Book and Sword 02

[hinako442003]

I'm probably talking to myself here... but I might as well try :P

Does anyone have the themesongs/background music from this series? I found the soundtrack on yesasia but it's out of stock.

[leorio]

(leorio likes bumping up threads)

The series was aired on local TV a few years back, not all the way to the end, sadly. I'm a Vincent fan, and I've always liked Esther as an actress, which was why I got interested in the series in the first place.

Yesterday I watched the last few episodes. They're the English dub version, so a lot of parts are discarded. The upside is, of course, the story doesn't drag.

Vincent is pretty good as Chen Jialuo, if not too expressive. Esther is perfect as Huo Qingtong. Rachel...is just foreign-looking, not pretty enough. Ray Lui is still a good actor.

Who did the English dub, btw? Does anyone know? A Singaporean production house, maybe?

[leorio]

Me again.

Last time I watched the abridged, English-subbed version. A few days ago I acquired the complete series. Or at least I think it's complete. It has 44 episodes, whereas Wiki says the series is 46 episodes long. I've watched it up to episode 16 and Esther's Huo Qingtong is even more awesome than I expected.

Betty Sun is surprisingly tall. I love that. (She looks about average in Painted Skin) She also has great chemistry with Tse Kwan Ho.

The character I constantly look forward to seeing is Guo Liang's Zhang Zhaozhong, who often seems more capable than all the Red Flower folks put together. Despite the fact that, physically, he doesn't resemble my mental image of the character at all.

Zhou Qi is too...exaggerated. I really liked reading about her in the novel and in this series she just made me go, "oh, shut up, kid." Maybe she'll mellow down after she and Xu Tianhong become an item?

Plot is drawn out, which highlights the holes in it, and the incompetence of the Red Flower band. I'd really like to watch the 2009 version - I enjoyed the changes I've seen so far - but I got the feeling I'll still love the 2002 characters more. Except for Qianlong, naturally.

[Lady Zhuge]

Betty Sun is surprisingly tall. I love that. (She looks about average in Painted Skin) She also has great chemistry with Tse Kwan Ho.

You've mixed up the two Sun Lis. The 孙俪 in Painted Skin is not the 孙莉 who plays Li Yuan Zhi in Book and Sword 2002.

[leorio]

You've mixed up the two Sun Lis. The 孙俪 in Painted Skin is not the 孙莉 who plays Li Yuan Zhi in Book and Sword 2002.

Really? My bad then. Both ladies have the "handsome girl" look about them.

[leorio]

I'm at the part where our intrepid heroes are channeling Indiana Jones and poking around in the desert. I've been fast-forwarding a lot, and only stop mostly when I spot Huo Qingtong (great wardrobe, solid acting, and feathers that stay stubbornly jaunty on her head), Zhang Zhaozhong (wispy goatee and all), and to see how the Yu Yutong/Li Yuanzhi mess will end. I mean, I know how it'll end, I just want to watch it myself.

(And now, for a sentence that doesn't start with the first-person singular pronoun) Rachel Ngan's Keshili is a little less annoying than in the novel - smarter and more alert. If she were playing another, more independent character, I might like Rachel more.

Also, this series tries a little too hard in ending each episode with a cliffhanger.