EPISODE 24

More on Chan Yuen Yuen and Sam Kwai like kissing, hugging, speaking words of love, and then the King suddenly appeared and voila! Found the adulterer, got very mad but in the end their close friendship and bond saved the day. The King knew Sam Kwai since Sam Kwai was 15 so I guess they must have been childhood friends. As predicted in my last episodic thought (EPISODE 23), the king agreed to let him have Yuen Yuen if and only if he won the war against Lee Chong, the rebel. Sam Kwai happily went back to planning but by now Tin had spread rumours about the affair (true), the king ignoring the affair (also true), Yuen Yuen now Concubine Ngai was low class woman (also true in a way) and that this sordid affair shamed the kingdom (maybe true, maybe not). The Queen, useless as she was and as useless as she will always be said she will investigate (she knew the truth) but got pushed around by everybody, including Empress Dowager and Tin (she should have chopped off Tin's head in the last last episode instead she forgave her), so Yuen Yuen ended up being beaten 30 times very severely because of some incriminating evidence. I'll talk more on this. Sam Kwai saw Yuen Yuen fainting, rushed to where Yuen Yuen was and looked at the Queen like he was about to murder her. He then confronted the King and demanded the king to explain why Yuen Yuen was treated this way, and they argued until the king coughed up blood. But the king forgave him and Sam Kwai begged for forgiveness, so this illustrated their close friendship. So the torture goes on and on and on, like that Titanic song.



At the meantime, there was Superman again, up to no good! Empress Dowager complained to the Queen that she had not been getting her $500-00 allowance for 3 months and the Queen confronted Chiu Yan and Chiu Yan made up a lot of sob story. The point is she took the money to spend. So when Chiu Yan knew she was going to be in trouble with no Cheung Ping to take the blame for her, she DEMANDED her mom to fix the accounts book. Of course mom refused and Chiu Yan ran off crying that mom didn't love her and the whole Po Lun business. Sai Hin saw her and said he will lend her the money when she told more lies. Naturally Chiu Yan was impressed with the gentleman Sai Hin who helped her because she was essentially his sis in law. And then came the day the Queen had to deliver the allowance to the Empress Dowager, she gave it all to her dad's new second wife who earnestly wanted to take it to Empress Dowager but was stopped by Chiu Yan, who lied some more and took the money and repaid Sai Hin. When the Queen Mother came 3 days later to confront the Queen, naturally that young second wife said it was Chiu Yan who took the money and Chiu Yan went on with her denial, sob story and even revealed this young mother was in fact a prostitute. Queen Mother was so furious she ordered this woman to be beaten severely until she confesses and Chiu Yan never expected that woman to keep saying no until she could bear it no more and she confessed. Then Chiu Yan added more story like why this woman took the money and all and the Queen Mother was so furious that she ordered this woman to be beaten until she was paralysed. Chiu Yan looked a bit horrified but glad that that wasn't her. The Queen again did nothing and let Tin dictated the day when she should have told Tin to shut up.



Then at Baoding, the Qings were busy looking for Cheung Ping so anyone single will be questioned and beaten. To save her own skin, Cheung Ping asked (but the way she asked was like begging in a very clingy way that men will never be able to resist) Sing Hing to pretend to marry her, minus the ceremony and all. Sing Hing of course said yes, his parents were happy and they were married in a very simple ceremony. But Sing Hing's manchurian friends who were all officials insisted that a big ceremony be held. So my guess is this news will reach the palace and Sai Hin would think Cheung Ping had abandoned him. Let us all cry.....



That was basically it. I was hoping to catch the name of the scriptwriter but I couldn't because credits rolled too fast. It should roll fast because any slower all the names in there will forever be condemned to a lifetime of redundancy for writing, producing and directing such a silly episode and such a silly series.



I remember someone wrote in the Tagboard that this series should have been called Flourish In The Name Of Love because of its over emphasized plot about love and nothing else. I agree but I would think PERISH IN THE NAME OF LOVE is such a good title, because it describes the predicament of this series; it is perishing because of all these love love love and I as the viewer is also PERISHING in the name of love. Just listen to me on this why I think this episode is as shallow as Sonija's acting...



1. They must be kidding me that the Queen had to personally deliver the allowance money to the Empress Dowager or that she will trust some person to deliver it to her. So what does the eunuch do? Massage feet and gossip? Don't they have assistant treasury?



2. Cheung Ping, why can't she just pretend to be Sing Hing's wife and walk back to the palace with Sing Hing by her side? Why all that drama? It's like going back to square one and more square one. Sai Hin's family will doubt Cheung Ping, Cheung Ping will miss Sai Hin and Sai Hin will go in search of Cheung Ping. This will never end.



