Tencent and Netflix's Three (3) Body (Problem) can't be compared

[@tsukasa1608]

Yes, pacing is the biggest issue for the Tencent version, however you can tell those behind the camera were passionate people who really care about the source material. I like the Tencent version didn't reinvent the characters like most adaptation did, rather they took characters from the books and fleshing them out even more, and because of all the build ups in the show leading up to the major events, even with the absent of the struggle session viewers still can understand the motive behind Ye Wenjie's decision. And people need to understand that Cultural Revolution was a 10 years event, not just a struggle session, in fact the Tencent version actually depicted Cultural Revolution more comprehensively than Netflix version.

[@JessInDreams7]

I was actually surprised how much I liked the characters in the Tencent adaptation because people kept saying the reason Netflix changed it up was because the original characters were bland or something. And yea, if we just boil down the CR to one struggle session, we get a very extreme one dimensional view, which in turn reduces Ye Wenjie’s character complexity.

[@MM-qt2pc]

Yaay you finally watched the Tencent version! I watched it as it was airing last year and I never felt that it was slow (because at most I was able to watch like one or two episodes a day as they were releasing it). I haven't read the novels but I was sooooo invested and my mind was blown. I loved the science, the philosophy. Seriously agree with Ye Wenjie's character - she is so well-fleshed out and I think that in spite of multiple tragedies and betrayals in her life, she wanted to dedicate herself to a cause that would not betray her. That was her love for astrophysics and science and that's exactly what she does at Red Coast Base. I think that approach to achieving a single goal was then transferred to contacting alien lifeforms out there - so that was one of the many reasons she pressed the button. I also really loved Wang Miao and Da Shi's friendship - it is so adorable. I thought Shen Yufei was also an interesting character. As much as I loved the Tencent version, the Netflix version did NOTHING for me. I felt like it was more about the big moments in the story, rather than the buildup. I totally agree with you - I am around academics all the time and I've never seen anyone act like the Oxford 5. Academics and researchers can of course have a day to chill out every now and then, but they actually spend most of their time (even outside office hours) researching stuff. Like you said, it would seep into their personalities eventually. On a separate note, have you ever thought of watching other Chinese shows? It would be so interesting if you were to review them. There are sooo many wonderful ones out there and I think they are so massively underrated outside China.

[@JessInDreams7]

Haha yea, I pushed it off for so long because it had so many episodes 🤣 but there was no way I could not watch it after how I felt about the Netflix one. But I guess it’s actually not that long when compared to a lot of other Chinese dramas out there now that I think about it. I did have a phase when I was really into Chinese dramas! I remember watching The Empress of China way back and that had like 96 eps 😅. I also remember being really into The Lost Tomb series, but those drama adaptations were really bad lols. I’m so out of the loop when it comes to Chinese dramas now, but would definitely be open to checking some out 😁

[@MM-qt2pc]

@@JessInDreams7 Haha - yeah I HAD to watch the Netflix version just to compare. I haven't watched Empress of China or the Lost Tomb series yet, but they're on my list. You should absolutely check out Reset (it is only 15 episodes long anyway). Dunno if you've seen any of the Nirvana in Fire (1 or 2) dramas? I really love Joy of Life too (they have the second season coming out on the 16th after a whole 5 years)

[@JessInDreams7]

​@@MM-qt2pc Oh I haven't watched Nirvana in Fire but a few of my college friends and even my parents were OBSESSED with that drama back when Season 1 came out. And Reset sounds really interesting! I think I've seen one of the main actors in The Whirlwind Girl 🤔Will definitely add that to my list as well 😌

[@MM-qt2pc]

@@JessInDreams7 Reset was so binge-worthy. Really keeps you at the edge of your seat- I would totally suggest it. And Nirvana in Fire is just sooooo great - definitely long but never feels overdrawn. I think it needs that length for the kind of show it is.

