boast about a skill and then all you see is them posing for that stance during the fight. If you've ever seen Legend of the Condor Heroes compare the 1994 version to that of the 2002 version. The skill "Jiuyin Baigu Claw" used is nothing but some pose, close ups of the claw itself, and constant wind blowing on her hair to accentuate coolness in the 2002 version. You can't see anything. It has a Dragonball like effect. =p In the 1994 version, you do see the awesomeness that is "Jiuyin Baigu Claw". Whenever the heroes see her, they know better than to confront her head on.

In addition, there are some good "new" wuxias too, like "Tian Xia Di Yi" (which unfortunately unsubbed yet as for now). Also, goodies from relatively unknown writers like "Ni Shui Han" from "Wen Rui'an". I think this genre is pretty much alive and not regurgitate something fairly familiar.

I've pretty much given up on it for a really long time. But after rewatching the Condor Heroes trilogy, I do look forward to more of it again. I doubt it'll ever stop. This cycle has been going on for 20+ years now.

As pessimistic as I may sound like, I would like for it to succeed. I don't know any mandarin and anything relatively good is now in mandarin.

To contribute, I'd recommend "A Step Into The Past". Not sure if it's translated, but it's good.

abcd99 · Post by **abcd99** » Nov 7th, '07, 20:40

Perhaps classics is better suited for people who like being nostalgic.

And as "A Step Into The Past", it's already nominated as CSotM some time ago. It's translated.

Post by **jholic** » Nov 8th, '07, 01:33

i'm not sure if a subforum is necessary, but we'll give the poll some time.

Ruroshin wrote:Btw with the current torrent page design there is no more room for another SOTW/M however I am in the process of trying to do a new site design from scratch in my spare time so I will try and make it so more SOTW/M can be promoted if need be.

actually, i thought about that also. if wsotm were to happen, then we could stack the banners 2x2 on the torrent page. two on top, two on bottom. would that be feasible?

a bit off-topic:

coldfate · Post by **coldfate** » Nov 8th, '07, 06:15

@jholic lol yea, my sentiments exactly.

Just a thought, how about throwing in similar genres from Japanese & Korean dramas in the mix if there's any. It might be interesting.

For us chinese, we fantasize about flying people blowing up moutains with our chi, I wanna see what the Koreans and Japanese equivalents are.

abcd99 · Post by **abcd99** » Nov 8th, '07, 06:28

It's already there. For Japanese, Shinshengumi and the likes. For Korean, Jumong, Dae Ja Young, etc.

I don't mind if we conflate them into WSotM for the moment to avoid large proliferation. But I suppose the genre in Japanese / Korean culture is relatively new. I'm not aware of many Japanese / Korean ancient dramas. Any pointers?

@jholic: How long will the vote be? What numbers are you looking for?

doink-chan · Post by **doink-chan** » Nov 8th, '07, 06:51

Well, for J-dramas there's NHK's taiga dramas (there's a big list of them on DramaWiki). They've also been around for a long time, since the 60s IIRC. There's also Abarenbo Shogun which is a very, very long-running jidaigeki (period drama) that started in the 70s and ended in 2003 (!). But I don't think there's subs for that.

Ueda Jiro · Post by **Ueda Jiro** » Nov 8th, '07, 12:47

I'm not familiar with Japanese historical dramas. Is there an epic series on the Sengoku period of feudal Japan? That would be interesting to watch.

Airhead · Post by **Airhead** » Nov 8th, '07, 14:21

like everywhere, i would split the chin. forum and the SotM (<-- maybe alternated) in Ancient and Modern Series

for WSotM .. where do we get the seeders?

(and if the series is well seeded, why nominate?

)

@ueda .. http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Komyo_ga_Tsuji ... as starting point

Ruroshin wrote:We need more Wuxia translated

yeah

(but i'm happy enough after treacherous waters and heroic legend is done ... need the discspace for new projects

)

Post by **jholic** » Nov 9th, '07, 01:53

the numbers doesn't have to be in the hundreds, but i would say a bit more than 17.

if we go through with it, i think we may need to have it last longer than a month. jp drams are about 8-12 eps, so bi-weekly was good. kor/chn dramas are about 16-20, so a longer duration was needed. since wuxia series are much longer, perhaps we may need a WSoTQ (quarter), and have it come out every 2-3 months?

there are a ton of j/k dramas that are historical. for korean, there's emperor of the sea and jewel of the palace. combining them into wuxia is risky. on the one hand, we may garner more support, but on the other, will it just mean wuxia will lose in its OWN sotm? i wouldn't want that to happen.

abcd99 · Post by **abcd99** » Nov 9th, '07, 04:13

Ah I see. Thanks. Let's have the poll open for the entire November then.

