Perish In The Name Of Love [TVB][E]

Welcome

2009-12-28T12:01:00.001-08:00

This is the COMPLETED Episodic Thoughts for the series Perish In The Name Of Love produced by TVB. For more info, do read the right panel top most column. For the episodes, check out the right panel under Episodes. Comments are still open so feel free to post your comments. Thank you.

EPISODE 32 (LAST EPISODE)

2004-05-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

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?

EPISODE 31

2004-05-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

This entire episode is what I shall juvenile writing and a total farce. Not contented with one reunion scene, we have two, not contented with one betrayal, we have two and not contented with just showing the doom of Ming once, we are shown repeatedly.

The entire episode SHOWS but falls short of actually enlightening the viewers the problems faced by the survivors of the Ming Dynasty. In fact, I was watching King Of Yesterday And Tomorrow and there was this one scene Kong Wah explained to Maggie Cheung why fight when Ming was doomed years before and even Qing fell later on. That one single scene, Maggie's teary eyes and Kong Wah's bitter voice did more for the emotions than this series' in its entirety. I find PITNOL very detached, too preoccupied with Sai Hin and Cheung Ping without realising their many separation, reunions, separation and more reunions have a direct connection to the fate of Ming. This was not highlighted, we are just shown. The connection is not there and I felt bored watching this entire episode except for some very emotional scenes, that all added up to a total of a 5 second scene, that is where General Shih finally died. May I add he is the real hero, not the so called royalty and all. He defended his country without question, did his duty without conditions and died a hero without once thinking of quitting or running away. To give him a mere 5 second mention and a mere 5 second scene to see his death was all too much for me; it was like he didn't matter because what mattered is seeing how devious Chiu Yan is and how many times Cheung Ping can stand, look shocked at seeing Sai Hin again, say loving words, both hug and then both cry. That I have it almost every episode but the presence of General Shih is all too little.

Anyway, as the story goes, Chiu Yan was caught red-handed by Cheung Ping for selling Ming info to Qing. Cheung Ping slapped her (YEAH! Finally an appropriate reaction from Miss Useless but I suspect the slap was more for stabbing her than for selling top secret info!) and she was arrested, and subsequently sentenced to death. She didn't die of course as she made a deal with Duke Fook to do something devious. On the day of Cheung Ping and Sai Hin finally married (but not quite because before mother can drink the all important tea to complete the process she received news that Chiu Yan tried to kill herself by hanging in her prison cell-where she got the chair is a mystery to me but we all know it was all thanks to Duke Fook), Queen was shot by her beloved Chiu Yan who was then released from prison by Duke Fook. Subsequently she ran to the Qings, became Princess of the Qing Dynasty, got herself some nice costume, found herself a lover in top Duke in the Qing Dynasty and even volunteered to lead an army to Sai Hin and gang to get them to surrender. That will be later of course.

At the meantime, the Queen died. Again only 5 second worth of scene but the camera kept zooming to Cheung Ping crying, Sai Hin crying, everybody crying except for the Queen who was the one lay dying there. I thought more lines should be given to Maggie Siu in that important and heart breaking scene. After all she was done in by her own precious ungrateful daughter. Anyway, she died but before she did she said "Remember, remember to do as I told you" and then dead. So next scene I was wondering what did she tell Chi Chiu to remember? I thought maybe a plan to oust the Qings, a plan to get rid of Po Lun and Duke Fook. Nope. What we have in the next scene is one of the stupidest scene in this series.

Duke Fook said if Chi Chiu didn't surrender the throne, there will be a war. So Chi Chiu said and I swear this actually took place;

Chi Chiu : "Alright, I agree but we will be rulers together!"

Duke Fook : "Alright I agree but I want Sai Hin to be fired, his army given to the Dynasty and Sai Hin to be banished away to *** (couldn't remember where but must be far) and General Shih to surrender his army"

Sai Hin looked confused, Cheung Ping looked a tad worried but nothing too alarming. At this stage I was still labouring under the thought that this might be a strategy the dead Queen taught Chi Chiu.

Chi Chiu : (looking dumb and with a Ming King like this, no wonder Qings won) "Alright, but I want Tong Po Lun to be demoted to the rank of ordinary citizen and I want him to surrender his army men".

Po Lun said "No, Duke, No" and the Duke quickly said; "Alright, deal but since Cheung Ping being a royalty and loved by the people, I want her influence to be diminished so I want her to be sent to the temple and become a nun for the rest of her life and she must be sent to the temple by *** o'clock, failing which I will strike!".

Sai Hin again looked a bit worried, Cheung Ping looked remarkably normal and Chi Chiu looked quite alright and said; "Deal!"

At this moment I was still thinking this must be a plot, must be a red herring for the Duke. It turned out that it was all real, no ploy, no scheme. Chi Chiu wanted to avoid a civil war and so practically sold out his most trusted side kick, his beloved sister and even his dignity. He should have just stabbed that Duke. So we have first scene of Sai Hin and Cheung Ping hugging, crying, refusing to let go and then parted ways in slow mo.

One and a half years later Sai Hin came back and saw Chi Chiu running after women. Chi Chiu's reasons was "I couldn't do anything, they were all on his side, whatever I tried to say was not accepted, so what was I supposed to do?" Well, why not try to be like your father, try and try again until his last breath instead of just giving up and become a total loser? Of course then I found out what the Queen said that she asked everybody to remember. Sai Hin said; "How can you do this? How can you not remember your father and the Queen's dying words, that every good rule starts from it citizens? Cheung Ping and I made the sacrifices and what are you doing?!"

You know Sai Hin, I believe Chi Chiu should learn by example, that is the King and the Queen never die spirit but he should never learn how to rule the country from them. Look what happened to both of them?

Anyway, then we have second scene where Sai Hin saw Cheung Ping at the temple, she denying she was Cheung Ping for like 2 seconds and then they were hugging, crying and yes, talk about love. Of course Sing Hing (now a cripple but very optimistic cripple) saw them and they had a happy reunion. Sing Hing told Sai Hin his leg was broken thanks to Chiu Yan, Sai Hin cursed Chiu Yan and Cheung Ping looked absolutely demure and nothing else.

Next scene Chiu Yan arrived and sent a letter to Sai Hin saying if he were to see her she will not kill anyone once Qings enter the city. This is on the honour of her words, and why should Sai Hin trust her? Of course Cheung Ping, "Sai Hinnnn, don't gooo". I totally agree, since this woman could murder her own mother, why believe her words?

So what happened? Have to wait for final episode.

You know as I sat watching this episode I concocted some scenes which I felt should be in here, like how Cheung Ping saw Sing Hing again, maybe to show her compassionate and all there should be a scene where she cries when she realises it was all Chiu Yan, some people should be stabbed instead of being let go. The one scene which I really wanted to see was Chiu Yan suffering, that in the end this is justice. What I have is she running to the Qings, like I was supposed to be disgusted with her treachery. What more to be disgusted when she just shot her mom earlier without remorse? Oh come on, get real. Show me something that I can emotionally connect to, stop showing how devious she can be, start showing how she will be paid for her betrayal. I suspect even to the last minute she will have a good life. Someone said Chiu Yan is the ultimate survivor, I agree but I don't want to be her because there is no honour living the life she is living.

Anyway what I didn't understand was why Sai Hin was still saying to Chi Chiu to investigate the Queen's death. It's so simple; Queen entered Chiu Yan's cell, she got shot, Chiu Yan disappeared. What more to investigate? Can the script be anymore stupid? Until now Yoke Han's death (yes I still remember her) is still under investigation and now the Queen's death. How come the Queen never said, "It was Chiu Yan!"? Maybe she loved her daughter too much? This only shows she may be the most dedicated Queen but she can't even settle family disputes and kept protecting her daughter until the end. Am I supposed to feel sad that she died? No. Nothing to feel sad about. I was hoping to see Cheung Ping so mad that her mom is dead and knowing that Chiu Yan did it that she personally went in search of Chiu Yan and just stab her, be violent, DO SOMETHING! But nope, she dutifully stayed in the temple, knowing very well her own useless brother is probably being bullied, Chiu Yan out there some where. Again, useless Cheung Ping.

Also how come Po Lun gave up his army so easily? A shrewd man like him would have done something. Aren't all these ending too convenient??

In the end I feel great injustice has been done to the various characters in this series, and to the viewers for having to bear with such a junk. Of course from episode 1 one would hope that by the last episode justice will be served in dramatic value but I suspect whatever dramatic value that the last episode will serve will be reserved for Cheung Ping and Sai Hin not dying and living happily ever after whilst the other characters will be treated as carelessly as General Shih's death was treated. Whilst this series may be about Cheung Ping and Sai Hin, I am sick to death watching their love story which is like a CD on a repeat button. Same old, same old.

Anyway tomorrow is the last episode. TVB, surprise me!

EPISODE 30

2004-05-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

So the story goes on and on and on. We are shown why Sam Kwai opened the gates. He regretted being so stubborn and unreasonable and sat through the days drinking and feeling like a total jerk and a loser. Then came an official from Qing who gave him a proposition; open the gates and receive us as your own and you will be given the title of Duke of Ping Sai (actually more like King of Ping Sai) and anything you want. So he wants:-

1. Lee Chi Seng's head;

2. Tin Wang Yu's head; and

3. of course, Chan Yuen Yuen.

Though it was never shown whether Tin Wang Yu was captured but I will assume he died. He got his Yuen Yuen at last (who was for a while Lee's play thing - poor thing) and Lee Chi Seng will die in a few more episodes since the final episode is coming very soon. At this moment I must express my happiness that this series will soon be over because I can't stand this junk anymore.

Now back to Chiu Yan and her devious way. I admire this woman. She will make a very good wife because if she loves you she will scheme and steal and kill for you, in this case Sai Hin. She and Sai Hin escaped but barely. Sai Hin was very sick and so Chiu Yan, had dead with hunger stumbled upon the King's faithful eunuch who fed her and took her in. They told her what happened to the King but of course she went home and told Sai Hin the version the king wanted everybody to hear. Sai Hin thought Cheung Ping was dead and he lost the will to live. At the meantime Chiu Yan needed money to buy Sai Hin some medicine and she asked the eunuch who was with the other princesses in hiding. He had only a few dollars left all of which he gave it to her. She went way brimming with tears only to stop in front of a rebel army and asked them how much will they pay for info on princesses in hiding? They say $100 and so she betrayed them and they all got killed. She took back the money, fed Sai Hin whilst telling a sob story like how she had to carry corpses to earn some money to feed him.

She will be a great publicist if she lives today because everything she says is to glorify herself in the eyes of the people she thinks matter. Oh my, she was absolutely devious and all. I am lost for words to describe my disdain for her because really the dictionary of words to describe spineless mean evil devious people has already been used in her case to the point of no more words can be used to describe her. No, one more.

Traitor! She secretly went to the Qings and offered to sell out Ming (or what's left of it) for a title of Kak-Kak (Ge Ge), some land and some money. So she went home with Sai Hin to Chueng Ping as a spy!

Anyway back to Cheung Ping, now an accountant and still as meaningless and useless as ever. I have lost all hope of seeing Cheung Ping saying or doing something politically decisive. Nope, her mom was the one who handled the politics and squared it off with disgusting Po Lun and greedy Duke (can't remember his name at this point of time). Luckily she had Shih Ho Fatt but unluckily Empress Dowager still had to meddle into her affairs and insisted on Chi Chiu to take over from her. Chi Chiu can't ever change his underwear without asking anyone for help, so how can he run a country or even a state? Definitely he will be bullied but luckily the Queen spurred on by the King's last wishes braved it all and emerged the winner in a battle of words between the evil gang and herself. So they sent men to assassinate her, luckily Shih Ho Fatt realised their evil plans and saved the day. So far the only way the Queen will die is because of Chiu Yan since she is now the traitor. Wonder what they'll do to her when she is caught, if ever?

As for Cheung Ping, FINALLY (and again) she was reunited with Sai Hin and AGAIN talks of wedding being held and AGAIN they said later and AGAIN the mother said better do it now and AGAIN they looked at each other with puppy dog eyes and AGAIN said yes but AGAIN we all know it will not happen because in episode 1 they finally got married under the Qing rule inside the palace.

As for performances, I am surprised by Cheung Ping's eternal optimism in the face of her father's suspicious death and her eternal worry and love for Sai Hin when I would love to see one scene of her crying over her father's death. She's quite heartless.

As for Sonija Kwok, I thought she did well, especially the scene where she jealously eyes Cheung Ping looking lovingly at Sai Hin who was lovingly squeezing her hands. Yes, if I was Chiu Yan I would have stabbed my chop sticks into Cheung Ping's eyes.

Anyway it's ending soon. If not I wonder how I can gulp down all my rage at the twisted historical facts and the defacing of the character of Cheung Ping.

EPISODE 29

2004-05-21T00:50:00.000-07:00

I missed Episode 28 because I was wathing Troy then and I almost missed this episode because I was at Genting Highlands watching The Ten Tenors. Luckily there is such thing called repeats.

I missed the scene where Chiu Yan stabbed Cheung Ping so when I saw her with Sing Hing I was very confused. She then made herself sick and insisted Sing Hing send her back to Tong Po Lun's camp. Once there Sing Hing left only to be asked to return to her and then suddenly she accused Sing Hing of molesting her, and Po Lun came back and poor Sing Hing's leg was broken and he was beaten to a pulp whilst Chiu Yan cried. Next scene we have Chiu Yan back to Sai Hin and saying Po Lun abused her and asking Sai Hin to protect her.

Did I miss something? Why did she accused Sing Hing of molesting her and then run back to Sai Hin when she was with Po Lun? What was the purpose of this senseless act and senseless scene other than to show how pitiful Sing Hing was? Can somebody explain this to me?

Forget about Chiu Yan. Country already dying and she is still scheming to get Sai Hin. Back to the palace.

The King was desperate, losing and all when suddenly Cheung Ping said Sam Kwai wrote a letter. It seems that Sam Kwai realised how stupid he was to abandon Ming so he was coming back with 200,000 men. Once back first thing in his mind was Yuen Yuen. Actually 3 years has passed and I see it this way; Sam Kwai came back to get his woman as promised by the King. So the King asked his eunuch to fetch Yuen Yuen only to be told the temple Yuen Yuen was staying was burnt to the ground and a body wearing Yuen Yuen's bracelet was found inside it. Naturally the King assumed she died. The King couldn't ruin it now that Sam Kwai came back so he told lies to Sam Kwai when Sam Kwai realised something was wrong. So he told Sam Kwai the truth and Sam Kwai accused the King of killing Yuen Yuen and so once again he went back to his own town leaving the king alone to face Lee Chong. Now definitely the Ming Dynasty shall fall, the King knew this and looking so horribly despondent he ordered all the ministers, his wives, his children and his mom to kill themselves either by hanging themselves or drinking poison. Naturally there was protest and General Shih suggested they run to Jiangnan to seek help from a duke there (who was not on good terms with the king but still a servant of Ming) and the King refused. Cheung Ping and Queen quietly reasoned with the King as the King was afraid people will laugh at him if he were to run. At last he agreed to run, he took one way and his family took the other. His family successfully ran to Jiangnan only to be greeted with false loyalty from the duke there and Chi Chiu became king. Ahhhh, why? How come he became king you ask? Because Shun Jing was caught and subsequently sentenced to be hanged on a tree by the rebel. Then the rebel spread rumours that he hanged himself accusing the downfall on his ministers instead of himself thus solidifying his shame as the King who caused his own downfall.

Sai Hin at the meantime was injured and together with Chiu Yan they escaped. How they escaped was not shown.

