Wuxia/Kungfu Series of the Month?

Last edited by abcd99 on Sun Nov 25, 2007 7:00 pm; edited 1 time in total

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?

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 8:12 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

We need more Wuxia translated Big Smile

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 8:36 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

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. Smile

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

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 8:37 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

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.

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 12:36 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

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 Laugh

)

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.

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 1:50 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

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

Hidden:

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.

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 2:49 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

@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. Mr. Green

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. Tongue

)

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.

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 5:00 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

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?

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 12:38 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 6:01 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 6:30 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

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. Scratching chin

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.

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 6:56 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

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

Tongue

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 7:37 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

@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.

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 8:47 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

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

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 4:36 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0