This review may contain spoilers
Story: Ling Hu Chong (played by Wallace) is a carefree and honourable man. He was the eldest disciple of the Hua Mt Sect and a favourite amongst his juniors and teacher. However, Ling Hu Chong's teacher is an ambitous man with ulterior motives masquerading as a virtous person. As Ling Hu Chong ventures through wulin (the martial arts world), his easy and honest personality garnered him many friends from the 5 mountain sects and the Sun Moon Holy Cult. Eventually, his teacher turned Ling Hu Chong into a scapegoat for all of his evil deeds, including heaping blame of the murder of one of his student on Ling Hu Chong. Lin Hu Chong got kicked out of the Mt Hua Sect. That is when his true adventures begin. The love story in this 2013 version has a good ending, unlike the original story from the novel where all the women Ling Hu Chong loves dies and he is left alone as a wanderer. The most notable change in the storyline comes in the form of Dongfang Bu Bai (played by Joe Chen). In the original story, Dongfang Bu Bai is a man who became the powerful leader of the Sun Moon Holy Sect. He mastered the Kuai Fa Manual. However, in order to master this manual, which is very "Ying" (feminine) in nature, he must castrate himself. The more he learned from the manual, the more feminine he became. Eventually, he regarded himself as a woman and developed romantic feelings for Ling Hu Chong. It was this hint of homosexuality that did not sit well with audiences of the previous versions and readers of the novel. Therefore, in this 2013 version, Dongfang Bu Bai has a new story - one that begins with Dongfang Bu Bai being an actual woman, but in order to succeed in the wulin and not to be bullied ever again, she lives her life as a man. When she meet Ling Hu Chong, she developed feelings for him, but Ling Hu Chong is conflicted as Dongfang Bu Bai is a cold hearted killer. How could an honourable man loves a monster??? Watch and find out.Acting/Cast: The chemistry between Wallace's Ling Hu Chong and Joe's Dongfang Bu Bai is siiizzzzzling! This is the only version so far when most ppl who had watched it wanted Ling Hu Chong to end up with Dongfang Bu Bai! It is because of this that I give the acting 9/10. It is 1 mark away from perfect because the chemistry between Ling Hu Chong and Ren Ying Ying is neutral at best and yet, it is Ying Ying that Ling Hu Chong ended up marrying at the end. Imagine the frustration of fans of Wallace-Joe! LOL (btw, I do not consider this a spoiler as it is widely known knowledge amongst fans of wuxia series and readers of Louis Cha's novels. There are many versions of this story made in the past. Me thinks the 1996 version is the closest to the novel).
Music: I love the opening OST, "Carefree". Am listening to it as I am writing this review. :)
Rewatch value: It is 42 episodes if you watch from the DVD version and 56 episodes from the tv version. I might re-watch this a few years later when I have the time. I am quite impartial to Swordsman aka The Smiling,Proud Wanderer. I still think that the best novel of Loius Cha comes in the form of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils and the Condor Heroes Trilogy. I am waiting with abaited breath now for the 2013 version of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. Rumour has it that it is due to be released mid this year. Fingers crossed!
Overall: It was entertaining while it lasted. I love the scenes between Wallace and Joe... they are the best features of this drama. Joe Cheng makes the most beautiful and coldly powerful Dongfang Bu Bai ever! The other parts are passable. I give this an 8/10. Not bad but not the best wuxia around.
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Story: I really enjoyed the story of Ling Hu Chong and his adventures. Even though, there were some parts I was really annoyed with him. The audience could see the truth, but he can't so that ironic. Overall, I thought the story was fresh and well done. I need to watch the other versions and do a compare and contrast though. I feel that Dong Fung Bai deserved more then she was getting. Watch it then you will know what I mean.
Acting: I like the main leads acting and I didn't really pay attention to the others, but they did a good job.
Music: Loved the theme song.
Rewatch Value: I will watch it again, but not a few years because it better to watch it few years later then right away. Especially since it 42 episodes.
Overall: I loved Joe Chen and Wallace Huo chemistry. I didn't like him and the other girl.
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The first 30 or so episodes of the drama were highly enjoyable even if I was constantly irked, annoyed, feeling sudden spurts of anger, and frustrated by the actions taken by the characters. But I still had hope that all the nonsense would end. Oh, useless hope...
