Posted in: Netflix, TV | Tagged: 3 Body Problem, Benedict Wong, Edward Zhang, eiza gonzalez, jonathan pryce, Liam Cunningham, Liu Cixin, netflix, TenCent, Yu Hewei

3 Body Problem: How Ship Attack Differs in Netflix & Chinese Series

The ship attack in 3 Body Problem - in both the Chinese and Netflix adaptations - is insanely over-the-top in their own respective ways.

Warning: You should finish watching Netflix's adaptation of Liu Cixin's 3 Body Problem before reading this because it's ALL spoilers… for the night is dark and full of spoilers. Seriously. We jump right into spoilers from the start to after this; there's no turning back. You've been warned…

The biggest action highlight of 3 Body Problem, starting with the book, is the Special Forces raid on the Earth Trisolarian Organisation meeting, and then there's the authorities' attack on Judgment Day, the converted oil tanker that billionaire Mike Evans is hiding with his most hardcore cult members. It's a high-concept action setpiece and example of asymmetrical warfare that no one has ever seen before, and everyone who read the book was eager to see how it would be recreated in live action, which has been down in the 30-episode Chinese Tencent TV version and the Netflix version, but with interesting and (unintentionally) amusing differences.

3 Body Problem: How to Slice Up a Big Ship: Chinese vs. Netflix Ways

In the Tencent version, a whole episode is devoted to how they developed the plan to attack the Judgment Day and then carry it off. Wang Miao (Edward Yang) and Da Shi (Yu Hewei) are attending a meeting of generals from across the world as they try to figure out how to seize the ship to get Evan's hard drives with massive casualties on both sides or the cultists destroying the drives before they even find them. An armed assault would maximize casualties on both sides. A knockout gas attack would only be dissipated by the ship's ventilation system.  A missile or drone strike risks destroying the hard drives. That's when Da Shi scoffs at these "brilliant" military minds in a gleefully snarky speech as he tells them that to take down criminals, you need to think like a better criminal, and the best ones he ever chased were the smartest, sneakiest thieves he ever met who could do what they wanted and get away before anyone knew they were even there. That's the approach they should be taking, and his plan? Use Wang Miao's nanofibers as a weapon to cut through the ship and kill everyone on it before they know what hit them. A finely sliced hard drive can be reconstructed, and the data retrieved. The lowly street cop is savvier than the world's most decorated generals.

It's a barnstorming speech – lifted straight from the book – that helped make Da Shi a fan favourite, and Yu Hewei such a TV fan favourite that he will be playing Da Shi in a spinoff miniseries featuring Da Shi as the main character before the Chinese series adaptation of the second book, Three Body: The Dark Forest, goes into production.

The Netflix version of 3 Body Problem speeds through the whole strategy meeting, featuring only Da Shi (Benedict Wong) and his boss Thomas Wade (Liam Cunningham), and almost glides over the fact that it's Da Shi who comes up with the idea of using the nanofibers to attack the ship. Then he has to go off and enlist Auggie Salazar (Eiza Gonzalez) for help to use the nanofibers she invented without telling her what it would be used for until later when the operation is greenlit. All that is done in just a few minutes. The Chinese version of the meeting feels more epic with the world's military leaders cooperating to tackle a global threat. The Netflix version is just two men in a room plotting. When Wang Miao sees what happens, he's quietly appalled but moves on. Auggie is horrified, disillusioned, and develops PTSD.

Killing Different Types of People on Two Versions of The Same Ship

There's a big difference in how the Tencent and Netflix versions depict the attack on the Judgment Day. The nanofiber slices through the ship in both versions the same way, except in the Tencent version, everyone onboard is completely caught by surprise and dies before they even know it. it's depicted as awesome and horrible as you might imagine, the latter implied with blood and gore only implied because Chinese television demands a PG rating. The Netflix version goes all-in on the blood and gore. It wants the viewer to be horrified and repulsed that the "good guys" murdered nearly a thousand unsuspecting people, including entire families with young children. Showrunners D.B. Weiss, David Benioff, and Alexander Woo want us to consider the moral ambiguity of good people who feel compelled to do horrific things for the greater good, as Weiss and Benioff two have done many times on Game of Thrones. Those families are traitors to humanity and terrorists, at least complicit in a worldwide conspiracy to kill off prominent scientists and prepare the Earth to be invaded by hostile aliens.

The children have been thoroughly indoctrinated and would have grown up to become like Tatiana Haas (Marlo Kelly), a true believer who would kill anyone without hesitation if ordered to, even people she cares about. Thankfully, this being a Hollywood production, the Netflix series would never show children getting bloodily dismembered. Mike Evans' death (Jonathan Pryce) is appropriately gory as he kneels in prayer like a martyr.

Book readers have argued that the Netflix series takes a broad view of the pro-alien cult as a single unified organization and assumes that entire families would join the cult to live on a compound – in this case, a converted oil tanker. The cult in the Chinese version has different factions with conflicting ideologies fighting and trying to purge each other, but that's too much subplot for eight episodes.

The Tencent version of 3 Body Problem softens the blow of mass murder by not showing any women, children, or families on the ship. Instead, Mike Evans' most trusted people are some hapless environmentalists and a heavily armed mercenary army of murderous psychopaths who bully and even murder whoever they want on the ship for kicks, possibly even indulging in cannibalism. Some of them are even war criminals on the World's Most Wanted list. Mike Evans here is such a nihilistic misanthrope that he just lets them bully and kill who they want on the ship – except him, of course, since he's signing their paycheques. The screenwriter is practically saying, "Everyone on the ship is evil, so it's okay for them all to die." This is unintentionally hilarious.

3 Body Problem is an interesting look at the different ways China and Hollywood tell stories. Neither choice might be seen as a particularly good one, but it tells us more about what's on the minds of the creators than they perhaps intended. Both are insanely over-the-top.

3 Body Problem is streaming on Netflix.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!