Acting wise, this episode has some pretty good performances, thanks to Moses Chan who looked absolutely hopeless and haggard. Sonija Kwok was quite alright but her role is all about deception and some very illogical actions. Charmaine was ok, she had little role in here and Jan Lau was wonderful in a 5 minute scene where her Tin Fei became crazy and all. Anne Heung had a short scene where she was kidnapped by Tin and given to Lee Chong as a gift. I pity Yuen Yuen but Anne's acting was clearly inadequate. As for Marco Ngai, his Sam Kwai is a fluke. He is nothing but a tantrum throwing little boy looking for his favourite toy that is Yuen Yuen. Now this is where I want to comment.

Why is there a necessity to change the course of history? For dramatic value or just to justify the fact that Cheung Ping still has her arm intact? Remember in Episode 1 or 2 I commented why she still had her arm when there was one scene her father chopped off her arm? He didn't. He told his ministers and princesses to escape and to spread the word around that:-

1. He tried to kill Cheung Ping but chopped off her arm instead, and she escaped when the King going berserk couldn't bring himself to kill her and she died outside of the palace;

2. The Queen hanged herself to show her love for the King;

3. The King went berserk and killed everybody.

When in actual fact he did none of the above things. WHY? When they escaped to Jiangnan, did her seriously think that Lee Chong wouldn't find out the truth? Maybe it will take months to reach Jiangnan and so this will throw the rebels off their trail but is there such a necessity? So in the end Cheung Ping still has her arm, her mom still alive and everybody lived as opposed to the famous historical myth/fact that the King whacked off her arm, went on a killing rampage and ..... and ...

OK, now I am pissed with the King's ending. This series showed that he was captured whilst escaping and was hanged by the rebels. I specifically remembered all the books I have read and I thought the historical fact was a much more poignant ending.

When I saw the scene where the King ordered everybody to kill themselves and his mom and Chiu Chiu and his servant agreed, I almost cried because it was so sad. But to have such an ending was such a dud. Wouldn't it be more dramatic and more sad and better to show the King walking all alone up to the hill to that famous tree and then hanging himself because of guilt, remorse and shame? Legend has it that before he killed himself, he covered his face with his hair. This means that this person is so shamed that he couldn't show his face to his ancestors in the after life, and this would be consistent to him blaming himself for the fall of Ming. But this version's ending takes away all this ommpphh factor and definitely TVB should be sued for killing the effect if his actions.

Of course we are supposed to blame Sam Kwai for the fall of Ming, this series tried to do all that. Of course I will blame him for his tantrums and all. But it was all so juvenile, and Sam Kwai was the easy target to blame. I find the entire end of the Ming in 10 minutes and the death of the King in a minute or so too heartless, too emotionally not there. I saw this King from episode 1, I hated him and grew to respect him for his efforts, for his dedication to Ming. The real history would love to portray this king as a weak man, a bad king and a king that never sat on his throne to govern his country for many years for reasons unknown. This series tried to show him differently, to take away his shame and his guilt and so naturally someone has to be blamed for Ming's downfall and that is of course Sam Kwai which was too easy.

I hated the ending, I hated the reasoning and I hated the careless disregard the writer had for the history, the reasons and the real end. Maybe the King really didn't hang himself, maybe he was sentenced to death. I doubt it. I find Crimson Sabre's version more poignant, sadder and in a way can't blame the King. I think there was a General Shih Ho Fatt there and I think he killed himself also. I can't remember.

As for this version, the only thing I liked is showing how desperate the king was. Everything else was like a little kid writing the script. Reminds me of Troy. Like Troy, there is a one or two good characters in here, in the form of the King and Sai Hin. Troy had one, that is Hector. But like the movie Troy, this entire series whilst entertaining, this one single episode (and many episodes before) proves why I have every justification to hate it; what bad writing!

EPISODE 27

2004-05-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

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??

EPISODE 26

2004-05-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

A wonderful performance by both Steven Ma as the courageous though love sick Sai Hin and the desperate King, Moses Chan. I pity them both, I mean their characters.

I was hoping to see the Empress Dowager retort back at the King but first scene in this episode, the King huffing and puffing in another room. Ahhhhh what a waste!! Anyway basically in this episode you will see more of how the King tried to win back Sam Kwai's loyalty (and failed miserably), how Chiu Yan deceive Sai Hin about Cheung Ping's real problems back at Baoding and of course how Cheung Ping is surviving in her dual role as pretend wife of Sing Hing and missing Sai Hin. Let's talk about Sam Kwai first.

The King offered him the same status as a King, a great title, many land, more riches and Sam Kwai simply packed his bag and left town. The King then became so angry he wrote a very personal and angry letter calling Ng Sam Kwai traitor, that he was the cause of Ming's doom and of course he can never see Yuen Yuen again. Sam Kwai simply looked ahead and left town. The King was so angry and desperate he appointed another general who was not as great as Sam Kwai to fight Lee Chong. For me the solution is simple;

1. Give Sam Kwai Chan Yuen Yuen. That's it. Of course someone pointed to me again the Confucianism thing and all but frankly, country is dying, people are starving, he is even willing to give Sam Kwai the same status as a king, so why care of such useless moral ethics?

2. Threaten to chop off Yuen Yuen's head unless he fights for Ming.

3. Ask Yuen Yuen to beg Sam Kwai, to add a more emotional scene.

Instead, nothing. Frankly I thought the King all that he could to save his kingdom, he did so much and everybody else did much more or didn't do anything which in the end harmed the Kingdom. I thought Sam Kwai was so arrogant to ignore the King. I was surprised in his anger the King did not order Sam Kwai to be captured and to be beheaded. Well, pure drama you see. Quite silly actually this storyline I saw tonight.

Now Chiu Yan, single minded Chiu Yan, asked someone to forge Cheung Ping's handwriting saying how she loved Sing Hing and all so Sai Hin was crying and all, feeling betrayed. Like Jaws (cue the infamous jingle) she slowly sat beside him, said some nice words, some insulting words and for once delivered a speech which I thought was quite thoughtful, she of course didn't mean any of it. She said he must forget about Cheung Ping in times of war and fight for the survival of the Kingdom. Anyway she even volunteered to go to war with Sai Hin and to be a cook, a servant, a Florence Nightingale so that she can be right next to Sai Hin who didn't want her right next to him, but he was too polite to ask her to just leave him alone.

Now Cheung Ping. A few times her undercover was almost blown away and the worst was Chiu Yan herself wrote a poison pen letter to the Qings at Baoding saying to them to check the newlyweds because Cheung Ping is a newlywed. Of course Sing Hing was smart and proclaimed Cheung Ping pregnant in front of two Qing officials, Kei Loke and the other I do not know his name, so as friends Kei Loke decided to protect Cheung Ping. At last the Qings left Baoding without sending back up and Sai Hin is due to march into Baoding. Hmmmmm...he has a dilemma. He thinks that Cheung Ping betrayed him and Sing Hing is now a traitor and a dog working for Qings. Everybody thought so because Chiu Yan also said so. I mean come one. Are they going to expect Sing Hing, his father, all the workers to kill themselves and close down the shop? Survival is more important at this stage. Sing Hing was not a traitor, love sick maybe but not a traitor. And Cheung Ping being in Baoding in dangerous territory would have been more than enough to explain why she is now Mrs Chor Sing Hing, because there must be a hidden story Sai Hin and gang didn't know yet. But as usual, Chiu Yan poked fire and surprise! surprise! Everybody is still listening to her.

Anyway one scene I must comment on.

Cheung Ping tonight did something I never expected her to do. She screamed at the top of her lungs and fired some shots when hungry peasants ran into the factory to steal things, causing much mayhem. I must comment on what she said.

She said; "We are all Hans, we are all citizens of Ming, why are you stealing from us?"

Cheung Ping, Cheung Ping, did you not see the torn clothes, the skinny body, the hungry looks, the war and all. Isn't it obvious? People are hungry!

She then said, "Alright, you can take whatever you want, just do not harm us"

You must think she is so decisive, how noble. In the end the house was stripped and now is their turn to be hungry. I thought there is a more graceful way to end this chaos like; "Ah A, Ah B, prepare Man Taus for these hungry people, take out the rice, give them shelter, we will share what we have left." Nope,again pure silly drama, they took everything away and we get to hear cheerful happy starving looking Cheung Ping being oh so optimistic whilst waiting to be rescued by Sai Hin.

I now realise how really shallow Cheung Ping is. I have been calling her shallow every episode but this episode highlights how shallow the writer is, not Cheung Ping. She is always the damsel in distress, she is always waiting to be rescued, she always do things that in the end benefits no on, not even herself, she is always full of Sai Hin and nothing about her parents or the country. We are always told how kind she is, how compassionate she is, but I have never seen ONE SINGLE SCENE of her as rich wife of Sing Hing going outside and giving rice away, or trying to help the underground movement to spy on Qings, in fact there is no underground movement at all. Her Sing Hing knows Kei Loke, who is pretty high ranking Qing official and they're at the best position to find out some news which might be useful for the Ming, but instead they concern themselves with "When will Ming attack Baoding? When will Sai Hin come and save me?". Is there anything up there, hello?

And I am amazed by the indifference of Cheung Ping and Sing Hing towards Kei Loke. This man, a Qing is so trusting and loyal to Sing Hing, never once questioned him and even helped Sing Hing on many occasions. This episode and the last few ones showed how good the Qings could be, who views friendships as something to be treasured whilst the Ming only knew how to gossip and all. I thought Sing Hing should have done more than to say "Be careful" to Kei Loke when Kei Loke had to lead an army to war and the next second happily talking about Sai Hin and all. He should have showed more genuine concern, Cheung Ping also because she owes her survival to this Kei Loke. Ungrateful people. In a way I like how Wai Siu Bo views the Qings and the Hans. Both as friends, and as enemies, no one is good and not one is actually bad. This series tried to show the good side of Qings and the irony of it all that a Qing could treat a Han better than a Han could treat his fellow men. But the meaning was all lost as the plot concentrates more on Cheung Ping, Sing Hing and Sai Hin impending fateful meeting in the next episode.

The actor, whose name I think someone said is Ai Wai who plays Kei Loke was seriously funny and seriously great. Excellent performance and I laughed at him complaining about his boss ordering him to find Cheung Ping and how he had to arrest young girls, older girls, single girls and now married girls!

As for Charmaine Sheh, her performance is as empty as her Cheung Ping's soul which she had none. Sonija Kwok fared better as she poked fire but still disappointingly amateurish.

No sign of Yuen Yuen today (THANK YOU!).

EPISODE 25

2004-05-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

Oh, now I know why Sam Kwai never came for Yuen Yuen for 3 long years. He was leading 5 thousand men to battle some 30,000 enemy army and only 80 left standing and he was captured, and was tortured as a POW for 3 long years! What a heroic man. No wonder when he talked and when he walked he showed little respect for the King, because he definitely earned it.

This episode clearly shows why the King valued Sam Kwai more than just a good General and treated him like a close friend. Sam Kwai won many battles for him and at last the King finally agreed to put Yuen Yuen in a temple and Sam Kwai could not see her for another 3 years and he must win the war against the rebel. Sam Kwai reluctantly agreed. Of course tongues were still wagging about a threesome in the castle, you know Tin and gang. Empress Dowager included. So one day Sam Kwai lied to the King that he wanted to see his dad for 15 minutes when he actually went to see Yuen Yuen who was starving herself because she could not see Sam Kwai, love sick you see. When Sam Kwai came back late, the King could smell the incense and knew he was at the temple. At the same time Tin Wang Yu went and killed the chief nun and blamed it on Sam Kwai whilst Tin forcibly removed Yuen Yuen's undergarments and told lies like Sam Kwai went cavorting around naked with Yuen Yuen in the temple. The truth was the King believed Sam Kwai and even if they did what they did, the King was ready to forgive Sam Kwai because he knew Sam Kwai was an asset to the Ming Dynasty. He was even ready to give Yuen Yuen away. But Empress Dowager demanded Sam Kwai to be arrested whilst the Queen must be removed from her rank (every opportunity she got she will put the blame on poor useless soundless Queen). Sam Kwai was so angry he screamed at the traitors, delivering what I thought was purely dramatic lines but really very good lines like "What have you done for Ming? What blood have you shed for Ming?". The King simply wanted him to shut up so he slapped him and Sam Kwai took that as betrayal. Then Sam Kwai tearfully said, "I have done so much for this kingdom, WHY?! Because of Ming Dynasty, because of you (the King) and what have I gotten in the end? Give me Yuen Yuen and I'll serve you to the end and fight for your cause without question, if not I will leave all this behind". The King told him to go away and Sam Kwai ran away, half naked (he took off his shirt to reveal some nasty scars to show his sacrifice).

That was a very good scene if you ask me. But the best was after Sam Kwai ran away, the Empress Dowager asked the King, "Why you didn't execute that traitor? Why did you let him go?" and the King looked at Tin, Tin Wang Yu and his mom and said in a very strained voice, "What have you all got against the Ming Dynasty? What have the Ming done you wrong that you're all so eager to destroy it?". The answer? Unfortunately next episode only will know.

I pity the king, I really do. I used to think of him as useless and then Sam Kwai came back and gave him hope that the Kingdom could be saved. He tried his damnedest best, Sai Hin helped all he could, Sam Kwai was willing to help with a condition of course and he was even willing to let go of his pride, make a whore out of his daughter and give away his concubine and in the end, all he gotten was a bunch of busy bodies who were too ignorant that what they were doing was going against the very purpose of all the sacrifices made by the King. One earlier scene had the King so angry when again about rumours about Sam Kwai and Yuen Yuen, being pressured by scholars and alike to arrest Sam Kwai and that Sam Kwai was not the only good general that can save the kingdom. The king went into his room and removed his crown and threw it onto the floor, declaring the Dynasty is officially dying. I really pity him. He had done so much and gotten very little. I can't blame Sam Kwai for being so angry, for feeling that he got a bad deal whilst I can't blame the King for feeling so pressured and having to kneel and kow tow to Sam Kwai. It's a peculiar relationship.

Frankly I thought those rumours were much ado about nothing. I am sure there must be some dynasties that had Kings giving away their concubines as gifts to their trusted and most loyal generals who must deem this as the highest honour, like marrying a princess. So I was a bit curious why can't the King just do that? Just shut everybody up. Of course someone mentioned to me Confucianism and all, and I guess the King is bound by ethics. But if he could give Chiu Yan away without a proper sent away, I don't see the problem with Yuen Yuen and Sam Kwai.

The above was the best part in this episode. There were of course some really horribly badly scripted scenes earlier.

For one, officially Sing Hing and Cheung Ping were married, according to custom and all. But it was all fake, he slept on the floor, she on the bed. He will call her wife in the morning and sis in law at night. Why? Why? Why? Can't he just call her Fai Lei in the morning and Cheung Ping at night? Poor Sing Hing and damn that Cheung Ping. Anyway, again wimpy Cheung Ping missed Sai Hin so much that she never once mentioned "I wonder how is daddy? How is mommy? How is Chiu Yan?". NEVER. In her mind it's that man and no one else. Shallow empty Cheung Ping and her entire scene in this episode is a complete waste of time. Sing Hing should just say "I am taking Fai Lei for a holiday at Jiangnan" and then escape to the palace and come back declaring Fai Lei was killed or something. Then that will the end of this ridiculous plot and the end of my misery. When will this series end?

