Netflix's '3 Body Problem' Draws Mixed Reviews, Sparks Anger in China (cnn.com) 104
"My favorite kind of science fiction involves stories rooted in real science..." writes NPR's reviewer. "[T]here is something special about seeing characters wrestle with concepts closer to our current understanding of how the universe works."
The Verge calls it an "impressive" and "leaner" story than the book, arguing "it's a good one — and very occasionally a great one" that introduces the author's key ideas, though channelling "the book's spirit but not its brilliance."
And Slate calls it a "downright transformative" adaptation, "jettisoning most of the novel's characters and plucking scenes from all three books," while accusing it of "making the trilogy's expansive and philosophical story into something much more pedestrian and digestible."
But Reuters notes there's huge interest in China over this adaptation (by the co-creator of Mem>Game of Thrones) for the first Asian novel to win the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel. "The new series was trending on Chinese social media platform Weibo on Friday," reports Reuters, "with 21 million views so far." (The show came in first on Weibo's "top hot" trend rankings, they add, "despite Netflix being officially inaccessible in China. Chinese viewers would have had to watch the Netflix series from behind a VPN or on a pirate site.")
So what was their verdict? CNN reports Netflix's adaptation "has split opinions in China and sparked online nationalist anger over scenes depicting a violent and tumultuous period in the country's modern history." Among the country's more patriotic internet users, discussions on the adaptation turned political, with some accusing the big-budget American production of making China look bad. The show opens with a harrowing scene depicting Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, which consumed China in bloodshed and chaos for a decade from 1966... "Netflix you don't understand 'The Three Body Problem' or Ye Wenjie at all!" read a comment on social media platform Weibo. "You only understand political correctness!"
Others came to the show's defense, saying the scene closely follows depictions in the book — and is a truthful reenactment of history. "History is far more absurd than a TV series, but you guys pretend not to see it," read one comment on Douban, a popular site for reviewing movies, books and music.
Author Liu said in an interview with the New York Times in 2019 that he had originally wanted to open the book with scenes from Mao's Cultural Revolution, but his Chinese publisher worried they would never make it past government censors and buried them in the middle of the narrative. The English version of the book, translated by Ken Liu, put the scenes at the novel's beginning, with the author's blessing... Various other aspects of the show, from its casting and visual effects to the radical changes to the story's original setting and characters, also attracted the ire of Chinese social media users. Many compared it to a Chinese television adaptation released last year — a much lengthier and closer retelling of the book that ran to 30 episodes and was highly rated on Chinese review platforms.
The Netflix adaptation featured an international cast and placed much of the action in present-day London — thus making the story a lot less Chinese.
The Verge calls it an "impressive" and "leaner" story than the book, arguing "it's a good one — and very occasionally a great one" that introduces the author's key ideas, though channelling "the book's spirit but not its brilliance."
And Slate calls it a "downright transformative" adaptation, "jettisoning most of the novel's characters and plucking scenes from all three books," while accusing it of "making the trilogy's expansive and philosophical story into something much more pedestrian and digestible."
But Reuters notes there's huge interest in China over this adaptation (by the co-creator of Mem>Game of Thrones) for the first Asian novel to win the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel. "The new series was trending on Chinese social media platform Weibo on Friday," reports Reuters, "with 21 million views so far." (The show came in first on Weibo's "top hot" trend rankings, they add, "despite Netflix being officially inaccessible in China. Chinese viewers would have had to watch the Netflix series from behind a VPN or on a pirate site.")
So what was their verdict? CNN reports Netflix's adaptation "has split opinions in China and sparked online nationalist anger over scenes depicting a violent and tumultuous period in the country's modern history." Among the country's more patriotic internet users, discussions on the adaptation turned political, with some accusing the big-budget American production of making China look bad. The show opens with a harrowing scene depicting Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, which consumed China in bloodshed and chaos for a decade from 1966... "Netflix you don't understand 'The Three Body Problem' or Ye Wenjie at all!" read a comment on social media platform Weibo. "You only understand political correctness!"
