Hi, and welcome to the (unofficial) MDL’s Historical Dramas Club!
See the original feed post here.
Whether you are a veteran historical dramas viewer with hundreds of dramas under your belt, or you only now stumbled upon this fascinating world, have only seen a couple of them and you want to explore more, or even if you don’t like historical dramas that much but you’re just here for the pretty banners, feel free to hang out with us and get cosy!
Purpose & How to become a member
Main purpose of creating this club is to spread the love for historical dramas into MyDramaList community, create an information portal about them, discuss about them in a friendly environment, help each other with recommendations, and have fun together!
My motto is: There’s a historical drama for everyone out there!
The only requirement to join us is to express your intention to do so – you aren’t required to take part in any activities, contribute, or even put up our banners on your profile page (Though why not? They’re beautiful!).
There are only 2 real rules: Be civil, and Do not insult other members.
And 4 side “guidelines”: Spread Love not hate, hide/warn before posting Spoilers, be Relevant, and Everybody’s Welcome (as long as they adhere to the 2 rules).
Definitions
For the purpose of this club, all dramas with a plot that takes place in a setting located in the past (as the mdl guidelines for the genre state), or with a plot that takes place in a setting that just resembles the past, e.g. in the manner of dressing, social conduct or rules, weaponry, etc., count.
Synonyms of historical dramas are period dramas, costume dramas, and more.
That’s right, it doesn’t matter if they’re set in a fictional land that resembles Imperial China, or Edo Japan, or in the Heavenly Realm, or Joseon Dynasty Korea, or in a completely new fantasy world/kingdom with magic & angels & creatures, or in the world of martial artists (jianghu) of an unspecified Ancient China, or even in a post-apocalyptic world that has reverted back to medieval society – all these dramas count & discussions about any of them & more are welcome here!!
For time travel & related dramas, or partly historicals, they count as long as at least 1/3 of the story is historical, so for example Queen in Hyun’s Man counts, but Goblin doesn’t count.
For real historical periods dramas, they count as long as they’re up to the 1940’s/1950’s.
For specific genres and examples, characteristics of historical dramas, and information on historical periods per country, see the sections bellow.
Historical movies are also welcome to be discussed here, but know that the information etc. will mostly be about Dramas, not movies.
What’s the big deal with historical dramas anyway?
What draw us into historical dramas: Lush costumes, locations, settings, and cinematography, gripping romance, love for history, martial arts action choreography, transporting into another world, long-haired men, swords & bows, strategies & stratagems, politics, power struggles & schemes, romanticism & aestheticism... are only some of the things that regularly draw some of us into historical dramas binging mode!
What’s your own reasons for loving them? Feel free to discuss bellow!
And what is maybe a reason you avoid them? We hope that we can find a historical drama that even you can enjoy!
Drama Productions per Country
(Under construction. You’re welcome to contribute!)
- Japan: Mainly Taiga (year long serious, epic historical dramas), and Asadora (morning dramas). There are also some fantasy and other types of historical dramas with far fewer amount of episodes, as well as many manga adaptations.
- China: No matter if we're talking about Costume Dramas, Historical Dramas, or Republican-era Dramas, or even about Wuxia, Xianxia, or Xuanhuan, dramas from China that fit our Club's definition come out in huge quantities every year!
- South Korea: They often go by the word "Sageuk", which literally means historical drama! For definitions, categories (such as fusion sageuk and faction sageuk), and more, this is a very good resource!
- Taiwan: Small quantity of historical/costume dramas, though in the past they've created some memorable wuxia.
- Hong Kong: Same as above. In the past, Hong Kong wuxia thrived -- e.g 80’s & 90’s TVB dramas -- and many of the pioneers of the genre itself were there, but nowadays they've been overshadowed by Mainland Chinese dramas (though some of them are even remakes of classic Cantonese dramas/movies). (Thanks to @WandereR!)
- Thailand: There are some historical lakorns, set in various ages, though most seem to be set in the 19th-20th century. Thai historical dramas are also called "Boran".
- Philippines: A small amount of historical drama productions, such as biographical epics about national heroes. A recently coined term about the latter are "BayaniSerye", or Hero Series (Bayani = Hero, Serye = Series). (Thanks to @Czakhareina!)
History
(Under Construction. You’re welcome to contribute!)
Useful resources:
- Wikipedia - History of Japan
- Wikipedia - History of China
- Wikipedia - History of Korea
- Wikipedia - History of Thailand
- Wikipedia - History of the Philippines
Dramas on Historical Time Table:
Currently Airing
[Dramas only, Sorted by # of watchers, descending.]
For the purpose of this section, dramas count as currently airing as long as the last episode hasn’t been released anywhere with official English subtitles yet (even if all the raw episodes have finished airing) – except for those that haven’t gotten English subs (yet?) anyway.
Most short-length dramas (10 or less minutes per episode) are excluded, and some normal length if I have no information on them whatsoever to confirm if they’re really historicals and/or if they’re really airing (you’re welcome to contribute by the way).
