葉麗儀: Success or Failure (成敗不必理會) - OST - General Father, General Son 1985 (薛丁山征西) - English

Translating the main theme song (片頭曲) "Success or Failure" (成敗不必理會) from the General Father, General Son 1985 (薛丁山征西) into English.

Original Cantonese Song by Frances Yip (葉麗儀).

This TVB series, General Father, General Son 1985 (薛丁山征西) is a sequel to Legend of the General Who Never Was 1985 (薛仁貴征東). The events of General Father, General Son takes place straight after the ending of the Legend of the General Who Never Was. The story focuses on Xue Dingshan (薛丁山) who is the fictional son of Xue Rengui (薛仁贵) from the first series. There are many famous operas about Xue Dingshan and Turkic Princess Fan Lihua (樊梨花). This TVB series is based off those operas.

The story is set during the twilight of Tang Emperor Taizong (太宗), Li Shimin's (李世民) reign. His son, Li Zhi (李治) appears as the Crown Prince. As stated above, the story is purely fictional and revolves round the wars between the Tang Dynasty with the factious Turkic tribes in the West. Like the General Who Never Was, this story is about being unable to prevent fate. Despite everyone's efforts to avoid fate, through their actions they make it a reality or cannot prevent fate from happening. A large portion of this story is taken up by the infatuation that Turkic Princess, Fan Lihau has for Xue Dingshan. Their battles and misunderstandings. I still think Legend of the General Who Never Was is a far more superior story about fate and being unable to change it.

Despite a star studded cast featuring Felix Wong (黃日華) as Xue Dingshan and Money Chan (陳敏兒) as Fan Lihua, supported by Mimi Kung (龔慈恩) and Sharon Yeung (杨盼盼) this series didn't really do it for me. Firstly, I was most annoyed at how stubborn Xue Rengui was in this series and the steps he took to try to prevent fate which alienated him from his son. He should have known better being on the receiving end of that kind of treatment in the first series... Secondly, I didn't think Xue Dingshan lived up to his awesome reputation as the star is really Fan Lihua. Finally, I didn't like how Xue Dingshan treated Fan Lihua and all the delays and misunderstandings between them. It was most annoying. From this perspective, as a kid and adult, I didn't like this story very much. Veteran actor Ha Yu (夏雨) plays Xue Rengui in this series. I would have much preferred someone like Bryan Leung (梁家仁) or Patrick Tse (謝賢) playing Xue Rengui in this series. They look more noble and have a more heroic appeal than Ha Yu. Given the amount of screen time that Xue Rengui had in this series, they could have also brought Alex Man (萬梓良) back to reprise the role. But it's not meant to be I guess... Other actors of note was Frances Ng (吳鎮宇) who was starting out his acting career and played Prince Li Zhi in this series.

The final chapter to the Xue family trilogy is titled Destined to Rebel 1986 (薛剛反唐) which focuses on Xue Rengui's fictional grandson Xue Gang (薛剛). That story is also based on operas.

In terms of this translation, the song title is actually "Don't Care About Success or Failure" but it was too many words so I kept it simple at "Success or Failure". I also translated this song during the Christmas break after a few wines and so may have taken liberty with a few lines. But it should still make sense. This song also features many play on words. So I might not be 100% correct in this translation. But never the less, please enjoy.

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