PeachBlossomGoddess

Oh I vaguely remember watching this a quite a few years ago with my dad. He was already watching it when I got home so I think I missed the beginning. It is a very good, Shaolin mystery wuxia, excellent fight scenes. My dad is the real wuxia buff, I bet he has read Heroes as well but he is kind of deaf now its hard to ask him about it over the phone.

I like Ariel Lin but she was not Huang Rong the way the character was written. Too sweet. Huang Rong is a wicked, wicked girl with a serious dark side that only Barbara Yung knew how to bring out. Li Yitong was is very pretty but has zero screen presence.

And for singing too. Like everyone goes nuts about LYN and all these Mando-pop singers and I am like yawn, who cares? They only have 5 tones and the fifth tone is neutral or blank. They all sound so girlie or so similar you can't really tell one from the other even if their voices are pretty good. Canto pop is so much better even the mainlanders go wild over it - if you go to a Jackie Cheung concert in China you will understand what I mean immediately. There is a reason I never comment about OSTs for Chinese dramas. After awhile they all sound the same to me and I am fluent in Mandarin.

I think Su Mengzhen is more intelligent than either brother and he has been onto Bai Choufei many episodes ago. If he gets in trouble it is either bc his health fails or he gets caught between Lei Chun and her dad. I don't like Bai Choufei anymore but I also think he is too transparent and predictable to be Su Mengzhen's downfall. It is more likely the girl.

Lol... yes they are both fantastic characters. I did love Yeung Hong and Muk Nim-chi as a couple even though I think she is not that interesting a character. But the absolute worst, most irritating character in the whole story is Wa Zhang.

There a few main characters in the story, not just the ML. And the FL is not dumb or a damsel in distress but she is not as important as several other characters.

Oh no... its usually the kiss of death. But at least they didn't drop all episodes so maybe not.

I think he would have gone bad irrespective of the girl. The warning signs are already there. He is not a righteous character, he is motivated by glory and ambition. The fact he killed Guan Qi who was already helpless like that for the recognition even though a child could have done it tells you everything you need to know about this character. He doesn't care how he gets merit as long as he does.

Yups... there were already a few small turning points but I guess the girl is the major one.

Tonight's episodes were kind of flat.

Oh they are much much better than that and less dependent on CGI but of course still not as good as some of the classic wuxias. This is a proper wuxia, WRTW is just kind of a martial arts drama mixed with all kinds of other stuff.

😂😂😂 The pigs ate a bunch of them.

I don't think its Qing Zhu but how can he be sure the people she trusts can be trusted.

Yes... this kind of reminds me of it. Less violent of course.

Well the written language is the same but Cantonese people will use more ancient phraseology and archaic words bc it is an ancient language. It is not a Chinese dialect but recognized as a language in its own right for that and many other reasons. The spoken dialect is quite different, Cantonese has many more tones than Mandarin which makes it much harder for Mandarin speakers to learn. I speak both but Cantonese is native for me. Jin Yong or Gum Yoong as he is known in HK is also Cantonese and his character names sound a lot better in Cantonese. Your favorite Mei Chaofeng would be Mui Ciufung to me and how Gum Yoong intended it. All of the names sound a lot more intense in Cantonese.

I think all of the TVB versions of Jin Yong's novels are the best. The 1997 version is probably the best but the 1982 one is also by TVB and not bad either. You can tell if its a Cantonese version if the main leads are called Kiu Fung and Duen Yu and not Qiao Feng and Duan Yu. The only sad thing is the old TVB versions are so hard to watch now bc they are so dated but the Cantonese actors do a lot better job in capturing the essence of the characters as written by the writer. The only actress that ever properly captured LOCH's Wong Yung or Haung Rong (yuck it sounds so awful in Mandarin no writer in their right mind would use a name like that) is Barbara Yung in the 1983 version. I will offend lots of people by saying this but every other actress since has failed miserably in playing this role, they just never even touched on the spirit of the character or its complexity.

I didn't watch Reincarnated but I am pretty sure it was in Cantonese.

Yeah I was ok with it up to the point bc Guan Qi was injured so maybe he is less deadly but the bread knife is too much. As evil as he was he deserved a better downfall. And then to be pretty much killed by the equivalent of being stabbed in the back.... smh....

Is this your lowest score? Am watching her pout her way through heroes and my eyes are going to start bleeding soon.

I love that too. Canto is a way better language for cussing. In Mandarin it just sounds too nice.

That is the thing with Jin Yong, he writes the best villains and makes you empathize with them. I also really liked Mei Chaofeng - she just went down the wrong path bc she wanted to elope with her love.

I did notice the entire LOCH series translated at a bookstore awhile ago. All of Jin Yong's works deserve to be translated. I love LOCH but I have a tiny preference for Demi Gods-Semi Devils. I have a hard time watching the recent adaptations of any of his works. They were written in Cantonese and all of the names and best dialogues just sound wrong in Mandarin.

Yeah I gave up on reading long wuxias years ago bc it takes too much time and it seems this writer doesn't have great short representative novels. I don't know if watching a drama or movie answers the question since as you point out, it could be just an adaptation issue but I did see a few critics refer to how his signature moves are not distinct or signature in the same vein as Jin Yong and Gu Long thus he is not considered at their level. There are other reasons also - apparently he loves these long extended stories but the plot lines get very wild and messy as a result. In any case while I agree the fight scenes are not like the good old days, its not too shabby so far and the plot so far is keeping me very invested.