Wednesday, June 1, 2011

1983 version Legend of the Condor Heroes Cast Reunion (中国梦想秀--83版射鵰英雄傳重聚) – PART 2

Pictures courtesy of 中国梦想秀's Weibo

.>> The next segment talked about the ‘kung fu’ aspect of the series and how much effort was involved in putting together all those action scenes. One thing I learned is that the series was filmed on Lantau Island (interesting fun fact!).

.>> The fifth cast member to appear was Patrick Tse, who played Yeung Tiet Sum (Yeung Hong’s dad in part 1).

Of course, since Patrick is known for his ‘suaveness’, the host kept saying how handsome and suave he still is, even now 28 years later. (Oh, and it seems that it’s impossible to mention Patrick without mentioning his son Nicholas Tse).

The part I thought was funny was when the host asked Patrick to greet the audience and he said “you guys already know who I am”, then a little girl (couldn’t be more than 5 or 6 years old) replied that he is Yeung Tiet Sum (cute!). When the host asked whether Patrick or Yeung Tiet Sum was more handsome, the girl replied that they were the same person anyway (smart!). Then Patrick tells the girl that Yeung Tiet Sum is actually his uncle (haha…well, at least he tried to be funny).

.>> The sixth cast member to appear was Paul Chun, who played Mongol leader Genghis Khan.

I love Paul Gor – he’s one of my favorite actors! His ‘bearded look’ when he stepped through the doors surprised me though – wasn’t really expecting that -- but I loved his response when the host asked him about the beard – he said that it was “glued” on…(hahaha…I’m sure he was just joking…that beard looks real – he was probably filming or something).

It was so cute to see Paul Gor’s fans there – a bunch of young guys were sitting in the crowd holding pictures of him and his kids Benji and Lesley. Awww!

.>> After Paul Gor was introduced, Patrick came back on stage as well and the host chatted with both of them. Some of the things they talked about was how the two men were already big film stars back when they shot LOTCH in 1983. It was funny how Patrick tried to pull on Paul Gor’s beard and then proclaimed that it was fake…

.>> The host asked Paul Gor and Patrick why they agreed to shoot a TV series when both actors were all such big film stars in their own right.

Patrick’s response: Because the first series / film that he did was one of Jin Yong’s works, so he has confidence in his works.

Paul Gor’s response: Mr. Cha (Jin Yong) is his good friend, so he agreed to film it. However, his regret is that all these years, he has only filmed 1 Jin Yong series – LOTCH.

.>> OMG, I really got a big surprise in the next segment when they aired a taped segment of Kenneth Tsang(who played Wong Yeuk See), who recorded a greeting just for the show (Kenneth is obviously one of my all-time favorite veteran actors)!

Kenneth’s speech was in typical Wong Yeuk See fashion, yet there was a bit of humor in it as well. Too bad he only appeared for a minute or two – man, I really miss his awesome acting!!!

.>> After the video segment, the host asked Patrick and Paul Gor more about how it was like for them to film on the set. Paul Gor kept saying how Patrick and Kenneth were his “older brothers” (inadvertently saying that they are old and he is young..LOL!). Their “he’s older, no he’s older” banter was actually quite amusing!

.>> Next, the host asked the other 4 cast members who had appeared earlier (Wong Wan Choi, Chan On Ying, Andy Dai, and Chun Wong) to join Paul Gor and Patrick on stage so they chat together.

.>> Hmm, I actually don’t think that the host did her homework because she asked the group how long it has been since they saw each other (Um, quite often, as they all work together currently in various series). The only person that they truly haven’t seen in a long time was Wong Wan Choi (ok, come on now – let me go up there and host this please!).

.>> Next, came the ‘juicy’ part – recounting the memorable behind-the-scenes moments from filming LOTCH (well, not until after Paul Gor makes fun of Andy’s mandarin – hehe!):

.—In response to the question of who was the most hard working and who was the laziest: well, they didn’t actually answer the question, as everyone commented that the whole cast worked hard to learn the kung fu moves that were needed to in order to film successful (despite the ‘stuntmen’ that Wong Wan Choi claimed they used – haha).

