The Water Margin (1973 TV series)

The Water Margin
English title card
Genre	Costume drama, martial arts
Written by	Shi Nai'an (original novel)
Starring	Atsuo Nakamura Sanae Tsuchida Kei Satō Isamu Nagato
Country of origin	Japan
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26
Production
Running time	45 minutes per episode
Release
Original release	1973-1974 (Japan) 1976-1978 (UK)

The Water Margin is a Japanese television series based on Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Made in two seasons of 13 episodes by Nippon Television it was shown in Japan in 1973 and 1974 as 水滸伝 (Suikoden).

The novel details the trials and tribulations of 108 outlaws during the Song Dynasty. This adaptation follows Lin Chung (Atsuo Nakamura) and his clashes with the local government official Kao Chiu (Kei Satô).

For an English language version, it was adapted by David Weir without translations, using only brief plot synopses. The dubbed version, narrated by Burt Kwouk, was shown by the BBC from 1976 to 1978. An English novelisation, written by Weir, was released in 1978 as Water Margin.

The Water Margin is known for its sometimes obscure, but memorable philosophical quotes, such as "Do not despise the snake for having no horns, for who is to say it will not become a dragon?"

The first ten episodes were shown on the BBC from 21 September 1976 to 23 November 1976. The final three episodes were shown just before series 2 from 20 September 1977 to 4 October 1977.

On the BBC series 2 followed on from series 1, shown from 11 October 1977 to 3 January 1978.

A DVD box set of the series was released in Region 2 format on 7 February 2005. Crucially this was an expurgated version, apparently identical to a censored version broadcast for children by the BBC in the early 1980s. An uncut DVD version has yet to be released.

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