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Thread: Smiling Proud Wanderer 《笑傲江湖》 (1984)

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    Junior Member condor hero's Avatar
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    Default Smiling Proud Wanderer 《笑傲江湖》 (1984)

    So i have some discs of Smiling Proud Wanderer laying around that i never bothered to watch. What do you guys think of it?
    Last edited by triumph2004; 12-18-08 at 06:09 AM.

  2. #2
    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    It was awful. Avoid at all costs. It could ruin SPW for you forever.

    This was perhaps Chow Yun Fat's worst outing as a TVB actor. He was clearly mailing it in by then. He'd given up on TVB and was just waiting for his contract to run out so he could start doing movies.

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    I agree... it was awful.... seriously watching CYF in it will ruin your image of LHC

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    Senior Member SkyWalker's Avatar
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    But this series did have the prettiest Yue LingShan to date. Jamie Tick was really beautiful here. Also, the theme song was excellent too.

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    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SkyWalker View Post
    But this series did have the prettiest Yue LingShan to date. Jamie Tick was really beautiful here. Also, the theme song was excellent too.
    Jamie Chik looked nice, and the soundtrack was the only part of the series that lived up to the standards set by TVB's other 1980s Jin Yong adaptations, but other than that, this series was the black sheep of the TVB 1980s Jin Yong adaptation family. Only BOOK & SWORD: GRATITUDE & REVENGE '87 was worse.

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    Senior Member Trinie's Avatar
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    I hated this version of SPW too. But I thought that the Book and Sword 87 wasn't that bad. I actually enjoyed it and thought it was way better than SPW. MY mom always thought that Chow Yun fat was way too tall to be in wu xia series. Therefore, he isn't suitable for acting in ancient series.
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    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    Chow Yun Fat isn't a natural fit for wuxia roles, I agree. Still, he's a great enough actor that if he puts the effort behind it, I think he can make it work. The problem was that during the taping of SPW '84, Chow was visibly bored and working to fulfill his contractual obligations to TVB rather than truly putting his passion into the role. CYF's performance in SPW '84 was a far cry from his performance in THE BUND four years earlier. He was clearly uninspired.

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    Senior Member Trinie's Avatar
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    Yea, I agree.. CYF didn't seem to put out all of his efforts at all in this series. He is a good actor,but he just doesn't seem physically suitable for ancient series due to his height.
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    Senior Member Ian Liew's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Cheng View Post
    Jamie Chik looked nice, and the soundtrack was the only part of the series that lived up to the standards set by TVB's other 1980s Jin Yong adaptations, but other than that, this series was the black sheep of the TVB 1980s Jin Yong adaptation family. Only BOOK & SWORD: GRATITUDE & REVENGE '87 was worse.
    Was that the one with Nixon Pang, Fiona Leung and Jacqueline Law? It wasn't that bad, apart from Nixon and Fiona (I think it was her debut) both not being able to act. Fiona improved tremendously by the time SPW 96 came along, while Nixon, I believe, never got better.

    Linked Cities and Ode to Gallantry were pretty horrible as well - Ode's plotline was completely torn apart and re-written for TVB to show off Tony Leung's great acting skills for those who couldn't get enough of his Zhang Wuji and Wei Xiaobao. Linked was just boring and downright miserable. Much like the novel, but the adaptation really dragged.

    SPW 84 was worth watching for the supporting cast, though. Kenneth Chun Kong's Yue Buqun and Lau Siu Ming's Ren Woxing were absolutely brilliant. Rebecca Chan, Jamie Chik, Tung Wai and the others were all really good too. It's only Chow Yun Fat (he doesn't look anything like a wuxia hero, really) and the overdone CGI which relegate it to a second-rate production.

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    Senior Member almo89's Avatar
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    What? No love for the Star Wars effect? Besides Chow's mediocre performance, the supporting case was strong like any 80s TVB production.

    Sam Hui gets the same knocks on him for being "ugly" in ancient costumes, but surprisingly, his portrayal of LWC was pretty good in The Swordsman.
    "If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put it in a bottle it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash. Be water my friends.

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    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by almo89 View Post
    What? No love for the Star Wars effect? Besides Chow's mediocre performance, the supporting case was strong like any 80s TVB production.
    STAR WARS looked like a puppet show compared to SPW '84 in terms of going overboard on SFX.

    The supporting players in SPW '84 were mostly the same crew that had made DGSD '81, LOCH '82, ROCH '83, and DOMD '84 such winners, but in SPW '84...I don't know. They all seemed like a bunch of mismatched parts. I lay that at the feet of the scriptwriters, who didn't seem to know what they were doing with the series.

