Last edited by Shakespeare; 03-06-14 at 11:23 AM.
Looking forward to this. The 18.51min trailer has been out for some time.
It's funny that the movie and TV version of Si Da Ming Bu both help each other in promotion. With the national attention the movie version got, the TV version can capitalize on it and claim viewer's interest by providing more substance. It's not hard to beat the movie version in script and characterization. The 3rd movie installment can then ride on the TV series' broadcast when it comes out at the end of 2014. Whoever did the timing for production did it pretty well.
I do hope we get some good quality procedural stuff. I can tolerate the guys working on their "I love you", but if the investigations become an afterthought as opposed to the driving theme, they should change it to the 'Four Flower Boys' instead of the 'Four Investigators'. At least I know what to expect :P .
The Four will follow Romance of the Condor Heroes in Hunan TV's Tuesday-Wednesday 10:00 p.m. timeslot. The first episodes of The Four will air March 17. Coincidentally, Simona Wang, who plays a supporting role in Romance of the Condor Heroes, is playing Yang Yang's love interest in The Four.
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Last edited by jwand; 02-22-15 at 03:05 AM.
Thanks for the update. Finally it's gonna be released!
Does anyone know how often this drama runs every week?
EDIT: Oops nevermind...the answer's in a previous post.
Only twice a week! Ughh....
Last edited by happyswallow; 03-23-15 at 12:16 AM.
The first four episodes were disappointing so far, to me. It probably has to do with the overall poor acting, especially Zhang Han's nonexistent one, which is just purely cringe-worthy to me. Don't think I'll enjoy the rest of the series at this rate, lol.
Looks bad. Too much CGI and not to mention, cheap and bad CGI. I thought the CGI in "Doctors and Detectives" was bad but this series is way worse.
I watched the first 4 eps and I was confused; is this a wuxia drama, a detective drama or a fantasy drama? The martial arts is really bad and people are way too powerful to begin with. The plot is not engaging, even though they try to shove the tragic love story of An Shi Geng in our faces. The overacting and overdramatisation is hilarious and I am ROFLing when the story is supposed to be super sad.
I don't get why Wu Qing is walking around? Is someone going to cripple him soon? And the four detectives are not distinguishable from one another. I am often confused with who is who. But the songs are OK though.
I am only watching this for Zong Feng Yan's guest role. Will scoot if his character dies.
"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."
Cyril Connolly
The casting looks good to me, I don't mind any of their acting hehe. But the CGI is a bit much, I wish there was less fantasy type and more wuxia type. Looks like there is going to be wolves and foxes and other supernatural stuff coming a head. Another eye candy seires for me I guess.
I recognize this chick. She's my favorite actress in Romance of the Condor Heroes, one of the most beautiful women of the show. Her Chinese name is Wang Shuang; she plays Wanyan Ping. I gotta watch this new show, just for Wang Shuang's beautiful eyes
Another cute actress I recognize is Janine Chang from Wu Zetian TV show. She's pretty hot.
BTW I want to compare this show to the excellent movies trilogy Si Da Ming Bu (The "Great" Four). I just hope it won't be another Shen Diao Xia Lu recently aired.
Last edited by sonny4T; 04-02-15 at 08:40 AM.
If it wasn't for Janine Chang and her journey to master her 'Reading Heart Technique' (RHT), I would ditch this show. I've never seen Janine in anything before, so I am very impressed. She looks luminous in ancient costume. She also plays a spunky character which I love. She is so quick on the uptake - her transition from perceiving the Head of Maids feeling threatened by beauty, then barking out a coarse country accent was brilliant play. I've read in a news article that one of the main plot points will be development of 'Reading Heart Technique'. I happen to love this plot device. Usually a character just has it like a super power (Wu Qing/Cheng Ya Yu in movie The Four). I like it developed as a character trait and ability.
