What is Expected from an Oriental Game Setting?

[Mallus]

My argument is not on historical accuracy, just cultural integrity.

So you don't like Kurosawa's Yojimbo? (it's basically an American Western about a ronin in Japan)

 

[Ranger REG]

So you don't like Kurosawa's Yojimbo? (it's basically an American Western about a ronin in Japan)

Actually, I liked it. Kurosawa knew how to take a Western tale and put an Asian spin on it.

But WotC don't have a "Kurosawa."

P.S. While I liked The Seven Samurai, I didn't like the Western adaptation, The Magnificent Seven.

 

[TwinBahamut]

Don't recall that in Kurosawa's samurai films.

What kind of foolish movies have you and American mainlanders been watching?

Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood is a direct adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. In fact, not only have I heard it described as the greatest film version of Macbeth ever made (by my Shakespeare professor), it was released a few times in the U.S. under the title Macbeth.

Seriously, your claims don't even hold water using only Akira Kurosawa's films as an example, and his films, most of which are decades old now and are not actually even fantasy, are hardly indicative of the modern asian historical/fantasy genres.


Also, on the whole "eastern dragons are gods" discussion... It is important to remember that, while dragons may be "gods" according to eastern traditions, the words they use for "god" in eastern languages have very different connotations and assumptions behind them. Often, they use words that get translated as "god" to refer to things that could also be translated as "spirit", "ghost", "demon", or "demigod". One saying in Japan refers to there being 8 million gods (actually meaning "an uncountable many" gods) in Japan, so it should be obvious that not all of these beings are on the same level as western pantheon-topping "gods" like Thor and Apollo.

Let me point out an example from Miyazaki's great animated film, Spirited Away. It has a dragon as a character, but he is not some kind of omnipotent being, he is the protective spirit of a single river who has severe limits to his abilities and can be hurt and bleed like any living being, and he actually becomes the apprentice to a (presumably) human witch. He is at best comparable to the minor river gods of Greek myth, the kinds of entities that heroes like Heracles and Achilles struggled against at times.

In another example, the Korean/Japanese manga Black God, the title refers to the main heroine, Kuro, who is essentially just a long-lived human with supernatural powers. She is called a "god", but she isn't that different from a random D&D character. The term "god" simply doesn't have any connotations of great power in Japan, Korea, and China like it does in predominately Christian countries.

 

[pemerton]

Let me point out an example from Miyazaki's great animated film, Spirited Away.

This is another example I had in mind for my campaign (as well as the dragon in Monkey).