As usual, CCTV production always has the top quality scenery, make up and costume, but this production fails at its useless cast, terrible direction, laughable dialogs and unbearable special effect and fighting scenes.
Hu Jun as Xiao Feng has got the right body size, but not the right brain size, he has no understanding of Xiao Feng, does not have any qualities the character suppose to have - honorable and intelligent, all his got is bitterness and unconvincing anger.
Lin Zhi Ying's Duan Yu also has little resemblance of the character, this guy can not distinguish the difference between naive to stupid, being humorous to being a clown. Xiu Qing as Mu Rong Fu looks 10 years too old, apart from that, you don't get much of a impression from him. Hao Chen way over-acted as A-Zi, this character suppose to be cruel and cold, but attractive and smart, Chen is just plain annoying. Liu Yi Fei and Liu Tao are the only two main cast worth watching.
In regards to dialogs, I don't understand why cant they just use the original from the book, they are after all very easy to understand, and since all Chinese TV shows always comes with subtitle, no audience will ever have trouble understand, so why ruin it by change them all to silly modernised stuff and repeat the same thing several times in each scene!?
Martial arts and Qi Gong are completely unwatchable, endless spinning-on-a-wire and everyone-can-fly with explosions-on-demand, you'd wonder haven't these choreographers watched any 80s classics?
All in all, I am very disappointed, my advice is don't bother with this one, watch either the 1983 version or the 1997 version, both vastly superior in different ways.
Or read Huang Yu Lang's comic book, by far the most entertaining adaption.
