If you love wuxia dramas and saw that picture above without any context, chances are you’d be screaming and running around like a headless chicken, much like I did for a good 2 minutes. Since I’m a Louis Cha wuxia fangirl, anytime his novels gets yet another drama adaptation I’m all over it like cat on cream. Even if the producer turns out to be the maestro of crazy Yu Zheng doing The Swordsman, or even the craptastic team behind The Magic Blade planning to drag Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils through the ringer. I reported last month saying Wallace Huo was signed on to play Qiao Feng with Korean idol-turned-actor Kim Ki Bum playing Duan Yu for that upcoming DGSD adaptation. Both casting choices left me meh, so chancing upon a still of Hu Ge and Liu Shi Shi looking gorgeous in period wuxia garb with the title Tian Long Ba Bu (Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils) written on the picture made me screech “OMFG, is Tangren making a DGSD adaptation, too!” Turns out I was bamboozled, because Tangren merely loaned out its cash cows Hu Ge and Shi Shi to film for the upcoming DGSD RPG video game. Tangren also did this back when Bu Bu Jing Xin was released, sending Nicky Wu, Hu Ge, and Shi Shi to film for the video game of Duke of Mount Deer.
I have no problems with Tangren actors doing video game filming, especially since many of its dramas such as the most recent Xuan Yuan Sword are adapted from video games. What annoyed me was getting my hopes up that Tangren would do another Louis Cha novel. I actually really loved its version of Legend of the Condor Heroes, despite a good 40% of the novel getting completely switched up in that version which would make novel purists spit up blood. I loved the chemistry of the two sets of OTP and found the attempt to revamp both Yang Kang and Ouyang Ke strangely workable. Hu Ge is playing Duan Yu for this video game, and of course Shi Shi is Wang Yu Yan. But if I were to cast them for a genuine DGSD remake, both are too old for those characters who are really quite boring anyway. I’d have He Ge play Qiao Feng and Shi Shi play both Ah Zhu and Zhong Ling. Doomed, I know, so perhaps my GeShi onscreen shipping heart ought to just let them play bland and blander who actually get a happy ending. Or better yet, Tangren should just go ahead and remake Return of the Condor Heroes before Shi Shi gets too old to play Xiaolongnu. Check out the pretty stills and BTS video of GeShi filming for DGSD.
BTS of Shi Shi and Hu Ge filming for Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils RPG game:
Pardon me but I have to disagree about Hu Ge playing Qiao Feng. Shi Shi maybe can play Ah Zhu but Hu Ge I feel is much too boyish for the role of tragic hero Qiao Feng. In the novel, when Qiao Feng comes out he is already a top pugilist and the leader of the beggar sect. Qiao Feng I feel should be played by someone older and more matured. I love He Ge but he is more Shao Xia than Da Xia.
I second that! I don’t even think Hu Ge fits DGSD. He’s not gruff enough for Qiao Feng, a little too old for Duan Yu & I don’t want to imagine him bald. If there was a Louis Cha role tailor made for him, it’d be Ling Hu Cong of Xiao Ao. (Y)
Wuxia fangirl here!
I don’t know who he is, but I know her.
The fact that I haven’t seen any of them but BBJX makes me very happy because that means hours and days and weeks and months of viewing ahead of me…:)
(I barrelled through to Ep 29 (I think?) of BBJX, and finally decided that
14!! I love 14 the most!!! I need to see everything else Lin Geng Xin is in becauase I want to marry him. <3 )
Nonononono!!!! BBJX is NOT a wuxia drama. It is a period drama, with a tiny bit of fantasy in the time travel element.
Wuxia novels/dramas are an entirely different beast. Wuxia has a dense mythology and entire ecosystems that are constructed upon Chinese history and folklore.
I would compare it to BBJX is like a BBC period piece on Henry the 8th. If there was a wuxia based on the same time period and historical figures, it’d be more like The Tudors.
