XAJH Mainland 2001: Rescuing the Holy Maiden from Shaolin
笑 傲 江 湖
~Xiao Ao Jiang Hu~
Laughing in The Wind
CCTV (Mainland China) 2001
Part IV: Rescuing the Holy Maiden from Shaolin
(Episode 20-27)
Main Casts
Li Yapeng as Linghu Chong
Lu Xiaohe as Ren Woxing
Ba Yin as Xiang Wentian
Xu Qing as Ren Yingying
This part is definitely my 2nd favorite next to the final battles. This part consists of two separate arcs: the Plum Manor mission & the Holy Maiden rescue mission. In short, the 1st arc covers Xiang Wentian's mission to rescue Ren Woxing (the former chief of Sun and Moon sect and Ren Yingying's father) from the manor's underground dungeon, dragging Linghu Chong to assist him in the mission, while the 2nd arc covers Linghu Chong leading a group of heretics to rescue the Holy Maiden (Ren Yingying) from Shaolin temple.
How did Ren Yingying end up confined in Shaolin temple?
After the battle in the green bamboo lane and Linghu Chong passed out, Yingying carried LHC all the way to Shaolin temple. Yingying begged Master Fangzheng, the abbot of Shaolin, to rescue LHC and teach him the Yijin Jing manual, the only thing that can rescue LHC's life. Fangzheng agreed on one condition, that in change of LHC's life, he want Yingying to stay in the Shaolin temple for 10 years to redeem all of her sins since she has killed many innocent people. Yingying agreed to the condition. On the same time, Fangzheng received a letter from Yue Buqun which states that he has expelled Linghu Chong from Huashan and that LHC is no longer related to Huashan. Two weeks later, Linghu Chong is finally awake and got better thanks to the master monks' internal energy, but his internal wound has not been cured at all. He asked where Yingying is, but the monks avoided the question. They asked Linghu Chong to be a Shaolin disciple so they can teach him Yijin Jing, the only thing that can save his life. Then, they tell him about Yue Buqun's letter. Linghu Chong was surprised to know he has been expelled, but he decided he can't easily switch school and he left Shaolin, not knowing Yingying was still confined inside the temple.
After he left Shaolin, he wandered around aimlessly. I love all these scenes showing his frustration and devastation only after he left Shaolin and he's alone. Li Yapeng did a good job acting him naturally surprised reading the letter and looked like he tried to hide his feelings too in front of the monks, I think it was thanks to the directing, as well.
It was very natural and suits LHC's character. Other adaptation had him looking shock dramatically and some even had him crying on the spot, lol.
I especially like the scene when he was just sitting on the side of the street in the middle of the rain, eating something, and drank the rain. It's just a daily, normal routine, but I always want to see more of these wuxia characters' daily routines when they have to embark on a journey, aside from all the grand events happening to them. No doubt, this series portrayed it the best and most natural.
After a few days wandering around, he saw about a hundred of men surrounding and ready to attack a certain man sitting inside a hut in the middle of the forest. He decided to help the man. Turns out, the man is Xiang Wentian, the Right Protector of the Sun and Moon sect, and the people attacking him are a mix of the righteous sect's people and the Sun and Moon sect's followers seeking revenge. After a fierce battle and they managed to escape danger together, they decided to be sworn brothers. Then, Xiang Wentian asked LHC to come with him to the Plum Manor, without explaining his purpose. The Plum Manor is owned by the Four Brothers of Jiangnan who are professed in the fields of qin (zither), qi (chess), shu (calligraphy), and hua (paintings) respectively. Xiang Wentian offered the four brothers treasure they cannot reject and tell them they can have all the treasure he bring, if they can beat Linghu Chong in sword skill. To gain advantage for Linghu Chong who has lost his inner energy, Xiang Wentian set up a rule that they're not allowed to use their inner energy and the matches are purely to test each other's sword skill. After Linghu Chong beat all the four brothers, they asked LHC to go underground with them together, telling them they know someone who can beat LHC. XWT gave LHC something and told him to give the thing to the person he's gonna meet underground. As he arrived in the underground dungeon, he saw an old man chained in a hanging cage.
I wonder where did the production team get this insane idea of a hanging cage? The hanging cage looks awesome and creepy, at the same time. The book only described it as a normal narrow room with a door and a square hole. But this hanging cage thingy, I think, is such an excellent invention! It looks cinematically artistic. And you can tell just how the guy inside the cage would feel miserable and might have gone crazy that he has to sit the whole time and can't stand straight, it's the perfect human torture.
