hi, i've been really wanting to get into wuxia properly lately and was wondering if you had any recommendations? i am open to literature, films, books, games or any other medium!
So im no expert but i can give you a couple recommendations. However there is no guarantee any of what i recomend might have easy to find english subs.
So right off the bat, the most accessible wuxia game at the moment is "where winds meet". Its a third person hack and slash peusdo mmorpg where you play as a orphan wandering the jianghu. Its completely free to play and the only microtransactions so far are only for cosmetics. Its completely in English and available on steam.
The sword and fairy/chinese paladin franchise is also a recommendation. Its the chinese equivalent to finally fantasy, being a long running franchise of wuxia rpgs. Not all of the games have english translations though.
Blades of the Guardian (镖人：风起大漠): a wuxia movie about a bounty hunter/body guard who is hired to escort someone to chang'an while being hunted down by other bounty hunters and warriors.
Sakra (天龍八部之喬峯傳): a wuxia movie about a young warrior who was framed as a traitor to the chinese people and has to fight to prove his innocence while being targeted by all the martial arts sec of china.
New Dragongate Inn (新龍門客棧): one of my personal favorite wuxia films. Its about a group of xiake trying to protect the daughter of an important official from being kidnapped and used to lure those loyal to her father into a trap. This one is a remake of tje original Dragongate Inn and also got a remake itself starring jet li. I havent seen the original but i would say its still worth checking out. Ive seen the jet li remake and its also worth checking out.
Blades of the Guardian (镖人): the donghua adaption of the same manhua as the movie same plot but less condensed. Has some really kick ass animation.
Spirit Wind Elegance (风灵玉秀): Another personal fav of mine, the story is about a young thief and a white haired noble lady who decides to travel the jianghu in seek of adventure before becoming entangled into a conspiracy. Has two seasons and the animation of the first couple episodes are very rough but it vastly improves.
Pillow Knife Song (枕刀歌): a story about a young boy whose families were murdered and years latter returns to seek revenge on those who killed his parents.
Assassin Seven (刺客伍六七): a story about a young hair stylist with amnesia who decides to become an assassin to raise enough money to get his memory back. All the while being caught inbetween a war between the science and technology using nation of stem and the nation of martial artists wulin. Althrough not a pure wuxia story, there are many wuxia elements and by the latter seasons, it fully becomes a wuxia story.
White cat legend (大理寺日志): not a true wuxia but i feel it would scratch the same itch. Set during the tang dynasty, its about the leader of the 大理寺, a man cursed with a cat head and forced to become a cat demon if he does not routinely take medicine, and his subordinates solving varies crimes in china before eventually becoming about a conspiracy.
Dramas: i dont watch a lot of dramas so im gonna keep this short.
Longest day in Chang'an (长安十二时辰): a criminal is given the chance to earn his freedom where he has 24 hours to investigate and stop a plot to blow up the capital of china. Also set during the tang dynasty. Is shot like the tvshow 24 where each episode represents 1 hour of in universe time.
The legend of condor hero (鵰英雄傳): this is THE wuxia tvshow of all time. Cant really say much more about it than that.
White cat legends: has a live action drama.
Novels and manhua and webcomics:
White cat legends: the original webcomic that the donghua and drama is adapted from.
Blades of the Guardians: the manhua that the donghua and movie is based on.
The condor trilogy (射鵰三部曲) : the novel series that birthed many wuxia adaptions including the legend of condor heroes. Its a classic.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (魔道祖师): althrough not wuxia specifically, i personally dont bother really differing between the various subgenres of wuxia. I dont think i need to introduce this, its one of the most mainstream in the west chinese media. Its a novel, got a donghua and drama adaption.
This is by no means an exhaustive list and i open it to any of my followers to offer suggestions of their own.
I've generally speaking only limited myself to media that you can enjoy right now, so phantom blade zero did not make the cut, and ive limited myself to only media from china.
There are wuxia media from japan and korea but frankly speaking i want to showcase chinese media.
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