Others came to the show's defense, saying the scene closely follows depictions in the book — and is a truthful reenactment of history. "History is far more absurd than a TV series, but you guys pretend not to see it," read one comment on Douban, a popular site for reviewing movies, books and music.
Author Liu said in an interview with the New York Times in 2019 that he had originally wanted to open the book with scenes from Mao's Cultural Revolution, but his Chinese publisher worried they would never make it past government censors and buried them in the middle of the narrative. The English version of the book, translated by Ken Liu, put the scenes at the novel's beginning, with the author's blessing... Various other aspects of the show, from its casting and visual effects to the radical changes to the story's original setting and characters, also attracted the ire of Chinese social media users. Many compared it to a Chinese television adaptation released last year — a much lengthier and closer retelling of the book that ran to 30 episodes and was highly rated on Chinese review platforms.
The Netflix adaptation featured an international cast and placed much of the action in present-day London — thus making the story a lot less Chinese.
For every adaptation, (Score:2)
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there's an equal and opposite adaptation.
Not adaptations, but similar. Case in point or counter point? Armageddon and Deep Impact :-)
Thankfully (Score:3)
Thankfully I don't care about what nationalists in any country think and have been enjoying the show a lot. I've had a bit of time to fill on my hands as I've had the flu the last few days so I'm almost done.
None of my friends who have read the book have started watching though so I'm curious, what do folks who have read the book think of the show? Obviously the book will have more depth but I'm curious of thoughts outside of that.
Having enjoyed the show enough I do plan to read the books at some point but I have no idea when I might make time for that.
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Yeah, it's pretty good. Reasonable enough physics that it's a bit jarring when the three body problem turns out to actually be a four body problem. I'm told the books are "all math" so I'll have to check those out.
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I just downloaded the series, so I'll start watching that this weekend. If I enjoy it perhaps I will give the book another try.
Re:Thankfully (Score:4, Funny)
As the Italians say, "traduttore traditore." I'd translate what that means into Engish but it loses something.
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'I started reading the book but did not like the writing style, perhaps because it was translated, so I stopped. '
Exactly my thoughts!
Even if I didn't stop, but the style was very strange, like translated by a Chinese not a native English-speaking translator, very strange rhythm and style, a cultural thing I guess, I really had a very hard time reading it.
PS. English is my fourth language, I always thought it was me.
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I read a bunch and I also really struggled with the first book. I would start a new chapter and it would take me a page to realize we'd skipped forward/back in time, and that the characters were somehow related. I'm american born with no asian heritage, and I found all the names really difficult to follow as well. I thought the plot was good but the translation was awful. I did not bother with books 2 or 3
Re: Thankfully (Score:4)
I'm kind of excited to see the show. The books were unfocused and discursive. A Western book editor would have insisted he tighten them up before publication. Adapting then to a medium where there is less time to communicate the story might be just the right thing
Re: Thankfully (Score:2)
Good to know. Explains why I had a hell of a time learning German. Although Spanish wasn't too bad. Honestly, I pity anyone who has to learn English as a second language.
My culture's artistic traditions go back to Shakespeare, and before that to Aristotle's Poetics. Tight plots are historically rewarded by our audiences and critics. In fact, that might explain why I was so frustrated watching "Lost" and the reboot of "Battlestar Galactica." Those plotlines felt maddeningly sloppy.
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TV shows have the opposite incentive, as they generally want to maximize the number of episodes they can generate from the premise. Some shows do this badly, and very clearly work to avoid moving the story forward.
X-Files did it too, and it even happens in video games, like Destiny 2.
Re: Thankfully (Score:2)
The X-Files. A great series that went out with a whimper. I think I stopped watching it before the conclusion.
Re: Thankfully (Score:2)
Just watched the first episode on Netflix. It was excellent. In fact I enjoyed it more than the book.
