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

[Liljanger]

Thanks for the clarification Luna lucid and whatisthis. It all make sense now

[yue_yue]

Can anybody translate what Guo Fu was thinking in her mind in the last battle scene when she begged Yang Guo to save her hubby? I wasn't too sure if she was saying who she loved the most or something...

[charbydis]

Can anybody translate what Guo Fu was thinking in her mind in the last battle scene when she begged Yang Guo to save her hubby? I wasn't too sure if she was saying who she loved the most or something...

She realised that she probably never really hated YG all the time and in fact, secretly loved him and wanted his attention. If he had given her just a little more attention that she would not have acted as such. As she saw the men fight beside each other, she said that she really did not know who she loved more. But she quickly told herself off for thinking about her feelings for YG when YLQ loved her so much.

[j2j2j2]

Can someone explain the flower poison to me?

I thought if you pricked yourself, you would only be in pain for 24 hours if you thought of someone you loved. So at what point is it fatal? Is it if you prick yourself too many times?

Also, when Yang Guo was tricked into eating half a pill, the consequence was that instead of 36 days, he would only have 18 days left.

So if that's the case, when Gong Sun Lu Er's pricks herself to save Yang Guo, why would her mom tell her to eat the remaining pill if it actually speeds up the poison?

[luna_lucid]

[deleted .. sorry]

[luna_lucid]

Can someone explain the flower poison to me?

I thought if you pricked yourself, you would only be in pain for 24 hours if you thought of someone you loved. So at what point is it fatal? Is it if you prick yourself too many times?

Also, when Yang Guo was tricked into eating half a pill, the consequence was that instead of 36 days, he would only have 18 days left.

So if that's the case, when Gong Sun Lu Er's pricks herself to save Yang Guo, why would her mom tell her to eat the remaining pill if it actually speeds up the poison?

In small amount, Love Poison will only hurt you for some periode of time, but if there's so much Love Poison, then it will kill. YG's body was pricked by hundreds(thousands??) of Love Flowers' thorns, so the amount of poison in his body was huge. He would feel pain until he died. GSLE threw herself to Love Flowers bushes, so the amount of poison was about the same.

When YG ate half of the pill, the poison in his body would stop attacking and was accumulated, ready to be cured. But if he didn't eat the other half, the poison would attack again in 18 days and killed him. The same should happen to GSLE. Then again, Love Flower is a poison which is connected to the feeling. GSLE's mother thought that GSLE would not love YG anymore because he was already married, so eventhough she only ate half of the pill, the poison wouldnt harm her again. The mother didn't realize that GSLE had developed deep feeling towards YG, hence drinking half of the pill wouldn't be useful. The minute GSLE threw herself to the Love Flowers bushes, she had decided to sacrifice her life for him.

GSLE is a very poor and noble character. Too bad her death scene didn't look so special in ROCH 2014. Hers and LMC's death are very tragic : one is very noble and kind, the other is very cruel and merciles, but both died and burned together in the same place because of love.

[luna_lucid]

[deleted..sorry]

[j2j2j2]

Thanks luna_lucid!

GSLE is a very poor and noble character. Too bad her death scene didn't look so special in ROCH 2014. Hers and LMC's death are very tragic : one is very noble and kind, the other is very cruel and merciles, but both died and burned together in the same place because of love.

Yes! I was surprised by how quick that scene was. One minute she's struggling with her dad and the next she's dead I felt the other versions treated it better.

[luna_lucid]

Thanks luna_lucid!
Yes! I was surprised by how quick that scene was. One minute she's struggling with her dad and the next she's dead I felt the other versions treated it better.

You're welcome
Yeah, me too. In the novel, YG was shocked and cried for her. GSLE's death is a big regret in his life. I like the 2006 interpretation which showed the poor girl died in YG's arms.

[wuxiafan123]

I "finished" this series a while ago, and have been wanting to give my opinion on it for a long time. I'm a big fan of most of Jin Yong's series, and I have watched many of the adaptations since the TVB series in the 1980s. Admittedly, I'm still partial to most of the 80s series because even though the production values aren't great, and I just felt the acting was better, and the actors/actresses matched their roles for the most part. I still enjoy watching the newer adaptions however. You usually see better and better production values, and even though the story is the same, you can see the director's and actors interpretations of the novel. Also, to be honest, I actually liked the Swordsman. I thought that YZ's interpretation of DFBB was pretty darn interesting. Joe Chen fit the part perfectly, and I was rooting for her to win Linhu Chong's affections. Too bad YZ couldn't have deviated from the novel just a bit more. Therefore, I came into this series with some optimism that I would watch something interesting, and see YZ's take on this novel. However, when I saw that Michelle Chen was cast as XLN, I knew it was trouble.