[@waanaabe-4795]

I have seen both series as well (I'm glad you liked the Tencent version; I only watched Nexflix' because the rest of the story will come out in SO LONG!!!). I just wanted to note that,in the Netflix version, they ALSO talk about other countries trying to reach lifeforms in the universe, excited at the prospect of"China being the first! (the way you talk about it it's like they didn't mention it at all) But yes, Tencent developed people and concepts more : ) Good video, btw!

[@SuperChangcho]

Thanks; I've read the books and became a big fan. I was very excited when Netflix decided to do an adaptation with which I was quite disappointed. looking forward to watching the Tencent version.

[@spicybentvreacts]

It was kind of a rough watch. The Oxford 5 bit fell flat considering half of them (the guys) never did any actual (office work) and just hung out on the side all the time so I felt like their characters didn;t get much substance to them except for Saul towards the end. There are elements of this show that I liked more than AppleTV's Invasion (which I enjoyed more overall) but if it does get a season 2, 3BP has a lot more going for it. I've not read the books, so I am not as harsh with the criticism.

[@JessInDreams7]

There were some good changes to the Netflix version that I did like, but yea, the Oxford 5 weren’t too impressive. There was a bit too much focus on their friendship drama that didn’t really tie into what was going on with the rest of the world at large.

[@hoos3014]

Saul, Will and (partially) Jin represent characters that are featured in later books in the series. So, while those two guys were not heavily involved in the early parts of the S1 plot, the setup and character building work that they did for them is likely going to pay off in spades in later seasons.

[@SentaiDadvsRiderGirl]

Having finished the first book (which covers the VR game and the origins of the Trisolarians), I have to agree that the actual 3 Body problem faced by the alien race was really down played and simplified in the Netflix version. Gone are the parts where the reader tries to solve or understand the extreme weather phenomenons including the tri-solar syzygy and appearance of the 3 fading stars. The slow burn in the book and the tencent version made this a lot more interesting, but I think this might also turn off main stream viewers so I can kind of understand why they went the Netflix route.

[@JessInDreams7]

Yea, the VR game in the Netflix version was definitely simplified a lot and made me feel like the level of tech used was overkill for conveying rather simple concepts. I think Netflix really tried to squeeze too much into just 8 episodes, but maybe the decision to include some development of plot/characters from Books 2 and 3 will pay off in later seasons. I guess we'll have to wait and see :)

[@SentaiDadvsRiderGirl]

@@JessInDreams7 i'm moving onto the second book right now as well!

[@lowdefinition4250]

OMG YOU FINALLY DID THE VIDEO ON THIS

[@JessInDreams7]

Haha yes! I was debating on making a video or just replying to the previous comment thread letting you know my thoughts, but I really enjoyed this Tencent version so video it is 😁

[@lowdefinition4250]

@@JessInDreams7 ty :))

[@MarkLearns]

took a lot of discipline to not watch your vid lol I was debating if I should watch the show 1st 😂 but yolo! Im glad you like Ye Wenjie now ayye! Da Shi is my fav character in the book. The guy who plays him here is a really good actor, he was Liu Bei from Romance of the Three Kingdoms LOL. I found his casting choice a bit weird though cuz Da Shi in my mind is more "rough & tough", but from your vid seems like you liked his performance a lot too. Anyway, thanks for the reviewsss 🙌

[@JessInDreams7]

Haha, hey you read the book, so there probably wasn't anything to be spoiled 😌 Interesting that the Da Shi actor has played Liu Bei in Three Kingdoms. I'm having a hard time imaging him in that role, but I haven't seen him in anything else so I can only see him as Da Shi 😂

[@crowleyking7128]

OMG cant believe u watched it!!love u

[@JessInDreams7]

Took me a while, but yes I finally watched it 😁☺️

[@Viracocharising]

The books are truly amazing and I hope the next few seasons of the Netflix series does a better job of capturing that dread from the books. I still need to watch the Chinese series, I’ve heard a lot of good things about it.

[@JessInDreams7]

Yea, I think the Netflix one has a lot of potential. They set up quite a few things for the next season, so I'm excited to see both versions of season 2.

