Okay, I’m either getting easier to please or I’m just desperate for a good drama adaptation of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils since the last one I liked was the now completely out-dated 1982 TVB version. I’ve tried three times to watch the Zhang Ji Zhong 2003 version and I fall asleep each time. Maybe I need more cheesy in my wuxia. I totally mocked the first unofficial stills of the upcoming Director Lai adaptation of DGSD which showed leading man Wallace Chung playing one of the greatest wuxia heroes Louis Cha ever wrote looking like a cross between the cat lady and a monk. With the first batch of official stills, I might have to amend my earlier observation. For some reason the look is growing on me, which may be due to the knowledge that this fur cloak and scarf thingie he’s wearing is only for the scenes out in the Winter desert when he goes to the Liao Kingdom and meets the ruler Yelu Hongji. I forget drama filming can be completely out of sequence from the book its adapted from, and these scenes don’t come until more than halfway through the book. I’m still going gaga over how pretty Jia Qing looks, but I made a mistake earlier in saying that she was playing Ah Zhu.
She might still be playing Ah Zhu (her baike page says she plays both roles), but here she is clearly Ah Zi (her purple outfit is a dead giveaway, plus Ah Zi was the one who accompanied Xiao Feng out to Liao territory). I’m totally shocked at how gorgeous these two look together and they already have tons of chemistry! This is going to mess with my brain big time since Ah Zi is not Xiao Feng’s OTP (not in a billion trillion years), but Jia Qing just looks so sweet I’m going to have to see if her acting can showcase Ah Zi’s sadistic and cruel nature mixed with this wholly understandable crush on her brother-in-law. No wonder she falls for him if he keeps looking at her that way. This version will be based off of Louis Cha’s 2005 updated version of DGSD, with the script tweaked to increase Xiao Feng’s screentime over the other two male leads, plus weave throughout the entire series the secret plot of the father-son douchebag duo of Murong Fu to resurrect their dead kingdom. Look, as long as this version doesn’t turn into a slashfest like The Magic Blade then I’m now willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Despite thinking Wallace was hella miscast, now I’m kind looking forward to see how he pulls off a manly gruff hero type. Wallace said in an interview that everyone focuses on how honorable Xiao Feng is, but he wants to showcase the character’s intelligence and thoughtful nature. Cool with me.
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Okay, I'm conflicted. I don't want the same actress for Ah Zhi and Ah Zhu, but I kind of want Wallace and Jia Quing to be the OTP. Urgh.
I want!
I don't know what it is, but there's an authentic medieval feeling present in these stills that often evades wuxia adaptations.
Don't have attachments to any previous DGSD series so I hope this will be it.
The set actually look very nice here. I dunno...I think Zhang Ji Zhong versions were masterpieces. Appealing to both Guy and girl wuxia fans while the new ones by tangren, Yu Zheng, and even this Guy since his Hsds and Magic Blade has been more targeted towards a different group of watchers, maybe a group more focused on younger and female audience being more colorful. Most guys I know and hardcore book fans cringe at these adaptions. ^______^ I am actually alright because I loved hsds and loch. For dgsd I watched both tvb 98? And the 2003 version. Itll be strange to watch a Zi and a Zhu played by same actress. Makes the parents pretty blind to not recognize her as their daughter after finding out that a Zi is their daughter especiially since they are twins. ><
Yeah, I wouldn't like Ah Zi and Ah Zhu to be played by the same actress too. Actually, I pretty liked ZJZ version and I pretty like almost every actor and their chracter, I think they did a very good job. I never sympathized with Ah Zi as much as Chen Haos one. Usually I just found her annoying and that's it. Anyway, I actually was okay with Wallace playing Qiao Feng, it's just the hair, it doesn't look like it is his, it makes his head looking so displaced somehow....Anyway, who is Jia Qing anyway, I don't know her,what kind of dramas was she in? but she looks pretty enough to be Ah Zi.
I loved the 98 TVB version with Wong Yat Wah. Couldn't finish the Jimmy Ln version. Wallace looks a tad youngish to be playing Siu Fung but hopes he does alright. But the hair...oh lordy the hair...it makes him look like he's balding or something.
Same as Mrs Koala, my fave is the 1982 TVB version starring Bryan Leung Ka Yan as Siu Fung 蕭峰 / Kiu Fung 喬峰; Ken Tong Chun Yip as Duen Yu 段譽 and Felix Wong as Hui Juk 虛竹. The theme song was also fab (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSgvzbZ2nws). Interesting how Felix Wong Yat Wah appears in 2 versions of this (1982 and 1998)but in different roles.
Jia Qing is better looking than Zhang Meng who played Wang Yu Yan,how can that happen? WYY is supposed to be the most beautiful woman in that novel right?
As a Chinese Asian girl, I have nice and big eyes, fair skin, and a slender figure and long silky black hair. I have nice and dark brown eyes, I do not have small eyes like her role. Jia Qing was not nice, or A Zhu who is complaining about the monk without a great reason.
The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils 2013 is a good and fantastic Chinese Wuxia drama. However, this A Zhu, the one actress was bad in Episode 14 or 15, when Jia Qing (who plays A'Zhu) was acting mean and initiates (not in self defense) saying to the male monk, "your eyes are a little bit too small, your nose a bit flat". That may seem fine to talk to a man like that but imagine if it was an Asian female in the drama. Some people who watched that drama said that Jia your eyes are too small, lips too big, nose flat. Jia does not have big eyes, wears false eyelashes, does not have fair skin without extra light face foundation make-up, and digital alteration in the video to make her eyes appear falsely bigger.
Some viewers find Jia’s character acts much too arrogant and selfish and snobby, and irritating in a snobbish way whether bad roles or good roles in most of her dramas, without a great reason to be arrogant