Legend of the Condor Heroes (2017)

So has anyone seen this or other adaptations of the story? A friend got me into this series and I have been absolutely loving it. I had never heard of the books or the various adaptations that were made before, but I guess this is kind of like China’s equivalent of Lord of the Rings and it sold a bajillion copies since it came out in 1957. It’s in the wuxia genre which is a genre I really know nothing about, so it feels totally fresh to me!

The show is sorta like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon dialed up to 11. Basically there are two warring empires, the Jin and Song, that seem to be in a stalemate and are both looking for ways to tip the war to their favor. There are also the Mongols led by Genghis Khan. On top of all that are all these powerful martial artists with their own motivations. It is these martial artists that the show focuses on and they all have their own awesome abilities. Our protagonist Guo Jing is a martial artist in training and we follow him as he learns from various masters. He is kind of dumb and slow to learn new skills, but he has a pure heart that wins people over. There are actually a lot of awesome characters and it can be rather confusing in the beginning. In the first 3 episodes there are two time skips which also add to the confusion, but after that it has been pretty easy to follow. I especially love the villains which can start out rather one dimensional, but develop into complex characters. Huang Rong is also awesome as Guo Jing’s love interest, as well as the various masters he has. The locations are pretty gorgeous as well. Anyway, here’s a trailer:

If you want to check out the show, there are full episodes on youtube. Emycee is a user there that has been fansubbing episodes.

Episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4crHldKx6c

She subbed up to episode 26 of the 52 episode series. After that I’ve been watching the rest here: https://asianen.com/drama/the-legend-of-tho-condor-heroes/watch/

The subs aren’t as good as Emycee’s, but they are decent enough. Check it out!

I was stuck in Hong Kong for a few weeks in my youth, I started watching an adaptation of Condor there but never got to finish it. Read the summaries some years afterwards but it’s not the same. Thanks for posting this!

(Speaking of Chinese TV, poking around youtube I see that there’s a HD version of the 2010 Three Kingdoms series online. Been meaning to watch that too. Guess that’s another ~80 hours spoken for.)

Coincidentally, the author of these books just died.

Condor Heroes had a couple of comic and TV adaptations when I was a kid, but I didn’t pay much attention to them at the time, and I’ve never seen the original novels in English. It looks like Condor Heroes is in the process of being translated now, which is pretty neat. I’ll probably hold off on picking it up until the entire trilogy is released though.

There are only a handful of other Jin Yong novels available in translation at the moment. I have a copy of The Book And the Sword, and just picked up a copy of The Deer and The Cauldron, which had a new edition released recently, which brought the price for the trilogy down from over $100 to something more reasonable.

Is that a good one? I don’t know Mandarin so Mandarin stuff annoys me. I have an irrational hatred of Mandarin. I will gladly watch Japanese, Spanish, French stuff, I don’t know why.

I watched this one from the 80s from betamax.

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It was very sad, I think that actress either died in an elevator accident or committed suicide. I was very young, she may have committed suicide in the story instead.

Yay here’s the 1983 song! #makesmefeelold

Watched two episodes. Pretty good. Okay here’s the history primer because the series kinda assumes you know all this stuff I guess.

Three factions.

The Song are real Chinese but they are a dying dynasty.

The Jin are northern scum (jurchen) horse nomad types?

Then there’s Temujin. Why does that name sound familiar? He’s the guy who whose father was murdered and had 10 siblings and the mother was like if you are K together like a bundle of arrows nobody can defeat you. He left piles of skulls and conquered one of the largest empires ever. You know, Genghis Khan.

Anyway Guo Jin ends up with these Mongol dudes.

The only theme song to any of these serials I remember is Bao Qing Tian, which was ubiquitous in Chinese speaking households when I was growing up:

Why is that in Mandarin? I don’t know it. I know Andy Lau. How can that be old, China was still like weird in the 90s.

I know condor heroes and I know Shanghai tan.

I’m up to about episode 40 and still having a great time with this one. I know this version got some flak from people because the actors are way too pretty. I guess Guo Jing is supposed to be more rugged looking which makes sense, but I think the actor does a pretty good job in this version. Also I think Huang Rong is supposed to be 15 and she is most assuredly not, though she is totally awesome. I haven’t seen any of the other adaptations so I can’t compare, but I think all the actors are doing a great job.

The production of this is interesting since I’m used to seasons. Looks like they filmed it all at once and released it showing two episodes a day. Wonder how long it took to shoot all 52 episodes. I think the show looks pretty great overall, I love the settings and costumes and such, but there are some hilariously bad effects shots on occasion. I think it adds to its charm a bit.

I’m up to Chapter 10. It is pretty good.

This is really not a fighting show! Well, there’s a lot of fighting but I ignore it mostly. The point is all the drama and conflict. And there is so much of it. It is now complicated.

I don’t think Huang Rong is really pretty. I mean, she is pretty but compared to everyone else she pales. I think it is good casting. She plays the impish chaotic neutral (good tendencies) part pretty well.

Guo Jin is lawful stupid. The 7 masters are mostly neutral good. Guo Jin’s “brother” is lawful evil. He’s really despicable. I don’t get why red lady likes him. Is he supposed to be good looking?

So there’s a dubbed Cantonese version of the same show if you prefer that.

Enjoying it as well, just passed the point in the story where I stopped watching previously. Yeah, I think the actor who plays Yang Kang is the weak link, he just looks so weak and smarmy all of the time that I can’t buy his relationship with Mu.

Finally, I came across a fan translation of the novel here. I skimmed a couple of chapters and the show seems pretty faithful.