Then we have Chiu Yan doing bad deeds again. One thing you must admire about these two sisters, they are both very single minded in their actions and purpose. They will live, eat, breath and think for their man, that is Sai Hin and nothing else, not even the dying kingdom, not even the Qings or rebels. They are like ordinary woman waiting for their man to come to them, to be home and cook and all. But one thing one must never forget; they're princesses, they have a stake in this kindgom. I don't see that in this entire series, all I can see are love sick women pining for one man. Sai Hin of course was the perfect gentleman and I do think Chiu Yan had good taste in targeting him. In one of the most contrived and worst scene in this episode, Cheung Ping sent a letter home telling Sai Hin about the fake wedding through a secret messenger and of course Chiu Yan got the letter first. She smudged the important parts, stepped on the letter and soaked the letter. So all Sai Hin could read was "Sai Hin, Sing Hing and I got married and we are very happy". The rest was of course about the dangers, why the fake wedding, the Qings and all. Sai Hin being an intelligent man would be able to see a very soaked envelope but the first paragraph, the most revealing of all that only says half the picture is intact. Coming from Chiu Yan, he should have suspected some hanky panky. So we have Sai Hin saying he believed in Cheung Ping and Sing Hing whilst Chiu Yan says one good thing about Cheung Ping and then 10 bad things which are all lies. Is there anything more obvious that this woman is trying to bad mouth wimpy Cheung Ping? Even Sai Hin's mom and dad bought the lie. And I sat there wondering, when will, nonono, WHEN WILL THE REST OF THE CHARACTERS EVER REALISE CHIU YAN IS UP TO NO GOOD ALL THE TIME? WHEN? How much more of this junk must I take? I know for sure those two love birds ended up together thanks to the first episode so how much more must I endure this slow mo torturing love, that is torturing me?

But nooooooo, the worst had to be Chan Yuen Yuen. This woman created all the problems. She was so darn naive thinking she must marry the King and then she can be with Sam Kwai at the same time. But I tell you what. The worst of the worst of the worst is the writer who thought of all these connecting plots. Totally screwed up a potentially good storyline of Chan Yuen Yuen and Sam Kwai, who should have been given more time to develop, who should have been given a far more intelligent way of meeting each other again. Cheung Ping should disappear for maybe a few episodes, because she is hogging the time that could have been well spent somewhere else. All in all this episode is like sometimes good, mostly bad.

As for performances, I need not tell you who was the worst. Not Sonija Kwok, surprisingly her puffing-huffing-looking sore but overall wooden expression was suitable for some of her scenes in here. Anne Heung was really horrible because she had so little to do and I was glad she didn't have to do more. No, it was Charmaine Sheh with her scene per scene acting. Have she ever asked herself what would be in Cheung Ping's mind then, when she was far away from home, in enemy land and not knowing what was going on in the palace? Oh yes, missing Sai Hin. Not one worried look, she looked way too happy. She should look distressed, worried, thinking, planning and all I can see is breath in, breath out, open eyes big big and try to look innocent and cute. Can her acting be as shallow as her character or is this a reflection of the real person, the actress herself??

The best performance of the night is of course Moses Chan. I thought he looked really pale towards the end. Marco Ngai was given a good role historically but not so good as appeared on paper. Everybody else was either petty good (meaning they were good in a character that did little) or pretty good (meaning they were good in a character that had something to do).

I am glad this series will be over soon. I love the title now; I am PERISHING IN THE NAME OF LOVE.

EPISODE 24

2004-05-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

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.

EPISODE 23

2004-05-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

This episode continues on 3 issues:-

1. the close relationship between Sam Kwai and the King;

2. how pitiful Cheung Ping is and how giving Sing Hing is; and

3. how stupid Chan Yuen Yuen could be.

Now I know how come Cheung Ping never walked back to the palace. It was too far and of course filled with Qing army looking for a very lost Cheung Ping. They knew she was still there but didn't know who she was. So one day she stumbled upon Sing Hing (not dead by the way) who was busy entertaining 2 Qing officials. It seemed that his cannon factory at Baoding was taken over by the Qing so now Sing Hing was like entertaining them. One thing I forgot to mention about Episode 23; one scene was very real. Ordinary citizens couldn't have cared less who was governing them, as long as they have jobs and food on their tables. This was highlighted again in this episode. Sing Hing saw Cheung Ping but ignored her for her safety. He sae her fainting. Next at night he went in search of her, rescued her and promised her he will take care of her (and he was crying) whilst Cheung Ping was crying "Sai Hin.Sai Hin". He took her back to the factory and she was now back to being Chu Fai Lei.

Here I could never understand. How come nobody at the factory knew she was Cheung Ping? She must have suddenly been picked up by the officials and just disappeared. I must refresh my memory on this one.

Anyway back to Chan Yuen Yuen who stupidly agreed to marry the King just to catch a glimpse of Sam Kwai who was busy helping the king to destroy Lee Chong and his merry men. Tin made sure she was chosen and of course Yuen Yuen slept with the King. And then she told the King about Jiangnan and he immediately ordered Sam Kwai to his room and discussed about the plans to save Ming and Jiangnan. That was when Yuen Yuen saw Sam Kwai, both as shocked. Yuen Yuen was asked by the king what the people at Jiangnan was calling him and instead she directed her words at Sam Kwai and called him basically a lying heartless conniving cheating bastard. The King was confused of course.

And then we see Sam Kwai secretly coming into Yuen Yuen's room (like so easy? no guards? no eunuchs?) and begged for her forgiveness. It seemed that he left her 3 years ago without a message and until that scene I still did not know why he left her all of a sudden.

Anyway Ming is now truly truly doomed.

I believe this episode is probably the most amateur writing I have seen thus far. Reasons are aplenty.

1. Why on Earth Chan Yuen Yuen would go into palace, be the King's concubine just to see Sam Kwai? Can't she just write? Can't she just send courier or something? By marrying the king she is bound by her vows, so with her having an affair with Sam Kwai is morally and ethically wrong. So the king should be rightly pissed about this. In fact Yuen Yuen created all these problems herself.

2. We last see Cheung Ping in nice clothes, now in here the cloths is back to her Chu Fai Lei days. So she ditched her nice (albeit dirty) clothes with a beggar issit? Where is the consistency?

3. Sing Hing should stop suffocating the viewers with his undying love for cowardly Cheung Ping who cared nothing for him. Of course she was polite to him, as a friend but Sing Hing should realise by now doing so much for a woman who can never love you may be great at first, but again and again and again means basically Michael Tong has no role but to play an overzealous love sick puppy. I hated the scene where he stole money from his father's cabinet so that he can pay someone to deliver a letter to the palace on behalf of Cheung Ping. At a time like this, I wished there was Hedwig to save the day.

4. Tin and her fellow merry men were so naive. So Yuen Yuen will get the king back but so what? At the time Qing is attacking and Lee Chong is attacking with corrupt ministers and hopeless citizens, Tin still had the time to think about getting the King's love again when she could lose her position any day now. I am amazed by her ignorance and of course admire her determination though it was all misplaced. She could have used her cunningness for better and more beneficial cause.

Overall, the acting is ok, nothing spectacular. Charmaine Sheh looked positively hungry and starving in the early scenes before I realised she looked that way from episode 1. She should consider gaining lots of weight because there's no more cuteness in her, which is one nice quality about her that I like. Acting wise there is nothing new nor spectacular. I am still annoyed at how useless Cheung Ping is and how dependent she is on other people, particularly men. Now this is episode 24 and I have given up hope of ever seeing her utter something intelligent or doing something useful to the dynasty.

As for Marco Ngai, I can only say he was underused in here but he was brilliant in all the scenes he was in. Anne Heung looked the part (although her yellow eye shadows really made her looked yellow and jaundiced) but the thing is she still hasn't become the part. Chan Yuen Yuen should appear earlier to build up her story but I think there's like 8 episodes more? I guess there is plenty of time to see how Yuen Yuen doomed the Ming. Moses Chan was ok, getting better but I find myself loving his performance in Back To Square One and disliking this supposedly breakthrough role.

Overall this episode talks little, shows little and has little or no logic. For dramatic purposes, I would say entertaining but I look for more than drama. I look for intelligent storytelling and the moment I saw Cheung Ping hungry and walking alone on a street, I knew this episode will be anything but intelligent. Now it's like back to square one. Cheung Ping looking for Sai Hin, Sai Hin worrying about Cheung Ping, Sing Hing trying to be the saviour not expecting any favours and the King besieged with internal and external problems. It's like a never ending cycle of repetition. When can I see intelligent script like I saw in the last 2 episodes?

One speculation. I saw the King discovering Sam Kwai with Yuen Yuen doing you know what I guess. I guess the King will punish Sam Kwai as history dictates, where Sam Kwai will be demoted and sent to guard some fotress which he opened later for the Qings. I would hope to see a change in this plot. Why not the King give Yuen Yuen to Sam Kwai as a present to strengthen their friendship and to make sure Sam Kwai will do anything to serve his master well? Since the king could so easily prostitute his daughter, Chiu Yan, why not a wife he hardly cared about? Maybe ego?

Still no sign of Superman in this episode. What happened to her?

EPISODE 22

2004-05-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

An interesting episode though a bit overloaded with illogical sequences, mostly thanks to Cheung Ping.

The war continues, and Sai Hin suddenly realised why for a few months the Manchurians did nothing. They were waiting for the more powerful and scary looking cannons made by westerners. It killed most of Sai Hin's troops, even Sai Hin himself was seriously injured. Because of this many people from the nearby towns were panicking and running away. Cheung Ping, Chi Chiu and some guards were on their way to visit Sai Hin and gang nearby but they were pursued by the Manchurians. Ended up Chi Chiu escaped and had to dress like a commoner to safely reach the palace whilst Cheung Ping was lost. She wandered off alone and was last scene trying desperately to climb a very low hill whilst we see scenes of Sai Hin bravely attacking the Qings, driving his men to what was a hopeless end. Sing Hing was leading the troops to safety when they were ambushed, all were killed except for Sing Hing who was missing. When Sai Hin reached the palace, the King welcomed him but had to tell him the sad news that neither Sing Hing nor Cheung Ping made it. He didn't know where they were. The last scene was Cheung Ping, now dressed like a beggar grabbing food to eat.

The first few scenes had Tin trying to convince Yuen Yuen to marry the King so that she can see her Sam Kwai. I made a mistake. She knew Sam Kwai and had met him later on. That was 3 years ago. Since then she lost all news of him and was desperately looking for him. Sam Kwai was impressed with her personality, you know those "though I am a prostitute I sell only my craft and not my body and moreover, look I am smart, beautiful and I know politics...I impressed you didn't I?" attitude. We also know the King treats Sam Kwai like his own brother, even taking a bowl of rice to him, so they were real close.

Now, this episode was touching at times, especially when the scenes shifted to brave Sai Hin, cool Shih Ho Fatt and all their men, and how they fought and fought. Of course they lost in the end but the spirit was there. I was though particularly annoyed with Sing Hing with his constant nagging and emotional outbursts. He should never be in the army! Worst was when Sai Hin said he will lead the troops to destroy the cannons himself and Sing Hing knew this would be a lost cause. So Sing Hing screamed that "You musn't go, leave with us, what about Cheung Ping? Let's go home and see Cheung Ping". Maybe he will never get this; in Cheung Ping's mind, there is only Sai Hin, so Sing Hing should never have bothered with whatever he was thinking. But Sai Hin was determined to put duty before love, something Sing Hing could never ever learn because he was far too preoccupied with that woman.

Now we come to the Queen who for once stood her ground and begged the king to find Cheung Ping, to search for Sai Hin when news of them missing were repeated to the King. The King looked at the queen sharply and she instantly shut up. Why couldn't I have seen such positive outbursts from the useless mother when Chiu Yan was used as a pawn? When Cheung Ping was falsely accused of the murder of Yoke Han? In fact what happened to Yoke Han's case? How can Yoke Han's father, Lee Kin Tai still serve the man who refused to give his daughter justice?

And then we have Cheung Ping. I can never understand her and I never will. One scene Sing Hing was describing his dream lover, that is Cheung Ping. He said she was "kind, compassionate, loves to help people, always thinking of others instead of herself", in other words a perfect saint and an angel. Then we have this one scene which I feel totally debunk this angel theory of this woman and convinced me that if such a person exists, she would be called a fake and a hypocrite. This scene was when he, Chi Chiu, two maids and a few guards were under attacked by Qing army who wanted to take the women away. Understandably she should be scared. She was not after superwoman. But then she fell down into a tiny house, and right before her eyes she saw her maid being slashed to death. What did she do?

a. Scream for Chi Chiu, asking him is he alright?

b. drag the injured maid (probably dead by then but she wouldn't have known since there was only chaos) into the tiny house with her and shut the door?

c. Run out, grab a knife and start slashing like a woman possessed, screaming Sai Hin's name so that his name could give her strength?

The answer is none of the above. Instead, she fell down, screamed her wimpish scream, PUSHED that dead girl away and quickly without much concern and much thought closed the door, hid for a while like a coward that she was and when everything was clear, she walked out, wandered off to a nearby cliff, climbed, fell, climbed and fell as we see scenes of Sai Hin being bombed and all. Am I supposed to feel for her love for Sai Hin as she walked desperately I think towards his direction? Or was she so stunned and shocked she didn't know where she was walking? Either way she was a total coward and unbefitting to be the wife of brave Sai Hin, daughter of super patient useless mom the Queen and sister of the evil conniving Superman. To me Cheung Ping was as despicable as Chiu Yan. Whilst Chiu Yan did bad things, Cheung Ping stood by whilst bad things were being perpetrated. You may ask what I expected her to do? I thought answer B would have shown how selfless and thoughtful she is. Instead she is one nonsense of a character.

Today there was no Chiu Yan. I wonder what happened to her, since in the thick of action and she was nowhere to be seen? Is her role only meant to provoke the viewers' sense without justification? Again another senseless character.

Thus far Marco Ngai had little to do but his presence in this series is reassuring. Moses Chan was quite ok as the emotional King, he was like a little boy who found a sweet when he saw Sai Hin coming home. But I still feel Moses is still too young for this very heavy role. Steven Ma gave a decent interpretation of a very brave Sai Hin and I definitely enjoyed his performance in here than in Where The Legend Begins, since he hardly read poems in here so I wasn't that annoyed with his passionless delivery of his lines. No Sonija Kwok so no comments. Maggie Siu is like a supporting actress so nothing for me to say. Micheal Tong should be gagged. Anne Heung looked good but the moment she opened her mouth, let's just say she should be gagged too. In fact she looked like she just stepped out from Legend Of Lady Yang. Don't they have new make up and costume? I still couldn't get the last episode why she had to dance naked before Buddha.

Charmaine Sheh, wimpish, pitiful, sick of her "Come on, pity me, pity me" look. I expect after so much horros Cheung Ping would be more braver, more thoughtless but in the end in that one scene, Charmaine gave her interpretation of a very cowardly Cheung Ping. I find her performance horrendous. In fact this series should not have a Best Actress category but a Worst Actress category. I personally nominate Charmaine Sheh, Sonija Kwok and Anne Heung. I can't decide the winner since I am too annoyed with each of them to give a definite answer. Sonija because of her wooden passionless acting, Anne because of the way she talks and Charmaine because she gave a totally embarrassing and totally horrendous interpretation of Cheung Ping. This is Cheung Ping, not Cheung Ling or Cheung Jing. The writer should be blamed but an actress like her, after so many series should be able to give her own interpretation. Again she was scene per scene. Her Cheung Ping gave me an impression that she is shallow, cares only for Sai Hin, an weak sister, an uncaring daughter and a totally useless coward.

Now I have one question. Why can't she walk to the palace like Chi Chiu? She lost her memory issit? This I will have to wait until tomorrow. I am glad this series is ending because this series at this moment of time is total nonsense.

EPISODE 21

2004-05-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

There are many things I like about this episode. For one we see how Sai Hin broke into a song and sang his troops into victory. It was actually very inspiring, as he held the wedding costume that Cheung Ping sent to him. They were officially married without seeing one another. This also showed how much Cheung Ping loved him as there was a chance he may not be able to go home alive. I also like the 5 minute story on how Abahai suddenly succumbed to his injuries and how his 6 year old son takeover. I also like the first 10 minutes as to how the Queen, now a Queen punished Tin, disregarding her curses and warnings. Anyway poor Ming army. Though Abahai was dead, they still had to wait, see and fight. Can't go home yet.

In fact this episode laid down the reasons why Ming was doomed. We see how Abahai just attacking and attacking, and Ming army having so much obstacle could still win and keep the Manchurians at bay. So Ming wasn't doomed then.

