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(added notes on Dec 15, 2001) The TV series ended on Dec 14 with 3 double hatter episodes on the last 3 nights. There were 34 episodes in total. A 34 hours drama series of course covers much much more of the original novel than the 2 hour movie version. In the TV version, Meng gave up his marriage engagment with Yu because he joined the revolution against the government and he didn't want to mix personal love affair and his secret role in the underground. Li knew Meng's secret identity and tried to bring Yu and Meng together. Li felt for Yu, but being a Taoist student, he sublimed his love for Yu's well being and happiness by helping Yu to get back with her childhood lover. The love triangle went on with several unexpected turns and reversals. Meng was eventually killed by Te and Li was framed for the killing. Yu being a brainless idiot fell for the setup and became Li's enemy for a while. The role of the Jade Fox in the movie is actually combining 3 characters from the novel. Among the 3 characters, Jen's master was a good guy, a hero. The other two, including the Jade fox, were villains. The fatherly figure, prince Te, in the movie is actually the most vicious villain in the novel. He was an ambitious guy who plotted to take over power to became the ruler of China. He used Yu as a pawn with many plots. And the pea brain Yu failed to see the dark side of Te, didn't know Te was responsible for her family massacre, loyal to him, called him "godfather", and turned against the other heros in the story. Jen and Lo's roles are similar to those in the movie except that Lo hid his bandit identity and gained trust from Jen's father. Jen's father actually tried to help Lo become a government official. But Lo gave up his position after he discovered Te's plot to subsititue Jen's father position with Lo's position. Being moved by Jen's father's genuine support for him, he ran away to ruin Te's plot. At the end, Jen's master sacreficed himself to save Jen from Te. The other heros in the story united to fight Te and killed him at the end. Li didn't die in the novel. He went to experience life and explore taoism by travelling different parts of the country. But he promised to return and asked Yu to wait for him. Jen and Lo returned to the desert at the end. The ending of the movie is totally different from that in the novel. The Jade fox role was eliminated quite early because the main plot was about Te's hidden agenda. Towards the end of the series, the green destiny sword led to a pool of Qi cuminated for hundreds of years, Te wanted to take the qi to become invincable so that he could complete his ambition to take over the country. This plot would be too crazy and foreign to the western audience. Though the movie script was pruned so severly from the original story, I personally think the shorter story had a better theme and plot. The focus on three women's role (Jen, Yu and Jade fox) in the traditional Chinese society, actually gave the movie a totally different feel. The original novel is a typical Wu Xia story about killings, revenge, power struggle etc. and with so many weird concepts uncomprehensible by the western audience. But the rewritten screenplay added much more depth to the story which led to the good box office results. The love triangle between Li, Yu and Meng were quite boring in the TV series. I wonder if they plan to make the prequel to the movie, they probably would not base on the original novel. The sceenplay of the first movie did wonders in deviating from the original story, I think it would be unnecessary to stick to the original novel in the prequel. |
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