Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The List

So a little while back I asked all you readers for some help, telling me what wuxia books, movies, video games, etc. you found inspirational, or at least cool.  I did this for inclusion in Flying Swordsmen RPG as a sort of "Appendix N" for the game.  I may have presented myself as less knowledgeable than I am in that post, in order to elicit more responses.  A lot of you recommended films that are already on the list.  Still, I did get some new ones, and I'll be trying to locate and watch them before this game goes to print.

And without further ado, here is the list:


Appendix I: Inspirational Media


Books, Fiction:
Cha, Louis (Jin Yong) The Book and the Sword, The Deer and the Cauldron, Heaven Sword & Dragon Sabre, etc.
Gu Long The Eleventh Son
Luo Guangzhou Three Kingdoms
Shi Nai'an Outlaws of the Marsh (also known as The Water Margin)
Wu Cheng'en Journey to the West (also known as Monkey)
Tony Wong/Jademan Comics The Blood Sword, Oriental Heroes, etc.


Books, Non-Fiction:
J.A.G. Roberts A Concise History of China
Charles D. Benn China's Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty


Film and Television:
The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk (1993)
Swordsman Trilogy (1990, 1992, 1993)
Dragon Gate Inn (1992)
A Touch of Zen (1971)
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Hero (2002)
House of Flying Daggers (2004)
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)
Mr. Vampire (1985)
Drunken Master (1978)
The Bride with White Hair (1993)
Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980)
Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983)
Legend of the Liquid Sword (1993)
Ashes of Time (1994)
Enter the Dragon (1973)
A variety of adaptations of Journey to the West and Three Kingdoms for both film and television.


Games:
Dynasty Warriors series (Koei)
Jade Empire (Bioware)

Thanks to everyone who contributed.  If anyone else has something to suggest, or I left something out that you think needs to be there, please let me know.  There's always room for more.

5 comments:

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_van_Gulik

    Long out of print, at least in the german translations, and not really fantasy, but was a good read and inspiration for my long gone Kara-Tur campaign...

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  2. Thanks, I'd forgotten about those. Read one back when I was in high school. Completely slipped my mind since then, though.

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  3. I suggest The Water Margin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Water_Margin_%281973_TV_series%29). Old, but great.

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  4. Thanks James, but it's already on the list, under the alternate title (which my translation uses), Outlaws of the Marsh. ;)

    And yeah, it is great. It's the way D&D adventurers would behave if they were in China during the Song Dynasty.

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  5. Aha! I hadn't spotted it under the books section :)

    There are possibly some other movies I could add to the suggestions, though I'm not convinced they all fit the 'Wuxia' genre as appropriately as you might want (I tend to lump everything under 'Groovy Martial Arts Movies' because I am a barbarian):

    Definitely Wuxia:
    Seven Swords
    Moon Warriors

    South Korean, might fit the bill:
    The Warrior
    Bichunmoo

    Pushing it:
    Azumi
    The Forbidden Kingdom
    Kung Fu Panda?


    Whilst checking whether those first 4 movies were Wuxia or not, I also found this, which would be my go to resource for an on the fly villainous organisation or mystic brotherhood:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organisations_in_Wuxia_fiction

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