Then we see the introduction of famous Jiangnan prostitute, Chan Yuen Yuen and then there you will see why again Ming was really doomed this time. Low resources, greedy ministers, stupid daughters, useless wives, stronger enemy, low morale, all these never killed Ming but this one woman, Chan Yuen Yuen will.

I also liked the very first frame of Chan Yuen Yuen as she danced and prayed. Anne Heung looked positively alluring and beautiful in ancient costume. I understood why she was chosen for this role because every inch and curve of hers showed a woman and not a skinny little girl. Then of course she had to utter her lines, and from there on it was a big let down for me.

Now what I don't like about this episode is what I complaint from first episode.

- Cheung Ping still had nothing to do. This series is not about her, it is about everything but her. I guess I am supposed to weep for her moving love story with Sai Hin. Also I guess I was supposed to feel touched as she begged Sai Hin's mom to approve the marriage, knowing there may be a chance she may be the only virgin widow alive during that time. But I wasn't. Put it this way, I am still sore that Cheung Ping is nothing but a wimpish useless princess in love. She has no definite role, no definite purpose, just as the catalyst in the doomed love affair with Sai Hin. And I find that utterly boring.

- The first scene showed how the Queen was reinstated, how she put on her robe and make up as the greedy ministers were arrested one by one. It could have been a wonderful scene, to show how strong the Queen was in punishing Tin and all. But then I remembered just an episode earlier, she was begging her daughter to take the money to save her own daughter's skin. I still feel any authority came from this woman is useless and pointless because in my mind 20 episodes of useless cannot be cured by 5 minutes of strength since just a had an episode later she forgave Tin and her father. Also why I disliked the juvenile way to bring Tin down from power. The King should have chopped off the father's head and her head as well or put her into the cold palace. How can the King not do all these when his authority was undermined so many times? It was all too illogical.

- We have also the scene where the King was eating with Cheung Ping and Queen and how he teased her about Sai Hin, how they met and fell in love. This scene was perfectly ok except that I hate seeing Cheung Ping talking about Sai Hin since I had 20 episodes of that.

- I was very annoyed with Sing Hing's outbursts. How can the troops not feel bad or like losers when their assistant general was drunk in plain daylight and screaming at Sai Hin to give up, surrender to Qing so that he and Sai Hin can go home and see Cheung Ping. I may be missing something here but I felt that they were all so naive. If they surrendered, the Qings may kill all the royalties, where then will they see Cheung Ping? In hell? I find Michael Tong's acting over the top but I was more annoyed with Sing Hing, who was totally useless and very discouraging. There Sai Hin was trying to win the war and then you have this idiot who screamed give up so that he can go home to see a woman who cared little for him. Cheung Ping's mind was filled with and only with Sai Hin.

- I could not understand how at the time of such grave war that Tin could find it in her to feel jealous of the Queen and still plotting her way to bring the Queen down from her position. I also could not understand how her father , Tin Wang Yu could only think of running away with his money and all. It was not like you, as concubine to the king and father in law to the king could just run and hide if the enemy entered the palace. I find all these scenes very juvenile and poorly scripted.

- The worst was of course Chan Yuen Yuen's introduction. Like I said, she was alluring and then the viewers were told that she was dancing and praying in front of Buddha, because she was wishing for something and dancing I guess was a way to get it. And then she danced totally naked before Buddha. I find that disrespectful and served no purpose at all. I never heard that dancing naked in front of Buddha will make our wish come true.

- We then were told why Chan Yuen Yuen was dancing naked and praying. She was hoping to see Ng Sam Kwai again. And there lies the problem with this two doomed lovers. They weren't lovers at all at this point of time. Chan Yuen Yuen heard about his greatness as a general from the storyteller, and she was so in love with the idea of him that when she actually met Ng Sam Kwai who was a gentleman, she fell in love. That was it and then we were told she was looking for him all these while. I don't understand why such a juvenile set up for this affair. I would prefer that Ng Sam Kwai was already her lover, and that they were in love. And then she was searching for him and so on and so forth. I find this to be more reasonable, that the foundation has already been laid down and all the writer had to do is to make Yuen Yuen meet Sam Kwai again and then we see how Ming was doomed and all. But the writer preferred to make it so, that she was in love with a man who barely knew she was alive. That it was all admiration at first. Frankly from episode 1 I had only heard Ng Sam Kwai mentioned at the most twice and never once were the viewers told how great he was as a general. All of a sudden we have Chan Yuen Yuen finding him more heroic and respectful than Ngok Fei! Be that as it may, I like the idea that Chan Yuen Yuen, a mere prostitute was concerned about the fate of Ming. Those greedy ministers did not even have Yuen Yuen's foresight!

Today we see Ng Sam Kwai for like 5 minutes. I was glad Marco Ngai finally appeared because I was bored with the other characters and actors who were either too wooden, too emotional or too bad an actor. I am sure Marco Ngai will give some decent interpretation of Ng Sam Kwai. I am also eager to see him because I knew this series will then end soon.

Today no Chiu Yan, so I was spared from bad acting but bored without a villain I could comment on.

EPISODE 20

2004-05-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

A very excellent episode that has moments of brilliance but spoilt by the too naive portrayal of certain characters and dialogues that I find them all unbelievable too TVB drama-ish.

For once the King really became very angry, ordered investigations into what happened to the funds and all and personally overseeing the collection of funds. He even reinstated two of his best ministers, Chow Hing the father of Sai Hin and Yoke Han's dad. Greedy ministers and Concubine Tin became very afraid but Concubine Tin thought of using the Empress Dowager to salvage the situation. So she poked at evil Chow Sai Hin, slutty Yuk Fung (the ex-Queen) and all. Empress Dowager was fooled so she used hunger and fasting to threaten the king. The King this time was truly a man of his words and told his mom to forgive him for being unable to comply with her wishes. So she went into another rage when the King punished a close relative of the Empress Dowager whose dead grandfather did not pay a 30,000-00 taxes. But this time the King who tried to explain his point of view fainted from a stroke. Actually there was no stroke, he pretended and the Empress Dowager went on her way, did not want to aggravate the situation anymore. So Tin used Po Lun and made sure all boatsmen at Shanxi stopped work and those back-up armies couldn't cross the river in time to meet up with the heavily outnumbered Sai Hin and gang. The king this time knew it was Tin, her father and Po Lun and he was determined to save the situation to help Sai Hin to win. Then Yuk Fung came forward and begged the King to reinstate her as the Queen so that she can handle Tin and gang whilst King handled the politics.

How exactly she will handle Tin I will have to wait for the next episode. But I find this behaviour inconsistent.

You see she can't even handle Chiu Yan, more so Tin? Whilst everybody suspected of embezzling funds were kind of warned or punished, Chiu Yan begged sis and mom to find her money to put back in the embezzled sum on her part. Cheung Ping naturally borrowed to help her only to be told by Chi Chiu that Chiu Yan was also involved in embezzling funds and not like what she said that Tin borrowed her the embezzled funds for some business venture. Cheung Ping for once stood her ground and wimpishly said she refused to help and told her mom not to help her. Chiu Yan ran back to her room and sulked. Mom of course couldn't see her only daughter die or be punished and told Chiu Yan to apologise but she refused. In fact she used what is called reverse psychology, where the victim had to beg the oppressor to please please please take the money and save herself! Of course very reluctantly Chiu Yan said yes when spineless useless mother kneeled down and begged her evil daughter to take the money to save her own skin! Where is the logic? If she can't handle a small fry like Chiu Yan, more so a big fry like Tanah Terbang!

Anyway, some of the scene I absolutely enjoyed were Sai Hin and gang, how they fought and fought and never lose their spirit. Imagine having so many negative things around them, fake weapons, bigger enemies, ambushed by stronger bigger crowds, low resources and all and yet they fought and fought. Abahai was probably so hurt by the bomb that he lost his senses since he kept chasing Sai Hin when Sai Hin was laying a trap. At the meantime the King acknowledged he was misled and useless. But the best scene was at the beginning, when the King realised Sai Hin and gang may be starving and all, he ran into Chi Chiu's room and asked his son; "Tell me, how are the situation at the camp?". Stupid useless son, the future king of Ming Dynasty said he was only responsible for taking the food there. So his father asked again and again, and at last Chi Chiu tearfully told the King what he should have said ages ago, how the men were starving and how they were so low in spirits and all. The King and this is the best scene, flew into such a rage that he rightly beat that useless Chi Chiu into a pulp. I found that scene very powerful and I believe that could happen.

What I didn't like though was news from the war came to the palace and Cheung Ping simply cared about Sai Hin Sai Hin Sai Hin. Still as wimpy as ever and still nothing much for her to do except for looking and sounding whiny.

As for performances, Moses was ok but I still feel he is much too young for this demanding role. I thought Lor Kar Ying would have been a better choice as he is older, could look wise but could as a useless king. Steven Ma was ok. The best actor still is the actor who played Shih Ho Fatt. Super cool general!

EPISODE 19

2004-05-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

An excellent episode marred by some repeated boring scenes but still entertaining and at times thought provoking. This is the PITNOL I want to watch.

Abahai was injured by Sai Hin and gang but Sai Hin decided to back off far away so that the stronger Manchurians will chase after them and get tired, then Sai Hin and gang will ambush them and defeat them. They need food and money of course and the king for once spared no expenses. In fact he was ready to bankrupt the treasury to offer a glimmer of hope to the Ming citizens. Yes, he was very desperate but can't blame him.

Problem is Superman. After being raped, ditched and insulted by Po Lun, she became the joke of the palace. Problem is her father even glorified her humiliating experience, he called it a success that the lust in Po Lun was done away with the offer of Chiu Yan and that Po Lun went back to Shanxi to stop the rebellion caused by Po Lun himself. Chiu Yan of course saw that as an insult and blamed Cheung Ping. She couldn't understand why Cheung Ping was supposed to marry Po Lun and she ended up being the sacrificial lamb. Cheung Ping asked Chiu Yan the same question and an argument almost broke out until father arrived and wanted to have dinner with them. Sulky Chiu Yan ran to Tin and gang and lied through her teeth, saying how the King will do this and that to their detriment. Even Tin believed her, but then Tin was insecure. So they all planned to cheat the Ming of their money. Though funds and donations were pouring in, these useless selfish ministers lied that Sai Hin and gang were spending the money like nobody's business. The King believed these liars. Chi Chiu knew the real truth since he was the one who sent food and money to the camp but useless future Ming King Chi Chiu said nothing but looked lost. In the end Sai Hin and gang received far lesser fund and the army were getting restless. Ambushed again and again, they lost hope and were hungry and desperate. Many ran away and Sai Hin had to do something to stop them so as punishment they all had to be chopped off their heads. About 400 heads were chopped off but Sai Hin made sure whatever they had to say, it will be recorded and sent back to the King.

At the meantime Tin and gang (including brainless jealous Chiu Yan) took these money and bought expensive carps as investment, just in case the palace is relocated somewhere else, they will have some funds. Stupid and shortsighted. I mean if the army losses, there goes Ming Dynasty. Their selfishness caused the army to lose greatly. In fact Sai Hin who knew of these greedy ministers asked Shih Ho Fatt whether they will lose the war and in one moment of brilliant scripting, Shih Ho Fatt said, "Yes, but not because of the Manchurians, it will be because of these ministers". Betrayal by your own people, that would be the worst kind of losses.

Anyway, the King was having his feet cleaned and some massage by Cheung Ping herself when news came that heads were chopped off and there were some recorded statements before these people died. Cheung Ping read one by one and all of them did not blame Sai Hin but blamed the Ming King, the ministers. They felt that they lost not to Abahai (which they feel if they lost then it will be a good loss) but they lost because of a useless king, greedy ministers and a kingdom that failed them. It was a very good scene, as Cheung Ping took the paper rolls and read out their names, and we get to see the real soldier screaming his anguish and how Sai Hin looked as he ordered one by one to be executed. In fact I thought it was brilliantly filmed. The King after a while stopped being angry and realised something was amiss. Tin's relative who was a high ranking minister kept telling the King to not believe such lies and for once the King stood up angry and perhaps clear minded. What happened thereafter I will have to wait for the next episode.

Thus far this episode may yield the shortest summary but I feel the scripting, the acting, the focus were all genuine and well acted except for Charmaine Sheh who has this perpetual puppy dog look. Yes, there are still some scenes of them praying to the moon and talking to each other like the moon is the SMS service of their time, there are over the top screaming by Sing Hing (all that was understandable, he was panicking of course, I would too) and Sonija Kwok's acting is still horrible. But I find myself tolerating her performance more when she was acting in those bitchy back stabbing emotional mode, she fared a bit better. Charmaine Sheh still remained as bland as ever.

As for Maggie Siu, she had so little to do except to look concerned, shocked, surprised, hurt, sad. Moses did quite ok though it's quite funny seeing him jumping up and down when he is angry. As for Steven Ma, I thought he was very good in those scene where he looked at the soldiers that were about to die; he had the look of a man torn by duty and by conscience. I actually pitied Sai Hin. The best acting came from a second liner who played Shih Ho Fatt. I thought he was super cool with his stories with lessons and the way he backed Sai Hin in all his decisions. Michael Tong was over emotional and a bit annoying as he raised his voice more and more. Someone should tell him to just shut up please when everybody was worried about the war and all, I am sure they do not need something nagging, shouting next to them as if he is the only one doing something and the rest doing nothing.

Overall this episode illustrates why Ming Dynasty fell but the real reason will be the next 5 episodes as we get to see Ng Sam Kwai. He is the reason why Ming fell in the end and frankly I do not see him as a traitor. After all he owed no allegiance to Lee Chi Seng though of course he is a Han and so he must defend his Han heritage. It's very complex and I hope the focus will be on Ng Sam Kwai, Lee Chi Seng, Chan Yuen Yuen and of course the Ming King. I have had enough of Cheung Ping and Sai Hin together or Cheung Ping alone. By the way I do not see Chiu Yan as cunning and deceitful, she is more stupid than cunning, short sighted than deceitful.

By the way poor Yoke Han. Not even one mention of her in this episode. Gone and very forgotten.

EPISODE 18

2004-05-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

A very interesting episode which I feel if this series is scripted this way from episode 1, it could have been a better series.

The first half as usual is dedicated to Cheung Ping and Sai Hin. This time they did not pray that much nor did they talked to one another miles apart. However they still talked to one another in very close proximity and well, they hugged once too many. One very intimate scene had Cheung Ping clinging to Sai Hin like there was no tomorrow. Can't fault her on that since Sai Hin was going to war again Wong Tai Gik (ASTRO translator called this man Abahai and I believe they're right so I shall call him Abahai).

The second half was closely related to the first half in the fate of Chiu Yan. She of course dissed about her sister in front of her pale looking dad, declaring Cheung Ping was the one who loved Po Lun, so why was she being married to Po Lun instead of Cheung Ping? Father for once said something right; "Yes, I saw Cheung Ping but all I can hear from her is she is willing to marry Tong Po Lun if I wanted her to do so...all I can hear from you is you do not wish to marry Tong Po Lun. You will marry him!". End of discussion. So Chiu Yan was sent off to the camp like as she described, a whore, and after a very short ceremony where Po Lun pushed her head to the floor three times, he carried her into a room and basically ravished her. She woke up in the morning to discover the army was moving back to Shanxi. She asked Po Lun what about her luggage and Po Lun treated her as if she wasn't there. Apparently Po Lun had every intention of using her for a one night stand like a prostitute and dump her at the camp. So she went home, insulted and her father was also insulted but what more could he do? Chop off his head when Po Lun was very powerful? For once I pitied Chiu Yan a bit until I saw her jealous eyes when Cheung Ping tried to console her and when she saw Cheung Ping in a red wedding gown sending off Sai Hin to war.

