KIM MO DUK KO KAU PAI

TVB surprisingly had made a series in the past on this Jin Yong character, Dok Gu Kau Pai. Naturally curious and psyched to see a series about one of the most powerful fighters in a quest to become the greatest swordsman, the series was rented and the rest of the story went down a slide from there. "Kim" stars Felix Wong Yut Wah, Maggie Siu Mei Kei, and Hugo Ng.
Those who are die-hard Jin Yong fans would know that Dok Gu Ko Bie is a legendary character that Jin Yong had created who had never actually made a physical appearance in his stories but related through the tales of others after his death. The heavy sword that Yeung Gor of the "Return of the Condor Heroes" found and that was later melted to form the parts of the YiTin (Heavenly) Sword and Dragon Saber in "Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber" once belonged solely to Dok Gu Kau Bie. Then in "State of Divinity", Ling Wu Chong learned the special sword techniques, "Dok Gu 9 Kim", that Dok Gu had invented to defeat all the martial arts of the world--thus the name, Dok Gu Kau Bie, which yearns for a single defeat in battle.
With so much free space for the producers and script-writers to innovate from, the series unfortunately followed the then growing trend in the martial arts genre. The plot is typical, starting off with the parents generation, Dok Gu Tin Fong, who is off on a fighting spree, challenging all the great fighters and obtaining their secret martial arts manuals if they lost. Deemed as "evil" by the martial world, the "good" clans got together and ganged up on Dok Gu, whose pregnant wife was ready to labor at the same time. Switching her baby with a peasant who happened to give birth to a child on the same day, the wife runs off with the peasant's infant. Of course Dok Gu is captured while his wife fell off a cliff (one can already guess whether she died or not). Their son is unknowingly brought up by the kind peasant family and grows up under the name Lam Hong (Felix Wong). The grown up Lam Hong meets, and quite quickly falls in love with, Lang Zhi Yee (Maggie Siu), who was on a avenging mission for her martial teacher. The story goes on with some tangled misunderstandings and relationships.
What is most interesting is that a Wu Dang Clan actually existed in the series--a careless mistake by TVB because during Dok Gu Kau Bie's time, Wu Dang's founder, Cheung Sam Fung, has not even been born yet! What was expected to be a tale about Dok Gu Kau Bie, who was the world's greatest swordsman of his time, analyzing the world's martial arts turns out to be more focused on the revenge of his parents on the "good" clans. Only by the latter parts of the series does the story finally turn to how Dok Gu Kau Bie developed his unique sword techniques, but even then, it is so improbable for him to suddenly understand the theory behind the techniques and how each move could be created without a very wide knowledge of the world's different martial arts (Remember that each move of "Dok Gu 9 Kim" supposedly can defeat all different types of a weapon category). Also, it was mentioned in "Return of Condor Heroes " when Yeung Gor got his sword, that Dok Gu Kau Bie buried the swords that he had used at each age interval until using the heavy sword. It was not even hinted at in the "Kim". The series conveniently has Dok Gu Kau Bie discover some underwater secret cave with martial arts written on it but who or why it was there was never explained. Nor was the heavy sword ever founded.
Despite all, the events of Dok Gu Kau Bie's life and how his parent's death influenced him was acceptable. The love relationships were not too ideal though, especially since Dok Gu Kau Bie didn't seem like a very devote lover. Felix Wong's performance was excellent as Dok Gu Kau Bie--perhaps one of the best choices for the role, portraying the turn of Lam Hong into Dok Gu Kau Bie very well. The villain played by Hugo Ng is actually quite comical in this series, or at least he seemed so in today's terms. However, he seemed too powerful by the end, though TVB probably wanted one of those super battles between hero and villain.
PS I do not own this review.