"Are you man enough to eat tofu?"
Order of Knights of the Holy Tofu
STOP using DHMO! It kills innocent lives!
im kinda bored with LOCH why keep making all the adaptations there was already one in 03 and now 08
they should making new stories instead
Not if you look at things from an artist's point of view. Each autuer is different.
While the TVB classics hold a special place in a lot of people's hearts, it's not the be all or end all of the story adapted into film form. I disagree strongly about any arbitrary rule for intermittance because it's a very abstract and irrelevant string. I couldn't care less even if two different filmmakers decided to create simultaneous adaptations.
While I agree that many of Jin Yong's literary classics shouldn't be adapted just to fill a timeslot, I feel that any time a significant and holistic effort can be reasonably extended, and someone is willing to take the challenge of conveying the work in motion picture, they should be allowed, regardless of who or what has happened before.
Whether I watch them or not, I think it's ridiculous that there are at least seven or eight different editions of LOCH (including cinematic releases back in the 1970s) available out there. An epic doesn't seem so epic when it gets remade with a different cast every other year.
Once upon a time, people could say, "Whoa...LOCH! I can't believe they're making a new one! The old one was made when I was a little kid, and I'm twentysomething now!"
Now, it's more like, "Uh, LOCH? Didn't they make one last year...and the year before that...and another one two years before that? I've lost track..."
It's gotten lame.
Didn't u only recently start to watch the 90's one?
I watched twenty minutes of one episode of it, yawned indifferently, turned it off, and never went back.
That was over ten years ago.
I've seen the first 5 episodes so far. I'd call it 'Jinyong-lite' - a cartoony, poppy, loud, fast-paced take on She Diao aimed squarely at younger viewers.Originally Posted by QF
The series was clearly never intended to be a genuine adaptation of the novel. For instance, in order to get the main star (Hu Ge, playing Guo Jing) on-screen as early as possible, they whiz past 5 chapters' worth of the plot (i.e. about 12% of the original novel) in the space of a single episode. The deliberation in the structure and texture of JY's story has been removed; instead, it's directed as a flurry of lots of relatively concise action / melodrama / more action / comedy / yet more action scenes, which caters for people with short attention spans. It's a bit of a romp, really. Even the changes in characterisation point to the intended audience: Li Ping and the Jiangnan Weirdoes are painted fairly simply as oppressive authority figures (i.e. your disapproving parents).
But faithfulness to the novel isn't important given that the series was never intended to be faithful (unlike Zhang Jizhong's 2003 version, which tries to be a serious 'literary' or 'artistic' adaptation). The real question is whether or not it's good TV. I'm going to keep watching, but so far, it's been mediocre. The hyperactive pace and clumsy directing mean the changes in mood are often quite abrupt and forced. It often feels very cliched: it's commercially-led, low-risk TV which is rather similar to the other standard wuxia 'product' out there. The production values are so-so. The series piggybacks on the reputation of JY and the novel, but I actually think its association with the story is as much of a hindrance as it is an assistance. The cast is attractive and often charismatic (Yuan Hong as Yang Kang is a standout so far; Kathy Chow is an eye-catching Bao Xiruo), but the director hasn't allowed much room for them to really act so far. For instance, Ariel Lin makes for a cuddly cutie-pie version of Huang Rong, but the abominable overdubbing that Mainland Chinese series always seem to do makes it hard to see her real abilities as an actress.
Despite all this, I'm committed to watching the rest of the series. Maybe it just hasn't got into its groove yet, so I might well change my mind after another ten episodes or so. Based on QF's recommendation, am looking forward to seeing their take on Hong Qigong, who's one of my favourite JY characters.
Trust me....after the five episodes, you'll see *ALOT* of room for them to stand out. Its like from the time that Yang Kang is with his father and mother to like about epispode 14, its all Yang Family. And then you get to hear GJ nag and nag and nag...blah blah blah...The cast is attractive and often charismatic (Yuan Hong as Yang Kang is a standout so far; Kathy Chow is an eye-catching Bao Xiruo), but the director hasn't allowed much room for them to really act so far.
but I'm sure you will like the episode when H7G appears.
