The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2017)

Legend of the Condor Heroes is a personal favourite of mine out of all the Jin Yong wuxia books. The best thing about this particular adaptation is total loyalty towards the books [1]. This alone puts it miles ahead of the 2008 Hu Ge version, which imo was one of the worst I've watched.

Casting. LoCH 2017 used mostly rookies for its leading cast. Yang Xu Wen is probably the best-looking Guo Jing I've ever seen. I also think Li Yi Tong looks very much the part of Huang Rong. She also gives off a Zhou Xun feel (both of them suit this role well). The dubbing did wonders for this pair though, because if I had to listen to their original voices instead my ears will bleed. However, I think Mu Nian Ci was horribly miscast. This is my first time seeing such a... Mu Nian Ci. She doesn't have the right disposition at all.

Acting. Pretty decent acting all around, especially the veteran actors. There must also be something magical with the role of Ouyang Ke, because somehow all the actors who play the character do really really really well with it.

Production. The production team claimed that the use of rookie actors means that they are able to set aside more money for the more important things. Well, I think that's reasonable. At least there wasn't an overwhelming use of green screens *cough, cough G&I*. My problem is with the colours. Despite everything, the colours are still very "idol-ish wuxia" [2]. I much prefer the Zhang Ji Zhong adaptations where the colours were duller, more movie-like and looks like a proper drama as opposed to "idol dramas".

In all, I think the drama stands out from most of the 2017 productions. It also has an edge because of the fact that it's a recent adaptation, and after watching Yu Zheng's dramas, it's like a breath of fresh air. The drama also has a 8.0 rating on Douban, above the 2003 and 2008 versions. Not exactly deserved, but as I say, it has the advantage of being the diamond in the dirt.

-- Footnotes --

[1] I think it's based on the more recent editions of the book, which is a pity since I think in general the changes were for the worse.

[2] As years go on, Chinese period dramas are getting brighter and brighter in colours, which imo is a bad thing. It just looks... cheap.

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I have previously watched two other adaptions of The Legend Of Condor Heroes, 2003 and 2008. I think the current 2017 LOCH is probably the best among the 21st century ones.



I haven't read the book, yet (going to read), but I think this adaption covered the story pretty well, while also being humorous. Personally I think they did quite good job in choosing the cast. The main characters don't look too out of age thanks to the (rather) young rookie actors, reminding here that Huang Rong is supposed to be 15yo at the start of the series and Guo Jing 17-18(?). I had a lot of prejudice about the actors but after watching the series I can say that the casting was quite nice! Loved Li Yi Tong's Huang Rong, and Michael Miu's Huang Yao Shi. Guo Jing was also definitely more handsome than the previous ones. These two rookie actors did remarkable job imo.



I think this adaption concentrates maybe more on the youth of Guo Jing and Huang Rong, going more through their relationship. Of course LOCH was always about the adolescent of Guo Jin and how he became a big hero from a naive youngster after many hardships, but I do think that 2017 definitely put a lot time to show the pure "innocent" love between Guo Jing and Huang Rong.



Now for the bad points. Like the other review, I also have to say that this adaptions Mu Nianci was little bit disappointment, just lacked something. Personally I also disliked the bad CGI. It was tolerable but at some scenes it just looked ridiculously bad. E.G the condor shooting part. Would've appreciated if they had at least tried to make the angles right, there were some landscapes outside the window that were so crooked.



What I missed was a proper opening theme song. 2003 adaption's opening was epic, this time it was only instrumental music. But again, I did like the soundtrack songs.



Overall, very nice adaption.

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LOCH is one of my favorite Jin Yong’s novels, having read and re-read the novel since young for almost 5 times. So naturally, I would not miss any of the TV-adaption of the novel. So far, the 1983 ver is the one that truly stand the test of time, and it left such a deep impression on me even though I was just a 9 years old kid back then.

This 2017 version, in my opinion came closest to the 1983 classics. It is almost 95% true to the novel and it’s a delight to hear the majestic 1983 OST as the starting background music.
The main casts, while relatively unknown, did a great job in portraying the characters they played. Li Yi Tong as Huang Rong deserves a special mention, as she was the closest to the 1983 Barbara Wong. In fact, when she first appears as a girl to meet Guo Jing, the image of Huang Rong under Jing Yong’s pen literally comes alive. I immediately had the Déjà vu feeling that this is the Huang Rong that I have imagine it to be all this while while reading the novel.

Another great selling point of this version is its wonderful cinematory and the attention to details of the martial arts moves, without relying blantantly on CGI which makes it a very authentic viewing experience. Personally, I cannot stand the over-reliance and abuse of CGI in many of the current martial arts dramas.

