Chinese historical drama

[petronia]

I've been watching with my parents - off and on due to wonky discs that won't play certain episodes >_> - a Chinese historical drama called 《大明宫词》. ("Poem of Daming Palace", I guess is what it comes out to in English.) It's about the life of Princess Taiping, only (surviving ^^;) daughter of Empress Wu and nearly a ruling Empress of China in her own right. Highly recommended; so highly recommended in fact that I wish there are downloadable episodes as there are for taiga drama (not that I have any idea where to find those), so I can inflict it on people all the easier. CCTV's productions have become a lot classier over the last decade. The costume and set design are breathtaking, the actors/actresses are gorgeous, and the screenplay is very, very good. There's a quality of sexual decadence to some of the characters that startled me - the sort of shoujo manga overtones I wouldn't have expected out of a prime-time Chinese historical TV series. I guess I'm also biased because it deals with my favorite period of Chinese history: the heart-century of the Tang Dynasty, 650-750AD or thereabouts, when Chang'an was splendid and cosmopolitan and half-barbarian by latter-day standards, when poets were romantic drunkards and peonies cost their weight in gold, when great noblewomen played polo on horseback the way they played the Game of Houses - with the same ambition as their fathers and brothers and husbands, for all their translucent silks and cloud-like hair. It's always the Tang Dynasty dramas that get me to sit down and watch. XD

..........Poking about on Wikipedia re Tang Dynasty, and I think I've accidentally solved the mystery of the Mirage of Blaze novel title. Dear saints, I know it's been said and said often, but WTF Japan you are so on crack.

Comments

[luxetumbra.livejournal.com]

so highly recommended in fact that I wish there are downloadable episodes as there are for taiga drama (not that I have any idea where to find those)

BT China (http://search3.btchina.net/btsearch.php?query=%B4%F3%C3%F7%B9%AC%B4%CA&type=0), maybe?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I'll try it, but it takes ages just to connect to that page and it's not seeded at that. ^^; (I've never been able to download any Chinese BTs for some reason - overseas IP maybe? The third MoB OAV ep is out in Chinese but Greedland doesn't so much as let me connect.)

[luxetumbra.livejournal.com]

Post the link and I'll try it.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

gokumew2 mentions it in her post here, (http://www.livejournal.com/users/gokumew2/719334.html) but it's been a week and now I can't find it for the life of me. ^^;; You can't just jump to that ID, it redirects you to the index.

[luxetumbra.livejournal.com]

Can't find it either. Did find this batch torrent (http://bt.greedland.net/detail.php?btId=129828) which looks like it might include the 3rd OVA (though I can't tell for sure whether it's subbed or not). If you have Azureus or another client that allows you to download selected files out of a batch, you should be able to select and torrent just that OVA file. Will give it a try tonight when I get home.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's it... all the subs plus specials, OAV and TV. Guess they batched it. ^^;

[marici.livejournal.com]

Are the subtitles in English or Japanese? If they ore, could you post a link to the torrent itself? I can't seem to find it. Thanks!
-Mari

[luxetumbra.livejournal.com]

The subs are in Chinese. If you're looking for English subs, I recommend you try this one (http://www.yareyare.net/tmp/LJ/2004/2005-01-01/4%5b1%5d.torrent) (batch torrent for OVA 1-3, use Azureus or another similarly capable client to download only the episode you want).

[marici.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the quick response! So the Damning Palace story is totally unavailable in English?

[luxetumbra.livejournal.com]

Ah, sorry, I'm not really familiar with Mirage. The only bits of the story that are animated and subbed (that I'm aware of) are:

1.) The original 13 episode TV series (which I believe covers books 1-8, but leaves huge chunks out).

2.) The recent 3 episode OVA, which covers book 9.

I'm not sure what the Damning Palace story is or what book it's in. Sabina has much better information than I do.

There is a scene in the anime very similar to the bit that Sabina just translated, though greatly abbreviated - if that's what you're referring to, it's in episode 7.

[dipping_sauce]

I think I've accidentally solved the mystery of the Mirage of Blaze novel title

Huh?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

As discussed in this entry (http://www.livejournal.com/users/petronia/269379.html) (kind of complicated, I'll explain when I see you ^^;).

[smurfmatic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was watching TV with my parents/grandmother on Xmas night, and they showed a historical fresque of the early Republic of China / End of the Empire. The lip-play (and quality, I said) didn't seem quite right for a mainland production, but so it did say "China production" at the end au générique.

-Ced

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

! Damn, it's like my entire flist is in a giant conspiracy to make me watch more Asian dramas. XD

[tsutanai.livejournal.com]

Hm, Empress Wu. If I could get subtitles of that, I wonder....

So few dramas deal with my time period, after all. XD