After the four brothers persuaded the old man, he's willing to have a match with Linghu Chong. LHC placed the thing Xiang Wentian gave him in the old man's hand. After a few strokes in the match, suddenly the old man laughed as loud as he could with his inner energy and all the four brothers and Linghu Chong himself passed out. When he woke up, LHC is already chained inside the hanging cage apparently everyone in the manor thought he is Mr. Ren, the old man. After a few days inside the cage, he found writings on the cage rails written by someone named Ren Woxing. One day, one of the four brothers came to visit him and he still thought he's Mr. Ren, he said he's asking him the same question every 2 months in 12 years, if Ren is willing to teach him that powerful skill, he will set him free and apparently Ren has been refusing his request. As Linghu Chong thought this is a good opportunity for him to escape, he told him to come in another ten days. He was thinking to teach him some random skill modified from the writings on the rails. So Linghu Chong unintentionally learned the skill written on the rails, little did he know its the Star Sucking Skill (Xixin Dafa) and it has totally cured his internal wound.
After he managed in escaping the underground dungeon, he met Xiang Wentian and the old man again, who turns out to be Ren Woxing, the former chief of Sun and Moon sect and the father of Ren Yingying. RWX persuaded LHC to join the Sun and Moon sect but Linghu Chong refused. RWX told him Yingying is in Shaolin. He was surprised but he decided to go separate ways.
Meanwhile, Shaolin has actually set Ren Yingying free when she found out Linghu Chong has left Shaolin without learning the Yijin Jing manual. On the way, Yingying was attacked by Dongfang Bubai's men. Ren Woxing and Xiang Wentian were nearby and saved her. The father and daughter met again after 12 years separation. It was a touching reunion.
On Linghu Chong's way, he met Mo Da, the chief of the Southern Hengshan sect and told him that the Holy Maiden made sacrifice and she was confined in Shaolin temple in change of Linghu Chong's life. He told him the evil sect's followers and the heretics are currently planning a rescue mission to Shaolin and they're selecting the leader. He also told him that Yingying has actually left Shaolin. Mo Da think LHC should become the leader to avoid any trouble between the evil sect and Shaolin. Linghu Chong sets off to the Wuba Hills where the heretics gathered and they agreed to choose him as the leader. When they arrived at Shaolin, they didn't see a single monk, the temple was empty. Apparently the Shaolin monks were hiding in the forest near the temple to avoid any casualty. Shaolin have also called the other righteous sects (incl. Huashan) to back them up and they were all hiding together with them. Since the temple is empty, Linghu Chong persuaded the heretics to leave the place. When everyone's gone, Linghu Chong decided to go back to the temple and hide near the ceiling. He saw Ren Woxing, Xiang Wentian and Ren Yingying inside, and at the same time the Shaolin monks and the righteous sect people came in from the main gate.
They had a face-to-face confrontation. I find it particularly interesting when Ren Woxing started talking about how he has 3.5 people he likes and 3.5 people he dislikes in the martial arts world. This adaptation stayed true to the book at this particularly scene. I like the psychological battle in this scene and all the actors played out their facial expressions very well, especially Ren Yingying who only stood in the background and get very little number of lines in this scene.
RWX wants to leave the temple but they gave him a condition that he has to win 2 rounds of 3 duel. Ren Woxing won over Master Fangzheng, but Zuo Lengchan, the chief of Songshan sect, beat him in the 2nd round. When Xiang Wentian vs Wudang chief match was about to start, Ren Woxing told XWT to back off and he called Linghu Chong's name and told him to come down. Linghu Chong greeted RWX, RYY and XWT and also the Shaolin and Wudang masters, but he didn't have the courage to face his Huashan master, Yue Buqun and his wife until she called him first. The Wudang chief said they can go without the duel and he is sure Linghu Chong will beat him, but Yue Buqun wouldn't let him go and forced him to fight a duel against him. Linghu Chong won the match but then he passed out.
When LHC woke up, he was in a cave together with Yingying. They joked around with each other and it was a really, really sweet scene. Yingying looked like an angel when she is smiling shyly.
It's snowing outside, and apparently Ren Woxing was wounded internally by Zuo Lengchan. LHC and Yingying decided to channel their inner energy to help cure RWX's wound. The 4 people were covered by snow and looked like snowman. LHC's martial art sister, Yue Lingshan and Lin Pingzhi passed by and they talked about love and marriage when a group of bandits came and started attacking them. When they held down LPZ and tried to rape YLS, Linghu Chong bursts out of the snowman and he killed them all.