The reason why I have the urge to ditch this show: we're 20% into the series and still have had no real detective action. Except a lot of redundant posing and talking. Instead, there seems to be more focus on "Harem Politics of Shen Hou Fu" (that's what I'm calling it anyhow). If we take ZGZW to be an ignorant emperor, everyone else in Shen Hou Fu are concubines. Including the Four. Yes, they are appearing that immature and petty to me. CLB (played by Janine) is the titular heroine, bullied by everyone around her.
One of the humanly worse scenes so far:
LX, JYH and ZM standing there, watching as the spoilt princess shot at CLB. They all knew that they were endangering a life. Knowing the risk and choosing to not stop it before it happens equates to condoning the act. Or, the show had to show LX heroically save CLB at the last minute. I don't get why everyone was so angry. They knew what potentially could happen. Why didn't they get angry before the arrow was shot and act? The anger is only legitimate if they didn't know what was happening or that CLB was standing there.
It also portrays LX, JYH and ZM being party to a class mentality. Of the bad kind. That servant lives are expendable because of their lower status. Yes, LX saved CLB at the end, but it doesn't take away from the fact that if that was the princess standing behind that target board, they wouldn't permit her to endanger her royal life. One could argue they couldn't talk back to the princess because she gave royal orders. They certainly talked back after CLB was nearly shot, so there isn't even that excuse. So far, these sort of shennigans only work to paint the authorities in Shen Hou Fu as lacking any sense, maturity and integrity.
If this show was indeed set in the cutthroat environment of the palace, yes, this sort of politics makes sense. Instead, it is Shen Hou Fu. ZGZW is supposed to be the very image of righteousness. His Four are supposed to be officers upholding justice. And yet, Shen Hou Fu is anything but righteous and just. It amounts to a huge hypocrisy. If this show is on a mission for me to despise the occupants of Shen Hou Fu, they're doing a pretty good job of it.
Sorry, does anyone know what the Four story is supposed to be ? Is it just about the Four solving cases ? I knew the Four when I watched the TVB version (Raymond Lam), and I like it. Then I realized that it was based on a novel, but each adaptation that I watched had different stories and main leads (looks like that each member of the Four takes turn in becoming the lead in different adaptations). The TVB version is my personal favourite (plus it is the only one that I found with complete eng subs ).
Btw, I watched (quick watch) this versions' adaptation (without eng subs) and, well, there were werewolf, fox demon, and mind(dream ??) reading. Plus Wu Qing is able to walk here. Perhaps. I'm guessing that they are going to show how he became disabled . But, the other adaptation said that Wu Qing's leg were disabled since he was a baby. I guess, this is not included in the novel, so people just get creative.
Hi Luna! How are you doing?
The Four is my current watch. Just finished two Chinese modern dramas, but am glad to be back to wuxia series, because the rom-coms have become quite exhausting - I kept cursing and rolling my eyes LOL.
I had a good impression on the first episode. Cheap CGI aside, the fights are better and interesting than those in many wuxia series lately. Fast forward to ep 15, some annoying things started to appear - including some romantic arcs. I can't believe that the writers are trying to sell love being the main drive for many characters here. I hope this didn't turn out to be "Romance of the Four Constables and Everyone Else"
Regarding Wu Qing, I expect at some point he'll get an accident which paralyzes his legs. But I don't know how far the writers will exploit their creativity. After all, in the movie version Wu Qing is a female.
This series is very unequal with some good episodes and some pretty bad. I thought it was a detective series in the ancient China like in the movies but actually it is a wuxia series (and bad wuxia btw). I don't know about the novel. My knowledge is based on the trilogy movies so I can't tell about the veracity of the storyline. For instance, in the movie, WuQing is a paralyzed and mind reader female, played by Liu Yifei. She had a romance with Lengxue. In this series, two characters portray the movies's WuQing: the male WuQing -a very pale character- and LiMo, a woman who possesses the mind reading capability. IMO actually LiMo is the best character so far and Janine Chang who plays her is awesome. Anyone knows if LiMo is a character from the novel?
The Liu Yifei's character has a trouble past (her family being massacred by people under the order of Zhuge Zhenwo including Tie Shou). This drama is transposed to Lengxue in the series with a story slightly different.
