EPISODE 32 (LAST EPISODE)

Last episode began with Sai Hin meeting with the now very arrogant Chiu Yan who repeatedly threatened to bomb Jinling so Sai Hin basically had to be the prostitute for the night. No no, she didn't demand that he sleep with her but rather, hold her for the night. Of course Sai Hin said; "We will surrender, I must return because the people are getting restless" and Chiu Yan sleepily said; "Let them". So one night went by, more threats by Chiu Yan who ordered the cannons to be moved to the top of the mountain to get ready to be used and Chi Chiu and gang was getting restless until Chi Chiu knew they were losing and so agreed to surrender to the Qings. But Chiu Yan didn't care for all that, and then demanded to see Cheung Ping. Sai Hin broke into a killing rampage and even threatened to kill Chiu Yan but Chiu Yan, looking bored said; "So kill me! I will have people dying with me!". Sai Hin naturally let go of the sword and Chiu Yan screamed for Cheung Ping.



At the moment I must pause for awhile. There was a Fan Man Cheng, a high Qing official going on this expedition with Chiu Yan. This Fan Man Cheng is To Yi Kuan's trusted sidekick, and To Yi Kuan is the acting emperor as the real emperor was only 6 so therefore very young. Surely this Fan Man Cheng must have known the main agenda is to get Jinling to surrender without bloodshed, as that was what Chiu Yan promised and that was what To Yi Kuan expected. And yet when Sai Hin was beaten half to death and screaming; "Don't attack us, we surrender, WE SURRENDER!", Fan Man Cheng did nothing. In fact he listened to Chiu Yan who screamed for the cannons to be used. Shouldn't Fan Man Cheng say; "Sorry princess, you're a nobody, in fact a Ming somebody but now a Qing nobody, my orders are given by To Yi Kuan, so please shut up!"? Nope, he in fac t agreed with more bloodshed! Very illogical why a Qing will listen to a former Han nobility?



Anyway, to cut the long story short, Cheung Ping looking white, angelic, pure, virginal and demure met with the more extravagant looking Chiu Yan. I swear there must be an artistic reason for the contrast in make up of the two actresses. Anyway, Cheung Ping stood and Chiu Yan talked. The conversation is interesting enough for me to note it down;



Chiu Yan : "Do you know why you're here?"



Cheung Ping : "I can only advise you to not harm the people. Let them go, we surrender."



Chiu Yan : "Do you know why I became like this? Why I became like this?!"



Cheung Ping : "I only remember my duty and my duty is as taught by father and mother that is the basis of a country is the people. I am here for the people".



Chiu Yan :"Don't talk to me about the King and Queen, the King never loved me, he always pushed me aside.



Cheung Ping :"It's war time, everybody suffers, not just you. I was lucky, mom and dad gave me shelter, love and food.



Chiu Yan : "The Queen made me into a whore by marrying me to Tong Po Lun, forcing me to steal money, imprisoning me and almost beheading me when she could have let me go! Don't talk to me about the Queen, she even forced me to run to the Qings and kill her".



Cheung Ping : (some life coming back to her since she was simply zen like just minutes before) "You killed mother? (and instead of going berserk that she killed mommy, she tearfully said) I miss mommy! I miss mommy!



Chiu Yan then slapped her. And then of course the conversation ended and Chiu Yan ordered she and Sai Hin be killed. So as they lay side by side on a wooden table, facing each other they reminiscent about the past and smiling at each other. Chiu Yan said do it and wet clothes were placed on their faces. Almost couldn't breath when Fan Man Cheng came and said To Yi Kuan is coming, don't kill them.



Once To Yi Kuan arrived, Chiu Yan tried to electrify him with her electric bedroom eyes (yeah right!), he smiled, she smiled and then To said let Cheung Ping and Sai Hin go. Ahhh but why? Smart man said;



"The Mongolians are ready to strike us. If they see us killing more Hans they will revolt then we will have two problems. We can't afford any more bloodshed. We shall treat Cheung Ping and Sai Hin as honoured guests!".



So honoured guests sat down with To and Chiu Yan, To asked them if they are ready to surrender and I shall repeat the conversation here because it was probably the best scene;



Sai Hin : " Yes, we will surrender on one condition. That you shall not kill Chi Chiu and any of our people."



To : "Ok, done!"



Cheung Ping (looking tearfully at Chiu Yan who looked smugly back at her) :" I have one more condition. I want Chiu Yan to be arrested and be investigated by our Internal Affairs for the murder of the Queen and then be beheaded if found guilty!".



To : (without a pause, and the best scene) "Ok, deal! Arrest Chiu Yan".