Last edited August 25th, 2024
MDL & Historical Dramas
(Under construction. You're welcome to contribute!)
Most Popular Dramas
1 Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo | 2 Hwarang | 3 The Untamed | 4 Love in the Moonlight | 5 Rooftop Prince |
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6 Chicago Typewriter | 7 Mr. Sunshine | 8 Moon Embracing the Sun | 9 Mr. Queen | 10 Kingdom |
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Top Rated Dramas
1 Nirvana in Fire | 2 The Untamed | 3 Joy of Life | 4 Mr. Queen | 5 Kingdom: Season 2 |
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6 The Red Sleeve | 7 Mr. Sunshine | 8 Eternal Love | 9 The Story of Ming Lan | 10 Kingdom |
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Articles
(Under construction. You're welcome to contribute!)
(Thanks to @Moonchild!)
Lists
HDC Hall of Fame #1 (May-June 2022):
- HDC Historical Dramas: FINAL ROUND
- HDC Period Dramas: FINAL ROUND
(More to come soon!)
OTHER LISTS:
- Top 100 Historical Dramas (last updated October 2023)
Featured Posts
- Chinese Historical Fashion, by @WandereR
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/general-asia-forum/59877-historical-dramas-club?pid=1618883&page=4#p1618883
Wow, thank you @Estelll for setting this up and for giving us a space to share our love for historical dramas.
I'm going to kick-start this place by sharing what I feel has been an often overlooked gem - a Thai historical lakorn 'Bpoop Phaeh Saniwaat' aka 'Love Destiny': https://mydramalist.com/23472-bpoop-phaeh-saniwaat.
Note: There are NO spoilers in this post.
If you’re not normally a Thai lakorn viewer, or even a Thai boran (i.e. ancient history) lakorn viewer, you should definitely consider making an exception in this case because this is one very special show.
'Bpoop Phaeh Saniwaat' is a wonderful light-hearted romantic-comedy lakorn which feature underlying themes of history, karmic retribution and fate.
Time-travelling dramas are not new, even amongst lakorns, but I think that this show is a bit more inspired because it certainly knows how to make use of this premise and give us a lovely light-hearted walk through 17th-century Ayutthaya without making either the history-bits or the political-bits too heavy and overwhelming. On the contrary, from the title of the show itself - ‘Love Destiny’ - it makes it pretty clear that this show is primarily a romance show, which it fulfils to a tee.
It was very clever of this show to transport a budding archeologist back into ancient history because the show gives us a natural teacher in her. As she gradually meets one historical figure after another, we get wonderful internal monologues about the various characters’ positions and their impact on history.
When she gets all excited over ancient historical sites, we get lovely little expositions of the significance of those sites.
And through her fish-out-of-water personality and conversations, we are seamlessly introduced to the culture and customs of the times, as well as their hilarious reactions to her modernisms.
History becomes so much more accessible and digestible as we follow Kadesurang/Karakade through some of the definitive times in King Narai’s reign in history. It’s a brilliant piece of writing and a brilliant way of introducing a slice of Thai history to viewers without making it too heavy or boring.
One also gets a really good introduction to the customs, traditions and costumes of that time period from beautiful local landscapes...
to the way the nobles and aristocrats dressed themselves...
to their deeply Buddhist-rooted traditions and customs...
to their beautifully presented and delicious food...
and to their traditional home settings and layouts...
to that of their royal courts and customs...
One would think that with so much historical setting, background, characters and events, the romance would be short-changed to accommodate it all. Wrong! Very wrong! As a romance tale of hate-to-love, and of fated love, this show not only provides generous amounts of time to introduce our main leads:
... and develop their relationship, it actually also spoils us with plenty of fan-service and squeal-worthy scenes. If you’re a romance-junkie like me, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with how much fixes you’ll get.
Before I say a few words about our supporting cast (because they are deserving of their own little section), I would like to say that another good thing about this lakorn is its great absence of your typical thai lakorn tropes.
No evil second female leads? Check.
No love triangles? Check.
No mad antagonist/ crazy villain? Check.
No plot-filler? Check.
No long-drawn-out misunderstandings? Check.
No lack-of-communication angst? Check.
No revenge plots? Check.
No slap-kiss? Check.
No cartoon/ cardboard characters? Check.
No inconsistent or irrational character portrayals? Check.
Wow, too good to be true? Yes.
There is, however, one - ONE - lakorn cliche that does feature itself heavily in this show and I would be remiss in not pointing it out. It’s your ‘tripping-and-falling-into-arms-followed-by-long-stares’ trope. Not gonna lie, this one gets quite a bit of air-time but they’re all variations of the trope so it might be interesting to see just how much they can stretch it, lol. They do water it down to just ‘turning-and-staring’ as the show progresses, and perhaps it may be a matter of taste but I personally thought the show did okay in giving this particular trope quite a bit of spice through its variations.
