The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber
In the 70's version of "Heavenly", we had Adam Cheng Siu Chow star in the tv series claimed to have changed the style of future martial arts films, in the 80's it was Tony Leung Chiu Wai, 90's it was Steve Ma King To in Yueng Pui Pui's Taiwanese edition, while action star Jet Li Lin Kit also made an appearance as Cheung Mo Kei in a Wong Jing movie. The latest Jin Yong adaptation of "Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber" to hop onto this bandwagon stars Lawrence Ng Kai Wah, Gigi Lai, Charmaine Sheh, Joyce Tang Lai Ming, and Eddie Chueng Siu Fai. Like many Jin Yong works, "Heavenly" explores boundaries between good and evil, revenge, conspiracies, and facets of human nature in the face of such obstacles. As the third trilogy, following "Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "Return of the Condor Heroes", "Heavenly" is a story that changes its main character quite a bit before focusing on Chueng Mo Kei.
Jin Yong's novel begins the story with Kwok Jing and Wong Yung's second daughter, Kwok Suern, searching, in futile, for Yueng Gor. The story switches to Chueng Kwan Bo who becomes Wu Tang's future founder and who renames himself Chueng Sam Fung. Decades later, we follow Chueng's third disciple, Yu Doi Nam, in his tragic plight, then to the fifth disciple Chueng Chiu San's escapades, and finally to Chueng Mo Kei who is Chueng Chiu San's son.
The new 2000 version skips Kwok Suern's parts and begins the plot with Chueng Chiu San (Damien Lau Chung Yun) and the clashes for the two legendary weapons that all of the martial world is seeking--the Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber. A saying goes in the martial world that whoso holds the Dragon Saber will be able to rule the world unless the Heavenly Sword is there to oppose it. Under circumstances, Chueng Chiu San meets and marry Yun So So (Michelle Mai Shuet), daughter of Tin Ying Clan's White Eye-Browed Eagle King who were deemed by the "good" clans as evil. Swearing brotherhood with Tse Sun, the Golden Haired Lion King who stole the Dragon Saber, everyone is after Chueng Chiu San for information on the whereabout of Tse Sun. As an answer to his third martial brother's paralysis--caused indirectly by Yun So So and her brother--Chueng Chiu San commits suicide while Yun So So follows. Before Yun dies, she tells their son Chueng Mo Kei to remember all the faces of those who forced their deaths for revenge when he grows up.
Role picks for Chueng Chiu San and Yun So So were satisfying since both Damien Lau and Michelle Mai are experienced actors. Though the age factor is evident, Lau and Mai managed to compensate for it with their acting talent. Jin Yong had, at a convention, signed on Damien Lau's book copy of "Heavenly" with the words (translated), "A long-made wish finally come true", implying that he had Damien Lau in mind for years for the casting of Chueng Chiu San.
"Heavenly" starts out pretty interesting--even the appearance of Lawrence Ng was not as bad as expected. Into the series, the idea of Lawrence Ng as Chueng Mo Kei is even acceptable--just forget the fact that Chueng is supposed to be young and handsome. The pace of the series was good in the beginning since it didn't seem too fast or too slow. However, "Heavenly" soon reaches a dragging stage where too much emphasis on love triangles were given to relationships between Chueng Mo Kei, Chiu Man (Gigi Lai), and Chow Chi Yuerk (Charmaine Sheh) and between Kei Hu Fu (Joyce Tang), Yueng Siu (Eddie Chueng), Yueng But Fui (Joyce Tang), and Yun Lei Ting (?). Is it coincidence that Joyce Tang's role, like in "Flying Fox 99" was altered and both are not to the benefit of the series? Though producers probably wanted to give Joyce more screen presence by extending her story, it was mostly trivial scenes wasted on developing a minor character.
Lack of emphasis was apparent on the relationship between Wu Tang's seven disciples, between Cheung Mo Kei and the seven disciples, the seven disciples and Chueng Sam Fung, and between Chueng Mo Kei and Tse Sun. "Heavenly" is a story that is supposed to be heavy on the relationship between men--brother to brother and father to son--while the love between man and woman is not placed too much of an ideal--as seen in Chueng's wishy washy nature when it came to who le loved most. Instead, the series managed to make the series seem "por por ma ma", dawdling into petty issues while either skipping or speeding through more important points. Producers try to make us sympathize with Chiu Man by addng pity factors like a "Ping Nam Wong" who was always hounding her for marriage and bad-mouthing her family to the king for refusing his hand in marriage. Destroying the Ming Sect became a duty for Chiu Man that weighed as the factor for her family's survival.
The cast picks like those for Miet Jeet, Chueng Sam Fung, and Wu Tang's seven disciples just don't have that aura or "feel" of the characters that Jin Yong had penned down. A lot of the characters were also "dumbed down"--examples would be the "Yuen Ming 2 Lo", Chiu Man's very powerful sidekicks, who were made a joke of by having them act pretty stupid and lose badly to Chueng Mo Kei. The person who plays Sing Kuan (Tse Sun's martial teacher) was too similar to his previous role in "Flying Fox 99", also as the main villain. Then we have the same person play a Beggar Clan traitor as in "Demi Gods and Semi Devils 97". Aside from re-using some same persons for similar roles, the music in "Heavenly" has also been recycled with themes heard in "Demi Gods" replayed in the series.
Gigi Lai was not bad as Chiu Man though the script made Chiu Man's character seem quite irritating at times. Charmaine Sheh as Chow Chi Yuerk is actually a surprise (or maybe it's just refreshing to see her casted as an evil character) since her performance in "Heavenly" is better than her other series. Perhaps also because Charmaine gives off the impression that she's gentle and soft--like Chow Chi Yuerk--it was an attribute to her role as Chow.
Fighting choreography is mere graphics and fireworks. Wires can also be seen at many scenes--too cheap to re-film? Lawrence Ng seemed weak as he lashed fist attacks while letting the computer specialists do the rest. "Heavenly" is Jin Yong's most exciting martial artsnovel in terms of the battle scenes but the series made a mockery of it, hoping to dazzle the viewer's eyes with pretty rainbow colors instead.
The series overall is just average and could have been better. The ending is pretty bad--especially when TVB threw in some fake looking background scenarios--but again, not as bad as first expected.