Of course Chiu Yan begged, cried, protested but at last JUSTICE JUSTICE JUSTICE!! Chiu Yan never really realised to the Qings she was nothing more than a walking sacrifice for their higher purpose. She was nothing to them. She was a nobody in the Ming Dynasty and certainly a nobody in the Qing Dynasty. The best best scene in the entire episode was where we see Chiu Yan in the prison cell, looking ugly, cursing Cheung Ping and Sai Hin like what Concubine Tin did, became an opium addict (I think) and simply wasting away. Rotting away. I am very glad that they did not show her being beheaded because that one scene was more than enough. But it came a bit too long and too late.



Back to Cheung Ping, we see what we saw in Episode one, maybe a minute shorter but not a minute bearable. Again we see their young time, we see them happy, we see them committing suicide. I tell you, I did say in Episode one they were traitors for agreeing to marry in the palace. But after seeing this one scene where they said to the Qing they will marry in the palace (good PR you see), they must agree to 17 conditions, some like paying compensations, releasing the Ming royalties, letting the Hans mourn for the dead king for 3 days, etc etc etc. Of course the Qings agreed, and they killed themselves amidst the themesong being played and with the lyrics at the left side of the screen. Very very long scene and finally they died. It was quite sad, until suddenly we see the next scene.



3 YEARS LATER, we see Sai Hin and Cheung Ping running a food stall, Cheung Ping pregnant and Sing Hing limping to his two best friends. They all joked, talked a bit about a sick To Yi Kuan, happy that the people are happy under the rule of Qings and then went back to playing, joking happily.



THE END.



My problem with this last episode is plenty.



How the hell did they escape from the palace?

Well, one line of dialogue in the last scene Cheung Ping said they pretended to die. PRETENDED TO DIE. MAY I REPEAT PRETENDED TO DIE. Surely I need to explain more why I am so pissed with this one line. How can that be you ask? How they can pretend to die and then escape and then live like this happily ever after? The Qings buried them outside? The Qings let them go? Show us! Show us how it all really ended instead of trying to give us a happy ending without a reasonable justification.



What about Chi Chiu? And the gang?

I want to know also. The Qings said Sai Hin and Cheung Ping separated and reunited a total of 6 times in their courtship. So basically this entire series is built on that separation and reunion of 6 times between these two boring people, and in the end what about other people? Don't they matter at all? Like General Shih, they got a mere 5 seconds mention and the rest dedicated to seeing how Cheung Ping cried, Sai Hin look at Cheung Ping, how they almost died, how they met again ... I don't care about them. I want to know about other people as well!!



The ending changed?

Yes, because originally they both died. Well depends of which version because one version had it that Cheung Ping survived with one arm and spent the rest of her days as a nun and plotting to overthrow the Qings. The same person you will see in Duke Of Mountdeer.



I find all these unanswered questions too unbearable because I was like, Big deal they're back together again. Who cares?



At least Chiu Yan had a good ending, at least an intelligent ending of some sort. This entire episode is meant only to prolong the story which was already much too long, to create more unnecessary drama that all added up to something which is really insulting to the intelligence of the viewers. In fact the director forgot its own concocted distorted facts of its own story when somewhere in the flashback of the love and live of Sai Hin and Cheung Ping, one scene showed the King hacking off Cheung Ping's arm! That was never a reality in this series! Then we have this supposedly cute scene where Sai Hin pretended to be the dead King and Cheung Ping the scared ministers, you know the good old times. After a while Cheung Ping cried thinking about her dead father. This scene is ok but the few minutes leading to this one scene is horrible because the affection between Cheung Ping and Sai Hin was so forced it was all a torture to watch. Waste of time.



In the end, performance wise, I felt Sonija Kwok did a good job in the prison scene but before that she looked either bored, bored or bored. She should take speech classes because I can't stand her lazy tone and her lazy lips. Yes, her lips looked distorted. Maybe that was why Chiu Yan is made more unbearable to watch. Steven Ma was wonderful, Charmaine was as usual bland, shallow, boring , almost too zen like to the point of utter boredom. Ellesmere Choi gave a very good performance as the useless young acting king. I will comment more in my review.



Overall the ending is like first scene, a complete dud. I know there are many who gave this series a 5 stars (that is full 5 stars) or an A. My rating? I will leave that in my review. Overall, in retrospect, this episode definitely gives you an ending, maybe an ending fans love to watch but to me, it is nothing but poor juvenile childish writing with so many modern speeches. A complete dud of an episode.





By the way no sign of Po Lun in this episode or even Duke Fook. Wonder what happened to them?