Do you think TVB should do remakes of Jin Yong's stories?

[kidd]

rourou. U mistaken me for chelsea_fan. I'm not the one who post this

What's with all these dissing on Ron? I know he's still acting like an amateur but hey, Bowie's not that superb too but he gets a lot of huge roles in great series.

Bowie is Lam Bo Yi.

[charbydis]

Ron would be a perfect candidate for playing Fah Moon Lau. His expressionless eyes would make his playing a blind guy an effortless task.

I think I am going to cry now!

[darknight123]

No, of course. What these excellent series in the '80 and '90 decades are fantastic. No need to remake more.

[almo89]

remaking the will just cause more and more comparisons. The ones that are made are awesome and should be kept that way.

[sufan]

I can't see anyone who can play luk siu feng or char liu heng..not even raymond and definitely not Ron or bowie..

I think Michael Miu was the best char liu heng as well as yeng hang in lOCH--he has the "wow" handscome built and even now that he's middle age he's still so popular---

most disastrous remake was hsds with lawrence--he was the worst zhengwujia ever--too old for the role---what in the world was tvb thinking?

gigi was pretty in their but still--I still like the taiwan alex su and alyssia chia--they were abosultely adorable and pretty--she was beauitful and he was handsome (a bit short but still cute)

I can see raymond as zhengwiujia or if you don't see him in the role maybe it would be a good challenge for the guy--

but i can't see any female actress that can play XLN in ROCH in the past few years--no one has that JY beauity cold look--carmen lee must be the prettiest TVB XLN--again just tvb versions -- I didn't really like andy lau or idy chan's verison.

I guess..yeah tired of JY remake--I think they should do Lang Yi San wuxia movies...he has some good stories out there (except tvb totally ruined verdant brow )

[sufan]

On a side note, i totally didn't understnad taiwan's last version of char lau heng---all it was was a bunch of better known actress--gigi lai was in there as well as other actress---it was a ridiculous char lau heng, one girl dies or loose memory after another and char lau heng fell in lvoe was so many different girls---

terrible..tvb hopefully will never make a remake that way.

[Trien Chieu]

Honestly, No, all the stories of Jin Yong are already made in the TVB-The Golden '80s. Those series are very excellent and does not need to remake again.

Agree. TVB should focus on novels from other less popular authors. Wuxia fans want new stories not remakes. Making adaption from Yun Zhongyue (雲中岳) novels would be great. I read many reviews from his novels and they seem to be very decent. His royalty should be much much lower than Mr. Jin Yong's.

[ToastedRossi]

The better question is whether TVB is capable of doing justice to Jin Yong's works. They've lost a lot of talent, and they don't really have that much experience making grand wuxia shows any more.

back then with actors/ actresses who can act.. then ok. but nowawayd.. i don't think TVB adaption of JY can compare to mainland with what they have thesedays ...

I wouldn't be that hasty. While there are good things to say about a lot of Mainland wuxia shows, there's only one Jin Yong adaptation among them that I'd say is great. And even that one was plagued by censorship. It's not that hard a hurdle to cross.

No, of course. What these excellent series in the '80 and '90 decades are fantastic. No need to remake more.

There are a number of stories that TVB never did a particularly good job with. For example, the '80s HSDS was only so-so, and the less said about the newer one the better.

[Trien Chieu]

The better question is whether TVB is capable of doing justice to Jin Yong's works. They've lost a lot of talent, and they don't really have that much experience making grand wuxia shows any more.

Of course. TVB is still the leader.

I wouldn't be that hasty. While there are good things to say about a lot of Mainland wuxia shows, there's only one Jin Yong adaptation among them that I'd say is great. And even that one was plagued by censorship. It's not that hard a hurdle to cross.


There are a number of stories that TVB never did a particularly good job with. For example, the '80s HSDS was only so-so, and the less said about the newer one the better.

HSDS86 with Tony Leung as Cheung Mo Gei is excellent. It's a great series.

[tape]

There are a number of stories that TVB never did a particularly good job with. For example, the '80s HSDS was only so-so, and the less said about the newer one the better.

I always thought HSDS '86 was the benchmark for 80's wuxia. It had a good (but not fantastic) male and female lead, fantastic side characters, and a good storyline.

LOCH was by far more epic and memorable, but in terms of storyline progression is extremely boring by modern standards. HSDS 86 is still watchable, but LOCH really isn't if you haven't watched it before.

ROCH is slightly better in terms of being able to watch it as a first timer, but it still has not aged well.

