Against the Blade of Honour (1995)

Against the Blade of Honour 1995 is loosely based on a novel by Gu Long that translates into something like Curved Moon Sabre. There's many adaptations of this novel and few are truly faithful to the novel. The Director's just can't seem to stop messing with the story line when they adapt it into a TV drama. I was a fan of Louis Koo after watching The Condor Heroes 1995 so I watched this series. It's because Louis is in this series as Ding Pang that I kept watching it and I also have this series on my laptop despite the low rating. Ding Pang is such a complex character. The four main leads were pretty good. I also liked Noel Leung as Ching Ching. Eddie Cheung played a good villain in Lau Yuek Chung. I also liked Irene Wan as Chung Hor Ching, especially in the earlier episodes. Before all the betrayals, twists and turns and struggle for power. In the end, it's an okay series but not great. If you like a classic wuxia drama then you'll enjoy this.

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Ding Pang was a martial arts hero who thought he had something, lost it, regained it and more, lost it all again, finally found what was truly important in life, only to possibly lose it all in the end. The plot had some twists and turns, deviating quite a bit from the novel. Gu Long was generally good at creating complex characters, but this novel wasn’t up to his usual standards. The script writers tried to improve on that by adding more angst and romance. They succeeded, for the most part, in fleshing out the characters. Even the bad guys have some sympathetic qualities.

At the time, Louis Koo was so famous as Yang Guo (Return of the Condor Heroes) that many people overlooked how good he was in this series. Ding Pang was a much darker and more complicated character. In the hands of a lesser actor, you would hate this power-hungry man. But Louis had the charisma and the depth to make you feel sorry for Ding Pang, even though you might hate the things he did. Noel Leung, with her beautiful sad eyes, was the perfect Ching Ching. I can see why Ding Pang could never quite let her go. Irene Wan and Eddie Cheung were in their elements as a seductress and a scoundrel, respectively. The younger actors were weak, but not bad enough to drag the series down.

The fight choreography was typical of its time, nothing too fancy or exciting. I still prefer this to some modern kung fu series where they just flail their arms and let the special effects department do the work.

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