The historical accuracy of the 1980s ancient costumes

The pre-Tang Dynasty women fashion from Hujiang.com

After watching Langya Bang, I realised that some Mainland productions are improving, namely in the beautiful cinematography and historical accuracy in costume design. Of course I can complain all day long about the dubbing and the excessive use of CGI and cables during fighting scenes, but let’s stay positive this time. Particularly in the costume design part, I recall that the last few Mainland wuxia series that I watched had been quite accurate, though some has been a hit and miss as well. Granted, I don’t watch a lot of Mainland wuxia series, but I certainly can comment on those that I watched. To me, Bu Bu Jing Xin and Li Hou Zhu definitely joined LangyaBang/Nirvana in Fire in their costume design accuracy (although there might be some discrepancies that my non-expert eyes missed). In the previous decade, it seems the Treasure Venture 2001 (Nicky Wu and Vicky Zhao) was also accurate in their design. I can’t say that about Xiao Shi Yi Lang 2002 (Nicky Wu, Athena Chu) though, for Nicky’s hair and his earlier costumes were definitely not done in a traditional sense.

Having said that, how accurate was the 1980s Hong Kong productions in costume design? Since I have only recently watched the Michael/Barbara series, I can only comment on that, but that’s a good place to start. I’ll divide it into the early Tang Dynasty (the Foundation 1984), the Song Dynasty (LOCH 1983), the Ming Dynasty (CLH 1984) and the Qing Dynasty (FD 1984). I will compare it with the costumes of Nicky Wu and Liu Tao, my other favourite actors (I love Liu Shi Shi too, but I don't watch many of her ancient dramas). I’m still confused with the fashion terminology of Hanfu (Han clothing), so I will just simply refer to the parts as “trousers”, “jacket”, “skirt” etc. Do forgive me for that. Check this video for the fashion up to the Tang Dynasty and this video for the Song, Ming and Qing fashion styles.

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? 

The gorgeous costumes of Wong Yung and Yeung Hong (LOCH 1983)

Wong Yung's first appearance as a girl in a lovely light blue number (Ep 10)

Barbara Yung Mei Ling and Michael Miu Kiu Wai seemed to wear gorgeous costumes in almost every drama they played. In addition to the gorgeous costumes in the New Adventures of Chor Lau Heung 1984, they also donned some lovely numbers in Legend of Condor Heroes 1983. Tammy and I even think that the costumes Barbara wore as Wong Yung were cuter than those she wore as Song Siu Ching; and mind you, Siu Ching had lovely tunics! Michael as well; he had gorgeous garments in LOCH 1983. Hence, these are some of the numbers they wore in LOCH 1983. If any of you find me missing a particular number, let me know. I'll display Wong Yung's wardrobe first, then Yeung Hong's.

Also, I have added some screen shots of the last episodes of LOCH 1983 from ep 55 to 59, particularly during the Yeung Gor/Yang Guo baby naming scene.

Enjoy!

The gorgeous costumes of CLH & SSC

The pink/white/blue garments from Ep 1 and 4

I should really sleep now because I need to wake up before sunrise tomorrow. However, I miss Chor tai-gor and our adorable Siu Ching, hence I just want to make a short post on the gorgeous costumes worn by Chor Lau Heung and Song Siu Ching in the 1984 Chor Lau Heung series. I counted that Michael Miu had at least nine ensembles, while Barbara Yung wore at least 12 numbers for this series, excluding her peasant-style garments in Ep 17 and 35, among others. Other actors had adorable costumes too, but I will limit this post to CLH and SSC. I will just post the photos here with some comments on the episode numbers.

My favourite CLH/SSC ensembles is actually the clothes they wore at the same time during their first meeting and Ep 4. Chor tai-gor had white garments with very little soft pink embellishment with a white gossamer cape while Siu Ching's tunic was pink and blue with white under layer, as shown above.