SPW was terrible, even though we probably have all watched it being JY fans.

Flying Fox and Sword Stained with Royal Blood....personally I've only seen parts of it, and from how rarely it's been talked about, I assume it's the same for most people -- but why? The few posts that have spoken about it have been favorable, and I doubt it lacked any broadcast time, but for some reason nobody ever talks about it.

XXK (Ode to Gallantry) is more or less a random wuxia series that isn't even related to JY for the most part.


DGSD seems to be popular for those interested in wuxia, but still a far cry from LOCH/ROCH/HSDS. It's also the story I probably enjoyed most (1997 at least).

[ToastedRossi]

I've watched all of the TVB '80s long stories other than the Chow Yun Fat one, and I'd say that they're all significantly better than HSDS. Perhaps the unusual story structure got in the way of telling the main story, but I think that it's the one show that could be massively improved upon. The first half of the '82 DGSD is outright amazing - probably the best wuxia I've ever watched, and far better than any of the later adaptations. I doubt that it can be improved upon.

The shows based on the shorter stories are lesser known and less talked about because the original stories are lower profile as well. They have fewer characters, and fewer memorable moments, less effort is put into them, and they're generally less noteworthy overall. The Flying Fox show is still pretty good though.

[Ian Liew]

Ode to Gallantry is particularly difficult to put to screen, because there is no real ultimate villain in the story, and no really despicable evil character other than Shi Zhongyu (who TVB twisted into the main hero). The way it ends in the novel would be really hard to translate into a video without feeling extremely anti-climatic, and TVB's would not be the only adaptation which transformed poor Dr Bei into the final superpowered villain. Linked Cities is also a fairly depressing story, and is really only worth watching for the Ding Dian arc at the start and the snow valley scene. After that, it becomes boring with a slow but inevitable conclusion where Di Yun eventually gets everyone since he is by far the best fighter in wulin now. The China 2004 version handled itself really well because it kept everything down to earth, put in some really well-choreographed fighting scenes, and had a very charismatic Shui Sheng which made it very watchable even after the likeable characters were all gone. TVB cast a very raw Shalin Tse as Shui Sheng, relied on their wires and CGI for fighting, added all kinds of new characters and irrelevant sideplots (which sometimes work if you have people like Felix Wong or Tony Leung starring, but Roger Kwok was dreadfully boring in that serial) and the whole thing just got really depressing. Even the beautiful Kitty Lai, fresh from her success in HSDS, couldn't save the serial as the plot was weak and her character Ci Fang, was extremely annoying and had a sad ending.

Flying Fox was really well done, though - Ray Looi was a seasoned actor, the two plots were merged together fairly well, and the other leads - Patrick Tse, Kenneth Chang, Rebecca Chan, Chau Sau Lan, Mitra King and Margie Chang (for whatever little time she had) were all top-class performers in their prime, and the whole thing just oozed quality. I'd say that after the excellent Duke of Mount Deer, Flying Fox would be the one which has aged really well and which remains extremely watchable by today's standards. The others suffer from weak CGI and combat choreography, but Flying Fox's fighting is less flashy, and in DOMD, of course, fighting is kept to a minimum anyway.

[tape]

Ode to Gallantry is particularly difficult to put to screen, because there is no real ultimate villain in the story, and no really despicable evil character other than Shi Zhongyu (who TVB twisted into the main hero). The way it ends in the novel would be really hard to translate into a video without feeling extremely anti-climatic, and TVB's would not be the only adaptation which transformed poor Dr Bei into the final superpowered villain. Linked Cities is also a fairly depressing story, and is really only worth watching for the Ding Dian arc at the start and the snow valley scene. After that, it becomes boring with a slow but inevitable conclusion where Di Yun eventually gets everyone since he is by far the best fighter in wulin now. The China 2004 version handled itself really well because it kept everything down to earth, put in some really well-choreographed fighting scenes, and had a very charismatic Shui Sheng which made it very watchable even after the likeable characters were all gone. TVB cast a very raw Shalin Tse as Shui Sheng, relied on their wires and CGI for fighting, added all kinds of new characters and irrelevant sideplots (which sometimes work if you have people like Felix Wong or Tony Leung starring, but Roger Kwok was dreadfully boring in that serial) and the whole thing just got really depressing. Even the beautiful Kitty Lai, fresh from her success in HSDS, couldn't save the serial as the plot was weak and her character Ci Fang, was extremely annoying and had a sad ending.