And unfortunately, Michelle Chen simply does not fit the part. The scenes with her are just not interesting. She seems to be a "nice" girl, but just doesn't have that "star" quality that draws you in. As many of the other posters have said, XLN is supposed to be one of the most beautiful women in JY's universe. She is overshadowed in many of the scenes with other actresses. She would have been better in one of the other roles such as Lu Wushuang or Cheng Ying. I think earlier in this thread, it is mentioned that Angelababy might have originally been cast for this role, but dropped out. I agree that she would have fit the part much better. Also as others have said, the hairstyle chosen does Michelle Chen absolutely no favors. It looks horrible. However, I still strongly believe that YZ should have chosen another actress to play this critical part. It just doesn't make a lot of it believable. Personally, I would have gone with Tong Xuan who played Lin Chao Ying in this series, and was absolutely gorgeous. (Chen Xiao is a very boyish YG, however, so perhaps Tong Xuan would have been seen as too mature-looking to be paired with him.) Even Yang Rong, I think would have done a much better job, especially after she was a couple with Chen Xiao in the Swordsman.

Getting past that big misstep, it was still interesting to see a lot of the things that YZ added, such as backstories for Li Mochou, Hong Qigong, Huang Yaoshi, and so forth. However, the thing about these backstories is that they just didn't seem smooth. They tried to do things to justify other parts of the main story (such as Huang Yaoshi and his pupil), but they just didn't fit in well. I thought Chen Xiao did passably well as Yang Guo, but not great. By around half way through, I basically just started skimming the episodes for some of my favorite parts to see how they were done, but to be honest, the series just became very boring. In some of the past series, the Guo Xiang character has really stood out, but in this series, she did not seem particularly noteworthy. In general, the production values are pretty good, some of the actors are good (like Huang Rong, Guo Fu), some actors were okay (Chen Xiao, Gongsun Zhi, Qiu Qianchi), and some were just bad (Zhou Butong). The script was hit and miss. One trend with a lot of the newer series is that they like to joke around a lot, and I generally prefer more "serious" wuxia.

In the end, of the different series for ROCH that I have seen (1983, 1995, 2006, and this one), I think that this series is by far the worst. Well, strike that, I did see part of the 1984 Taiwanese series, which was absolutely horrible because the pacing was extremely slow and seemed like they would go into flashbacks every few minutes. I never could finish that series, so that one is the worst. So if that series earned an F, I would give this one a C-. (83: A-; 95, 06: solid B's. One big advantage of the 83 series is that many of same actors that were in LOCH came back for ROCH, so there was a lot of continuity there.) Hopefully YZ will either get out of the business of re-making JY novels or make a better effort next time.

[hirobo2]

I "finished" this series a while ago, and have been wanting to give my opinion on it for a long time. I'm a big fan of most of Jin Yong's series, and I have watched many of the adaptations since the TVB series in the 1980s. Admittedly, I'm still partial to most of the 80s series because even though the production values aren't great, and I just felt the acting was better, and the actors/actresses matched their roles for the most part. I still enjoy watching the newer adaptions however. You usually see better and better production values, and even though the story is the same, you can see the director's and actors interpretations of the novel. Also, to be honest, I actually liked the Swordsman. I thought that YZ's interpretation of DFBB was pretty darn interesting. Joe Chen fit the part perfectly, and I was rooting for her to win Linhu Chong's affections. Too bad YZ couldn't have deviated from the novel just a bit more. Therefore, I came into this series with some optimism that I would watch something interesting, and see YZ's take on this novel. However, when I saw that Michelle Chen was cast as XLN, I knew it was trouble.

