This production based on another internet novel premiered in China in Nov 2011 but I only caught all 76 episodes of it recently. Starring Sun Li, Chen Jianbin, Jiang Xin, Ada Choi from Hong Kong, Li Dongxue, Wang Wenjie and many others, it made Sun Li a household name who won many acting accolades as a result of this.
Based very loosely on the Qing Dynasty Emperor Qian Long's mother, it tells of her life starting from her early entry into the palace at the young age of 17 and how she was slowly embroiled into the politics of the inner palace, despite her reluctance, involving the Empress and the numerous concubines who feign for their own survival and vie for the Emperor's attention and indulgence.
Just when she thought she found her love in the Emperor, she was plotted against, betrayed by some of her closest allies, suffered a miscarriage and experienced the Emperor's distrust, indifference and neglect towards her. After being banished, the jaded Zhen Huan (or Concubine Xi) found new love in the form of the Emperor's younger brother the 17th Prince but had to subsequently go against her own wishes to return to the palace to reclaim her position to save her loved ones and to avenge the deaths of those dear to her.
This series gained great popularity when it was aired in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan because of its convoluted plot, excellent acting and interesting characters. What intrigued me was how art imitated life as there are similarities between what went on in the inner palace and modern society's office politics and power struggles. The biggest difference is every wrong step taken by the characters may cost them their lives and hence they often had to go all out to plot against others in order to save their own skin and their extended families.
After a fulfilling few weeks of watching the series daily for hours, I suddenly felt a sense of loss when it all ended. There seemed to be a void with nothing to look forward to but I know I will get over it and return back to reality. I am living in the real life and not in the past although I am certain some audience would similarly experience some form of withdrawal symptoms when the show ended.
I have not been posting anything in this blog lately because I was busy posting other posts in my new aquarium blog (aquariumfrenzy.blogspot.sg) after setting up my new marine pico tank since the beginning of the new year.
Anyway, this Chinese-Hong Kong movie production wasn't really what I expected. It was not really a movie on the deadly weapon, used by a group of secret assassins reared by the late Yongzheng Emperor to eliminate his enemies. Rather, it was a movie about the fate of these assassins, who were raised since young to be trained as professional killers, but who fell victim to the Emperor they now served because they were no longer needed and were a stain to be erased from the history of the Qing Dynasty.
Starring actors from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, such as Huang Xiaoming, Ethan Ruan, Shawn Yue, Li Yuchun, Jing Boran etc. But I must say this is actually a movie made more for Ethan than Xiaoming, who seemed to have a secondary role as the Jesus-looking rebel. I was dying to see the invincible weapon, made famous in other early TV Taiwan productions, and was instead treated to a story of integrity, betrayal and brotherhood. If you just sit back and enjoy the movie for its cast, production etc, then it would not be as bad as how the critics made it out to be.
There were a few reasons why I went to watch this movie, the most important of which is the movie topped the Korea box office for a few weeks. The second is ever since the 2008 movie "A Frozen Flower", I love the way they make period dramas and tell a tale.
Starring Park Hae-il, who picked up a Best New Actor award for his role as a highly skilled archer who would stop at nothing to save his sister from the Machurians, Moon Chae-won, who also won the Best New Actress award, Kim Mu-Yeol, Ryoo Seung-Ryong and many others, I only recognize Ryoo from other movies.
After surviving the massacre of his entire family, other than Nam-yi and his sister Ja-in, from the new king's henchmen and hiding from the authorities for 13 years at his late father's family friend's residence, the Qing army sent a legion of troops to invade the village and enslave the survivors as prisoners. He was out hiding from his sister's wedding, which he disapproved of, when the army charged into the village and slaughtered most of the villagers and held his sister captive along with many others.
He vowed to protect his sister at all costs until his last breath since the family tragedy and went in hot pursuit of the Manchurian army in a bid to save his sister. Armed with his only weapon, a bow and red feathered arrows, his brother-in-law and 2 friends, he had to defeat the enemy's team of highly skilled and ruthless warrior archers, led by the formidable leader Jyushinta. After killing off the lecherous Crown Prince who assaulted his sister in the enemy's camp, they set out to hunt him and the others down. With his wits, courage and master archery skills where his arrows were able to appear from impossible angles, he was able to decimate the enemy's team of archers.
From more than 15 archers, he killed them off one after another. And then there were 10 archers and after a grueling battle at the river, he lost his 2 allies but managed to reduce the opponent's numbers to 6, and then to 4 and 2 in what I would described by the chinese proverb "one arrow two condors". He thought he killed the last warrior chief until the final showdown in a field. It came down to who was able to close the gap faster than others in a triangular run towards each other, involving Nam-yi, Ja-in and Jyushinta. Arrows were shot and as expected, the warrior chief was killed and so was Nam-yi, but not before he managed to save his only sister from dying right in front of his eyes.
The cinematography and pace were good and I found myself almost gripping my seat in anticipation of what was to come during the movie. So yes, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.
This is Jackie Chan's 100th movie and marks a century since the Xinhai revolution in 1911 that forever changed the course of China's sovereign history and shaped it into what it is today as the People's Republic of China.
Produced and directed by Jackie Chan himself, I must admit I did not catch the movie because of the man himself. Instead, I was drawn by the historical events, including the downfall of the Manchurian Qing Dynasty, and felt I could have a piece of my ancestry through this short two hours movie charting the events that occurred back in 1911 and 1912.
Starring a stellar cast including Jackie Chan, Winston Chao, Joan Chen, Li Bingbing, Jackie's son Jaycee Chan, Hu Ge, the movie started with the execution of the legendary revolutionary heroine Qiu Jin, who sacrificed her life to help the suppressed and long suffering commoners stand up against the corrupted Qing empire and feudalistic society.
The revolution, led by the famous Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing etc staged numerous uprisings to put an end to a long reign of Emperors, who ruled over the land and lived a life of luxury behind forbidden palaces as the commoners tolled and sweated their life away in poverty. Empress Dowager Longyu was coerced by Yuan Shikai and the new government to sign the abdication of the throne of her son Puyi, the last Emperor of China, that reduced them to citizens of the new republic and ended the imperial rule.
This event was a critical milestone in the history of China and the republic would not be what it is today without the few revolutionary leaders who believed in dedicating their entire lives to fight for its people to overcome poverty, inequality etc.
I must admit that we are very fortunate not to have been born during that era where there were rampant wars, uprisings, revolutions etc that resulted in countless deaths of innocent lives. We must count our lucky stars that there is a lot more political stability all over the world and be grateful for what we have in this day and age. Not everyone, especially those from the past, can have a life as good as ours.
This production based on another internet novel premiered in China in Nov 2011 but I only caught all 76 episodes of it recently. Starring Sun Li, Chen Jianbin, Jiang Xin, Ada Choi from Hong Kong, Li Dongxue, Wang Wenjie and many others, it made Sun Li a household name who won many acting accolades as a result of this.
