I don't wish to sound ungrateful, but...

I'm as new a newcomer to wuxia films as you can get. In my life I may have seen eight or ten max, and five of them were in the last week. Except for Hero and Crouching Tiger I pull them from the video shop's shelves at random, going by title and cover. I want martial arts and I *don't* want the bloody Qing hairstyle. (Ming will do just fine thank you.) And with those criteria, except for Hero and Crouching Tiger, what I've seen has all turned out to be Hong Kong films.

I treasure the HK energy and sense of humour, I really do. But christ on a cracker, guys- are you *ever* serious about *anything*? Has a HK director ever made a wuxia film that wasn't a send-up of wuxia films? The self-reference and the deliberate anachronisms and the clowning and the in-jokes are beginning to wear a bit, is all. Even the sound of Cantonese is turning into an unconscious signal for 'just kidding here guys don't take us seriously.'

Maybe this is pure luck of the draw and maybe if I didn't go looking under HK directors like Tsui Hark I'd fare better. But my only other option seems to be some iteration of Shaolin monks, and I don't want Shaolin monks. I want something in Mandarin with hair and a nod, if not at HA, at least at serious drama. Is all.