The nice part was the war scene, where Sai Hin was trying to think of a way to defeat the great Abahai whilst Sing Hing was busy panicking. Someone should just tell him to shut up. Sai Hin was lead by a very illustrious general Shih Ho Fatt (I think that was his name) and whilst doing what the Manchurians never thought they would do, I think that won the war, but not in this episode. A good scene showed Abahai being way too confident that he offered anybody who captured Sai Hin a dollar, which meant how demeaning this would be to Sai Hin. Osama Bin Laden should be proud his head could fetch loads of money.

This episode showed little scenes but filled with good scenes that I feel were very entertaining. I believe this series depicted the fall of Ming Dynasty this way;

Even with the best army on the part of Abahai, they could not topple Ming Dynasty because Sai Hin and gang had spirit and dedication. But with so much of energy put into getting rid of the Manchurians, the Ming gang neglected to take care of the rebels within their own kind. So Lee Chong (or Lee Chi Seng the rebel) managed to topple the Ming (and not Manchurians who were waiting patiently) until I guess Lee Chi Seng lusted after Chan Yuen Yuen, the favourite mistress of Ng Sam Kwai and out of anger Ng Sam Kwai owing no allegiance to the new king Lee Chong opened the last gate that was defending the Han rule of China to Manchurians who formed the Qing Dynasty. Lee Chong I think became king for only 100 days. For more on this you can check out Crimson Sabre which is more accurate in terms of the fall of Ming Dynasty. I do not know how much changes this series will make to the real story, but I would stress that Ng Sam Kwai would play a pivotal role in this series and so will Chan Yuen Yuen.

Anyway, one scene had me scratching my head and convinced that Cheung Ping is as shallow as she looks. She was hugging Sai Hin as Sai Hin was worried he may die in battle but Cheung Ping asked;

"Can't you not go to war? Why must there be war? Maybe father will not need you there or maybe Abahai will surrender?"

This coming from Cheung Ping, princess of the Ming Dynasty is I believe an insult. What more could I say to such a dumb question? It seems they would rather be with one another and just stand by and let the dynasty fall. I mean if she was a nobody, he was a nobody I say fine, wish it that way. But as a princess of the Ming dynasty and as a son of a dedicated ex minister who loved his king and his country, such a line is utterly ridiculous. They love each so much that they're so selfish! I longed to slap that girl and tell her; "Ok, why not just ask Abahai to come into the palace and give him the emperor's throne? Why not ask your dad to surrender? Why not all change your surnames to a Manchurian surname?".

Anyway, two persons were missing in this episode when I thought their presence would be necessary. Where was Tin and grandma when you need them? Must it all about Sai Hin and Cheung Ping hugging, reminiscing about their childhood and asking dumb questions?

As for the acting, I feel Charmaine Sheh injected zero personality into a very shallow Cheung Ping, so her performance itself is shallow, thoughtless and dare I say, fake? I longed for Ah Bee, that character she played so well in An Herbalist Affair. Nothing to say about Steven Ma whilst Moses Chan is too young for this demanding role. I will explain more in my review. As for Sonija Kwok, I thought for once she did quite ok in the scenes where she was practically raped by Po Lun and later on when she snapped at Cheung Ping. Perhaps she is good at being bitchy? The problem now with Po Lun gone, I know Chiu Yan will do all she can to get Sai Hin and again I will be subjected to an overdose of blindness on the part of Cheung Ping whom I suspect will forgive her sister again and again and again and again.

As usual, Maggie Siu is the ke-le-fe in here. Why not just get another actress for this role since she is so useless, does nothing and utters no lines at all?

EPISODE 17

2004-05-04T09:26:00.000-07:00

I missed the first 25 minutes because I was watching CSI, the better show to watch. Interesting episode, CSI.

Now, this episode, this series. I realise Cheung Ping is not naive, kind hearted, whatever, she is shallow. Simple as that. Less crying but more hypocrisy.

For once someone dared to stand up face to face with the senile king and talked to him about reason, war and everything else for a very obvious ulterior motive; to get the girl! Apparently the king lost 33 wars straight in a row, so no wonder he was going senile. But Sai Hin had a battle of wits with the king and one of the best line was about the Manchurians and how little the king knew of them, so how can he fight wars against them? Well Sai Hin, there are generals to do the planning. So that means all generals were as arrogant and shallow as the entire Ming Dynasty kingdom, except Sai Hin of course who had theories but no practical to strengthen his plans, that is if he had any at all. The king was impressed enough to award him Cheung Ping, fired a few generals and gave him 30% of the Ming army to fight a far against the chieftain of the Manchurian clan. Sai Hin panicked but well, there was Cheung Ping, happy shiny pinky Cheung Ping saying "You can do it!". I just remembered like just an episode ago she was tearfully crying "Yoke Han, I miss you! I miss you! Why God has to take you away? WHY?!" and an episode later, she is the happy bride to be without a pang of guilt or conscience that Yoke Han died and that was how she got Sai Hin anyway. At least Sai Hin's parents felt guilty and angry whilst Sai Hin well, he declared he will take care of Cheung Ping so there goes the memory of Yoke Han and who killed her. Suddenly Yoke Han was a nobody, and there was smiling Cheung Ping and panicky Sai Hin. I have no words to express my feelings towards this pair except for hypocrisy, especially when remembering the words of Cheung Ping, 'Yoke Han, Sai Hin and I are not meant to be together" and when Yoke Han died, suddenly they were meant to be together again. Why the rush? I can't understand the speed of it all. Can't they show considerate kind Cheung Ping at least feeling guilt for being the bride to be? And there she goes again, touching his shoulder, leaning on him, the old dependent shallow useless Cheung Ping. Someone said it right, shouldn't she be more assertive? Apparently this Cheung Ping could not stand on her own two feet and will die without Sai Hin's name uttered once every 10 minutes.

Meanwhile good news for Chiu Yan haters. I thought she deserved it all when her father gave her as a gift to Po Lun, no marriage, no nothing, like as she described herself, a worthless whore. Funny thing was mother was so worried about the father's health she didn't want to ask the king just yet why Chiu Yan was given away. Of course she thought Chiu Yan loved Po Lun but Chiu Yan stated very clearly, she detested him. So last resort mama said "You must marry Tong Po Lun to settle the unrest at Shanxi". What a speech. Why she never said that to Cheung Ping? And how come Chiu Yan never begged her grandmama instead of useless mother? I feel the mother's priorities are a bit screwed up. If she treated Chiu Yan the same as with Cheung Ping, I would say find, Chiu Yan marry that man. But she sang a different tune with different daughters. So I can't blame Chiu Yan for being so difficult, angry, jealous and all. But in the end she created her own karma and I hope to see her suffer at the hands of this rough gangster-like Po Lun. Least to say her father was useless as usual.

As for acting, I am getting quite sick at Charmaine's smile at the most inappropriate times. I have often said this about her performance; she is a scene per scene actress. There is no overall effect when it comes to her character, each new scene is a new experience. Shouldn't her Cheung Ping bear the reminder of Yoke Han's friendship with her when she happily smiled at Sai Hin, glad that she is marrying him after all? At least Sai Hin had that guilt, a little better than none. I am beginning to think Cheung Ping is not human, she is from another world, another dimension or perhaps it is just Charmaine's shallow interpretation of this princess or maybe the shallow characterisation of this character. I can't decide but I will have an answer in my full review in due time.

As for Sonija, I can only say her acting is shallow, inadequate and I don't know what she's doing in here. Can't they find a better actress? A more qualified actress? A less plastic-ish actress?

Chan Ho's heavy breathing gets to me big time. Funny scene was when Sai Hin was arguing with him he could not control his bowel movement so he ran back and basically well release the load of crap within his body, literally and best of all, figuratively. Is that scene supposed to be symbolic or just plain distasteful?

EPISODE 16

2004-05-04T03:58:00.000-07:00

You must admire Charmaine Sheh for being able to cry so much without showing the slightest sign of a headache. Of course this is what is called acting but is it good acting I wonder?

This episode shows how despicable Chiu Yan is, how useless the mother is, how senile the king could be and how poor Cheung Ping is so naive that she places her trust in the wrong person, that is everybody else other than herself.

I now know why Chiu Yan is so universally hated by all viewers of this series, except of course Sonija Kwok's biggest fans. She decided Tong Po Lun was not her type (you know, everything that is not Sai Hin like he ordered his men to kidnap girls and rape them, very rude to the king, very arrogant, not a gentleman, very rough, probably likes sex a lot with the way he looks at Chiu Yan with that lustful eyes, doesn't help that he has got this moustache that is really very undesirable looking) so how she can get rid of him without offending Tin, grandma and that man himself since she was the one who said I love him and all?

Who else? The woman who in this series constantly gets the garbage, the one who gets the leftovers that is Cheung Ping, the dustbin. Yes, dustbin because she seems to get all the rejected goods from Chiu Yan. She says that Cheung Ping is the one who admires and loves him, and she being the nice sister decided that that's the best way to end this three way affair. General of course is very happy to hear this. But Cheung Ping is in prison, right? But evil sister concocts a plan, said mommy is being abused, wants to see Cheung Ping. So she dresses Cheung Ping in her best dress, make up and all and lo and behold, bumps into Mr General himself. One look at Cheung Ping and general quickly asked the king to marry Cheung Ping to him. Poor Cheung Ping went back to prison blur and really not having any clue what is going on. King was of course at the senile point, doing the most ridiculous things and objected to this man's arrogance but Tin said, "Better let him have Cheung Ping, so that this powerful general will become our relative". I thought he is already a relative of Tin? So daddy declared, "Alright, let him have his lust appeased and the he can get back to Shanxi!". I thought they all loved Cheung Ping? How can he say that, that let her daughter be used as a sex tool?

Anyway, Cheung Ping was told daddy will organise this marital kung fu extravaganza where any eligible man can vie for Cheung Ping's hand but of course general was meant to be the winner. Sing Hing quickly told Sai Hin and all of a sudden Sai Hin had this honour attack; meaning wife to be just died, cannot go fighting for another woman's hand, princess or no princess. Mommy, daddy objected but Sai Hin decided to go for it, and so Sai Hin was branded a bastard. I don't see a difference with him being a bastard before Yoke Han died and a bastard after Yoke Han died, because either way he is still a bastard. One breath he asked God to take care of poor lonely Yoke Han, in the second line he wondered about Cheung Ping and again we have that intercut scene with both of them praying and wondering aloud at the same time. Imagine if Yoke Han didn't die, sooner or later Cheung Ping will marry Sai Hin because obviously his heart is at somewhere else and Cheung Ping's heart will always be his. Disgusting.

Anyway, when Cheung Ping found out what will happen she cried and cried and cried. Mommy told Chiu Yan to bribe the guards and see Cheung Ping and tell her to be ..., repeat after me everybody, the most often quoted words ...

BE PATIENT.

But ahhhhh Chiu Yan didn't do that, instead she bribed the guards to cover the tiny window to shut her wailing and crying. Poor Cheung Ping, now in total darkness, literally.

At the meantime mommy was trying to get the king to listen but he was too full of himself. He said he heard Cheung Ping crying and he said, and he dare say, "Why she only knows how to cry and cry? What about the country?". What a horrible father. Obviously Ming Dynasty should be doomed with useless king and useless everybody. Anyway daddy refused to listen and instead we hear him talk a speech like challenging his ministers to be king for a day and see how difficult it is. My dear sir, have a conviction in life, be decided and then you'll be a good king. At this moment he is neither here nor there. Anyway the king permitted Queen to see Cheung Ping, so she ran to see Cheung Ping. Saw Cheung Ping, hugged her and cut, next scene we see her next to the king looking pitiful and the king almost senile looking. And then she began to say something, perhaps something important, something stern, something brave, something useful .... and then when she opened her mouth ... PAKKKKK! No electricity and I could not see that momentous 10 minutes before the rolling of the credits for this episode. Least to say I was pissed.

I wonder what was said? I bet nothing. I am sure I won't miss much. My heart cried in sadness when I realised I will miss also Holland Village later that night (Xiao Xin! Jing Jing! Ah Ming! Missed all that!) and it was so hot (though raining) that I was sweating all over. Electricity was only restored at about 2 am by which time I was like in a microwave, being cooked alive. And that is my room by the way.

Anyway, useless mother also. She has the most opportunity to say something to the Queen and it took her long enough to say I don't know what. Daughter already being bullied like this and still be patient. Cheung Ping knows only how to cry, when to cry and what to cry about. By now she should have known Chiu Yan was up to no good since though asked repeatedly, she has yet to answer Cheung Ping's one question; how come Yoke Han is dead. Poor Yoke Han.

Now I have one major complaint for this episode and the entire series. I noticed that this series concentrates on the useless stuff, like Cheung Ping crying for Sai Hin and vice versa. I feel she cries more for Sai Hin than for her own mom. Anyway, that scene when mommy saw Cheung Ping in prison, I was hoping mommy would ask "Did Chiu Yan come to see you?", "How come it's so dark in here?" or Cheung Ping asking mom, "Mom why you never turn up to see me and Chiu Yan that day?". Nope, the writer decided all these were not important, what is more important is seeing Cheung Ping crying and the king going senile. If that scene is shown, no way Cheung Ping should ever trust her sister again and her mom might confront Chiu Yan about her devious ploy. But no, like mother like daughter, blur, stupid and really good for nothing except a tear or two. I find this series very inadequate emotionally though it's starting to be like a Taiwanese Qiong Yau drama. Inadequate simply because we have cry cry cry laugh laugh laugh and yet nothing to connect the crying, the laughing. It's like somewhere some scenes are lost causing this detached emotional display that I absolutely hate watching.

The scary thing is I read in this forum dedicated to this series I think at tvseriesfans.com. Someone asked didn't Charmaine played Cheung Ping in Crimson Sabre and someone said Crimson Sabre is a book, this series is based on real historical events so this Cheung Ping will be more accurate.

Excuse me, if there was a Cheung Ping, and if she was as beautiful, gentle, passionate about politics, outspoken, intelligent as described in such historical facts or even in the opera, this Cheung Ping we see on screen is an insult to such a real princess. Nothing is true, but I like to believe when faced with such impending doom, the real Cheung Ping will be like the Crimson Sabre one; more proactive.

I also just found out Dai Lui Fah means The Emperor's Daughter, something like that. So far I see only tears tears tears.

Oh yeah, something about nicknames. Now my whole family calls Chiu Yan SUPERMAN and Concubine Tin as TANAH TERBANG. Cheung Ping is still LONG FLAT but so far Cheung Ping sounds nicer than her nickname.

EPISODE 15

2004-05-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

Today's episode highlights why Ming Dynasty was doomed.

Poor Yoke Han was accidentally murdered. Ok, so murders can't be accidents and accidents aren't murder. She went and stole the letter which contains the written testimony of a doctor who killed himself some episodes before, and the testimony is something about Tin and her evil ways, how the Queen was falsely accused of evil plots and all. The servant girl who was on Tin's payroll saw everything and Yoke Han was taken to Tin's place. In an attempt to wrestle the letter from Yoke Han, Yoke Han fell on the stairs, knocked her head and obviously died. Right at that moment Superman came in and saw dead Yoke Han. Tin told Superman to dispose off the body at the nearby pond and so Superman, who was very spineless by calling Tin "Mother" reluctantly took the body and threw her into the pond. Her jade ornament thingy went with the body by accident and Superman freaked out. So she ran to Cheung Ping and told Cheung Ping half truth; the lie being she threw a stone at a servant girl who called their mother some derogatory names and the girl fainted. The truth was she left her jade with that girl. So she begged and begged and begged and begged Cheung Ping to say that jade was hers and she threw that stone. Stupid Cheung Ping admitted these to the arresting officer who asked her, "If this jade from Kuang Ling Palace" and Cheung Ping said "Yes, it's mine, I did it, how is she?". Poor girl was then thrown into jail, saw Sai Hin who didn't believe she killed Yoke Han and only then Cheung Ping knew something was amiss. Dear sister refused to see her and daddy refused to investigate further. At the meantime Superman was happily preparing to see her future general husband called I think Po Lun who was the cousin of evil Tin. That general looked quite alright but Superman disliked him because he grabbed her hand, fondled her hand and refused to let go. He's not Sai Hin you see, the perpetual gentleman who only just hugged Cheung Ping. Anyway this General looked brutal and abusive. I do think Superman deserved him.

