By: Noel Teo

Revolving around the martial arts scene, we are pulled into the struggles and battles for the ownership of the Yuan clan and its heirloom, the “Jade Dragon”.

The Yuan martial arts association, under the direction of Master Yuan Zhen Fei (Zheng Ge Ping), is facing many trials from its own clan. Conspiring an uprising, his ambitious disciples, Duan Tian He (Zhang Wen Xiang) and Ou Jian Feng (Andie Chen) puts the future of the Yuan clan in danger.

Expelled for creating discord within the clan, an enraged Jian Feng decides to plant his sister, Ou Ke Lu (Rui En) as a spy to gather information from the clan. Seeing through her brother’s motives, Ke Lu decides to oppose him instead, for the sake of good.

Heirless after his son, Yuan Chen Xi, (Elvin Ng) died in an accident, Zhen Fei worries about the successorship of the Yuan clan until he meets Song Ya Zai (also played by Elvin Ng), who is a splitting image of his deceased son. A worker at a fishery, Ya Zai has grown up adopting a peaceful perspective in life, preferring not to partake in these fights for fame and glory. With the future of a renowned martial arts clan falling on his shoulders, what decisions will Ya Zai make and how will it affect the martial arts world?

Produced by Yeo Saik Pin and written by Koh Teng Liang, Code of Honour is a 30-episode drama serial from Mediacorp Channel 8. The show, themed around Chinese Wushu, will feature more than 100 fighting scenes to pump up the adrenaline in viewers.

Chinese Wushu is no easy feat, requiring years of training to perfect the traditional art. For the actors and actresses, however, it meant learning it fast and executing it perfectly for the camera.

To Rui En, who had participated in many action dramas, it came as a shock when she discovered that she knew nothing about Chinese Wushu. “We only had 3 or 4 trainings before filming and learned most of the moves on location,” she revealed.

Elvin had to play as the big brother who knew his place as the next successor, as well as the younger brother who grew up away from the conflicts. The differences between the two characters and their fighting styles came as a challenge for him.

“The older brother practices Chinese Wushu, which is gentler in style, while the younger brother practices Thai boxing, which is more extreme,” Elvin explained.

Choreography isn’t all that the actors and actresses needed to learn. Meticulous details come to play in filming for the screens as well. “There is a big difference between real Wushu and Wushu on film,” Andie Chen commented.

“It’s not only about doing it correctly, you must get the right angle and exert the right amount of strength as well,” he explained.

A breath of fresh air from dramas of late, Code of Honour is a must-watch with its breath-taking locations and well-crafted fighting scenes. This is a show not be missed, especially for fans of action and period dramas.

Code of Honour 正义武馆 debuts 5 December 2011 7pm on Channel 8.

Source: UrbanWire

Categorised in Code of Honour 正义武馆, EN, UrbanWire.