''The Legendary Swordsman'' is a

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

an television series adapted from

Louis Cha Louis Cha Leung-yung (; 10 March 1924 – 30 October 2018), better known by his pen name Jin Yong (), was a Hong Kong wuxia novelist and co-founder of ''Ming Pao.'' Cha authored 15 novels between 1955 and 1972 and became one of the most popul ...

's novel ''

The Smiling, Proud Wanderer ''The Smiling, Proud Wanderer'' is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It was first serialised in Hong Kong in the newspaper ''Ming Pao'' from 20 April 1967 to 12 October 1969. The Chinese title of the novel, ''Xiao Ao Jiang Hu'', literally m ...

''. First broadcast on TCS-8 (now

MediaCorp Channel 8 Channel 8 ( zh, 8頻道) is a Singaporean Mandarin-language free-to-air terrestrial television channel in Singapore, owned by state media conglomerate Mediacorp. The channel broadcasts general entertainment and news programming in the Manda ...

) in Singapore in 2000, it starred Steve Ma,

Fann Wong Fann Woon Fong (born 27 January 1971), known professionally as Fann Wong, is a Singaporean actress, singer, businesswoman and model. She has been referred to as one of MediaCorp's ''Ah Jie'' for being one of the most successful actresses from Sing ...

Ivy Lee Ivy Ledbetter Lee (July 16, 1877 – November 9, 1934) was an American publicity expert and a founder of modern public relations. Lee is best known for his public relations work with the Rockefeller Family. His first major client was the Pennsy ...

Chew Chor Meng Chew Chor Meng (born 20 November 1968) is a Singaporean actor, television host and businessman. He is one of the first batch of actors to receive the Star Awards for All-Time Favourite Artiste in 2004. Career Chew started his career in show ...

, Jacelyn Tay, Florence Tan,

Chen Tianwen Chen Tianwen (born 28 May 1963) is a Singaporean actor. Career Chen was educated at the now-defunct Serangoon Garden Secondary Technical School. He joined the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (now Mediacorp) after completing the 5th a ...

Priscelia Chan Priscelia Chan Shih Mei (born 6 November 1978) is a Singaporean television actress and host. Career Chan was a tax auditor before taking part in Star Search Singapore 1999. Despite being eliminated in the semifinals, she was offered a contr ...

and

Zheng Geping Zheng Geping (born Edmund Tay Kok Peng on 27 May 1964), formerly known as Zheng Guoping, is a Singaporean actor, executive producer and businessman. He has appeared in several MediaCorp Channel 8 television series. He left MediaCorp in 2023. ...

Differences between novel and drama

The plot deviates significantly from the original story. Notable differences include: Ren Yingying appearing much earlier in the series than her first appearance in the novel; Ren Woxing is killed by Yue Buqun instead of dying from a stroke; an additional subplot on a romance between Tian Boguang and Lan Fenghuang; Dongfang Bubai is given a greater role in the series as the ultimate villain as opposed to his role as a minor antagonist in the novel, in which he only appears in one chapter.

Cast

* Steve Ma as Linghu Chong *

as Ren Yingying *

as Yue Lingshan *

as Lin Pingzhi * Jacelyn Tay as

Dongfang Bubai Dongfang Bubai, literally "Invincible East", is a fictional character in the wuxia novel ''The Smiling, Proud Wanderer'' by Jin Yong. He is the leader of the Sun Moon Holy Cult (), an "unorthodox" martial arts school. In his quest to dominat ...

* Florence Tan as Lan Fenghuang *

as Tian Boguang *

as Yilin *

as Yue Buqun *

Hong Huifang Hong Huifang (born Ang Hwee Fong on 7 January 1961) is a Singaporean actress. In 2022, Hong became the first Singaporean actress to be nominated for Best Leading Actress at Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards, for her performance in the film '' A ...

as Ning Zhongze * Natalie Faye as Qiu Xueying *

Richard Low Richard Low (born 19 June 1952), also known as Liu Qianyi, is a Singaporean actor. He is best known for acting in many Chinese-language television dramas produced by MediaCorp Channel 8 and its predecessors. He also acted in some of Jack Neo' ...

as Ren Woxing * Li Haijie as Zuo Lengshan * Huang Shinan as Xiang Wentian *

Rayson Tan Rayson Tan Tai Ming (born 12 January 1965) is a Singaporean actor. Career Before joining MediaCorp, Tan worked as a flight attendant with Singapore Airlines. In 1990, he emerged as the 2nd Runner-Up in Singapore's Star Search Singapore ta ...

as Liu Zhengfeng * Liang Weidong as Qu Yang *

Huang Wenyong Huang Wenyong (25 July 1952 – 20 April 2013) was a Malaysia-born Singaporean actor, host and teacher. Huang died at the Singapore General Hospital at around 5 pm (GMT+8) on 20 April 2013, at the age of 60 due to lymphoma. Early lif ...

as Lin Zhennan * Huang Shaoting as Lin Zhennan's wife * Hong Peixing as Yu Canghai * Jin Yinji as Mute Granny * Brandon Wong as Lao Denuo * Chen Junguang as Lu Dayou * Li Zhizhou as Mu Gaofeng

Awards

Production

Ann Kok Ann Kok (born 11 January 1973) is a Singaporean businesswoman, singer and an actress who film on an ad-hoc basis. During the 1990s, Kok was ranked the "Third ''Ah Jie''" by the local media, which defined her as the third most prominent actre ...

was initially selected to play Yue Lingshan but she rejected the offer. Jacelyn Tay also turned down her role as Dongfang Bubai initially, but retook her role after a telling-off by Steve Ma in the Singaporean media.IMDB
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References

External links

*
''The Legendary Swordsman''
on Mediacorp website {{DEFAULTSORT:Legendary Swordsman, The Singaporean wuxia television series Works based on The Smiling, Proud Wanderer 2000 Singaporean television series debuts 2000 Singaporean television series endings Television series set in Imperial China Television shows based on works by Jin Yong Channel 8 (Singapore) original programming