The Hitman Chronicles 《 大 刺 客 》 (1997)

[sehseh]

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"The Hitman Chronicles" relays the heroic stories of seven hitmen in ancient China. It reveals the details of each assassination and helps the audience to understand more about these ancient heroes who are of no equal in their time.

The seven individual stories are: "Sword from the Fish Intestines" 魚腸劍, "Assassination of Ma" 刺馬, "Kang Oi" 荊軻, "Lui Sze Leung" 豫讓擊衣, "Assassinate on On Luk Shan" 煙花殺手, "Yau Yeung Pierced the Overcoat" 豫讓擊衣 and "Lip Yan Leung" 大唐聶隱娘.

Starring : Kent Cheng, Tsui Kam Kong, Fan Siu Wong, Chin Siu Ho, Louis Koo, Leung Siu Bing

No. of episodes: 35

http://www.tvb.com/tvbi/program/hitman/index.htm

[sehseh]

Currently watching this old series starring a multitude of (ex)TVB stars. I already finished the first two stories; "Sword from the Fish Intestines" and "Kang Oi". The series is quite good and interesting for wuxia genre, I wonder why the ratings are so bad that TVB had to cut short the series.

Anyone want to discuss the series with me? Don't worry of spoiling me, most of these are legendary assassination stories, so I somehow know how they'll end

[sehseh]

No one is interested in this series?

[dictionary]

I watched it once but don't remember the detail. I only remember that Noel Leung looked very pretty in here. Heh.

[Josh]

I have watched this 2-3 times...but the last time was a while back so my memory of this series isnt vivid.

I remember not liking the first 2 cases very much...thought about giving up on the series after the 2nd case...but the stories get so much more interesting after the 2nd one. My most favorite ones are the Vivian/Noel Leung case and the one with Terry (can't recall his last name). Vivian looks absolutely stunning in ancient costumes as always...and if I'm not wrong she plays twins and portray the two characters perfectly! I wish she's back with TVBBBBB haha

The Terry one, I remember it being really sad..perhaps the saddest one. He tries to assasinate whoever multiple times and fail each and everytime...I think the last time he has to burn his face and swallow a hot coal to change his appearance and voice so he could get close to the person....very heroic and sad! Great storyline!

What were the ratings like, do you know? In the low 20s or something? I had no idea TVB had to cut it short. Anyway I love these series comprising of multiple stories...similar to Dark Tales by TVB. I wish TVB would make more of this multiple-separate stories in one series.

[IloveMimiLo]

I too watched it but didn't remember anything. all I remember was Noel and Louis was in here, and they look hot! Too bad they didn't get paired!

[sehseh]

I have watched this 2-3 times...but the last time was a while back so my memory of this series isnt vivid.

I remember not liking the first 2 cases very much...thought about giving up on the series after the 2nd case...but the stories get so much more interesting after the 2nd one. My most favorite ones are the Vivian/Noel Leung case and the one with Terry (can't recall his last name). Vivian looks absolutely stunning in ancient costumes as always...and if I'm not wrong she plays twins and portray the two characters perfectly! I wish she's back with TVBBBBB haha

The Terry one, I remember it being really sad..perhaps the saddest one. He tries to assasinate whoever multiple times and fail each and everytime...I think the last time he has to burn his face and swallow a hot coal to change his appearance and voice so he could get close to the person....very heroic and sad! Great storyline!

What were the ratings like, do you know? In the low 20s or something? I had no idea TVB had to cut it short. Anyway I love these series comprising of multiple stories...similar to Dark Tales by TVB. I wish TVB would make more of this multiple-separate stories in one series.

I just finished Louis's story and started on Noel's. Louis is (was) really handsome in here, I wished he stopped over bbqing himself like a black coal.

Before Charmaine, Noel Leung and Cathy Chow Hoi Mei are my fav TVB actress - I feel in love with them after watching their costume series. No one can beat Noel's costume look! I'm trying to finish watching her story tonight, and there's Patrick Tam too!

The first story have its touching bits, the storyline about sacrificing the young son made me cry. I have no idea about the exact ratings though.

p.s. Anyone noticed that there are several 'recurring' supporting characters in the series? Hahaha...

I too watched it but didn't remember anything. all I remember was Noel and Louis was in here, and they look hot! Too bad they didn't get paired!

Yes, I love them in Against the Blade of Honor Sad ending though

[sehseh]

Finished watching Noel's story.

Why they do that to Ung Ung? She was like my fav character in the series. Like Sap Long (Patrick), she stole my heart with her cuteness and naivety

But I am glad that Sap Long knows clearly that he loves Ung Ung, not Yan Leung (unlike the other series where the hero usually falls for the 'cold', mysterious heroine who looks like the other girl/fiancee)

[IloveMimiLo]

Finished watching Noel's story.

