Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Is it me or do I just enjoy beating up Disney live-action remakes? If The Female General was actually one Hua Mulan inspired story, then so is Love in the Clouds . However, Love in the Clouds reminds me of how Disney's Mulan (2020) remake was basically a Mary Sue. However, Love in the Clouds is a slow build a classic switcheroo (where a mother swaps places with a child that's not hers) for her own convenience. Empress Ce (Zhang Ting) executes the perfect switcheroo. In fact, things aren't like what they are supposed to be.  The main heroine Ming Yi (Lu Yu Xiao) poses as the Prince Ming Xian. It's pretty much Hua Mulan except it's not in the army. The big issue is with the tournament of the six realms. Think Mortal Kombat without the violent "Fatalities!" Ji Bozai (Hou Ming Hao) has a dark secret past, where he is the Aladdin. Ji Bozai is the diamond in the rough as he grew up in the Jixing Abyss. Bozai later discovers some dark secrets and decides, "W...

I thought I was about to see a Hua Mulan adaptation. Instead, The Female General (锦月如歌, Jǐn yuè rú gē) is another fictional female general named He Yan (Zhou Ye). The story doesn't explicitly follow the Hua Mulan story. It's not about the invading Rourans. Instead, it's a story that your family can be your own worst enemy -- such as when He Rufei is a snake in the grass. He Yan disguises herself as her older brother He Rufei -- something that's actually MORE TRAGIC than Mulan's story. The love interest (and General Shang equivalent) is Xiao Jue (Cheng Lei). What I found kinda stupid is the way that Xiao Jue discovered Yan's true gender. The hot spring incident is directly taken from the Mulan (2009) movie. I even wonder if by any chance did Jue end up touching Yan's private part? Okay, that's kinda gross but it could've happened. Some people discover that Yan is actually a WOMAN as the show goes on. Jue's nobility is kept as he refuses to exploit...

I didn't expect myself to be too captivated by the performance of Uyghur actress, Dilraba Dilmurat. Her name's obviously not Chinese and she's from an ethnic minority. I tend to joke how Dilraba, not Naomi Scott, should've played Princess Jasmine in the Aladdin movie. I tend to joke Naomi herself should've been playing the Goddess Guanyin in Journey to the West instead. I always thought of Dilraba as an, "She can do it, she's fine." actress. It's pretty much how I treat some South Korean celebrities who can act but can't act that well. I think Dilraba still did a good job overall in her role as Di Ziyuan who later calls herself Ren Anle. I wonder if having sole survivors of a family is really a cliche in Wuxia drama. The last I remembered that was in the show Princess Weiyoung . Ziyuan was the sole survivor of a wrongful accusation. Like WTF was the emperor thinking of an entire family out of spite rather than just finding the culprit? Yeah, yo...

I've taken a break from the Korean series for the Chinese Wuxia series. This series would have some weird stuff going on. The beginning almost reminds me of Kamen Rider Zi-O where the main hero is also the future villain. Tantai Jin becomes the Devil God and starts destroying the future. Li Susu sees the future damaged by Devil God Tantai Jin in real carnage. I really loved how the beginning starts with real carnage. The Devil God Tantai Jin is truly a menace. Meanwhile, Li Susu goes back into the past and becomes Ye Xiwu. I think Ye Xiwu has probably the past life of Xiwu. People forget their past lives for a reason. Think it over that there's so much emotional connection whether the leading lady is Susu or Xiwu. I really love the chemistry betweeen Luo Yunxi and Bai Lu. Yunxi knows how to play the more benign side of Tantai Jin before he becomes the Devil God Tantai Jin. Bai Lu manages to play the heroine and the possible past life she had 500 years ago. Susu as Xiwu develops...

SinergiaNews Who Rules the World just finished and I managed to wrap it up already. I actually got myself caught into how Yang Yang went from acting out a CGI image to this Wuxia role. The inter-clan wars and political marriages tend to summarize how the Yong State and Qing State may have this romance. Feng Lanxi (also known as Hei Fengxi) is the founder of Fountain Abode and the Second Prince of Yong State. Feng Xiyun (also known as Bai Fengxi) is a disciple of Tian Shuang Sect and Princess (and later ruler) of Qing State. Added is Huang Chao (Lai Yi) who is the Prince of Ji State and future emperor of China. There were some stories in Chinese folklore that try to show women can also do something great. Who could forget the legend of of Hua Mulan which has so many versions it's hard to keep track? Well, not that I'm endorsing the Mulan (2021) movie and would say you're better off watching  Mulan (2009) which is basically an adult version of the Disney cartoon. Actress Zhao...