.—Oooh, Chun Wong recounts that memorable scene when he does that multi-hand kung fu thing. He asked that host whether she wants to learn that move and she of course said yes, so he did a demonstration of how that scene was made right then and there (that part was so funny – but I’m not going to begin to describe it because I wouldn’t be able to do justice to it).

.—Of course, Chun Wong was the most playful one on the set – it seemed that he was always running around and could never stay in one place (maybe Chow Bak Tong had ADHD? LOL!).

.>> Lastly (for this segment at least), the host asked the group to share their feelings about reuniting again 28 years after filming such a successful and memorable series.

.— Patrick’s response was very typical – he said that he doesn’t have any particular feelings about it because he doesn’t focus on things that happened 28 years ago and prefers to focus on the now. When asked if he could share his possible plans in the next 28 years, Patrick of course said that he cannot reveal anything and time will tell (I would definitely expect that kind of answer from him).

.—Paul’s response: He said that he has a lot of feelings about it, but for him, at that time, he was a ‘young handsome man’ and now he is an old man (aww, that’s nothing to fret about though…hehe). But he says that he really felt the passing of time, as it was as though he blinked and several decades had passed already. (But he ended his comment on a funny note by saying that so many years later, everyone is still very good-looking and handsome).

.>> The segment ended with Wong Wan Choi and a female Mainland artist singing the themesong to Part 3 of the series (射鵰英雄傳之華山論劍). Hey, what happened to the theme song for Part 2?

.--.

To be continued....

4 comments:

  1. Okay, got my answer regarding stunt stuffs now, maybe you don't have to answer the other one. Sorry about that...

    AND you couldn't expect Patrick to say he really loves it, do you? I meant he died in the series. NOT to mention his character was pathetic in every other way. (Or at least how I view it and found it severely annoying. He and his wife was the reason for their sons' messed up life anyway. At least they were partially driving him toward his downfall with choosing the wrong path, etc. What I'm trying to say is YH didn't have proper guidance, despite having such a master. Though the master was clueless too at times, wasn't like he was around long enough to teach. But the master was expecting that to be his mom's job. OKAY, I'm getting way off, but you get the point with Patrick's character.)

    Part 2 was saved for someone else? LOL!

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  2. @DTLCT: I totally get what you mean regarding Patrick's character! I wasn't fond of his character either (I especially disliked how he was so stubborn and hard-headed) -- you know what's ironic though? The Yang family in the series was definitely a dysfunctional one, very similar to Patrick's family in real life...and the mother too (Louise Lee's character) -- the parents were definitely partially responsible for how YH turned out (maybe even 'mostly' responsible)....

    Yea, I still don't get why they had to switch part 2 and part 3 in terms of the theme songs -- it's not like they did anything special with part 2 anyway, like have one of the artists sing it...

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  3. @llwy12 - I meant to wrote "son's" and not sons' but didn't proof-read, LOL! Sorry about that but of course we all know they got only one 'son', lol.

    YUP, that sounds like Patrick's real life story all right. I didn't realize how similar until you mention it. (Though it's sort of obvious but I was sort of trying to focus on the plot, lol.)

    I think one of the best calls of the adaptions (at least the ones I watched) was letting MNC (Sharon's character) be YG's mother. LOL! 'Cause I remember at least in the 1st version, Jin Yong made it so it was this one girl who liked Kwok Jing was YG's mother. BUT I think later Jin Yong revised so that it was MNC too? NOT sure. 'Cause I would feel so sad for YG if have all messed up people in his family. Though I don't blame the girl (who liked Kwok Jing) for being bitter, etc but from the descriptions I read of her, I just can't like her or sympathize for the tragedies she'd gone through.

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  4. https://dausel.co/0Fmyp9
    Link for loch 1983 first episode

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