Definitely a drama worth watching and re-watching while waiting for another great Jin Yong’s novel to grace the TV. In fact, I am still in post- SheDiao’s withdrawal symptom after finishing the drama.

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As Jin Yong fans, we all look forward to new adaptations every year as no story beats a Jin Yong story, and this was no different. Of the famous condor trilogy, this is actually my least favorite story of the three (which isn't a bad thing as they're all great). I liked Guo Jing and Huang Rong's characters and chemistry, felt there was a lot more emphasis on their romance than previous adaptations when words were just words rather than conveying a sense of depth and romance to the audience. Excellent job here.

Wasn't so much a fan of the other duo between Yang Kang and Mu Nian Ci, really wanted those interactions to just hurry up and get to the next scene. Ouyang Ke played the part of the original character, but just wasn't feeling any scenes with him. The 2008 adaptation took a different spin on his character as you felt bad for a villain, so maybe it's because I actually preferred that character over the original that made me biased. Duly noted.

Fight scenes were decent , though the use of slow motion was a bit excessive for anti-climatic parts of the fight. For some reason, leaves and pebbles were probably the primary weapons in this drama...and a lot less boulder explosions than I'm used to given how much chi they're supposed to have, but to each their own.

All in all, story is still great, and even the worse adaptations are better than most wuxia dramas. Would come back for the chemistry of the main two characters alone. Looking forward to return of the condor heroes and heavenly sword/dragon sabre!

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One of the better versions for The Legend of the Condor Heroes

Storyline: The storyline is as expected. I have never read the book so I cannot compare but I have been told the story when I was young and watched other versions. I think I much prefer this one to several others that I have watched.

Cast: Although I am not a big fan of how Li YiTong looks, she played the role of Huang Rong extremely well. Can't comment on her acting skills since I have never watched her in other roles. As for Yang XuWen, I could not tell if it was just his face or he actually played dumb, but he was probably the stupidest looking Guo Jing ever. Initially, I thought that he did exceptionally well playing dumb (almost like a Forrest Gump feel), halfway into the series, I got pretty annoyed by him. Meng ZiYi is pleasant to look at (and I like her in other dramas), but I found her acting as Mu Nianci to be extremely boring. The rest of the cast actually did pretty well, everyone was rather likeable and did a wonderful job portraying their characters. There were some portions that were rather slow and fillers that I wished were excluded, I probably skipped past some.

One of the issues I had with this show is the CGI and the choreography. This is a general description for all the modern wuxia/xianxia TV series', but is blatantly obvious in this one. The fighting choreography can come across as overly exaggerated and it almost seems like the cast members try too hard. I cannot tell if it is an issue with camera, special effects, skills or something entirely different. It just seems a bit unnatural. Otherwise, it was a decent series.

Music: I do not like any of the songs from this series. They are quite terrible. I am also not a big fan of Cantonese which made some of the songs unbearable. I skipped past every song in this show and I watched it in Mandarin.

Conclusion: If you're going to do the series/trilogy, I would recommend this version over the others.

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Not as good as the 1983 version, but still a worthy adaptation in its own right. Casting was great. Li Yi Tong did a terrific job as Huang Rong. A few story arcs were abbreviated which took away from the overall epic... to call out a few: time young Guo Jing was in Mongolia, Zhou Botong/Yi Deng/Yinggu backstory, Zhou Botong's visit with Huang Yaoshi and his wife and how Zhou was duped regarding the Yin Manual. Still a highly recommended series, imo. There was less dependence on silly CGI for fight scenes which made those scenes way more fun to watch. I really hope the same director/cast will agree to remake the follow-up Return of the Condor Heroes!

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This is my first season of Legend of the Condor Heroes. I seen Return of the Condor Heroes back in 2006 or so and Romance of Condor Heroes but never the first season of the series. I must say, I really liked connecting the Guo family with Yang Guo in ROTCH. Its quite fun. haha Surprisingly, Huang Rong is one of the best characters I've seen, she don't need a man to save her but she does do it on purpose just to get her man. However, she still has the skills because she was taught but one of the best martial artists, Meanwhile, Guo Jing is a bit on the slow side, so he can get hurt quite easily since he reacts slow. Huang Rong and Guo Jing travels around to find shifu to teach Guojing some martial arts, etc. Its an overall fun storyline with some interference from villains and the Mongolians. One of the villains is Guo Jing's sworn brother Yang Kang, whose fathers were also sworn brothers. I love the Beggar Clan Chief's crazy brother. haha He's hilarious Huang Rong's father is a Hong Kong actor, it was nice to see him in this version of the series. I love his strong character, quite powerful. Haha Definitely recommend to anyone who is starting out on wuxia dramas, :]

