Chinese Classics Come To Life On The Small Screen

The television version of the classic epic Romance Of The Three Kingdoms (三国) (on which the hit movie Red Cliff is based on) has just begun shooting yesterday. Starring well-known Chinese television personalities like Ruby Lin, Lu Yi, Nie Yuan, Peter Ho, Chen Hao, Huang Wei De and Chen Jian Bin in the principal roles, shooting for this 60-episode television adaptation will last for one year and is scheduled to debut on Chinese television in 2010. Pics of the main cast in costume can be found here.

This is the second classic novel out of the The Four Great Classic Novels Of Chinese Literature that has been adapted for television this year. Another classic Dream Of The Red Mansions has already started filming in May this year. This version will star newcomers in many of the principal roles, (e.g. Yang Yang as chief protagonist Jia Baoyu and Bai Bing as Lin Daiyu's love rival Xue Baochai). To date there is still no confirmation on who will play Jia Baoyu's love interest Lin Daiyu. Pics of the cast can be found here. Hmmm... very "Chinese opera-ish" costumes...

No news yet on when the other two classics, Journey To The West and Water Margin will start filming although there have been some news that Zhang Ji Zhong, the director of Journey will start filming this series after he has finished shooting the latest version of Louis Cha's Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre (gawd..... yet another remake :-P).

And for something different, I found this video on YouTube of the famous flower burying scene from the original CCTV version of the Dream Of Red Chambers... If you have not seen 1980's TV serials from China, you can get a taste of in in this vid below... Enjoy :-)



Tags: Dream Of Red Mansions, Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, Red Cliff, Chinese classic novels, Journey To The West.