The Romance of the Condor Heroes 《神雕侠侣》 - Chen Xiao, Michelle Chen

[Kiropi]

Wow ! thanks for the link =)

[MrWErD]

the big black pearls he ate

http://baike.baidu.com/view/82531.htm

Tried it once.

Taste like vanilla + strawberries, with a hint a lavender. Mmm, tasty. Just pop it into your mouth and chew. Everyone here should try it.

[suetkei]

I guess I haven't missed out on anything. But I will check out the later episodes.

I feel like Michelle Chen is like Lawrence Ng you slightly grow used to them being the character they were casted as.

Slightly off topic but I was watching HSDS 2000 with my family and my mom was like why is ZWJ constantly hugging one girl and liking another haha.

[Yunfei]

Like every version there are pros and cons. Not going to go into the cons.

Pros
1) YG - I have to say CX is quite a good actor. He was able to portray YG's split personality very well.

2) GJ - This actor is great. Gives a strong presence at every scene he appears. He is able to portray GJ's silly, fatherly and heroic side very well.

3) HR - initially I was skeptical about her but as I watched on she improved. You can feel HR's suspicious and intelligent behavior in her.

4) LMC - She is by far the best LMC. Although her past story was made up by YZ but I liked her soft side. You can feel the sentimental side of her.

5) Story wise - it gets better as the chapter progresses. I wished YZ removed the arm chopping part but without that it would have butchered the original novel? The fight during XLN's wedding at Passionless Valley was well done. You can see YG's proud side when those Mongol warriors praised him for his great skills.

I can't wait for the part where he meets GX and celebrates her birthday. To me that was a brotherly love although GX misinterpreted it.

[Surferket]

I am turned off by the fact that XLN looks like any normal 14 yo kid in China. And you can't say she stands out from any normal 14 yo kid. I've been living in China for more than 2 years and there are plenty of schools in my area.

[vankenn]

Episode 36 and 37 is very boring. I'm starting to feel that from this point on, the movie will be really boring.....

[Malevolent]

Episode 36 and 37 is very boring. I'm starting to feel that from this point on, the movie will be really boring.....

i fast forwarded the chapters. waiting for LMC to say goodbye to XLN and i will say goodbye to this one

[MrWErD]

Yeah, I'm disappointed too.

Since the last two episodes focused so much on characters we barely care about, we'll naturally find it a bit dull, very lackluster. Small investment, little return. The next episodes may pick up again when Yang Guo goes back to Xiangyang, and after that, the epic battle with the HIS, but there's little left to look forward to any more after that.

...Well, there's still Guo Xiang's storyline, I suppose, like the Hero Meeting at Xiangyang, but at this point, my expectations for this series is quite low. I don't know if I would follow the series that far. It depends on if Yang Guo will actually mature into a man. God, he's still so hammy after losing his arm.

On a mostly unrelated note, is anyone else annoyed by the amount of internal monologues in this show? I can't believe it took me until now to notice it, but rather than showing us what each character is feeling/thinking about by their actions and some actual dialogue, they resort to internal monologues all the time. It's like they had to make everything 100% obvious, like we're too dumb to figure it out ourselves. Here's some examples, off the top of my head:

Dugu Qubai: Uh-oh, that's weird, how did they know my sword techniques so intimately?

Guo Jing: Guo-er's breathing is irregular. He must be on the verge of losing his mind. (or something)

Xiao Longnu: I can maybe steal this baby and trade her for the antidote, that way Yang Guo will be saved and Huang Rong won't need to sacrifice herself for us.

Yang Guo: Looks like Uncle Guo is about to cut off Guo Fu's arm. Should I stop him? I'm conflicted now.

It's worse they then say their internal monologues out loud as actual dialogues afterward.

Dugu Qubai: I don't know how you guys know my techniques so intimately, but...

Guo Jing: Don't worry, Guo-er, you're about to lose your mind, I'll fix you right up!

Xiao Longnu: Look, we can take this child and exchange it for the half-pill.

Which made a lot of the internal monologues obsolete. Happens all the time in the earlier episodes too. It feels so weird. Some scenes (like Guo Jing's scene with Yang Guo) may work better if all internal monologues are cut and just keep the character's thoughts a mystery.