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I found the book fairly dull and stylistically confused. Some of that perhaps comes from translation, but the awkward plot and stylistic issues almost certainly are built into the story itself. I finished it only be sheer effort alone, because of its reputation, but honestly I found its reputation to be ill-deserved. It just isn't a very good book. I can't imagine subjecting myself to watching a miniseries version of it.
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Thanks for the response. Glad to hear it sounds like the show is what I would call "close enough".
Also, is your sig a Shadowrun reference?
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Nice, I thoroughly enjoyed the table top and Genesis games as well although I haven't played the table top version since second edition.
I hope you don't mind me being a chatty Cathy here but have you played recent editions of the table top and enjoyed them? I hear Shadowrun is on 5th edition now with a lot of rule changes including the elimination of dice pools which were a favorite mechanic of mine.
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Oh the lore for the game is fantastic but mechanics to me still matter. In that context the dice pools in 2e were a favorite as while they didnt change roll playing much they meant (to me at least) more meaningful and interesting decisions to be made in every round of combat than many of the other table tops I've played.
Thanks for the info on Shadowrun. My social circles nowadays seem to only play D&D 5e and I've been getting bored of playing the same rule set as well as the same basic fantasy universes
Re:Why should Slashdot care about CCP issues? (Score:5, Insightful)
This thread has nothing to do with technology.
It's scifi, what more do you need for it to qualify as nerd material?
Altered fiction remains fiction which is not more than trifling amusement.
Apparently, aside from the setting, it is more inline with what the original author intended but couldn't publish in China due to censorship. I think this comment is apt:
"Netflix you don't understand 'The Three Body Problem' or Ye Wenjie at all!" read a comment on social media platform Weibo. "You only understand political correctness!"
The irony is quite thick here. Political correctness is why he couldn't originally publish it the way he intended. Quite a useful tool for demagogues isn't it? That's exactly why progressives like the CCP adore it.
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That's exactly why progressives like the CCP adore it.
Are you calling the CPP progressive!? LOLOLOL. Tell me you're an oblivious moron in a bubble without saying it.
Re: Why should Slashdot care about CCP issues? (Score:4, Insightful)
> Mao won because he understood China.
And Pol Pot won because he understood Cambodians?
Is it an endorsement of Mao, a condemnation of China, or just an observation?
Re:Why should Slashdot care about CCP issues? (Score:5, Insightful)
One cannot reasonably expect mainland Chinese to have other than a Maoist, nationalist viewpoint because Mao unified China against foreign imperialist opposition.
Chinese people aren't identical, ideological robots, whether you believe that to be the product of race, culture, or authoritarian training. Sure, culture and indoctrination at least may predispose *more* people there to take a Maoist or nationalist viewpoint, but I guarantee you that among 1.4 billion people there are plenty dissidents and freethinkers and people who question the party line. Xi is really reimposing elements of Maoism after a decades long turn away from that, which means he has to purge *even the CCP party ranks* of diversity.
If you couldn't expect any diversity of viewpoint in China, the the CCP would not be so keen on cracking down on dissent. They wouldn't be banging the "Xi Xinping Thought" drum so loudly if there weren't other viewpoints out there that needed to be drowned out.
The idea that Mao "won" because he had some kind of mystically infallible and exclusive insight into the character of Chinese people is a "just so" story -- reasoning that becaue he won he *must* have had some special understanding of China. Not to unduly minimize his perspicacity as a politician, he won beause this opposition -- the KMT -- was really, really bad. Mao was not harnessing some kind of reactionary Chinese impulse to resist an attempt to impose western economic and political liberalism; communism was a modern alternative to a reacdtionary and nationalistic regime whose corruption and incompetence had led the nation to high unemployment rates and hyperinflation.
Re:Why should Slashdot care about CCP issues? (Score:5, Insightful)
And also, Mao was a psychopath, a butcher, and killed closed to 100,000,000 people either through intent or neglect.
"President" Xi, now also dictator for life, is using slightly different tactics but is seemingly hell-bent on engaging the so-called "foreign imperialist opposition" AKA, the civilized world militarily, which is likely to be the end of Xi and a lot of other people in the process.
