He Never Picked Up the Phone: The Condor Heroes Adaptation Jin Yong Could Not Forgive

He didn't take that call: why the 1998 Return of the Condor Heroes enraged Jin Yong

In the winter of 2001, in an internet cafe, one of my female classmates was watching Meteor Garden. Another was watching the 1998 version of The Return of the Condor Heroes. I was playing Legend on Server 2, Thunder. There were more players than monsters. I kept dying and going black-and-white. Eventually I switched out to watch the show.

When Wu Qianlian appeared, I froze. Black clothes, small braids, eyes not especially large but with something indescribable in them. My first reaction was confusion. Little Dragon Girl was supposed to be white.

Only later did I learn that Jin Yong's reaction was far more intense than mine. He said three words: very angry.

A call that went unanswered

In 1998, Yang Peipei's production of The Return of the Condor Heroes aired on TTV. Ren Xianqi played Yang Guo. Wu Qianlian played Little Dragon Girl. Shortly after it aired, Yang Peipei called Jin Yong to apologize. He did not take the call.

He said this himself in an interview with Huaxi Metropolitan Daily: "There is a version of The Return of the Condor Heroes with Wu Qianlian. Some important plot points were altered by the producer. I was very angry. Later the other side called to apologize. I did not take the call, and I did not accept her apology."

He did not take the call. He did not accept the apology. A man who had written fifteen wuxia novels and seen countless adaptations chose the most silent way to express the strongest attitude.

At a dinner in Taiwan, Jin Yong said to Yang Peipei's face: "Of my works adapted for the screen, the best was yours, and the one I dislike most was also yours." The best was the 1994 Ma Jingtao version of The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. The one he disliked most was this Return of the Condor Heroes.

The difference came down to what got changed. One version kept the characters intact. The other did not.

What Yang Guo would never do

In the original novel, Jin Yong described Yang Guo as "deeply emotional and true to his nature, wild and proud, stubborn and extreme." That description is not a list of adjectives. It is the logic behind everything he does. He was looked down on by Guo Fu. He was humiliated by the Quanzhen Sect. He was misunderstood by the world. Little Dragon Girl was his only spiritual pillar.

As a boy, he had some subtle feelings toward Guo Fu. But that was self-abasement and self-respect tangled together. It had nothing to do with liking her.

There is a passage in the original: to stop the Wu brothers from killing each other, Yang Guo lies that Guo Fu has been betrothed to him. It is a desperate move to stop a fight. Later, he feels deeply guilty toward Little Dragon Girl. Jin Yong wrote this to show Yang Guo's resourcefulness and kindness, not his fickleness.

The 1998 version turned this into Yang Guo actively approaching Guo Fu, pretending to date her, and then dumping her. This version is the only one that turns "Yang Guo × Guo Fu" into a full romantic storyline. Guo Fu pursues him. Yang Guo keeps her at a distance. There is emotional entanglement between them.

Fidelity is not the only standard for adaptation. The problem is simpler: Yang Guo would not do this.

He waited sixteen years for Little Dragon Girl. He jumped into Desperate Valley. He had the word "Auntie" carved into his bones. That man would not use another woman's feelings as a tool. This goes beyond adaptation. It removes the character's backbone.

When Jin Yong said "important plot points were altered," he was not talking about costume colors or a ridiculous mask. He meant that the man he had written as deeply emotional and true to his nature had become someone who wavers in love and uses another person's sincerity. When Yang Guo becomes that, the title The Return of the Condor Heroes loses its meaning.

The changes went further

Yang Guo was not the only problem. The 1998 version changed the original in every direction.

Little Dragon Girl being violated by Yin Zhiping is one of the heaviest plots in Jin Yong's work. In the original, she is devastated afterward, almost losing the will to live. The 1998 version made her travel with Yin Zhiping, chatting and laughing as they search for Yang Guo. On the way, Yin Zhiping, "unable to control his desire," visits a brothel, then halfway through "his conscience awakens and he castrates himself."

The adaptation is frivolous. It turns a story about harm and broken trust into a farce about a scumbag who turns back.

