I'd particularly be interested in seeing a depiction of warfare, or daily life under an empire or something.

I have images of this stuff when I think about Medieval Europe, or Ancient Rome , but this stuff draws a lot of blanks in other parts of the world.

Any suggestions?

  • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    There's tons of Chinese stuff like that, but I haven't seen enough to recommend. I did watch Three Kingdoms (2010) and found it entertaining and accessible (though it is 95 episodes, so prepare to dig in), highest budget Chinese show when it came out. It takes some creative liberties I think so you could also consider the 1994 adaptation, don't know anything about it but it looks like it got good reviews. If you don't have time for those, there's Battle of Red Cliff which is a movie about a famous battle from the era.

    For less war and more daily life type stuff, you could look for adaptations of Dream of the Red Chamber. Honestly just look up adaptations of any classic Chinese novel and you will be up to your ears in options.

    • Chapo_is_Red [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I second the 2010 adaptation. It is pretty grounded, unlike many over-the-top adaptations of Romance of the Three Kingdom which are more well-known in the west.

      And the performance of Cao Cao is great

  • Ithorian [comrade/them, he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Kingdom is set in 16th century Korea, its the most historically accurate depiction of what a zombie out break would have looked like at the time. For real though it is supposed to have fairly accurate costuming and and quasi accurate geo political stuff and its a great show.

    • GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      its the most historically accurate depiction of what a zombie out break would have looked like at the time

      I know what you mean, but this sentence is nonsense. We don't know what a realistic zombie outbreak would look like because we've never had one.

  • Nine2Five [comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Look into Akira Kurosawa. Seven Samurai is a classic that's really good. The filmography is huge with a lot of historical themes in feudal Japan

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Akira_Kurosawa

    • Wertheimer [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I really dig the depiction of Liu Bang in this. Have you read Ken Liu's The Grace of Kings? It's the Chu-Han contention in a fantasy world.

      • flan [they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I haven't, I'll look it up. Thanks for the recommendation.

  • Wertheimer [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    I don't know shit about accurate costumes and decor, but Kenji Mizoguchi has a film (The Princess Yang Kwei Mei) set in Tang dynasty China that's pretty good. His Sansho the Bailiff, one of the greatest and most depressing films ever made, is set in the Heian Period of Japan.

    Gate of Hell, Kuroneko, and Rashomon are also set in the Heian Period. All these, plus the Mizoguchis, are available on the Criterion Channel.

    There are plenty of Chinese historical TV shows set in medieval times - lots of Ming Dynasty romance dramas, several adaptations of Legend of the Condor Heroes (written in the 20th century, set in the 13th). Then there are the adaptations of the Four Classic Novels - Water Margin / Outlaws of the Marsh is set during the Song Dynasty; Romance of the Three Kingdoms (there are two acclaimed adaptations of this) is AD 180-230, or thereabouts.

  • Dolores [love/loves]
    ·
    2 years ago

    central asia is a no go on screen unless one of the republics have done an epic since the 90s ive not heard of

    but one can certainly get a feel for the material culture through a wealth of well documented artifacts, collected places like here or here also look up the kizil caves

    being in the center as it were one can see the influence of chinese, persian, indian, and steppe culture in their stuff. its very neat

      • Dolores [love/loves]
        ·
        2 years ago

        there we go 90s film from kazakhfilm. ill have to give a watch lol. wasnt sure which modern republic actually contained khwarzm to be honest

        • Wertheimer [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I haven't seen it but I've heard good things. There's talk of a restoration, so maybe the Film Foundation's World Cinema Project will release it someday. The version I linked has well-nigh unreadable subtitles.

    • boog [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      why is it so amateurish but has such high production value at the same time

      • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Slapping high budget for sets and post production over a soap opera results in this. That's basically what C-Dramas are, the Chinese equivalent of US soap operas. K-Dramas are the Korean equivalent. This particular one just has a really high budget.

  • grouchy [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Saw this post yesterday but wanted some time to gather my thoughts a bit.

    First, let me second the recs for Bodrov's Mongol (though idk about accuracy) and manga Kingdom (actually surprisingly well researched, but obviously exaggerated presentation due to the medium and takes a lot of liberties)

    Second, "medieval" is a rather broad term coming from a layperson. There are very distinct periods of Ye Olde Asia that can't be encapsulated by that word. I'd argue that what most people in Asia visualize of "old China" is probably either Tang dynasty (very accessible period due to various reasons) or Romance of the Three Kingdoms (very fictionalized take on history, ymmv GREATLY on accuracy), although from Western perspective I think the usual visualization is Qing. Similarly, "old Japan" is mostly old Edo or Sengoku Jidai. I'm not as familiar with Korean history so I'll refrain from commenting on that.

