问世间情为何物?

Recently I was addicted to watching the Return of Condor Heroes on VCD, the 2006 edition..
Before I get into talking about love and condor heroes..

Jin Yong wrote this classic way back in 1959.
Every decade since 1980s, there has been a re-make of this classic by the TV stations..
Notingly, it has propel the male lead playing Yang Guo into mega stardom (OK, not for Christopher Lee, and perhaps not too sure about this guy in the 2006 remake).

In 1983, Andy Lau played what was to me, the best Yang Guo character.. and it propelled him into megastardom which lasts for over 20 years and counting.. (Oh, and that show also produced another brilliant actor - though he was only an extra in that show - Liu QingYun was a guard standing in front of 乡阳城, I recognise him years later when I saw a re-run of that series! Hilarious!)


In 1995, I fell in love with Louis Koo, way before anyone know who is this 古天乐, way before he became famous after going the tanned guy route... Back then, I was so obsessed with him, when no one could understand why.. and my girlfriends all laughed at me being crazy over a wishy-washy guy.. but he then went on to be the cool macho guy who made tanning all the hype for men.. talk about spotting the gem..

And now, I am lapping up the 2006 remake of my favourite classic of Jin Yong.. and while I am not sure if this will propel the guy into mega stardom, it has already made the gal playing 小龙女 Liu YiFei one of the youngest China stars going off the Hollywood!

I love 神雕侠女 when I first saw it.. way back when I was just a really young gal.. I was less than 10 years old when I saw this, but I never forget it..

I fell in love with both Andy Lau and the character Yang Guo.. maybe you can say that they are my very first love.. and this classic taught me quite a lot about love.. it illustrated to me what overcoming the odds mean.. and the value in being unconventional..

It planted seeds of idea of what love is like and what it means to love.. it gave me my first notion "greatness" - country before self and people we love before ourselves..and importantly, it set my expectations of what love is like..

To me, the ideals of love that Jin Yong propagated are not unrealistic.. I feel he depicted what it means to love very well.. what is 大爱, and while i hated the wishy washy-ness of 小龙女, seeing the love she inspires in Yang Guo really touched me.. To love that wholeheartedly, that faithfully - through the years, unmoved by other gals' adoration of him, Yang Guo is the epitome of my ideal lover ...

Those ideas and impressions formed so many years ago left an indelible print on me.. it shaped my views on men.. and my views on love.. And in this age of many a frivoulous relationships, and many a faithless man.. i find myself wishing things are simpler..

Every woman needs a faithful man - a man who thinks the world of her woman. Every woman needs a man who is blind to other women he knows that he is in love with the most wonderful and the most beautiful woman in the world..
Every woman needs a man who has the so much of moral integrity and backbone, that being crazily in love with his woman does not compromise his macho-ness one bit..

I feel this funny feeling in my heart when I heard Yang Guo saying that he will only love his 姑姑 in the whole of this world.. and meant it by waiting 16 years for her..

Anyways... i think sometimes, shows can teach us a lot about love..
This Channel 8 drama series I am watching at 9pm everyday also taught me a lot about love and men.. but more on that next time...

I am off to continue with the episodes..

Yes, I am a sucker for love dramas.. my parents started me real young, so what to do?

And I have to end up marrying this guy who was in love with this gal for 7 yrs before he met me lor.. if it is not an ironic twist that life has dealt me, I dunno what it is lor... :)