1983 version Legend of the Condor Heroes Cast Reunion (中国梦想秀--83版射鵰英雄傳重聚) – PART 3

.>> The next segment was a bit of a break in the show (though they did try to correlate it back to the event at hand). Apparently, there was supposed to be another host of the show (a male host named Wah Shao), however he had gotten hurt prior to the start of the show, so he pretty much wasn’t there for the first half. Well, in the next segment, some video clips were played that showed what had happened to Wah Shao….

Ok, I will admit that I skipped some parts of the video because I really wasn’t too interested in watching how the host helps a guy realize his dreams of being a kung fu star (or something like that). So pretty much all I have to say about this part is that the host invites Mr. Liu to perform a kung fu segment on the reunion show – the “cool” part was that they also invited famous choreographer / director Ching Siu Dong to choreograph and oversee the entire segment (wow, for kungfu fanatics, that is definitely an honor – plus he was the martial arts choreographer for the entire LOTCH series back in the 80s).

.>> After the video segment came the actual kung fu performance (meant to help Mr. Liu realize his dream) – the kung fu segment was choreographed to one of the subtheme songs from LOTCH. Didn’t really watch the performance so can’t comment on it, but it was very nice of the organizers to do that for a complete stranger! I also thought it was great how they gave Mr. Liu a surprise by inviting Ching Siu Dong and Wah Shao (the other host who was supposedly hurt and so couldn’t come on the show) to come on stage and comment on his performance.

.>> Ok, back to the main event. So the next segment started off with both hosts talking to Ching Siu Dong about his memories of choreographing the series.

.>> Ching Siu Dong recounted how he actually hadn’t seen some of the cast for many years, so when they first saw each other again backstage, they were all taking pictures. The hosts then asked him which of the cast members made a lasting impression on him.

His response:

.—Patrick was already a big movie star and drove nice cars and was good looking, so Siu Dong looked up to him as an idol.

.—Paul Gor is a good friend and they actually flew to Hangzhou (where the show was filmed) together from Beijing on the same plane, yet Ching Siu Dong couldn’t recognize him because of his beard. He said that Paul Gor had walked by several times on the plane and he was thinking to himself how cool that person looked and how he didn’t have a bulging belly like he himself did (haha – not! Siu Dong is very fit actually).

.—Chan On Ying will always be a ‘little girl’ to him because of the character she played in LOTCH. On Ying recounted how there was a scene where she did some really good kungfu moves, but Siu Dong told her that ‘good’ doesn’t fit the character of Sor Gu – her moves need to have an element of 傻 in it in order to be convincing.

.—Ching Siu Dong said that the most ‘difficult’ person to work with was Chun Wong – because with his physique, it was difficult for him to fit into costume and choreograph appropriate moves. In some scenes, Siu Dong had to have the martial arts stuntmen do the moves for him. But, Siu Dong praised Chun Wong, saying that he did an excellent job in the series based on his own acting talent, not based on his kungfu moves (so true!).

.—Wong Wan Choi had that cool paper fan weapon thing where as soon as he opened the fan and flicked it at people, they were supposed to fall on the floor – made him look cool and handsome (hehe!).

.—Ching Siu Dong also praised Andy saying that him and all the other actors fought ‘handsomely’ (meaning they still looked good while doing the moves and looked very natural). Andy stood up and told Siu Dong how much they enjoyed working with him because he treated them all so well – Andy expressed how as a newbie at that time, he felt a lot of pressure working with such a famous choreographer, but he actually had nothing to worry about, since Siu Dong was so great to work with. Also, Ching Siu Dong was very understanding of the artists and knew that they weren’t professional martial arts experts, so if there were certain kung fu moves they weren’t able to do, he would tell them as long as they put in the effort, don’t worry about it, as he could have the stuntmen help out – he had high standards, but didn’t force the artists to overexert themselves if he knew they wouldn’t be able to do it.

.>> Siu Dong recounted that all the artists were very professional and they had a lot of fun working together – the whole thing was a group effort and everyone wanted to do a good job, so they were willing to try different things and didn’t worry much about certain moves being dangerous or not. They all worked hard and put in a lot of effort – and they only used stunt doubles when they truly had to…

.>> The host mentioned one memory he had of a scene where Patrick Tse’s character was singing Chinese opera and next thing you knew, he turned around and stuck his spear into one of the soldiers, played by none other than Stephen Chow (an extra at that time). The way Patrick did that move was so cool (“shuai dai le”) according to the host (haha…the recounting of that story was a great comedic moment in the show!)

.>> That segment ended with some guy who comes out and does some dance moves (no clue what that was about or what the correlation was, but oh well….)

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To be continued…

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?

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To be continued....

1983 version Legend of the Condor Heroes Cast Reunion (中国梦想秀--83版射鵰英雄傳重聚) – PART 1

Picture (courtesy of Hubei.com)

A couple days ago, Zhejiang Satellite Television in China arranged an awesome 28 year reunion show for the cast of the classic TV series Legend of the Condor Heroes (1983 version). Though not everyone who was part of the cast was able to make it (there were over 100 artists in that version and even the supporting characters had memorable roles), the ones who did really brought back great memories of the series!

