Hmm; As I refer to my memory I seem to have always liked the martial arts (Kung Fu) oriented movies and series. I guess the first such thing that I watched for the first time (at the age of 6 if not mistaken) was Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon". Oh My! I was so possessed by that movie and that Chinese man that I just kept watching and watching it every day! Hehe, I was really enjoying Bruce Lee's image How sad that such big martial arts master lost his life in a very suspicious way

Then some years later, the Iranian Channel 1 started showing a heroic Chinese series whose Persian translated title was "The Mountain Warriors". It was a great serial indeed and I really enjoyed it. That feeling was repeated when the serial was aired again some years ago. And then..., came the best ever martial arts series I had ever watched .  

Based on a same titled book written by the great Chinese Wuxia author Jin Yong, Xiao Ao Jiang Hu translated into Persian as افسانه شجاعان ( Afsaneh Shoja'an = Legend of the Braves ) was the name of the series. I can't be sure of its exact translation in English but some seen equivalents for it are as follows (the first one I think should be the closest one):

 

 

Smiling Proud Wanderer

State of Divinity

Blood Cold and Proud Hot

Laughing in the Wind

 

 

 

The one I'm referring to is the CCTV 2001 adaptation of the novel (since some other adaptations were made already) and is mostly known as the State of Divinity or Blood Cold and Proud Hot in English. Although I haven't watched all the XAJH  adaptations (except for the Mediacorp and TVB's 1996 one), I can easily make my mind and say that the  mainland China adaptation is the Best. In my opinion, everything in their adaptation is perfect: beautiful sceneries, breath taking and hair raising martial arts, fabulous music and songs and a group of gorgeous and good looking actors and actresses (don't forget to check my The Cast page to see who was playing whom ). Everybody did his/her job pretty well no matter how long the the role (time) was. But the main cast (in my opinion again) are limited to these people:

 

 

              Li Yapeng     -----     Linghu Chong

                 Xu Qing     -----     Ren Yingying

                   Wei Zi     -----     Yue Buqun

               Miao Yiyi     -----     Yue Lingshan

                     Li Jie     -----     Lin Pingzhi

 

 

My especially favored character at the beginning was this pretty good-looking guy nicknamed Gentleman Sword; the HuaShan master Yue Buqun Well, I had never read that novel and had no faintest idea what kind of a crap and hypocrite guy he is. He was so well mannered and educated that I was really fooled by his image not believing that he could be such a villain, a wolf in the sheep skin Yes, I admit that I was totally fooled by him but how could it be possible if the actor hadn't done a splendid job? Yeah, Wei Zi DID do a magnificent job of portraying such a complex and sophisticated person (no wonder I've become one of his admirers ever since ; two thumbs up for him; Wei Zi rocks  ).

Li Jie as the unfortunate and ill-fated LPZ did a great job too. So did Miao Yiyi as Yue Buqun's daddy's girl Lingshan.

LHC and RYY are the main hero and heroine of the story and Li Yapeng and Xu Qing are the main actor and actress of the series too. I've seen/read some criticizing Li Yapeng portrayal of Linghu Chong but in my opinion he's just perfect especially when he starts joking or making fun of the enemies. I still love his disguise as a general, quite hilarious  And Xu Qing, she's so cute and believable as Yingying that I can't say anything against her. Quite perfect

 

Poof! I've done lot of things  regarding this page today! Hopefully will add more later. But meanwhile, you can check the other links I've provided on the right as they're pretty cool since they are written and created by me too (except for the Stage Photos)