LOCH 2017 commentaries for Eps 21-28

Resort-owner Huang Yaoshi welcoming his guests (including myself) at the gorgeous Peach Blossom Island

Apologies for the lack of update, I have an (exciting) personal matter (which Hannah helped sorted) which temporarily halted other things …

I’m so late with the commentaries for episodes 21-24 last week, hence I just combine them with the comments for eps 25-28. I haven’t finished re-watching episodes 24, 27 and 28, so I will add the comments for those episodes later.

Also, yesterday was the cremation of the body of Mrs Liu, Barbara Yung’s mother. May she rest in peace now and reunited with her gorgeous daughter…

Episode 21

Taohua Island is very very pretty. The prettiest Peach Blossom Island ever depicted, said some historical viewers. Just saying.

HYS in his regular monologue in front of his wife Feng Heng

HYS told A Heng that he’d get the Nine Yin Manual and burn it in front of her body and then he HYS would see her in the afterlife. Love Michael Miu’s HYS expression when he was talking to A Heng, also when he was alone with his daughter HR.

HR drugged her father so she could see boyfriend, but of course Daddy Heretic knew her tricks and didn’t fall for that.

YK made up with WYHL and even turned as a Jin spy in the Song area, while MNC just completely trusted Xiao Wangye (the Young Prince). WYHL even said "I am Li Yuan, you are Li Shimin" to YK, like in the novel... Of course, they forgot or neglected the fact that the father and son relationship between Li Yuan n Li Shimin was far from perfect, but it's still nice to see the series adopted that line from Book 2 ch 16...

YK captured and imprisoned Mei Chaofeng, which was a surprise for me. Have to check if this was in the novel. I prefer the 1983 version where YK and MCF were best buddies, albeit rather dysfunctional. Of course here YK pretended he didn’t imprison MCF, but the blind woman knew better.

Delicious food when YK and MNC talked to the Kaypang members. I think, although the HR cooking for ZBT in this series didn’t produce extravagant food, other meals that were produced in this series (in the restaurants) were making my tummy grumbling. Speaking of food, HR brought a plate of shrimps and a flask of wine for Daddy Heretic, hoping that she could drug him with the wine. He did fall asleep on the table at the end, but I doubted that he actually really slept. HYS would have known if someone tried to poison him.

Unless he’s allergic to prawn…

The episode ended with GJ meeting HR again, while ZBT was bitten by a snake (which was released by OYK, who was coming to the island with his uncle West Venom).

Episode 22

HYS of course wasn’t drunk by HR’s wine. When he came to meet HR, GJ and ZBT, he (HYS) scolded HR. When he did that, he moved his eye beads quickly from side to side, just the way Michael did with Li Sai Man, Yeung Hong, Chor Lau Heung, Szeto Man Mo and Tung Pang Fei… ahhh… memories…

I like the Old Venom and love the Old Imp. However, HYS definitely was the best amongst the four elders on the island. Michael definitely brought up the royalty or regal quality (since HYS wasn’t a royalty) and authority in Huang Yaoshi. When the Venom Uncle-Nephew displayed the treasures they brought for HYS and HR, HYS just looked at the treasures with thinly-veiled scoff. As in, “These golds and pearls? I have more here for my daughter’s grand-daughters!”

Love it how HYS got the upper hand of all conversations with the Old Venom. This HYS definitely had the “tai-gor” or “da-ge” quality.

Liu Zhiyang’s OYK was able to perform in front of Michael’s HYS. Very good, hao!

Love the argument between HR and Daddy Heretic when she disagreed to marry OYK. She just scoffed and left, while Daddy Miu just had to exhale due to his daughter’s stubbornness. Li Yitong isn’t Barbara Yung, but when she’s with Michael, she could pull a believable father-daughter disagreement.

LOVE the moment GJ and ZBT swore as brothers; William Yang displayed a very confused GJ very well, and Ning Wentong was definitely ZBT here. The reluctance William Yang displayed when he said “Da Ge…” and Ning Wentong’s glee when he replied in giggles with “Xiong-di!” were perfect!

Later, we also have Yang Kang pretending to be nice to Mei Chaofeng so she revealed where the Nine Yin Manual was. He was disappointed to learn that MCF didn’t have the Manual anymore. I think MCF never bought his story that he wasn’t involved in her capture.

