Any more like a fairy now?
My feelings on the casting of Michelle Chen as the Little Dragon Maiden are comparatively weak, which is why I am the one posting the latest stills from Yu Zheng’s new version of Return of the Condor Heroes. That, and because I strongly dislike (hate) Yu Zheng. Previously, he had shown us pictures of Michelle Chen in the audition gown for Jin Yong’s ethereal ice beauty and promised that she would look even better in the real costume.
…Well, the real costumes are out now. I suppose you could say that the backgrounds are very heavenly. (Yu Zheng, why can’t you even get little details right? Is it so hard to keep her clothing completely white? Why is there all this pink and blue?) Chen Xiao‘s Yang Guo has also had official stills release, and as usual, Chen Xiao is an attractive young lad. Unfortunately, he looks like he’s wearing several bandanas over polka-dot pajamas. Though one would argue that it is better than this.
Instead of wondering what Yu Zheng was thinking (because maybe he wasn’t), let’s wonder how he can top the craziness of this drama. Stretch that imagination!
Zhang Xinyu is at least very pretty as the heartbroken antagonist Li Mochou
Have a little break – eye candy!
But this is still the last picture you muse over.
This is going to be a disaster!! Just like the new Swordsman 2013. Why do they have to ruin all the classics??
“Unfortunately, he looks like he’s wearing several bandanas over polka-dot pajamas.” AHAHA sadly enough..it’s true. T___T On the other hand I like the white-blue gradients on the first picture.
The problem is that in the novel, that woman always wears white. Complete white. No other colors. No exception. All the previous versions have followed this rule up until now. Therefore, everybody is up in arms about the small bits of pink and blue now in her costume.
Leave it to Yu Zheng to change it… T__T
Actually, the last adaptation of this drama wasn’t bad, in my opinion. Definitely worth checking out if you enjoy a drama that can carry a good story. It’s from a couple years ago so productions standards are a tiny bit off but the story is there at least. Sadly, that’s probably more than we can expect from Yu Zheng. The best part is that the entire thing has been subbed in English online. I included the link to the first episode below. You probably want to check this version out instead. Plus, it’s a good introduction to the wuxia world of fiction.
Sorry, the link above does not work. Go to youtube and search “rotch eng sub.” It’ll come up.
2006 edition (to be clear)
But yeah, you have to wonder how a wandering broke guy who has severed his connections with the world for a time came in contact with such a wide array of colorful fabrics and patterns for his personal use… >:(
Maybe he mugged Jing Tian.
L.O.L.Z.
Michelle Chen looks perfect here…. as the role of some lady’s maid maybe, and that’s WITH all the heavy photoshopping. I know Yu Zheng loves his bright colours, but he really abuses it sometimes.
I wish he would consider putting a little more detail and a little less color -___-
I have no problem with his love for colorfulness. He just needs to expand his appreciation of darker hues and duller colors to help bring focus to his dramas. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be paying attention to anymore when I watch his dramas. The Empress’s outfit is as eye catching as her servant’s.
Except when he does that, it’s more of a horror film than anything else (see Gong the movie) …
I picked up on some of that but thought it was more due to the camp script than the color schemes. I mean, it was built upon the overused “airhead who’s sense of ‘innocence’ far outstrips her sense of self-preservation falls in love and the world turns against her” framework. It’s just he tried to add something “original and different” Yu Zheng-style. In my opinion, I think Yu Zheng might be the type of person with a tendency to OP (over power) as opposed to think a bit and use reason as a tool for moderation. To me, his backdrops and costumes and his scripts are evidence of this. “Oh, Collapsing caverns and buildings are all the rage in movies? Let’s try that here!! In the name of profits!!”
