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Thread: The weird circular continuity of 70s TVB Gu Long adaptations. :)

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    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    Default The weird circular continuity of 70s TVB Gu Long adaptations. :)

    I'll provisionally put this one on TVB, but for all I know, it could legit be Gu Long's fault because he wasn't exactly big on continuity and was famously inebriated much of the time.

    Anyway, I was watching Episode 19 of CHOR LAU HEUNG '79 last night, and there was a sequence when Wu Teet Fa and So Yung Yung find statues of Young Third Master Tse Hiu Fung and Yin 13 engaged in their famous duel. They also mentioned Ding Pang and the Full Moon Curved Sabre.

    OK, well, I've been watching lots of 1970s Gu Long TVB adaptations during the past several months, and this is what I've learned:

    1. In THE ROMANTIC SWORDSMAN (SENTIMENTAL SWORDSMAN, RUTHLESS SWORD), Sheun Siu Hung compared the duel between Lee Chum Foon and Gwok Sung Yeung to the duel between Chor Lau Heung and the Water Matriarch.

    2. In GOD OF SABRE (FULL MOON, CURVED SABRE), the events of YOUNG THIRD MASTER'S SWORD were only one generation earlier. Ding Pang met an older Tse Hiu Fung. Moreover, one of Ching Ching's handmaidens, Ding Heung, was the daughter of Lung Siu Wan, Jr., and learned the Lee's Flying Dagger skill from her father, indicating that YOUNG THIRD MASTER'S SWORD and FULL MOON CURVED SABRE took place within a few generations of SENTIMENTAL SWORDSMAN, RUTHLESS SWORD.

    3. In CHOR LAU HEUNG, Wu Teet Fa and So Yung Yung said that Tse Hiu Fung, Yin 13, and Ding Pang lived and wandered wulin 100 years before their own time.

    WTF?!

    Time is circular in the Gu Long Universe, but was Master Gu Long at fault or TVB?

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    In The New Adventures of Chor Lau-heung 2001, Li Xunhuan was Chu Liuxiang master 🤣

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Cheng View Post
    3. In CHOR LAU HEUNG, Wu Teet Fa and So Yung Yung said that Tse Hiu Fung, Yin 13, and Ding Pang lived and wandered wulin 100 years before their own time.
    In TVB, The New Adventures of Chor Lau-heung 1984, CLH mentioned Dugu Qiubai had lived 100 years before his time.

    This means DGQB was battling THF, Y13 & DP 👍

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    What I wonder, though, is who's to blame here: Gu Long or TVB. If this were Jin Yong, I'd blame TVB because even though Jin Yong sometimes fudged exact historical dates to fit his stories' narratives, he seldom completely contradicted his own internal continuity. Gu Long, on the other hand, notoriously didn't give a rat's behind about continuity, and even if he did, his constant inebriation would have made his ability to keep track of it all unreliable at best.

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    The availability of ebooks in this day and age make this an easy question to answer!

    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Cheng View Post
    1. In THE ROMANTIC SWORDSMAN (SENTIMENTAL SWORDSMAN, RUTHLESS SWORD), Sheun Siu Hung compared the duel between Lee Chum Foon and Gwok Sung Yeung to the duel between Chor Lau Heung and the Water Matriarch.
    This was indeed in the novel:

    幸好辮子姑娘已接著道:「昔年『水母』陰姬號稱天下第一高手,但『俠盜』楚留香的膽子卻比天還大,竟直闖神 水宮,獨鬥陰姬,兩人由地上打到水裏,再由水裏打到半空,『水母』陰姬的武功雖無敵,到最後還是被楚留香打 敗了!

