Eh, it’s heavily dramatized and was recorded in English but HBO’s Chernobyl miniseries might be worth checking out if you’re interested in things like one-party rule and conspiracies in authoritarian regimes.
Not sure either and doesn’t bother me. I doubt there is such tv series with English subs too… neither Chinese nor Soviets would present the system as it was (is).
Obviously there are things like that. Like when normal white people get sentences to death and shit, there’s CCP footage available with subtitles and stuff.
Wholeheartedly second Chernobyl. It’s an amazing show.
It shows the party dynamics of the decision making process for disaster response and the infighting that results really well. Not too much everyday life stuff but there is a bit.
It’s was well done but deeply disingenuous about the effects of radiation in places. I loved the show, but for anybody else watching, it’s worth realising that it’s very exaggerated in places.
Off the top of my head, for those that are curious:
The show depicts radiation as similar to a contagion. In real life, once you strip and wash someone exposed to radioactive contaminants, they pose no danger to others.
The reactor was never in danger of turning into a nuke or rendering huge swathes of Europe uninhabitable. Nuclear explosions only happen under tightly engineered conditions. A big pile of molten reactor slag, while certainly dangerous, can’t turn into a bomb.
However, the utter incompetence of the USSR is very accurate.
The reactor was never in danger of turning into a nuke or rendering huge swathes of Europe uninhabitable. Nuclear explosions only happen under tightly engineered conditions. A big pile of molten reactor slag, while certainly dangerous, can’t turn into a bomb.
The danger wasn’t that it would cause a nuclear explosion, it was that it would melt its way into a large reservoir of water underneath the reactor, instantly turning it all into steam, causing a massive explosion that would fling radioactive material over a much wider area
I don’t know if there was a risk of that happening in reality, but that’s how it was portrayed and explained in the show
In terms of dramas you may find In the Name of the People interesting.
For documentaries, I’ve recently seen mentions of How Yukong Moved the Mountains, although I haven’t yet found a place to watch it.
There’s also a large collection of leftist movies which includes fictional dramas and documentaries about USSR and PRC over on hexbear. hexbear.net/post/9615
Edit: CGTN also has some good documentaries on modern and historical events.
A good documentary, on the USSR though not modern Russia, is The Human Face of Russia. You can find it on YouTube. It’s Australian as well so it’s interesting seeing a look into the Soviet Union from the point of view of a country that is aligned with the US but without so much Red Scare propaganda.
If you want a fairly recent on the group English perspective then check out the YouTuber Bald and Bankrupt. China is harder as most YouTubers there are paid propaganda. Maybe check out YouTubers laowhy86 and serpentza as they lived in China for over a decade and then had to run. Interesting takes for all 3 above. What I find most interesting is that most of their criticisms can also be levied on their home countries if you can get past the fog.
I don’t even mind like actual footage that serves as CCP propoganda or or if theres a reenactment type show like how the Sopranos obviously isn’t a recording of a real mafia gang, but rather so close that actual gangsters wondered who talked, aha.
Laowhy and serpentza are racist dirtbags grifting off all the China hate that’s everywhere in the west. They had to run for a reason, and that reason was that they were and are spreading hate speech.
Katherine’s Journey to the East, Li Jingjing, or Daniel Dumbrill will much more accurately present life in the different parts of China.
A good documentary, on the USSR though not modern Russia, is The Human Face of Russia. You can find it on YouTube. It’s Australian as well so it’s interesting seeing a look into the Soviet Union from the point of view of a country that is aligned with the US but without so much Red Scare propaganda.
Might depend what you mean by ‘things’, there’s Chinese reality tv shows with English subs, an interesting one which got popular last year was about a local police station.
It was bizarre because it had cutesy graphics and sound effects overlaid with a guy being questioned for sexual assault of a minor
The Witness (A tanú in Hungarian) is a fantastic satire film about the life of the common man under Soviet socialism. It’s required viewing for our literature classes. Watching it before learning more about the Soviet Union and Europe, and after, you pick up on completely different nuances of life at the time.
Something like Hotel Rwanda or A Hologram for The King with a lot of general dysfunction and corruption might be worth a look too. People imagine a place like China has hyper-competent leadership in total unity for the evulz, but the truth is it’s often the same depressing shit, just with the financing for a facade of modernity.