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'And also, Mao was a psychopath, a butcher, and killed closed to 100,000,000 people either through intent or neglect.'
And he died in his bed like Stalin, or Pol Pot, albeit Pol Pot got house-arrest.
If you kill your own people, nobody seems to care.
Mao won, morality is irrelevant to victory (Score:2, Troll)
Mao being a psychopath got shit done, and his victims are footnotes in history books when anyone bothers to mention them.
Conquest requires traits deemed "pathological" by the losing side. In other news Genghis Khan, Tamerlane and and Alexander the Great also imposed their will violently on countless forgotten "NPCs" who were replaced with little fuss.
Just because something offends someone else's arbitrary subjective "morals" is no reason of itself not to do it nor does it make that choice strategically coun
Given the original material... (Score:4, Interesting)
The Slate review actually makes me more likely to try this. The original seemed a lot more likely to satisfy a closet revolutionary in China than me.
It's sad the original was self-censored out of fear of the CCP's potential response, but it does give a more powerful message than the story itself.
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The whole Cultural Revolution angle isn't as important to the story as people seem to make it out to be. It provides really important backstory for one important character, but the details of her backstory serve to add flavor without providing substance to the plot.
Re:Given the original material... (Score:4)
Garbage. It explains why she was willing to sell out humanity in favor of a faraway alien species. That character's entire life under the party rule had been privation, cruelty and betrayal, and based on those life experiences her determination was that humanity was irredeemable. That's fairly important to the plot because it's why she called them aliens back, and why she told them she'd help them invade.
I don't think some of ya'll understand just how disturbing it is to see people treated like chattel by their government, because you've grown used to seeing it.
Re: Given the original material... (Score:2)
Yes, it's good to understand the villain's backstory. But this is not some character driven narrative. Star Wars was fine before we had prequel explaining Vader's backstory. It wasn't necessary.
Removing the cultural revolution doesn't impact the plot in any way. It just as easily could have been left out and it would not require any changes throughout the entire trilogy. In fact, that's exactly what the Tencent production did. And that adaptation otherwise hews very closely to the book.
Re: Given the original material... (Score:2)
She definitely comes across as a villain in the book too. It's not like she acted on a moment of passion. The action was unauthorized, and obviously puts the entire species on danger. She's a bad person with regrets for being such a piece of shit.
Re:Given the original material... (Score:5, Interesting)
The originals were not censored exactly, they just moved the chapters about the cultural revolution to the middle instead of the start. That was to avoid it looking like a book about the cultural revolution. It was initially serialized so by the time those chapters came up it had established itself as science fiction and about other things.
It was a clever work-around because it allowed the text to be published without censorship or forced edits, and by explaining what happened anyone who wants to read the chapters in the original order can do so.
As for the quality of the original, it reminds me of a lot of Japanese works. Many of them can be appreciated with little understanding of Japanese culture or language, but if you do have that knowledge then you can enjoy it on so many more levels. The translators tried to fill in the gaps with notes, but such things can only do so much. It's just the nature of translated works, particularly when the cultural setting is very different.
Re:Given the original material... (Score:5, Interesting)
>it reminds me of a lot of Japanese works. Many of them can be appreciated with little understanding of Japanese culture or language, but if you do have that knowledge then you can enjoy it on so many more levels.
It took me a while to get used to Japanese tropes, which become storytelling shorthand for the creative folks. Chinese movies, of which I have consumed only a limited range containing a few old school wire-work kung-fu flicks and some modern action flicks) were yet another adjustment.
I can only imagine how stupid/alien some of the tropes used in the West must seem to non-Western folks until they get used to them.
Re:Given the original material... (Score:4, Funny)
Indeed, and it's interesting that you use kung-fu movies as an example, because most of those came out of Hong Kong and were in Cantonese. Quite different to Mandarin movies produced in the east of the country, even when they are the same genera. E.g. compare Hong Kong martial arts movies with Mandarin wuxia ones.