Huang Rong's changes were just as fatal. Jin Yong specifically mentioned this in an interview: "Huang Rong is a lively girl. How did Yang Peipei turn Huang Rong into a villain? It is like being a parent and watching your own child bullied by others. It hurts." In the original, Huang Rong is wary of Yang Guo, but she is still clever and chivalrous. The 1998 version turns her into something close to a villain.

There are even more absurd changes. Cheng Ying becomes an alcoholic who curses Little Dragon Girl as a "jinx." Ouyang Feng falls in love with Li Mochou. The Battle of Xiangyang becomes Yang Guo and Little Dragon Girl fighting Jinlun Fawang two-on-one.

These go beyond adjustments to the plot. They replace Jin Yong's logic with another logic entirely. Jin Yong writes about human choices in extreme situations. The 1998 version writes what the screenwriters thought the audience wanted to see.

Black-clad Little Dragon Girl and a waiter Yang Guo

Jin Yong also publicly criticized the casting and styling.

Of Ren Xianqi's Yang Guo, he said the performance "overacted, lacked the bearing of a great hero, and seemed more like a waiter in a tavern." Yang Guo is supposed to be wild and proud. This version played him as a frivolous waiter. That runs counter to the character's spirit.

Wu Qianlian's Little Dragon Girl was an even bigger controversy. Jin Yong said she "looked like she came from Africa." In the original, Little Dragon Girl "wears a light gauze white robe, as if she were in mist." The 1998 version put her in black. Costume designer William Chang explained that black fit the gloomy, oppressive atmosphere of the ancient tomb. Jin Yong did not buy it. Little Dragon Girl's white is more than a color; it signals her unworldly purity. Changing white to black changes the character's soul.

The supporting cast was not bad. Chen Hong's Li Mochou, Zhu Yan's Cheng Ying, and Dong Xiaoyan's Gongsun Lü'e were all well cast and well styled. Xia Wenxi's Huang Rong was dragged down by the script, but the actress herself still had presence. These lights cannot make up for the loss of the leads' souls. When Yang Guo and Little Dragon Girl have both been changed beyond recognition, even a strong supporting cast is just flowers in a collapsing house.

Jin Yong's standard

Put the 1998 version beside Jin Yong's judgments of other versions, and his standard becomes clear.

The 1983 version of The Return of the Condor Heroes changed quite a few plot points, but Jin Yong repeatedly expressed satisfaction, saying it "has the flavor of the novel." The key was that Andy Lau's Yang Guo showed the thing Jin Yong valued most: respect for his aunt. Plot can be adjusted. The character's devotion cannot change.

The 1995 version also changed many details. Louis Koo and Carman Lee were not flawless. But Jin Yong never expressed dissatisfaction with it. It kept the emotional core of Yang Guo and Little Dragon Girl.

For the 2006 version, Jin Yong criticized Huang Xiaoming for "looking like he was seducing his master," and Liu Yifei for being "afraid of ruining Little Dragon Girl's beauty, not daring to make many expressions." These were criticisms at the level of performance. His feeling toward the 2006 version was "what a pity." His feeling toward the 1998 version was "anger."

The 1994 version of The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber is the best control group. Yang Peipei also adapted the original heavily, but Jin Yong publicly praised it as the "best" version. Zhou Haimei's Zhou Zhiruo and Sun Xing's Yang Xiao became classics in the audience's hearts. Jin Yong never cared about how much was changed. He cared whether the characters were still themselves after the changes.

Jin Yong revised his own works throughout his life. From the serialized version to the revised version to the new revised version, he changed many plots and even overturned endings he had written. He was not a fundamentalist who believed not a single word could be changed. What he cared about was the integrity of character and the consistency of the story's spirit.

The 1998 version's problem goes beyond changing the plot. In changing the plot, it turned Yang Guo into someone unworthy of being called the "Condor Hero." Yang Guo is no longer deeply emotional. Little Dragon Girl is no longer pure. Huang Rong becomes a villain. Ouyang Feng falls in love with Li Mochou. The Return of the Condor Heroes is only an empty shell.

Jin Yong refused to take that apology call, not out of arrogance. He knew that some things, once destroyed, cannot be repaired by an apology.

He said: "If I had known they would film it like that, I would rather spend twice the money to buy back the copyright." That is the lament of a creator for his own work. He would rather the work had never been made into a television drama than see it made like this.

He never picked up the phone.