EPTSo I stumble in an old corner of the Internet today. I have not been watching/caring about Asian movies scene at all for the last 4-5 years. Finding something like this is quite a shock: They made a new series about Xiao Ao Jiang Hu!!!
![[image loading]](http://i47.tinypic.com/30ksfgj.jpg)
First of all, if you dont know who Jin Yong is, you probably dont need to read the rest of this blog. Anyone who is remotely interested/influenced by the East Asian culture should have heard of Jin Yong novels or watched TV adaption of those novels at least once. They are famous. They influenced generations of Asian growing up reading novels because they dont have TV and sitcoms. In fact, Im pretty sure that Jin Yong novels is the majority of the motivation for my uncle to start working out. The kungfu, the heroism, the ideology are all imprinted in millions of readers and even influenced the later movies and books that were written remotely close to this topic. Tea EL Dee R: it is incredible. Im not saying Jin Yong is the J. R. R. Tolkien of the East but... he is! ok?
My uncle poisoned me with these books when i was like... 13? 15? It was somewhere around grade 5th when I lived with him and my grandparents as my family were moving to a new city. Aint no money, aint no fun to do. New kid on the block, different dialect too. And dont even mention the lack of internet, i didnt even have a working computer. All i did that summer were to chill in my uncle's room where the temperature were not fat-melting hot. As i was graduating from Doraemon and Glass Mask(got it from my sister cousin, good shoujo though, never regret!), my uncle had plenty of books to offer. Started out with Journey to the West, classic bed-time-stories with monkey king if you aren't familiar, i slowly moved up to the non-comic type of reading. Three KingdomsThree Kingdoms were fucked up, i enjoyed the poet at beginning of each chapter but as the characters pool keep getting bigger for a teenager who knew jackshit about politics, I dropped it. Later i found out that because i were mixing 3 Kingdoms with Water Margin, nothing made sense.
And then came Jin Yong's. Damn they were good. My first books were "The Return of the Condor Heroes" and man, it was such a treat. I lived the main character, have him imprinted to my actions. No shit i ended up loving only one girl for 6-7 years after. The philosophy, heroism were spectacular which made the kung fus just the icing on the cake. Not to say that the material arts were any bad because they were not. Top notch of the imagination but kept it low bound so readers could feel the realistic, in the reach of human capability. That is also why my uncle worked out, to fly over water without using an engine.
And the TV adaptations, every each one of them were a bombshell to the Chinese movie making industry. Many actors/actresses got famous via these Jin Yong adaptations. Personally i love the ones that were made in 2001-2003 with a more realist approach to the kungfu. Instead of over using CGI or special effects, they had very unique camera works which boost up the entire production value.
Those were good time.... I gota go now so just gona end the blog here. Its better to have edited good looking blog than a wall of text that no one care amirite?
Btw, all these videos are the best songs taken from the TV series, must listen to kinda material even if you dont know Chinese. They are also INCREDIBLY hard to find if you dont know chinese =)