And unfortunately, Michelle Chen simply does not fit the part. The scenes with her are just not interesting. She seems to be a "nice" girl, but just doesn't have that "star" quality that draws you in. As many of the other posters have said, XLN is supposed to be one of the most beautiful women in JY's universe. She is overshadowed in many of the scenes with other actresses. She would have been better in one of the other roles such as Lu Wushuang or Cheng Ying. I think earlier in this thread, it is mentioned that Angelababy might have originally been cast for this role, but dropped out. I agree that she would have fit the part much better. Also as others have said, the hairstyle chosen does Michelle Chen absolutely no favors. It looks horrible. However, I still strongly believe that YZ should have chosen another actress to play this critical part. It just doesn't make a lot of it believable. Personally, I would have gone with Tong Xuan who played Lin Chao Ying in this series, and was absolutely gorgeous. (Chen Xiao is a very boyish YG, however, so perhaps Tong Xuan would have been seen as too mature-looking to be paired with him.) Even Yang Rong, I think would have done a much better job, especially after she was a couple with Chen Xiao in the Swordsman.

Getting past that big misstep, it was still interesting to see a lot of the things that YZ added, such as backstories for Li Mochou, Hong Qigong, Huang Yaoshi, and so forth. However, the thing about these backstories is that they just didn't seem smooth. They tried to do things to justify other parts of the main story (such as Huang Yaoshi and his pupil), but they just didn't fit in well. I thought Chen Xiao did passably well as Yang Guo, but not great. By around half way through, I basically just started skimming the episodes for some of my favorite parts to see how they were done, but to be honest, the series just became very boring. In some of the past series, the Guo Xiang character has really stood out, but in this series, she did not seem particularly noteworthy. In general, the production values are pretty good, some of the actors are good (like Huang Rong, Guo Fu), some actors were okay (Chen Xiao, Gongsun Zhi, Qiu Qianchi), and some were just bad (Zhou Butong). The script was hit and miss. One trend with a lot of the newer series is that they like to joke around a lot, and I generally prefer more "serious" wuxia.

In the end, of the different series for ROCH that I have seen (1983, 1995, 2006, and this one), I think that this series is by far the worst. Well, strike that, I did see part of the 1984 Taiwanese series, which was absolutely horrible because the pacing was extremely slow and seemed like they would go into flashbacks every few minutes. I never could finish that series, so that one is the worst. So if that series earned an F, I would give this one a C-. (83: A-; 95, 06: solid B's. One big advantage of the 83 series is that many of same actors that were in LOCH came back for ROCH, so there was a lot of continuity there.) Hopefully YZ will either get out of the business of re-making JY novels or make a better effort next time.

I watch the clip of DFBB saying goodbye to LHC (with the song by Dong Zhen playing in the background) on Youtube almost every night. Sure, YZ may have made LHC into a "heartless animal" (wrt to the way he treated DFBB), but that don't make it one of the better JY adaptations I've seen to date. My only complaint is they photoshop-airbrushed the actors/actresses too much. It gives them a surreal appearance and also made the look ugly. I wager DFBB would have looked even more pretty without this digital filter applied to her face.

I have only seen a few episodes of ROCH 2014 (still waiting for an HD non-Youtube version)... I wager my impression of it will be the same after I've watched it entirely: It sort of sucks. The songs are not as good as the ones in Swordsman. Michelle Chen, while she is very pretty in real life (maybe even prettier than Joe Chen), she don't look good as XLN at all. The direction of the action sequences is terrible (they should get Zhang JiZhong to teach them a lesson or two). And while I could tolerate LHC and DFBB (disguised as RYY) falling tens of stories from a cliff without a scratch The-Hobbit-style in Swordsman, I absolutely can't stand the over-the-top stuff in ROCH, such as ice needles able to freeze human flesh to zero degrees Kelvin, balls of metal that uncurl into sharp poisonous needles when you fling them, XLN's ribbons must have stretched, what 200 meters to the door of the tomb when she's standing within the circle sunroof inside it, and people in ROCH's world can also hear each other's whispers [figuratively] 200 meters away (ie. LMC speaking to XLN from outside the tomb's entrance), etc. It's just astounding how much surr(or un-)realism YZ managed to cram into ROCH...

If Swordsman is a 9/10, then ROCH 2014 would be 5.0 from my impression of it so far... I only hope YZ does HSDS better and give us a Swordsman 2.0-style adaptation!

