How Chinese fantasy dramas differ from their US counterparts?

TV & Movies Chinese Dramas
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My favorite Chinese fantasy dramas: Ten miles of Peach blossom, Princess Agents, Tribes and Empires, The Journey of Flower…

I have also watched a few US fantasy dramas, Game of Thrones (a few episodes), the Lord of Rings(movie)…

I am thinking about the question: How do these two kinds of fantasy dramas differ? As I haven’t watched many episodes of US fantasy dramas, I can’t say much about it. Game of Thrones is a bit bloody to me… Would you like to share your ideas?

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From your list it seems like you’re talking more about period dramas that might have some fantasy elements to them.

Some of the big things I don’t see or remember seeing in any period Western fantasies:

  1. Characters flying around like they weigh the same amount as a feather.
  2. Qi (Ki? Energy?) points on the body that cause characters to be immobilized
  3. Blood spraying from the mouth to signify they were hurt badly. I’ve sometimes seen Western characters have blood coming out of their mouths but usually it means they’re dying of internal bleeding and it slowly oozes out of their mouth, they don’t spray it out like salt water.

There is 1 exception to 1) Into the Badlands but it’s not exactly the same as the dramas you listed because it’s set in a world after the collapse of society. It’s swords and stuff but there are some cars and guns leftover from before civilization was destroyed. So it’s kind of a period fantasy but it’s kind of not… and the flying around in the air isn’t nearly as gratuitous as Chinese dramas.

How does the average Western period/fantasy drama compare? I agree with you that it’s bloodier, it’s more violent and graphic and usually some nudity.

Western period/fantasy dramas usually have at least one of two things: nudity and graphic bloody violence. Many of them will have both. I have watched many historical/fantasy dramas. If you think Game of Thrones is too bloody for you then maybe try out something like: Merlin or Legend of the Seeker. But I would say most Western period/fantasy dramas have a significant amount of violence and nudity in them. Most of them.

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For me, the most important difference is also the reason why I am a c drama fan. I think it’s the big themes. Arrogance, betrayal, redemption, brotherhood, loyalty, honor, patriotism. These things are beautiful but in the U. S. they seem to be seen as old fashioned and don’t sell to the public.

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I love fantasy/adventures so I have seen almost every popular western tv show with fantasy elements. My favorites would be Buffy, Charmed, Vampire Diaries, etc. Now it seems that you are focusing on the fantasy historical shows which are much harder to find.

Some of my favorite c-fantasy shows are also the same as yours. Some differences that I have noticed.

I think the immortal/cultivation element, fairy/gods, fighting style, etc. Those are the themes are hard to find in western counterparts. Also, I don’t know why they like mixing up couples in western dramas. Like the same characters hooked up with a few people from within the same circle of characters. One or two is okay but after a while, it gets annoying for me.

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I am just starting watching the historical dramas not just Chinese but Japanese & Korean. I do like them because of the historical stuff, oh I know a lot of other stuff has been added. but it fascinates me fanticies, time travel all of it, some of the westernized dramas like kyle said, a lot of nudity. I guess I like the asian dramas because of not any or not much nudity, the swear words well… both do it I know . take all of them with a grain of salt,

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I know this comment is a few months later, but I have to agree on some points. The reason why I started watching Asian dramas instead of American ones (after watching all the Jane Austen and Charles Dickens adaptations over and over) is because many of the new and popular dramas have nudity and extreme violence. Normally, some violence doesn’t make me too uncomfortable (I’ve seen some bloody movies when I was younger), but I’ve found that as I get older, I’ve become more sensitive to that. Also, there isn’t a lot of flying (if at all, unless on dragons). One thing I do appreciate is American CGI, which can be lifelike, whereas with some Asian dramas, that isn’t the case. Also, at least in the dramas and movies I watched, the love triangles weren’t as prominent, but then again, I tended to stay away from the popular romance movies/dramas due to nudity and sex. Another difference is storytelling. Asian dramas and American dramas tell stories differently…I have a harder time trying to point out how. I’ll try and put it this way: American period dramas rely more on dialogue than actions, whereas in Asian period dramas, looks, gestures, and actions are everything. American history is also drastically different than Asian history, since many Asian countries have had dynasties, whereas America was born from a revolution.
Plus, I’d like to point out that modern American literature loves realism. A lot of the films tend to head that way as well, but there needs to be a line between realism and glorification of immorality and violence, imo.

I think American movies do incorporate some of these themes, but not as obviously. One just has to find those beautiful movies/ dramas, and they are there, just some digging is required. British dramas are pretty good about this as well.
By the way, I loved the drama Merlin–everyone was so flawed, and the legend of Arthur was well told.
Anyways, I’m done. :sweat_smile:

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