Post by galvatron prime on Aug 11, 2014 6:37:21 GMT
Golden Snake Sword 金蛇郎君"
Review of “Golden Snake Sword 金蛇郎君" (1993)
Cast: Ekin Cheng, Angela Pang, Jacqueline Law, Wun Yeung Ming, Lau Kong, Ma Ching Yi, Cheung Yik, etc.
** Note: The series was originally filmed in 1991, but warehoused and released overseas in 1993. I’m not sure if the series ever aired in HK (though I assume it probably did at one point).
I will be the first to admit that I didn’t think I would like this series at all, given that the cast – on first glance – did not seem entirely appealing to me (Ekin and Jacqueline have always been steady in terms of their acting and I like them overall, but I’m not a huge fan of either – plus Angela was supposedly the female lead in this series and you know how I feel about newbies leading when they don’t have any acting experience….). Also, based on the title, I thought at first that this series would be another one of those dreaded, butchered, “cheap adaptations” of Jin Yong’s novel (which TVB was notorious for in the 90s), so I was a bit reluctant to give this series much thought. Needless to say, I only watched the series because it came on TV – if it hadn’t come on TV, I probably would not have chosen to watch it on my own accord.
First off, I realized while watching the series that it totally has the wrong title – I’m actually not sure why they used the title 金蛇郎君 (literally translated as “Golden Snake Master”) because the series has nothing to do with that at all. It’s not a remake of that particular JY story, that’s for sure. True, it does try to ‘incorporate’ certain elements of that story in the series – for example: having Ekin’s character discover some mountaintop cave during one particular episode where he finds the golden snake sword and martial arts manual belonging to the Golden Snake Master and learns the kungfu from there – but that was for only one episode. Though there are mentions of the Golden Snake Master throughout the series, the way the mentions were done made it seem like his role was more of a “historical figure” or a “rumored legend”. I’m thinking that perhaps that particular title was used for the series because Ekin’s signature weapon was the golden snake sword and also because in a way, they were trying to draw some similarities between Ekin’s story and the Golden Snake Master’s story (they also used the title “Golden Snake Master” for Ekin in the laster half of the series). I think the best way to describe the intent of the title is to say that it was meant to tell the story of a “Golden Snake Master” in a later generation who goes through similar suffering. Also, those familiar with Jin Yong’s “Crimson Sabre” story will definitely recognize the similarities in the storyline (in fact, Angela’s character in the story is totally a ‘rip-off’ of the Wan Yi character in JY’s “The Crimson Sabre” except with a few important differences – more on this later).
I actually wasn’t paying much attention to the series in the beginning because I didn’t think the series was going to be any good (and quite a few of the beginning parts were truly boring), so not surprisngly, I didn’t understand much of what was going on in the first 5 to 6 episodes. Also, there were various parts in the storyline in the first couple episodes that really did not make much sense either and I was so confused, it sort of turned me off from wanting to continue watching. It wasn’t until around episodes 7 and 8 (or so) when the love story involving Ekin and Angela’s characters started that the storyline picked up a little and I became more interested in watching (ok, I confess – I’m a sucker for “tug at your heartstrings’ type love stories in done correctly with artists who match up well – plus Ekin and Angela had good chemistry and it was refreshing seeing someone other than the ‘usual female leads’ paired up with Ekin for a change).
This series was very much a ‘hit and miss’ for me – there were some parts of the storyline that were okay and kept me interested, but there were other parts of the storyline that were quite illogical and ‘non-sensical’. If it weren’t for the fact that I liked Ekin’s character (and Angela’s to some extent) and also enjoyed the story between the two, I probably would not have bothered to keep watching, especially since there were so many things about the series that annoyed me. Also, one word of caution for those who may be debating whether they want to watch this series or not – if you’re a die-hard Jin Yong fan, you may want to think twice about watching this series because there is a high probability that you may get ticked off. There are SO MANY elements in the storyline that are obvious “rip-offs” of various Jin Yong works (and other famous martial arts-themed stories) that it’s not even funny – it’s almost as though the scriptwriter and producer were lazy and simply lifted some of the ideas from the novels, changed some things around, then put it all together to form a “supposedly” un-related story (a ‘hodge-podge’ of sorts of JY’s works) – which could be why I felt that some parts were choppy and didn’t make sense…a poor editing job (certain scenes cut out) could have contributed to the confusion as well. Die-hard Jin Yong fans with a keen eye will surely recognize many of the so-called “coincidences” between the series and his works (I’m not a ‘die-hard’ fan, but even I recognized certain ‘similarities’ to at least 3-4 of his works). TVB definitely took a lot of liberty with the script, that’s for sure (similar thing that they did with “The Crimson Sabre” in 2000, but that was worse because that was promoted as an adaptation when it was a completely different story while this one wasn’t a direct adaptation but rather a “copy cat”). In my opinion, this series really shows how much the writers lack creativity (or in some cases, lack the time to produce a truly good script) – which is probably one of the (many) reasons why TVB stopped producing as many ancient series in the 90s and after 2000 compared to back in the 80s.
llsmusings.blogspot.com/2011/07/review-of-golden-snake-sword-1993.html
Review of “Golden Snake Sword 金蛇郎君" (1993)
Cast: Ekin Cheng, Angela Pang, Jacqueline Law, Wun Yeung Ming, Lau Kong, Ma Ching Yi, Cheung Yik, etc.
