Like a period Coffee Prince with a battlefield instead of a coffee shop. Why aren't you watching it?

[dangermousie]

Watchitwatchitwatchitwatchit. Or Guo Jing and Huang Rong will end you.



THERE IS NO MORE ROCKING FEMALE THAN HUANG RONG, the heroine of wuxia drama Legend of the Condor Heroes. I kid you not. (She never gets less awesome either. In Return of Condor Heroes she goes into battle hoisting her newborn daughter under one arm. TAKE THAT WIMPY HEROINES OF MANY A DRAMA). Here she is in her mischievous LOCH glory:

I am sure you could tell by an almost complete lack of any drama related posts in the last week that I have been in a drama slump - nothing seemed to be catching my attention. Maybe the stunning disappointment of Take Care of the Lady bleached everything out of my brain? Who knows.

But I proudly announce to you that the slump is broken.

The cause? 2008 adaptation of Legend of Condor Heroes starring Hu Ge and Ariel Lin. LOCH is a wuxia (period, martial arts, epic) drama based on an apparently legendary novel. I have not read the original but have had the exposure to some of the characters, as LOCH's protagonists, Guo Jing and Huang Rong, play important secondary roles in my favorite wuxia drama of all time, Return of Condor Heroes (2006). In fact, the protagonist of ROCH is the son of one of LOCH's characters.

Anyway, the story's hero is Guo Jing. Guo Jing is nature's boyscout - he might not be the brightest bulb out there by far but he is honorable, forthright, and really good at fighting. REALLY good. However, despite being the most amazing martial arts fighter the world has ever seen, Guo Jing is not the sharpest tool in the shed so it's good when his path crosses with that of Huang Rong. Huang Rong is sharp as a tack, ocassionally morally flexible, and pure FUN. Oh, and she can outfight most men. She gives him smarts and he gives her a moral center. They smite enemies together and hug an awful lot and cry over their lurve. I bask in the OTP!

Did I mention that when he first meets her she is cross-dressing as a boy?

YES. IT'S LIKE COFFEE PRINCE. WITH SHARP SHARP SWORDS.

Here is a shippy sort-angsty MV:

There is also a secondary OTP of tragic awesomeness. As a bonus they are Yang Guo's (ROCH) parents thus conferring irresistableness by sheer association. He is the son of Guo Jing's father's best friend and is also Guo Jing's sworn brother who gets seduced by the dark side, she is his loving wife...

There are official subbed dvds you can get in all the usual places. You can stream on mysoju. I am sure dls are available in all the usual places too.

Nothing will trump the passionate, angsty, forbidden OTP of ROCH for me but this is darn irresistable, you guys.

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

My favorite part of ROCH is when she takes out all the bad guys that were beating the strapping youths, then comments about how she can't do anything now that she's pregnant.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

She is just - arguably the most awesome drama heroine ever because she is both so ridiculously kickass AND smart AND well-adjusted AND happily married. I have never seen a heroine that was all of those at once. I bet Guo Jing and Yang Guo (but only his older version) are the only people in existence who could even win a match with her.

I love all the fighting she does with the newborn. I mean! OMG.

I also love that the story allows her to be flawed - she is much too doting a mother - it's her indulgence (and no doubt not as spending as much attention as should have been spent on Feng due to being away for battles and such saving of the world stuff) that results in Feng being such a total HORROR (the bad guys should have just recruited Feng - she did more damage than any of them!). And she couldn't wait to get rid of young Yang Guo to the monks because of fears over the 'blood will out' stuff. But all that doesn't make her a bad person at all but humanizes her.

I HAVE SO MUCH LOVE FOR HUANG RONG.

[lain7.livejournal.com]

He is the son of Guo Jing's father's best friend and is also Guo Jing's sworn brother who gets seduced by the dark side

The script dips into Yang Kang/Mu Nianci quite a bit more than the original novel did, and for once I like the change. Yang Kang has a fascinating back-story that deals with ethnic identity and adoptive vs. birth family. The OTP has chemistry, and the extra screen time helps explain why Mu Nianci would rather raise Yang Guo alone in poverty than seeking out Guo Jing/Huang Rong for support after the end of LoCH. I was never completely satisfied by the implicit reason, because the book never showed us how much MNC loved YK.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

First off, OT but I really like your icon! I keep meaning to comment on it.

I would really like to read one of the novels one of these days but the translations are really hard to find (and am not sure how good they are).

[lain7.livejournal.com]

Wallace thanks you for the compliment! Hee.

Wuxia translation is notoriously difficult. I wonder if wuxia will ever achieve the crossover appeal of anime/manga in the West...

[kirusai.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, another lover of Jin Yong's works :D Seriously, there's no other heroine these days that come even CLOSE to the glory of Huang Rong.

This is an insanely good series, and the TV adaptation is ingenious this time around.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I am so excited I am watching it.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Watchitwatchitwatchitwatchit. Or Guo Jing and Huang Rong will end you.

This looks so so good, but it is 60+ episodes long, right? Even "Brilliant Legacy"'s 28 episodes were a bit too much for me, I for-winded quite a bit. But I keep wanting to watch this for ages.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I think it's 36 eps 45 mins each