Swordsman 2013/ Xioa Ao Jiang Hu

Wallace Huo as Linghu Chong / Yang Lianting
Yuan Shanshan as Ren Yingying / XuexinJiang Yiyi as young Ren Yingying
Joe Chen as Dongfang Bubai
Yang Rong as Yue Lingshan
Chen Xiao as Lin Pingzhi / Lin Yuantu
Deng Sha as Yilin
Howie Huang as Yue BuqunWu Junyu as young Yue Buqun
Yang Mingna as Ning Zhongze
Han Dong as Tian Boguang

First off Happy New year again to everyone! Best wishes in 2014 for all of us!

I was very excited when I’d heard that Wallace Huo will be portraying my all time favorite Wuxia hero Linghu Chong, I’d even kept a close eye on the production. I was a bit disappointed when they cast Yuan Shanshan as Ren Ying Ying, since I am not a fan of her previous work; however, I still kept up a positive outlook towards the production. Which didn’t last long, things went sour for me when I saw photo stills with the extended cast and more of the plot got reviled. It had to mention that the villain Dongfang Bubai will have a love triangle with Linghu Chong and Ren Ying Ying. Not so original since they have done it with the Jet Li’s swordsman version! I’ve heard that this producer likes to copy other people’s work, for an example stealing the whole plot and tweaking the characters from Scarlet Heart and passing it as his own as Jade Palace Lock heart! A series that I shared a love/hate relationship with, but that would be a totally new discussion! Just like Jade Palace I also have this love/hate relationship with this production company; there is some stuff I did enjoy watching, and some stuff that I felt that was complete garbage! Since it has Wallace in here, how bad can it be? I will just have to accept it, since I’ve already seen 2 really good adaptations, which are the TVB 1996 version and the 2001 version produced by Zhang Ji Zhong. Perhaps twist and turn will make it more refreshing and exciting. I had flushed all of my expectations of what I know about the other adaptation and went in blind so that I can enjoy the series as is. 

I could not hold my excitement when the series got aired, I didn’t even wait for the Khmer dubbed version! During the first episode, my eyes got raped with the comic book like CGI that I thought was so excessive for a Wuxia series; it felt more like a fantasy series. I get it, we are in the age of computers, and having the power of CGI is great to enhance the story telling, but over doing it is not my cup of tea! There was so many scenes that looks so computerize that made it lose the elements of an ancient series, it looks so ridiculous at some point you feel like you are watching some cheap Sci-fi. I really wish they would make series like back in the 90’s they had some GCI, but they didn’t rape the whole show with it!

I really disliked most of the main characters! Yes, even LingHu Chong! How can they make this wonderful happy carefree character into a hypocritical dummy! No offense to Wallace, even he can’t save this character, Wallace also appeared so drain and not as handsome like he always is. I felt no connection between any of his leading lady, except for his love for Yue Lingshan. It wasn’t clear with his love for DongFang Bubai and Ren Ying Ying. Was he returning his love for DongFang Bubai because he felt he had to repay her? If he really loved her how can he be inconsistent with his moral and values, as he can’t forgive her for her crimes, yet he has a different reaction towards his teacher crimes? Also, he has befriended a rapist, and all types of other evils from the Sun Moon sect, for the purpose of melodramatic romance the screen writer must add this element in. I felt I was watching “The Bride with White Hair” when Zhuo Yi Hang had a miss understanding towards Lian Ni Chang! Oh yes and falling off the cliff many times, for DongFang BuBai is like a walk in the park, she can float all over the place and not die!

Speaking of DongFang BuBai, I am not convinced at her martial art status, it appears that in this version DFBB is abandoned by her parents along with her sister, who we find out is the long hair nun, Yi Lin. In a flash back sequence it mentions that DFBB joined the Sun Moon Sect when she was young, and in such a short period of time, she can surpass Ren Woxing and the other sect members in wits and martial arts? Not buying it! Also, she has to be at least 10 to 15 years and Ren Ying Ying, yet she looks their age. Speaking about aging, is it me or all the older sect master, all look very youthful, I can’t tell which generation is which. DFBB motive of evil came from her history of abandonment; really didn’t justify the root of her evil in the first place. Or did I miss something? I read all over the net, of how much praised for DFBB character and their ships on the romance between DFBB and Linghu Chong. I think most of these fans are more rooting for their idol more than the DFBB. If you switch roles between RYY and DFBB people are probably be rooting for RYY. With regards, Joe Chen did a much better job as DFBB than Yuan Shanshan did with RYY. Perhaps the writer should have left the original story, and made Joe Chen Ren Ying Ying instead and eliminated DFBB. That would have satisfied most of the angry fans.

