That's so punk!
This will be a pretty big post since Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber is my favorite story out of Jin Yong's Condor Heroes trilogy. We recently finished the 2019 television adaptation, but the 1993 Taiwanese television adaptation was a big part of my childhood so I'll make comparisons. I'm making this post in a bit of a hurry since I was really busy at work the last couple of days and didn't make screen caps. So bear with my internet searched images!
Plot (in general, without going into re-writes and different endings)
The core story is about the secret behind the Heaven Reliant Sword (often referred to as the Heavenly Sword) and the Dragon Slaying Saber (often referred to as the Dragon Saber). Most people believe possessing both will allow them to rule the world in some way. Some people believe it contains the secret to awesome martial arts. Some people believe it contains secrets to allow Han Chinese to win back China from the Mongolians. In comes whishy-washy main lead, Zhang Wuji, and the story follows how the secret was eventually uncovered.
Cast and Characters (2019 edition)
Wishy-washy Zhang Wuji is played by Joseph Zeng and his wonky eye.
Zhang Wuji is the main male lead I like the least out of the Condor Heroes trilogy. He is often indecisive and I feel like he changes his morals however it suits him but then forces his morality upon others.
"Derp, derp...look into my wonky eyes so I can hypnotize you!"
That said, Joseph Zeng's acting is an improvement over the Steve Ma's acting from the Taiwanese version.
Same floppy hair, less bearable personality.
But that's honestly not saying a whole lot because Steve Ma was terrible and Joseph Zeng is only more bearable because he spoke less and looked less self-righteous. At all times, Joseph Zeng just look mildly confused and wonky-eyed.
Zhang Wuji flip-flops worse than a politician between at least four women, all of whom are too good for him:
1993 from left: Xiao Zhao, Zhu'er, Zhang Wuji, Zhou Ziruo, Yang Buhui.
2019 from left: Zhu'er, Zhao Min, Zhang Wuji, Zhou Ziruo, Xiao Zhao.
1) Zhao Min played by Yuqi Chen (Heavenly Sweetness, Ash-Like Frost) - A Mongolian princess that went around being a pretty boss bad guy until she fell in love with Zhang Wuji. And then she becomes pretty useless and irritating until she gave Zhang Wuji her ultimatum.
2) Xiao Zhao played by Kabby Hui - A Persian Ming Cult princess that was satisfied with being Zhang Wuji's maid forever.
3) Yin Li (a/k/a Zhu'er) played by Cao Xi Yue - Zhang Wuji's cousin, but that doesn't stop them from being "married".
4) Zhou Zhiruo played by Xudan Zhu (3310) - A childhood friend of Zhang Wuji that ends up a disciple of Emei.
I don't have great feelings towards Zhu'er and Xiao Zhao and feel that the actors did the best they could with what they were given. But I did think the writers made Zhao Min worse than the 1993 version. Too often, Zhao Min and Zhang Wuji have conversations that go nowhere because both of them flip-flop on whatever position they're arguing for/against.
Zhou Zhiruo, I feel, was definitely worse in the 2019 version than the 1993 version.
In the 1993 version, Zhou Zhiruo was played by Kathy Chow and the general consensus is that her version of Zhou Zhiruo is the best. So it's probably the role that's the most difficult to top
Some of the other characters in this story include:
Abbess Meijue, now played by Kathy Chow (Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber (1993), Legend of the Condor Heroes (2008), Heavenly Sweetness, Ash-Like Frost). How fitting is it that 1993 Zhou Ziruo is the 2019 leader of Emei?
For reference, young Kathy Chow:
Yang Xiao, played by Lin Shen.
Despite being 38, I didn't think Lin Shen made a very good young Yang Xiao.
Probably because, amazingly, this guy has no lower lip and that just looks weird.
The best Yang Xiao would still go to 1993's Sun Xing (because it would certainly not go to 2003 version's Yang Xiao - not pictured, because most fans would like to forget that happened).
"In my eyes, the Heavenly Sword is no better than scrap metal." - so punk!
