San guo

I've never read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so I had no preconceptions when watching this series. I found the casting and the acting to be extremely well done, with every character believable and relatable. The story was complex and engaging, and the characters and their noble aspirations, heroism, courage, loyalty, compassion and more were simply inspirational. I found myself in tears often, deeply touched by someone's kindness, or humility, particularly Liu Bei, and I was even inspired to be a better person in my own life after witnessing such profound values. I have watched the entire series twice and am now re-watching again as it is helping me to learn Chinese. It makes me feel so deeply connected with ancient China and fills me with profound respect. If only we could see more of this side of China.

it is one of my favorite series. sure, as inspired adaptation of a remarkable book. for realism. for the portrait of characters. for the fight scenes and for the poetry of image, for the exploration of the essence of power and its fruits, responsibilities, for the vulnerable victories and for the great cinematography, off course, I am profound subjective about it. but , maybe, one of the reasonable explanations, is the flavor of the stories/fairy stories from my youth, discovered in this impressive series. because it is not an answer to Hollywood blockbusters or to historical European series. it is not one of too touching and small Larousse like the South Korean series or demonstration of the seductive honey of the Ottoman past like the Turkish historical series. it is...Chinese. in each scene, detail, dialogue, refreshing air of a classic story in the right manner presented.

They say that this show lacks authenticity.

They say that it should not really have women actors, because the source material has very few women. They say that the 1995 version is better. They are wrong and misguided. This period in Chinese history (220–280 AD) is rich in material, and the series is based on Luo Guanzhong's 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'. It's NOT the authoritative historical record. That is Chen Shou's 'Records of the Three Kingdoms'. So we're not dealing with history, really. We're dealing with a very popular account of that time. The complainers are just married to the first version they saw. Not to actual history.

What is so interesting about this is that it's about military and political strategy. The Han dynasty had a crisis in leadership and the warring factions do battle. The clever ones survive. Everyone uses some form of strategy to get what they want. It's very much 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu and 'The Prince' by Machiavelli.

Considering the shoestring budget the director had to work with. Especially being 80+ episodes. It's a masterpiece of a drama. No, it isn't 100% accurate to much of the ROTK lore but really what is? Even the novels are fictional to a point. It's a great drama, rich characters and thoroughly enjoyable.

Depicts the constant tension between personal ethics and statecraft, ambition and moral considerations. Fascinating series. Greek myths will seem psychologically simplistic after this. Only negatives are the simpering females - did they really all simper like that? - and bad subtitling. The English subtitling does no justice to the nuances in the Chinese original. Characters sometimes express themselves in very poetic terms, and this is not at all properly translated. Similarly, words ('gonna', 'wanna')more appropriate to cowboys are used to translate courtly language. The series is a selection of major actions in the very long novel of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the selections differ somewhat from the 1995 CCTV version. However, I much prefer the acting in this one, which is less stylized and more natural.