Ren Ying Ying in this adaptation really was not as significant as she should have been. I was not sure why LingHu Chong fell l in love with her, if it was out of thankfulness, maybe he should of ended up with Yi Ling instead. I felt she did more and understood LingHu Chong best. Yuan Shanshan was also a very bland and boring actress, not that I can blame her on this since her character lacks excitement or any development here. RYY should have had more vengeance towards DFBB , after all, DFBB did murder her mother, imprison her father, try to steal her man and poison her to death, instead, she fell head over heals for LingHu Chong and follow him like a puppy dog. 

The ending was a disaster, copy from Painted Skin 2 (funny I just finished the movie before I started this series). Falling off a cliff was not dramatic enough, so let’s do a heart transplant! This also caused an uproar of DFBB fans that blamed RYY for causing her death. Well if DFBB didn’t poison RYY in the first place, perhaps she didn’t have to donate her heart to her. It could be that DFBB planned it all along since she can’t have LingHu Chong, at least there is a part of her that can be with him. With the series empathizing on too much on the romance, it caused a poor execution towards the Wuxia side. I don’t entirely dislike the show, there were some pluses, such as some of the actual martial arts scene was entertaining minus all the CGI. I'd enjoyed Chen Xiao as Ling PingZhi, who I think did an exceptional job! Yang Rong was also a plus, I think she was absolutely cute, there were just some parts that I think her expression needed to change, she appeared to wear a smirk when not needed.

Mystery in The Palace Review

Mystery in the Palace

Cast listed from top to bottom left to right

Catherine Hung as Tong Si Ku ( hah her name is Si Ku)
Zhang Dan Feng as Crown Prince Yin Reng
Liu Ting Yu as Crown Prince Consort
Mu Ting Ting as Consort Hui
Kevin Cheng as Prince Ge Tai
Gan Ting Ting as Princess E Dan and her own daughter Han Xiang
Michelle Yim as Empress
Bernice Liu as Consort Wang
Fang Shu Zhen as Chun Zhu
Florence Tan as Consort Xuan
Ni Qi Min as Emperor Kang Xi
Eddie Cheng as Prince Ta Er

Taking a studying break right now, and what better to do but vent about this series! There will not be a summary on here, just my OWN opinion of the whole series; I will let you dread through the series yourself if you haven't already! The first attempt to watch the series episode by episode, but as it progresses I find it very draggy, I skip episode 16-25 and still nothing major happened. This venting session will contain major spoilers, so if you plan on watching this series, I would suggest you stop reading now. My first attraction to the series is because of Liu Ting Yu and Florence Tan, it's rare to see them in series nowadays, to have them both stars in a series together was a bonus for me! However, it was a major disappointment! I felt that both actresses did a good job at what was needed for the characters! The problem was not with the acting, it was the characters! Overuse and overplay type of palace drama characters! I’d really hope for something more refreshing, but it came out as whining with jealousy over attention and power!

It’s now time to shift to the main actor Kevin Cheng and Gan Ting Ting. I absolutely hated Kevin Cheng’s character! I hate these types, the weak emotional, crying over spilled milk kind of character! Okay, I’ll give his character a little slack since he did find out he was adopted, but really to have him get beaten up in almost every second episode? And why did they cast him in this role? The character was supposed to be 21 years of age! Don’t get me wrong Kevin is a very handsome guy, but he is not 21 years old! It didn't’ help that they cast Florence Tan, Bernice Liu and Mu Ting Ting to play his uncle’s wives made it more out of place. I didn't feel like his character did much for the whole show but ran around and got beaten up and cry and cry, even till the end!


As for Gan Ting Ting, she is prettier in the beginning when she portrayed E Dan, it suits her more than Han Xiang, maybe it was the hair. I think they tried to make her look youthful, with the pigtails flopping around, didn't work for me! Her character reminds me of Sam Ho from Beyond the Realm of Conscience, the goody two shoe types, nothing special! There was not much character development! I also didn't understand why they let all these maids out of the palace so easily and when they were found (or framed) to commit a crime no one got their head chopped off! To think of it, no one really dies in the show, they either got sent to prison or the cold chamber.

Let’s talk about the whole mystery! It wasn't big enough or exciting enough for me to surround the whole series around it, since I figure out who the murderer was in the middle of the show when Ge Tai real mother showed up! And it was very unsatisfying of how it was reviled, of course, the coward Emperor didn’t even have the decency to reviled that he drunkenly had a night of passion with his brother’s fiancé! I don’t think Emperor was going to execute him for his crime since the Emperor was the one who caused the whole misunderstanding between Ta Er and E Dan. We don’t know since the guy committed suicide. All in all, if you really have nothing better to do might as well kill time with this series, another bonus is that you can see many Hk stars in here, it’s like watching a TVB series with mainland guest stars! Heh

Random facts- The theme song is sung by Liu Ting Yu herself she has quite a pretty voice. Catherine Hung and Zhang Dan Feng are actually husband and wife in real life. Kevin Cheng stardom shoots to the top after his portrayal of 4th prince from BuBu Jing Xin/Scarlet Heart, he is not one of the highest pay TV artists in HK and very popular in mainland China now.