2019 Fandom Promo!

[crantz]

Welcome to the Fandom Promo post, everyone!

Here's where you get those eyes on your fandoms for sign ups!

Share what makes your Yuletide fandoms the shiniest and why you love them. A big part of Yuletide is how small our fandoms can be, and this is a good way to make sure other people know what gems there are out there!

Suggested form to use:

<b>FANDOM NAME</b>:
<b>WHAT MAKES IT GREAT</b>:
<b>WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional)</b>:


For reference, last year's promo post!

This post on LJ

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鹿鼎記 / The Duke of Mount Deer

[grayswandir]

FANDOM NAME: 鹿鼎記 / The Duke of Mount Deer (TVB, 1984)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:

Well, Andy Lau and Tony Leung, for one thing. :D

If you're into Asian cinema, you probably know them as two of Hong Kong's top film stars. You may or may not also know that they both started out on TVB in the early 80's, doing slightly ridiculous low-budget dramas with flimsy props and dubious period costumes. The Duke of Mount Deer is a particularly shiny gem.

    

The premise: Two boys meet one day on the grounds of the palace court at Beijing, circa 1650 or so, and become wrestling buddies. Both of them are hiding their real identities. One is actually the young emperor of China, while the other is a mischievous trickster kid who grew up in a brothel and is now being used as a spy... by rebels who want to overthrow the empire.

Most of the story takes place after they've more-or-less cleared up who they really are, as their friendship (or whatever kind of -ship it may be) gets increasingly complicated by politics. Meanwhile there's other crazy stuff going on all over the place (assassins, secret books, buried treasure, a kung-fu nun)... but everything always seems to circle back to drive the conflict between the maturing emperor, who is trying to hold his kingdom together, and his problematic fave Wai Siu-bou, who would rather be getting up to hijinks somewhere.

  
 

(One thing to note just as fair warning: Wai Siu-bou has a lot of trivial character flaws, but also some serious ones, like his tendency to treat women as mere possessions or prizes with no personal agency. What's worse, the show itself seems totally non-critical of his behavior. Possibly a deal-breaker for some, so just letting you know!)

After I first watched this series, I wrote up a ridiculously thorough screenshot-illustrated recap, which is naturally full of spoilers but might be worth a glance if you're wondering whether the show is something you'd be interested to see. :)

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?:

Well, if you happen to understand Cantonese or can read traditional Chinese subtitles, the whole series is available on TVB's official YouTube channel, here. It's 40 episodes long, and each episode is about 40 minutes.

For English subtitles, try this link. Or, if that doesn't work, message me. :)

For a Mandarin dub or different subtitle options, or if you'd simply like a hard copy, you can also find the series on eBay, in various DVD box sets that are probably all bootlegged.