I see your point. Let's not combine Japanese / Korean ancient drama. WSotQ is fine. Let's do it every 2 month. Average wuxia drama is like 40 eps long. Longer than that would obviously need longer seeding period.

peacht · Post by **peacht** » Nov 11th, '07, 04:05

This is something I've thought about for a long time, I think it's a good idea in principal. I've tended to only look at the CSOTM as that has the best chance of a martial arts series being voted in but I do also watch Korean and Japanese martial arts series. I'd like to see them all together but I can see that there may be conflict.
One possibility would be to set the CSOTM as one month Wuxia/fantasy/martial and one month pop idol soap.
I only came to d-addicts searching for martial arts material and I'm active on many other sites catering for this genre. Many people come to D-addicts for this but don't take part in the forums due to pop culture debate that predominates so many will not see this poll.

abcd99 · Post by **abcd99** » Nov 11th, '07, 05:31

peacht wrote: One possibility would be to set the CSOTM as one month Wuxia/fantasy/martial and one month pop idol soap.

I think it's impossible if the choice is all not-so-famous wuxia dramas.

coldfate · Post by **coldfate** » Nov 11th, '07, 05:32

To add to peacht's idea, it would be cooler imo if we had a WSotM and have it rotate between Korean/Chinese/Japanese wuxia related series. It'll be a pity that the chinese wuxia will only get to shine once every third rotations but this will both guarantee safe harbor of this genre as well as provide feasible alternatives so that it won't be over saturated. Diversify on this and it might appeal to a larger crowd.

@peacht: That's interesting. I never thought that there are dedicated wuxia sites out there with an english speaking crowd. Time for some googling. Wish me luck =)

abcd99 · Post by **abcd99** » Nov 11th, '07, 14:49

it would be cooler imo if we had a WSotM and have it rotate between Korean/Chinese/Japanese wuxia related series

Well, as jholic pointed out, this would make WSotM lose its identity. I think it's okay to group period drama with wuxia drama, but not okay with grouping taiga or Korean ancient dramas. Besides, they're much much longer than typical wuxia dramas.

Ahoxan · Post by **Ahoxan** » Nov 16th, '07, 13:40

I've been watching "The Condor Trilogy" and loved them. I agree with the previous poster regarding making it a "Series of the Quarter" since the few Wuxia series I've seen are around 40 episodes. I also agree that combining historical dramas into the group would make the WSotM lose its identity.

laoniu · Post by **laoniu** » Nov 17th, '07, 00:16

I'm very interested in having a wsotm, which would be eng subs only as for other sotm's, and chinese wuxia only, to cater for fans of the genre. Of course it will take enough fans. What i have is a fair number of jem's things, mostly, since otherwise, until just recently with devilslob, engsubbed series from the 90s or 80s were very hard to find for me.
I'm totally in with the idea of a chinese wsotm, hopefully those subbed versions do exist somewhere out there, or maybe we can work up a group to get interested in it. (No idea who the group Jiang Hu are). My chinese is still not good enough to do any subbing, but it will become so if I get to watch more series

. As a hint to whoever out there might be watching, "wouldn't it be great to next watch that old version of shui hu zhuan" (NB: NOT the japanese version!!). As a totally separate hint to totally other people possibly, who's a fan of "Qie Da Huan Xi?" ? How great would it be to have the modern times series ("part 2" you might call it) with eng subs! Any one got clues if this will be aired in singapore some time?
Anyhow, once again, I'm all for creating some dynamics around chinese wsotm, and I don't oppose the idea of a subforum grouping it with other korean and japanese of similar content. Though seriously, I never caught on to any but the chinese ones.
Cheerio.

bluedragon · Post by **bluedragon** » Nov 17th, '07, 00:52

I love wuxia and would be in favor of a wuxia series of the month.

rambutan · Post by **rambutan** » Nov 17th, '07, 02:13

I propose a historical/period drama of the month that encompasses all three languages (Chinese, Kr and Jp). Wuxia to me is Chinese only (?) and the fan base may be too small to work because it will suffer from a lack of seeders and even leechers.

abcd99 · Post by **abcd99** » Nov 25th, '07, 20:00

jholic, does 38 good enough a vote?

Post by **lilswtangel** » Nov 25th, '07, 20:15

I'll participate as a seeder if a WuXia Series of the Month is approved.

I have some of more popular wuxia series sitting in my dvd booklets and it'll be a shame if I just let them sit there and rust.

it seems "Wu Xia Series of the Month" would not only encourage more ancient China series to be added, it'll probably also motivate fansubbers to pick up less well-known (and older) wuxia series to subtitle.

Plus wuxia series have some of the most beautiful Chinese women (and men) who are virtually unknown to non-cdrama fans.

puffin · Post by **puffin** » Nov 25th, '07, 20:20

i think the quarterly way sounds good too, since they're so long, it'll take a month just to download a series (haha)

but also although wuxia/historicals are one of my favourite genres ever, most of the good ones aren't subbed, instead the market is flooded with lots of bad series (no thanks to the 90s!) :/ ... hopefully this will change over time, esp. with the good work of jianghu

i don't think we should mix with japanese/korean either, although those new korean series are kicking chinese wuxia's production ass. thank god for the past few years and higher CG quality, i find that i can only watch series from the 80s (love those foam props!!) or series from the past few years. everything else really kills me.

shahfizan · Post by **shahfizan** » Nov 25th, '07, 23:50

yeah~go ninja go...love to see more. well done guy

Post by **lilswtangel** » Nov 25th, '07, 23:59

^ninja? LOL~ I think you're thinking of the wrong category there. Albeit, there are many various forms of martial arts in wuxia, somehow I don't think ninjutsu is one of them.

abcd99 · Post by **abcd99** » Nov 26th, '07, 00:30

Wow, thanks, lilswtangel, for your pledge to contribute seeding.

