#Three Body

[wangmiao]

Happy 44th Birthday, Zhang Luyi!!!

Footage from Three-Body, Belief, The Devotion of Suspect X, Love Me if You Dare, 2023 GQ Interview, & 2024 Zegna event

[diamantdog]

just saw a bunch of posts about netflix's "3 body problem" reblogged on my dash, so a friendly reminder that the chinese adaptation, which has entered multiple lists of best c-dramas in 2023, is available for free on youtube with engsub & also on tencent/wetv app (where' i'm currently watching to spite d&d lol).

eta: i probably should have added this a while back; i didn't check the notes until recently. but i have been told by someone in the replies that there are only 2 of 30 episodes available on youtube now. idk when this change happened. as i mentioned above, i watched the drama on my local wetv app for free. however, i'm aware that the app in other countries may have different rules or w/e. so, yeah, please be kindly informed.

[todayontumblr]

Thursday, March 28.

3 Body Problem *spoilers*

There are pickles, snags, muddles, and problems. Then there are problems concerning three bodies. This would be the latter. 

But problems, three-body or otherwise, can escalate into full-blown conundrums. And that is just what we have for you this Thursday, March 28, in the form of these Spotlight interviews with Zine Tseng and Rosalind Chao, and John Bradley and Alex Sharp, all four of 3 Body Problem fame, who were subject to a myriad of tough questions. The dark forest theory? Could Jason Momoa solve the #3 body problem? Ways that the first season does not end? And what would the ideal three-course meal one could put together to pair with a viewing of 3 Body Problem?

[electricsoul-rpg]

Netflix's 3 Body Problem

I tried watching Netflix’s American adaptation of Three Body problem. I watched five episodes and boy, is it painful.

(Full disclaimer: I really liked the Chinese adaptation by Tencent, I read the book after I watched the drama, and I am a European of Chinese descent, so I am definitely biased.)

The general whitewashing and westernization of the story is already pretty bad. Why take a Chinese story if you’re going to make it so blandly American?

Everyone is horny and thinks about sex, relationships based on ideals are reduced to attraction and sex. Everyone is so vulgar and crass. IQ seems very low.

Ye Wenjie. What did they do to Ye Wenjie. She’s a brainless horny fanatic woman now. And Shen Yufei is replaced by a generic unhinged lady. All the scientists seem supremely dumb.

White characters explain or emphasize things in Chinese, for Chinese people, when their Mandarin is bad. Not gibberish bad, but still pretty bad. Please just use English, your white actors clearly can’t speak Chinese. Your Chinese characters can understand and speak English. Don’t hurt our ears like this. It might be cool and exotic for the average Western audience who doesn't understand Mandarin but it’s cringe and painful for us.

A small thing but since I lost my father a few months ago, it struck me pretty hard. What was that altar in Clarence Shi’s house? Just two big pricey candles and one stick of incense? This is so cold and lifeless. Where is the FOOD??? The drinks??? The flowers/plants??? You're calling your wife and you're leaving her starving and depressed!

(For info, a normal small home ancestor altar should look more like this. As you can see : FOOD. Take care of your ancestors!)

The cast and setting is supposed to make this adaptation more "international"...but two British dudes decide everything when, in the novel and the Chinese adaptation, it is truly an international decision and an example of global cooperation. Five Oxford alumni of different skin color does not make this more international!

And so so so so many more things that are wrong. I feel like there is not a single Chinese brain cell in this.

All in all, I did not expect anything good, but I am still disappointed. It is so bland. No build-up. No mystery. No menace. No ambiance. Nothing. Everything is said straight to your face. They must think the audience is stupid, I guess.

Watch the Chinese adaptation

Did you like the ideas behind the Three Body Problem, either the book or the Netflix series? Are you ok with reading subtitles and watching something not in your language? Are you ok with seeing something set in another culture, with another culture's codes, not simplified and westernized for your sake? Are you ok with not being able to binge-watch it in one weekend? Are you ok with more complex characters, a slower-paced plot? Then try the Chinese adaptation. It's on Youtube and Viki, with subtitles. Legal and free.

[punchitmrsulu]

Finally, a Paul Atreides/Eren Jaeger/Anakin Skywalker-type character and it's a WOMAN!!!

[ocdhuacheng]

Anyway. Uh.

[dilirebas]

To be clear, I thought the Tencent adaptation of the Three Body Problem was pretty bad.