Flying Fox was really well done, though - Ray Looi was a seasoned actor, the two plots were merged together fairly well, and the other leads - Patrick Tse, Kenneth Chang, Rebecca Chan, Chau Sau Lan, Mitra King and Margie Chang (for whatever little time she had) were all top-class performers in their prime, and the whole thing just oozed quality. I'd say that after the excellent Duke of Mount Deer, Flying Fox would be the one which has aged really well and which remains extremely watchable by today's standards. The others suffer from weak CGI and combat choreography, but Flying Fox's fighting is less flashy, and in DOMD, of course, fighting is kept to a minimum anyway.

Makes me think Ode to Gallantry would be better as some sort of animated series. You can do a lot of cool stuff with secret islands and mysterious characters that it could just be a plot driven adventure story rather than a series that kind of needs an antagonist. A movie would work very well too.

[i_fotted]

I honestly don't even think TVB has the resources to cast the characters if given the opportunity. Jin Yong characters are so distinctive and TVB is known of having very limited young talents. They lose their best actors on a yearly basis, as they leave to find bigger and better things.

Just imagine the crop of TVB young tvb actresses currently. Who has the ability and looks to portray little dragon girl? You will have to venture into mainland to find your answer.

[tape]

I honestly don't even think TVB has the resources to cast the characters if given the opportunity. Jin Yong characters are so distinctive and TVB is known of having very limited young talents. They lose their best actors on a yearly basis, as they leave to find bigger and better things.

Just imagine the crop of TVB young tvb actresses currently. Who has the ability and looks to portray little dragon girl? You will have to venture into mainland to find your answer.

I think it's more that everything else has gotten better. There wasn't much competition in the past, (though no doubt TVB has got worse in terms of wuxia) but they'll never be able to recreate that whole wuxia feel because everyone can do it on at least a similar level whereas they had a virtual monopoly in the past.

In terms of talent, I actually think the female leads of the 80s weren't even very good. Their talent was comparable to both 70's and post 80s, and in general I find them to be the least attractive. The male leads though were much more talented imo and since I don't really care what they look like...heh.

[Trien Chieu]

I think it's more that everything else has gotten better. There wasn't much competition in the past, (though no doubt TVB has got worse in terms of wuxia) but they'll never be able to recreate that whole wuxia feel because everyone can do it on at least a similar level whereas they had a virtual monopoly in the past.

In terms of talent, I actually think the female leads of the 80s weren't even very good. Their talent was comparable to both 70's and post 80s, and in general I find them to be the least attractive. The male leads though were much more talented imo and since I don't really care what they look like...heh.

Back in the 80s, TVB had Barbara Yung, Idy Chan, Margie Tsang, Sharon Tang, Kitty Lai, Carina Lau, Maggie Siu, Jamie Chik, Money Chan and numerous other female talents. They were by far better than the current Mainland actresses.

[i_fotted]

Angie Chiu as well. That woman was gorgeous during her time.

[tape]

I'm not very impressed by any of the people you listed above except maybe Angie Chiu and Carina lau.

The rest are really just run of the mill actresses that happened to be in a very good situation at a very good time. It happens in every industry; some people who weren't really that great get more credit than they deserve.

[i_fotted]

There are these discussions in sports all the time. Some people believe the greats in the past wouldn't be able to perform/compete at today's level now that today's athletes are faster, bigger, and stronger due to better technology and nutrition. Same analogy applies to actors. Modern day actresses have luxury of better makeup/cosmetics, cameras, plastic surgery etc. I happen to think the actresses of the 80s are more beautiful than you give them credit for but to each their own.

[tape]

There are these discussions in sports all the time. Some people believe the greats in the past wouldn't be able to perform/compete at today's level now that today's athletes are faster, bigger, and stronger due to better technology and nutrition. Same analogy applies to actors. Modern day actresses have luxury of better makeup/cosmetics, cameras, plastic surgery etc. I happen to think the actresses of the 80s are more beautiful than you give them credit for but to each their own.

I'm a huge NBA fan so I know exactly what you mean. Jordan vs Wilt vs Lebron vs Russell is impossible to compare due to eras.

I find the women associated with the later 70s like Angie Chiu and Michelle Mai Suet to be far more attractive (and more talented) than people like Idy, Barbara, Margie, etc.

In the 90's and on I don't think the actresses are necessarily more talented, but I don't think they're less talented, and I do find someone like Carman Lee to be much more attractive than the 80's actresses. I don't really want to argue which era of actresses is better than the other, just that the 80s eras are a bit overrated due to their scripts and TVB just being purely dominant during that time.