Action choreography in Wuxia TV shows

[xiaodan4869]

Source: http://www.bilibili.com/video/av3711239/

[Don Yu]

I agree with the OP. I do like the action/combat in "Romance Of The Condor Heroes" a little bit more though, than the recent ones "Legend Of Chusen", "Classic of Mountains and Sea", "Chinese Paladin 5".

[Don Yu]

3) romance is a better selling point than fight scenes ... for china audience

Romance is great, but do Chinese audience prefer High School like drama with a tons of misunderstandings to stretch out the plot? That's not what I really like.

There is NO reason that a show can't have both great fight scenes and romance that isn't dragged on by pointless arguing and misunderstandings.

[Mido-Ban]

Does legend of chusen have a lot of sword fight scenes vs magical powers? Cp5 was a disappointment compared to its predecessors. Tang ren seems to be losing choreography for fights. Legend of quin had some good beginning fights after it was big let down. Romance condor heroes 2014 had some nice but they were too short.

Rewatching singapore drama Legend of 8 immortals and it have good choreography for hand to hand and sword fights as well as use of explosions to show how strong the immortal are. Story is still quite good.

Yu cheng is like wong jing but wj actually cast alot attractive actors and put more effort in fights.

Tvb stI'll have some best hand to hand fights especially in demi god semi devil 1996, new heaven sword 86 etc. New series now a days they don't put effort in either cgi or action sequences and choreography. Take Cp5 for instants, u see flash of cgi but it's looks horrible especially being 2016, graphics in late 90s and early 2000 are better.

[luna_lucid]

9

Romance is great, but do Chinese audience prefer High School like drama with a tons of misunderstandings to stretch out the plot? That's not what I really like.

There is NO reason that a show can't have both great fight scenes and romance that isn't dragged on by pointless arguing and misunderstandings.

That is what I've been trying to say to myself all this time, but the fact is, there are many audiences who dont care about a story, as long as they can have more romances of their idols. That's why most recent wuxias / xanxias become less adventurous and have slower/draggy plot, because the producers add more and more romance, in order to increase the ratings(I dont understand how they defined their benchmark of ratings). Romance scenes should be easier to be portrayed too, to instead of hiring martial arts' choreographers. The best example was the Four. Even Jin Yong's work could not escape that trend, when YZ gave a romance story for each of the 5 greats in ROCH 2014. Although the fighting scenes was not bad there, but I agree with people saying that they were too short. Some are disappointing instead, like the fighting betwren XLN vs Mongolian heroes+the monks

Anyway, for the recent (I'm referring to > year 2005 ) wuxias/xanxias with good fighting scenes, I"m still holding on to Zhang Ji Zhong's works. He really put extra efforts in making amazing and pretty fighting scenes. I skimmed through/quick watched Three Heroes and Five Gallants, and it seemed that the fighting scenes were not bad.

[lenje]

9

Anyway, for the recent (I'm referring to > year 2005 ) wuxias/xanxias with good fighting scenes, I"m still holding on to Zhang Ji Zhong's works. He really put extra efforts in making amazing and pretty fighting scenes. I skimmed through/quick watched Three Heroes and Five Gallants, and it seemed that the fighting scenes were not bad.

Same here, I skimmed 3 Heroes & 5 Gallants, and I thought the fighting scenes were the better ones, compared to most C wuxia dramas as of late. I'd say the same about the New Xiao Shi Yi Lang (interestingly, also starring Yan Kuan). Only I didn't finish the latter because of RL works -- and also because I found the lead characters insufferable (though I loved the secondary characters).

[Icha Parvati]

I agree that TVB 80s are the best. Perhaps also 70s, but i havent seen the 70s products. Also ATV in those days, they have been touted as having amazing fights, though i barely remember the scenes.

[luna_lucid]

Same here, I skimmed 3 Heroes & 5 Gallants, and I thought the fighting scenes were the better ones, compared to most C wuxia dramas as of late. I'd say the same about the New Xiao Shi Yi Lang (interestingly, also starring Yan Kuan). Only I didn't finish the latter because of RL works -- and also because I found the lead characters insufferable (though I loved the secondary characters).

Yup, I remembered Xiao Shi Yi Lang too, but I forgot the title . I also couldnt watch Xiao Shi yi Lang because I wasnt interested in the story and the lead characters. I just watched the first episode, then skimmed through the series. Yes, the fighting scenes were kinda cool.

Regarding Three Heroes, I expected Zhan Zhao to fight with Bai Yu Tang, but after skimming through the series, I couldnt find any. They only met several times and then that was it. Too bad..coz I'm only interested in Judge Bao stories because of their rivalries and fights. The fight was cool, though. Bai Yu Tang's movement was graceful and interesting to watch.

[Don Yu]

One of the best recent examples of romance dragged on by pointless arguing/misunderstanding/HS attitudes was Chinese Paladin 5 Yurou and the main guy (can't remember the name now) they really like each other from the beginning, but they have all kinds of misunderstanding, lack of communications in their relationship. She even hung out that douchebag guy.

