Legends of the Condor Heroes: Tsui Hark Begins Production on May 28th

Hong Kong director Tsui Hark, one of the world’s greatest action directors, will film the wuxia blockbuster Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero on May 28^th. The big-budget epic adapts wuxia author Jin Yong’s (pen name of Louis Cha) epic novel as the first of a planned trilogy to star current Chinese superstars Xiao Zhang, Zhao Ye, and Feng Shao Feng. Various social media accounts seemed to confirm this.

Legend of the Condor Heroes is considered the seminal wuxia novel, written by Cha, aka Jing Yong, and initially serialized in 1957. It follows noble but slightly dim hero Guo Jing as he travels the time of Genghis Khan, picking up more martial arts techniques as he goes, heading towards a showdown with his long-lost blood brother who has been raised by the Khan side. Legend of the Condor Heroes, running over a thousand pages, is the first in a trilogy of wuxia epics, to be followed by The Return of the Condor Heroes and Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, both equally long and epic. The latter was recently condensed and adapted into a two-hour feature film starring and directed by Donnie Yen.

Tsui Hark first announced his plan to make a new feature film adaptation of Legends of the Condor Heroes back in 2018 but had been sidetracked by the production of The Battle at Lake Changjin and The Battle at Lake Changjin 2, the massive blockbusters shot back-to-back with fellow director Chen Kaige, who made Farewell My Concubine. Shooting for Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero will take place In Yinchuan.

Legends of the Condor Heroes has been adapted to movies and television since the 1970s, each era showing the styles and filmmaking dynamics of their times, starting with the Shaw Brothers movie trilogy The Brave Archer from 1977 and countless television series from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China ever since. We don’t have any artwork or videos of Tsui Hark’s upcoming blockbuster, but we can at least treat you to some trailers of past versions. Tsui Hark’s will be the one to watch.

Legends of the Condor Heroes has been translated into English and is currently available as four thick books. The English translation of the second book in the trilogy, Return of the Condor Heroes, is now underway.