JoleCole's Station

One of the most redeeming qualities about the new adaptation of Return of the Condor Heroes is the cast for the"middle-aged" couple Huang Rong and Guo Jing. Compared to the first installment in the Condor Trilogy, the character of Huang Rong is written in a much less favorable light the second installment.  No matter how "unpopular" Huang Rong becomes during her middle age years, she remains my favorite female character in the Louis Cha/Jin Yong's universe. My second favorite character also coincidentally happens to be her daughter, Guo Xiang, who not only inherited the mother's beauty but also her brains.

Recently I have been quite critical of the costume designer for the 2013 adaptation of the Return of the Condor Heroes. I felt the costumes absolutely butchered Chen Xiao's pretty features with his horrendous baggy outfits and the prettiest girl in the story became the least attractive girl in the whole production. Xiaolongn ü is famously known to be this godly beautiful creature, but Michelle Chen looks horrendously out of character in her Xiaolongnu's costumes. Consequently, I held a strong grudge against the costume designer for her failure to bring out the physical attractiveness of Michelle Chen.

Today is Zhao Liying's 26th birthday and Yu Zheng celebrated with two new stills of her cameo role in his latest production. Luckily, my fear that Zhao Liying's Mu Nianci and Chen Zhao's Yang Kang not sharing any scenes together has evaporated with this pictorial release. It definitely more than I asked for. It also seems my favorite pairing is sharing a "intimate" scene together.

We have good news followed by some potential bad news regarding the new Ying Xiao pairing in the new Return of the Condor Heroes. The good news has obviously already been revealed through the release photo above. And thank goodness Chen Xiao finally has one decent "normal" costume styling! I really dislike the new Yang Guo's hooligan and "I-belong-to the-Beggar-Sect" styling. Though his Yang Kang's costume is definitely not up to par with the majestic details of Yuan Hong's version in the 2009 Legend of the Condor Heroes adaptation, it is certainly several degrees better in magnitude than his Yang Guo's mess.

The cameo role of Yang Kang, the troubled father of male protagonist Yang Guo, was originally given to mainland Chinese actor Li Chen ( Beijing Love Story ) in Return of the Condor Heroes . Due to Li Chen's recent and bitter breakup with actress, Viann Zhang, who is playing Li Mochou, he supposedly resigned from the production to avoid further association with his ex-girlfriend. Consequently, the roles of both father and son have fallen on Chen Xiao's shoulders. Chen Xiao is absolutely PERFECT as Yang Kang. I feel he may do a better job playing Yang Kang than Yang Guo. Since we already know that Zhao Liying is slated to play Yang Guo's mother, Mu Nianci, can I scream "HECK YAY!"? Once again, I will get to see this beloved onscreen couples together and this time they get to play one of my favorite wuxia couplings!

I don't have much to say except that I dislike the hairstyling of both Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü in this latest adaptation of Return of the Condor Heroes. I generally like more clean styling for guys in both modern and period productions. The costumes for Yang Guo make Chen Xiao look like he belongs more to the Beggar Sect than the Ancient Tomb Sect.

If anyone is following the Chinese TV entertainment on weibo, it's quite an uproar right now. Endless speculation has surfaced in the past few months about who will be chosen for the coveted role of Xiaolongnü in Yu Zheng's latest adaptation of Louis Cha's classic story Return of the Condor Heroes. Rumors went from Angelababy to Zhao Liying. Well...the dust has finally settled yesterday and mystery has been revealed to be Taiwanese actress, Michelle Chen. Her most famous work to date is the movie titled You are the Apple of My Eye, successfully playing the dream girl of every young boy.