Fandom name: 鹿鼎記 / The Duke of Mount Deer (TVB, 1984)
What is it?: A 40-episode live-action wuxia drama produced by TVB in Hong Kong, based on the wildly genre-subversive wuxia anti-epic novel of the same(ish) name by Jin Yong.
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 (and you might also know Tony Leung from Shang-Chi, which I have not yet seen, but I keep hearing he's amazing). You may or may not also know that they both started out on TVB in the early 80's, doing ridiculous but adorable 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 relationship gets increasingly complicated by politics. Meanwhile there's other crazy stuff going on all over the place (secret books, buried treasure, weird cults, a kung-fu nun)... but things 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.
I love how well-intentioned and yet deeply flawed both of the main characters are, and how they struggle to sustain the fiction of an equal friendship in spite of the massive power imbalance between them. There are some intense loyalty tropes, right alongside a lot of deception and mutual distrust and conflict. And, amid all the cheerfully chaotic drama and hilariously low-budget props, a compelling and really rather classic relationship arc.
A few years ago when 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 care to check out.
Content warnings: Lots of mysogyny (women treated as possessions/prizes), including an instance of strongly-implied non-con which is basically played off as just more trickster antics. :/
The Duke of Mount Deer (TVB 1984)
Fandom name: 鹿鼎記 / The Duke of Mount Deer (TVB, 1984)
What is it?: A 40-episode live-action wuxia drama produced by TVB in Hong Kong, based on the wildly genre-subversive wuxia anti-epic novel of the same(ish) name by Jin Yong.
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 (and you might also know Tony Leung from Shang-Chi, which I have not yet seen, but I keep hearing he's amazing). You may or may not also know that they both started out on TVB in the early 80's, doing ridiculous but adorable 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 relationship gets increasingly complicated by politics. Meanwhile there's other crazy stuff going on all over the place (secret books, buried treasure, weird cults, a kung-fu nun)... but things 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.
I love how well-intentioned and yet deeply flawed both of the main characters are, and how they struggle to sustain the fiction of an equal friendship in spite of the massive power imbalance between them. There are some intense loyalty tropes, right alongside a lot of deception and mutual distrust and conflict. And, amid all the cheerfully chaotic drama and hilariously low-budget props, a compelling and really rather classic relationship arc.
A few years ago when 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 care to check out.
Content warnings: Lots of mysogyny (women treated as possessions/prizes), including an instance of strongly-implied non-con which is basically played off as just more trickster antics. :/
Where to find it:: On TVB's official YouTube channel with Chinese subs, or here with English subs.
(The novel, which I may also request, is available in a pro-translation on Amazon as well as a fan-translation here.)