Fox Volant on Snowy Mountain 雪山飛狐
15 December 2007Yes I am certainly a sucker for Chinese soap opera, especially a Wuxia one, even if it is overly sappy and ridiculous. I mean this one seems to teach that heroes will have a terrible life, and villains a much better one, and most people who fall off mountains survive, but I still did enjoy it. I was psyched to see it was shot in 16×9, but depressed to realize the disks were mastered in 4×3, so there was no anamorphic to it, which would have looked much better. I picked this up because of the amazing cast of Hong Kong actors who are in this. This is a terribly sad, and a bit repetitive soap opera, but I still enjoyed it overall, even if it does seem that the villains mostly do better than the heroes because the heroes are too righteous for their own good.
This starts off with grand Master Wu Yidao (Anthony Wong Chau Sam) and his Pregnant wife going to battle Grandmaster Miao Renfang also known as Unbeatable (Alex Fong) at the Snowy Mountain. The are fighting because of an ancestral promise, where 4 adopted brothers were fighting for the Han Generals against the Manchu in a losing battle. The General split their books of martial arts into 4 books and hid a clue to the treasure of Kublai Khan in each one. Then Wu’s ancestor pretended to kill the Gerneral, but actually saved him, leaving the other brothers thinking Wu was a traitor. Miao doesn’t particualarly like his other 2 adopted brothers, especially the evil Tian Guinong, who has secretly started working for the Manchu emperor and is working to kill both Miao and Wu so he can get their books and his hands on the treasure. Wu and Miao fight for 5 days, and quickly become great friends, but keep fighting. Wu even goes off and kills Miao’s biggest enemy during the night, and they decide if they are still even after 5 days they will be friends, and stop, but Tian has an evil doctor poison the sword of Miao, and in the battle Wu is hit, and instantly dies. Then Tian has the Emperor’s men come in and Mr’s Wu is killed, though he is son is saved by a man who Wu saved named Ping Si. Ping Si loses an arm and one page of the manual the evil doctor named Yan Ji who later becomes a monk, Ping Si manages to escape with the child Wu Fei, who he will teach to hate Miao and seek revenge. Miao spends years looking for Wu Fei, but can’t find him so eventually leaves.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Wu YIdao and his wife.
Wu Yidao
Miao Renfang
Wu Yidao and Miao Renfang fighting on Snowy Mountain.
When Miao leaves he sees bandits attack officer Nan to steal his mythical Cold Moon Treasured Sword, and he doesn’t save him, but does save his spoiled daughter Nan Lan (What a name, ha) who forces him to marry her, and when they go to his estate, spends all his money and is a total brat, always wanting more, and not caring what her husband wants at all.
Nan Lan and Miao Renfang
The couple eventually has a daughter named Ruo Lan.
Ping Si raises Wu Fei who trains in Martial Arts from the manual.
Miao befriends the members of the just Iron Flower Society, including Thunder Palm Wen Tailai and his wife Dobule Blade Luo Bing, the two Chivalrous Chagns from Xiangxi, also known as the ever-changing Black and White and the Dustless Priest, and the eventually take in Wu Fei and train the exceptional youth in many martial arts.
Thunder Palm Wen Tailai
Meanwhile the evil Tian goes to Miao and pretends to be his friend, and in order to try and get his martial arts manual seduces Nan Lan and runs away wtih her and burns down Miao manner and tries to blame the Iron Flower society, though that doesn’t work.
Tian Guinong and Nan Lan
Ruo Lan forces her father to go and try and get her mother back and they all end up at Shang Mansion, including Ping Si and Wu Fei, Shang being the wife of the man that Wu Yidao killed for Miao during the battle, and where they want the son Shang Bao Zhen to kill Miao, but he doesn’t manage it, and they manage to escape, and Ping Si manages to get the missing manual back from Yan Ji who is now a bandit, and Miao lets Tian and his wife Nan Lan go, but breaks his adopted brother status. At the mansion Chief Guard Ma his apprentice Xu Zheng and his family help Wu Fei, but they are killed except the lovely daughter CHunhua, who ends up leaving with an official Fu Khanggan, who turns out to be a very evil and lustful man, and who also has the same face as Chen Jialou the leader of the Iron Flower society.
Xu Zheng and Chunhua
General Fu Khangshan
The gerneral takes away Chunhua and makes her his concubine and has a son with her.
Wu Fei grows up and becomes an amazing martial artist and sets out in the world, and has a run in with the evil landlord Feng Tiannan who he vows to kill for killing an innocent family to steal their land. Wu Fei then runs into the grogeous (she looks like a young Maggie Cheung Man Yuk) Yuan Ziyi (Athena Chu), and when he finds out she is the apprentice of Super Nun of the Iron Flower society, begins to work with her. She is stealing all of the medals of leadership of martial societies because Fu is holding a headmaster conference so he and Tian can take over the martial arts world.
Wu Fei
Yang Ziyi
Wu Fei and Yang Ziyi fall for each other, but don’t do anything and are eventually split up when she finds out the evil Feng Tianan is actually her father and she stops Wu Fei from killing him. She finds out from her mother Jinkong who was is a Nun and used to be Yuan Yingu, who was his concubine, but was kicked out by his new wife.
