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.