This is one of the goriest scene in this series. Sword thrusted into neck and stomach, with all the blood spurting out, it all looked so real. I remember that this series was once criticized to be very gory and it doesn't suit a TV show. While I agree that the goriness shouldn't be shown on TV, but to be honest I like these details. It's cause and effect, there's no way you can avoid blood and ugly scenes in the martial arts world with swords as the weapon. The production team is just trying to be realistic and I think they're doing an awesome job at it. And it's not like they dwell over the gory scenes either, they shot the effect and immediately switched to the next frame.
When YLS and LPZ were about to leave, Yingying bursts out and aimed her sword at Lingshan's neck, telling her that she owes Linghu Chong a word of gratitude. Linghu Chong held the sword tightly to avoid Yingying thrust it any further, causing his hand bleeding, and told his martial art sister to leave immediately. Yingying was disappointed to see Linghu Chong disregard his own safety for Lingshan and turned away in tears.
This part wasn't in the book, so I'm thinking Yingying is kind of out of character in this scene, because both in the book and this series, she always speak and act like he never expect anything in return from Linghu Chong, so she isn't suppose to hold any grudge against Lingshan, Linghu Chong's first love. But I do understand that this adaptation might want to use this opportunity to show a direct interaction between the leading lady and the supporting lady of the series, since they have almost zero direct interaction in the book.
After they left, Ren Woxing and Xiang Wentian bursts out of the snowman. RWX told them he has felt better now thanks to Linghu Chong and he calls him "son-in-law." Once again he persuaded Linghu Chong to join the Sun and Moon sect but Linghu Chong refused. To avoid any more conflict, Yingying told him to leave right away. So, Linghu Chong left.
I really love these four: Linghu Chong, Ren Yingying, Ren Woxing and Xiang Wentian, as a team. They give this awesome vibe as a carefree and badass team, not to mention they have great chemistry too. I love the fact that Ren Woxing likes Linghu Chong a lot and even wants him to be his son-in-law right away. How I wish Linghu Chong stop being stubborn and accept the offer to join the evil sect.
To be continued to Part V: Becoming the Chief of Northern Hengshan Sect.
You can watch this series here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCos_1jZq9Y&list=PLA3M3jODMcbdXo8IKcg_9AkDKTMeDI20c
~Xiao Ao Jiang Hu~
Laughing in The Wind
CCTV (Mainland China) 2001
Part IV: Rescuing the Holy Maiden from Shaolin
(Episode 20-27)
Main Casts
Li Yapeng as Linghu Chong
Lu Xiaohe as Ren Woxing
Ba Yin as Xiang Wentian
Xu Qing as Ren Yingying
This part is definitely my 2nd favorite next to the final battles. This part consists of two separate arcs: the Plum Manor mission & the Holy Maiden rescue mission. In short, the 1st arc covers Xiang Wentian's mission to rescue Ren Woxing (the former chief of Sun and Moon sect and Ren Yingying's father) from the manor's underground dungeon, dragging Linghu Chong to assist him in the mission, while the 2nd arc covers Linghu Chong leading a group of heretics to rescue the Holy Maiden (Ren Yingying) from Shaolin temple.
How did Ren Yingying end up confined in Shaolin temple?
After the battle in the green bamboo lane and Linghu Chong passed out, Yingying carried LHC all the way to Shaolin temple. Yingying begged Master Fangzheng, the abbot of Shaolin, to rescue LHC and teach him the Yijin Jing manual, the only thing that can rescue LHC's life. Fangzheng agreed on one condition, that in change of LHC's life, he want Yingying to stay in the Shaolin temple for 10 years to redeem all of her sins since she has killed many innocent people. Yingying agreed to the condition. On the same time, Fangzheng received a letter from Yue Buqun which states that he has expelled Linghu Chong from Huashan and that LHC is no longer related to Huashan. Two weeks later, Linghu Chong is finally awake and got better thanks to the master monks' internal energy, but his internal wound has not been cured at all. He asked where Yingying is, but the monks avoided the question. They asked Linghu Chong to be a Shaolin disciple so they can teach him Yijin Jing, the only thing that can save his life. Then, they tell him about Yue Buqun's letter. Linghu Chong was surprised to know he has been expelled, but he decided he can't easily switch school and he left Shaolin, not knowing Yingying was still confined inside the temple.