Young me was so into young Yang Xiao from the 1993 because he was just so punk. I don't think the 2019 version conveyed that as well. But I do think Lin Shen played a better old Yang Xiao since he conveys dignity and patience better.
And also grew facial hair to hide the fact that he has no lower lip.
It is weird that in most adaptations of the story (2003 notwithstanding), Yang Xiao starts off as a young man when his contemporary would be Zhang Wuji's grandfather and godfather, both portrayed as characters in their 50's-60's at the start of the drama while Yang Xiao starts of in his 20's-30's. He must have became a martial arts prodigy by the time he was 10 for that math to work out.
Xie Xun, played by Zhang Yong Gang (Legend of the Condor Heroes (2017), Swords of Legends, Swordsman). Zhang Yong Gang does a good job of being Xie Xun.
And I won't bother listing them all since there are many characters in this story.
Pros and Cons (in comparison to the 1993 version)
Pros:
* Better cinematography, sets, and costumes - which is a given, what with the passage of time, the diverse scenery available to China, and much more attention being spent on costumes in drama nowadays.
Some of the things I was particularly impressed by are:
It's like, they actually set fire to a pagoda or they had really good fire CGI. I don't think it's the latter, so it's amazing to me that they set fire to a whole set for this shot.
Not just people under real, wet water. But people under water doing things. While this sequence was a short fight scene in which the camera cuts were too fast, I think this shot looks really impressive in motion.
Making suicides look stylish with that back lighting!
And of course, real live animals!
* Better Zhang Cuisan and Yin Susu (Zhang Wuji's parents) - in the 1993 version, they just have the actors that play Zhang Wuji and Zhao Min play his parents and I just don't like Steven Ma. So having different actors play different characters, I do think the 2019 version does a better job of having Zhang Cuisan and Yin Susu be their own separate characters with different personalities.
* Music - The credit really goes to the 1993 version here. The opening song is "刀劍如夢" by Wakin Chau. I think all the 2019 version did was to do a slightly different arrangement of instrumentals. "刀劍如夢" is a really good song that embodies the wuxia spirit. I think in general, wuxia dramas in the 90's to early 00's did really good jobs with similar songs. More recent productions do too many slow songs or instrumentals that are just not...wuxia.
Click to viewOpening credit short version.
Full song (long version) - I just really like this song!
There's also a Cantonese version with different lyrics but the Mandarin lyrics are better. To plug this song more, here is 831's modern rock cover of the song:
The insert song sung by Xiao Zhao in both versions of the drama is "倆倆相忘". It was done by Winnie Hsin in the 1993 version.
1993 - Winnie Hsin.
And Karendaidai in the 2019 version.
2019 - Karendaidai.
For this song, I also find the 1993 version superior because it's a fairly straightforward, cleanly produced song. The 2019 version adds too much effects like...overdubbing (I believe) to make it sound like more than one person is singing. It's a solo, not a duet or a chorus!
There are other songs in the 2019 version but I find them very unmemorable.
Cons:
* Some characters lack...character - What I like about many of the characters in the 1993 version is how short on temper, to-the-point, direct, and abrupt they are when they speak. Abbess Meijue, Yang Xiao, Yin Tianzheng and Yin Yewang (Yin Susu's father and brother, respectively), and Hu Qingniu (the awesome Ming Cult doctor). They're all a little crazy, somewhat punk, and says exactly what they think and don't give a damn about mincing words. I find that very lacking in the 2019 version. People talk way too much and for too long instead of being direct and to-the-point. The only character from the 2019 version that I think captured some of that spirit is Xie Xun and only towards the beginning of the drama when he's interacting with Zhang Cuisan and Yin Susu.
* Fight choreography - with modern technology and decades of watching martial arts media, one would think fight choreography should be improving all the time. But nope! This fight choreography is only slightly better than Fights Break Sphere fight choreography in that this at least occasionally zooms out so you can see which actor is doing the posing. It's pretty disappointing, since even with the wacky camera moves and obvious stunt doubles, 1993 still has the superior fight choreography.