Actually the series's Four MingBu look very pale and nothing like the famous constables. They spend all the time running after the females, sometime in a ridiculous manner like the story of ZhuiMing and the the little Yiyi. No one , even Lengxue, is capable of investigating and resolving a single murder case. For a detective series it's very disappointing.
Ji YaoHua in the movies is an agent placed by An Shi Geng to spy on Shen Hou Fu and the Sixth Department. In the series, Ji YaoHua is a female constable of Shen Hou Fu. All she does is to fall in love with Lengxue and to get jealous of the women of his entourage. Another big disappointment for me.
BTW I have another question concerning Zhang Han who plays Lengxue: Is he a one-facial-expression actor? Can he act?
Hi there, Lenje!
I'm fine, thanks .. how bout u?
Haha .. I cursed and rolled my eyes when watching romance dramas, that's why I prefer wuxia *well, I also did that for wuxia sometimes, but at least I like the costumes and the fighting scenes* . I'm not watching anything now, just quick browsing several series, including the Four. I just watch the fight scenes and several others that interest me, still don't understand what the story is about .
*LOL LOL*
Well, I haven't watch the movie. You see, I really like Raymond Lam's version, so I have a special interest in Wu Qing's character. I guess, it's kinda weird for me to accept that Wu Qing is a female with Professor Xavier's ability + the werewolf thing. This version of the Four has a male Wu Qing,and, despite the CGI, I kinda like it with how they got creative with his fighting scene with his fan *if only the speciall effect was better, though*. I guess I'll just read people's reviews before I decide to watch this seriously.
If it helps, consider this a very loosely based drama of the four. That's how i'm viewing it. I watched so many version of this story that I'm opting to consider the book as the original. You think is bad, how about the one with Nicky Wu as Wu Ching version. IN that on, everything was out of whack and their teacher became the villain in the end. Not to mention, they three other female constables, Fan Bing Bing as a very spoiled princess, and finally, EVERYONE dies at the end. LOL. That one was ridiculous. I gave up after that one.
I did not watch the Raymond Lam version or any of the movies, though.
For me, I'm just glad we're having a drama that is not a Gong one where everyone backstab each other for the throne, or a rom-com. Or Romance of the Condor Heroes, a favorite story of mine that got butchered in that one. I'll never get over that remake. So this one is okay for me. Plus, the eye candies, lol.
"The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation form the self." - Albert Einstein
Currently Writing: Lotus in the Wind
Dragon, Phoenix, and Flower
There was a version with Nicky Wu? Is that the one with Wallace Cheung? If it is, then I couldnt find it with eng subs, so I havent watch it. Several weeks ago, I watched the one with Peter Ho (Zhui Ming) and Nie Yuan (Wu Qing). The first part was watchable, but the second one didnt interest me so I jumped to the several last episodes. That one also focused more on romance and drama. Plus, they sometimes got too creative with Wu Qing's wheelchair, like it had the ability to be invisible .
In Raymond Lam(as Wu Qing) version, it has several cases and it started with only 1 member of the Four : Wu Qing. Later on, Tie Shou, Zhui Ming, and Leng Xiu joined the group. One of the things that got me interested is the bromance. At first, they weren't get along. The biggest problem was with Wu Qing as the leader and the smartest, but also the most arrogant. Tie Shou was the wisest and the one who tried to understand Wu Qing's antiques, Zhui Ming was the easy-going one, and Leng Xue was the most quiet but also the most emotional (who always fought with Wu Qing, then being separated by Tie Shou..LOL ). I remember the first time they ate together in one table, then it ended by Leng Xue cutting the table into two *LOL*.
I understand the feeling, it is my favourite novel as well . Yes to eye candies! That'is also my reason to watch Sword of Legend *LOL*
Thanks for the explanation .
I read somewhere, someone said that in the novel, Wu Qing is the leader, but Leng Xue is more popular among readers. Dunno whether it is correct or not. In this version btw, Leng Xue is made into the leader, while Wu Qing is the second in command.