Ekin Cheng Yee Kin ~~~~~ Sek Seng
Law Lok Lam ~~~~ Hin Yin Fat Wong
Tsang Hon Sun ~~~~ Suen Nam
Jimmy Au Sui Wai ~~~~~ Sun Do Wang
Lily Chung Suk Wai ~~~~~ Choi Ying
Eddie Kwan Lai Kit ~~~~ Huet Mor

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Screenshots

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Kathy's Review
Plot

The series began with the leaders of the Sing Sing and Ngor Mei sects battling against the devil Huet Mor (Eddie Kwan Lai-Kit). Huet Mor ended up losing and getting killed, but his spirit escaped and it entered inside a big rock. The two leaders then went out to search for the rock so that they can destroy it and put a final end to Huet Mor's life. However, the rock exploded before they could find it and a little boy was seen inside the rock after the explosion.

The little boy was raised up in the village where the rock exploded. The villagers called him Sek Seng, which means "born from rock". Sek Seng (Cheng E-kin) grew up to be a very kind person and therefore, he often got bullied by the village leader's mean daughter and her friends. However, later on when the Evil King, Hin Yin Fat Wong (Law Lok-Lam) found out that Huet Mor's spirit is trapped inside Sek Seng's body, he sent one of his follwers to go out force Sek Seng to study the evil kung-fu, in hope that the evil traits will soon make Huet Mor's spirit reveal itself within Sek Seng.

Nnadia played a righteous and kind-hearted student of the Ngor Mei sect, Yu Ying Nam. Ying Nam and her younger kung-fu brother and sister were sent out by their sifu (martial art master) on a mission to find the person who carries Huet Mor's spirit and kill him. Twistingly, she ended up falling in love with Sek Seng after the day he saved her when she fell down the mountain while battling Hin Yin Fat Wong's follower. Then later on when Ying Nam discovered that the person with Huet Mor's spirit was no one else but her lover, she was very hurt and didn't have the heart nor courage to kill him since she loved Sek Seng so much! As a result, this got Ying Nam into trouble with her sifu and Sek Seng eventually also ended up transforming into the devil Huet Mor.

After becoming the devil Huet Mor, Sek Seng began to set out to gain control over the devil world. Surprisingly, yet romantically nough, his love and affection for Ying Nam still remained the same as before (gosh, that is just so sweet ^^). But of course, he did changed and became quite mean and ruthless toward other people, mainly the ones who opposed him. Sek Seng used his power and turned Ying Nam's sifu and the leader of Sing Sing sect into two of his evil servants. This caused Ying Nam to almost get killed by her sifu when she refused to join the devil world at her request.

Luckily though, after a period of time, Ying Nam's kung-fu uncle, Suen Nam (Tsang Hon Sun) risked his life and found a way to temporarily control the evil Huet Mor's spirit within Sek Seng. Sek Seng's condition was yet to be stabilized though and so he was chained and imprisoned at Ngor Mei's place. Many times, Ying Nam's sifu (who has became normal again by now) wanted to just kill him off to prevent further problems with Huet Mor's spirit, but Ying Nam did absolutely everything that she could to stop this from happening. She even went behind her sifu's back to release Sek Seng one day and together, the two of them travelled off in search for Ying Nam's father (she by chance heard the story of her father from her sifu during the period of time when Sek Seng became the devil Huet Mor).

And so... off went Ying Nam and Sek Seng on their journey. Then one day, they saw an old man battling against Hin Yin Fat Wong and this man turned out to be Ying Nam's father. So he and Ying Nam reunited but at the same time, in trying to protect Ying Nam from being harmed by Hin Yin Fat Wong, Sek Seng accidentally let Huet Mor's spirit took over control of his body and he became evil once again. Ying Nam's father then used his kung-fu to trap the evil spirit inside one of Sek Seng's hands and told her to chop it off. At first, Ying Nam didn't have the heart to do this and as a result, both Sek Seng and the spirit escaped. Then a few days later when they encountered again, she did managed to chop off his arm with her sword this time. Consequently, Sek Seng transformed back to his old self (permanently this time), but Ying Nam was now feeling very sad because it was she who had caused him to lose an arm.