After he left Shaolin, he wandered around aimlessly. I love all these scenes showing his frustration and devastation only after he left Shaolin and he's alone. Li Yapeng did a good job acting him naturally surprised reading the letter and looked like he tried to hide his feelings too in front of the monks, I think it was thanks to the directing, as well.
It was very natural and suits LHC's character. Other adaptation had him looking shock dramatically and some even had him crying on the spot, lol.
I especially like the scene when he was just sitting on the side of the street in the middle of the rain, eating something, and drank the rain. It's just a daily, normal routine, but I always want to see more of these wuxia characters' daily routines when they have to embark on a journey, aside from all the grand events happening to them. No doubt, this series portrayed it the best and most natural.
After a few days wandering around, he saw about a hundred of men surrounding and ready to attack a certain man sitting inside a hut in the middle of the forest. He decided to help the man. Turns out, the man is Xiang Wentian, the Right Protector of the Sun and Moon sect, and the people attacking him are a mix of the righteous sect's people and the Sun and Moon sect's followers seeking revenge. After a fierce battle and they managed to escape danger together, they decided to be sworn brothers. Then, Xiang Wentian asked LHC to come with him to the Plum Manor, without explaining his purpose. The Plum Manor is owned by the Four Brothers of Jiangnan who are professed in the fields of qin (zither), qi (chess), shu (calligraphy), and hua (paintings) respectively. Xiang Wentian offered the four brothers treasure they cannot reject and tell them they can have all the treasure he bring, if they can beat Linghu Chong in sword skill. To gain advantage for Linghu Chong who has lost his inner energy, Xiang Wentian set up a rule that they're not allowed to use their inner energy and the matches are purely to test each other's sword skill. After Linghu Chong beat all the four brothers, they asked LHC to go underground with them together, telling them they know someone who can beat LHC. XWT gave LHC something and told him to give the thing to the person he's gonna meet underground. As he arrived in the underground dungeon, he saw an old man chained in a hanging cage.
I wonder where did the production team get this insane idea of a hanging cage? The hanging cage looks awesome and creepy, at the same time. The book only described it as a normal narrow room with a door and a square hole. But this hanging cage thingy, I think, is such an excellent invention! It looks cinematically artistic. And you can tell just how the guy inside the cage would feel miserable and might have gone crazy that he has to sit the whole time and can't stand straight, it's the perfect human torture.
After the four brothers persuaded the old man, he's willing to have a match with Linghu Chong. LHC placed the thing Xiang Wentian gave him in the old man's hand. After a few strokes in the match, suddenly the old man laughed as loud as he could with his inner energy and all the four brothers and Linghu Chong himself passed out. When he woke up, LHC is already chained inside the hanging cage apparently everyone in the manor thought he is Mr. Ren, the old man. After a few days inside the cage, he found writings on the cage rails written by someone named Ren Woxing. One day, one of the four brothers came to visit him and he still thought he's Mr. Ren, he said he's asking him the same question every 2 months in 12 years, if Ren is willing to teach him that powerful skill, he will set him free and apparently Ren has been refusing his request. As Linghu Chong thought this is a good opportunity for him to escape, he told him to come in another ten days. He was thinking to teach him some random skill modified from the writings on the rails. So Linghu Chong unintentionally learned the skill written on the rails, little did he know its the Star Sucking Skill (Xixin Dafa) and it has totally cured his internal wound.
After he managed in escaping the underground dungeon, he met Xiang Wentian and the old man again, who turns out to be Ren Woxing, the former chief of Sun and Moon sect and the father of Ren Yingying. RWX persuaded LHC to join the Sun and Moon sect but Linghu Chong refused. RWX told him Yingying is in Shaolin. He was surprised but he decided to go separate ways.
Meanwhile, Shaolin has actually set Ren Yingying free when she found out Linghu Chong has left Shaolin without learning the Yijin Jing manual. On the way, Yingying was attacked by Dongfang Bubai's men. Ren Woxing and Xiang Wentian were nearby and saved her. The father and daughter met again after 12 years separation. It was a touching reunion.
On Linghu Chong's way, he met Mo Da, the chief of the Southern Hengshan sect and told him that the Holy Maiden made sacrifice and she was confined in Shaolin temple in change of Linghu Chong's life. He told him the evil sect's followers and the heretics are currently planning a rescue mission to Shaolin and they're selecting the leader. He also told him that Yingying has actually left Shaolin. Mo Da think LHC should become the leader to avoid any trouble between the evil sect and Shaolin. Linghu Chong sets off to the Wuba Hills where the heretics gathered and they agreed to choose him as the leader. When they arrived at Shaolin, they didn't see a single monk, the temple was empty. Apparently the Shaolin monks were hiding in the forest near the temple to avoid any casualty. Shaolin have also called the other righteous sects (incl. Huashan) to back them up and they were all hiding together with them. Since the temple is empty, Linghu Chong persuaded the heretics to leave the place. When everyone's gone, Linghu Chong decided to go back to the temple and hide near the ceiling. He saw Ren Woxing, Xiang Wentian and Ren Yingying inside, and at the same time the Shaolin monks and the righteous sect people came in from the main gate.