QF
From the description, it sounds almost like a remake of LOCH '82. How similar is it to that version?
What's this discussion doing in here? There's a whole thread with everyone talking about it like mad over in the Mainland China tv series forum.
你看这些云彩,聚了又散,散了又聚,人生离合也是一样。
They took a similar approach. you know in LOCH 82', the whole Yang Tie Xin getting drunk over Bao Xi Rou drama?? Well, they made something similar to that, but its longer and more drama. They basically took a substory A and extended it. Kinda boring. But I do feel, they do put alot of emphasis on Yang Kang in this version tho.From the description, it sounds almost like a remake of LOCH '82. How similar is it to that version?
QF
This is the worst piece of crap I've ever seen.
If only LYP wasn't so buttugly (he looks like a rottweiler), I would have enjoyed Loch2002 a lot more. At least they tried.
This...
WTF is this.
YK and GJ in the 2003 version were too butt ugly for me to fully enjoy it. I dun mind GJ being a little ugly, but YK is suppose to be a pretty boy (whereas Zhou Jie looks ).
BXR (YK's mum) is suppose to be the most beautiful woman in the series. 2003 got it kinda wrong in this part. In the novel, when HR sneaked into the Jin palace, she wanted to look at BXR not MNC. BXR's beauty suppose to exceed both girls.
2008 version - well, it's an interesting dimension of LOCH on its own. It takes an apologist view of WYHL and the Jurchen empire which is a v.fresh perspective.
i know there already a topic in the mainland section but i'll go ahead and comment in this one since its been brought back. the series is actually very good when you watch it. the changes are nice, it gives the character more depth and development. like hu ge being guo jing, he plays a innocent, hungry guo jing, then as the story progress with all the life changing events, he starts to get more mature and become or act more smarter.
since the saying goes whoever you hang out with you become like them, that was what huang rong(ariel ling) told guo jing, so basically she somewhat becomes more dumber, while guo jing becomes more smarter, vice versa since love is blind and makes you do all sorts of things.
but all in all even with some of the cgi effects, the story itself, dialogue are good. i've seen this like six times because i like all the characters portrayal. yang kang in here makes you want to feel sorry for him, but the things he do because of ou yang ke, his parents, other people like huang rong, hong chi gong, etc put him into, causes him to have to always turn his back into doing the wrong things.
all he want was family love, someone to really care for and teach him martial arts and become stronger. but none of that happened. which was why there was that rivalry between him and guo jing in this version. he gets mad when a nobody like guo jing, but having a legends name of yang, he doesn't have nothing. guo jing gets the smart beautiful girl, learns all the most powerful martial arts, etc but him, his family fell apart, his grandmaster wants to kill him, noone else will truely teach him martial arts.
still for those who haven't watch this be open minded and watch it. its human nature to comment and critisize but by all means this adaption is one of the best along with the 80s. best 2 imho.
li guo li's company bring out that wuxia feeling that tvb has. while zjz has that movie feel, which really isn't right since this is a fantasy wuxia series. all in all i enjoy all of lgl work more then zjz which was all a disappointment.
Yea I agree with alot of what Mido-Ban said.
What's likeable about LOCH 08 was probably the depth given to characters such as YK and OYK, and view that was projected on supposed villains such as WYHL and the Jin army. I enjoyed that to an extent, since right and wrong is often differentiated by a point of view, and even the heroes have shady schemes at times, such as HR and YG.
However the middle part on YK, BXR, YTX and WYHL dragged for far too long man. I think the audience got the point and what this led to was a very rushed ending, which felt like an anti-climax
I always thought that the adaptations that followed closest to the novels would make for the best TV. I mean if a 2 dimensional book can intrigue millions of readers then the plot is surely good enough for 3 dimensional TV. However this adaptation made me feel that an alternate adaptation actually made for interesting viewing, despite cringing at some of the irregularities
But I was impressed by the much condemned ROCH 06, so what do I know!?