Why they do that to Ung Ung? She was like my fav character in the series. Like Sap Long (Patrick), she stole my heart with her cuteness and naivety

But I am glad that Sap Long knows clearly that he loves Ung Ung, not Yan Leung (unlike the other series where the hero usually falls for the 'cold', mysterious heroine who looks like the other girl/fiancee)

I've seen some cool youtube vid of their story, but I think they took it down, I wanted to share it

[Kaitlyn VangStar]

Oh my goodness!!! I love this series!! I've been trying to find them again, but apparently they're not selling anymore or something? Is there any way, if at all possible, that I can watch these series again?

[Verdiani]

This series is so old but still sooo great! Love Noel's story the most, and the other one with Chin Siu Ho. Great soundtrack! I don't mind them being cut short, still really great that way, might be boring as heck if each of the stories are too long.

[Nan Ling]

I thought the series was good but some of them were too sad. I thought Chin siu ho's case starts off really good then it got too sad for me. I like Louis and Noel's case. I remember at the time, some people were complaining why patrick didn't end up with the other twin(yan leung) since she also loved Patrick.
Terry Fan's case was too sad for me. Felt bad for Joane Chan since she really loved Terry and I think she went to work for the guy Terry was trying to assassinate (don't really remember the story).

Is that Emily Kwan? Haven't seen her in any series or movies in a long time. I didn't really like her story. I like Astrid Chan and Gigi Fu but didn't like their story too much.

[Linda]

Wow such an old series now. It's like 18 years old.

I remember Noel's and Terry's one quiet clearly, they were the best ones. I was sad that Noel didn't end up with Patrick but thought it was right anyway. Terry's one was very sad, how loyal he was to his 'master' that he dedicated his whole life to avenge his master's death. I felt sorry for his wife too.

All these stories are based off famous assassination stories in Chinese history. The first was during the first emperors reign. The Terry one was the 3rd, based after the Three Kingdom era. I believe the last story was based in the Ching dynasty.

[Nan Ling]

I never really understood why chin siu ho turn himself in at the end. He killed the sworn brother that turned evil and escaped so why did he turn himself end to get killed? I felt bad for his wife because she didn't even get to see him one last time.
But I guess they can't give him a happy ending.

[Verdiani]

I never really understood why chin siu ho turn himself in at the end. He killed the sworn brother that turned evil and escaped so why did he turn himself end to get killed? I felt bad for his wife because she didn't even get to see him one last time.
But I guess they can't give him a happy ending.

Exactly! Maybe they just did that to make everything a tragedy.
Also, It's been so long I didn't even remember or realize that he turned himself in.
Maybe, he might've done that because everybody already saw that it was him who killed Maxinyi. And they will capture him for that, bc MXY is a big general (not sure of his position)? But either way...people should know who are his family members already, and they could get punished too, so he should just stay alive to protect them right?

[Nan Ling]

Verdiani, I think your right, I never thought about it but if Chin siu ho didn't turn himself in, his family would always be in danger. It's been a very long time but I think he killed the sworn brother then went back to see his wife then turn himself in. Someone else said it was because he wanted people to know his sworn brother betray them. Then again since all the other assassins have a sad ending, he cannot have a happy ending I guess.

Wow you still remember the characters names =)

[Nan Ling]

I recall back then some people complain that Patrick's character should have ended up with Noel (The assassin) in the end.

Is this series out on DVD?

[skoo78]

Anybody know where I can buy this series in the United States? I heard that it was banned. If it was banned, then what was the reason?

[charbydis]

I never really understood why chin siu ho turn himself in at the end. He killed the sworn brother that turned evil and escaped so why did he turn himself end to get killed? I felt bad for his wife because she didn't even get to see him one last time.
But I guess they can't give him a happy ending.

Hery everybody! The long weekend just started here in Australia so I am planning to watch this series in the spare time. I tackled three stories today after work and just finished the 3rd story of "The Assassination of Ma".

Even though it is quite a sad story, I quite like it. I think Cheung Man Cheung (Chin Siu Ho) handed himself in so he could tell everyone what sort of man Ma Sun Yee (Cheung Kwok Keung) really was. There was a lot of political tension at the time and Man Cheung wanted people to know that Ma Sun Yee died for his betrayal of his sworn brothers and not because of his political position as a governor. I think in that way, he could show his son that a real man should take responsibility for his actions, and not make excuses in order to cover up his crimes.

If you have watched Andy Lau's "The Warlords" which is an adaptation of this story, the 3rd brother handed himself in and he felt he needed to punished for killing his sworn brother. They had taken a blood oath to protect and standby each other forever, yet two ended up killing another. Even though 3rd brother killed 1st brother for a righteous reason, he still broke his oath and he though he deserved a painful death, just as 1st brother did for killing 2nd brother.

The story is actually based on a true story and it was never explained why Ma Sun Yee was assassinated so it had opened the doors for all the fiction writers to fill in the gaps. Some say it was for political reasons and some say it was for personal reasons.

[Nan Ling]

Anybody know where I can buy this series in the United States? I heard that it was banned. If it was banned, then what was the reason?

I didn't hear anything about it being banned in the US. It was broadcast on one of the tvb channels a couple years back. I have this series somewhere if you are still looking for it, I just have to look for it but it is missing a few episodes.