The Legend of the Condor Heroes 1994

LOCH 1994 was the first "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" adaptation I have ever seen and I enjoyed watching it but I always felt something was lacking. Therefore, I watched the 1983 adaptation and fell in love with that and completely forgot about this. I just recently got a copy of this and decided to watch this again after about twelve years to compare and not to compare this adaptation to the 1983 one.

The best aspect of this adaptation is the plot since it moves at a fast pace and it's true to the novel. I think this adaptation might be the truest to the novel so far...at least for TVB since I'm not sure about the Mainland Chinese ones. There is not once a draggy moment since it follows the novel very closely and I find the plot to be easier to understand in this adaptation.

Julian Cheung: Everybody says that Julian looks too "smart" to be Guo Jing and I agree to a point. He does sometimes look smarter than Guo Jing is supposed to be, but I found Julian to be a great actor since he was also able to portrayed dumbness and slowness very well. Julian is my second choice, after Felix Wong, as Guo Jing. 5*****

Athena Chu: Athena surprised me here since she was really lovable and cute as Huang Rong. I think this is her best role to date. Although I like Barbara Yung's portrayal better, Athena is my second choice as Huang Rong. 5*****

Gallen Lo: Gallen is usually a great actor but he was a miscast in here as Yang Kang. He didn't make me believe he's Yang Kang; however, his acting was okay. Thus, he only made an okay Yang Kang. 3***

Emily Kwan: Another miscast as Mu Nian Ci since she's not pretty enough and she doesn't look soft/elegant enough. However, her acting, in a way, made up for it since she's not the worst Mu Nian Ci. 3***

Julian+Athena: There are a lot more "romantic" scenes in here and I thought Julian and Athena were cute together, but there wasn't a lot of chemistry between them. 4****

Gallen+Emily: I couldn't feel the love between them so I was always questioning if they even loved each other. 2**

Themesong by Julian Cheung and Jacqueline Ng: 2** A disappointment since I don't like it at all.

Rating: 4.5**** The second best adaptation after the 1983 one due to some bad casting decisions. I enjoyed watching this but sadly, this is constantly disliked and underrated.