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nglkt-blog · 5 years ago

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Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Blossom

Differences between the Drama and the Novel

I had officially ran out of good kdramas to watch during the COVID-19 outbreak and I resorted to ask around for recommendations of good chinese dramas.

Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Blossom was certainly one of the top recommendations (along with Love 020 which I found horrible btw, Ashes of Love etc)

Now I can officially say this:

I think my drama watching career can be split into two eras:

Before Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossom - how have I been living????

After Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossom - how can I live without it????

I’m so addicted to the drama that I started reading the popular novel. So I wanted to share some of my views on the differences between the drama and the novel.

But first let’s start off with the similarities:

[SPOILER ALERT]

Similarity #1: Drama is very faithful to the novel

Usually a drama adaptation of a novel will try to set itself apart from the novel by changing storylines or lines said by the main characters. But this drama is very faithful to the novel and the lines between Ye Hua and Su Su / Bai Qian is almost word for word.

Similarity #2: Ye Hua’s character and devotion towards Su Su / Bai Qian

The biggest draw of the drama was Mark Chao’s amazing portrayal of Ye Hua and his ability to express complex emotions while maintaining that suaveness (refer to episode 48). I thought that it was because of Mark Chao that Ye Hua is the calm and collected character that we see in the drama but little did I know this is exactly the Ye Hua that is described in the novel. Mark Chao really brought Ye Hua to life because there is no way a typical flower boy would have been able to have such depth or calmness while acting as Ye Hua (refer to Yang Yang’s portrayal of Ye Hua in the movie version).

Ye Hua’s love was more intensely described in the novel and it is definitely more sexually driven *winks* which will certainly be a treat for all the lovers of the drama. I would certainly recommend reading the first few chapters of the Pillow Book as it describes Ye Hua and Bai Qian’s marriage life – certainly the sweetest ending for the couple.

Now for the differences that the drama took:

Difference #1: Storytelling method

The drama follows a time-chronological order from the time when Bai Qian was Si Yin, a disciple under Mo Yuan which was easy for first-time audience to follow. Whereas in the novel, it starts off immediately from Su Su’s jump into the Zhu Xian Tai and decides to lose all memories of her time with Ye Hua. The novel is told from the point of view of Bai Qian and you really can understand the question marks in her mind when facing the relentless love pursuit from Ye Hua. It is also because of this method, there isn’t much writeup in the novel of the time that Ye Hua and Su Su spent in the mortal world. For example, the days that Su Su longed for Ye Hua’s return and the expedition to the East Sea Palace.

The novel certainly intrigues, and a reader would want to find out why Ye Hua is so in love with Bai Qian and hints on backstory.

Difference #2: Why did Su Su lose her eyes?

In the events leading up to Su Jing’s loss of sight, it was very clear in the drama that Ye Hua never once doubted Su Su’s innocence but in the novel, it seemed unclear whether Ye Hua truly believed if Su Su was innocent and the circumstances in which Ye Hua took Su Su’s eyes away. Did Ye Hua really think that Su Su had pushed Su Jing and cause her to lose her sight, and that the only form of punishment was for Su Su to lose her sight as well?

Difference #3: The reason why Li Jing and Si Yin did not work out

In the drama, it was set up very early on that Li Jing is aware that Si Yin is a female, which led to his admiration towards her. In the novel, Li Jing was unaware that Si Yin is female and was thus cautious of expressing any desire to be with her.

Difference #4: Mo Yuan’s feelings for Si Yin

When I first started the drama, I was rooting for Mo Yuan and Si Yin because you can really feel the affection that Mo Yuan has towards his favourite disciple.

In the novel, Mo Yuan’s affection for Si Yin is evident but little did we know that Mo Yuan also had a back story of his love interest who had died many years back.

Difference #5: Timelines

I always had an issue on how 1 day on heaven = 1 year in the mortal world. Then I realised that in the novel, Bai Qian went missing for almost 200 years after fighting Qin Cang which I can’t seem to bridge since she became mortal Su Su. The drama never did mention explicitly on the time that Su Su spent with Ye Hua but I’d always thought it’s max 1 year in heaven terms, since Ye Hua only spent a couple of months with Su Su in the mortal world (which is less than a day on heaven) and taking into consideration her pregnancy period.

But Su Su took 3 years to give birth to Ah Li on heaven in the novel... either way I’m still confused about the timelines.

Difference #6: Feng Jiu and Di Jun

I had always felt that Feng Jiu and Di Jun were very much standalone couple in the drama and was not necessary to the progression of the plot AT ALL. There was too much screentime for this couple. All I want is Ye Hua and Su Su / Bai Qian. The excessive screentime, in fact, it’s one of the reasons why this can’t be the most perfect drama ever.

The novel portrayed Feng Jiu and Di Jun minimally (oh yes, thankfully).

#three lives three worlds ten miles of peach blossoms #mark chao #yang mi #chinese drama

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nglkt-blog · 6 years ago

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