One thing I have to give YZ credit for is the CGI is extremely well done, even the part where frozen people crumble into ice cubes. It was obvious to me that they were not done by amateurs, but professionals, and a lot of time was spent making things look perfect. Only, they have a really bad boss (YZ), bad script, and bad action directors to dictate to them (ie. I can't emphasize enough the decision to heavily airbrush people's faces [which of course was not made by the CGI artists, but by big YZ mama bear himself] was a huge turn off for me in both ROCH and Swordsman and made people look unattractive in general. If the characters weren't [as] heavily airbrushed, but allowed to show their own natural beauty, Swordsman would have automatically become a 9.5 on this criteria alone, and ROCH would have been a 7.0 instantly! I'm okay with physical appearance alteration (ie. makeup) just not unnaturally/digitally done thru Photoshop. People look like zombies/aliens from another planet when you apply digital vs real makeup on them. This is the reason why I like HSDS 2009 so much. I currently rate it as the top JY adapation b/c the girls in it look so hot b/c ZJZ cheapened out in the CG department and left their faces alone)

[Malevolent]

I watch the clip of DFBB saying goodbye to LHC (with the song by Dong Zhen playing in the background) on Youtube almost every night. Sure, YZ may have made LHC into a "heartless animal" (wrt to the way he treated DFBB), but that don't make it one of the better JY adaptations I've seen to date. My only complaint is they photoshop-airbrushed the actors/actresses too much. It gives them a surreal appearance and also made the look ugly. I wager DFBB would have looked even more pretty without this digital filter applied to her face.

I have only seen a few episodes of ROCH 2014 (still waiting for an HD non-Youtube version)... I wager my impression of it will be the same after I've watched it entirely: It sort of sucks. The songs are not as good as the ones in Swordsman. Michelle Chen, while she is very pretty in real life (maybe even prettier than Joe Chen), she don't look good as XLN at all. The direction of the action sequences is terrible (they should get Zhang JiZhong to teach them a lesson or two). And while I could tolerate LHC and DFBB (disguised as RYY) falling tens of stories from a cliff without a scratch The-Hobbit-style in Swordsman, I absolutely can't stand the over-the-top stuff in ROCH, such as ice needles able to freeze human flesh to zero degrees Kelvin, balls of metal that uncurl into sharp poisonous needles when you fling them, XLN's ribbons must have stretched, what 200 meters to the door of the tomb when she's standing within the circle sunroof inside it, and people in ROCH's world can also hear each other's whispers [figuratively] 200 meters away (ie. LMC speaking to XLN from outside the tomb's entrance), etc. It's just astounding how much surr(or un-)realism YZ managed to cram into ROCH...

If Swordsman is a 9/10, then ROCH 2014 would be 5.0 from my impression of it so far... I only hope YZ does HSDS better and give us a Swordsman 2.0-style adaptation!

One thing I have to give YZ credit for is the CGI is extremely well done, even the part where frozen people crumble into ice cubes. It was obvious to me that they were not done by amateurs, but professionals, and a lot of time was spent making things look perfect. Only, they have a really bad boss (YZ), bad script, and bad action directors to dictate to them (ie. I can't emphasize enough the decision to heavily airbrush people's faces [which of course was not made by the CGI artists, but by big YZ mama bear himself] was a huge turn off for me in both ROCH and Swordsman and made people look unattractive in general. If the characters weren't [as] heavily airbrushed, but allowed to show their own natural beauty, Swordsman would have automatically become a 9.5 on this criteria alone, and ROCH would have been a 7.0 instantly! I'm okay with physical appearance alteration (ie. makeup) just not unnaturally/digitally done thru Photoshop. People look like zombies/aliens from another planet when you apply digital vs real makeup on them. This is the reason why I like HSDS 2009 so much. I currently rate it as the top JY adapation b/c the girls in it look so hot b/c ZJZ cheapened out in the CG department and left their faces alone)

It's funny that up till now you have only seen a few episodes but yet you keep complaining. Instead of wasting your time here b*itching i suggest you go and do something more productive

[hirobo2]

It's funny that up till now you have only seen a few episodes but yet you keep complaining. Instead of wasting your time here b*itching i suggest you go and do something more productive

How is it funny? I simply refuse to watch it entirely in low quality (ie. YT vids).

[Springer]

Well i have finished this one. Overall it was good. Not even going to compare it with swordsman because it swordsman was a poor story. ROCH would have been better if it had much longer fighting scenes.

[dragonking1994]

There was suppose to be more fight scenes but, they were cut out from the series for some reason. For example, if you seen the 21 minutes trailer then, there was a sparring seen with Huang Yaoshi and 30 years old Yang Guo but, it was cut out in the series. I'm still disappointed in that.