It's no secret that I'm watching several series at an IRREGULAR pace. I decided to do that in order to enjoy it at my own pace while struggling with real life. One ONGOING series I'm currently watching is Who Rules the World . I watched the historical fiction The Glamorous Imperial Concubine . I decided to watch some Wuxia for insane martial arts to watch. Yup, I'm a sucker for insane moves that would've already killed you in real life. Too bad watching some fight science hasn't given me the filming secrets of these insane series.   I remembered seeing Yang Yang in  King's Avatar  and  Love O2O.  This China series would be my third time being exposed to him. I'm now exposed to Zhao Lu Si for the first time. I admit she's kinda cute but not super pretty as some girls I've seen like Esther Liu and Liu Yifei. Still, Lu Si manages to pull it off nonetheless to get the job done. Yang Yang does seem to show some improvement granted his long acting care...

  This is another Wuxia series finished. I was having some expectations broken. The show can be full of spoilers when discussed even further. In fact, some characters are walking spoilers. If you're not ready to be spoiled - DON'T READ. If not, you can read further. I feel the show had some plot twists and turns. Besides, maybe some of the villains in this show weren't as evil as you think.  Emperor Liancheng is an antagonist but dies before the show can end. Liancheng may have some idiotic obsession with Ma Fuya. It becomes even worse when Liancheng's younger sister Liansi and his younger brother Lianxi get involved. Liansi develops a crush on Meng Qiyou and even gets pregnant in the process. It seems that Ma Fuya was pregnant with Liancheng's baby but ends up in Qiyou's household after Liancheng dies. Liancheng dies doing a selfless act to save Ma Fuya. The obsessive empress Ma Xiangyun commits suicide to kill Emperor Liancheng. Emperor Liancheng's quite a...

Sorry if I haven't been doing any episode reviews now. Real-life is getting tight especially with trying to recover after the storm. I decided to watch through whatever shows Netflix has rented. I found a couple of interesting crime dramas, I decided to watch this show while keeping in mind that Wallace Huo married Ruby Lin last 2016. This show has Ruby as the PRODUCER and the main lead. Wallace has been an important contributor though I love to mock how his face doesn't fit into ancient drama - he's too modern-looking!  Okay, the whole scene is HISTORICAL FICTION. However, there were the real Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period of 10th Century A.D. China. The story hast the rival kingdoms of Chu, Shu, and Northern Han. A love triangle is drawn while the story addresses how women were treated as "lower class" in China. A man could take as many concubines as he could while women were entitled to only one man. It was pretty much the culture of Imperial China. In ...

I finally finished Goodbye My Princess and the title says it all that it'll be a tragic historical drama.This ending almost reminds me of the series Demigods and Semi-Devils to which Hu Jun (Mendu in Hua Mulan: Rise of a Warrior ) played its main protagonist. Hu Jun did end up committing hara-kiri at the end of the series in the midst of a war to stop it. Guess what - the picture above says it that all that the main protagonist, Xiaofeng, ended her life in a similar fashion to stop the Xi Province and Li Empire feud.  I would say that it was dragging due to how could Xiaofeng and Chengyen can both have such a dysfunctional political marriage for most of the show's 52-episode run? Chengyen is despicable and ending their sad marriage is the way to go. Chengyen is only possessive and doesn't truly love Xiaofeng. I think Chengyen was only hurt by Xiaofeng's hara-kiri because he felt he owned her. Xiaofeng's hara-kiri was meant to stop the battle between the Xi Province ...

It doesn't look like I'm really out of my Super Sentai break any time soon! Right now, I decided to watch some crazy Wuxia martial arts series called Goodbye My Princess . After watching a couple of Xianxia series, I decided to for Wuxia. The series talks about the sad love story between Li Chengyen (Chen Xingxu) and Qiu Xiaofeng (Peng Xiaoran). There's the cruel world of politics and preposterous martial arts to watch in this one. The aim of a political marriage seems to have more than just that. There seems to be a brewing conspiracy while a tragedy is about to happen. Part of the politics is Li Chengyen trying to rise into power. It's revealed early only that he realizes his "mother" the empress is only his stepmother. Chengyen's jealous stepmother poisoned the concubine (Chengyen'smother) and took him as her own. What's interesting to know is that Chengyen's stepmother is acted by longtime actress Siqin Gaowa who was a multi-awarded actress...