    My personal area of interest leans toward pre-imperial China, which you're pretty much just never gonna get an accurate take on in pop culture due to lack of archaeological evidence prior to relatively recently. (hint: if you see copious amounts of horseback riding the accuracy level automatically plummets.) However, I want to give a nod to the movie Confucius from 2010 -- boring/meh movie but the research and set/costume detail is probably as solid as you're gonna get.

    I'd also highly recommend The Last Supper from 2012 once you've familiarized yourself with the basic Chu-Han storyline. The Last Supper is a subversive leftist take on the traditional narrative. There's some weird CG in the movie but otherwise I'd say the accuracy leans toward the higher end.

    As for Japanese history, it's actually very easy to get good visuals for this via NHK taigas. Although accuracy may vary depending on era, these dramas used to be Very Prestigious and taken pretty damn seriously so you can usually trust the accuracy (relative to what's available when the drama in question was filmed). I think one of the more visually distinct eras of JP history is actually the Heian era (look for Tale of Genji adaptations)... but as I said above you'll usually find other periods more popular.

    For a quick overview on what's popularly dramatized and periods with a general unified aesthetic...

    Chinese history:

    1. Early imperial
    • The Qin Emperor has historically been very controversial so it's a mixed bag on what you'll get about him. It's usually about the assassination attempts on him. Just read Kingdom tbh

    • Chu-Han contention. Again, I wouldn't pick Last Supper as my first exposure to the story, but once you have basic familiarity I think it's my favorite take

    • Three Kingdoms... uh where to even start with this. Just be aware that RoTK is historical historical fiction lol, and that's reflected in many adaptations (especially the older ones).

    1. Tang dynasty. Sorry, no specific recs but if it's colorful it's probably Tang, lol. Most pseudo-Chinese fantasy from Japan is also vaguely Tang (Twelve Kingdoms, Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, Fushigi Yuugi, among others -- rec the first two but not the third). Note this is a huge time jump from the previous category. You'll occasionally get stuff between the Three Kingdoms era and the Tang dynasty but it's not popular, lol.

    2. "post-Tang". My familiarity with later periods is pretty shit haha, but I can tell you that a lot of classic wuxia (at least Jin Yong/Louis Cha's wuxia, which is what a lot of people will automatically visualize when thinking "wuxia") is post-Tang. Condor Trilogy is mostly Song dynasty with the third book being about the transition from Yuan to Ming. Not sure I'd watch wuxia for historical accuracy lol but I do think Jin Yong is a cultural touchstone that you want at least some familiarity with to catch most of the references to his works that pop up in games and other media.

    3. Qing into revolutionary era... ummm also not gonna rec as I just don't watch a lot of the more modern periods

    Japanese history (mine is a bit spotty so I may miss stuff):

    1. "ancient"/Yamatotakeru/Himiko era: all super fictionalized. For the most acceessible down-to-earth depiction I've seen you'll probably have to dig through the Professor Munakata series for relevant cases (Munakata suffers from terrible pop history sometimes but at least the visuals are convincing)

    2. Heian era: again, just look up Genji adaptations. Abe no Seimei is also popular but bound to lean too fantasy due to the subject matter.

    3. Heike Monogatari. Surprisingly not AS popular in modern pop culture despite its historical popularity... there's definitely a taiga drama (or three) on it though.

    4. Sengoku Jidai. No recs because it's too damn popular, Japan's equivalent of RoTK. You want THE essence of pop culture old Japan, you look here.

    5. Late Edo/Meiji. Also popular, also tons of taiga dramas... Shinsengumi stuff is really popular (boo cops), Sakamoto Ryoma is popular and a lot more fun as a historical figure, Gintama is a completely unhinged science fiction-tinged parody... hard to rec because like the Sengoku stuff it's so popular most of it is super fictionalized at this point.

    6. early 20th century/Taisho. Maybe starting to get more popular due to Golden Kamuy (highly rec, well researched Ainu culture featuring an insane cast + pop culture jokes) and Kimetsu no Yaiba (this is fantasy, the historical setting is purely a vibe) in more recent years. Saka no Ue no Kumo (Clouds Above the Hill) is said to be the definitive historical fiction take but the English translation of the novel is a bit dry and I haven't watched the drama adaptation and either way this isn't really what you're thinking when you think "medieval Japan" so never mind I got sidetracked lol

    ... Uhhhh apologies for formatting

    • familiar [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Excellent information like many other responses in this thread, thanks much!

  • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I'd be interested in seeing an accurate film or TV setting

    Okay so you want motion smoothing off, and you want to set the colour temperature to...

    that is in Medieval Asia (all parts, East, Central, South, etc...) any reccomendations?

    Oh