It's a bit frustrating because there always going to be so many movies you can't fully appreciate. Like a native French speaker watching a Pink Panther movie.
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>Like a native French speaker watching a Pink Panther movie
Not now, Cato!
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My favourite joke was that his French accent was so outrageously bad that even other French people couldn't understand him.
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The books are a masterpiece (Score:5, Interesting)
I haven't watched the series yet but the books really blew me away, highly recommended for any sci-fi reader. It has some really epic ideas. I still think about those often, years after reading them.
Re:The books are a masterpiece (Score:4, Interesting)
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I found the first book to be a lot slower and more boring than the other 2. I think they're worth reading if you didn't hate the first book, it only gets better.
Chinese tv-series only first book? (Score:2)
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Hmm. You realize, of course, that if all viewers took your approach, no one would ever watch the first season of any show, thus guaranteeing that no show ever had a second season?
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if all viewers took your approach
the whole point of deviating from the herd is that they don't.
Re: Chinese tv-series only first book? (Score:2)
Three Body Problem and The Fat Years (Score:2)
Am pretty unacquainted with current Chinese literature/fiction. Idle musing therefore, just wondering. Both of these works are by authors in sufficiently good odor to be able to remain and write in China. Both are quite explicit about events which seem to be banned from public discussion in general. So what is happening? Why are they permitted at all?
The Fat Years one can see one possibility why - the very long monologue at the end by the representative of the ruling committee comes eventually to the c
Ok? (Score:5, Insightful)
China isn't allowed to watch Netflix. And Netflix doesn't do business in China. So why would anyone care what anyone thinks from a country that isn't allowed to access the content? That's like a 10yr old trying to give me their opinions on different wines. They aren't allowed to have wine, and if they did get their hands on it somehow, I'm not listening to their opinions because their opinions are meaningless.
accusing the big-budget American production of making China look bad
Good news! China always looks bad and doesn't need anyone's help to do so.
Re:Ok? (Score:5, Insightful)
Everyone's opinions on wine are meaningless [youtu.be].
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Wine snobs don't have opinions to begin with.
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Everyone's opinions on wine are meaningless.
That's not really what the video is saying, it's also taking a somewhat overly strong position.
Yes wine, like other foods is pretty subjective. Good or bad depends hugely on personal preference. I don't really care much for steak less than medium rare. I can eat it, but I think actually cooked steak has a better flavour and more pleasant texture. Steak snobs hate that and I don't care.
When it comes to wine and booze in general, I'll have a crack at most things.
My
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China isn't allowed to watch Netflix. And Netflix doesn't do business in China. So why would anyone care what anyone thinks from a country that isn't allowed to access the content?
The novel that is source material for the netflix series was written by a Chinese author and is set in China. It makes sense for the citizens of that country to have opinions about an adaptation of such a work by artists working in a different country. Some things may get lost in translation, be adapted clumsily, etc.
The current political climate between the U.S. and China increases the odds of an adaptation causing offense.
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I'm not saying it doesn't make sense for them to have opinions on it. I know the source material. The English source is also different than the Chinese source.
Anyway, the point is why should Netflix or anyone involved with the show give a rats ass about their opinions? Whether they praise it or complain about it, they're opinions aren't going to be considered going forward. They are an audience that does not matter.
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I guess I'd hope that people adapting a work originating in another country / culture would care what the people of that country / culture think of the adaptation, whether they are the target market of the adapted work or not.
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Nope. As long as the author is happy, or at least ok, with it.
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Think what you like, I suppose; it is a free country.
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Unlike China.
Re:Ok? (Score:5, Interesting)
Except the translation of the novel was done with the blessing of the author. The background information of the "bad" stuff (like Tienanmen Square) was put at the beginning to educate English readers about cultural events they may not have background knowledge of.
Of course, the original author is also critical of the Chinese government, which is probably why they allowed it.