[@hitchhiker8798]

Netflix version is an abomination and the entire production crew should go to jail over it.

[@GhostGirlBlues]

the show definitely doesn't lend too well to binging. the show takes its time, and in my experience, anyone watching it should too. it took me a while to get through the show, especially near the end with how heavy the show started to feel and it started to feel like it was getting even slower (which also raised the tension)

[@JessInDreams7]

Yea, I sort of binged it (watching 3-4 episodes a day and finished it in about a week 😅), but I agree that it’s a show that warrants time to absorb slowly.

[@jons9721]

I honestly think people over think, Ye Wenjie regardless if you go by the books or either tv series but her motivation is relatively simple. Humanity treated her shit and its exactly the same as Magneto in X men. Sure there is a different emphasis but that is mainly due to pacing but the core reasons are the same

[@jiaqilin1939]

Humanity didn’t treated her shit, in the book/ tencent series, she has lots of warm moment with people around her. She just believes humanity needs “saving”

[@jons9721]

@@jiaqilin1939 In book and all tv series an anti-science mob murdered her father in front of her threw her into labour camp where thinking for yourself was a crime. Yes things got a bit better but its hardly going to make up for that. You could easily replace the Cultural Revolution with the Holocaust and you get Magneto from the X men with a similar motivation. If I had been through what she had I would probably have done the same thing

[@MattEveland-cy9yr]

they were never gonna let that cultural revolution scene in the movie, lol. I'm actually surprised to have heard it was in the book.

[@JessInDreams7]

When my Chinese tutor recommended me the book to read for class, I totally glossed over the CR stuff because I wasn’t interested in it at all 😂 Who knew I’d be making videos about it almost a decade later…

[@tsukasa1608]

Struggle session are allowed to be depict, but not as brutal as Netflix, and usually only for movies, most recently a struggle session was shown in the 2018 movie "Forever Young" where they brutally beat up a girl and nearly killed her, that being said, we rarely see struggle session depict in Chinese TV series.

[@MattEveland-cy9yr]

@@tsukasa1608 true, as far as 3 body goes I've only the netflix movie to really go off of. that portrayal though just seemed... very unflattering. it really didn't paint the cultural revolution in a very good light in general, which is what I'd presumed would be the controversial part in getting it shown (the violence, as you mentioned, being part of that). but, i also just-- perhaps wrongly-- assume it was a similar depiction in the book.

[@drunkenhowler22]

Honestly a marriage of Tencent and Netlix's version would make Ye Wenjie the character we all read in the books. Because the trauma of losing her family to the revolution gave her that first hand experience of what this new world was, couple that with the Tencent focus on highlighting the future she was seeing infront of her on the grand scale and how both informed her decisions, especially as she was seeing the corruption rife within the organisation itself. I feel both Tencent and Netflix skipped one half of the the important elements to her character and made both fall a little flat. Granted Tencent kept the longer term struggles which I think was the better call. Ultimately I feel both series serve eachother in a way really. My main gripe with Netflixes adapation was they were comfortable with the China bad elements and even made work to make sure there were no redeemable people whom she worked with either. Don't get me wrong, have the honest elements, the book did after all. But don't just stop there. Wheres the people she worked with who actually had her back? The villagers she raised her child in? Hell have an official from China play a role in the modern day, assisting with solving the problem. But hey didn't and doing that to an adaptation from a Chinese book series felt a bit icky to me. And the pacing was wayyyyy too fast. It ended up making the interesting ideas far too fantastical, gave very few scenes the weight they deserve and just generally didnt give us room to breath. I would say an extra 2 episodes to really flesh things out would have done the trick. My main gripes with tencents was skipping the revolution scene, it lends to contextualise more to why the sequence of following events hit harder and harder for her and eventually lead to her decision. 2, the pacing was slow, some episodes took an hour to make a single point that simply didn't need an hour. But overall content was great. lastly, i wasn't a fan of the animated shorts describing concepts and ideas, like the turkey farm or the pool table. Was far too literal, and I felt a well orchestrated conversation can relay the weight of it all. Lastly some of the acting was... a little flat. Like I said, I actually think they accompany eachother really well and I hope we see both adaptations get a season 2. PS why get rid of Chang Weisu? Dude was such a cool character of calm and collected despite the state of everything. Dunno, just always liked him in the books even though hes not the focus.