GhstDreamer · Post by **GhstDreamer** » Nov 27th, '07, 00:31

I hope if this passes, there would be more older wuxia series to be fansubbed...

loveless_soul · Post by **loveless_soul** » Nov 27th, '07, 00:43

I vote for this =] i love ancient series but then a lot of fansubbers tend to sub the modern ones and not the acient ones and wuxia series have like complicated words to translate?
also maybe not just chinese but korean series as well? as far as i know historical korean drama are popular too like jumong, jewel in the palace, hwang jin yi, etc.

abcd99 · Post by **abcd99** » Nov 30th, '07, 14:56

It's the end of the month. It's currently ~90% in favor of having a CSotM. So, jholic / Ruroshin, do you guys approve it?

rambutan · Post by **rambutan** » Dec 1st, '07, 05:33

I am all for ancient/historical/costume - whatever you call it - dramas that encompass Kr, Jp and Chinese languages. Wuxia (Cn) in my view is too small to be successful in the long term, if we look at fan base and availability of seeders. As it is, the CSOTM suffers from a lack of good series, and usually wuxia is already featured. Although I love Cn ancient dramas like ROCH, I don't watch HK or TW series (too fake, no/not much location shooting). On the other hand, I love Kr ancient/costume/historical dramas like Damo, Seodongyo, EOTS, Jumong. Having all 3 languages would help sustain interest in "Historical/Ancient Drama" series and make the SOTM more successful. Maybe we can put up for voting every month two of each Cn, Jp and Kr series and let the viewers decide.

Post by **lilswtangel** » Dec 1st, '07, 05:41

I'm all for Korean & Japanese historicals adding to the mix if this is approved~

"Damo", "Dae Jung Geum" and "Jumong" were some of my favorite Korean historicals! And I'll be more than happy to seed these for those who haven't watched them. Especially Damo with its beautiful OST and devastating storyline.

and plus, this way.....i can finally have a chance to finish downloading all of "Shinsengumi"~ And I'm sure there are a lot of Takki fans who probably want "Yoshitsune" seeded as well.

rambutan · Post by **rambutan** » Dec 1st, '07, 05:43

lilswtangel wrote:I'm all for Korean & Japanese historicals adding to the mix if this is approved~

"Damo", "Dae Jung Geum" and "Jumong" were some of my favorite Korean historicals! And I'll be more than happy to seed these for those who haven't watched them. Especially Damo with its beautiful OST and devastating storyline.

and plus, this way.....i can finally have a chance to finish downloading all of "Shinsengumi"~ And I'm sure there are a lot of Takki fans who probably want "Yoshitsune" seeded as well.

And The Immortal Lee Soon Shin - such a great drama and no seeds for earlier ep already!

Post by **lilswtangel** » Dec 1st, '07, 05:46

^ah, thanks for the recommendation~! I've heard mixed reviews about it and was reluctant to download it. Though, at 104 episodes, I don't know how I'm ever going to manage to get all of it.

But then again, that's why this Wuxia/Ancient Series of the Month should really be approved. lols~

rambutan · Post by **rambutan** » Dec 1st, '07, 05:57

lilswtangel wrote:^ah, thanks for the recommendation~! I've heard mixed reviews about it and was reluctant to download it. Though, at 104 episodes, I don't know how I'm ever going to manage to get all of it.

But then again, that's why this Wuxia/Ancient Series of the Month should really be approved. lols~

It's available at MU (re Soompi thread of the same name). PM me if you still can't find the page. I read from one review that Lee Soon Shin beats all others - incl. Jumong. It's the first time I'm paying MU for any d/l!

mariachi7 · Post by **mariachi7** » Dec 1st, '07, 18:24

i think we you can add korean drama to wuxia too. For example "Twin Dragons" is a korean wuxia

3lutz3toe · Post by **3lutz3toe** » Dec 6th, '07, 17:50

I think this is a great idea since I’m only interested in Chinese Wuxia series. Not sure about Korean or Japanese stuff though since the fighting is not like Chinese martial arts style.

robx · Post by **robx** » Jan 10th, '08, 07:56

All thumbs up for Wuxia Series. I for one am willing to help with anything i could if needed to get more wuxia series out. I wonder why there are so many posts and only so little voting done? Wsotm is a fantastic thing to happen.

peacht · Post by **peacht** » Jan 14th, '08, 09:43

Check out abcd99's unofficial WSOTM poll and Vote Now

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Wuxia/Kungfu Series of the Month?

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