GIFs for Michael/Barbara Behind the Scenes

Michael catching the falling Babs, CLH 84 BTS

Even though one does not have Adobe Photoshop, I now know that making GIFs is actually quite easy using free tools like makeagif.com. Hence, I created some GIFs of Michael and Barbara from their Behind the Scenes of CLH 1984. I also made a GIF from the Foundation 1984 promo and re-inserted the GIFs from the LOCH 1983 BTS here. All videos were sourced from Rob Radboud's website.

Enjoy!

"The old lady waving her hand" - The Foundation 1984 fanfiction

After two decades of separation, Emperor Taizong of Tang finally met his lively sister again. This fan-fiction was requested by Tamuyen Truong (Tammy), and thus is dedicated to her. The Foundation 1984 and its characters are the copyright of TVB Hong Kong, no copyright infringement intended. Romanisation is a mixed of Cantonese Yale and Pinyin. 

"When you see an old lady waving her hand at you..."

The old lady waving her hand

"I don’t know where I’ll go. I only know that I want to go to a place

where no one has been to. Maybe tens of years from now, when you visit

the poor and the peasants, if you see an old lady waving her hand at you,

that lady might be me. May I have forgiven you by then.

~Lok Wan."

"I will die soon, Sik Sik," the elderly man whispered. "Will I see you up there? Will you turn me down for what I've done to you? Will they put me in hell for what I've done to you?" The old man swallowed. "I still wish I didn't have to do what I did... I'm such a wretched soul...If I have to experience a similar death with yours to pay my debt to you, I will do that in a heartbeat. Anything that will cleanse my bloody hands and wretched soul..."

The elderly man would still be kneeling in front of the simple, yet well-kept, tomb had an old officer not approached him gently. "Majesty, shall we resume our journey?" 

Legend of Condor Heroes 1983 OSTs

While waiting for the full list of the major characters for LOCH 2017 (we know that our dear Michael Miu is the new Huang Yaoshi, yay!), I have been reminiscing on the OSTs of the LOCH 1983 where Michael was playing as our crooked but undeniably charming Yang Kang (Yeung Hong). YouTube has loads of the LOCH 1983 OSTs, but I thought I'd just put them here for easier access.

LOCH 1983 has three parts, each part has its own opening theme. My favourite is definitely part 1, which is the iconic opening theme for LOCH 1983 . The second favourite is part 3 OST actually, for it has that rushing adrenaline feeling to it. I also remember part 3 OST very well, for they played it as Yeung Hong (Yang Kang) read the goodbye letter from Mok Nim Chi (Mu Nianci) in Ep 47.

Enjoy! 

Oh, and I've changed the year for LOCH 1982 into "1983" for this series was first aired in Hong Kong in February 1983, not in 1982. And I made two new gifs of MB at the LOCH 1983 BTS. One is Michael hauling Barbara into the boat, the other one Babs glancing and grinning at Michael. Swoon...

Part 1 OST (Iron Blood and Loyal Heart, 鐵血丹心)

Click here for translation

"Kindred Spirits" - a Chor Lau Heung 1984 MV

"Kindred Spirits" - a Chor Lau Heung 1984 MV from Icha74 on Vimeo.

I first found Tanya Chua from her “Love is Beautiful” a few years ago when I was watching a Nicky Wu/Liu Shi Shi MV. I didn’t realise at that time that it was Tanya’s song that was used as the background music. Recently I used “Love is Beautiful” for an MV for Barbara Yung’s birthday. Ever since, I’ve been listening to Tanya’s songs via Spotify. That was when I found “異類的同類 (Yìlèi de tónglèi)”. The official title is “Strange Species” from her latest album Aphasia. Although the songs in Aphasia are different from Tanya’s previous offerings, I still like the album for its different concept (I’m not the only one, see this review, for instance). When I read one of Tanya’s interviews about 異類的同類 and Aphasia, I realised why the official title includes the word “species”.

Despite its modern terminology, I like the techno rhythm of “Strange Species”. For some reasons I thought it would make a fine Chor Lau Heung MV, but some tweaks needed to be done for the effects. After I translated the lyrics with Meenchee’s kind help, I realised that the song fit CLH/SSC perfectly. I still had to use some effects for this MV below, and I have very limited effects at my disposal with Windows Live Movie Maker. Nonetheless, I’m pretty pleased with the resulting MV. I hope you like it too. Lyrics and translations are below the break.

Remembering Barbara Yung (1959-1985)

For Michael/Barbara timeline, read this. Click here to read about my visit to Barbara's grave in Cambridge UK in July 2016. Click this to read about my visit to Barbara's grave in June 2017 (with Rob Radboud).

Barbara Yung. Always young, always beautiful

Today, 31 years ago, Barbara Yung Mei-ling met her death. Many fans of A-ling, as Michael Miu used to call her, speculated on what happened, why she chose to take her own life. I’ve contemplated whether I should write something about this. Eventually I thought that I should; hence this post.