I love Huo Wallace and feel he's a great actor. He did indeed act well in this drama, but I ended up hating his character in this soooo much. It made no sense that if he was the swordsman, he had no great show downs which ignited my excitement. And he was kind of the village idiot, if you know what I mean. I also came to think he was a player or a hippy. It seems he had a love all philosophy and he practiced it so much, I had no idea who he really loved.
Even if I felt it had been a waste of my time by the time I had reached episode 42, the drama did have wonderful costumes, music, and Huo Wallace. And overall, the acting was decent. If not, you can bet your life savings I would have dropped it.
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And yes i enjoyed every episode, And i also agreed that this drama's are well kept within track. I loved it how the romance are intertwined. Some drama were so cliche it made u feel "ah... i know she's gonna end up w him..and him w her.. and that guy with that lady.. But to me, while watching it, it kept me in my seat and i cant really predict who he'll ends up with and who he really loved. (hehehe...) so just watch.
To those who love martial arts, please do watch, the swordsmanship are quite interesting.
I just have 1 complaint tho.. what you call that effect? CG? yah what ever u call it, i wish they can make it better. Of course we all know its CG (fake), its just that i must voice my disappointment. Other than that. im fine.
Ok. That's all. Thanks for reading my review. Peace
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I highly recommend this version if you can look past the horrible GC. Other than that definitely a 10/10 for me.
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This review may contain spoilers
Change my mind: best historical wuxia film made
Am reviewing this after I binge watched this in 5 days(rewatch).I first watched this tv series several years ago, around 2014-2015; I started binge rewatching the tv series to remind myself of what the story was like again.
Cast: The cast couldn't have been any better...
Music: The music has minimal singing in it, asides the opening and ending music, the rest of the film has extremely good non-diegetic music. The main song, The Smiling, Proud Wanderer is a perfect song the film used.
Story: The story is naturally the best as it is based on The Smiling, Proud Wanderer written by Jin Yong; this obviously deserves praise. Perfect wuxia novel to base the series off from.
*unfinished...*
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This review may contain spoilers
A brief background: In the original novel, Dong Fang Bu Bai (DFBB) occupies only a chapter but is referred to often and instrumental to the plot and have no romance to Linghu Chong (LHC). LHC ends up with Ren YingYing (RYY) and they both retired from Jianghu. In HK movie, Swordsman II, which is a loose adaptation of the original, DFBB has some romantic relationship to LHC and is a fan favourite. Original DFBB is a man turn to woman after learning the special martial arts. I am not a purist and as long as any adaptation is good, it would be rated highly by me. Spoiler AHEAD: In this adaptation, one of the strength is setting up DFBB as a love interest of LHC and their chemistry can be considered good. But that is also the downfall.
In here, DFBB is a woman, cross-dress as man for survivality purpose. No castration needed to learn special martial arts. Early on the series, LHC and DFBB met and develop friendship, DFBB also saved LHC a few times and he seems to return her feelings. Fan of this pairing would be happy. However halfway thru, DFBB fell off the map due to some stupid misunderstanding (which also made no sense, as DFBB have asked LHC “why didn’t you ask me why I kill those people?” and LHC who is supposed to be smart, open minded and himself accused often somehow cannot extend the same curtesy to her and listen). After DFBB “disappear” then RYY shows up and their chemistry is rather weak, lack the kind of setup of friendship/relationship DFBB and LHC has in earlier episode but she is suddenly the most important woman to him. Quite unnatural. It seems the director wanted to pair up LHC/DFBB and that involves huge modification to rest of novel but halfway thru the series decided to take the easy way out and change his mind back to RYY. Unfortunately, that resulted in poor development of the RYY character and an unnatural romance. To summarize, it sets up DFBB to be main love interest (gave some original RYY scenes to her) and then disappoint fan of that pairing and gave a different and weak pairing instead. Definitely feel cheated. Also, I personally hate the ending.
Another problem here is pacing. Every time it shows the friends made up of unorthodox group, it’s super boring and you are left wondering the purpose of those boring scenes. It does eventually answer why they are there and their functions but it sure is a long winded to finally get there. So much of those can be compressed. Even a ton of useless conversation before a simple fight. Very draggy.
Yet another problem is two of the major enemies almost killed LHC and he had to be saved by somebody else. So much for being one of the greatest swordsman alive. Couldn’t he fully disarmed his “dangerous” opponents before letting his guard down? Such careless and dumb hero. It’s a weak way to advance the plot.
The actions scene are alright with me. Overall I don’t recommend it unless to see DFBB by Joe Chen which is a delight. I did not know Joe Chen prior to this series but definitely enjoy her performance as DFBB.
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