Sword Stained With Royal Blood - 碧血劍 (2007)

Sword Stained With Royal Blood (碧血劍) was released on DVD in the US! That's amazing. It is awesome that the english reading world will be able to enjoy the televised version's of Jin Yong's novels. However, the language is Cantonese. It doesn't matter if you're looking for the English Subtitles. You can rent it at Netflix too.

Tai Seng has in the pass released abbreviated dramas. Like taking 30 hours of a drama and editing it down to 3 hours. From the looks of the current catalog, they have abandoned that concept and are releasing the full series. That's good for all the peeps that need English Subtitles. But if you're looking for the Mandarin dubs, you're gonna have to find it elsewhere. Most of the series are in Cantonese dubs even if the original series is from China and in Mandarin.

碧血劍, the 2007 edition, has a mix of stars from Taiwan, HK, and China. The male star is Bobby Duo from Taiwan. The two main femaile stars are from China, Eva Huang and Sun Fei Fei. Rounding out the cast are Vincent Jiao, Lily Hsiao, and Ma Su.

The story is mostly set during the last years of the Ming Dynasty and ends as the Qing Dynasty takes over China. This is the summary from Netflix:

Family honor and revenge fuel this epic television series set at the end of China's Ming Dynasty. Driven by vengeance, Yuen (Bobby Dou) -- the sole survivor of an attack on his family by corrupt constables -- seeks to train in the art of kung fu. After the massacre, Yuen meets a mysterious man and a beautiful swordswoman (Shen Yi Huang) who teach him the way of the Golden Snake Sword. His eventual revenge is a spectacle of grace and fury.

That summary will suffice. It is hard to give a concise summary of something that's going to run 25-30 hours long. Drama series can take a large emotion commitment from you.

This is the 3rd television series and the fist from a non TVB production crew. But since the turn of the century, the Jin Yong television productions have mainly come from China. It's a sign of the times. In roughly 10 ten years, there will no need for Taiwan, HK, and China co-productions. They'll all just gonna come out of China. Actors and Actresses will still come from all over.

I am looking for the 1981 Shaw Bros. movie with some of the "Five Venom" guys. The clips on Youtube are pretty bad quality.