"The Wandering Life Before You" - a Chor Lau Heung 1984 MV

I've replaced the MV yesterday (30.04) due to mis-spelling in Ibuki Satsuki's name.


"The Wandering Life Before You" - a Chor Lau Heung 1984 MV from Icha74 on Vimeo.



"The New Adventures of Chor Lau Heung" 1984 has been the only version of Chor Lau Heung that I've ever watched. However, a few weeks ago I came across the OST of the 1979 Chor Lau Heung, starring by Adam Cheng (and OST sung by the same actor). Now, as with many multi-version series, fans of CLH 1984 have their own opinions of CLH 1979 and vice versa. Just like fans of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice 1995 vs Pride and Prejudice 2005. Or Ben Affleck's Batman vs Christian Bale's Batman. Etc etc etc. Now, although I haven't watched CLH 1979, I do plan to buy the DVD hence I can have my own informed opinion about it. I do like the 1979 OST, and I think that should be enough to start watching the series. Lyrics, translation and the original OST MV are below the break.



I couldn't find the translation of the 1979 Chor Lau Heung theme, marvelously performed by Adam Cheng. Hence I pestered my good friends Li Qian and Meenchee again for translation. The result is our combined efforts, peppered with my interpretation after consulting my co-translators. Jyutping romanisation is from MDBG, all mistakes are my own (and please correct me for I don't speak Cantonese at all). 



"The Wandering Life Before You" - a Chor Lau... by icha74

After translating the lyrics, I realised how similar the 1979 OST with the 1984 OST of Chor Lau Heung, which means both series pretty much agreed with the general characters of Chor Lau Heung. However, I also noticed some differences. The 1979 lyrics pretty much made CHL a man who cast away love, whereas the 1984 lyrics did not claim this. Instead, the 1984 lyrics acknowledged the sadness and difficulties in life, while also attempting to face these adversities with a positive attitude. Somehow, I like the 1984 note better. Chor Lau Heung was, after all, famous for being a ladies-man. Casting away amorous love like Buddha didn't seem to fit his description. He would overcome life's dramas with a smile, yes, but he wouldn't cast away love.

That was why I took the title "The Wandering Life Before You" for this MV, for I can see how the 1984 Chor tai-gor did somewhat feel unaffected by amorous love before meeting Song Siu Ching. However, after meeting the girl, his life took a different route. Hence no Siu Ching in this MV but in the last scene. In her stead, I put Wu Tit Fa, Fell Cut, Master Yuen Hsu of Wutang, and Chor tai-gor's other friends. I thus like this MV because it gives a different note to the CLH/SSC interactions that I usually presented in my CLH MVs. Despite the different note, I hope you like this MV too! After all, an MV featuring Wu Tit Fa is long overdue...

Oh, and I have the scene where Lingering Fragrance and the Drunkard swam bare-chested in the river. That should be quite fun to watch!

The beautiful artworks are from Deviant artist Xuedaixun (artworks 1 and 3), Ibuki Satsuki (artworks 2 and 5) and an anon artist (artwork 4 - please let me know if you know the artist's identity). Although Chor tai-gor was not a drunkard, I really like Xuedaixun's artwork of a tai-hap looking at the moon with some wine jars around him (first artwork in the MV), hence I used it for the opening scene of the MV. We can always pretend that Wu Tit Fa just left the scene, and it was his jars that lay on the ground!

Below is the original OST of Chor Lau Heung 1979 that I sourced as my music file (Tomoyo is always a great MV artist...). The lyrics and translation are below the original video. The song is so classical of the 80s; it even has the trumpets and drums! The trumpets particularly reminds me of the Voltes V anime series (Asians of my age will know what I'm talking about), for Voltes V OSTs are full of trumpets. Classics...




Chor Lau Heung 1979 

Singer: Adam Cheng
Writer: James Wong
Composer and arranger: Joseph Koo


湖海洗我胸襟　河山飄我影蹤　
Wu hoi sai ngo hung kam, ho saan piu ngo jing zung, 
The lakes and the ocean wash my heart, the rivers and mountains float me away, 

雲彩揮去卻不去   贏得一身清風
Wan coi fai heoi koek bat heoi, jing dak jat san ceng fung
Clouds dispersing yet not truly gone, the cool breeze wins over my body 

塵沾不上心間　情牽不到此心中
Can zim bat soeng sam gaan, cing hin bat dou ci sam zung
Impurities do not taint my heart, love does not reach my heart

來得安去也寫意　人生休說苦痛
Loi dak ngon heoi jaa se ji, jan saang jau seoi fu tung
Born peacefully, die gracefully, no grievance in life  

聚散匆匆莫牽掛　未記風波中英雄勇
Zeoi saan cung cung mou hin gwaa, mei gei fung bo zung jing hung jung
No concerns about unions and separations, no need to remember my heroic deeds

就讓浮名　輕拋劍外
Zau joeng fau meng, hing paau gim ngoi
I cast away my undeserved fame more than (I cast away) my sword* 

千山我獨行不必相送　
Cin saan ngo duk hang bat bit soeng sung
I’m traveling the thousand mountains alone, no need to see me off

啊...獨行不必相送
Ah... duk hang bat bit soeng sung
Ah... no need to see me off

Second repeat:

塵沾不上心間　情牽不到此心中
Can zim bat soeng sam gaan, cing hin bat dou ci sam zung
Impurities do not taint my heart, love does not reach my heart

來得安去也寫意　人生休說苦痛
Loi dak ngon heoi jaa se ji, jan saang jau seoi fu tung
Born peacefully, die gracefully, no grievance in life  

聚散匆匆莫牽掛　未記風波中英雄勇
Zeoi saan cung cung mou hin gwaa, mei gei fung bo zung jing hung jung
No concerns about unions and separations, no need to remember my heroic deeds

就讓浮名　輕拋劍外
Zau joeng fau meng, hing paau gim ngoi
I cast away my undeserved fame more than (I cast away) my sword* 

千山我獨行不必相送　
Cin saan ngo duk hang bat bit soeng sung
I’m traveling the thousand mountains alone, no need to see me off

啊...獨行不必相送
Ah... duk hang bat bit soeng sung

Ah... no need to see me off

Note:

* I am not certain whether my interpretation is correct here. It can be interpreted as "I cast away my name/fame outside the sword" or "I cast away my name/fame other than the sword". Both sentences did not make sense to me, particularly because Chor Lau Heung did not use a sword as his signature weapon (the Gu Long CLH used a fan, while the 1984 CLH used his bare hands or some non-poisonous throwing needles). Hence, I interpreted the 就讓浮名　輕拋劍外 line as "casting away one's fame/name more than casting away one's sword". Feel free to educate me on this matter.


Update 13 April 2017

I found another 楚留香 sung by Michael Kwan. It's a nice one, and I've added it, and also Adam Cheng's version, to my 80s Jianghu OST playlist.