Finally, a word about the supporting cast. SOLID is the word that comes to mind. This show’s supporting cast have added extra layers of life, depth and breadth to the show. They sparkle and shine in their own different capacities, and while some might be a little more intense and heavy in terms of presence and personality, the show also gives us little insights and glimpses into their thought-process which makes them all comes across believably real and human. The scintillating supporting cast is truly a massive plus.
This show has so many things going for it - sweeping romance, liberal sprinklings of humour, good introduction into Thailand’s ancient history, beautiful sets and costumes, a memorable set of cast of characters, and a storyline which doesn’t spin itself into unnecessary knots or is packed with fillers.
One of the best light-hearted historical romance dramas I’ve seen to date.
EDIT TO ADD:
There are 2 versions of this lakorn - it's original 15-episode (1 hour 50 mins per episode) version, and a Director's Uncut 40-episode (40 minutes per episode) version which features a few hours worth of extra footage.
This lakorn became such a massive hit in Thailand during the year it ran (2018), it single-handedly cleared Bangkok's notoriously terrible traffic jams on the evenings when an episode was airing and spawned an Uncut version release. Unheard of. Yes, this lakorn was THAT good.
Wow, thank you @Estelll for setting this up and for giving us a space to share our love for historical dramas.MusicalVeggies:
I'm going to kick-start this place by sharing what I feel has been an often overlooked gem - a Thai historical lakorn 'Bpoop Phaeh Saniwaat' aka 'Love Destiny': https://mydramalist.com/23472-bpoop-phaeh-saniwaat.
Note: There are NO spoilers in this post.
I thank you, for taking part in this!! ^_^ Welcome here, and congratulation on being the first poster!!!
I still haven't watched this drama, but it's already first in my list of PTW Lakorns (for when I finally find some time from all those Chinese historicals lol)!! Your review made me want to watch it more!! :)
It'll take some time to get use to it for sure, since I've no idea about Thai history yet, but I'm sure I'll manage! My idea of a history lesson is watching a drama/movie first, and reading about the relevant real historical facts second -- or at the same time in some cases.
So I'd say, even if a historical drama isn't really accurate, at least it helps me learn some history, lol! :D
Also the fl thinking aloud about the historical figures she meets & what happened with them, and her time-travelling while being a history buff herself sounds fun!! :)
Thanks for sharing again! :)
Great job and thanks again for this amazing initiative, @Estelll!
Thanks also to @Musical Veggies for the insightful and colourful sharing of the historical Thai drama. This is a fabulous idea, to provide insights into lesser known segments and dramas, hopefully bringing awareness to club members too!
I'll do my part by sharing about Hong Kong productions and for today, I'll talk about a martial arts drama which I had truly enjoyed back in the day with a strong FL to boot. It's true that HK used to be the pioneer and "market leader" in churning out historicals and wuxia since the 60s/ 70s through Shaw productions. These days, it's been overshadowed by China and South Korea. Nonetheless, there are still a few gems in recent years that provide very interesting source materials that inspire Chinese productions to release remakes.
Grace Under Fire
(TVB, 2011, 32 episodes)
So what makes this HK production special?
Story/ Premise
- The titular character refers to Mok Kwai Lan, the fourth (and last) wife of the legendary Wong Fei Hung. Everybody knows who Wong Fei Hung is and all his exploits. But not much, if any at all, is known about this lady who is actually a martial artist in her own right and the descendant of the Mok Gar style. She later became a Hung Gar practitionar and actually helped in managing the famous Po Chi Lam medicinal shop in addition to Wong's martial arts school
- The premise of the drama is based on a combination of folklore and histprical records, and focuses mainly on Mok's early years as well as fictional dramatization. This is a tale of love, revenge, and redemption, and all the jiang hu values of friendship, brotherhood, loyalty and chivalry are present as well.
- This drama is set during the early Republican era, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, in Guangzhou and Foshan.
Cast
- Liu Xuan was cast as the main character in what was her first ever TVB drama role. She was an Olympics gold medalist for artistic gymnastics in the 2000 games, hence she performed many of the stunts in the show and her flexibility in performing the martial arts sequences is truly impressive.
- The iconic David Chiang, of the Shaw Brothers kung fu era, played the role of Wong Fei Hung. He was particularly famed for the character of the one-armed swordsman.
- Yueh Hua, another iconic Shaw Brothers actor, was cast as the villain in the show.
Choreography
- A mix of martial arts styles were featured, including the famous Hung Gar style (used by Wong Fei Hung as the 3rd gen practitioner who learned it from his equally famous father, Wong Kei Ying), Mok Gar style (created by Mok's family), Mizong style, and many others.
- There is plenty of action arising from martial arts duels and competitions depicted in the drama.
Link for streaming (with original Cantonese audio and fully subbed)
https://dramacool.vc/drama-detail/grace-under-fire
OST
The opening theme for the drama is really dramatic and uplifting, performed by veteran Canto-pop singer Elisa Chan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_78sT7zLYY
Selected posters and stills
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