Yu Zheng’s “The Romance of the Condor Heroes” Premieres December 3
The Romance of the Condor Heroes <神雕侠侣>, Yu Zheng’s (于正) controversial adaptation of Jin Yong’s (金庸) classic wuxia novel, will premiere on December 3, 2014.
Airing on Hunan TV, The Romance of the Condor Heroes will take over the time slot of period drama Sound of the Desert <风中奇缘>, which stars Cecilia Liu (刘诗诗), Hu Ge (胡歌), and Eddie Peng (彭于晏).
Chen Xiao (陈晓) stars as the protagonist Yang Guo, a mischievous urchin boy who falls in love with his master, the beautiful Little Dragon Girl of the Ancient Tomb Sect. Portrayed by Taiwanese actress Michelle Chen (陈妍希), the casting of Little Dragon Girl caused quite a controversy in social media, and some netizens even dubbed Michelle as “the fattest Little Dragon Girl in history.” Due to the pressure, Michelle said she had even contemplated suicide. Yu Zheng came to her defense, explaining that Michelle was carefully selected among twenty other famous actresses and that her performance as Little Dragon Girl was stellar.
Yu Zheng’s insistence to rewrite certain plot elements for the adaptation also angered many fans, who expressed that they felt the producer was ruining the classic. Yu Zheng’s previous efforts to adapt a wuxia novel, such as The Smiling, Proud Wanderer adaptation Swordsman <笑傲江湖>, was slammed by critics and fans alike.
Nonetheless, the negative controversy surrounding The Romance of the Condor Heroes may create enough hype to pull in more viewers for Hunan TV, as Sound of the Desert is currently performing below expectations.
“The Romance of the Condor Heroes”
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Source: Hengdianworld.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
I thought Yun Zhong Ge was airing after Sound of the desert?
No offense but Michelle Chen should’ve seen it coming.. She’s not ugly but she doesn’t have the “beauty” needed to portray it.. There’s a reason why Yuan Shan Shan declined the role she knew she would get backlash from it.. I also blame whoever chose that hairstyle.. Two horns? Are you kidding me? It makes her look even more unflattering!
I’m more upset over the drastic change of the storyline than the cast honestly.. Apparently they made the rapist “likeable”, Xiao Long Nu is not cold & aloof but a “loveable cute” character? Not to mention Yang Guo falls for a Xiao Long Nu’s “sister” disciple? What the heck is going on? I hope these rumors aren’t true but then again it’s Yu Zheng he’ll butcher anything!
Agree with the two-horn-looking hairstyle; it really doesn’t look flattering and looks just plain weird. Because she has like a girl next door kinda face, I think they should’ve perhaps applied her with a different style of make up to accentuate her features and make her look more pretty looking because the supporting actresses look better than her and that’s not good because she’s the leading actress.
They have finally learned the american way on how to bastardise classic and cult movies done eon ago that are best left alone or only to follow faithfully.
BTW, if I am Michelle, I won’t think of killing myself, I will tell the fans or hate-fans, no worries, I am fat dragon girl, come have some… yahoooo!!!!
Reading your comments on the two horns reminded me of a character from Little Nicky, starring Adam Sandler 😛
No, just no….
so he turned into a thirsty player. okay.. seems boring.
I think viewers will end up liking Michelle’s Xiao Long Nv. Maybe not the novel fans, but, the general viewers. Isn’t that what happen in Yu Zheng’s XAJH? People ended up rooting for Dong Fang Bu Bai.
I’m sure the cute Xiao Long Nv will endears herself to romance fans. Yu Zheng has this ability. That’s the reason by he was able to bring to fame so many actors and actresses.
He has his fans but most tune in to see a train wreck and this will be a train wreck no doubt. She is a total miscast. Even if she is the best actress in the world, it is still a miscast. But the problem won’t be the casting. Mark my words, the problem will be the script and how he will turn everything upside down. If what he said still stands, I feel this XLN is less naive or innocent than we think and to justify a rape to me basically means badmouthing XLN. You can’t stand on both sides. It has to be very one sided.
YZ brought fame to many not in his ability to highlight any particular strength of actors or actresses but he could make moments, like idol dramas. You won’t rewatch his series but at the moment due to publicity they get the benefit.
My thoughts exactly! I was shocked at how many fans(who I think did not read the novel of course) and viewers ended up loving and rooting for DFBB. YZ has the ability to butcher and change the personalities of the characters to make them so likeable to the general viewers which in turn brings fame to stars under his wing.
Viewers would probably end up rooting for Li Mo Chou or Lin Chao Ying. YZ seems to make the nice main roles bland and give a lot of colour to the supporting roles. That’s what happened to XAJH. YZ killed the characterization of LHC & YRR to make everyone like DFBB.
“Viewers would probably end up rooting for Li Mo Chou or Lin Chao Ying.”