[shrang]

Does anyone else feel the script of this version is really similar to the 1995 Louis Koo one (when we're not in a flashback)? I'm watching the XLN and ZBT interactions and I'm like "wow this is almost exactly the same as the 1995 one". Like in the novel I don't remember ZBT finding XLN in the Passionless Valley but they did it in the 1995 version and this one. In the novel, XLN saves ZBT from Golden Wheel Monk in the cave without meeting him at a restaurant beforehand, while in this one and the 1995 one, she does. If you look at the GF and YG hand-chopping scene, the dialogue is almost word-for-word in most of the places (I get they're going from the same source material). This is especially apparent when in the novel after YG slaps her, she just starts attacking him, while in this version AND the 1995 one, she says "臭小子， 从小到大没有人敢打我。 你竟敢动手打我。” This is virtually word for word in both versions. Also if you look at GJ's words after he finds out the GF cut off YG's arm, it's again, almost word-for-word, change 畜生 to 死丫头 and it's virtually the same.

Also, the post-16 year CX YG looks has similarities to the post-16 year Louis Koo YG:
yg19954xo.jpg vs ca7d6-oldyangguo.jpg


Anyone else notice this?

[wuxiarocks]

Does anyone else feel the script of this version is really similar to the 1995 Louis Koo one (when we're not in a flashback)? I'm watching the XLN and ZBT interactions and I'm like "wow this is almost exactly the same as the 1995 one". Like in the novel I don't remember ZBT finding XLN in the Passionless Valley but they did it in the 1995 version and this one. In the novel, XLN saves ZBT from Golden Wheel Monk in the cave without meeting him at a restaurant beforehand, while in this one and the 1995 one, she does. If you look at the GF and YG hand-chopping scene, the dialogue is almost word-for-word in most of the places (I get they're going from the same source material). This is especially apparent when in the novel after YG slaps her, she just starts attacking him, while in this version AND the 1995 one, she says "臭小子， 从小到大没有人敢打我。 你竟敢动手打我。” This is virtually word for word in both versions. Also if you look at GJ's words after he finds out the GF cut off YG's arm, it's again, almost word-for-word, change 畜生 to 死丫头 and it's virtually the same.

Also, the post-16 year CX YG looks has similarities to the post-16 year Louis Koo YG:
yg19954xo.jpg vs ca7d6-oldyangguo.jpg


Anyone else notice this?

Seems YZ enjoys taking after TVB adaptations of the 90s. Same with Swordsman, some scenes were heavily taken from State of Divinity 96. One has to wonder if YZ actually read the novel.

[blurry]

This ZBT is boring as hell too. Don't find him amusing at all

[ToastedRossi]

Episode 36 and 37 is very boring. I'm starting to feel that from this point on, the movie will be really boring.....

That's pretty disappointing. The story sequences from Xiangyang to the Ancient Tomb and back to the Passionless Valley is some of Jin Yong's best material. How can anyone screw it up that badly? At least it can't be as bad as the Richie Ren version.

...Well, there's still Guo Xiang's storyline, I suppose, like the Hero Meeting at Xiangyang, but at this point, my expectations for this series is quite low. I don't know if I would follow the series that far. It depends on if Yang Guo will actually mature into a man. God, he's still so hammy after losing his arm.

To date, Yang Guo has been portrayed with only half his personality, so it's not possible to smoothly transition his character. Xiaolongnu is in the same situation and so her character feels off. These characters aren't hard to portray adequately, but they're hard to portray well.

On a mostly unrelated note, is anyone else annoyed by the amount of internal monologues in this show? I can't believe it took me until now to notice it, but rather than showing us what each character is feeling/thinking about by their actions and some actual dialogue, they resort to internal monologues all the time. It's like they had to make everything 100% obvious, like we're too dumb to figure it out ourselves.

The poor use of internal dialogue is the biggest indicator that Yu Zheng doesn't have any idea how to handle the story. The other adaptations use acting, direction and other audiovisual cues to replace the internal dialogue. That's the whole point of making an adaptation, and ROCH isn't a story that needs to directly state it.

Seems YZ enjoys taking after TVB adaptations of the 90s. Same with Swordsman, some scenes were heavily taken from State of Divinity 96. One has to wonder if YZ actually read the novel.

It's possible that he never read the book before making Swordsman, but he definitely read ROCH. There's a lot of internal dialogue that the other adaptations never included.

This ZBT is boring as hell too. Don't find him amusing at all

Zhao Zhijing and Zhou Botong are the two worst characters in the show. It's a real shame because both characters can be handled much better.

[suetkei]

I'm finding it so hard to keep any interest or continue watching. There are some redeemable moments that's it.

