The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber

The "Heavenly Sword Dragon Saber" is the last story in a 3-part saga written by Jin Yong. It takes place mainly at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, a time when Mongolians were in control of China and our hero, Zhang Wu Ji, was to catalyse the downfall of the Yuan Dynasty and to bring about the rise of the Ming Dynasty. In the process, he became the most powerful martial Wuxia of the era and was entangled in various complicated Wuling conspiracies. His love affairs was even more confusing, as he was caught between 4 different girls who loved him deeply.

In the following paragraphs, I'm going to rate the serial according to the following factors: story, cast, setting, fighting scenes and overall

Story (4/5): What can I say? Any Jin Yong story is by default interesting, and this is no exception to the rule. It sticks more or less to the original story, with only a few deviations here and there. The only complaint I can make is that they make Zhang Wu Ji's choice of Zhao Min rather too obvious by emphasizing her role in the story. For example, her father, brother and even her fianc', mentioned only in passing in the book, were given much more important roles here. The only other viable choice, Zhou Zhi Ruo, was ruled out as the audience was shown her as tormented by her oath to her late mentor, barring her from falling in love with Zhang Wu Ji and forcing her to steal the Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber.

Cast (5/5): Flawless acting by a great cast who played their respective roles to perfection. The interaction between the actors was amazing, with the mix of veterans with years of acting experience and newcomers I've never heard of. And you really have to give it to Alyssia Chia for her portrayal of Zhao Min; she made the character come alive on the screen, and you can't help but like her even at the beginning of the story, when she was playing Zhang Wu Ji's arch-nemesis.

Setting (4/5): Well, it is a bit of a letdown, seeing that this is a CCTV production. I would have expected much more from it, but they lack the scenes requiring the wilderness of China we all know and love (you know, the mountains and lakes). However, the other settings made up for their absence, from busy city-states to desolate islands.

Fighting (1/5): It's disgusting how CCTV can successfully produce wonderfully realistic fighting scenes in both 'Legend of the Condor Heroes' and 'Xiao Ao Jiang Hu' and yet fail so utterly in this series. It would be better off cutting the scenes entirely. They had plenty of great opportunities to create breathtaking fighting scenes; instead they screwed the whole thing up by resorting to special effects and also by using 'internal chi' as an excuse to have their characters just standing there pushing against one another. I cannot recall seeing anything worse than this and I hope I never will.

Overall (4/5): Well, I was inclined to give it a 3 just because of the fighting scenes, but that would be unfair. Another factor that raised its rating was the music, especially the theme song at the end. It has a great melody and I just really like it for some reason. All in all, this is a production I wouldn't mind seeing again. Keep up the good work, guys!