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What are the best 80s dramas?

mjf314

It seems like no one ever talks about 80s dramas on MDL, so let's try to change that.  What are your favorites?  And which ones are you planning to watch?

I've only watched two so far:
The Bund (1980, HK)
Journey to the West (1986, China)

I'm not sure which one I liked more.  Both are very good, but very different.  Journey to the West is a fun fantasy adventure, and many people consider this version the best adaptation of the novel.  The Bund is a more serious crime drama, which some reviews have compared to The Godfather.

I also have a few on my plan to watch list: Legend of the Condor Heroes (1983, HK), Oshin (1983, Japan), Dream of the Red Chamber (1987, China)

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mocci

Two 80s series that I still like a lot are Sukeban Deka and Abunai Deka. 

Other than this, it's mostly just various Japanese tokusatsu heroes. Not all of those have stood the test of time but I would definitely recommend Masked Rider Black.

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Winnie

I have seen Oshin (1983) a couple of years ago and it's my favourite drama from the 80's. 

I have watched some 80's dramas from Hong Kong a very long time ago but no longer remember the titles. A few memorable ones I liked are:

The Final Verdict (1988)

The Justice of Life (1989) - one of the first dramas with Stephen Chow. 

Looking Back in Anger (1989)

I don't need subs to watch Hong Kong dramas and if I had more time I would like to watch more from this era. Most of the old dramas I have enjoyed are mainly from the 90's (Japan and Hong Kong...) I wonder what K-dramas were like from the 80's. 

I'm currently re-watching an old HK drama from 1994 :)

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mjf314

@Winnie: In case you're interested, the book "K-drama: A New TV Genre With Global Appeal" explains what K-dramas were like in each decade, starting from the 60s.

I'm not sure if any pre-1990 K-dramas have been subbed into English, so they're probably completely unknown outside Korea.  I think Sandglass is the oldest K-drama that I've heard anyone mention on MDL.

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Winnie

Thanks for letting me know about the book. Will try to look out for it :)

I came across this article about the history of K-dramas:

https://koreancultureblog.com/2016/10/10/k-drama-series-a-brief-history-of-k-dramas/

It's unlikely to see any K-dramas from the 80's with subs. 

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kura2ninja

I think I've only watched Oshin and Kamen Rider Black (ahh, childhood memories). And Return of the Condor Heroes (the version with Andy Lau in leading role) seemed to be popular when I grew up, although I never watched it.

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mjf314

@Winnie: Thanks for the link.  Most of the information in the blog post is similar to the book that I mentioned, but they added some extra information.

Looking Back in Anger looks interesting but I couldn't find it with English subtitles.

@m: I see that Sukeban Deka is available with subtitles, so I might watch it.

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Winnie
 mjf314:

@Winnie: Thanks for the link.  Most of the information in the blog post is similar to the book that I mentioned, but they added some extra information.

Looking Back in Anger looks interesting but I couldn't find it with English subtitles.

@m: I see that Sukeban Deka is available with subtitles, so I might watch it.

I forgot to mention another 80's drama worth watching:

War of The Dragon (One of the main actors is Antony Wong...)

https://mydramalist.com/28296-war-of-the-dragon

Hope you can get hold of this one with subs. 

'Looking Back in Anger' is on a streaming app I use which has some old classic HK/Chinese dramas but they don't come with subs unfortunately. 

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mjf314

@Winnie: It also has Simon Yam in it.  Both of them are good actors.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be available with English subtitles.

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Winnie

I agree Simon Yam is also a very good actor. Some of the best HK dramas are from the 80's and 90's so it's a shame that most are not available with Eng subs. You may have better luck trying for J-dramas from the 80's. 

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