    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Cheng View Post
    3. In CHOR LAU HEUNG, Wu Teet Fa and So Yung Yung said that Tse Hiu Fung, Yin 13, and Ding Pang lived and wandered wulin 100 years before their own time.
    I cannot find any references to Xie Xiaofeng or Ding Peng in any of the Chu Liuxiang novels, so this is almost certainly a TVB 'enhancement' and not Gu Long. The chronological order is therefore: Chu Liuxiang -> Romantic Swordsman -> Full Moon Curved Sabre.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Doc Kwok View Post
    The availability of ebooks in this day and age make this an easy question to answer!



    This was indeed in the novel:

    幸好辮子姑娘已接著道:「昔年『水母』陰姬號稱天下第一高手,但『俠盜』楚留香的膽子卻比天還大,竟直闖神 水宮,獨鬥陰姬,兩人由地上打到水裏,再由水裏打到半空,『水母』陰姬的武功雖無敵,到最後還是被楚留香打 敗了!



    I cannot find any references to Xie Xiaofeng or Ding Peng in any of the Chu Liuxiang novels, so this is almost certainly a TVB 'enhancement' and not Gu Long. The chronological order is therefore: Chu Liuxiang -> Romantic Swordsman -> Full Moon Curved Sabre.
    Somewhat related question, Doc: did the CHOR LAU HEUNG novel series have as strong a Japanese flavor as the 1979 adaptation? The 1979 TV series seems to be loading the narrative with as many Japanese elements as possible. I know that No Flower Monk and Beggar's Union Chief Nam Gung Ling were legit sons of a Japanese ninja, but I think the series later suggests that Chor Lau Heung himself might be half-Japanese (which would be WTF as hell).

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    Senior Member mawguy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Cheng View Post

    Time is circular in the Gu Long Universe, but was Master Gu Long at fault or TVB?
    it's both. GL was notoriously inconsistent with his timelines, which is why it's been a hellish exercise trying to establish chronology within canon, never mind within the broader context of chinese history. but TVB liked to add their own "salt and pepper" a la GL to further mess up the timeline.

    the "timeline" of the sentimental swordsman string of books is the most clear-cut, but even then, there are internal inconsistencies. how CLX and LXF fit into that timeline is more tenuous, and how CLX and LXF relate to each other gets completely messed up by the time you get to the last novel of each of the series.

    a drunkard's poetic license is the best way to handle the question of timeline.
    Last edited by mawguy; 03-26-21 at 07:32 PM. Reason: additional info
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    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mawguy View Post
    it's both. GL was notoriously inconsistent with his timelines, which is why it's been a hellish exercise trying to establish chronology within canon, never mind within the broader context of chinese history. but TVB liked to add their own "salt and pepper" a la GL to further mess up the timeline.

    the "timeline" of the sentimental swordsman string of books is the most clear-cut, but even then, there are internal inconsistencies. how CLX and LXF fit into that timeline is more tenuous, and how CLX and LXF relate to each other gets completely messed up by the time you get to the last novel of each of the series.

    a drunkard's poetic license is the best way to handle the question of timeline.
    I'll just chalk it down to the Flash screwing up time and creating a Flashpoint Paradox that affects even the Gu Long Universe.

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    Senior Member mawguy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Cheng View Post
    I'll just chalk it down to the Flash screwing up time and creating a Flashpoint Paradox that affects even the Gu Long Universe.
    probably the sanest way to look at it.
    nostalgic for wuxiasociety? http://wuxiasociety.freeforums.net/

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    The past few episodes of CHOR LAU HEUNG '79 have taken a strange, but somewhat interesting detour that follows up on Ding Pang's story from GOD OF SABRE. Though the novels draw no connection between CHOR LAU HEUNG and FULL MOON CURVED SABRE, this adaptation offers the intriguing idea that after the loss of his wife and the destruction of the "Demon" Sect, Ding Pang revived the sect in a place called "No Return Canyon." It was essentially a curved saber cult led by Ding Pang's descendants (the current cult leader in CLH '79 being a character named Ding Kei), which has trained a Curved Sabre Corps that uses a curved sabre formation (nobody nearly as skillful or powerful as Ding Pang, however).

    Not canonical, but definitely intriguing.

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