Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre (2003) series poster
Drama

Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre

2003 1 season 40 episodes
66 Pulse
7.4 IMDb
One season 32 hours
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Plot

Based on the popular novel by Jin Yong Kam Yung. He also wrote Legend of the Condor Heroes and Return of the Condor Heroes. The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre takes place during 14th Century China during the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, roughly 100 years after the events of Return of the Condor Heroes. After decades of struggles, famine, and bitterness which the Chinese citizens blamed on the Yuan Dynasty's misgovernment, the Martial Arts sects have begun to rebel. Prince Ruyong asks Cheng Kun, a Shaolin monk with an ulterior motive, for a plan on how to deal with the rebels. "The wielder of Heavenly Sword and/or Dragon Sabre rules the world." This well known legend in the Martial Arts community is the impetus for the tale of Zhang Wuji. The story begins with how his parents met (episodes 1-3), then tells his trials as an adolescent (episodes 4-8), proceeds to relate his rise to prominence (episodes 9-23) and reveals the secret behind Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre (episode 23), and ends with the confluence of Wuji's love life, the Martial Arts sects' long standing grudges, and cruel fate.

Credits

Directed by: Lai Shui-Ching, Yang Tao

Cast: Alec Su You-peng, Alyssa Chia Ching-Wen, Gao Yuanyuan, Chen Zihan, Florence Tan, Zhang Tielin

How the Pulse Score works

For series, Pulse starts from the IMDb rating shrunk by vote count, then applies FORMAT CALIBRATION. Series score systematically higher than films on IMDb, so using the raw number would unfairly push a show like Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre to the top of a film catalogue. Calibration maps the series distribution onto the film one; meaning 66 is COMPARABLE to a film with the same Pulse.

One more difference from films: Letterboxd does not track series, so series Pulse derives from a single source (IMDb) rather than two.

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