Chor Lau-heung (1979 TV series)

Chor Lau-heung
Cover art of one of the three Hong Kong VCD box sets, displaying Adam Cheng, Angie Chiu (left) and Liza Wang (bottom)
Genre	Wuxia
Written by	Gu Long (original story) Wong Jing Wu Sa Ng Ho
Directed by	Wong Tin-lam Lee Siu-tuen Lee Yiu-man Wong Kin-fan Yau Ka-hung Lam Kuen
Starring	Adam Cheng Angie Chiu Liza Wang
Opening theme	Chor Lau-heung (楚留香) performed by Adam Cheng
Composer(s)	Joseph Koo
Country of origin	Hong Kong
Original language(s)	Cantonese
No. of episodes	65
Production
Producer(s)	Wong Tin-lam
Running time	40 minutes per episode
Release
Original network	TVB CTV
Original release	September 3, 1979 (Hong Kong) April 18, 1982 (Taiwan)
Chronology
Followed by	Chor Lau-heung (1985)

Chor Lau-heung is a Hong Kong wuxia television series adapted from the first three novels in the Chu Liuxiang novel series by Taiwanese writer Gu Long. Adam Cheng starred as the titular protagonist, Chor Lau-heung (Cantonese for "Chu Liuxiang"). The series was first broadcast on TVB on September 3, 1979. The 65 episodes long series was divided into four parts: The Legend of Mo-fa (無花傳奇), The Great Desert (大沙漠), Legend of the Divine Palace (神宮傳奇) and The Final Battle (最後一戰).

Cast

Note: Some of the characters' names are in Cantonese romanisation.

Controversy with RTV's It Takes a Thief

In 1979 around the time TVB released Chor Lau-heung, another Hong Kong television station RTV produced a similar television series titled It Takes a Thief. TVB and RTV became involved in copyright lawsuits against each other because of similarities between Chor Lau-heung and It Takes a Thief. TVB won the lawsuits and eventually RTV had to change the Chinese title of It Takes a Thief from 盜帥留香 to 俠盜風流, and the names of characters in the television series. It Takes a Thief started airing on 1 September 1979, two days earlier than TVB's Chor Lau-heung.

Reception

The series received good reviews from viewers in Taiwan after the first two episodes were first aired on CTV as part of the Golden Bell Awards screenings. Following that, CTV acquired rights from Hong Kong's TVB to broadcast the entire series in Taiwan, starting on April 18, 1982, under a Mandarin voice dub.

Music album

Chor Lau-heung (楚留香) is an album by Hong Kong actor and singer Adam Cheng, released by Crown Records in 1979. It contains the main theme song "Chor Lau-heung" and the insert song "Lau-heung's regret" (留香恨) from the television series. RTHK selected the main theme song as one of the Top Ten Gold Songs of 1979.^[1] In this album, lyricist Cheng Kwok-kong (鄭國江) is credited as Kong Yu (江羽).

References

External links

• Chor Lauheung on IMDb