Love OYK’s trying to flirt with Rong mei-mei, and HR just tricked him into eating a bad peach. Liu Zhiyang definitely stole my heart with his bastardness! I’m so going to miss him when Yang Kang killed OYK…

Then HQG came, and I became disinterested with the scene…ho-hum… (I thought I’d warm up to this HQG, but fat chance… ).

Then Michael came just in time to rescue the scene. While I smiled at his presence, poor GJ’s smile just vapourised into the air. HYS displayed a rare smile and a friendly nod when HQG said something nice, and those gestures reminded me of Chor Lau Heung’s gestures for a few seconds…

West Venom (in black) and his nephew Ouyang Ke, Ep 22

The episode ended with HYS rescuing OYK (off screen) from the creeping plants of Taohua Island. Then we have a very funny scene of OYK scratching his skin because of the creeping plants, then his uncle almost spilled the beans that the young Venom was his own son. That was touching…

Episode 23

The Contest between GJ and OYK was good. Was happy to see HYS reacting to protect HR (I thought he wouldn't care, or he would think she could save herself). I like it that HYS actually moved to protect his daughter, but GJ also threw himself in front of HR to rescue her. GJ got a few gold points from HYS for doing that, I see...

William Yang and Liu Zhiyang were good as GJ and OYK in the test; OYK's failure in Test Two made sense with his illusions. However, I am disappointed that Michael's HYS didn't display a lot of kungfu here. He definitely had the stance right; he would definitely give a good fight against ZBT had the producers let Michael do some proper kungfu. HYS's fight against ZBT was actually good, but too much slow-mo for my taste.

I do remember that these Tao Hua Island scenes and also the HYS vs Quanzhen scene were shot early... and perhaps Jeffrey Chiang et al were relying too much on slow-mo for the scenes that were shot first. Do I then have to lower or throw away my expectation to see a good Quanzhen vs HYS fight then later?

How disappointing...

Episode 24

BRB for this episode, need to re-watch it tonight. One thing I remember: the sharks in this episode look sooo fake!

Episode 25

Love the way YK rescued MNC from his own man. “Listen carefully, she’s my woman!” as in, don’t you dare touch her, let alone hurting her!

LOVE OYK's expressions, fanning himself and all, when he was listening to HQG. I love this bastard OYK. Yes, Li Jie is my favourite repenting OYK, but the bastard OYK is definitely this one for me...

So cute how OYK was worried about HR when she arrived onboard the burning ship. “Rong mei-mei, don’t go there!”

LOL, I know I might be the only one who loves this bastard but that’s okaaaayyy!!!

Ep 25 has much better fight scenes between OYF and HQG, and between OYK and GJ. Very limited slow-mo. Was the choreographer different from the one in ep 24 where Michael Miu was? So different!

Very nice of HQG to rescue OYF though the Old Venom returned it with a venom, literally.

Nice to see GJ using his Mongolian wrestling to subdue OYF.

Very nice scene of HR swimming towards the burning ship, and OYK trying to paddle towards her after promising her that he'd take care of HQG.

Episode 26

Love OYK-HR interactions here. Of course it was enmity on HR’s side and infatuation and borderline ignoring decorum on OYK’s part, but it was really nice to see. Very nice to see that OYK actually used a piece of leaf when he was eating the grilled chicken/bird. In a few years' time, Liu Zhiyang (OYK) could play the next Chor Lau Heung (Chu Liuxiang) IMO; when his OYK is added a large dose of morality, that reminds me of CLH/CLX.

Also very nice to see that the fights on the island have returned to good quality, just like the fight on Ouyang’s ship. It seems I’m right, the series has at least two fighting choreographers, and one should return to the fighting school…

Very nice to see the hungry OYK lurking around to see what HR-HQG were doing, and HR trapping OYK afterwards.

BRB on Ep 27-28… still have to re-watch it… sorry… But Ep 27 have HR et al rescuing OYK from the boulder that crushed his leg, then the whole gang leaving the island and then rescued by WHYL and Yang Kang.

Next week, if the series follows the novel, HYS should visit Yang Kang's boat and got angry and sad at the same time cos he thought HR was dead. I hope they have a good script, cos I really want Michael to explore this scene well, and he can only go as far as the script allows him to.