EPISODE 14

A less annoying series but still horribly scripted. We see more of the Queen being tortured when Tin insisted that the Queen now a lowly servant girl to serve her. So she was beaten and made to wash toilets so to speak. So much suffering and amazingly this woman has the patience that I doubt the most giving man has.



Anyway what amazes me most is Cheung Ping's absence in her mom's misery. I think I complaint about this bitterly for 2 episodic thoughts. Now there was this scene where she saw her mom washing toilets and she very very tearfully and pitifully asked her mom; "How come this is like this? You didn't tell me, it's not supposed to be like this" but mom said patience is a virtue. My question is what is the Queen waiting for? Tin to die first or the Ming Dynasty to go first? Because the king doesn't seem to be the one to take her away from such misery. So poor Cheung Ping cried alone and along came ... GUESS GUESS GUESS ... Sai Hin who comforted her. Cheung Ping cried and cried and cried whilst the scene was shifting between she crying absolutely pitifully on his shoulder and Yoke Han together with future in laws waiting for Sai Hin to come back. What was that supposed to mean? That we should hate Sai Hin for making Yoke Han wait? That Sai Hin was a bastard? I don't get the shifting of the scenes because I see no point. Cheung Ping needed some consoling and who to do so if not Mr Perfect - Mr Meant To Be - Mr Heaven Sent Sai Hin?



Anyway I was very annoyed with Cheung Ping's reaction again. I find her crying and asking her mom about all these misery an episode too late. By now I was losing my patience. As she cried and cried, then suddenly laughed that she made Sai Hin's clothes wet and then told Sai Hin to take good care of Yoke Han and she was smiling happily, I was sitting there in front of the telly thinking Cheung Ping was mad, really mad. Mad as in crazy. I want her mad as in angry. Then we see her cuddling with big sister Superman, laughing, talking about love and prospective husbands. Well Superman has been writing to this unseen big time army guy and she fancied him. Anyway, what I totally could not understand if the illogical side of it all.



One minute Cheung Ping was crying over her mom's plight, the next she was playful and at times too angelic. Who was she at that scene at that moment? Grieving or happy? Saddened or playful? Angry or forgiving?



I could understand her mom being oh so forgiving but I think this series is about a girl named Cheung Ping you know. I complained an episode before that she is pretty useless. In this episode she is very patient and forgiving. I do wonder, what does it take, how much more suffering, how much more insults, how much more pain can Cheung Ping take until the point she can take no more and confront her father about the injustice of it all? How much more? I would bet not even when her mom died will she ever step forward and ask her father or grandma, "Why are you doing this?". We see action packed Cheung Ping again but this Cheung Ping had little substance and no determination whatsoever. As meek as ever, as weak as before, I am beginning to hate her fake optimism and overly too angelic reaction to matters one should never be angelic about. Of course critics of my critique will say Cheung Ping is ever the optimist. How can she be so optimistic when her mom was made to wash toilets? There she was thinking back how her mom did such jobs when they were out there and she looked very saddened and disgusted. She vowed to help her mom earn more money. Girl, earning money is not the answer. Get up from that lazy butt of yours and walk right up to your father and demand an explanation, even in the face of death. How much more ridicule can these two women take? How much more of this nonsense can I take?



Last but not least, the end scene had the King complaining about having useless ministers and how other people's spies can spy on the kingdom and yet his own spies disappeared. I find this scene well scripted. Then the Queen spoke. She talked about loyal ministers and advised the King to listen to them, to treat them with respect so that they can voice out fearlessly. Nice speech but I was hoping Cheung Ping would be the one to say that because that is probably the most intelligent dialogue uttered so far in this series full of cliches.



The worst scene? Apparently in the Ming Dynasty there is such thing as rehearsal when it comes to weddings! Taking modern concept and putting it into an era so bound by rules, ettiquette and more rules is not only dangerous, it is plain silly. I see Sai Hin and Yoke Han dressed in their wedding costume, showing themselves to the Empress Dowager. I don't think there was such a custom at all. And I suddenly remembered that last episode Yoke Han spoke about hiw difficult it was to get some famous opera singer to perform in the palace. Just a few episodes into this series the Queen said the same thing. People, this is not the British royal family. Even Queen E can get the performer she wants, maybe except Robbie Williams. This Ming Dynasty may be dying, but really the King still could order your head to be chopped off without a reason. Why then did such a stupid dialogue ever existed in this otherwise not so stupid series?



So far I find it disturbing at the non-reaction of Cheung Ping. Like NATO, No Action, Talk Only. Performances wise, Moses Chan was very weak in the way he delivered his lines. I am beginning to like Steven Ma and Sonija Kwok had little to do in here so it was bearable to watch her. Charmaine Sheh was horrible, especially in the scene where she was crying and the suddenly laughed. I am sure Cheung Ping must have found her miserable existence funny at that point but Charmaine gave a very forced laugh to the point of looking rather fake. I am afraid she is losing her charm unless her character actually does something useful.



ANYTHING please..... ANYTHING! I hope next week's 5 episodes will be better. I am sick of the meek weak gentle Cheung Ping. Give me a lean mean fighting machine, please.