Well, I had no idea this was a remake of Legend of the Condor Heroes. Something’s going on with both the English and Chinese titles. Or is it just inspired by Condor Heroes?
Anyway, this is a fresh new take on Jin Yong’s most popular novel. Because the story is already too well known, I won’t go into detail with the recap. Instead, I will just list some important points here and my first impression of the first few episodes.
THE PREMISE
So there’s this kid named Guo Jing. He’s kind of slow. Well, not just slow, but silly and naive too. He trusts everyone he comes across unless you warn him of danger ahead of time. The only good things he has going on are kindness and honor. Imagine if a female lead was written like that, hah! People would riot. Guys are allowed to be dumb, twisted, dark, gullible, and whatever else, but god forbid a girl is ever anything other than “strong”…
Luckily, Guo Jing bumps into all kinds of rich and highly-skilled fighters in his life and learns a lot. One of those people is his love interest: Huang Rong.
Huang Rong is the daughter of one of the best fighters in the Jianghu world. She is spoiled, and sometimes a bully, but she has a good heart and sees greatness in Guo Jing when nobody does. So she is determined to get him lessons from the best martial arts teachers this world has to offer so that no one can look down on him.
As Guo Jing and Huang Rong frolic along, they encounter Yang Kang and Mu Nianci. Yang Kang’s father used to be a friend Guo Jing’s father, which automatically makes Guo Jing and Yang Kang friends. Or at least Guo Jing believes so. Yang Kang has a completely different view towards it. They are friendly for a while until the harshness of life dawns on Yang Kang and he begins to change.
And so begins our epic hero adventure with lots of weird old men, unique fighting techniques that are borderline fantasy, mysterious locations, and vindictive lovers.
SO HOW DOES THIS ADAPTATION DO?
First of all, episode one is not a good introductory episode. Too many characters and plots are presented at once and it’s hard to keep track of of them if you are not already familiar with the original story. Even if the plot will be a mash-up of many Jin Yong’s books and the story takes a completely different direction from the original — I don’t know if it is, but the title kind of tells you they won’t follow the novel completely — it should still slow down and allow time for the audience to get to know the characters. I have seen several adaptations of Condor Heroes already and still this makes my head spin.
In one episode, we get Guo Jing, Huang Rong, the seven teachers, Yang Kang, Mu Nianci, etc. They all look great, their acting isn’t bad either, but I couldn’t care less about any of them at this point because of the rapid pace of the story.
Secondly, while everything about this drama is a visual treat, very little about it is unique. Watching the drama, you just don’t know why it was made. They obviously didn’t invest that much in combat choreography, and it’s not like their interpretations of either Guo Jing or Huang Rong is something the drama world has never seen before. Crazy female villains in loose hair? We have that in abundance too.
The only thing I can think of that is unique about this adaptation is probably the warm color palette, which gives you that epic cinema feel.
Now, all of the above is from the point of view of someone who has seen Condor Heroes drama adaptations before. What if I didn’t know this story at all and this was the first Wuxia drama I had ever seen? I would still say it needs to slow down and that they need to focus more on substance than on style. But other than that, I would enjoy it as a fun hero story with better-written characters than most recent dramas.
So do I recommend this drama? Not to anyone who’s looking for a coherent Condor Heroes adaptation. For that, maybe check out the 2008 version with Hu Ge. But I do recommend it if you want to see some action without all the tiring tropes.