Against the Blade of Honour (1995)

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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