Now there are several reasons why I said what I said in the first line of this episodic thought of mine and there are many more reasons why I feel this episode, the entire plot, the scripting and the execution are not only over the top, they're all plain ridiculous and really stupid. I am being blunt here because this series, and this episode really did stupefy me, if there is such a word.

1. Yoke Han had to die. If not how can Cheung Ping and Sai Hin get together at last to kill themselves? I thought Yoke Han would leave or even marry Sing Hing but well I think Sing Hing will die also.

2. Why was Superman in such a panic? The pond is a public place, she can just say she dropped her jade into the pond which accidentally got attached to that body. It could have happened that way.

3. Tin ordered the body to be thrown into the pond. I thought the pond is like not very deep, so the body will resurface? Can't she just order her men to burn the body somewhere else?

4. The palace may be a big place but I really doubt nobody could have seen Superman carrying that bloody body all the way to the pond. I doubt Tin would order the body to be thrown into her own backyard pond. And what happened to the blood which dripped onto the floor as Superman carted the body to the pond?

5. Why would Yoke Han steal the letter in the middle of the night with her dad sleeping nearby? For dramatic sake? Why can't she do it in the morning when her dad was away at work? How come the letter was kept in a box in a cupboard in a room? I thought that letter was like mega important so shouldn't it be kept in a more secretive place? Whatever happened to secret compartments?

6. The King took just one day to conclude the case and never told anybody what was his conclusion. Be practical, he can't kill Cheung Ping because there won't be any story thereafter. Everybody, even Yoke Han's father begged him to investigate and the king gave them 3 days (and later an extra one day) to give him one reason why he should reopen the case. They couldn't find any. So the king threw a tantrum and said something like;

"It took me just a few days to come to a conclusion whilst I worry about my country. Many of my citizens are dying, we are being attacked. In these four days, what have you all done? (To Yoke Han's dad) You were too busy investigating your daughter's death, you did not even care about your country. You failed in your duties as a minister, you're just plain lazy! (To Sai Hin) You cared only for love and love, what about your country? (To Sing Hing) I have nothing to say about you! I hereby close this case and you (Yoke Han's dad) will retire back to your village."

And all of them looked extremely guilty for wanting to investigate about poor Yoke Han's death and not worry about the citizens' lives. It just amazes me that the scriptwriter could write such a horribly stupid scene just to show how dedicated the king is and all that. I thought this scene magnifies the king's stupidity and arrogance. It would seem that ONLY HE the King cared about the country, only HE the king was doing something to save the country from falling into the hands of either rebels or outsiders. Only HE was using his brains in achieving this end. I am like "Excuse me sir, excuse me, if you can't take care of your own family, if you can't give justice to your wife and to poor murdered Yoke Han and let bad people keep getting away with murders in the name of saving your dynasty, how can the people trust you? How can the people respect a man who can't even take care of his own personal affairs?" I thought the king was pretty useless and all those useless ministers and Sai Hin never once told the King in his face that he was wrong, everything starts with family, justice begins at home. However busy he may be with trying to fend off enemies, he must get rid of the enemies within. Clearly the writer was expecting viewers to be in awe with that speech. I wasn't.

Then we see Cheung Ping crying alone in the prison cell asking herself;

"How can Yoke Han die? What happened?"

Ask your sister Superman.

"How come Chiu Yan isn't here yet to see me?"

Dear girl, you were set up. Pretty obvious. For someone who studied so much, you must realise by now your sister who took such a long time begging you must have been up to no good.

What I was expecting her to say is "How come daddy would treat me this way?" and I expect Cheung Ping to get angry. Nope, she is still meek weak Cheung Ping. She should be in prison, anything to toughen her up and make her smarter. At this moment I do think Cheung Ping is really really stupid. Gullible, naive, sweet, kind, whatever. She's just stupid.

But the worst of the worst of the worst person in this episode is the Queen's reaction. Of course she was worried and tearfully asked Sai Hin how was Cheung Ping. But she was now the servant girl standing next to the King. How come she felt such low esteem that she can't even just whisper to the king "Don't you trust your own daughter? She is my daughter, I trust her, investigate this". Nope, she just stood there, weak meek mom. Useless woman.

Overall this episode was horribly scripted. Can't say much about the acting though, but did I see Sonija smiling when she was supposed to be sad? What a horrible actress. So was Charmaine Sheh. I am so darn tired of watching her crying for Sai Hin. Slap her! Slap her silly. Got problems scream Sai Hin. When is she going to be so angry she would stand up and fight for herself? Is she so paralyzed emotionally and in strength that she can't defend herself?

One really ridiculous scene showed Cheung Ping at her worst. You know kind Cheung Ping loved her mom so much she never shed a tear since last episode for her mom's predicament? Maybe because mom now is dad's servant so that is supposed to be a good thing? And I thought the empress dowager called her mom the bad luck woman so why is she serving the king?

Anyway this scene was when Superman begged sister to take the blame. Remember she said the servant girl said something derogatory remark about their mom? Of course Superman pretended to be very angry. And how did Cheung Ping react to such an insult (though told by her sis but I bet if the servant girl really existed and really said those nasty thing this would still be her reaction)? She told her sis, "Oh, well we have to be patient, let it be".

CHEUNG PINGGGGGGG!!! You have let it be for like 15 episodes, you still let it be? What disgusted me was her non reaction, or maybe her "I'm ok with it" reaction. What is this man? What is this?!?!? You shouldn't be ok, nope. Nooooo when people insult her Sai Hin, ahhhh then you see her being angry.

I can't take this anymore! Where is Ng Sam Kwai?!!!!

EPISODE 14

2004-04-29T22:05:00.000-07:00

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.

EPISODE 13

2004-04-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

I said yesterday's episode was the worst. I was wrong, this one has got to be the worst in terms of logic, common sense and simple human emotions. I have no problems with the sad parts like Queen being thrown into jail, Sing Hing, Sai Hin beaten half to death by the King or even Cheung Ping crying when she found out her mom was in jail. Put into a modern context this episode would have been a tragic episode. But this is a story about the celebrated legendary (maybe even mythical) Princess Cheung Ping. So every time Cheung Ping cried, I felt like throwing the TV out of the house, every time she laughs happily I feel like throwing the TV out of the house and one more time I see her pining for Sai Hin whilst Sing Hing pines for her and Yoke Han likes her but fears that Sai Hin may not want her, I feel like throwing the TV out of the house. I told this to my sister and she said she pitied the TV. What is the problem you ask?

One scene Sing Hing went to the King and begged the King to release the Queen and to investigate Tin and the dead Prince. The King said in the episode before that he will chop off anyone who said "Please reinstate investigation". Sing Hing thinking the King is a nice guy and was even like an uncle to him just a scene before got the shock of his life. He was ordered to be beaten until he was paralysed. Sai Hin came in time, begged the King and he too got beaten. Then Cheung Ping came and dramatically she was pushed aside, swirled twice and fell to the floor, again beaten. Sai Hin jumped on top of her and then Yoke Han came and jumped on top of Sai Hin and then Sing Hing stood up and jumped on top of Yoke Han. So poor Cheung Ping, crushed underneath all the people who tried to protect the person right below them. It was quite a messy scene and almost too funny to describe. Then the Empress Dowager came and begged the King to stop and he screamed stop and then sulked and walked away. What did the guys do? Especially Cheung Ping, she tearfully cried whilst laying on the floor on her stomach "Thank youuuuuu daddddddd" in the most pitiful voice.

I must pause here and breath a little before I explain why this scene irritated me so much.

...

Maybe I am just too used to my idea of Cheung Ping. Maybe I expect to see a strong Cheung Ping standing up whilst being beaten and tearfully cried to her father and said in the strongest voice, "Dad, why are you doing this? Please stop, please stop, why are you doing this?". Because I like to believe the real Cheung Ping if in such a situation would have been puzzled with two issues:-

1. She knew dad loved mom, mom was wrongly accused, dad imprisoned mom, dad was acting unreasonably beating her innocent friend half to death and yet she said nothing, not one word except pleading the father to stop.

2. She had suffered so much in her life, and her mom if not Sai Hin was the most important person in her life, and to see such injustice being perpetrated, she would have been angry if nor dissatisfied. She would have been the one to approach the king to reopen the case, not Sing Hing. In fact this episode insults Cheung Ping by showing Sing Hing approaching the King for her mother's problems. It was like as if useless defenseless kind hearted Cheung Ping who did not have any mean bones in her could not for once do something on her own, that a man or a woman must do so on her behalf. At least Superman did all the scheming herself though again a stupid Superman. What position would she get or even respect when her mom was imprisoned or made to become probably the oldest servant in the palace?

My idea of Cheung Ping would be someone who grew to be strong, not pretending to be strong but is strong. This episode highlights a Cheung Ping that I feel I would love to kick for being so dependent and useless. No wonder her mom will never seize the day because Superman is useless, Cheung Ping is useless, father is useless and even the King is useless.

One other scene which made my blood boiled is this one;

Yoke Han was pretty sad because Sai Hin was too busy with his work and not too keen on the preparation of the upcoming wedding. So she was sulking and then Sing Hing and Cheung Ping came and they discussed about Sai Hin and an opera singer Yoke Han could not get because Sai Hin forgotten to do so. So Sing Hing and Sai Hin did something ridiculous in an opera-ish tone to make her smile again and they ran off happily, 3 best of friends. This scene in itself is quite ok as it highlights the friendship between these 3 characters. But seen with earlier scenes I find this scene trivial and petty especially with regards to Cheung Ping. I blame this on the lack of scenes between mother and daughter, because when Cheung Ping found out mom was in jail, wouldn't she rush to the prison to see her mom? But we see instead Superman doing so, though for a motive. When mom was being made into a servant (which is a great insult) wouldn't Cheung Ping try to change the situation or at least spy a bit on her mom to ensure she is ok? For all the concern Cheung Ping showed to her family in the beginning, I did not sense them at all in the last few episodes. So to see her trying to make poor miserable Yoke Han laugh was a joke, because they should make her laugh. So is a wedding that important? I feel Cheung Ping should be more burdened, be more determined and be more furious with her irresponsible father, stupid grandmother and concubine Tin. Being kind hearted and compassionate is one thing, to show her so darn docile and doing absolutely nothing in light of all her mom's suffering, I find it insulting to the viewers' common sense. Shame on the writers.

Her mother fared no better. Such a docile daughter meant what a docile mother. Being so falsely accused, imprisoned, her witnesses' heads all chopped off, having to say thanks to your enemy and made into a lowly maid, would that count as great injustice? I do think Gods of Honour showed one scene which I felt the Queen in here should have made. I think the Queen in that series went through many hardships and at last gouged out her own eyes in the face of injustice. So why didn't the Queen do the same in here? Of course because the writers want to show some pining between the king and queen, and we all know she will be vindicated later on. But at this point of time, how could she still take all these and be so darn patient? I would have stuck a knife in my heart in front of Tin and gang to prove my innocence. If that worked, then it will be great and my daughters will be alright too. If not, well at least I am dead so no eyes see.

So if the writers wanted to show some emotional scenes between the king and queen, I find that contradictory. One minute he did not question his mom or Tin to jail the love of his life or made her into a servant. No doubt he loved her as he repeatedly asked if anybody was giving her a hard time when she was serving him as a maid would to her master. She replied, "No". The correct answer should have been "Yes, you!". If he really loved her that much, he would have reopened the case. What was he scared about? And suddenly he showed concern for Cheung Ping when earlier he beaten her severely.

I think there could be a fair explanation for this king's sudden change in attitude. In the face of enemies, Qing and Lee Chong the rebel, low resources, useless ministers, poor health ..this series may show he was going senile. There were early signs in this series.

Overall the scripting and the story were totally way off in this episode.

Performances wise, Sonija Kwok showed no malice, hatred nor glee in her passion-less wooden eyes, Steven Ma was quite alright, Michael Tong was ok, Annie Man gave a decent performance, Maggie Siu was excellent of course, Jan Lau was also simply evil and excellent and Moses Chan was inadequate. In fact he was too young to play this role. It should have been given to an older actor, something approaching 50s to give this character more weight in terms of emotions, looks and substance. Now he was like just a scared little kid.

I absolutely detested this episode and how meek Cheung Ping was. I want to see a stronger Cheung Ping, not an action packed Cheung Ping. This was like see Cheung Ping sad, see Cheung Ping cried, see Cheung Ping laugh .... yes, but the real point is what is Cheung Ping doing? Nothing.

For entertainment and dramatic value, this episode and the last were interesting. For story and characterisation value, this episode especially was meek and weak. For the bastardizing of everybody's idea of Princess Cheung Ping, this episode proved only one thing; total disrespect to the viewers' intelligence. There were many things she didn't do I bet you all will do, because at least you're doing something.

I am not a feminist but I feel Cheung Ping is not paralysed or dead, so she herself should start doing something useless other than pining for Sai Hin, making Yoke Han laugh or avoiding Sing Hing.

Now I look forward to Ng Sam Kwai's appearance, because I hope at least something interesting will come out from this character that is truly the character that has the right to pine for another.

EPISODE 12

2004-04-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

This episode will further show how evil Superman is (when her mom found the witnesses to reopen her case, Superman go and beg her mother in front of everybody to let the hatred go away and stop being so vindictive- naturally the mother was confused at her sudden change) and how giving Cheung Ping (like how again and again she rejects Sai Hin and yet cried her heart out after and I suspect in the next episode how she fearlessly tried to help her mom). Pretty bored with this comparison because in the end these two characters are not any smarter. I expect bigger things from Superman but this episode illustrates she sees things in the short term way. I was very disappointed when I couldn't see the much anticipated Queen (backed by Superman) vs Tin when again back to square one; Queen against falsely accused, imprisoned, blah blah blah. Is this cycle of never ending misery for the Queen ever going to stop and let the real story begin?

Then again this episode shows how suffering Cheung Ping, how eager Sing Hing tried to please her, how grateful and fearful Yoke Han and how desperate Sai Hin is to get Cheung Ping to admit she loves him in front of Yoke Han. It is true suffering for me because this will never ever stop.

Whilst all the drama is happening in the palace, the writer chose to write Cheung Ping going with Sai Hin on a study expedition. This is normally an ok storyline since it could create a love tension but there is no tension because they will end up together. So the problem is Sai Hin is always away, Cheung Ping is always near him and so who else is in the palace? Superman to do her evil things. What I want to see is Cheung Ping growing stronger and more independent and more opinionated in the palace. What I see now is a crying Cheung Ping, a suffering Cheung Ping. I see her as a weakling and this has got to stop. Cheung Ping is like every other TVB female characters, I do not see a difference. Today's episode is really a very bad storyline episode and I am beginning to feel this series amounts to nothing-there's nothing graceful and intelligent about it. What it is is pure drama and after a while, too much drama kills the story and with zero personality for characters, what you have is a series that is entertaining in the most ordinary kind of way and is easily forgettable when the next adaptation comes along.

There are some inconsistencies with this episode which is more about logic than storyline.

1. When the Queen entered a back alley, she saw a rat and she jumped, feeling very scared. For the last 8 years she has been living in EXTREME POVERTY and I expect that included huts with loads of rats. She would have got used to the sight of rats, may even eat them. So why is she so scared? A few days in the palace made her forget her sad existence for the past 8 years?

2. The party the princesses and fellow commoners had in the field. What a party, drinking from the big big bowl together, eating together, dancing together, getting drunk together. Problem is they are princesses, there is a rule, a code of etiquette involving such group of people. Of course nobody is there to stop them but to show all of them have such a good relationship? I really doubt that ever exists. And girls and boys touching each other without due regard to propriety? Very illogical.

