Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

One of the greatest classic Wuxia series last decade was "The Return of Condor Heroes" (2006). I did have very stupid reasons to watch it and yes, Crystal Liu, is giving me also a stupid reason to check out Mulan (2020). I'd still like to teasingly ask if Crystal really bail it out by just being hotter than the first Disney's version of Mulan? Then there's that classic theme song "The Roaming World Laughs" which is "Jiang Hu Xiao" in Mandarin.  Here are the lyrics with both Chinese and English found on Youtube : 江湖笑 恩怨了 人过招 笑藏刀 Jiang hu xiao en yuan liao ren guo zhao xiao cang dao. The martial arts world laughs, kindness and hatred ended. People exchange blows, smiles hidden by blades. 红尘笑 笑寂寥 心太高 到不了 Hong chen xiao xiao ji liao xin tai gao dao bu liao. The mortal world laughs; a lonely laugh. The heart is too high, it can't be reach. 明月照 路迢迢 人会老 心不老 Ming yue zhao lu tiao tiao ren hui lao xin bu lao. The moon ...

It's time for a bit of throwback to how I began a short break from Tokusatsu for other stuff of what was once new school last decade. Time flies so fast as one show is now 15 years old and the other is 12 years old. I think about two actresses who have a rather huge age gap, a different batch yet they were both serving among Chinese drama legendary actresses. I just want to talk about my experience with both shows -- where I can also be rather shallow here. The first time I got into Wuxia series (or not) was with the 2003 version (or remake) of the Chinese Ghost Story. I don't really want to get familiarized with the version done with the Leslie Cheung due to the generation gap. I was reminded of my paternal grandmother watching Wuxia series. I started watching it though I got somewhat hooked with Dolphin Bay's dysfunctional family drama more. Yet Chinese Ghost Story's action scenery was just too good to pass. The first Wuxia seriest hat I was somewhat hooked on f...

In Return of the Condor Heroes, the romance happens between Yang Guo a rebellious child (probably nine or ten) who meets a beautiful teenage woman, probably four or five years older than he is namely Xiao Longnu (which makes Huang Xiao Ming's casting quite inappropriate considering he is ten years older than Liu Yifei while Andy Lau's makes a little more sense, which I am yet to see).  The relationship started off pretty much as a master/student relationship but it was later blossoming into attraction, which was taboo at that time because of the Confucian principles. For some time, Yang Guo learned martial artist under the person he called "aunt" for some reason, even if she was just a few years older than he was.  The teacher/student relationship was one where Yang Guo learned martial arts in the Ancient Tomb until he became an adult.  This was because Yang Guo run away from the Quanzhen Sect of Taoists.  After Grandma Sun dies from an attack by the Quanzhen Sect...

So far I'd like to make a little comparison between Return of Condor Heroes comparison on how each one performed as far as I remembered.  Below are how each actor portrayed them: In 1983, we had Andy Lau and Idy Chan as Yang Guo and Xiao Lung Nu. Andy Lau was kind of classic and so was Idy Chan. The script kind of didn't match their actual ages, at least Andy Lau was a bit older than Idy Chan even if the story says that Xiao Long Nu is older than Yang Guo by four years. Andy Lau did really classic moves that became hard to imitate. In 1995, we had Louis Koo and Carman Lee, this time Carman Lee is really three years older than Louis Koo though the actual script has it that Xiao Long Nu was older by four years. It was a good effort to try and remake the classic but I don't think Louis Koo can ever exceed Andy Lau. However it was still good. In 2006, we have Huang Xiao Ming and Liu Yi Fei but fans criticized this for one good reason- Liu Yi Fei is ten years younger than ...