“You’re the best in this world” MV (Michael Miu as HYS 2017) & LOCH 1983 OST 3 translation

I just made this MV since we have now enough photos to make just one MV of Michael as Huang Yaoshi 2017. Since Michael played as the very memorable villain Yang Kang (Yeung Hong) in the 1983 ver of LOCH, I think it's apt to have the LOCH 1983 OST used for this piece. The OST is titled "You're the best in this world" 世間始終你好 sung by Roman Tam and Jenny Tseng. I have the YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion versions for Michael as Huang Yaoshi here. 

Since I'm also doing the translation of the LOCH 1983 OST, this post is also for that. Hence, the translation of "You’re the best in the world" (世間始終你好) is after the break. The MV of LOCH 1983 OST part 3 with Barbara Yung as Wong Yung and Felix Wong as Kwok Ching is after the translation. Romanisation is Cantonese Yale (converted from Jyutping using this site), translated into English and Indonesian.

I love this song so much, I think it's just slightly below the iconic part 1 (Iron Blood, Loyal Heart) theme song, so I enjoyed making the MV. I hope you like it too. Translation of 2nd LOCH 1983 OST will be done next week or so...

Legend of Dik Ching 1986 eps 11-20

Click this link to see the raw Cantonese episodes of Dik Ching

Seung Seung and Dik Ching shared their hearts, Ep 11

Ep 11: SS went to see the imprisoned DC and made up for their fights earlier. DC produced the jade arhat that SS once gave her, thus she knew that he truly loved her. Although her brother still dragged her away, she appeared again just before DC and his friend were guillotined. She threatened her brother that she'd commit suicide if DC was still killed, but the silly girl took a misstep and actually truly stabbed herself. She was still okay, but the Prince delayed the death punishment for DC. The next bit, I don't really get, but I think the Prince then offered DC freedom and gave his permission to marry SS if DC would reside with the Mongols. Or something like that, cos later the word "Fuma" (prince consort) was spoken by Chung tai-gor’s sister. DC refused, so he was imprisoned again. Then A Fuk and the girl came to the camp, and somehow managed to talk to DC. This is when DC asked the girl to talk to SS, I think telling SS that his refusal to be a Fuma (prince consort) doesn't mean he didn't love SS. That night, DC's colleagues tried to rescue him, but the idiots failed... 

More photos of Michael Miu as Huang Yaoshi

Michael Miu has uploaded more photos of him as the East Heretic in his weibo. Rather than putting them in the older post, I'd put them here instead. I will also make an MV of him as Huang Yaoshi, if not this weekend, then next weekend (a very tiring week this week...), so watch this blog please...

The above is my favourite due to the saying. The right bottom corner says, "Travel somewhere new each year, and you just might find yourself along the way". On the left upper corner is Huang Yaoshi's name written in the traditional Chinese characters 黃藥師 (love it! I much prefer traditional than simplified characters due to the former's deeper meanings). Michael also wrote "If not now, when?". I think these simple sayings are very profound, it shows how much he was willing to explore by taking the role of the iconic Huang Yaoshi.

(or perhaps because he is already 58 years old now, he was concerned that he would not get the chance again in the future. Or both.)

Legend of Dik Ching 1986 eps 1-10

Update: Have updated some aspects in the synopsis based on Wina's explanations and her great childhood memories!

Kitty Lai (Princess Seung Seung) and Michael Miu (Dik Ching) in DC 1986

The Legend of Dik Ching (狄青)was the Northern Song rom-com featuring Michael Miu and Kitty Lai as the leads. This was one of the first series Michael played after Barbara's passing in 1985 (the other one was Yang's Saga), which makes it paradoxically sadder to me due to its rom-com nature. However, Wina recommended the series to me. Since it's a Michael Miu series, I thought why not watching it. Plus, I love Kitty Lai as well since I saw her as Zhao Min in HSDS 86 three decades ago. The problem is that there is no English sub for DC, hence I had to just watch the raw version. I still opt to watch the Cantonese version though, at least I still can hear Michael's real voice. Now, the trick is, Youku does not have the complete DC episodes. Luckily, my persistent to view the Canto ver paid off, for I found this Yueyuyy website. Yueyuyy actually airs the Tudou and Youku links, but only Tudou links work. It doesn't have the sub, but that's the only complete collection I can find in Cantonese, so you better watch it soon if you are interested. Click here for the summary in the TVB channel (spellings are Mandarin Pinyin, mostly).