Definitely a modern concept used in the period drama concept which is like Qiong Yau stories which is always entertaining when you suspend your disbelief. For this one episode, I can't.

Horrible episode.

EPISODE 11

2004-04-27T08:46:00.000-07:00

Confirms two things;

1. Chiu Yan is really spineless by mistaking an enemy as a friend (Tin Choi Tip, that evil woman) but did one good thing that is to scheme so that her mom will pursue a case against Tin for wrongfully accusing her of poisoning the dead prince (who died shortly after birth and had nothing to do with the Empress). I feel the Empress should pursue and set her name right. The real battle is actually Chiu Yan vs Tin and that should be interesting because Chiu Yan is obviously evil woman in the making.

2. I realise what is wrong with Cheung Ping. She has no personality, she is as bland as white rice without anything else, a necessary character but not very engaging and interesting.

And there are more problems:-

There is no longer any flashbacks but worse now, we have Turn Left Turn Right, that is Cheung Ping turns right and Sai Hin will walk left, more slow mo, one scenes where they seemed blended with one another walking opposite sides and looking very reluctant. Many many times this is repeated and very very annoying. There was a time either of them is always talking to God (as in Lou Tin Yeh Yeh). Now they are talking to each other, but one would be in the garden and the other in the room, like miles apart but ahhhhhh they can hear one another! I sat there thinking can we just move on with the story? The thing is when the viewers know that they will end up with one another, the rule is please do not make that journey like as if they're not going to be with one another. I know it makes good story to show how longing they are for one another but to drag it in one particular scene where Cheung Ping asks many questions in the garden and Sai Hin wonders too in another place and one scene cut to another, it is very very very time consuming and meaningless. It goes only to show what a bastard Sai Hin is (poor Yoke Han) and though Cheung Ping said she will forget about Sai Hin and let Yoke Han win, there are many scenes which shows her crying and all. Of course it is very pitiful not to be able to be with the man you love who is marrying another whom you really like but at the end of the day it makes her look more like a hypocrite. There she is saying "Yoke Han he is yous" and there she goes, crying and telling herself not to go see Sai Hin whilst almost strangling that poor yellow dog (yes, there is a dog in here, again I suspect the same one but of course not supposed to be the same one), and then Sai Hin says "Cheung Ping" and he says "Why deny our love? Why deny the truth?" and she goes "No, no no" and yet she is crying and crying. I mean Sai Hin definitely will get the message and poor Yoke Han. I do feel Yoke Han should juust give up and find another more deserving man whilst we viewers get to move on with the story. Rather pointless story of a love affair that is already meant to be!

Now let's talk about performances which I did not talk about in length except for some actresses.

I do think Ellesmere Choi did very well as the useless playful young prince. Nothing much i could say though. I do think Steven Ma so far looks very gallant and handsome but he has little to do except to pine for Cheung Ping and wondering how to tell Yoke Han "Sorry, I ain't in love with you" whilst pretending he is happy to marry Yoke Han later. I feel Maggie Siu is wonderful as the Queen being bullied and Jan Lau definitely looks and acts like the evil concubine Tin to perfection. Some scenes she looks absolutely ugly and Jan Lau though haggard is still pretty. Others did well whilst there is little on Moses Chan who looks positively way too young to be the father of Sonija Kwok. Or you may say Sonija Kwok is way too old to play a young girl.

Now let's talk about my favourite superhero in this series, Superman that is Sonija Kwok. She is absolutely expressionless in this series. In one scene where she tried to please Tin and then Tin slapped her, she totally did all those scenes like a total amateur. I see no pain, I see no malice, I see no arrogance, anger, whatever. She looks mildly pissed and when she is happy she looks bored. No dancing in this episode which is worst because now I have to look at her act and it is pure torture. She lacks that Betty Davies eyes. Nevertheless I look forward to evil Chiu Yan's scene because by being evil she has a bit of personality and plenty of attitude, that is her character but definitely not the actress. I want to watch her doing evil stuff because that is entertaining in itself but I don't bother to look at her face when she is acting because that will surely kill my interest in her character. Anyway worst acting moment which I must mention is where she took a bunch of joss stick and burned her arms with it. One arm actually, somewhere up near the wrist. She aimed it right and then the camera zoom off and suddenly her hand holding that joss stick suddenly moved so low I would think she was burning the back of her palms! But there is it was, the joss stick made burned mark on the upper arm near the wrist. I forgot to count whether the marks matched the number of joss stick used.

Now let's talk about the perfect woman, Cheung Ping that is Charmaine Sheh who is really pretty in here but she is too thin, so her face is too long and so when she smiles that dazzling smile of hers, her face looks stretched and therefore horrible. Acting wise I can't fault her much because she has NOTHING to do in here except to pine for Sai Hin. I would expect Chan Yuen Yuen to do all the pining for Ng Sam Kwai but well, we have many pining couples in here. Her Cheung Ping is so badly written no good actress could make her interesting unless Cheung Ping suddenly change to her old expected self that is what legend has to say; smart, witty, articulate, elegant, opinionated, independent, strong, etc. Can you imagine this Cheung Ping as that one armed nun in Duke of Mountdeer? But who knows, something might have shook her up to make her more tough. Charmaine looks nice smiling, crying, pining, working, washing, walking. But expression wise, so far she is rather limited. Her acting is not good at all in here and I am very annoyed not with her chicken voice (which suits a soft spoken Cheung Ping) but the way she talks, dragging her lines when she is about to finish her lines and then end them all with a "la". Sometimes I thought this series is a modern series and I doubt the accuracy of some of the weapons. But let's watch some more before I comment more on her performance since the problem now is her character.

So far I find this series something like a modern day family conflict drama, set in the olden days of course. There's even a refence to magic and illusion which I really do wonder did it exist then in China?

Anyway I think tomorrow's episode would be better because the battle of the century will begin. Tin vs Empress (backed by Superman), one evil woman, one scorned woman and one would be evil woman. And where is Cheung Ping? Sai Hinnnnnnn

You know come to think of it Cheung Ping never noticed her mom's hair is shorter (hey! I didn't notice also, hair still long) and what frustrates me most is the Empress Dowager saw Cheung Ping and yet they didn't show like a happy reunion or something. Zoom and next scene, Sai Hin and Cheung Ping. This is becoming a love story of two people who so happened to have the names of famous characters, not the famous characters themselves. TVB is definitely guilty of character assassination but who knows, it might get better.

EPISODE 10

2004-04-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

Ooooh, this episode made my blood boil for 5 reasons;

1. Superman bad mouthing her OWN MOTHER so to get some food, get on the good side of Concubine Tin and to have dinners with grandma and dad. Doesn't she know the more her mom gets bullied the less power she will ever get? I wait for the episode where she will plan the downfall of Concubine Tin;

2. Concubine Tin chopping off the hair of the Empress because she was jealous. Ohhh my blood boiled some more when even the nun refused to defend the Empress. You see Empress was there to pray for the King's safe return from the war against the Manchurians and Superman go and tell Tin that her mom was praying that the whole family will be reunited with the King. So Tin asked the nun, is it true and stupid nun dare not say anything. With nuns like these, no wonder the kingdome fell!

3. The Empress herself for being so weak. She should fight back, fight for her position. The King obviously still loves her;

4. Sai Hin for seducing Cheung Ping, saying how much he loves her and all and wanted to tell Yoke Han (who heard everything) and yet denied it all when Sing Hing punched him. A hypocrite no matter how romantic he may be.

And last but not least

5. Cheung Ping. Avoid Sai Hin for Heaven's sake. They're no longer little children so being together isn't all about innocent puppy love but pure sexual lust if you ask me. Ok so this is true love but if you feel you and Sai Hin can't be together again, avoid him. You don't love Sing Hing, tell him.

A possible solution for this triangular love- it's Ming Dynasty, there is such thing called polygamous marriages. Cheung Ping be the 1st wife and Yoke Han the second. Settled!

And some annoying factors still occur in this episode (and I suspect some more) which is due to performances, not characters;

1. Sonija Kwok really can't dance and I had to endure her dancing yet again!

2. Sonija Kwok can't act and I had to endure her wooden expressions when she bad mouthed her mother with so little malice, so little innocence I am surprised Tin didn't ask her; "Oi! Are you alive?!"

3. Charmaine Sheh is so clingy. Now I know where she got her nickname(s) as the electricity woman, seducer and all. Her voice can really get to me, some scenes especially and her full charm is directed at the older actors. The way she pressed her entire body onto the arm of that old veteran actor (who played the doctor) whilst she shook his hand and begged him to do something about Yoke Han's scar on her face. The same "press body against the actor/actress" is repeated with almost every actor there is, except Chi Chiu (Ellesmere Choi) because he is YOUNGER BROTHER! Imagine that! If Cheung Ping is 18, so how old is Chi Chiu? 17? Does Ellesmere Choi look like 17 to you?

Charmaine's acting is like her old self which is really nice if I see Cheung Ping as that way. Now I see Cheung Ping as really nice, perfect and all in temperament BUT not very articulate and smart. In fact she doesn't seem to possess an opinion. Her Cheung Ping is so docile, it is annoying. She is pretty no doubt about that but she possesess none of Cheung Ping's finer attributes that one would expect. I blame that on her inadequate understanding of her character and perhaps the rewriting of this character.

Isn't Cheung Ping supposed to be independent? Witty? Intelligent? Opinionated and yet elegant? Sophisticated? So far she hit none of these qualities.

I hope her Cheung Ping will do more useful thing than rather be the object of 2 men's affection.

Talking about Sing Hing, he insulted Sai Hin by saying;

"Master Chow is very good isn't he? Even when the horse does not want to be saddled, he still can do it, doesn't care what the horse thinks".

He was actually talking about Sai Hin going after Cheung Ping even when Cheung Ping wanted nothing to do with him. That's funny because I thought Sing Hing was talking about himself. Cheung Ping was obviously in love with Sai Hin, that everybody could see.

EPISODE 9

2004-04-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

A very good episode marred by 2 annoying factors;

1. FLASHBACKS again! I am sick, sick, sick with young Sai Hin and youngCheung Ping flirting and lovey dovey.

2. the love, pining, hoping, whatever between adult Sai Hin and adult Cheung Ping.

I was actually hoping to see the Empress Dowager's expression and love for Cheung Ping when Eunuch Hoi (played amazingly by excellent veteran, Loh Hoi Pang) confessed to the Empress Dowager how great Cheung Ping is. But before we could see her expression, zoom in on Eunuch Hoi and how nice Cheung Ping was to him and how regretful Eunuch Hoi was for being so awful to him. I get it, she's perfect and everybody can't help but love her. I hate the fact that she is so darn perfect.

But there is a problem in her perfection; she is an innate coward. One scene we see a servant girl was beaten severely by Eunuch Hoi for having a love poem which he deemed as porno stuff. That porno thing which wasn't porno was written by Sai Hin to Cheung Pin in their pigeon-mail love affair of about 3 months or so. For someone so darn kind and nice, it took her a full 5 minutes and the girl pleading, crying and beaten severely before nice angelic kind Cheung Ping came forward and confessed. So now I know she's a coward.

Another funny scene which wasn't funny was a scene where Sai Hin and Sing Hing fighting kung fu with swords in front of the princesses. That was nothing spectacular and nothing funny, except a few episodes before we see a scene where Cheung Ping was being pursued by two assassins and Sai Hin didn't fight at all, in fact he fumbled with a cart with fire and all to scare away the assassins! Such inconsistencies. So now after we know he's a complete gentleman and all, the writers tried to back track the whole thing and make Sai Hin a brave warrior who knows kung fu! I thought he's a scholar first and foremost, in fact an intellectual?

Then there's the scene where we get to see the crown prince played by TVB's highest paid ke-le-fe, Ellesmere Choi as Chi Chiu, nothing fantastic but with a future king like that, no wonder Ming Dynasty fell. In fact the King who did not appear in this episode was pretty useless himself, can't differentiate who is nice and who is not.

Now to the good scenes. I like Eunuch Hoi's confession to the Empress Dowager, I like the scene where Concubine Tin gave some tips to Yoke Han to keep Sai Hin's heart, the scene where Yoke Han scolded Eunuch Hoi when he kept saying Sai Hin was sending porno poems to Cheung Ping and most favourite of all, the scene where Yoke Han looked at Sai Hin who was more concerned about Cheung Ping than he was to her and how Sai Hin was battling with Sing Hing for Cheung Ping's attention.

In this episode there is also a scene where Sai Hin hugged Cheung Ping and I was thinking, Bastard! Poor Yoke Han, such a nice girl who believed in the purity of his friendship with Cheung Ping and Cheung Ping kept saying they're just friends and thathow she is never going to be with Sai Hin and yet she didn't do anything to discourage Sai Hin! I know Yoke Han will be pushed aside either by death or voluntary on the part of Yoke Han because in the first scene, Sai Hin and Cheung Ping married!

Anyway a good episode marred by over sentimental scenes. There are some very short moments of sheer brilliance but I tell you, one more flashback, I will scream!

By the way I noticed one strange thing which I know will be explained in the last episode. I do know Cheung Ping's arm was hacked off by her father when the rebels were storming into the palace. That would be before the first scene in the 1st episode where they turned traitor so that they can marry and die in the palace later on by suicide. There she still have her arm! I wonder what happened? Don't tell me, I want to keep guessing. Anyway I dislike the idea they turned traitor to marry and kill themselves in the palace. Many may view this change of scenario as dramatic, sad, poignant, even romantic. But I feel killing themselves when the rebels were storming into the palace and at the end of the Ming dynasty would have made a more powerful and patriotic scene. Now they seemed more like traitors who are more concerned for their love than anything else. Read my Episodic Thoughts Episode 1 to know more, especially that first scene.

Anyway so far so good. Luckily very little scenes of Superman. She really can't dance.

EPISODE 8

2004-04-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

Very good episode. 3 very noticeable points in this series which I am sure we will all see throughout:-

1. Superman is really a no backbone limelight hogging monster who is more annoying than Concubine Tin. In fact I felt sick watching how she badmouthed Cheung Ping to get into the good books of the Empress Dowager who was clearly more concerned with Cheung Ping than this Superman whom I doubt she remembers at all. In fact the way she insulted her own mom and smiled when Cheung Ping got punished was too much. Her mom should have slapped her.

2. Cheung Ping is extremely perfect, extremely nice and therefore sickeningly wholesome. I still do not see any sign of intelligence in her, though she looks wimpy as ever. I like her but I dislike to show how great and nice she is Superman has to be doubly evil. That is sooooooo cliche of all such series.

3. The Emperor is pretty useless which is why the country is in turmoil. In the 1st episode he looks like a great father but he is a very weak man and therefore a weak king.

I saw also Ellesmere Choi as the son! A bit too old, why not find Gregory Lee, someone younger? So far I like Moses Chan in here though he's wimpy. The queen is scarily wimpy as well, she just threw herself onto Cheung Ping when Cheung Ping was punished for asking her father to see a dying Concubine Seung (who was dying of TB). She should have hold the stick and cry, taht would be more dramatic.

This episode had 4 great moments, all very touching;

1. When Concubine Seung died, the king holding her in his arms. Poor woman. It's not good to marry a king for very obvious reasons unless a modern monogamous king.

2. When Sai Hin saw Cheung Ping's ass all bloody (after being hit 30 times) he looked so sad and he asked "Who did this? Who did this?!" and the answer was the Empress Dowager. For a moment I thought he would dramatically run into the Empress Dowager's palace and start screaming at her for beating poor angelic Cheung Ping but nope, it was good to show him shutting up. What can you do right?

3. When Empress Dowager kept talking about Cheung Ping in front of evil Superman. It shows how little Empress Dowager remembers Chiu Yan.

and the best of all

4. Cheung Ping ran to see the King her father and she called, Your Majesty and he looked at her and asked curtly, "Who are you?" and she quietly replied "Cheung Ping". Bastard father!

