EPISODE 27

So finally, the King did something he should have done ages ago, Chiu Yan did the same thing all over again and Cheung Ping finally said something interesting but not very useful.



I really pity the king. The guy he sent to fight Lee Chong, General Suen Chuen Teng was by all accounts a patriot but not very smart. Sam Kwai was still sulking and refused to help so what to do? Suen lost the war and one very important town and the King fell sick yet again.



And yet again the Empress Dowager arrived at the King's chambers with her goonies, that is Tin, Tin Wang Yu and the other 3 corrupt ministers. The King was too sick to want to do anything (though he wanted to chop off their heads) and the Queen, for once said something rather decisive; "Let me handle them". So I thought she would do something decisive, and well let's just say she let the Empress Dowager blabbed and blabbed and everybody else said what they wanted to say whilst she just shut up. Is this what she had in mind when she said "Let me handle them"? In probably the best scene in this episode and in the entire series (I shall reserve my judgment since I hope there may be some hope for this series to rise above its pretentiousness and shallowness), the King heard the Empress Dowager saying "I heard the we lost the war because we used Sam Kwai's plans? Why can't the King realise Sam Kwai is not useful to us and people like should be depended upon?" and the goonies all said the usual defaming words of Sam Kwai and more, and then the King dragged Tin Wang Yu and gang out to the public street (hmmmm...that would be far but of course in TVB standard, just a minute away from the forbidden palace), made them kneel and made them recite some poem, basically threatened them that one lost verse and their heads will be chopped off. For me that was the most satisfying public humiliation for these traitors!! Of course they didn't die and more harm was done. But the King can't kill them yet because of Po Lun and his 300,000 army which the King needs to win the war against Lee Chong. We all know Po Lun is a bastard and arrogant bastard.



Anyway, poor king. At the meantime earlier in the scene Sai Hin saw Sing Hing again and beaten him quite badly until he saw Sing Hing's dad who told him Fai Lei (whom he knew is Cheung Ping) married Sing Hing not for real but for protection. Hmmm...so the old man knew! So Sai Hin apologized to Sing Hing who was too angry for words and Sai Hin saw Cheung Ping and they well, hugged, cried, said words of "I missed you" and then hugged some more.



Later on our Chiu Yan again tried to cause some rift between Cheung Ping and Sai Hin by first telling Tin how she will be abandoned and how her mother and Cheung Ping will be taken away from the palace to somewhere safe when Lee Chong arrives, and how it was Cheung Ping who spoke ill of them. So Tin who looked positively yellow and ugly (she was sick) said she will make sure evil Cheung Ping will be given to Lee Chong as a gift. Chiu Yan then asked an artiste to draw Cheung Ping in a very provocative manner, dancing and with cleavage. Anyone who see that painting will know Cheung Ping is Long Flat so where can she have that cleavage? There is no Wonderbra then. Anyway the King saw the painting purportedly painted by Lee Chong who said Cheung Ping will be given as a reward to the person who capture the city. Of course the King was mad and I was left wondering why Chiu Yan did that painting? To cause fear?



The result was the opposite. Cheung Ping went to the streets and saw people running everywhere and someone used a gun and fired into the air and Cheung Ping then gave what I thought an interesting speech, like "You shouldn't run, you will never escape Lee the rebel wherever you may be. Look at this painting ... I am scared too but I will stay to fight on .. YOU should be in the army, the womenfolk aren't weak, you can try and help anyway ... if you run you will have nowhere to go to and you will be starving, at least in the city you will have food and shelter ..." and of course everybody was stirred by such a stirring speech by the princess they will listen to as they all exclaimed Cheung Ping is the princess who cared about the people. So naturally they stayed.



I said earlier on this was an interesting speech, since Cheung Ping finally is doing something useful other than crying about Sai Hin but I find her speech ultimately useless because in the end, the King's plan is to close up the city, and protect it from Lee Chong. Anyone seen Return of the King? Gondor was facing the same situation and Gandalf fought all he could and Gondor was almost destroyed until back up came in the form of Aragorn and the undead army. In this episode, there won't be back up and I doubt Po Lun will care enough to help. Everybody seems more interested in saving their own skin than saving Ming when they should realise if Ming falls, so will they unless they want to work for Lee Chong. So what Cheung Ping said was in the end a death sentence for the citizens though it was something that I was expecting her to say from episode 1. To hear her say this in Episode 27 is a bit too late for me.



Now what I didn't get was this; When Cheung Ping spoke and one man said why he should listen to her and one woman boldly replied; "She is Princess Cheung Ping, she has always been good to us". Maybe I slept through some parts or maybe most of them are in the editing room but I have never once seen any scene which showed Cheung Ping doing anything brave and noble for her people prior to this scene which merits such a praise.



Anyway Moses Chan was very good whilst Steven Ma a total love sick gentleman. Sonija Kwok didn't do to badly, especially the scene where her Chiu Yan argued with her mom about seeking an annulment from Po Lun who was coming back (you know, Chiu Yan can be very smart sometimes but to talk about annulment at that time is really stupid-I almost expected her to volunteer herself to seduce Po Lun to handover the 300,000 men but of course this is a shallow script so none of the characters in here ever dared to do beyond the norm). As for Charmaine Sheh, it was very painful to look at her thin face, as she smiles or cried, her thin skin on her bony face stretched to reveal her facial bone structure without any hint of fat. Maybe to you it's a good thing to look this thin but to me, she looked horrible. Why is it skinny thin flat women is so dark and their skin looked like they have injected Botox?



My most favourite character in this episode is Kei Loke who was captured by the Ming and bravely let them torture him, not revealing any secrets and favourite performance is also by Ai Wai. I am beginning to miss Shih Ho Fatt. Is Sam Kwai the only man for the job? Since the Qings aren't doing anything at this moment, shouldn't Sai Hin and Shih be used to fight Lee the rebel? Isn't there is too much emphasis placed on Sam Kwai's importance in the survival of the Ming and his ultimate treachery because of a woman?



I feel this is where the script fails. Too much credit is given to one single character and too little emphasis is placed on the real historical aspect which I feel would have made an interesting story to tell. This series however sometimes showcase why Ming fell and Qing won. Not too often we see the Qings and from the comparisons and the insinuations, I knew Ming fell for a very sad reason; the King did all he could but he couldn't fight bureaucracy and he couldn't fight selfishness. Basically Ming in this series fell not because of Sam Kwai alone but collectively the lack of patriotism in dynasty itself. Qing couldn't have win the war since they themselves are embroiled in their own internal conflict over the throne and the rebel may be succeeding but not quite. Why the rebel could win? How the Qing could win later on? The last 3 episodes answered all that and for that I pity the king. These few episodes showed the King in a very good light.



Anyway no sign of Yuen Yuen or Sam Kwai. In fact Sai Hin's dad, Chow Hing followed Suen Chuen Teng to war and I wonder what happened to Chow Hing when news came Suen Chuen Teng died in battle??