DC was the Northern Song version of Szeto Man Mo. DC's family held exclusive rights to trade salt and rice in the Song kingdom, and they had been doing a fair trade with the consumers. DC liked to prank and a bit good-for-nothing in the beginning, but actually had a golden heart. He had a childhood friend named Yeung Chiyan (Shalin Tse, the yellow-dressed maiden in HSDS 86) who loved him so much. DC worked for the Magistrate or something like that, I suppose after his mother rebuked him for being a lazy bone. Mum was Felix Wong's Kwok Ching's mum (Li Ping) in LOCH 83. DC had a loyal servant named A Fuk (who often became DC's sandbag in the earlier episodes or became DC's unsolicited adviser, though the results were not always guaranteed). DC's nemesis was Pon Sau, another royalty portrayed by the cute Michael Tao (Right Emissary Fan Yao in HSDS 86). 

Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre 1986 Eps 23-40 (End)

Wina supplied all photos for this post for me, hence, thank you, Wina!

Zhao Min (Kitty Lai) was the highlight for this series for me

Sorry for the minimum post this week, have been having three deadlines until next weekend. This post picks up from the HSDS part 1 (eps 1-22) where Zhang Wuji (WJ, Tony Leung) finally met Zhao Min (ZM, Kitty Lai). At first, WJ didn't realise ZM was a Mongolian royalty. He was just attracted to her the way she was to him. WJ had collected three "girlfriends" at this stage: Zhou Zhiruo (the Emei student), the Spider-Girl Yin Li (his cousin from mother's side, actually) and Xiao Zhao (a servant girl who would be the Persian Ming Cult leader later). Dressed as a handsome young man (Kitty was as handsome as Barbara Yung when dressed as a guy), ZM was intrigued at WJ. It didn't take long for her to reveal to WJ that she was a girl, and soon after, she bestowed him a hairpin inside a golden box. 

Innocent/ignorant WJ gave the hairpin to Xiao Zhao, which flared ZM when she realised that he'd wasted her intentions. She still managed to make him promise three things in return of a healing paste for Third and Sixth Uncles (the healing paste inside the good box, the ingredients inside the hairpin). WJ promised that he'd do the three things, as long as they were righteous deeds and within his means. The first was that he'd take her to the Fire and Ice Island to see the Dragon Sabre. ZM kept the second and the third promise till later.

The Rivers and Lakes stats

Update 11 July 2016: I now include the truncated calculation to examine the page view per day (down to the bottom page); the result is slightly different from the total page view analyses. Update 16 July 2016: I add the visitors' countries based only on Rivers and Lakes stats.

This post is the 100^th post of jianghu-related articles of mine, thus, I’d like to look at some statistics of the jianghu/wuxia articles that I’ve written so far. You can skip this post if you want (duh!), but it actually provides a lot of interesting information for me...

There are important notes to be made though. First, I count the 100^th post from all wuxia/jianghu posts combined from my personal blog and this Realm of Rivers and Lakes blog. If I count just the jianghu articles from this blog, this post would be the 66^th, but since I started this genre talking in my personal blog, I think it’s fair that I include the personal blog counts in this statistics. Second, I exclude my first ever wuxia post about Nicky Wu’s and Liu Tao’s Li Hou Zhu series, since it has gained a lot of momentum since it was written in 2009 (it’s now at 5,415 page-views). Plus, the current blog is focusing more on Michael Miu and Barbara Yung wuxia series, thus I think excluding Nicky Wu’s series is okay.

"L-O-V-E" - Michael Miu & Barbara Yung wuxia MV

I love Olivia Ong's rendition of Nat King Cole's L-O-V-E, hence I thought this song would fit a still Michael/Barbara wuxia MV that I want to make. It apparently does. The cheerful tone prompts me to mostly select images of Michael and Barbara smiling or laughing in their three wuxia series, i.e. the Foundation 1984, Fearless Duo 1984, and Chor Lau Heung 1984. God knows when I'll be able to watch the sub version of United We Stand, so until we find it, I'll just have to recycle the materials from the three series. I hope you like the MV. I upload it into YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion.

Have a nice week ahead!

The New Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre 1986 eps 1-22

I’ve been re-watching the New Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre (HSDS) 1986 these days, and I quite enjoy the re-watch. I actually re-watched it because my new friend Wina reminded me of this series (we’re both suckers for 80s series), hence this post. Thus, this post is for you, my dear Wina, as an early Happy Eid for you.

Starring Tony Leung (Zhang Wuji/Cheung Mo Kei/Tio Bu Ki), Kitty Lai (Zhao Min/Chiu Man/Jia Min), and Sheren Tang (Zhou Zhiruo/Chow Chi-yeuk) as the main leads and Simon Yam (Zhang Cuisan) and Dodo Cheng (Yin So-so), among others, as the supporting actors, I feel like transported back to my childhood when I watched this series in my lounge, desperately not being caught by my mum for watching too many wuxia. HSDS didn’t have the lovey-dovey effect on me the way Chor Lau Heung 1984 did (still does), but I do remember many HSDS scenes quite well.