[@Dathmual]

2DB shaped Ye as a big bad guy. The tencent version shaped Ye as a great woman. That's why many viewers they don't like netflix version even they are not nationalists. 2DB did well than tencent's writer at all parts, except Ye's character image building. YeWenJie is the soul character in book1. She has strong personality charm.The original has such well-shaped characters, but 2DB wasted the idea. This wrong has a large impact on the story, than other right things that 2DB did.

[@divineflu34567]

They didn't do well at all parts than tenecet netflix one's was so fast that it had barely time to empathise with any character plus their motivation was so out sometimes it felt like you can see the acting .

[@xs-writing]

Where can I watch the tencent version outside china?

[@JessInDreams7]

I was able to watch it on KZbin. I think if you just search it, all the episodes are available.

[@vision-b6i]

Tencent Three-Body Problem aligns well with the original work. I like it. But it is so slow, especially the first half.

[@JessInDreams7]

Yea, I think the slow pacing is the main complaint most people have. It would’ve been better if they maybe cut out some of the unnecessary parts.

[@omnibrain3198]

I really loved the books - I would describe me as a fan of the series - but I won't watch the tencent version unless they finish the series. I don't want to get into a good tv series which is canceled. Won't happen with the netflix version. I'm used to netflix cancels shows and it's just some nice graphics to enhance the book experience :). The first book isn't enough - I don't really need the 3rd I don't really like how the 3rd develops. But at least the 2nd should be finished.

[@JessInDreams7]

Haha, I totally understand the desire to avoid the frustration of watching and loving a TV series only to have it never be finished. I believe Tencent will continue to make at least Season 2 for the second book, and Netflix just "confirmed" they will make another season...I think? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[@omnibrain3198]

@@JessInDreams7 y Netflix will make a 2nd season - but as said if Netflix cancels the show I expected that and don't attach to Netflix shows emotionally anymore.

[@divineflu34567]

​@@omnibrain3198i still have trauma for oa altered carbon, mind hunter

[@Emanon...]

It can't. The ten-cent show was horribly paced, bordering on boring. And while it followed the story more strictly, I'd argue it was actually less faithful than the Netflix show. I don't remember the characters from the first book that much because none of them were actual characters. They were cardboard cutouts of Chinese men. So in a sense, the Netflix show was superior: I gave a shit about their characters and they had, well, character.

[@JessInDreams7]

They were definitely focusing on different things that’s for sure. I don’t think Three Body Problem is a character focused story, so it’s nice to see Netflix try to go for relatable characters that people could care about. Though I personally don’t think they stuck the landing, there were characters I did like (however, I think they are pulled from Book 2). The Book 1 characters in the Tencent adaptation may not be the most interesting people (except Ye Wenjie, who I personally felt was very compelling), I thought Wang Miao was a very reasonable person, convincing as a nano-materials researcher, and because he’s normally calm collected and not so dramatic, it made the end scene where he was getting drunk with his friend and dancing on the pool table with Da Shi and screaming “physics does not exist”all the more effective at showing how seriously crazy the whole situation is (I forgot if that’s exactly how it went down, but something to that effect). It’s like someone you know who is normally chill and nonchalant suddenly acting insane, that’s when you know how f-ed the situation is 😅. But if characters like Auggie get drunk all time, it’s like she’s reacting to an alien invasion the same way she would going through a bad break up.