[hirobo2]

All of you talk about the '83, '95, '06 versions, yet I wonder how many have watched the anime (1st season animated by Japanese studio):

http://anime.thehylia.com/downloads/...he-condor-hero

IMHO, it's currently hands down the best ROCH adaptation b/c they have a pink XLN. Sure, XLN in RoCH 2014 sometimes wears pink, but not full blown pink. Of course no1 can beat Idy Chan's portrayal of XLN, but the anime sure comes close...

[luna_lucid]

In the end, of the different series for ROCH that I have seen (1983, 1995, 2006, and this one), I think that this series is by far the worst. Well, strike that, I did see part of the 1984 Taiwanese series, which was absolutely horrible because the pacing was extremely slow and seemed like they would go into flashbacks every few minutes. I never could finish that series, so that one is the worst. So if that series earned an F, I would give this one a C-. (83: A-; 95, 06: solid B's. One big advantage of the 83 series is that many of same actors that were in LOCH came back for ROCH, so there was a lot of continuity there.) Hopefully YZ will either get out of the business of re-making JY novels or make a better effort next time.

So agree with this one. And I also give the same points for those versions.

[krabs]

Another fan from a local forum said the show will be airing in Singapore on April29.

Expect the blood and gore scenes to be edited away.

[Shakespeare]

陈晓主演玄幻网游《圣王》微电影-Chen Xiao Holy King Movie


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[hirobo2]

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What's up this this image? For a moment there, I thought I was watching Zhang Wuji from HSDS '09, which btw is my current top-rated wuxia. This movie looks to be of a better (more interesting) tone than anything CX has ever done recently...

Anyways, a little off topic. After the so-called "disaster" that is ROCH 2014, I went ahead and ventured into Japanese TV dramas (English subbed) such as Akumu-Chan and Date: Koi to Wa Donna Mono Kashira. Before this, I had only seen Hana Yori Dango and maybe one or two other J-Dramas, which lead me to believe Jin Yong wuxia adaptations >>>>> J-Drama > J-anime.

But now, I'm seeing a different picture: J-TV Dramas (a lot of them) >>> Jin Yong wuxia adaptations >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The Top Rated Anime you have on your list.

The "new light" I'm seeing is that Jin Yong's work mostly plays to our fantasies for escapism purposes. For guys, it's the fantasy of becoming an all-powerful "in charge" guy/ruler/top fighter with hundreds of underlings working beneath/for you and with a harem of young attractive women to choose from. Just look to LHC, Zhang Wuji. They fit this fantastical stereotype exactly, which IMHO is a rather superficial form of escapism. JY wrote those stories mostly to entertain, afterall.

Meanwhile, while J-Dramas such as those aforementioned (Akumu-Chan, Date, etc.), while they were made mostly to entertain, explore much deeper meanings about life (or teach you more valuable life lessons, such as, be true to yourself, never give up on your ideal no matter what anyone else says, never wear fake smiles/emotionally pretend to be something you're not on the inside, etc.) than the superficial stuff we see in JY adaptations. (Btw, not joining a cult even if someone threatens your life doesn't belong in the same category as not giving up on your ideal. So what if I register my name at a gym. I don't necessarily have to show up during my membership... You get the idea. And LHC, Zhang Wuji, I'm looking at both of you).

If I was raising a child, I would want my child to spend more time watching Akumu-Chan or Date than have them view JY wuxia dramas.

In short, I believe JY adaptations are mere harem TV dramas to boost the male (and possibly) female viewer's ego, while their J-drama counterparts are so much more. Guys watch JY dramas to envision themselves as the next thing closest to God (superior martial arts skill achieved at a young age (relative), engaged to the most beautiful woman in that fantasy world, becoming an all-powerful leader of a cult, establishing themself as the most important figure in influencing human history, etc.) This is what I mean by most JY adaptations being superficial. There are no life lessons to be learned, only how to feed our starving tiny egos thru audiovisual entertainment. Most J-Dramas aren't like that. If I could generalize ALL J-Dramas, it would be "themes about how to remain emotionally balanced and healthy getting thru life packaged in an entertaining form". So, I'm wondering if anyone else sees the same thing I've been seeing (figuratively) recently?

(And TY YZ for pushing me away from the wuxia genre with your horrible new ROCH. I would never have discovered an entirely new more meaningful world of entertainment without your horrid, non-sensical re-interpretation of a classic!)