Translating the main theme song (片頭曲) "Don't Ask About Success or Failure" (成敗也不問) from Destined to Rebel 1986 (薛剛反唐) into English.
Original Cantonese Song by Roman Tam (羅文).
This TVB series is the final chapter to the Xue general family trilogy and is titled Destined to Rebel 1986 (薛剛反唐). This story is based on famous operas and focuses on Xue Rengui's (薛仁貴) fictional grandson Xue Gang (薛剛). This story is set a few years after General Father, General Son 1985 (薛丁山征西) when Xue Gang has grown up. Despite having interesting characters, this story just doesn't quite have the appeal of the Legend of the General Who Never Was 1985 (薛仁貴征東) which is a far better story and more popular.
Destined to Rebel covers the start of the decline of the Tang Dynasty with the death of Emperor Gaozong (高宗), Li Zhi (李治) and the power struggle that followed between Crown Prince Li Xian (李显) and Empress Wu Zetian (武則天). Xue Gang helping Li Xian to regain the throne, thus becoming Emperor Zongzong (中宗). I will leave it at that as I don't want to spoil the story for anyone. All I can say is I hated the story as a kid and I recently re-watched the series prior to doing Cantonese song translations into English and I still dislike this series. It's mainly due to the ending...
Whilst Xue Gang is a fictional character, he is probably modeled after Xue Song (薛嵩), the actual historical grandson of Xue Rengui, who fought on the side of An Lushan (安禄山) during the Anshi rebellion. Despite being a rebel, Xue Song would receive a pardon and continue to serve as an official in the Tang Dynasty until his death. There are living ancesters from the Xue family to this day. Those who have watched the TVB series will understand why I need to explain this.
In this series, TVB decided to give some lesser known actors and actresses at the time a chance to shine. So Sean Lau (劉青雲) was given a chance to play Xue Gang whilst Eddie Kwan (關禮傑) played Li Xian. The lead females were Eugenia Lau (劉美娟) and Maggie Siu (邵美琪). I didn't mind the acting performances of the main cast despite not enjoying the story. As a kid I didn't like Sean Lau as I mainly saw him in supporting roles or a villain. I actually enjoyed Sean Lau's performance much more looking back as an adult. Eugenia Lau though was the star of the show along with veteran actress Lui Yau Wai (呂有慧) who was fantastic as Wu Zetian. Because of the lesser known cast, Alex Man (萬梓良) who played Xue Rengui in the Legend of the General Who Never Was, was invited back in a cameo role to help promote the series. Alex only appeared briefly at the start of the series as Xue Rengui in the afterlife as the gate guard of the underworld. Frances Ng (吳鎮宇) who was starting out his acting career and previously played Prince Li Zhi in General Father, General Son returned in another supporting role but playing a different character. Finally, veteran actor Patrick Tse (謝賢) plays Xue Dingshan.
The main theme song "Don't Ask About Success or Failure" is also my least favorite song from the Xue general family trilogy. But it was sang by Roman Tam who sang songs for the Legend of the Condor Heroes 1983 which are also translated on my YouTube channel. So it's a decent song but not my favorite. I hope I got this song correct and unlike other translations I have done, its a more literal translation.
I am willing to take requests to translate other TVB or wuxia songs in the comments section.
Also please subscribe and share with your friends and help grow this channel. The more subscribers, the more songs I'll translate to English!
Please Note: It's hard work translating and making videos. If you use my video or translation, please provide a link to my video. Thanks.
