I have a vague impression that part of their fighting style also included tearing people apart (i.e. everyone grabs a limb and pulls), but that may be some other story / characters that I'm getting them mixed up with. I guess that wouldn't translate to well to tv, esp if they want to keep it PG.
Yup, four of them grab their opponent by a limb and pull outwards, tearing them apart, while the remaining two guard against attacks against the other four. SOD '96 kept this in (with four fairies instead of six), but didn't show all the gore and blood that obviously accompanies such an act.
This marks the point at which LHC first appears in person in the novel.
The main problem is that TVB in the 80s really loved their side stories, to the point at which they start eclipsing the main plot. Pretty much everything that occurs after this episode that doesn't involve LHC is either TVB filler, or maybe something that covers a sentence or two in the novel, blown way out of proportion.
In SOD '96, they wore cloth caps, which they obviously bundled their hair under (you could often see traces of their hair around the sides of the cap ).
I think it is less distracting in HSDS because the Emei sect is not a nunnery - it had both male and female members, of which most of the leading members happened to be Buddhist nuns. Presumably they could have accepted Taoist priests too (was Miejue's senior Guhongzi Taoist, as GHZ sounds more like a Taoist name?).
The Northern Hengshan sect _was_ all-female and based in a nunnery though, and it became a major issue for LHC later on in the story.
In addition to Ling Wu Chung, Yam Ying Ying also almost seems like a side character in the story of which she's supposedly the main female protagonist. Her appearances are even spottier than Ling Wu Chung's (and that's saying something), and when she does appear, nothing much of consequence happens. I'm guessing she makes more substantive appearances later. So far, though, her appearances have been like those of Lady Yeung (the Yellow-Robed Maiden) in HSDS.
Episode 13:
Somewhat prosaic episode. The plot moved forward, but the only real highlight was Ling Wu Chung using the Dook Goo 9 Swords to defeat that group of mysterious shield-wielding assailants that had defeated the entire Mt. Hua Sect. I've never been a fan of the Dook Goo 9 Swords concept, but I must say that scene was quite badass.
I feel that the SFX people got a little overenthusiastic about it in this series, but it's not as excessive (still is, though) as I had remembered or feared. I do feel it's a bit misassigned to characters who aren't that powerful. In my opinion, the "laser SFX" in wuxia should be reserved for characters whose martial arts are within the top 1% of wulin.
I forgot to add that last night's episode was also the farewell to Luk Dai Yau, Ling Wu Chung's sixth martial brother. Kind of a shame. Minor, inconsequential character, but likable enough.
Additionally, the episode started with a confrontation between Ling Wu Chung and Tian Bak Gwong that Ling Wu tried to avoid, and ultimately did avoid by faking an injury. I just remember this scene as deja vu because Ling Wu Chung was portrayed by Chow Yun Fat and Tian Bak Gwong was portrayed by Lau Dan. The scene recalled the epic confrontation between two other characters portrayed in another TVB series by these two actors: Hui Mun Keung and Fung Ging Yiu of THE BUND! I can't help but feel that Chow and Lau felt a sense of deja vu and played it up a bit because there was a certain similarity between this scene in SPW '84 and that unforgettable scene from THE BUND.
It's kind of funny you say that... The very first scene in SPW '84 has Liu Zhengfeng bursting out of the sea, flying like a seiyan from Dragon Ball across the sea, somersaulting up a cliff, flying around some pillars, grabbing the top of a pillar and spinning around to use it to drill into the ground, diving in head-first into the resulting hole etc.
Luckily the rest of the series isn't quite as over-the-top as that, but still...
I remember the first time seeing it in 1984 and immediately thinking, "OK...this is different from DGSD, LOCH, and ROCH, and I'm not sure I like it." And I was twelve years old at the time and dazzled by STAR WARS and special effects in other movies. I just felt it was too much for a wuxia series. I didn't like THE BUDDHIST PALM for the same reason. This kind of stuff needs to be used thoughtfully, with restraint.
That's one of my complaints about the use of SFX in SPW '84. It was lavished on characters who weren't even that powerful compared to other characters in the series. In DGSD '81, LOCH '82, ROCH '83, and HSDS '86, TVB was more careful to reserve the SFX for the most powerful characters using their most powerful skills, but in SPW '84, the SFX was applied to every Tom, Dick, and Harry, making you wonder who was a scrub and who was a wulin elite.
Episode 14:
First meaningful interaction between Ling Wu Chung and Yam Ying Ying, as Doc Kwok hinted at a few days ago.
The Ngoks went to visit some historic site related to Ngok Fei. I wonder: is Ngok Fei an ancestor of theirs?
They also visited the temple of General Yeung Tsoi Hing, ancestor of Yeung Teet Sum, Yeung Hong, Yeung Gor, and Lady Yeung (Yellow-Robed Maiden). A nod to the CONDOR HEROES TRILOGY?
Dr. Ping attempts to treat Ling Wu Chung's very, very complicated series of injuries, but it seems that even he's stymied.
And on top of it, Ling Wu Chung gets poisoned by those magical cups of death. Dear Damo, will Ling Wu Chung ever be 100% well again? Doc, PLEASE tell me that LWC isn't going to get more and more damaged for the next three or four weeks of showtime.
I think you have heard enough complaints in this forum about how LHC one-shots nearly everyone whilst half-dead .
He gets progressively worse and worse until he meets Ren Woxing and accidently learns his star-absorbing technique. But that only temporarily relieves the issue and sets up a far worse problem for him in the near future. He doesn't get better until he learns the Shaolin Tendon-changing classic, at the very end of the story.