That would be too sad. I like neither women in the original story. Lin Chao Ying, I’m still ok with. But, Li Mo Chou is insane. Yeah, it’s sad that she was betrayed by the man she loves, but, she’s still not justified to kill all the innocent people for it. I remember her killing someone just because he has the same surname as her ex-lover’s wife.
Kidd,
Why don’t you like Lin Chao ying? I think she is ok. She loves WCY very much,but did not go crazy like Li Mo Chou of course. Li Mo Chou is just plain crazy.
The rules that Lin Chao Ying set for her disciples are quite bitter.
HTS,
Actually, my feelings towards Lin Chao Ying aren’t strong. My dislike is more towards Li Mo Chou. Lin is a very intelligent woman, but, she wasted her whole life hating on Wang Chong Yang. Maybe if she’s not like that, her descendant Li Mo Chou won’t be so stubborn and insane either.
Kidd,
In Lin Chao Ying’s case,I think her love for WCY was so strong that sadly it turned into intense hate since he choose other things over her. I can understand her feelings. But at least he did not cheat on her,but in Li Mo Chou’s case,her lover cheated on her so the feelings of hatred are different.
From the clips I watch this XLN is more demure, cute, and humble looking than the previous XLNs who looks cooler and stronger.
Can’t stand this dude’s arrogance and how he plagiarises other people’s works. Has no morals and ethics at all. Really hope he gets fined a heavy penalty. That would teach him a lesson.
The main reason why his dramas gain high ratings is due to the fact that he is somehow able to attract big name casts to act in his dramas.
I find it absolutely appalling the way he verbally attacked attacked Ruby Lin both on televised interviews and on his Weibo account to try and raise his profile and promote his upcoming drama. Such a cheap tactic. Even though he didn’t say out loud her name, it was obvious he was referring to her.
He KILLS every novel of Jin Yong…i cannot understand why Jin Yong continue to allow that
Well JY is probably way too old now to care. I find it sad that GL’s novels are often butchered as well but sadly he has passed away for nearly 30 years now so cannot do anything about it. The saddest part is many who are too young and have not read any of the novels still do not know that GL has passed away and even blamed him for allowing ridiculous changes to his novel adaptions.
I think JY has probably left his royalties to be taken care of by a friend or relative and they copyrights have been sold to the highest bidder.
It is sad since JY used to care so much about the accuracy of his adaptations when he spoke out against TVB and Tsui Hark’s work. Recent works have been horrid and way worse that anything that TVB or Tsui Hark has made from his novels yet JY has not said anything.
The trailer gives me the feeling of puberty age of condor heroes.
After watching the trailer, I find that Michelle Chen has a certain aura (氣質) that the other girls in the series don’t have the make hers special. I couldn’t describe it. The other girls are pretty, but, they do not stand out.
Maybe that was why she was chosen. I have discovered that acting is not all about good looks and good acting skills only. You need to give out a good aura,have on screen charisma,on screen presence,etc.. Acting is truly a lot more complex than I used to think.
Ok,I just saw the trailer and have the same thoughts that you do. Yes,she does have that special aura that the other prettier girls just do not have.
I admired how you two can see her aura when in the trailer, she shown up like less than 10s (feel more like 5s), which barely show much…
And what’s other pretty girls? I saw like 1… 2 if you count the evil clan sister of XLN (small eyes, tall nose doesn’t mean pretty >_> no one looks good in this trailer). But in the trailer, the childish aura of the whole drama make she’s not pretty >__> trailer scream bad… Change that trailer is bad, not even gonna bother
Chen Xiao looks so much a like a young Nicholas Tse in the clip.
>_> idk about you but Nic looks much better than this >_>
You know, deep down, part of me truly believes DFBB was so popular and well liked only ’cause Chen Qiao En (Joe) was the actress. Imagine if it was RYY (Jiang Yiyi) who played DFBB. Think she’s still gonna be as likeable?
Joe playing it is one thing,but the way the character was rewritten also had to do with it too. Also I think it also helped that Wallace and Joe used to date in real life so many hope for them to get reunited.
Agree to coralie,
I just finish watching Swordsman. And I can say I can stand watching it all just because the excellent performance by Joe Chen *2 tumbs up* She was really stand out as DFBB. If not her, I don’t think I could finish the stupid drama. Beside this is the first time I see Joe playing the cold-blood and powerful villain. And wow her acting surprised me!!
HTS, nope LHC-DFBB romance wasn’t a good couple. I see alot Joe’s film.. so I think Joe’s colabs with other male leads much more romantic and believeable.
I’m gonna be fast forwarding to viann zhang’s parts and ditching the rest of the tragedy.
seems terribly boring. The only good Xiao Long Nu(s) in history are Carmen Lee, and obviously, the best(in my opinion) Liu Yi Fei–she looks like the perfect Xiao Long Nu in history. Ever.
I feel like this might the same thing with Ariel Lin as Huang Rong were everyone really hated it/was against it but ended up loving her as HR so they might like Michelle too but then again Ariel had a large fan base and Michelle doesn’t really.