I haven't watched any of the martial arts flicks in ancient times for some time. The last one I tried watching was Once Upon a Time in Lingjian Mountain . Now, I was simply browsing through Netflix and felt I wanted another martial arts story with some romance. I could remember that I was fond of was Return of the Condor Heroes and the tragedy of Chinese Paladin . So, I decided to watch another star-crossed love story that features two sects and a forbidden romance. The plot goes back to a thousand years before in the war between the Celestials and the Asuras (Demons). The Star of Mosha is defeated by the Celestial God of War. A thousand years later would have the plot to revive the Star of Mosha. Meanwhile, the Li Ze Sect exists as an ascetic clan. The main hero, Yu Si Feng (Cheng Yi) falls in love with Chu Xuan Ji (Yuan Bing Yan) who is from the Shaoyang Sect and born without the six senses. The ascetic Li Ze clan does hold a dark secret about the clan leader and the leading man....

It's very often that people who are of non-Chinese origin or that outside of the Chinese countries may confuse Wuxia and Xianxia. I could remember a conversation I had with some Filipino friends who called all of them "Wuxia". I also kept calling every martial arts series Wuxia. What wasn't too surprising is that Xianxia is often confused as Wuxia. It's very easy to confuse the two especially if one's knowledge about Chinese culture is rather casual. For me, I was too involved with too much American superiority mentality and only started to appreciate my Chinese roots when Meteor Garden (2001) aired in the Philippines.  What does Wuxia  (武俠) actually mean? For some Filipinos, their first exposure to Wuxia may have been in  The Amazing Twins . In my case (or for others), it was with the  Once Upon a Time in China film franchise or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon . So what does Wuxia mean? The Chinese words for Wuxia are martial (wu) and xia (heroes). That...

Right now, I decided to try to watch some other new school stuff on Netflix or go from 2018 and backwards with other new stuff. I think I might give Once Upon a time in Lingjian Mountain a shot. I was watching some Vagabond and I feel it needs either a second season or a movie finale. The series is destined to last until December 21, 2019. It started on November 12, 2019, so I missed a lot of weeks already. But the beauty of Internet TV is that you can watch shows at their own pace, right? I'd hate to have this show aired by either ABS-CBN or GMA-7. Here's the plot as Netflix would describe it: As the nine continents face a crisis, a young disciple joins the Spirit Blade sect and comes under the tutelage of a temperamental sage. It would be easy to call the show Wuxia. Yes, it's Wuxia but there's the subgenre known as Xianxia. Xianxia is Wuxia mixed with all the magical elements. So, the Condor Trilogy is the Xianxia type of Wuxia novel. I've seen the first f...

One of the greatest classic Wuxia series last decade was "The Return of Condor Heroes" (2006). I did have very stupid reasons to watch it and yes, Crystal Liu, is giving me also a stupid reason to check out Mulan (2020). I'd still like to teasingly ask if Crystal really bail it out by just being hotter than the first Disney's version of Mulan? Then there's that classic theme song "The Roaming World Laughs" which is "Jiang Hu Xiao" in Mandarin.  Here are the lyrics with both Chinese and English found on Youtube : 江湖笑 恩怨了 人过招 笑藏刀 Jiang hu xiao en yuan liao ren guo zhao xiao cang dao. The martial arts world laughs, kindness and hatred ended. People exchange blows, smiles hidden by blades. 红尘笑 笑寂寥 心太高 到不了 Hong chen xiao xiao ji liao xin tai gao dao bu liao. The mortal world laughs; a lonely laugh. The heart is too high, it can't be reach. 明月照 路迢迢 人会老 心不老 Ming yue zhao lu tiao tiao ren hui lao xin bu lao. The moon ...

 I admit, I'm among some people who once thought of Tokusatsu as Ultraman, Choseishin series, Kamen Rider, Metal Hero, Super Sentai series or anything similar to it. Then I later found the terms Tokusatsu, Metal Hero, Kamen Rider and a lot more when I became a teenager. Heck, I even found out that Kamen Rider was the official name for Masked Rider (no, not the idiotic adaptation decay called Mashed Ripper) hence why Kamen Rider Black was dubbed as Masked Rider Black. My head spun when I first heard of the word "Tokusatsu". Here's how  Definitions.net  defines Tokusatsu: Tokusatsu is a Japanese term that applies to any live-action film or television drama that features considerable use of special effects. Tokusatsu entertainment often deals with  science fiction, fantasy or horror, but movies and television shows in other genres can sometimes count as tokusatsu as well . The most popular types of tokusatsu include kaiju monster movies like the  Godzilla and...

