The Return of the Condor Heroes

Introduction

This is one of the many adaptions of Jin Yong's famous novel, "The Return of the Condor Heroes". This book has been recognised worldwide, and is very famous throughout the region. This serial has followed the original story quite well, with no cutting out of major scenes in the story. Overall, I enjoyed this serial quite a lot.

Main Cast
Louis Koo Tian Le as Yang Guo
Carmen Lee as Xiao Long Nu
Wei Qiu Hua as Huang Rong
Bak Biu as Guo Jing

Plot

This story talks about the son of Yang Kang, Yang Guo, and his teacher, Xiao Long Nu. Xiao Long Nu is stunningly beautiful and straightforward, as she has lived in the Gu Mu for her whole life and knows nothing about the world. Yang Guo is very smart, and easy to get along with as long as you do not offend him, and he is also a very good person at heart.

Yang Guo is found by Yang Kang's sworn brother, Guo Jing, in a city, and Guo Jing brings him to Peach Blossom Island. Huang Rong is prejudiced against him and does not teach him martial arts, as she was previously very displeased with Yang Kang. One day, after Yang Guo had a fight with the Wu brothers, Guo Jing brings him to Quanzhen sect and asks him to learn from them dilligently. But his teacher, Zhao Zhi Jing, only bullies him and gets other people from the sect to bully him as well.

One day, he escapes and accidentally stumbles into Gu Mu, where Sun Popo and Xiao Long Nu live. Sun Popo, after being seriously injured by a priest, begs XLN on her deathbed to look after Yang Guo all his life. XLN agrees and brings him back to the Gu Mu and teaches him martial arts.

One day, when they were practisng their secret manual, Zhao Zhi Jing and Yin Zhi Ping (he loves XLN) stumbled across them when they were practising at their crucial period. XLN suffers a serious injury, and Yang Guo fights them off. Yang Guo spared their lives on condition they told no 5th person about what happened that day. They promised and he let them off.

When they went back to the Gu Mu, he wakes up in the morning only to find XLN pointing a sword at him. He is startled and XLN says that since she promised Sun Popo to take care of him all his life, she has to take him with her when she dies and she thinks she is going
to die soon. Yang Guo runs out of the Gu Mu, only to meet up with Li Mochou's disciple, Lingbo, and she asks him the route to the Gu Mu. He leads her there, and tricks her, using one of the Gu Mu's traps, vanishing with XLN. Li Mochou and her disciple are trapped, and they try to escape and find a route to XLN and YG, because they want the secret manual.

Then, XLN and YG meet with them and XLN, despite her injuries, fights them off, only to be meet with fierce attacks. YG cannot bear to see his Gugu fighting for him despite being injured, thus he hugs and holds onto Li Mochou, giving them a chance to escape together. XLN asks him to put down the dragon stones, which seal the entrance and all exits of the Gu Mu forever (she has to die in the Gu Mu, she promised her teacher that. YG then does it, only to scramble in under the stone at the last minute. YG expresses that he is willing to die for her, and if she knew that earlier, she would be able to go out. Sadly, the dragon stones have already locked 4 of them inside. Then they go to the tomb chamber and coincidentally, when they lie there, XLN sees some words on the top of the tomb. She asks YG to open the tomb cover and they read the words only to discover there was a way out!

They find the trap door and reach an underground tunnel. Due to their forgetfulness to close the trapdoor, Li Mochou and her disciple found them and blocked their acupoints. Coincidentally, on the roof of the small chamber there is a small part of the Jiu Yin Zhen
Jing manual, teaching them how to unlock their acupoints. XLN then saves the day and she with her good heart, guides them out of the chamber into the bright daylight. XLN and YG live happy and content lives together in a small house next to the Gu Mu, but their happy lives are about to be changed by many twists of fate. Will they get back together in the end? Watch the drama serial. It will leave you captivated every single minute.

Cast

Koo Tian Le as Yang Guo
I thought Koo Tian Le portrayed Yang Guo's personality quite well, giving the appropriate reactions at the appropriate times. Unfortunately, he was too old for the part when he was at Peach Blossom Island, he did not portray a young child's image too well. I think they should have hired a young boy for that role. He had good chemistry with Carmen Lee, and they look quite good together.

Carmen Lee as Xiao Long Nu
She was good playing the role of XLN, she portrayed just the right coldness XLN should have although she already left the Gu Mu. She was just about good in every scene, where she shows concern for Yang Guo; not too much like some actresses, but just right. I like almost every part except for the parts when she spits blood. I mean, she just spits blood right into her hand? No, not realistic. And it's okay for one or two times but not always.

Wei Qiu Hua as Huang Rong
I watched "The Condor Heroes 2003" before this and I have to say she didn't portray it as well as I thought she would. She has quite an okay look, not very outstanding. She's just pretty average in the show although sometimes she does show some of Huang Rong's character, smart and cheeky.

Bak Biu as Guo Jing
At first I really didn't like his looks, he had such a funny face! It may suit other roles but certainly not for Guo Jing, I thought. He portrayed Guo Jing quite well, such that I changed my mind about him as an actor. He also has the serious look that Guo Jing has in him, so I guess that's pretty alright. Overall, quite a good performance.

Suet Li as Li Mochou
She didn't do a bad job, though she's not as pretty as she was supposed to be. She has average okay looks. She did the cold part and ruthless part pretty well, her eyes were quite good. Before fighting and after fighting and winning, she would flash this threatening glance at the opponent like: Who asked you to pick a fight with me? Not bad.

Liu Jia Hui as Jin Lun Fa Wang
I thought he looked a bit weird in his hairstyle, though I've never seen him act before. He did a bit of an average okay performance, not very good. His expressions are okay, but I just didn't really like him portraying JLFW. He didn't have JLFW's cruelty and bitterness that needed to be there.

Zhan Bing Xi as Ye Lu Qi
Ye Lu Qi was quite okay, although he didn't really stand out because he was not a major character. After all, I thought he was a bit stiff and trying to much to fit in with the rest of the others in the same scene. He kept looking at them and nodding after they said something. But after a few episodes, he stopped that a little and toned it down, so it became okay.

Extras

I decided that I thought the special effects when they were fighting could be better. The Yi Yang Finger was a disappointment as it looked more like some extra effects from "Star Wars". Other than some of the quite unrealistic backgrounds, the flying scenes they had in the serial were quite nice.

Conclusion

I like this serial quite a lot; though not a must-watch, it's not bad if you have time to spare and why not?