Wuxia is a sub-genre of period dramas that has its own elements that are hard to fully describe but you’ll know it when you see it.
Someone described it once to me: Wuxia is to men as Regency romance novels are to women.
Ok I actually understand those examples!
Do they focus on romance, or chess-like plotting or both?
If they are shows with beautiful people in gorgeous costumes, sweeping storylines, pretty music and heart swelling moments, I will like them, too.
Hahahaha, I knew you would get those comparisons. Anyways, yes, wuxia is period and some have gorgeous costumes and awesome stories while others are complete garbage (like a bad harlequin). Some take great wuxia novels and butcher the drama adaptation, so its akin to Michael Bay doing Pride and Prejudice. Tread carefully is all I can say.
Wuxia focuses primarily on the male code of honor – chivalry and the pursuit of power and eternal glory. Plus the makjangy elements get tossed in too. It’s pretty awesome. If I did a cliff notes of DGSD, you’d be pretty wowed.
understandable
i love 14 too… too bad LGX is quite a newbie so there’s not much of his drama around
i used to be a fan of wuxia, way back when andy lau, tony leung, adam cheng are still young XD
the last wuxia i watched was LOCH’08, and that because my sister copied mer friend’s collection by mistake 😛
Oh shoot! The title of the post totally got my hopes up! >.< And yeah they're looking absolutely stunning together~ sigh! What does it take to get a proper GeShi OTP pairing in a drama???!!!
HG looks so much better with long hair and period garb.
Weeee there can never be too many adaptations of Tian Long Ba Bu!
Hi Koala! I don’t know where to post it… buuut you have to check out this new teaser of So Min and Sung Joon! Kyaaa!
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9Ujg6szIEQ]
here another one kyaa:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esrum9es9os]
Liu Shi Shi has always seemed so fresh and pretty to me – I find it hard to believe that she used to be/still is considered somewhat plain for an actress.
It’s because people compared her with Liu Yifei, lol. Looks-wise, anyone would have a hard time competing.
I was so happy when I read the title, though I got to say I am not a fan DGSD and I agree too, I wouldn’t like them both to play Duan Yu and Wang Yu Yan. And I got to say I don’t think Hu Ge would suit Qiao Feng, Qiao Feng should be older and I don’t know Hu Ge doesn’t giv eme that feeling of a Qiao Feng.
From all Louis CHa’s heroesm actually I would love to see Hu Ge as Zhang Wuji and not only because that is my favorite novel and hero 🙂
Liu Shi Shi’s outfit here is so, so pretty! And unlike several other wuxia dramas, the hair isn’t ridiculous in this… yay!
the title got me so excited.. :/
liu shi shi’s outfit is so pretty here! and unlike some of the other hairstyles in certain wuxia dramas, her hair isn’t ridiculous either! :O
gah, sorry about reposting! it said there was an error, so i typed it out again, but i guess it actually did work the first time.
They look so adorable. I think HG can pull off QF character and he look pretty good as DY…. N LSS is gorgeous.
Damn my heart rate spiked when I read the title, then I realised it was just another mini-movie thing…so disappointed. Karen’s never going to let Hu Ge and Shishi play a legit couple it a legit show, is she? Sighs…at least they both look utterly gorgeous here.
I always thought LSS could pull off a good XLN/WYY. Ever since her cameo at end of HSDS, and she also resembles LYF a bit? I wish neither TangRen or Yu Zheng do DGSD or that producer that did Wallace’s magic blade and just let someone fresh do it that way we can’t even expect. NEW NEW NEW!!! Recently started noticing how well of a producer Ruby Lin can be, hopefully she begins taking more genre other than palace/harem. I think her CGI is pretty impressive too.
Better looking too old than too young. I don’t think SS will look too old in a few years either. With ROCH 2006, I loved looking at LYF and HXM separately, but when they are together it doesn’t look like an older woman with a younger man.
I’m trapped inside mmogame right now playing the chinese version of Age of Wulin. Sooo addicting.