Here is the link to the show courtesy of Tudou: 1983 version LOTCH reunion

Overall, the show was awesome! In addition to having the cast members come on the show to talk about their memories from filming the series, their were also some special performances as well (such as dancers from Sharon Yeung’s dance studio doing a special kungfu-themed performance). The tribute to Barbara Yung was also very poignant and well done.

Here are a few highlights from the show – due to the length of the show, I will be doing a multiple part post based on the segments from the show:

.>> The show started with 2 Mainland artists dressed up as Kwok Jing and Wong Yung who came out to sing the theme song to Part 1 of the series (射鵰英雄傳之鐵血丹心).

.>> After the opening number, the first segment of the show featured 4 cast members who were introduced individually with video clips from the series and some commentary, then each one came out behind the big screen to greet the audience.

.>> The first cast member to appear was Wong Wan Choi, who played Au-Yeung Hak in the series.

When Wong Wan Choi came out, the host said he looked like he was going to a concert. He replied that the past few years, he’s become a “singer” and has been performing at various places in China. He says that he is no longer Au-Yeung Hak, but rather Au-Yeung ‘Bak’ now (haha…he was basically saying that he is no longer a villain and was re-born, so he’s a good guy now). He gets to show his ‘singing’ skills later on in the show by performing one of the LOTCH theme songs for the audience.

.>> The second cast member was Chan On Ying, who played Sor Gu (she was the best Sor Gu – none of the other actresses from the other versions even came close to capturing the essence of the character as she did).

Chan On Ying stated that she played Sor Gu so many times that at one point, she was opposed to playing the character anymore, however after she saw another actress play the part, she changed her mind. Also, a lot of people (naively) thought at the time that she really was mentally challenged because the way she played the part was so convincing and memorable for audiences.

.>> The third cast member was Andy Dai, who played Tolui (Genghis Khan’s son and Kwok Jing’s buddy when he was growing up in Mongolia).

Andy was so funny…he came out and did some kungfu moves (Kwok Jing’s signature kungfu moves) – when the host asked him if those were Tolui’s kungfu moves, Andy said those were moves he learned growing up from Kwok Jing. A couple minutes later, he mentions something about Kwok Jing again, to which the host said that he must be very fond of Kwok Jing, since he mentions him so much (haha…of course – Felix and Andy are part of the Celebrity Soccer Team in HK and play soccer together all the time….I guess the host didn’t know that…hehehehe).

One thing I didn’t know was that LOTCH was actually Andy’s first series after graduating from the Acting Class – and an ancient series too, which was way challenging than doing a modern series.

.>> The fourth cast member to appear was Chun Wong, who played Chow Bak Tong.

Chun Wong is just a funny guy (well, his physical stature itself already lends himself to being comedic). When he came out, the host asked what he’s been up to lately and figured he must be living a good life since he gained so much weight. He said that he’s been working hard (very true – he’s still working for TVB).

The host mentioned that Chun Wong must have been the more playful one in the group as well, but maybe too ‘playful’ to the point that he gave everyone a scare several years ago when he almost lost his life (referring to the incident when he was drunk and lost his footing when stepping onto the ferry, falling into the water instead).

.>> After the first 4 cast members came out, the host asked if they could be judges for a kungfu segment, as the series LOTCH had such an impact that many youth took to learning the signature moves of many of the characters, so they had some people come up and perform kungfu moves, then asked the 4 what they thought.

I didn’t really care for the kungfu segments because I thought it was kind of cheesy, but the commentary from the artists afterwards was pretty funny!

After the first guy performed “Ha Mo Kung” (the kungfu of the Au-Yeung clan), the host asked Au-Yeung Hak (Wong Wan Choi) to comment – he told the guy that his performance was amazing…but he couldn’t comment how close it was to the Au-Yeung clan’s “Ha Mo Kung” because back when they filmed the series, they used stunt doubles for most of the kung fu moves. Then Wong Wan Choi showed off some dance moves instead (since he is a singer now). Everyone laughed at the ‘big secret’ being revealed – that Au-Yeung Hak really doesn’t know kung fu but only knows dance moves instead! LOL! It was definitely a funny moment!

Andy Dai was asked to comment on the next guy who performed what looked like karate moves, including using his hand to push nails into a wooden board. ‘Tolui’ was amazed at the performance and said that his clan (the Mongols) only had to know how to ride horses and fight with arrows – they never had to do anything like that. Then he made an attempt to remove one of the nails from the board using his hands and his mouth (haha…that was just for show) – that part was funny!

The last performer was so cute – a 6 year old girl came out and said that she knows “Gau Yam Jun Ging” – everyone thought she was going to perform kungfu, but actually, she had memorized the GYJG kungfu manual and so recited it for everyone. Chow Bak Tong (Chun Wong) asked the girl if he could be her apprentice and said he would carry her backpack to school for her if she would accept him (awww, Chow Bak Tong was so cute – he’s always been one of my favorite characters!). The little girl kept saying ‘No Way!’ (she seemed a little intimidated by his size).


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To be continued…..