The story of the Eight Immortals Across the Sea is called "Ba Xian Guo Hai" in Mandarin. Xian is the word meaning immortal or some may loosely translate it as "saint". It was said that the eight of them were born in either the Tang or Song Dynasty in Ancient China. So who are the Eight Immortals? They have been banded together as a superhero team and several accounts how they became a team of eight. Take note that I haven't completely seen any series based on them but I'd actually want to check at least one series based on them. The superhero team provides a lot and I mean a lot of crazy action you'd find in the Wuxia genre.  The members of the eight immortals would be the leader Lu Dongbin, the old man Zhang Guolao, the iron crutch carrying Li Tieguai who helped the sickly, the musician Han Xiangzhi, the flower carrying Lan Caihe, the fan carrying Chung Lichuan, the tablet carrying Cao Guojiu and the the lotus stick carrying fairy He Xiangu. Eac...

I guess even after she's long gone due to her old age, I still can't forget her, can I? Well, I would like to recall the time my paternal grandmother would borrow Betamax at a local video store every week by the bundle. I would remember the fond memory of going there to borrow cartoons while she watched Chinese films. Chinese entertainment was something very foreign to me considering that I didn't take interest in the subject back then. If I can recall my memory correctly, she would be borrowing mostly Wuxia shows. I didn't know who Andy Lau and Idy Chan were back then so I didn't really care. What was funny was that when I first saw Magic Kitchen at the age of 19 then a couple of Andy Lau movies, I was able to recognize Andy Lau's face because I saw him while my my paternal grandma watched those videos. It was that old fashioned TV set, betamax and me not being particularly interested in them but a part of them burned into my mind. I also remembered some of t...

In Return of the Condor Heroes, the romance happens between Yang Guo a rebellious child (probably nine or ten) who meets a beautiful teenage woman, probably four or five years older than he is namely Xiao Longnu (which makes Huang Xiao Ming's casting quite inappropriate considering he is ten years older than Liu Yifei while Andy Lau's makes a little more sense, which I am yet to see).  The relationship started off pretty much as a master/student relationship but it was later blossoming into attraction, which was taboo at that time because of the Confucian principles. For some time, Yang Guo learned martial artist under the person he called "aunt" for some reason, even if she was just a few years older than he was.  The teacher/student relationship was one where Yang Guo learned martial arts in the Ancient Tomb until he became an adult.  This was because Yang Guo run away from the Quanzhen Sect of Taoists.  After Grandma Sun dies from an attack by the Quanzhen Sect...

I'll admit the only Wuxia series I've seen are Chinese Paladin, Demigods and Semidevils (which is a VERY complex mess), Red Buddha Lady, Return of Condor Heroes, Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber and I am yet t see Love of Condor Heroes and I want to watch more of Chinese Ghost Story.  So what do I love about Wuxia series?  Here's what I love about them: Interesting love stories between the hero and the heroine.  For example, Yang Guo's story with Xiao Longnu is faced with the "forbidden love" where Yang Guo is the student and she used to be his teacher.  Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber faced the issues of a Manchurian princess falling for a commoner.  These love stories are faced with the woman getting stronger for the sake of love, the man throwing away sexist views and other irrational views that society holds for the sake of love. Impossible love stories between humans and the supernatural written in such a good way.  Okay I know it's usually not a hap...

The story of this 90s film (1998) revolves around two characters namely Wind and Cloud.  Wind is played by Aaron Kwok and Cloud is played by Ekin Cheng.  I hardly know much about Kristie Yang but she is pretty gorgeous in this film, which leads to the love triangle of Wind and Cloud.  The story itself was later succeeded by another film called Storm Warriors where both character reprise their roles but in a more in my generation setting.  Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng are two legends in one film facing against the Japan Action Club founder Sonny Chiba. For Lord Thunder, he hears the prophecy from the Mud Buddha that if he takes Wind and Cloud in, he will get good fortune.  However if the the two will unite, he is definitely bound to be defeated.  One can see that Lord Thunder is a pretty manipulative fellow.  The key word ahem key character to his manipulation of Wind and Cloud is his daughter Charity.  Charity is undecided which man she loves and ...