The Chinese are merely upset because they were brought up believing a version of history that was whitewashed (aka brainwashed) because it was censored from their history books. The series is depicting the "bad events" that they didn't know about. And of course, they're reacting as anyone else would since that's "woke ideology" in China.
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I have a Chinese friend, living in Malaysia, who still forcefully claims that the Tiananmen Massacre didn't actually happen and was simply made up by the West. I'm sure her opinion of earlier abominations would be equally unbelieving.
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Why the fuck would someone's opinion be meaningless if they e.g. actually say the content? This is the dumbest comment I've ever read.
Then you don't read much. Their opinions are meaningless because they not arguing the accuracy of the scenes, they're arguing that the scenes make China look bad for what actually happened in China.
As a US citizen, I have no problem with people who criticize the US for detonating nuclear weapons in Japan (even though this happened well before most US citizens were alive). I also have no problem with people who criticize Japan for not surrendering. Every country makes mistakes, demanding those mistakes be
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Read? You can't even spell the right words you intended to use, so that isn't surprising.
Re:Ok? (Score:5, Informative)
Netflix is not blocked in China. Netflix simply doesn't have operations there, probably because there are already established players in that market and to enter it they would requite a colossal investment.
Instead they partner with Chinese streaming video networks to release their most popular shows that appeal to Chinese audiences, like Game of Thrones. The shows are censored according to Chinese law, just as they are in other countries. For example, in Japan they have to censor genitalia. Hmm, thinking about it, does that mean Game of Thrones is illegal without age verification in Texas now?
Of course there is rampant piracy of the uncensored version in China, with fan produced subtitles to fill in the gaps in the official version.
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Blocked/Not available is the same thing for all intents and purposes.
Partnering or licensing a Chinese streaming company to censor and play various shows in China doesn't change anything. It's still not Netflix at that point. And the Chinese complaints of a version they aren't supposed to see are still meaningless. Japan needing to censor genitalia is not in the same vein as the Chinese censoring, well, everything.
Enjoyed it. (Score:2)
Just watch the Chinese adaptation (Score:2, Interesting)
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Careful. You said something _positive_ about something coming out of China! That is heresy! Obviously anything and everything that China makes _must_ be crap.
That said, the book was really bad. No idea why anybody found it readable or even good.
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Is it still on the internet? I watched one episode from their youtube and figured I'd watch more later, but then they all disappeared!
At least Chinese people are talking about it (Score:2)
Imagining Xitler jumping up and down, screaming "No! No! No! Stop talking!" gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.
The irony... (Score:3)
Ah, the irony. People in a country illegally watching something that their country doesn't allow them to watch, and then bitching that what they are watching makes heir country look bad.
That's just priceless.
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Ah, the irony. People in a country illegally watching
Especially ironic because Chinese law does not make it illegal for them to watch it, the American DMCA does. Because Netflix isn't in China.
So it is American law that makes it illegal for the audience in China in watch an American adaptation of a Chinese book that makes "China look bad" by not being as close to the source material as the Chinese adaptation of the same book.
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They're watching it using a VPN and pirate sites. Not legal in China.
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Illegal according to American law. Netflix is an American company that doesn't serve Chinese customers. (Not wittingly anyway.) Hence the pirate sites. Illegal in the USA, not in China.
I refuse to trust material coming out of China now (Score:3)
Re:I refuse to trust material coming out of China (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not out of China, Netflix US loosely based their version on it, and it is full of original characters and dialogue. It's more like how The Magnificent Seven is loosely based on Seven Samurai, than a direct adaptation.
As for censorship, I see Apple censored the final episode of Masters of the Air. A Jewish man who survived the holocaust is talking about what he plans to do now his family has been murdered and his home destroyed, and the subtitles randomly drop out when he says he is going to move to Palestine. It doesn't really work because you can clearly hear him say "Palestine" and from the context is to clear what he means, but they tried...
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The reason the Chinese audience had to watch through a VPN is because of Netflix region-locking their content.
That's right, the censorship is not done by China, but by America.
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Oh, wait... it's not supposed to be funny? oooh, nevermind.