I find it funny though Michelle is acting with Louis and Carman in the new 12 golden ducks movie (except the three of them won't be in the same scene and Louis and Carman are paying homage to ROTCH 95! LOL)

[shrang]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyEkf-9Hv4Y

Okay, based on this preview, I'm actually pretty excited for next week's episodes. The "XLN takes on everyone" scene is one I haven't seen a single adaption do well so far. From what it looks like from the preview, even with fake-looking CG, we're going to finally have an adaption that can have XLN use like 10 swords at once. Hopefully it would have the emotional aspect that was in the novel too where it looks like she's lashing out at everyone just because she doesn't know what else to do. The only one that came close was the 2006 version, which looked alright but had too many ribbons and infamously got cut halfway through the fight due to time constraints from the TV station. This is one of two sequences that I don't think ANY of the adaptions have done the novel justice (the other being the post-16 years reunion scene). If YZ can pull this one off satisfactorily, then my time watching this series would not have been wasted.

DON'T SCREW THIS UP YZ

[ToastedRossi]

I'm finding it so hard to keep any interest or continue watching. There are some redeemable moments that's it.

I find it funny though Michelle is acting with Louis and Carman in the new 12 golden ducks movie (except the three of them won't be in the same scene and Louis and Carman are paying homage to ROTCH 95! LOL)

The episode with Xiaolongnu and Zhou Botong is pretty good. Even though I don't like Zhou Botong's character in this show, his interaction with her is always a highlight of any ROCH production. I think that the sequence shows that Michelle Chen isn't as much to blame as the direction for the show's Xiaolongnu.

Interestingly, it's one of the few sections in Jin Yong's novels where the female lead is allowed to be at the forefront of the story without the male lead's presence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyEkf-9Hv4Y

Okay, based on this preview, I'm actually pretty excited for next week's episodes. The "XLN takes on everyone" scene is one I haven't seen a single adaption do well so far. From what it looks like from the preview, even with fake-looking CG, we're going to finally have an adaption that can have XLN use like 10 swords at once. Hopefully it would have the emotional aspect that was in the novel too where it looks like she's lashing out at everyone just because she doesn't know what else to do. The only one that came close was the 2006 version, which looked alright but had too many ribbons and infamously got cut halfway through the fight due to time constraints from the TV station. This is one of two sequences that I don't think ANY of the adaptions have done the novel justice (the other being the post-16 years reunion scene). If YZ can pull this one off satisfactorily, then my time watching this series would not have been wasted.

DON'T SCREW THIS UP YZ

This is the best fight scene in any of Jin Yong's writing. Unfortunately, there's no way to convey it using practical effects. It's pretty much the only fight scene where tons of CGI effects are completely justified. I have to admit that the prospects of this sequence being shot properly is one of my main motivations for watching this show as well. I did like the version in the 1983 adaptation, but I liked almost everything in that show. I only wish that Yu Zheng understood the characters and story half as well as those guys did.

[Malevolent]

It's hilarious that in episode 39 LMC and HR seemed as though they have never met each other. Guess YZ forgot that they had met each other years ago when YG was still a kid. YZ needs to pay more attention to details

[ToastedRossi]

It's hilarious that in episode 39 LMC and HR seemed as though they have never met each other. Guess YZ forgot that they had met each other years ago when YG was still a kid. YZ needs to pay more attention to details

One of the big problems with Yu Zheng making changes in the story is that those changes get ignored later in the story. The other main problem is that the changes are usually boring. Who wants to spend time away from the main story to watch things like Dugu Qiubai's love life or the Wu family's adventures? What's next, the story of how Huo Du became Jinlun's student? There's a reason why they weren't in the book, and that reason is not because Jin Yong never thought about it.

My least favorite added bit in the latest batch of episodes was that scene between Yang Guo and Guo Fu after he stole Guo Xiang. It's a scene that adds nothing to the characters, nothing to the plot, builds no tension, and is completely joyless. I have no idea why anyone would add a conversation there if they didn't intend it to accomplish anything. Compare and contrast with the added scene in the 1983 adaptation between Xiaolongnu and Li Mochou while Yang Guo fought the Wu brothers. It changes that part of the story, but it's a worthwhile change because it's interesting and well shot and adds a lot to the characters.

[shrang]

Did anyone else laugh their heads off when Huang Rong suggested that Guo Jing could XL18Z Guo Fu's butt as punishment?

[MrWErD]

Did anyone else laugh their heads off when Huang Rong suggested that Guo Jing could XL18Z Guo Fu's butt as punishment?

Now that I've think about it, how would that work? Would Guo Fu be strapped to some binding mechanism with Guo Jing standing in the background, acting out all the stances and intricate motions of the XL18Z before slapping her in the butt?

[Eastern Heretic]

Anyone remember how YG broke the sword with his finger when he fought the Wu brothers? His skills were already super high b4 he met the condor so what is the big deal if he could bend GF's sword with his sleeve? I guess HR underestimated YG's capabilities still thinking that he was some kid