toastykitten

Today, my sister sent me a clip of a new version of Return of the Condor Heroes because she thinks the old guy looks like Gandalf. (Link is subtitled in English, and is from the first or second episode, I think.)

Of course, this sent me looking for my favorite version - the 1983 version of Legend of a Condor Hero, and the 1985 version of Return of a Condor Hero. These serials made my childhood - I loved them to death, and I think I probably picked up some Cantonese from them.

Link to opening theme of Legend of a Condor Hero. - No subtitles, Chinese singing in a really old-fashioned style. The male singer is the legendary Roman Tam, who unfortunately passed away from liver cancer a while back. Oh, and he was openly gay, I think, back in the eighties. The female singer is Jenny Tseng, who's been around forever. I think it's funny that the Wikipedia entry says that she made a "bold and controversial decision to have an illegitimate child". Uh-huh.

You can see in this opening there are a some battle scenes - the Han Chinese are at war with the Mongolians. The shows are based off the classic novels by Jin Rong, and Jin Rong sometimes incorporates real figures into the stories. I think Genghis Khan is actually in there, but I can't be totally sure.

One of the fight scenes in Return of a Condor Hero. Subtitled in English. It's the one where you see a young Andy Lau acting really arrogant about his "gu-gu" (Siu Long Lu) - his teacher who he will later fall in love with. I think he's supposed to be around, what, 18 or so here? And his "gu-gu" is about 25 or so. Anyway, she battles an evil monk.

I think my favorite things about these shows, though, were how well all the characters were drawn out, especially the women. Yeah, they obsess over the men they fall in love with, but they're still for the most part, making their own decisions, independent, and smart, and oftentimes are the leaders. Wong Yong, for example, has a photographic memory, can be manipulative, and is appointed Head of the Beggars (it's actually more powerful than it sounds), and goes out into battle herself with the men.

Oh, and who could forget Low Wan Tong, the old man who's a really powerful child at heart? When he finally re-unites with his true love, his formerly whole head of white hair turns half-black.

Marc Jacobs Quilted Leather Kim Bag.

Why? Because it's named after ME!

I ain't paying for it, though.

It was duly noted that the Civil Administrative Department in China will investigate and penalize anyone who offers to burn paper figures that represent items such as villas, sedans, mistresses, Viagra, condoms, 3P girls and Super Girls for their ancestors during the traditional Qingming festival. This item taken from Virtual China. First of all, I had no idea you could burn paper condoms and mistresses for QingMing. Second of all, it makes my cousin's joking about burning some security guards for my aunt along with all the money we give her that much funnier. Third, does anyone know what the hell "3P girls" and a "Super Girls" are?

Also from Virtual China - Beijing's Tongzhou District recently established an internal database of local bribery records, Beijing Star Daily reports. I *totally* think we could use one here.

My sister saw Andy Lau at the Asian Film Festival (yes I know it has a longer name; I'm tired). I am SOOO JEALOUS. She said he was really nice and his English was pretty decent. Someone asked him how he felt about America doing the remake of Infernal Affairs and he said very diplomatically that it's a good opportunity for Hong Kong films to get more exposure. He only stayed here three days, and on one of them he went bowling. He is the nicest guy.