The Legend of the Condor Heroes Episode 42

The best Mei Chaofeng to date

There are a lot of things about this version that are not to my liking. I gave it a 7 because, despite of this, there's a few that I really do like that I might come back and watch only these few things.Let's start with I like.Firstly, believe it or not but Mei Chaofeng is one of my favorite characters in LOCH and wuxia in general. Now I'm reading the second book in LOCH "A Bone Undone". I'd already liked her before I started reading the book and now I like her even more. She's powerful, deadly, terrifying, but at the same time pitiful. Her loyalty to her shifu is unmatched. Her presence is intimidating and impressive at the same time. She's such an unwavering female martial artist that I seldom see in wuxia dramas. Most dramas that I have watched (LOCH 83, 94, 2003, 2008, and 2017) depict her as a sadistic and brutal martial artist but the book actually illustrates her quite differently. First of all she never had intention to steal the Nine Yin Manual. It's Chen Xuanfeng, Mei's martial brother who instigated the idea. He talked her into it. I hope someday they will make a longer version of LOCH where Mei Chaofeng is presented in a more humane character rather than simply an evil martial artist with no feeling. Mei definitely deserves it.Anyway, LOCH 2003 has best Mei Chaofeng ever! I was always looking forward to her scene when I was watching the drama. I just loved her presence. I think Liping embodies Mei Chaofeng so mesmerizingly. She makes Nine Yin White Bone Claw look beautiful and deadly at the same time. The music accompanying her presence creates such an eerie ambiance. Something that I never feel with other versions of Mei Chaofeng. I really adore Liping's Mei Chaofeng. The best Mei Chaofeng to date hands down!I also like Zhou Xun and Jiang Angel. They play Huang Rong and Mu Nianci respectively and they did it well. Jiang Angel's is my favorite Mu Nianci along with Sharon Yeung's. What I don't like:The actors cast here are not up to the standard that I expect for my most favorite wuxia drama. First of all, Li Yapeng is just not suitable as Guo Jing. He's really great as Linghu Chong but not as Guo Jing unfortunately. His looks too old to play Guo Jing. Guo Jing is 18 years old when he starts his adventure in jianghu and Li Yapeng certainly doesn't look like an 18-year-old young guy. Another favorite character of mine, Huang Yaoshi is played by an actor who looks so old and thin. He didn't manage to bring the charisma and mysteriousness of Huang Yaoshi. In short, I don't like the choice of actors who played male characters in this version. Really bad choice in my opinion.The production is average if not bad. The costume is terrible. It's as if they were too lazy to think what to put on the actors. The tone is too sombre. I read that producer who produced the drama had previously produced "Laughing In the Wind". which is dark in tone. It worked well because the theme is darker and sinister in comparison to LOCH. But sombre tone doesn't work with LOCH because there are funny scenes that don't go with sombre tone.In short, LOCH 2003 is not my top tier LOCH adaptation. I would watch it again for Yang Liping's Mei Chaofeng alone.

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