飛狐外傳 (Side Story of Fox Volant) is a 2022 wuxia series out of Zhong Guo. The series stars Qin Jun Jie, Liang Jie, and Xing Fei. The supporting cast include Lin Yu Shen, Peter Ho, and Zhao Ying Zi. The story is based on The Young Flying Fox from Jin Yong. The last adaption was quite a few years ago.
Hu Yidao, with wife and new son in hand, is heading to see his family members. Along the way, he meets many enemies. Amoung them is Miao Renfeng. However, Miao and Hu get along and battle each other to a tie. After many days of a tie battle, they decide to switch weapons. When Miao accidently grazes Hu, Hu goes down in pain and his wife tries to suck the poison out of his wound. Both Hu and his wife die from the poison. Miao swears to avenge his death. Down the hill, Ping Si, Hu's attendent escapes with Hu Hei, the son. Hu Fei grows up and learns part of his fathers Hu family style. Ping Si finds the person that has the remaining pages and risk his life for it. With the full manual, Hu Fei grows up to become a decent martial artist.
This is just the summary of the first few episodes of the series. I watched this series through Viki. I was kinda mad I had to wait week after week for the episodes to release. I do not need the subs! But I waited.
Jin Yong has such a way with drama that is hard to replicate. If you follow the story and do not deviate much, the series will be good. When you do, it shows. In the case of this 2022 edition, the series was very well written, but strays from the book according to the interwebs.
At 40 episodes, its a little long and its does not contain the older adult Hu Fei storyline of 雪山飛狐 (Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain). Which is a bummer. With the change from the book and the twist at the end, the makers have no intention of making a series about the older Hu Fei.
Highly recommend this series.
