The Legend of the Condor Heroes

This looks like the first Condor Heroes series that TVB made. There have been other versions since then, but so far, this is the best one from what I have heard, as I have not watched the other versions.

Many would be familiar with the story of the Legend of the Condor Heroes, on how a simple young man travelled around with the girl he fell in love with, and how he became a reputable martial artist with powerful fighting skills and managed to gain his place in the pugilistic world, and how he honoured his promise to his sworn brother and enemy and took care of his son after he died.

Felix Wong played a remarkable role as Guo Jing, the naive and simple minded young man. He really made me believe that Guo Jing is that simple and naive from the things he did and said. Despite that, there is a good conflict of emotions, on being true to his Han Chinese heritage, yet at the same time unwilling to kill the Mongol leader as he was brought up there and grew up with the Mongol tribe.

Barbara Yung also had a fantastic role as Huang Rong. This role seemed made for her, as Huang Rong was shown here as a mischevious teenager who likes to play tricks and rebellious towards her father. Yet her love for Guo Jing is unwavering, and she helped and supported him along the way, even defying her father's wishes just to be with him and married him in the end.

The rest of the cast played good supporting cast. Michael Miu as Yang Kang also gave the sense of a baddie who was not bad by nature, but just ambitious and unscrupulous. Incidentally, Michael looks really dashing in this show. He loved his wife Nianci deeply too, and she, despite hating him for betraying his real parents, still ended up marrying him and supporting him all the way.

Kudos should be given to Yang Kang's mother Bao Xirou, played by veteran actress Louise Lee. She thought her husband died, hence accepted the affections of the Jin prince Wanyan Honglie (Lau Kong), yet she never got over her husband. She never married Wanyan Honglie, although her son Yang Kang was later brought up as a spoilt Jin prince and took Honglie as his father. Louise Lee had an emotional turn as Bao Xirou, who mourned her husband's death througout her life, yet when she met him again, she was so overwhelmed by emotion that she went back to him, and they both died together.

The martial arts are good, and the storyline is good too, considering this is adapted from one of the greatest writers of all time. I believe the plot follows the story rather closely with not much deviation. Somehow TVB does not make this kind of shows anymore!

All in all, it is a great show, and one of the best classics of all time! Felix Wong, Michael Miu and Barbara Yung went on to become very popular artistes, although too bad that Barbara died early. Now years later, I still like to see Felix Wong and Michael Miu together, they have only looked better with age and not the other way!