Eurasia (TV series)

Eurasia
Title card
Also known asEurasia: The Conquest of the East
Eurasian Empires
FrenchEurasia : À la conquête de l'Orient
GenreDocumentary
Written byAlain Moreau
Directed byPatrick Cabouat [fr][1]
Narrated byFrance:
Maryse Lefebvre
Pierre Sciama
Japan:
Sanae Ueda [ja]
Shinichi Taketa
ComposersFrance:
Marc Hillmann
Bernard Becker
Japan:
Takefumi Haketa
Country of originFrance
Japan
Original languagesFrench
Japanese
No. of series1
No. of episodes8 (list of episodes)
Production
ProducersNHK
Point du Jour
Running time48 minutes
Original release
NetworkNHK
France 5
Release20 April (2003-04-20) –
14 December 2003 (2003-12-14)

Eurasia: The Conquest of the East (French: Eurasia : À la conquête de l'Orient; Japanese: 文明の道, romanized: Bunmei no Michi, lit. 'Road of Civilisation'), also known as Eurasian Empires or simply Eurasia, is a documentary TV series about the Eurasian civilisations, which ran in eight episodes on NHK (2003) and France 5 (2004).[2] It started on 20 April 2003, with the final episode broadcast on 14 December 2003.[3][4] The series has been dubbed into English and Spanish.

Synopsis

New discoveries and studies have shown that Central Asia, a region located in the centre of Eurasia, played a significant role as a "cradle of civilisation". The civilisations brought to the vast Eurasian continent by conquest and trade continued to collide and fuse, affecting each other and developing new civilisations. Computer-generated imagery is used to recreate the historical scenes of Ai-Khanoum, Babylon, Baghdad, Persepolis, Rome, etc., representing the rise and fall of a dynamic civilisation that took place over 2000 years.[5]

Episodes

# Title French title Japanese title Directed by Original air date
1 Alexander the Great Alexandre le Grand アレクサンドロス大王　ペルシャ帝国への挑戦 Patrick Cabouat, Atsushi Ogaki, Atsushi Murayama, Satoru Nagai, Masakazu Taniguchi 20 April 2003 (2003-04-20)
2 The Forgotten Alexandria L'Alexandrie oubliée アレクサンドロスの遺産　最果てのギリシャ都市 Patrick Cabouat, Noriaki Hashimoto, Atsushi Murayama 18 May 2003 (2003-05-18)
3 Ghandhara: The Renaissance of Buddhism Gandhara, l'envol du bouddhisme ガンダーラ・仏教飛翔の地 Patrick Cabouat, Kazuko Oka 15 June 2003 (2003-06-15)
4 The Romans in China Des Romains au cœur de la Chine 地中海帝国ローマ・東方への夢 Patrick Cabouat, Atsushi Ogaki 20 July 2003 (2003-07-20)
5 The Caravaneers of the Silk Road Les Maîtres des caravanes シルクロードの謎　隊商の民ソグド Patrick Cabouat, Noriaki Hashimoto 14 September 2003 (2003-09-14)
6 Baghdad in the Year 1000 Bagdad, an 1000 バグダッド　大いなる知恵の都 Patrick Cabouat, Kaoru Kawada, Atsushi Murayama 12 October 2003 (2003-10-12)
7 Jerusalem 1227: The Excommunicated Peace Jérusalem 1227 : la paix excommuniée エルサレム 和平･若き皇帝の決断 Patrick Cabouat, Kazuko Oka 16 November 2003 (2003-11-16)
8 The Mongol Conqueror: Kublai Khan's Dream Le Rêve mongol クビライの夢　ユーラシア帝国の完成 Patrick Cabouat, Masakazu Taniguchi 14 December 2003 (2003-12-14)

DVD

The series has been released on DVD by TF1 vidéo in 2004.[6] A new edition titled Eurasia : Orient et Occident, 2500 ans d'histoire et de conquêtes, has been released in 2006.[7] The Japanese DVD box has been released in 2004, by NHK software.[8]

Adaptation

The series has been adapted into two comic books and a book series consisting of five volumes, published between 2003 and 2004 by NHK Publishing [ja].[9]

Comic books
  • 文明の道1：アレクサンドロス 〜世界帝国への夢〜 ('Alexander: Dream of the World Empire')
  • 文明の道2：クビライ 〜世界帝国の完成〜 ('Kublai: Completion of the World Empire')
Book series
  • 文明の道1：アレクサンドロスの時代 ('Era of Alexander the Great')
  • 文明の道2：ヘレニズムと仏教 ('Hellenism and Buddhism')
  • 文明の道3：海と陸のシルクロード ('The Silk Road on Land and Sea')
  • 文明の道4：イスラムと十字軍 ('Islam and the Crusades')
  • 文明の道5：モンゴル帝国 ('Mongol Empire')

References

  1. ^ "À la conquête de l'Orient". catalogue.bnf.fr (in French). 2006. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Eurasia: The Conquest of the East". pointdujour-international.com. 2004. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  3. ^ "文明の道 第１集 アレクサンドロス大王 ペルシャ帝国への挑戦". nhk.or.jp (in Japanese). 20 April 2003. Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  4. ^ "文明の道 第８集 クビライの夢 ユーラシア帝国の完成". nhk.or.jp (in Japanese). 14 December 2003. Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  5. ^ "ＮＨＫスペシャル 文明の道". nhk.or.jp (in Japanese). 2003. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  6. ^ "Eurasia - À la conquête de l'Orient". rakuten.com (in French). Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  7. ^ Richter, Jean-Luc (2006). "À la conquête de l'Orient". dvdcritiques.com (in French). Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  8. ^ "文明の道 DVD-BOX". amazon.co.jp (in Japanese). 2004. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  9. ^ "検索ワード ＮＨＫスペシャル 文明の道". nhk-book.co.jp (in Japanese). NHK Publishing. Retrieved 11 April 2020.