Luckily for Sek Seng though, he and Ying Nam soon found this mystical fiber tree. The tree's content enabled Sek Seng to *sew* his arm back with his body and so he was a normal person once again.

Just as things began to seem all settled down for everybody, and that Sek Seng and Ying Nam were finally able to be happily together, the evil Huet Mor's spirit found another person to trap itself in. This time, the victim was Choi Ying (Lily Chung Suk-Wai), the girlfriend of Sun Do Wang (Jimmy Au Shui-Wai). Choi Ying and Sun Do Wang happened to be close friends of both Ying Nam and Sek Seng, but obviously after the moment the evil spirit took over her, Choi Ying no longer knew what she was doing. She then ended up killing a bunch of people, which included Ying Nam's sifu and the leader of Sing Sing sect. She also forced Sek Seng to sleep with her (this somehow, was needed for her to be able to master her kung-fu's highest level) and turned poor Ying Nam into a peacock with an evil spell after Sek Seng has refused her request. Luckily, Ying Nam was later turned back to human, thanks to her kung-fu grand-uncle and his *magic work*. ^^

In the end, Sun Do Wang also turned evil due to the affect of the Huet Mor's spirit and his love for Choi Ying. Sek Seng and Ying Nam then risked their lives to battle against them. They did ended up destroying Huet Mor's spirit once and for all, but sadly, Sek Seng also died during this final battle. Unable to stand the loss of her lover, Ying Nam then carried his corpse up to the mountain a few days later and jumped down to commit suicide so that she can be with him again.

In the next life, Sek Seng reincarnated into an artist and Ying Nam into the daughter of a rich man. Fate brought them together as they were seen in the closing scene, encountering each other on the street.

Character analysis

As a righteous student of the Ngor Mei sect, who was pretty much raised under the "good vs. evil" doctrine, Yu Ying Nam can be characterized as a responsible, self-sacrificing for justice, caring for others, obedient and loyal to her sifu and her sect, and has specific principles and guidelines she expects herself to follow. However, as Ying Nam later finds out that Sek Seng is "her man" and falls in love with him, she starts putting more weight on her love for him than on the duty she owes to her sect. Yet, even though Ying Nam loves Sek Seng deeply and unconditionally, we see that her actions are still quite rational and justified. A concrete example of this would be the scene when she chops off his arm (poor guys ^^) to kill the evil Huet Mor's spirit...

Once again, parts like when Ying Nam didn't have the heart to kill Sek Seng after discovering he carries Huet Mor's spirit, or when she decided to take the risk and go back to her previous lives to change her past, in hope that she and Sek Seng will have a happy ending in this lifetime, all conveyed just how much her love is for him. However, Ying Nam is still able to balance out between her personal romance and her responsibility in the martial art world... which is probably one of the reasons why I really like her character in here.

Personal opinion on Nnadia's performance

As always, I think Nnadia did an excellent job portraying her character. She was so young back then (only 19 years old) and her youth and cuteness and innocent look really allowed her to suit the character Yu Ying Nam well. Not to mention, I find her looking so cool every time she does a fighting or flying scene. ^^ This is my first time seeing Chung Chung in a martial art series and doing some martial art fighting. I actually found it to be a bit funny at first, seeing our slender, fragile Nn running around fighting monsters and bad guys... and yet, as fragile as she might have looked, every time she pulled out her sword or got her hands together in preparation for a blow, trees would shake and leaves would fall and rocks would explode all over the place. ^^

Nnadia's chemistry with E-kin was real and awesome as always. If I'm not mistaken, then this was the very first series that they ever co-starred together and already with just the first time, you can see sparks appearing every time they are seen with each other on screen. No wonder E-kin and Nnadia were later given the title of "hok seng ching lui" (Students Lover) by the media, meaning they were a couple for all the young people... these two sure look super cute together.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching The Zu Mountain Saga. Yu Ying Nam has definitely given me one more reason to admire the acting talents our sweetheart Chan Chung Ling possesses.


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