Legend of the Ancient Sword was a
successful Mainland China RPG video game (Gu Jian Qi Tan, 古剑奇谭) developed by Shanghai
Aurogon back in the 2010s. Obviously, as a 50 episode-long TV show was created from the story. The game makers tried to be as faithful to the Chinese
culture as possible, starting from mythology, Taoism, including architecture,
clothing, food, and last, but not least alcohol. It is said, that even the main
characters’ names were created from Chinese alcoholic drinks.
Fans didn’t have to wait too long
for the television adaptation, released in 2014. The series (called Swords of Legends in English)
tried to be as faithful as its ancestor to the RPG this time. 50 episodes were quite enough to tell
all the stories, show all the characters, and introduce the fantasy world itself, without even changing the plot or the lovely costumes. The most beloved heroes have returned.
At some net places the TV show is referred
to as 'Legend of the Ancient Sword'. As it is planned to launch a movie with the
same English title based on the RPG’s Part 2 in 2017, I will stick to Swords of Legends
here, just to be sure.
It is also rumoured, that another movie adaptation will be released based on the original TV series called Swords of Eternal Love, with the same main cast. But nothing is carved in stones yet, so we'll see.
We will start from here:
We will start from here:
Before starting the episode recaps let me introduce here the pre-story / background story of the whole saga. Episode No. 1. actually jumps into the fantasy world with this story, told with such a speed, that we must soon decide, if we make notes, or rely on our memories later. It's epic, of course, with loads of CGI, but in a very tasty way. Nice ride to watch.
An old man is telling the story for us. A blue and a red phoenix are flying together in the first picture, it surely means something, at least the colours. Cut, and we already have at least two gods, one is the God of Fire, Zhurong, the other is Goddess Nuwa in the celestial realm of Yaoshan. Zhurong created a zither, Nuwa added the soul part. Its name was Taizi Changqin. Actually his name, as he turned to be a handsome young man, treated like a son by the deities.
This is mum and dad. And Changqin.
He played the zither. How actually, if he IS the zither? It might be like singing, using your own 'strings'. He was kind, sitting at home, playing music, until one day he made friends with a serpent called Qianyu. OK, this is already 4 names within 30 seconds. Taking notes already? :) The serpent made a promise to the zither, that if me makes a fine dragon, he will take him for a ride. But father Zuhrong called poor Changqin home, so the ride was cancelled.
Hundreds of years passed, and the dragon had to flee because of his bad doings, straight to Mount Buzhou. Changqin was ordered to catch him, but of course he let his old friend free. Big mistake. The pillars of this mount collapsed, the two were punished seriously. Changqin was sent to the mortal world, at least in body. His soul however remained upstairs, missing his friend. Somehow mortal blacksmiths appear, to catch him = his soul. They use a jade ornament to catch his soul, and use it to make the most dangerous weapon ever. They must be sick, as they use all the pain and suffering of the three realms (what is the third by the way?) and dadaaa... the Sword of Burning Solitude is born. But one half of Changqin's soul managed to escape from the sword. No wonder, the SBS can destroy everything around it, eating up the soul of its bearer, forcing him to kill. The goddess Nuwa at last interfered, sealing the SBS into an ice cave of Wu Meng Valley, and ordered a tribe to be its guard for ever.
A nice temple of the goddess was built over the ice cave. And a tiny little village around it. And the saga begins right there.
Checklist: village in the valley, a temple in the village, a sword in the temple and a shattered soul in the sword. And where did that jade go? Back to the blacksmith club?
Well, keep it rolling.
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