** Note: The series was originally filmed in 1991, but warehoused and released overseas in 1993. I’m not sure if the series ever aired in HK (though I assume it probably did at one point).
I will be the first to admit that I didn’t think I would like this series at all, given that the cast – on first glance – did not seem entirely appealing to me (Ekin and Jacqueline have always been steady in terms of their acting and I like them overall, but I’m not a huge fan of either – plus Angela was supposedly the female lead in this series and you know how I feel about newbies leading when they don’t have any acting experience….). Also, based on the title, I thought at first that this series would be another one of those dreaded, butchered, “cheap adaptations” of Jin Yong’s novel (which TVB was notorious for in the 90s), so I was a bit reluctant to give this series much thought. Needless to say, I only watched the series because it came on TV – if it hadn’t come on TV, I probably would not have chosen to watch it on my own accord.
First off, I realized while watching the series that it totally has the wrong title – I’m actually not sure why they used the title 金蛇郎君 (literally translated as “Golden Snake Master”) because the series has nothing to do with that at all. It’s not a remake of that particular JY story, that’s for sure. True, it does try to ‘incorporate’ certain elements of that story in the series – for example: having Ekin’s character discover some mountaintop cave during one particular episode where he finds the golden snake sword and martial arts manual belonging to the Golden Snake Master and learns the kungfu from there – but that was for only one episode. Though there are mentions of the Golden Snake Master throughout the series, the way the mentions were done made it seem like his role was more of a “historical figure” or a “rumored legend”. I’m thinking that perhaps that particular title was used for the series because Ekin’s signature weapon was the golden snake sword and also because in a way, they were trying to draw some similarities between Ekin’s story and the Golden Snake Master’s story (they also used the title “Golden Snake Master” for Ekin in the laster half of the series). I think the best way to describe the intent of the title is to say that it was meant to tell the story of a “Golden Snake Master” in a later generation who goes through similar suffering. Also, those familiar with Jin Yong’s “Crimson Sabre” story will definitely recognize the similarities in the storyline (in fact, Angela’s character in the story is totally a ‘rip-off’ of the Wan Yi character in JY’s “The Crimson Sabre” except with a few important differences – more on this later).
I actually wasn’t paying much attention to the series in the beginning because I didn’t think the series was going to be any good (and quite a few of the beginning parts were truly boring), so not surprisngly, I didn’t understand much of what was going on in the first 5 to 6 episodes. Also, there were various parts in the storyline in the first couple episodes that really did not make much sense either and I was so confused, it sort of turned me off from wanting to continue watching. It wasn’t until around episodes 7 and 8 (or so) when the love story involving Ekin and Angela’s characters started that the storyline picked up a little and I became more interested in watching (ok, I confess – I’m a sucker for “tug at your heartstrings’ type love stories in done correctly with artists who match up well – plus Ekin and Angela had good chemistry and it was refreshing seeing someone other than the ‘usual female leads’ paired up with Ekin for a change).
This series was very much a ‘hit and miss’ for me – there were some parts of the storyline that were okay and kept me interested, but there were other parts of the storyline that were quite illogical and ‘non-sensical’. If it weren’t for the fact that I liked Ekin’s character (and Angela’s to some extent) and also enjoyed the story between the two, I probably would not have bothered to keep watching, especially since there were so many things about the series that annoyed me. Also, one word of caution for those who may be debating whether they want to watch this series or not – if you’re a die-hard Jin Yong fan, you may want to think twice about watching this series because there is a high probability that you may get ticked off. There are SO MANY elements in the storyline that are obvious “rip-offs” of various Jin Yong works (and other famous martial arts-themed stories) that it’s not even funny – it’s almost as though the scriptwriter and producer were lazy and simply lifted some of the ideas from the novels, changed some things around, then put it all together to form a “supposedly” un-related story (a ‘hodge-podge’ of sorts of JY’s works) – which could be why I felt that some parts were choppy and didn’t make sense…a poor editing job (certain scenes cut out) could have contributed to the confusion as well. Die-hard Jin Yong fans with a keen eye will surely recognize many of the so-called “coincidences” between the series and his works (I’m not a ‘die-hard’ fan, but even I recognized certain ‘similarities’ to at least 3-4 of his works). TVB definitely took a lot of liberty with the script, that’s for sure (similar thing that they did with “The Crimson Sabre” in 2000, but that was worse because that was promoted as an adaptation when it was a completely different story while this one wasn’t a direct adaptation but rather a “copy cat”). In my opinion, this series really shows how much the writers lack creativity (or in some cases, lack the time to produce a truly good script) – which is probably one of the (many) reasons why TVB stopped producing as many ancient series in the 90s and after 2000 compared to back in the 80s.
llsmusings.blogspot.com/2011/07/review-of-golden-snake-sword-1993.html