I wrote this post based on two of Rob Radboud’s articles. The first one is the interview between Barbara and Liang Pui Yee 梁佩仪 on 13 May 1985. Apparently, this was the last interview Barbara gave in her life... The second source is the 8 April 2016 Sohucoverage on Barbara’s death. I read the Sohu coverage with a grain of salt, for it’s a TV show anyway, and it’s bound to have mistakes or exaggeration. Sure the article that was written by Liang Pui Yee also had some flaws, but at least it was more verbatim from the writer’s conversation with Barbara.

I will write down here what I think about Barbara’s case. But first, I’d like to present two facts. One: Barbara was an illegitimate child, hence she did not have a perfect childhood. Two: Barbara was very very young when she died. She just had her 26^th birthday exactly the week before she died.

Michael Miu as Huang Yaoshi for LOCH 2017

Click this for the characteristic of Huang Yaoshi

Michael Miu as Huang Yaoshi, the East Heretic for LOCH 2017

I might regret posting this later if this proves to be incorrect, (It is confirmed!!!) but at the moment some wuxia fans in the Indonesian Kaypang Gallery Facebook is abuzz with the news that Michael Miu has been cast as Huang Yaoshi for the Legend of Condor Heroes 2017 (thanks Wina for the news). The series will be directed by Gordon Chan Jeffrey Chiang (thanks Faira!). Huang Yaoshi or the East Heretic was the father of Huang Rong (Wong Yung), and was superbly portrayed by Kenneth Tsang in LOCH 1983. I have always loved East Heretic in LOCH 1983, and I love Kenneth's portrayal of this character. 

To see this beloved character played by the charismatic Michael Miu is like a balm for my heart... especially because tomorrow is the 31th death remembrance of Barbara Yung. Hence, my blue day has been soothed, somehow.

But let me not get ahead of myself. I will explain the news source etc after the break!

"Love is Beautiful" - an MV for Barbara Yung

A few minutes over midnight, but hey, better late than never! The third present for Barbara Yung and us her fans: an MV for Barbara's 57th birthday (7 May 1959-7 May 2016, if she was still with us). Song is "Love is Beautiful" by Tanya Chua, lyrics (pinyin and Chinese characters) are below the break. Will translate the song in due course.

Happy birthday, Barbara... thank you for your Wong Yung (Huang Rong), Song Siu Ching, Chun Sik Sik, Lam Chor Yin, and other characters you've brought to life because you were you. We miss you...

LOCH 1983 Behind the Scene

A blooper from LOCH 1983, from Rob Radboud's website

Rob Radboud has so many cool stuff in his website. One of them is the Behind the Scene for LOCH 1983. Click here for the full 44 minutes of the LOCH 1983 BTS. Good that they've done the BTS in those days. Hence, while waiting for my Barbara MV to be converted etc, tor Barbara's birthday I also selected some screen caps from the LOCH 1983 BTS from Rob's website. Mostly Michael/Barbara related, but I suggest you also check the video, cos Felix had done some cute stuff there too!

Barbara Yung's hair styles in her series

Today is Barbara Yung's 57th birthday. I almost missed it; I thought it would be tomorrow (8 May). Good thing I checked, otherwise I'd beat myself for missing it. 

I have three posts for Barbara and us her fans: her hairstyle (this post), an MV for her and a bit of LOCH 1983 Behind the Scenes with some Michael as Yeung Hong there. Let's see if I can post all before midnight, for it's less than 1.5 hours before midnight here in Australia. 

For the first post, I have some shots of her various hair styles, including the unused hair style from LOCH 1983. Which one do you like the best? 

Chor Lau Heung 1984 backgrounds from Cynthia (and Sandy)

Copyright by Cynthia

Our dear Sandy has apparently saved four CLH/SSC backgrounds from the inactive Miuyungforever.com. The beautiful backgrounds were made by Cynthia. Sandy posted the backgrounds at the MB Network two days ago, and I have opted to store it here for us to have more copies available. Thank you Cynthia and Sandy!

The Academy 2005 (a.k.a. Michael Miu's return after hiatus)

Michael Miu, drawn gorgeously by HolyWiz

I started watching Line Walkers (2014) with Michael Miu as the lead actor. I’m up to Ep 2, and I’m loving it. Michael displayed a very raw emotion during Ep 1, which reminded me of his 80s days. Although this blog is more for wuxia posts (particularly MB’s), I definitely will write a post about Line Walkers here later, for LW was starring Michael as well. And since I also watched his first after-hiatus series (The Academy, 2005), I think it befits posting my review of that series here as well. I actually wrote a review back in December 2015 just after I finished the Academy series, hence the words are raw. I forgot why I never got to post it in my other blog but hey, it’s here today!