All these had me asking me, WHY!!???!!! Chinese audiences really enjoy watching that? I don't!

However, glad that was over in Episode 27, but that dragged on ENOUGH.

[Vortigern]

Glad to see I'm not alone in my complaining. I am really looking forward to ode to gallantry. Filming wrapped up 2 years ago and I don't know why it still hasn't been released yet. As to why all of the newer Wuxia series seems to have shit action, I think I finally figured it out. Recent SARFT guidelines came out to stop advertising actors on reality shows and to cut their pay. Apparently there's been some stupid bidding wars going on for salaries and they are exorbitant, accounting for up to 70% of the shows budget. Wallace Huo and Zhou Xun got paid 150 million rmb for Ruyi’s which works out to 11 million usd each. Granted these salaries are on the high end but any bankable hot stars at the moment are going to be probably close. If all your money is going to pay for some Starlet, you are going to cut corners elsewhere. More talky talky and less punchy punchy hence the pointless romances and stupid drama.

[Vortigern]

Just a small update for anyone who runs across this thread, but the New Xiao Shi Yi Lang has very good action in it. I'm only on the 3rd episode but right at the get go, the action starts off fast and furious.

This is a scene from the beginning of episode 2. Pacing and tension are great. Music is fitting. It even has well executed action humour which is rare. It absolutely nails the Wuxia flavor of the classics and stands heads and shoulders above the teen idol & romance dramas masquerading as wuxia that so many others are putting out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zui2LdxR_30#t=13m30s

Edit: Just a thought, but has anyone considered creating a recommended series list? We could have a sticky which recommends shows that we think others of similar taste would like?

[lenje]

Just a small update for anyone who runs across this thread, but the New Xiao Shi Yi Lang has very good action in it. I'm only on the 3rd episode but right at the get go, the action starts off fast and furious.

This is a scene from the beginning of episode 2. Pacing and tension are great. Music is fitting. It even has well executed action humour which is rare. It absolutely nails the Wuxia flavor of the classics and stands heads and shoulders above the teen idol & romance dramas masquerading as wuxia that so many others are putting out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zui2LdxR_30#t=13m30s

Edit: Just a thought, but has anyone considered creating a recommended series list? We could have a sticky which recommends shows that we think others of similar taste would like?

Hi Vortigern, if you scroll up a bit, you'll see that luna lucid and I mentioned New Xiao Shi Yi Lang and 3 Heroes & 5 Gallants, and how they are the better choreographed wuxia series as of late. I haven't finished NXSYL & just skimmed 3H5G, but I will probably check back NYXSYL. I dislike the main characters but the secondary characters are amazing. It's the same with Border Town Prodigal -- also based on Gu Long works, cast is practically taken from NXSYL, and decent fighting scenes. I'm halfway through Border and planning to finish it, but unfortunately it's only subbed until ep 6, so I'm focused on Chusen at the moment and will revisit Border later.

[luna_lucid]

Pacing and tension are great. Music is fitting. It even has well executed action humour which is rare. It absolutely nails the Wuxia flavor of the classics and stands heads and shoulders above the teen idol & romance dramas masquerading

Edit: Just a thought, but has anyone considered creating a recommended series list? We could have a sticky which recommends shows that we think others of similar taste would like?

Vortigern, the one in bold is so spot on! Yes! That's why my favourite novel adaptation is ruined, because it was turned into a teen idol and romance drama!

In fact, most of wuxia and xanxia nowadays are teen idol and romance drama masquerading *sigh*. No wonder it's rare to find a good one these days. The 'safest' option is to watch JinYong's adaptation, since they have already been too well-knowned, so the producers will get bullied if the changes are too crazy (YZ, take note and pls dont continue to HSDS).

It's the same with Border Town Prodigal -- also based on Gu Long works, cast is practically taken from NXSYL, and decent fighting scenes. I'm halfway through Border and planning to finish it, but unfortunately it's only subbed until ep 6, so I'm focused on Chusen at the moment and will revisit Border later.

Is Border good? I noticed that some people have been liking it. I'm not interested because I dont like Vivian Zhang (and the guys too? . plus there's no subs either).

[wuxiarocks]

When it comes to action choreography in Wuxia series, I miss those action style from the 90's.

I enjoyed those crazy wire-fu and massive amount of explosions. Mountains, lands, lakes, forest, nothing was safe when powerful martial characters fight. While I like the pure traditional hand to hand combat of the 80's, the 90's fight scenes excite me more growing up.

Example is Demi-Gods, Semi-Devils 97. The fight scenes in that was awesome. Another being ATV The Swordsman, (no not Smiling Proud Wanderer) story was average, but the actions were flashy.

Also, I might add Wuxia theme songs of the 80's and 90's were super awesome!

[Mido-Ban]

Swordsman I think was an adaption of meteor sword and butterfly. I liked the atv casting and ost was pretty good.

80s and 90s shows and some early 2000 had good action scenes and opening songs.

[Mido-Ban]

AT 20:00 MIN pretty cool fight compared to latest adaption

[Mido-Ban]

[Mido-Ban]

[Mido-Ban]

[Mido-Ban]