But the Netflix adaptation? It simply doesn’t need to exist. Taking a Chinese story about Chinese people living in the aftermath of a particular moment in Chinese history, but turning it into a story about white people? What’s the point of that?

If you want to tell a white story so badly, there are already so many interesting sci fi novels about white people that you can adapt. No need to whiten up this one.

[xinyuehui]

alright I just started watching netflix 3 body problem, it's so western and white humour (bc it is western produced duhhh)

I'm only half way through ep1, it has this weird uncanny "woke women agenda" going on. We gotta admit Liu Cixin is probably not the best at writing women characters, or many for that matter of fact. I get that netflix is trying to diversify this whole story, there's a bunch of snarky "clever" kind of dialogues, if they thought Li Cixin had too little women in the story, they should just change the gender of them (which they did) and move on. But then they have this weirdo in a bar asking what the women do for a living... then men commenting on how good a woman looked at a funeral and gossiping about her boyfriend as well 😅 there's also dialogue directed at a woman saying "are you two fighting right now...or fucking? Oh! Fighting and fucking..." mate, I am uncomfortable, HELP!

AND YE WENJIE HAS SEX(implied) WITH BAI MULIN - literally what was the need for this!!!??????? THIS TOTALLY CHANGES HER ENTIRE CHARACTER PHILOSOPHY

[lovefrombegonia]

Ye Wengjie's reply to Trisolarans in different versions of the three-body problem saga:

⚠️ [SPOILER ALERT] ⚠️

Netflix:

"Come. We cannot save ourselves. I will help you conquer this world."

Book and Cdrama:

"Come here. I will help you conquer this world. Our civilization is no longer capable of solving its own issues. We need your force to intervene."

[silviakundera]

So Netflix really went and whitewashed Three Body, this is happening. 😒

It's honestly not even worth investing any emotion in, even my anger.

At least Tencent is delivering a quality adaption and all episodes are available for free YouTube. Good acting & writing in a production that actually gave a shit about this epic sci-fi series. Is any adaption perfect? No. But they made an effort and cared about the source material. I can't get behind what Netflix is doing - they could have cast it properly and kept the setting chinese. Audiences can handle non europe and america settings, I swear.

[evelynpr]

Chinese Tencent version: In the cold mountains of painful labor they shared knowledge and food, nurturing fondness and trust despite their circumstances.

British Netflix version: In the cold mountains of painful labor they shared some ideas ig, held hands, and started making out in a tent. This clearly shows how they form a genuine trusting bond despite their circumstances.

[wangmiao]

Yu Hewei as Shi Qiang in Tencent's THREE-BODY | 三体 (2023) Episode 1.30 (Kun's 77/∞ Three-Body gifsets)

[diamantdog]

me: talking about the chinese adaptation of the three-body problem as a better alternative to the anglicized netflix's version.

someone: the cdrama version is also bad because it treats its viewers as dumb!

me, who is dumb and grateful for the way they explain the science:

[xieyaohuan]

I know the Tencent San Ti/ 3 Body show could not include any grand Cultural Revolution scenes because it had to walk a pretty tight line to avoid accusations of engaging in historical nihilism, but to me, episode 11 of the Tencent show is in a way more devastating than the visuals we get in the opening scene of episode 1 of the Netflix show (where we see a full-blown struggle session).

One of the most terrifying abilities that authoritarian states have is to completely isolate a person from all relationships that were ever meaningful to them by forcing people to betray each other. When you've been singled out for criticism and attack, you don't just have to deal with denunciations launched against you by strangers or an anonymous state (which is terrifying enough), you have to listen as your colleagues, your friends, your parents, your children, your spouse, etc. all come forward and denounce you.

What the Tencent show manages to do is quietly build a relationship that provides two characters comfort in an otherwise extremely cold, hostile environment, and then take a hammer and shatter it to pieces. And that is some powerful stuff.

[reaperlight]

Thank you @krisseratops for the tag!

Uh here's some of the wips I've been thinking about lately.

Rules: Pick a bunch of your WIPs and summarize them as badly as possible, then ask your followers to vote on which one they'd be most likely to read. Multiple/none/all options are completely optional.

Venom wips, mostly Shriekingcarnage, symbrock, or other found family or disaster polycule variations...

Tagging if you want to do it... @ro-zden @stvlti @galadhir @gamebird @purple-slimy @mushroomsandteeth and anyone else who wants to do it!

[canary3d-obsessed]

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A post shared by Kenan Heppe | The Chinese Tones Guy (@kenanheppe)