| Dream of the Red Chamber 红楼梦 紅樓夢 |
|
|---|---|
| Starring | Ouyang Fenqiang as Jia Baoyu Chen Xiaoxu as Lin Daiyu Zhang Li as Xue Baochai Deng Jie as Wang Xifeng |
| Country of origin | China |
| No. of episodes | 36 |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CCTV |
| Original airing | 1987 |
Dream of the Red Chamber (Chinese: 红楼梦; pinyin: Hónglóu Mèng), released in 1987, was a television series produced by CCTV adapted from the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. It gained enormous popularity with its superb music, cast, and plot adaptation. It was first filmed in Beijing in Mandarin. Then it was translated into Cantonese, Shanghainese, and other languages and aired in the rest of China. It is 36 episodes long.
The TV series is regarded by many within China as being a near-definitive adaptation of the novel. A TV remake of the novel started airing in 2010; however, much objection was raised over the unorthodox costume design and other contested interpretations.
Contents |
The series follows the plot of Cao Xueqin's novel Dream of the Red Chamber. The series begins with the mother-less child, Lin Daiyu - whose beauty and intelligence surpasses all - moving into her maternal grandmother's family in the capital. There, the child meets numerous relatives, one of whom is Jia Baoyu, her mother's nephew, and male protagonist. Baoyu was borne with a jade tablet and so, is treated like a fragile egg, and is spoiled by his grandmother. He often spends his time with his female cousins and maids instead of being in his studies. One of the cousins he hangs around with is Xue Baochai.
As the story goes on, Baoyu and Daiyu eventually fall in love with each other, but Daiyu is not very well liked by the family, and instead, the family members favor Baochai. Eventually, Baoyu and Baochai are forced to marry, and Daiyu dies of a broken heart. The series ends with the Emperor confiscating the Jia family properties and the family members scattered, each to their own tragic end.
Many famous scenes from the novel are adapted in incredible accuracy in the serial. Such scenes include Daiyu Weeps Over Falling Blossoms, The Theory of Gold and Jade, and The Profligate Secretly Takes Second Sister Yu as a Concubine. On the other hand, much of the mystical elements in the novel was not filmed due to the social-political environment of the times.
The serial contains 36 episodes spanning the novel.
The 1987 series was originally somewhat controversial as few Redologists believe any TV adaptation could do full justice to the novel. Producer and director Wang Fulin's choice of employing non-professional youths were vindicated as the TV series gained enormous popularity in China.
The series' success owes much to composer Wang Liping (王立平). He set many of the novel's classical verses to music, taking as long as four years to deliberate some compositions.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||