Originality please. Not another remake


ricohflex

Senior Member
Feb 24, 2005
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I am still coming across innumerable versions of the Jin Yong novel adapted for TV and/or movies. The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. 倚天屠龙记.
The story was very well written (in 1955) and imaginative. But audiences cannot keep watching it in various incarnations with different sets of actors/actresses.

How is it that all the other Chinese Wu Xia authors have died?
Why are movie and TV studios remaking...and remaking... and remaking... the same old story for TV and movies.

Can we have some new stories.

Some originality, please.
 

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I am still coming across innumerable versions of the Jin Yong novel adapted for TV and/or movies. The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. 倚天屠龙记.
The story was very well written (in 1955) and imaginative. But audiences cannot keep watching it in various incarnations with different sets of actors/actresses.

How is it that all the other Chinese Wu Xia authors have died?
Why are movie and TV studios remaking...and remaking... and remaking... the same old story for TV and movies.

Can we have some new stories.

Some originality, please.

LOL. think abt it this way.

u cant make a 21century kid (yes children), watch a 1950 video of the same story. its targetted at kids actually. one side it will let kids know the story, second is that it will keep up wiht the times.
romance of 3 kingdoms is also an old story. but its still a good story.
 

Maybe it's because it's a tried-and-tested formula with guaranteed audience = low risk, high profit. John Wu's Red Cliff sucks (since when was RO3K about some woman?) but still made tonnes of money because RO3K is such a firm favorite among Chinese.
Even Hollywood is doing the same thing with remakes of old hits (or more nicely termed as "re-imagining").

Anyway, few months back, a professor in Malaysia said that those from a Chinese-educated background lack originality and creativity. Mind you, the professor in question is Chinese himself, specializing in SEA history but was English-educated. Naturally his comments sparked a furor among the Chinese-educated masses (MM Lee did the same thing with his "bum students" remark about former Nanyang Uni students): many ppl citing achievements of the Chinese-educated like Nobel prizes etc.
My old man (Chinese-educated) gave a nice counter-example: why are we still having re-incarnations of Jin Yong's novels on TV almost every year? Have we no other stories to tell? All the other authors are dead?
 

How is it that all the other Chinese Wu Xia authors have died?
Why are movie and TV studios remaking...and remaking... and remaking... the same old story for TV and movies.

Can we have some new stories.

Some originality, please.

you got read wu xia?

i think jing yong (the author) is the best wu xia author out there. liang yu sheng, for one is not bad, but is way too draggy for a tv series. also incomparable. gu long is another one, but i dislike all his stories, very nonsensical :p but that's just my opinion, of course.
 

this version of 倚天 is the worst version i watched... the actors and actresses not that outstanding i find. and the CGI effects also sucks... just now when zhiruo use the 倚天 sword to stab wuji... the blood flood so cartoon so fake.

quite disappointed with this series, but i will still watch though when i free :bsmilie:
 

this version of 倚天 is the worst version i watched... the actors and actresses not that outstanding i find. and the CGI effects also sucks... just now when zhiruo use the 倚天 sword to stab wuji... the blood flood so cartoon so fake.

quite disappointed with this series, but i will still watch though when i free :bsmilie:

I think this version follows more closely to the book.
 

I am still coming across innumerable versions of the Jin Yong novel adapted for TV and/or movies. The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. 倚天屠龙记.
The story was very well written (in 1955) and imaginative. But audiences cannot keep watching it in various incarnations with different sets of actors/actresses.

How is it that all the other Chinese Wu Xia authors have died?
Why are movie and TV studios remaking...and remaking... and remaking... the same old story for TV and movies.

Can we have some new stories.

Some originality, please.

Just like Batman, Superman are very old characters but their movies are re-made with newer technologies.
 

i'll rather watch 倚天 then the star awards..
 

this version of 倚天 is the worst version i watched... the actors and actresses not that outstanding i find. and the CGI effects also sucks... just now when zhiruo use the 倚天 sword to stab wuji... the blood flood so cartoon so fake.

quite disappointed with this series, but i will still watch though when i free :bsmilie:

Maybe there was less emphasis on CGI in the older versions, this new one has CGI and badly done ones, plus overacting. So I gave up after one episode, where Zhang CuiShan slashed his own throat rolled down a flight of stairs in slow motion for a full minute...:what:
 

Maybe there was less emphasis on CGI in the older versions, this new one has CGI and badly done ones, plus overacting. So I gave up after one episode, where Zhang CuiShan slashed his own throat rolled down a flight of stairs in slow motion for a full minute...:what:

trust me, the first few epi of wuji as a boy is a drag.. :bsmilie:
 

you got read wu xia?

i think jing yong (the author) is the best wu xia author out there. liang yu sheng, for one is not bad, but is way too draggy for a tv series. also incomparable. gu long is another one, but i dislike all his stories, very nonsensical :p but that's just my opinion, of course.

No, lah. Only see the movies and made for TV serial DVDs.
Mandarin is at F9 level only, how to read wu xia.

There was a novel called Kong Shuit Yuin Shiong (maybe names of the two characters in Canto) aka Xue Chi Tu. or Map of the blood pool.

绛雪玄霜 aka 血池图

author 卧龙生 aka Wo Long Shen


Anyway, this story also had some remakes.
 

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this version of 倚天 is the worst version i watched... the actors and actresses not that outstanding i find. and the CGI effects also sucks... just now when zhiruo use the 倚天 sword to stab wuji... the blood flood so cartoon so fake.

quite disappointed with this series, but i will still watch though when i free :bsmilie:
:confused:
yeah man~ e "blood" was like an animation done by a pre-schooler

same here.
yes!! :thumbsup: rather this than channel 8
 

Actually the only thing I cannot stand is that the script writers got too creative and deviated too much from the originals by inventing/inserting their own stories or removing details from the originals. As with catchlights I had read the books countless of times and can spot this kind of stuffs immediately when I saw them. One good example is the recent remake of "笑傲江湖" where 任盈盈 was turned into a totally different character (in terms of personality) and the story changed beyond recognition. When this happened I would simply refuse to continue watching it. :confused:
 

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I think this version follows more closely to the book.

Don't think so. I've read the novel a number of times, I can confidently tell you they have cut away many scenes. To name a few:
1. Zhang WuJi demonstrated how to execute 7 sang quan.
2. When Zhang WuJi's uncles from Wudang tried to transfer internal strength to Zhang WuJi to cure his injury.

One of the worse version but might be slightly better than the Taiwan version (terrible):thumbsd:
 

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I think we should produce our own 倚天屠龙记 by Mediacorp starring Zoa Tay, Fann Wong, Christopher Lee etc etc. :)

Suitable shooting location will be 裕华园.
 

As original as VR man? :bsmilie:

6a00d83451b52369e201156.jpg

Mediacorp No. 01 Cult Classic
 

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This version has Wuji dreaming of marrying all the lead female protagonists. It was totally ridiculous... (especially since I don't find most of them to be that attractive, except for Zhao Min's and Shao Shao's characters)

The ending was even more ridiculous actually. I can't believe I put up with the laggy China streaming sites to finish watching the show ahead of Channel U's broadcast. haha...............