[@hoos3014]

It's funny how Jess went through the Netflix version with a fine-tooth comb looking for every flaw, but with the Tencent version she's like, "Well, it's a little slow, and, yeah, music...but I love Ye Wenjie♥!!" Look, there's no point in arguing about preferences, but I think the two versions of adaptation can absolutely be compared with one another. Their similarities and differences tell us a lot about the different audiences each was made for. I'll highlight one scene where *both* versions made a departure from the text of the book. In the Tencent version, the passengers of Judgment Day were depicted as over-the-top, cartoonish, baby-killing terrorist mercenaries. In the Netflix version, the passengers of Judgment Day were depicted as normal cultish people with families and children. Why did the respective filmmakers make their choice? And what does that choice say about the audience's story sensibilities, about censorship, and about the creators' views of the overall saga? Both series made lots of additions, but they also had very different goals. Tencent's mandate was clearly to pad out the runtime to 30 episodes. I saw someone say that they replayed the clip of Ye Wenjie looking at the sun at Red Coast base eight times(!) over the season. Meanwhile, Netflix went heavy on the characterization, like having Will and Jen reminisce over the book of Fairy Tales. Some call that "Oxford 5 'Friends' drama," but if you know, you know. The best part is we don't have to choose; we can experience this fantastic story from two very different points of view. I think we're lucky for it.

[@JessInDreams7]

I didn't mean for it to seem like I was on a mission to look for flaws in the Netflix version 😅 From my perspective, there was more to analyze in the Netflix adaptation purely because it deviated more from the source material than the Tencent one did. Because of that, it stands out more and made me question why they were made/the impact it has on the story. I could've also picked at flaws in the Tencent version, but overall, I didn't feel like anything was major enough to really ruin the experience besides the pacing. I also really wanted to highlight Ye Wenjie because her characterization was the main thing I wasn't too satisfied with in the Netflix version. The Judgement Day comparison is an interesting perspective though. I hadn't thought about it because I didn't feel any different about the the operation to destroy the ship in both cases (whether it was a boat full of cult members with their kids or just criminal cult members). My main thought was, it just didn't really make sense why there were so many kids on the boat in the Netflix one, but then again, we know very little about the cult members in the Netflix one in general.... Also when I say they "can't be compared", I was intending to mean you can't really say which one is better since they are so different, made for different audiences, and like you mentioned as well, heavily based on personal preference. Plus, it wouldn't be fair to compare directly because the Tencent version is only Book 1, whereas Netflix mixed in Book 2 and even 3. The stuff I did enjoy in the Netflix version also just happen to be characters/events from the later books.

[@hoos3014]

@@JessInDreams7 Fair response. Thanks for sharing your perspective on both series!

[@MM-qt2pc]

I thought it was pretty obvious that the General was only trying to calm down Wang Miao (in the Tencent version) by saying that everyone on the ship was a murderer - although I do agree it was a bit meh that there was one really horrible dude on board (that was unnecessary), but that's literally one thing I had an issue with in the Tencent version. If you binge watch the show, you'll find it slow - it's not for binge-watching. As for the Netflix version - why were there even kids on Judgement day anyway? It makes no sense. I think the whole reason they put kids there was to have that shock factor, which really cheapens everything. If you have to rely on shock factors to keep people interested in a show, you're not doing a very good job.

[@hoos3014]

@@MM-qt2pc I can't buy that; Stanton had a whole white board set up showing the "investigation" of the crew. He says, "They are the worst criminals in the world: terrorists, serial killers, pirates, murderers. And including "an old friend" (the cartoon guy who killed his 7 year old son.)" A few seconds later, they show the terrorist guy hanging someone on the ship for no reason at all. The message is for the audience, not Wang Miao.

[@maxxu8]

​@@MM-qt2pc The Netflix version obviously wants to highlight slicing Judgement Day is also a moral choice. I was not convinced that everyone on the vessel ought to die when I was reading the novel. Having kids on the vessel makes the point efficiently.

[@phantomnetwork1217]

I watched both Netflix one is way better , better series than Tencent one

[@jithinpc1461]

Your opinion might change if you read the books :)