South Park FTW (Score:2)
Little Trouble in Big China (Score:2)
Why didn't Netflix depict the Cultural Revolution as a frolicking good time? Mel Brooks filmed the Spanish Inquisition as light hearted foolery! Surely Netflix could do the same for the Cultural Revolution.
The book was crap (Score:2)
Well, the first half, never got any farther. I bought it because of good reviews and found it unreadable, uninspired, shallow and recycling ideas that proper SF has discovered a few decades ago. No idea why why anybody likes it.
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Well, the first half, never got any farther. I bought it because of good reviews and found it unreadable, uninspired, shallow and recycling ideas that proper SF has discovered a few decades ago.
I can't remember exactly what all was in the last half of the book but I think you skipped out on some pretty interesting ideas in the last half I don't recall seeing elsewhere before. I am pretty sure it's those ideas that give it such high marks from so many.
However I would agree it's not easy to read, and I only
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Interesting phrase, but ... (Score:2)
Not sure it's something you want to hear, especially if you're a pedestrian. :-)
No shit (Score:5, Insightful)
"scenes depicting a violent and tumultuous period in the country's modern history"
9 of the top 20 bloodiest events in history according to "Atrocities" by Mathew White, involved the Chinese. Sometimes civil wars, sometimes Mongols, sometimes Communism.
The result: between 7-40 million Chinese dead every single time.
So they've had quite a number of "tumultuous periods".
Details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
I read the books (Score:2)
In English.
I found it rather hard to read, I don't know if it was the translator or if the original Chinese has different literature system.
Until the very end, I found it very confusing, maybe because English is my fourth language, but the Netflix version, even if it seems very, VERY abbreviated, seems easier to understand, maybe it's a cultural thing.
Why a remake? (Score:3)
Wasn't the Chinese series good enough? Is this going to be another Girl With The Dragon Tattoo or Lathe of Heaven?
"You've not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon."
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The Chinese series was downright disturbing, because to most of the world the "modern day" parts of the show were a warped dystopia. That might be their reality in China, but I have no interest in seeing it on my screens.
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It's a view of how the Chinese see themselves. Or at least a government approved view. As such, it is interesting in and of itself.
China is known to hide the truth, change history (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:China is known to hide the truth, change histor (Score:4, Informative)
Maybe a few million. The Great Leap Forward, a decade earlier, killed tens of millions. The conclusion we can draw from this is that Mao really didn't give a damn about human life. The Great Leap Forward had been about showing the Chinese populace and the world how incredibly great Mao's version of Marxism was, and ending up in mass famine. So discredited was Mao by this that people Deng Xiaoping managed to sideline him and bring some sanity back to the government. Mao didn't like being sidelined by his underlings, so sparked the Cultural Revolution to destabilize Chinese society and wrest power from Deng and Co., which he did, and Deng and the other reformers were sent off to be "re-educated". In the end Deng won; after Mao's death and the attempted coup by the Gang of Four, Deng was "rehabilitated" and handed power, and it is Deng Xiaoping who actually turned China around.
Sadly the lessons of that period seem to have been forgotten.
not like the books (Score:2)
trailer made me not watch it (Score:2)
I was hoping for this one, especially given that the Tencent series is brilliant (though long-winded).
Then I watched the trailer and got the impression that it's another gender-swapped, dumbed-down, "for modern audiences" piece and decided I don't want to spoil my memory of one of the best SciFi books.
Is it what I fear it is? Or did they stay true to the books?
Re: (Score:1)
I've only watched the shortened Fan-edit of "Three-Body" [disembiggened.com], so I can't comment on much, but they clearly butchered the story in at least one very disappointing way. The Netflix version strips away the anti-human "green" aspect, which is a real thing that desperately needs more attention. As does the flourishing censorship in the west; I wouldn't be surprised if there were many legitimate complaints about the adaption.
of course (Score:2)
I fully expect it to be disappointing, even the much acclaimed new Dune movie is lacking in depth compared with the book.