    Sam Hui gets the same knocks on him for being "ugly" in ancient costumes, but surprisingly, his portrayal of LWC was pretty good in The Swordsman.
    Except I didn't recognize much of the SPW story in that adaptation at all.

    My Dad is a total SPW (the novel) nut, and he couldn't make out what was going on in the Sam Hui movie at all.

    He did like TVB's 1996 effort with Jackie Lui, and that more recent effort by...China, I guess?

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    Senior Member almo89's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Cheng View Post
    Except I didn't recognize much of the SPW story in that adaptation at all.

    My Dad is a total SPW (the novel) nut, and he couldn't make out what was going on in the Sam Hui movie at all.

    He did like TVB's 1996 effort with Jackie Lui, and that more recent effort by...China, I guess?
    haha yeah it was part of the 90s wuxia wave which was total exaggeration of everything. I thought it worked. The 90s wave was started by Once Upon a Time in China and then we saw some crazy wire fu movies in that era. I loved how everything seemed so impossible haha
    "If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put it in a bottle it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash. Be water my friends.

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    Senior Member Trinie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ian Liew View Post
    Was that the one with Nixon Pang, Fiona Leung and Jacqueline Law? It wasn't that bad, apart from Nixon and Fiona (I think it was her debut) both not being able to act. Fiona improved tremendously by the time SPW 96 came along, while Nixon, I believe, never got better.

    Linked Cities and Ode to Gallantry were pretty horrible as well - Ode's plotline was completely torn apart and re-written for TVB to show off Tony Leung's great acting skills for those who couldn't get enough of his Zhang Wuji and Wei Xiaobao. Linked was just boring and downright miserable. Much like the novel, but the adaptation really dragged.

    SPW 84 was worth watching for the supporting cast, though. Kenneth Chun Kong's Yue Buqun and Lau Siu Ming's Ren Woxing were absolutely brilliant. Rebecca Chan, Jamie Chik, Tung Wai and the others were all really good too. It's only Chow Yun Fat (he doesn't look anything like a wuxia hero, really) and the overdone CGI which relegate it to a second-rate production.
    Yea, the 87 version is the one with Nelson, Jacqueline and Fiona. Yea, it was a debut for both Nelson and Fiona. I thought since it was their debut, we should have given them the benefit of the doubt. I thought that they did a good job for a debut. Nelson retired from acting since I guess acting just wasn't for him.

    Well, I am not sure about Linked Cities since I have never read the novel. I really liked Ode to the Gallantry as a series because I did NOT like the actual novel at all. It was really boring for the most part. I didn't like Linked Cities at all though(the series anyway).

    I personally don't like XAJH's story at all(I skimmed parts of the novel and could not bring myself to continue). The cast for 80s version was ok, but I still did not like it. Yea, my mom said that one of the biggest problems was CYF since he is just way too tall and is not suited to act in ancient series. I also did not like the China version at all but only gave it a try due to all of the praises I heard. However, I ended up becoming really disappointed....
    Respect other people's opinions and views. If we learn how to do that than all of these fights and arguments will not occur.

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    Member mideel's Avatar
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    lol... what is the connection of being too tall and ancient series?

    i watched the series when i was a kid but i forgot it completely .. but when i watched the opening it looks so convincing, the wushu sword play by tung wai looks real wushu, the two old men fighting at the beginning is also real wushu... but when i watched swordman 2013 trailer.. i have no spirit to watch the series.. even from the opening this is looks typical modern wuxia series especially made in taiwan.... they want to turn wuxia series into manga or something like that...

    i miss the 80 or 90 series, even though sometime the special effect looks cheap but overall i still can feel the series is take place in ancient china, some of the fight scenes have real wushu like guo jing and huang yao shi fight in the end of loch or yeung guo huang yao shi fight in roch, somehow if i watch series like swordman 2013 i feel the place and time and everything are in dreams..

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    Junior Member Apop Harris's Avatar
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    good point!

    some mainland production lose that "ancient wuxia feel" and turn into a fantasy dreamland. Swordsman 2013 is the perfect example. But for Xiao Ao Jiang Hu, I think 2001 fighting is better than 1985. 2001 version didn't "misused" special effects so much as other 2000's series. The 1985 had that classic real wushu movements, but at this particular series TVB really liked to play with that "laser beams" (don't know what's the name), colorful beam came up from someone's finger or word, that looked ridiculous!

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