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Chinese MMORPG Made IPO
April 15, 2009
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March 17.  One of the four companies that went IPO this year is Changyou. Changyou.com, is the company behind Massive Multi-Playe Online Game Tian Long Ba Bu, made the biggest IPO offering so far in 2009.  Owned by parent company Sohu, Changyou was launched in 2006 and now has over one-million active users.

 

 

 

Curiously, there’s a gorilla in the game trailer, but not in the story, heh heh.

Have not played it myself since I can’t read Chinese, so read this other review instead.

tlbb2

tlbb1

 

For Hong Kong Film Fans

Tian Long Ba Bu’s universe is based on the novel by the most famous Louis Cha by the same title, which translates to Heavenly Dragon Eight (but Sohu preferes to translate it as “Novel of Eight Demigods”) which have been made for TV many times.  It seems that every decade, there’s at least one TV serial and one movie produced.


Latest China’s TV production, starring Hu Jun (John Woo’s Red Cliff) and Liu Yi-Fei (Forbidden Kingdom) and Jimmy Lin, and (ack) Christy Chung!  The high-production value is hurt by the heavy-handed-ness, it lacks the fun and the soundtrack is lousy.

 

 


The 90s adaptation is by Hong Kong TVB, has Carman Lee and Lily Lee. This is a low budget galore, you can see plastic head-cover or some sorts on the actors-playing monks. Ridiculous, but otherwise I like it but I can’t comprehend why I liked it. Won’t want to re-watch it though.

 

 

 

There’s also a feature movie starring Gong Li and Brigitte Lin, which takes one of the back-story in the novel. The Dragon Chronicles is the title and it’s bad, lots of flying around.


 

 


The 80s TV adaptation, another one by Hong Kong TVB, has Leung Kar-Yan.

 

There’s a movie version that starred Normal Tsui.

 


In the 70s, Shaw Brothers made The Battle Wizard, a kooky film-version, starring Danny Lee.  It has villain with a crab-hand!

 

 

 

The 80s TV adaptation is my favorite.