Oh wells. I guess you can’t have everything in this world. You have to at least credit Yu Zheng for getting the ball rolling in the Chinese television industry as far as better costuming and props and better (not movie-quality but better) CGI are concerned. I used to shy away from Chinese dramas because of the sheer amount of cheesy plastics, feathers, pastel colors, and glitter that used to be so common. They are both unicorn farts but I think I prefer the direction of this unicorn fart (at least there’s nice-looking embroidery and the sets aren’t TOO tacky and cheap looking).
Seeing his dramas and how marketable they are despite story line but obviously only on account of lush sets and costumes, it sends a pretty obvious message to everybody else in the industry. Once everybody else starts picking up the pace and the competition picks up, maybe Yu Zheng will have to seriously focus on his scripts as much as he does on production and music. I mean, there has to be a limit to how colorful you can make something before it really starts to sting your eyes (It already does, Yu Zheng…. ooooh yeah….).
OH and the lace they used to use…. the HORRIBLE LACE!!! O_O
For me, bright colors do not equal prettiness. I think a lot of more subtle colors are better – Yu Zheng (UUUGGGH) just can’t pull it off. Sometimes his costumes are pretty, but they’re always only /costumes/. (They really do already sting the eyes. I guess he wants to distract us? xD) Lots of the clothes in Zhen Huan are gorgeous and extravagant, but they look like clothes – it’s definitely manageable…just took more time and efofrt. Wish Yu Zheng would put more detail into his costumes; they /could/ be so, so, pretty…less quantity of dramas, more quality, pleasee D:
Bright colors definitely don’t equal prettiness. I guess I was referring more to the styling there. Some of the old costuming for c-dramas used to look nothing like what ancient people would wear and if they did, they were badly done (thus the reference to plastics and feathers and lace). At least Yu Zheng’s styling of his costumes retains some bit of Ancient Chinese semblance.
To be realistic, I don’t think Yu Zheng’s going to learn unless it becomes a serious threat to his business. Even a dummy can tell you that as long as better-than-what-was-before sells, the more you produce the more profit you will make. Therefore, probably can’t expect to see “less quantity… more quality” until other drama productions start picking up the slack in production terms.
They should prob just change all the names…
O.M.G her hair!!! WHYYY??? It totally just ruins everything for me. Right now I hope he warp the story so much that YG end up with LMC… seriously I hate Yu Zheng
Well, the blue-tinted outfit looks nice at least. Can’t say the same for the one with pink trim, though.
Also… “The Condor Heros”… *sigh*
PPS, Michelle Chen’s hairstyle is similar to Lin Gengxin’s baby picture from Weibo Wednesday. XD
Looks like hairstyle of palace attendants seen in ancient Chinese paintings and statues.
All the hair looks like it was inspired from Sailormoon. ALL.
I think that particular hairstyle is pretty common amongst ancient paintings/statues, so it makes sense (although it’s usually a “maid/servant” hairstyle in modern dramas)
…haha yes xD but i have good memories of that show, don’t ruin them…~
“meatball head”
One can say that sailormoon was inspired by chinese styles because japan borrowed extensively from ancient chinese fashions.
On the positive side, someone posted new HD photos of Liu Yifei’s XiaoLongNv!
http://ww2.sinaimg.cn/large/62a788cftw1e8bfci1gvrj211x1kwgsu.jpg
http://ww1.sinaimg.cn/large/62a788cftw1e8bfbxazzej21kw2dctmo.jpg
http://ww1.sinaimg.cn/large/62a788cftw1e8bfbosnw1j21kw2dcwwy.jpg
http://ww2.sinaimg.cn/large/62a788cftw1e8bfci1gvrj211x1kwgsu.jpg
That first picture is so insanely gorgeous it’d be cruel to put them side by side. Good luck, Michelle…
I think it will be pretty hard to beat LYF’s XiaoLongNv – she’s just fits that role too perfectly and I still haven’t seen any actress able to give that ethereal look just naturally (LYF doesn’t even need the costumes)
LYF was just too perfect as XLN
Did anyone read that stuff on Yu Zheng weibo about how Li Mochou is actually a nine-tailed fox? Knowing Yu Zheng, it’s entirely likely. (I just watched Gong/Palace the movie. The whole movie is filmed like a horror movie, but there’s odd bits of fantasy (glow-in-the dark butterflies? The 13-th prince is actually a sorcerer?!). It’s actually just kind of hilarious because how ridiculous everything is).