Wu Fei then saves Ruolan, the daughter of Miao, and he is poisoned by poison from the poison king, though in a letter of warning from Nan Lan about Tian, and he sets off with the young Ruolan to find the Poison King and cure Miao, who he wants to fight, but only in a fair battle. It turns out hat the Poison king is dead, but they meet his young apprentice Cheng Lingsu (the Twin Gillian Chung Yin Tung) who quickly falls for Wu Fei, much to Ruolan’s chagrin. They run into her older apprentice Zue E, who is evil and who loves Thunderpalms and thinks she has a kid with him, but really it is not. And the kid is stupid and gets killed by Lingsu’s poisons, so Xue E wants revenge, and ends up going to work for Tian once again.
Lingsu
Lingsu goes with Wu Fei and Ruolan and they go to the house of Zhang and she treats Miao so eventually his eyes will be OK, but Ruloan hears that her mother has killed herself and wants to go find her, so Lingsu and Wu Fei must go to save her, and barely do, but manage it.
Ziyi then shows up and she and Wu Fei profess their love, and she gives him a jade pendant, but he drops it and she sees that Lingsu has it and leaves in a huff, and ends up getting kidnapped by the lustfull General Fu who forgets about his wife and just wants Ziyi now, and keeps letting her go and capturing he again.
Wu Fei leaves Miao and tells him he return in 7 years when Rualoan is 18 to kill him for his father and Miao swears he will let Wu Fei kill him for the debt he owes his father.
Wu Fei then manages to save Ziyi, but he is poisoned by a sex poison meant for Ziyi. Ziyi goes to find the antidote and Lingsu finds him, and knows the only cure for him is sex, so she sleeps with him. And being an honorable man, he must break it off with Ziyi and stay with Lingsu, though he still only loves Ziyi and can only treat Lingsu as his sister.
Ziyi
Eventually Lingsu realizes that by staying with Wu Fei she will make 3 people miserable, especially when they save Ma Chunhua who escaped from Fu since he only cares for Ziyi now, and she betrays them and poisons Wu Fei, but he still cares for her, and saves her child before she dies.
The headmaster’s conference goes on and Wu Fei goes with Lingsu, and of course Ziyi shows up and is saved by her father who has become a poison man thanks to Xue E and the evil Fu. And when the conference is broken up Ziyi leaves to go become a nun and forget the real world, and Wu Fei goes to stop her, but she won’t, but then Xue E takes Lingsu and the two go to save her. Xue E is killed, but her face is cured, and both Lingsu and Ziyi are poisoned. She uses her special plant that only flowers once every 7 years to cure Ziyi, but Wu Fei will need to try and grow another fruit to really save her in 7 years. Lingsu then dies, but instead of staying with him Ziyi returns to Super Nun and Wu Fei goes to Snowy mountain to grow the plant and save the one he has always loved.
Xue E
On the way Wu Fei meets Ping Si again and they go to the mountain and find the treasure of Kublai Khan and because of the wine there the flower grows, and they build a castle on the mountain and wait to save Ziyi,
Wu Fei has now become the Flying Fox of snowy mountain and does plan to fight Miao, but Tian plays a trick to get him and sends out letters from him inviting all the participants from the begging to the Snowy Mountain, and the now grown up Ruolan gets the letter and goes there too, as does Ziyi to eat the fruit,
Ruolan
They get to Snowy Mountain, including Tian, and then Ruolan waters the flower and it dies, so Wu Fei flips out and kicks her out, where she is kidnapped by General Fu who is lustful for her beauty and because she is his enemies daughter. So there is now no chance for Ziyi and they didn’t spend the last 7 years together, so they marry before heaven and she dies, and Ping Si is killed by Tian, who Wu Fei knocks off the mountain, but instead of dying he finds the treasure as well as the armor and sword of Kublai Khan and a martial manual for 2 handed fighting and he has gotten Wu’s manual so he becomes very powerful.
Miao then shows up and he and Wu Fei fight on the bridge he fought with Wu Yidao, but Ruolan tries to stop them and falls. They all survive, but are hurt. Ruolan loses her memory and is taken by Fu who lies to her and makes her his concubine, and he takes Miao. Wu Fei lives, but is hurt.
Tian returns and wounds Miao’s scapula so he loses 75 percent of his martial power, but then learns Miao martial arts from him, though Miao teaches him wrong to give him a weakness.
Wu Fei tries to save Ruolan, but she stabs him and he is captured, but gets away, and finally gets her away, but Fu takes her again and she goes back willingly to kill him, pretending to not have gotten her memory back. Fu then uses her to seduce Tian, who has taken his position in the imperial court and to poison him. She manages to poison him once, but he still kills Miao (who leaves a not for Wu Fei on his body) and then when he heads with an army to Kill Wu Fei and steal the treasure, she tries to poison him again is caught and buried alive in a coffin.
Wu Fei battles Tian at the snowy mountain and when Tian breaks Tian Yidao’s tomb the Cold Moon Sword is revieled, and Wu Fei uses it to kill Tian.
The day is saved, though General Fu gets away. And Wu Fei finally manages to save Ruolan from her tomb, and takes her back to his mountain to live together forver.
••••
After Ziyi and Lingsu died as well as Ping Si and his parents, I really though that everyone he ever died would love. At least he got some happiness in the end. Enjoyable if too sad, and certainly a bit to convoluted and ridiculous.
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