3. Ever notice that everytime something major happens in the palace, Chiu Yan may be the cause but Cheung Ping was never there? When these scenes may be used to showcase how compassionate and intelligent Cheung Ping is in solving problems or whatever, Cheung Ping will always be somewhere else, preoccupied with her love life and nothing else? Is this a story about Cheung Ping from the Ming Dynasty on Ming Dynasty and of Ming Dynasty? Because I don't see the connection between the two in here.



4. The Queen had shown her true colours when she beaten Tin in a good way, that she was capable of being determined and stern. Now she is like back to square on; bowing to Empress Dowager when she knew that old woman was misled and letting Tin do all the talking whilst she looked on, quiet as a mouse.



5. The worst was Chiu Yan herself. How stupid can she get? First stealing money from the army fund and now stealing from the Empress Dowager herself so that she can buy lipstick and eat well?? And the mother can't even rule over her daughter, how can she be authoritative in front of other concubines??



6. Yuen Yuen may be in love with Sam Kwai but I am not convinced with their love affair. Whilst I had to suffer the many flashbacks for Sai Hin and Cheung Ping's love story, there is very little flashback for this doomed pair that is Sam Kwai and Yuen Yuen. So when they were hugging and kissing the first time after 3 years of separation, I was thinking why Sam Kwai loved her so and yet left her for 3 years? There was no explanation on this and I find it was such a big hole in the story.



7. Again Yuen Yuen was caught with some incriminating evidence in her cupboard like:-



a. Sam Kwai's portrait;

b. 2 love poems; and

c. pages after pages of Sam Kwai's name written in her childish handwriting.



So what more can Yuen Yuen say? Deny? That was why she was beaten. But excuse me, can that be more obvious?? The writer was merely trying to speed things up, so he skipped the important part like how Sam Kwai really fell for Yuen Yuen, how desperate they may be in the palace to see each other again and all that. Skipped and straight to love again and then get caught in a single night and over few days! I find that all just juvenile way of storytelling. So Ming was doomed but thanks to this speedy scenes, we can never understand why it may be doomed because of Yuen Yuen. Her love story with Sam Kwai should be given more emphasis that say Cheung Ping outside of the palace or Chiu Yan.



8. Chiu Yan I realise is nothing but a small time crook with petty needs and very bad behaviour. She is not a major villain and I was hoping she will give Tin a run for her money in Best Villain but Tin ended up as the only consistent character in this series other than the King and Sai Hin, that they all served a purpose. Now that Chiu Yan was attracted to Sai Hin, I wonder when she did something bad to Cheung Ping, how can the mother or Cheung Ping make any excuses for her anymore? How can this woman lie some more?



9. Also on the Queen who was in charge of accounts. After finding out Chiu Yan took the money to spend, what is Chiu Yan doing there in the next scene when the Queen was doing the accounts? Shouldn't Chiu Yan be banned forever instead of helping her mother in this?



10. Yuen Yuen, why on Earth she wanted to enter the palace, be a concubine? Just to see Sam Kwai again of course and she created all these mess. I find the way this mess was created too childish for me even to write it down. Can't there be a better way of letting Sam Kwai meet Yuen Yuen again? Can't it be more specific and detailed instead of like this?



I saw in the next few episodes intro that Chiu Yan will stab Cheung Ping and throw her off the cliff. So again Cheung Ping is out of the palace, out of action. When can Cheung Ping be in the heat of the action in the palace and in politics? The way this series is going, I suspect never. Where is the Cheung Ping I saw in Crimson Sabre? Or that Mi Xue's version? What I have here is a wimpish, useless, shallow Cheung Ping. I have been repeating this in almost every episodic thought and I promise I will repeat it no more.



In the end I feel this episode is like really shallow in every way. No royal family will have such a system and no royal family will act that way, not the Chinese dynasties. I like the way the King is going, that he may be crazy, or harsh but he values friendship and his wife. So he has some redeeming factor. Sai Hin is also a favourite of mine for his gentlemanly behaviour, can't blame Chiu Yan for wanting him. But let me make a wild guess here; if Cheung Ping is dead, this Sai Hin will jump off the cliff after her since they're so in love, right? This whole episode feels like a modern family transported back to the Ming time which is oh so wrong. Messy messy plot.



As for the acting, Steven Ma was quite ok, Moses Chan was tolerable, Charmaine Sheh had little to do and Jan Lau was magnificent as the conniving Tin. Sonija Kwok did one scene well when her mother was talking to her and she looked indifferent. In fact Sonija has this cold princess indifferent look, so she would be great as an assassin or a heartless cold Queen. Not as a silly stupid conniving girl. The rest of her acting is painful to watch.



Overall, and I shall reserve my judgment until the end of this series but thus far this episode has got to be the worst writing I have ever seen. Golden Faith had more realism, drama and emotions than this limp dying shallow episode and in fact this series.