I got this series from Hong Kong on 58 VCD discs (beautiful special release box-set) and after seeing first episode I put it back on a shelf. Quality of picture is poor, english subtitles are so small even on my 36'' screen hardly readable... But after a while I played it again on big screen tv and altough blockiness and all artifacts from poor encoding showed up even more, tiny english text became easier to read thus I could follow action :-) And what an action it is! By the end of first disc I was so immersed in an ancient historical events of China, it took a sunrise to get me off my lazy chair ;-) I have no idea how historically correct are all shown events, but I must say it is very fascinating to watch it how the Great Empire of China was erected... It seems more like a kind of fantasy for a western person like me, yet it is so similiar to western countries history with familiar if not exactly the same behaviour of Lords of those times; there is treason, there are heroes and anti-heroes... There are plenty of scenes one not being chinese may not fully understand, yet it didnt bother me much. Flow of the action sometimes stutter due to unbeknowst to me reason like concentrating on some (in my opinion) not important details, but make no mistake: it is really *worth* to view this made for tv series, what an incredible experience. Just give yourself a favor: get it on DVD instead ;-)
Review of San guo yan yi
