I know so many people who can date themselves by which drama version of a Louis Cha (Jin Yong) novel adaptation they consider the best, which is usually the first one they watched and couldn’t stop watching thereby becoming a fan for life. Someone born in the 70’s grew up with the TBV iconic 80’s versions, those born in the 80’s remember the TVB 90’s updates, then there were the rather odd Taiwanese drama attempts in the mid-90s, and the last two decades have been all about the Mainland Chinese adaptations. I’m an 80’s TVB classic girl though those versions were a bit earlier than my time but it was the first I watched starting with Legend of the Condor Heroes, onward to Return of the Condor Heroes, finishing with Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre, and then forever spoiled by the different but equally awesome epics of Smiling Proud Wanderer and The Duke of Mount Deer. It’s not just the stories alone, everyone always has their favorite castings for the iconic characters, usually way more opinionated about the female leads because Louis Cha wrote some highly memorable female leads. My personal faves – Barbara Yung as Huang Rong, tie of Idy Chan and Crystal Liu as Xiaolongnu, and Yang Mi in a small but career changing turn as Guo Xiang. Rest in peace good sir, thank you for giving the world such incredible stories to last forever. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Return of the Condor Heroes
There has been so much Chinese and Korean entertainment product exchanges in the last few years alone I’m starting to feel like both sides of the border deal with the same issues whether successes or failures. Chinese fans love a … Continue reading
This is certainly happy news for some people, who I’ll venture to guess are the sliver of drama fans who liked the latest widely panned adaptation of wuxia novel Return of the Condor Heroes. This drama version was called Romance … Continue reading
The 2014 drama year in C-ent didn’t just end with hilarious Cleavage-gate around The Empress of China, the much dreaded Yu Zheng adaptation of Return of the Condor Heroes (English drama title of this version is called Romance of the … Continue reading
I don’t recall any producer/screenwriter who gets as much hate as Yu Zheng does in China, and frankly it’s all well-deserved. He hasn’t churned out a single watchable drama yet his dramas keep bringing in the ratings. Last week C-ent … Continue reading
Following along with the filming of the latest drama adaptation of the wuxia novel Return of the Condor Heroes has been an endless well of WTF mirth. First producer Yu Zheng casts the least suitable leading lady Xiaolongnu in of … Continue reading
The nth drama adaptation of Return of the Condor Heroes (this one is going to have the 2014 year appended to it to distinguish it from the previous versions) is almost done filming and after four months I can say … Continue reading
Somewhere in an alternate universe, drama producer Yu Zheng is still filming his massacre drama adaptation of the wuxia novel Return of the Condor Heroes. It’s been seven years since the last major remake starring now top C-movie stars Huang … Continue reading
There is finally something easy on the eyes coming out of the set of the upcoming nth drama version of the wuxia novel Return of the Condor Heroes. While C-actress Zhao Li Ying’s name was never mentioned as in the … Continue reading
I firmly believe in the adage “just because you can, doesn’t necessarily mean you should.” And sometimes jokes just write themselves because people do things they can but common sense should tell them not do. Filming is fully underway for … Continue reading
How the heck does Yu Zheng manage to turn the ridiculously gorgeous Chen Xiao into an unattractive Yang Guo? I don’t get it. One way to get people riled up is to purposely mess with fandom. That is why I … Continue reading
I think the sole existence of screenwriter-producer Yu Zheng in the world of C-dramas and movies is really to act like a troll on history and fandom. He exploits anything and everything with equal aplomb, and with this new drama … Continue reading