Zhou Zhiruo old and new, a detailed review
Zhou Zhiruo from the 1993 version is one of my favorite fictional characters (my fictional character PK battle spoilers!). So I have to devote a whole section to her.
As described by the book, she's supposed to be incredibly beautiful and kind. Conflict arises from her love of Zhang Wuji and her her devotion to her master, Abbess Meijue. That conflict is pretty important because it explains how she goes from a young woman that couldn't harm animals and had a hard time killing her enemies into a psycho killer.
What failed in the 2019 version is that the writing never really establishes much of a romance between Zhou Zhiruo and Zhang Wuji. I nearly forgot that was a plotline until Abbess Meijue made Zhou Zhiruo swear that vow against marrying Zhang Wuji. At that point, I was like, "what makes Meijue think she wants to marry that idiot?" It didn't seem like at any point in the drama, it was ever established that there was anything but platonic pseudo-friendship between them. And I say "pseudo", because the only time they kind of hung out was when she didn't stab him in the heart on Brightness Peak. But at that point, she didn't stab many other people in the heart, so I don't know why that particular incident made Meijue think they would be romantically involved (I certainly forgot!).
Therefore, when Zhou Zhiruo ultimately 1) agrees to marry Zhang Wuji in the first place and 2) gets jilted on her wedding day, none of those things felt very impactful. It never seemed like Zhou Zhiruo loved Zhang Wuji to go against her late master's wishes. And it never seemed like Zhou Zhiruo loved Zhang Wuji enough to be heartbroken by him.
Bad writing aside, I also didn't think Xudan Zhu did a very good job playing Zhou Ziruo. When she's playing a good character, she's too passively and pathetically good and just constantly sad looking. When she's a bad character, she's just the standard expressionless evil person.
I also felt like the fall from good person to evil person wasn't very meaningful. The drama briefly shows the conflict she has, but it felt very perfunctory. Part of the problem is that this drama didn't develop Zhou Ziruo enough so that, when conflict does happen, I just didn't care.
In the 1993 version, Kathy Chow played Zhou Ziruo with a sense of pride. Even when she's a good Emei disciple being put down by the eldest disciple, she's not just a good, sad person putting up with bullying.
Kathy Chow has this really good bitch face in which she can totally convey this bubbling rage that's right under the surface of Zhou Ziruo's goodness.
Therefore, it's a believable transition when she snaps and becomes evil.
It must be pretty terrifying to be on the other end of that stare-down.
And then, Yang Xiao, the other fictional character on my PK list
I would have to say that (old) Yang Xiao is pretty good in this drama. But (young) Yang Xiao is still better in the 1993 version and they give him very punk lines. When Ji Xiaofu asks why he doesn't try to explain the Ming Cult's actions to the other sect, he goes: "I don't care what other people think."
At all times, he has a bit of a rage issue and doesn't hesitate to kill whoever he damn well pleases. I rewatched the first few episodes of the 1993 version recently and he was just as punk as I remembered.
That rage issue makes his romance with Ji Xiaofu more remarkable because he would only smile like this around her.
In my mind, 1993 version's young Yang Xiao is probably one of the best 俠 characters out there.
***
Ultimately, I was a little surprised to find that the same director that did Legend of the Condor Heroes (2017) did this drama. The fight choreography was pretty good in Legends of the Condor Heroes (2017). This drama's fight choreography is just...pretty bad.
That's not to say the 2019 version is terrible. It's just not as good compared to the 1993 version in most ways. But then again, I don't think there's on definitive good drama version of this story. In some sort of ideal world, I would take 2019's cinematography, sets, and costumes but fight choreography from the 2003 or 2009 versions. For the main characters, I would take:
Zhang Wuji - 2019 or 2003...it doesn't matter that much because he'll suck anyways.
Zhao Min - 2009 or 2003
Zhou Ziruo - 1993
Yang Xiao - 1993 then 2019
Abbess Miejue - 1993 or 2019
Zhang Sanfeng - 1993 or 2019