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STORY
in terms of story, this drama is really an extraordinary drama wuxia, interesting storyline from the beginning of the story to the end makes me curious after completing one episode by episode, wuxia drama written by jinyong always brings a very broad, interesting storyline, rich in wuxia kungfu knowledge and interesting story history ... besides wuxia story which is interesting, of course this drama also has a romantic love story between guojing and huangrong which is very sincere, the chemistry between the two of them played by yangxuwen and liyitong greatly enlivens the love story in this drama ... well being one of my favorite couples right now ... besides that the costumes in this drama are also very varied and rich, the appearance of the costume is very appropriate to the period of time and the costume of the wuxia makes this drama look very perfect ...

ACTING
in terms of acting this drama is undoubtedly, all the players have very good acting skills, starting from the 4 main actors: yangxuwen, liyitong, chenxingxu and mengziyi, all have very good acting talents, not just the main cast, all supporting cast also play a role very important in this drama, and of course I really like them all, all the actors really have contributed very good acting and good performance to this drama ....

MUSIC
opening song and The ending song of this drama uses the soundtrack of the LOCH drama in 1983, the hongkong version that I like very much, the instrumental rhythm of the OST is very beautiful, besides that one of the soundtracks from this drama called jianghutianxia is also very likeable to me, overall I like the instrumental rhythm and the song of this drama.

REWATCH VALUE
I HIGHLY RECOMMENDED this wuxia drama for those who haven't watched it and might HAVE TO WATCH IT ... lol .... and of course I want to give this DVD drama to be watched again ... I'm sure I won't be bored to watch it several times for this.

OVERALL...THIS IS VERY GOOD DRAMA TO WATCH..THANKYOU....

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My childhood revisited...

Decided to watch this because of the pandemic.

I first watched the 80s version when I was a kid and loved it, but I was a simpler person then. The premise is still great, however, my appreciation for storytelling has matured over the years. Simply put, not as good as I remembered.

I watched it with subtitles, so I may have missed the nuance of native speakers nor would I know if it's "good" or "great" acting.

Our heroes are stock characters. We have a naive young hero that is all good, a heroine that is perfect, and a variety of character tropes. At least the bad guys were not comically bad. I actually found the villains to be more interesting with more depth and better character arc, they are flawed humans with redeeming qualities like a real person.

I don't like the constant eavesdropping to move the plot forward. Or the constant coincidental crossing paths with other characters at a very high frequency. There's also too much exposition.

I admit I don't watch many Asian dramas, and my friends that do says it's like this with most of them. It's a soap-opera with very cool fighting.

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How to continue this drama?

Okay, you may find me pathetic for giving this drama a low rating and also criticising it as this story is very old and also one of the legends.
I am not gonna talk about which version is good or bad, cause this is the first time I saw this drama and story.
Now lets move to review/rant.
The show is good till 30s eps, so, I think you should watch it till that as it is quite unique with a weak to strong troupe where mc learns different skills by wandering here and there, also the romance is top-notch till 30s eps but after that I recommend you to not become a masochist as I had to become to complete the drama.
All the linearity was lost for me and yeah, beware of people who say that mc has character development...there is no character development other than changing his clothes and giving him a badass look in last 2 eps, there is no clear ending.
I think that this drama could be preferred by children or rather the children at chunni age, the main character is stupid, yes, you could say that its just in his character or his stupidity makes him unique but for me, he was just a man who never learnt from his mistakes.
He kept repeating same mistakes, he never became decisive, I would say that he would make a good harem jp protagonist.
Same for female lead, tbh I watched the drama for her smile lol, it was cute, but the big problem was that it doesn't matter whether a person is dying or killing, she keeps smiling.
At the end, atleast the main antagonist was able to kill the frigging molester, the mc just can't kill anyone...yup he even didn't kill his enemies or the antagonist.
~Now, for those who have seen this~
Yang Kang's mother was a just too worse, first of all, she saved a man and didn't even tell her husband about it...just how much brain damage she had at that time?
After that she didn't tell her son about her real father or his real identity...? Like what? Why didn't she tell him that?
And, the seven heroes were just seven weaklings...meh.
Zhuo butong was the best character!
Hong Qigong was also good.
FL's father was not a tyrant or something...he just misunderstands everything and then regrets.
ML's mother....why she was left alive, she had so less scenes!
Never understood Mu Nianci's reason of falling in love with yang kang.

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Still, the music was fantastic or rather addictive, fight scenes were good, not much of flowery sequences.

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