Chinese Paladin 3
Here is a link to the wuxu soap opera I found in China, fansubbed into English.
http://www.viikii.net/channels/goto/chinesepaladin3#
I hope it comes out in a real version in America at some point. It runs like a D&D game for most of its length, but there is an episode near the end where the Taoist monk starts to lose his faith, and a taunting demon grown from his own thoughts (like the Glebbeth haunting Sparrowhawk in Ursula K Leguin’s A WIZARD OF EARTRHSEA) shows him the futility of life and the endless suffering of the wheel of reincarnation. The demon grants shows him the hidden thoughts of men and their evil deeds– his only way to defy the demon is to preach compassion to the evildoers in the crowd, which causes a disturbance (because he also knows the secret thoughts and the evil deeds of the magistrate). He get thrown into jail, where he speaks to the imprisoned, who mock him, but agree to turn over a new leaf if he releases them. He uses his Taoist martial arts magic to break the lock. He waits in the cell meditating, and when confronted by the angered magistrate, asks to have all the punishments of all the freed prisoners heaped upon himself.
This is just one episode of many, and I thought it a particularly touching one. There is another episode where they fight the Monkey King, who appears in the form of a giant ape and blasts them with fart-gas from his bowels. I never claimed this show was all high drama — there is plenty of low comedy in it as well.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
