Hap Hak Hang 俠客行

[Felix]

Me neither. But, I'm a Shi Po Tian fan. So, I pay attention to all Xia Ke Xing adaptations.

Is Shi Po Tian the equivalent to Fa Mun Lau for you Kidd?

Max Mok, can I ask if he played both "brother" roles in the Taiwan version? If not, which one did he play?

[Felix]

I watched up to the part when Dong'er falls into the valley and meets the old guy. This part of the series is so similar to ROCH...did the scriptwriters copy ROCH?

They seem to already have copied HSDS86. Remember Tony dumping Sheren yet again at the wedding altar!!! Man, I was so pissed.

[wargods]

How many episodes does this have? The version I got have 13 but they're longer than 45 minutes.

The 13ep version is the VCD version that TVB released few years ago, with lots of stuff being cutted out. The original version is 20eps long.

[kidd]

Is Shi Po Tian the equivalent to Fa Mun Lau for you Kidd?

Max Mok, can I ask if he played both "brother" roles in the Taiwan version? If not, which one did he play?

I like Hua Man Lou a bit more than Shi Po Tian.

Hua Man Lou is my overall favourite wuxia character (across authors). Shi Po Tian is my favourite Jin Yong character. So, I'm a fan of both.

Max Mok played both 'brothers'. His voice was dubbed for Shi Zhong Yu while for SPT, he used his own voice together with his heavy cantonese accent. The director purposely chose him and let him keep his accent show to that SPT is uneducating and lack practice in communication. SPT's adopted mother seldom talk to him. So, he only has animals to communicate with when he was growing up. Thus his pronunciation of some words was off.

Regretably, I was unable to watch the whole Taiwan series because the person who upload the series to tudou was unable to transfer some of the episodes in the 2nd half of the series to suitable format (to be put up on tudou).

[Tom]

Finished the series.

Not a bad series overall but still lacking in some areas. It still doesn't seem as good as Jin Yong's other work but I guess this is because of TVB's butchering. Can someone comfirm about how many % TVB butchered the story?

[Suet Seung]

Finished the series.

Not a bad series overall but still lacking in some areas. It still doesn't seem as good as Jin Yong's other work but I guess this is because of TVB's butchering. Can someone comfirm about how many % TVB butchered the story?

Here's an old review written by nath. A lot of plot summarying so skim through the beginning paragraphs and then skip to the end. Though may not be clear on what's butchered. You might want to ask the Wuxia forum or watch the mainland version.

http://www.geocities.com/tvbrev/Hap_hak_hang.html

Or best yet, ASK KIDD.

[kidd]

Haha. I can't answer that. I watched this series a long time ago. I don't remember all its plot. So, can't say the exact percentage. Actually, this series took quite a lot of plots from the novel, but the plots happen to a different character. I'll list the deviation I can remember.

Sek Po Tin's encounters that has been given to Sek Chung Yuk in the series:
- being sworn brothers with Hap Hak Island 2 messengers
- gaining the poison palm
- discovering the Yuen Tit plate in the biscuit
- taking over the Everlasting Happiness Sect's leadership through a mistaken identity
- Being called 'gau jap jung'

Plots and characters created by TVB:
- Dong Yee, 5 Poison Sect female leader, Yik Ting Hang, that rapist guy who later became Sek Chung Yuk's buddy
- The whole plot about Dong Yee's family being massacred by Yik Tin Hang, them living in a hidden garden, Dong Yee being Yik Tin Hang's daughter
- Sek Po Tin's heart forming in the wrong side, so, Yik Tin Hang didn't manage to stab his heart.
- Set Po Tin being adopted by a hunter
- Dr. Bui being the little monk who learn the Hap Hak Poem last page and become super powerful and become the super villain in the series
- Tse Yin Hak died
- Sek Chung Yuk and Sek Po Tian work together to fight Dr.Bui
- The Twins' parents died
- Si Kim marrying Sek Chung Yuk, Ding Dong marrying Sek Chung Yuk (she's SCY's lover but never officially marry SCY in the novel)

Plot that are faithful to the novel:
The incidents in the Hap Hak Island
Sek Po Tian's stay in Mo Tin Cliff and Sek Po Tin become the disciple of Ah Sau's grandma

Plot that TVB modified a bit:
- Ah Sau falling down the cliff accidentally because of Sek Chung Yuk's prank. Ah Sau actually jumped down the cliff herself after been molested by Sek Chung Yuk
- The brothers being twins. The novel didn't confirm whether they are brothers or not. But all clues point to SPT being SCY's little brother who is a 1 year younger (note: different editions, the age difference are slight different. The 2 years one, I heard it from edition 1).
- The mix up in Everlasting Happiness Sect. In the series, the original scapegoat is Sek Po Tian while Sek Chung Yuk came in later. But, in the novel, the original scapegoat is Sek Chung Yuk. Only when Sek Chung Yuk go into hiding that Dr.Bui get Sek Po Tin as replacement. In the novel, the name Sek Po Tin is originally used by Sek Chung Yuk. Sek Po Tin only get this name when he became mistaken as Everlasting Happiness Sect leader. Sek Po Tin's original name is 'Gau Jap Jung'.
- How Sek Po Tin was healed of his cold/hot illness is also slightly different from the novel.

So, u see. It's hard to decide its faithfulness. This series's case is rather special. Lots of plots were taken from the novel, but the incidents happen to the wrong character. So, is this faifthful or not faithful?

[Tom]

I sort of knew inwardly that something was wrong with the characters and plot. The story just doesn't fit Jin Yong's style. The character Yik Tin Hang is semi-evil but he kills everyone for no solid reason. He goes around everywhere and attacks everyone unlike regular JY antagonists who are smart, cunning, and are not evil just for evil's sake. Shek Chongyuk having a harem of 4 wives just seem like a duplicate of WXB...way too similar