Also, did Yu Zheng steal Tangren’s (crappy) designer? The rags styled clothing, which I really don’t like, is very typical of Tangren.
At least her dress is better than Zhang Meng’s Wang Yuyan white dress that was also suppose to be “ethereal.” Oh, how I feel bad for people who have to follow up to Liu Yifei …
sigh… hope this doesn’t end up too camp… >.< … his plots have taken towards becoming more and more wacky/ludicrous/utterly bizarre lately… sadly, this might be somehow in response to the criticism he gets as well… really needs to learn that some things are fine as is and to work in those parameters… oh wells…
I wish we could see what Louis Cha thinks of this.
I’m of the camp that Jin Yong is one of the worst offender of messing with his own books. I refuse to accept the changes he made in the latest edition of Semi-Gods and Demi-Devils. I haven’t read it, but I believe the newest version of Condor Heroes also makes some unpleasant changes (Yang guo kisses and hugs multiple people as a replacement for XiaoLongNv?! ) .
Dunno… usually, in the Western world, authors throw fits and really go for it if ANYTHING is wrong with an adaptation. Therefore, things rarely get adapted multiple times in a row like Louis Cha’s works, since there’s always this “You’re going to mess things up and upset fans” idea that clings to putting something into a different artistic medium, especially film.
In the case of Louis Cha, I think he’s probably already become used to the idea of his works being adapted since they’ve been done so many times already and… well… things are going to be changed since there’s a difference between books and films as a medium of expression. You have to embellish things differently. It’s just a question of if it’s done in good taste.
Maybe I’m a bit jaded but I think he’s become a bit senile and less passionate than he was before and… well… sorry but kinda sees his works as something he can capitalize on… kinda sad but… heh… let’s be a bit honest. Chinese culture can be so much more mature and coldly realistic than Western cultures sometimes, especially the side that sees the ideals of “passion” and “romance” as something that time will inevitably wear away at. Our “elders’ talk,” if you will, is much more developed. This also makes us more willing to turn over “youthful ideals” for cash sometimes. It’s not like being more mature and worldly is always “good.” *shrugs*
There’s a reason why I usually click through Yu Zheng’s dramas. Maybe they’ll turn up the camp and meteors will start raining from the sky during the finale at Xiangyang!! >:)
He actually sold the rights to all of his books for Zhang Jizhong for 1 yuan because Zhang Jizhong promised he would film them with the care that people did with the Four Classical Novels, so he does care to some degree?
I don’t think he’s lost his ideals of romance (in fact, he seems to have added more romance scenes), but I do think over the years, his sense of righteousness has changed .You can see an obvious change from his clear separation of good and evil in LoCH (“the greatest hero is one for the people and nation”) to Dragon Sabers, where the protagonists are on the “evil” side and the antagonists are on the “good” side. Plus, both protagonists betray their nations. His last novel, Duke of Mount Deer, clearly states that there is no good or evil, and makes fun of those who have righteous claims, saying that they’re only using those claims to cover their selfish interests. I feel like he became more disillusioned with the world (or like you said, more senile) as he grew older, which is unfortunate since I”m still going through his LoCH stage.
That’s true. I guess aging works in strange ways. Some things we still cling too. I guess what’s important is that the general framework of his stories, on the whole, aren’t bad and his willingness for remakes create opportunities for budding actors, actresses. and production teams. Otherwise, the Chinese television industry probably wouldn’t have been able to grow to the point of pushing BBJX and ZHZ into Asian phenomenons in recent years and Chinese television really starting to gain respect in the rest of Asia.