They had a face-to-face confrontation. I find it particularly interesting when Ren Woxing started talking about how he has 3.5 people he likes and 3.5 people he dislikes in the martial arts world. This adaptation stayed true to the book at this particularly scene. I like the psychological battle in this scene and all the actors played out their facial expressions very well, especially Ren Yingying who only stood in the background and get very little number of lines in this scene.
RWX wants to leave the temple but they gave him a condition that he has to win 2 rounds of 3 duel. Ren Woxing won over Master Fangzheng, but Zuo Lengchan, the chief of Songshan sect, beat him in the 2nd round. When Xiang Wentian vs Wudang chief match was about to start, Ren Woxing told XWT to back off and he called Linghu Chong's name and told him to come down. Linghu Chong greeted RWX, RYY and XWT and also the Shaolin and Wudang masters, but he didn't have the courage to face his Huashan master, Yue Buqun and his wife until she called him first. The Wudang chief said they can go without the duel and he is sure Linghu Chong will beat him, but Yue Buqun wouldn't let him go and forced him to fight a duel against him. Linghu Chong won the match but then he passed out.
When LHC woke up, he was in a cave together with Yingying. They joked around with each other and it was a really, really sweet scene. Yingying looked like an angel when she is smiling shyly.
It's snowing outside, and apparently Ren Woxing was wounded internally by Zuo Lengchan. LHC and Yingying decided to channel their inner energy to help cure RWX's wound. The 4 people were covered by snow and looked like snowman. LHC's martial art sister, Yue Lingshan and Lin Pingzhi passed by and they talked about love and marriage when a group of bandits came and started attacking them. When they held down LPZ and tried to rape YLS, Linghu Chong bursts out of the snowman and he killed them all.
This is one of the goriest scene in this series. Sword thrusted into neck and stomach, with all the blood spurting out, it all looked so real. I remember that this series was once criticized to be very gory and it doesn't suit a TV show. While I agree that the goriness shouldn't be shown on TV, but to be honest I like these details. It's cause and effect, there's no way you can avoid blood and ugly scenes in the martial arts world with swords as the weapon. The production team is just trying to be realistic and I think they're doing an awesome job at it. And it's not like they dwell over the gory scenes either, they shot the effect and immediately switched to the next frame.
When YLS and LPZ were about to leave, Yingying bursts out and aimed her sword at Lingshan's neck, telling her that she owes Linghu Chong a word of gratitude. Linghu Chong held the sword tightly to avoid Yingying thrust it any further, causing his hand bleeding, and told his martial art sister to leave immediately. Yingying was disappointed to see Linghu Chong disregard his own safety for Lingshan and turned away in tears.
This part wasn't in the book, so I'm thinking Yingying is kind of out of character in this scene, because both in the book and this series, she always speak and act like he never expect anything in return from Linghu Chong, so she isn't suppose to hold any grudge against Lingshan, Linghu Chong's first love. But I do understand that this adaptation might want to use this opportunity to show a direct interaction between the leading lady and the supporting lady of the series, since they have almost zero direct interaction in the book.
After they left, Ren Woxing and Xiang Wentian bursts out of the snowman. RWX told them he has felt better now thanks to Linghu Chong and he calls him "son-in-law." Once again he persuaded Linghu Chong to join the Sun and Moon sect but Linghu Chong refused. To avoid any more conflict, Yingying told him to leave right away. So, Linghu Chong left.
I really love these four: Linghu Chong, Ren Yingying, Ren Woxing and Xiang Wentian, as a team. They give this awesome vibe as a carefree and badass team, not to mention they have great chemistry too. I love the fact that Ren Woxing likes Linghu Chong a lot and even wants him to be his son-in-law right away. How I wish Linghu Chong stop being stubborn and accept the offer to join the evil sect.
To be continued to Part V: Becoming the Chief of Northern Hengshan Sect.
You can watch this series here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCos_1jZq9Y&list=PLA3M3jODMcbdXo8IKcg_9AkDKTMeDI20c