Overall a very entertaining drama filled episode which is really pure drama, less logic. Charmaine's looks very pretty in here and Sonija frighteningly old when there are some real close ups. So far Sonija is quite ok but all she can is really pout and look wooden. And more dancing! Please chop off her legs! She can't dance at all, no passion in her delivery. Maybe suitable for Chiu Yan since she aimed to please not to better her art at dancing.

By the way my sister told me that Chiu Yan is a very lovely name and when i kept saying Superman she couldn't understand until well, she finally understood. I have more ...

Cheung Ping - Long Flat (a bit like Charmaine actually - ha ha ha)

Tin Fei - Flying Land (but could be Molesting Land)

Sing Hing - no need any translation because in Malaysia we have electrical shops called Seng Heng! So he's like electrical shop! But Michael Tong looks bored.

Anyway I like the direction of this series so I hope Cheung Ping gets better treatment. Luckily no more flashbacks and that dog.

EPISODE 7

2004-04-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

Call the SPCA! Poor yellow doggie, can't Cheung Ping hear his whimpering as she roughly shook him in a playful (in my opinion violent) manner whilst flirting with Sai Hin? Poor dog!

Anyway, overall an excellent episode in emotions. One of the best bit was when Sai Hin confronted Cheung Ping and simply called her Princess Cheung Ping and she denied all she could, but well wimpy teary looking Charmaine Sheh is a dead giveaway that she's Cheung Ping. Poor Yoke Han, who didn't even know she now have a competition, in fact she already lost since these two have been flirting since young. Ok flirting sounds sordid, so they're in love, I get it, so please end the flash back! Very tiring.

Later when Cheung Ping and family got taken back to the palace (because grandma had a change of heart) mom and all so happy. But Emperor simply walked past them, well he was in a carriage but that really hurt I think. What a jerk!

Overall I find this episode thoroughly enjoyable and Concubine Tin looked absolutely haggard. One of the best scene was when another concubine, I think Concubine Seung went to see the Empress as soon as she was back, thinking the Emperor will come to see her so she can see him as she hasn't seen him for many years. But well Empress was ignored and poor Concubine Seung talked about how they met, how she fell for him and how he quickly forgotten about her. So now she is like languishing in the cold palace, working like a maid and seriously ill. It was very sad.

But I feel the best scenes were the little moments like:-

1. Cheung Ping still could not admit she was Cheung Ping and Sai Hin looking very hurt asked her "How can you ignore me? How can you deny me?"

and the best of all

2. Cheung Ping found out Sai Hin and Yoke Han were engaged to be married (in fact they were planning their marriage ceremony) and she can't tell Sai Hin she was Cheung Ping. So she sat alone in the factory looking at the fire and quietly cried and then Sai Hin appeared. She quickly wiped her tears and pretended all was ok. I can tell you this; this could be Charmaine Sheh's finest moment as admittedly she is excellent in being wimpy, pitiful AND crying at the same time. I felt sad for her Cheung Ping and the disgustingly poor life she was having. Imagine loving someone and yet not being able to tell this person who you were and telling him how much you missed him. If only that moment was held a bit longer, certainly their love story could have been better but of course just a little later she admitted she was Cheung Ping.

By the way Charmaine's running is a bit funny, not like Lee San San who was literally bouncing but still funny.

Now I really look forward to Concubine Tin's evil ways and also when will Chan Yuen Yuen appear??

EPISODE 6

2004-04-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

I think I enjoyed this series very much because I am beginning to understand some of the unanswered questions like:-

1. How can the father and grandma kick Cheung Ping when they love her so much?

Because they were all sentenced to the cold palace (I suspect Cheung Ping wasn't but I missed that episode) and then one night evil Concubine Tin ordered the cold palace to be destroyed, so they all took the opportunity to escape during the fire to save themselves. They even changed their names.

2. How come Cheung Ping was with them when grandma loved her so much?

Kidd I think answered that for me, she followed them willingly. So I guess they all thought they all disappeared and don't know where they are.

Very pitiful. Now I understand! Ok, dramatic but possible.

In this episode we see also Yoke Han (a very pretty and demure looking Annie Man) who is weak and is Sai Hin's fiancee. No fight man, princess vs minister's daughter! Also I know more about Sai Hin and Cheung Ping like:-

1. They are very religious since they pray to God every 5 minutes;

2. Did I see that stupid yellow doggie again? Arghhhh

3. More flashbacks, sick to my bone. Well now we also know Cheung Ping is not only pretty, smart, kind, friendly, loving, loyal, fillial ... above all else she is perfect. Yes very obvious this series is showing how darn perfect she is whilst of course how imperfect Superman is. I think.

Anyway, I am beginning to enjoy the drama of this series though again, this series totally debunked my idea of a very smart and outspoken Cheung Ping. Yes she is perfect and an angel in here BUT she is still not the Cheung Ping I want her to be. She is too demure, too soft spoken, she is not intelligent enough nor outspoken enough.

One favourite scene was when she was fired (again) and she was sitting, eating and crying and Sing Hing's father came in and Sing Hing said, "She's Fai Lei, without reason she was fired!", and the father said "I am not managing this place but I do not know this girl is very hard working ..." and then he described how he saw her doing all sorts of things in one day. So the boss said she stays. I know this sounds bland but that scene was quite funny. Another good scene was when Sai Hin was standing by that wishing tree and suddenly thanks to some divine intervention a paper prayer fell next to him and lo and behold, he saw the name Cheung Ping! The good thing is the authenticity of that scene, where Cheung Ping's handwriting is so ugly! Poor girl, missing out on her education. And also the scene where he suspects Fai Lei is Cheung Ping which is quite touching as he wondered and wondered. I also like one scene where Cheung Ping was carrying Yoke Han who was sitting on a chair (?) and Yoke Han was talking about the palace and Cheung Ping asked how was the Emperor, the King's mother and all. Very touching you know because she misses them.

Anyway I am really looking forward to Sai Hin and Cheung Ping seeing each other again because that will certainly stop the pining and the flashbacks and then I will get to see real stuff like politics, evil concubines and more torture!

I must comment on one thing; Charmaine could dance quite nicely as in traditional dance, the style is there. She learnt ballet before so that is not surprising. Luckily very little Superman today. Thank god!

EPISODE 5

2004-04-20T09:44:00.000-07:00

This episode was much more satisfying in terms of some very poignant scenes. Overall I enjoyed the depiction of the adult Sai Hin, a gentleman whilst poor Cheung Ping had to stand afar, loving him but being able to tell him so because nobody can ever find out her real identity. I guess her head will be chopped off if she did. Whilst her dear sister, Superman is decked out in beautiful jewelries and dancing to her heart's content, poor Cheung Ping worked like a slave and was almost sacked. Yes, she worked like a slave. Sai Hin I found out is the engineer in Michael Tong's factory which produces gunpowder and also what is those things called? I can at this moment only remember the malay name for it, Meriam.

Anyway about half the series talked about Cheung Ping and Sai Hin as adults and then of course as children. After about 5 minutes of their flashbacks which I guess is meant to intertwine between now and the past and how little had changed in their feelings for one another, I was really sick to my stomach watching young wimpy Cheung Ping, young loving Sai Hin and their dog. Yes, dog and how they walked to a waterfall. There I was wondering, can a princess just wander out in the woods without a guide? A palace guard? Especially she is the king's favourite? Of course all these always go back to my original question; how can the king who loves his daughter so much banish her from the palace in the first place? It would be more logical if the mother is banished and the daughters are not allowed to see her. Anyway take away that question, there is one scene which I thought was excellent and I just wished more of such scenes is shown instead of wimpy Cheung Ping pining for wimpy Sai Hin and that bloody dog.

This scene was when Sai Hin took Cheung Ping out for a nice bowl of mee and there we get to see a glimsp of the contrast in Cheung Ping's two lives. We see how Sai Hin spoke of his favourite poem (spoilt by Steven Ma's souless and passionless recital) and then Cheung Ping tried to write the words. Sai Hin spoke of a girl he once knew who was so smart and could write so beautifully. Cheung Ping remembered her happy childhood and when she tried to write the words, Sai Hin reminded her she wrote some wrong words. Her writings were not beautiful anymore. That scene was very sad because imagine all these years she has lost out on her education when she was such a smart girl. Excellent scene actually.

And then of course we are back to that flashback scenes. Please I GET IT! THEY'RE MEANT FOR ONE ANOTHER! THEY FEED ON EACH OTHER'S LOVE TO GO ON AND ON AND ON. Now can we move on????? Where is Moses?!

One more thing I must comment on.

Why why WHY is Sonija Kwok always given roles where she had to dance when she can't dance one bit? She moved like a piece of log, a piece of wood and her dancing is as souless as her acting. My sister said "She had dancing lessons in the past?" and I was like "Please are you blind?!". Anne Heung had classical traning, Michelle Ye had classical training, Akina Hong had classical traning, we have 3 gorgeous women who can dance for real, WHY ON EARTH they asked this piece of wood to act in this role? She fails totally as a dancer, totally fails as the good one, absolutely fails as the mean one, I can only guess how she will fare as the evil one.

Anyway, apart from that, this episode is far better than the last few ones.

EPISODE 4

2004-04-20T09:43:00.001-07:00

One word; boring. So this series is really boring. Not only are they still going on and on about how poor Cheung Ping had to work, how poor Superman is bitchy to her mom and sis, how useless Michael Tong is and how lovesick Sai Hin is, we are shown again and again how they almost missed and then how they meet again ot recognising one another. I can't enjoy this series for a few reasons;

1. Cheung Ping comes off as too nice and too much of a wimp. I do not see the intelligent, mature, articulate, lady like, princess- ish Cheung Ping. In fact my mother was complaining how the writers were bastardising the original story. I can't agree more.

2. Superman is here for only one reason; to be evil and toture the viewers with her horrible wooden acting.

3. How can they all be kicked out of the palace so easily? Does the king like to wash his dirty linen in public? Maybe he forbade them to say who they're? But wouldn't it be more dramatic to lock them up in teh cold palace, or kick the queen out but the daughters are left behind? Maybe this is because I missed that crucial first half of ep 3. It still is pure drama.

This entire episode is a complete waste of my time.

Like The Voyage Of Emperor Qian Lung which ended today in my local telly (NTV7), complete waste of time until the last few seconds as in somewhere towards the end. The ending was predictable as usual. Chi Ha didn't die, obvious. I can say so much about one of the worst series I have seen this year but I'll leave them all in my review.

I am beginning to dislike PITNOL. Please be there a reason for me to like it. Maybe Moses Chan??

EPISODE 3

2004-04-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

Pure drama and then boring and then drama again.

Young to old, we have Sai Hin loving cheung Ping, then Cheung Ping looking for Sai Hin. Cameras kept slowing down as they walked past one another, like Turn Left Turn Right, always almost missing each other and yet meant to be with one another.

I GET IT NOW CAN WE JUST MOVE ON?!

I missed the front a bit, poor Queen though, booted from the palace. I bet Jan Lau made everybody hate her and then the King, Mr Wimp may have just let everybody bully his wife and 2 children. I am just amazed even Cheung Ping and Superman were booted also. Surely that can't be!

Anyway zoom to 10 years or so later, grown up. We see dashing Sai Hin and then thing Cheung Ping selling fish. We see some surprise attack at the army camp and then we see Sai Hin hurt and cheung Ping saved him. Then we see Superman dancing, mommy too poor to let her audition, she said something mean but honest and mommy slapped her twice. Then we see Superman cry cry cry.

First of all, no offense but Maggie Siu looked like their sister than their mother. Second of all, Sonija Kwok should play the mother because she looks old. Cheung Ping, though pretty do look like a starving poor person. Performances wise, too early to tell. I am very frustrated though that the writers successfully made Cheung Ping becoming such a weak wimp with little intelligence. I hope she joins politics later because that's the Cheung Ping I want to see.

This is more of a drama than a real class act of great story and performances. My incentive for watching this series? So that I can say how bad Sonija Kwok was. One more of Sai Hin and Cheung Ping meant for one another I swear I will cheer everytime Superman appers.

EPISODE 2

2004-04-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

Talking about the 1st episode, I noticed 2 oddities, amongst the many I listed yesterday. One has to do with the calm and cool looking Cheung Ping and Sai Hin when they were paraded in the streets by the Qing at the beginning of ep 1. That is quite odd but made worse when the Qings were shooting the commoners who screamed at them "TRAITORS" and the gentle Cheung Ping and patriotic Sai Hin looked ... so in love. Second would be later when the King's mother blamed the Queen for not hiring her favourite opera troupe to perform in the palace and instead the evil concubine's family got hold of the opera troupe. So the King's mom traveled there to watch whilst the Queen said "I couldn't hire them because someone hired them first..". What's the problem? Queen Elizabeth who now has little power doesn't even need to travel to another place to watch her favourite show, I am sure one word from the Queen the whole troupe would have traveled in lightning speed to perform in the palace exclusively for her. Likewise in this series, more so the Emperor of China was the most powerful man in the country! Sometimes too many series love to depict royalties as ordinary families in power struggles and squabbles but many really always neglect the fact that he can in one command chop the head of another. Stupid you know.

Now to Ep 2.

Nothing new. Frankly I have had it with Sai Hin and Cheung Ping's puppy love, complete with a real puppy. Today we see them planting trees in a very lovey-dovey manner and how Sai Hin got punished because he refused to say he won't see Cheung Ping anymore. Are they all living in the same place or Cheung Ping can leave the palace anytime? Whatever that may be, I have had it with this pair. Amazingly the girl (still too old mind you to play and 8 year old) smiles and behaves amazingly like Charmaine Sheh and the Cheung Ping (adult) we see at the beginning, complete with dazzling smile and wimpy looking expressions. Yes I am very annoyed. Please end this nonsense! Luckily towards the end we see how Jan Lau (the really evil one) plotting to get rid of the nice queen. We know of course the Queen got booted from the palace and Cheung Ping too to be commoner. Now now, I don't buy that. I just don't, because there were many stories of how queen kills other concubines and how she will take the son of another concubine and claim it as her own. Of course our Queen here is too kind but still unrealistic. But it all made for great drama and amazing end performance by Jan Lau who looked positively manic as the evil depressed concubine whose real son (yes she got a son) died just minutes after his birth. Poor thing!

Of course I hope the drama gets better. I expect a wimpy Cheung Ping. I thank this series for successfully in just 2 episode kill the spirit of the brave, intelligent, kind hearted, compassionate Cheung Ping. I actually like the other Cheung Ping in Crimson saber and the one starring Mi Xue. This Cheung Ping looks empty, young or old. No intelligence, just full of love..ahhhhh...

Now when will I get to see a grown up "Superman" (Chiu Yan)? I don't think I can stand the torture!

EPISODE 1

2004-04-20T09:32:00.000-07:00

Tonight (13th April 2004) at 9.30pm at Astro's Wah Lai Toi I watched the first episode of Perish In The Name Of Love. The first scene in itself was disturbing, as former princess of the Ming Dynasty kneeling before the Qing King. Of course they both then killed themselves, which was very sad actually. Anyway I am very disappointed with the over dramatic storyline.

Problem 1

Queen (played marvellously by the gorgeous Maggie Siu) was a commoner who became a Queen thus hated by the second in line who is actually a relative of the King and a favourite of the King's mother.

Why this is a problem? Queen a commoner? King's mother hating her? Don't you get what's wrong? The Queen will always be someone who is chosen from some very prominent family and probably by the King's mother. A commoner cannot be Queen. Moreover where is the drama by Maggie being the Queen? Wouldn't it be better if she is a favoruiet concubine of the King? Then of course Cheung Ping cannot be said to be a favourite of the King's mother.

Problem 2

Concubine screaming and bullying the kind hearted Queen

Why this is a problem? Even Empress Dowager Cixi when she was a second in line as a concubine however devious and scheming never showed a bad face to the Queen. Of course rumours had it she later poisoned the Queen but that remained as a speculation. Likewise nobody would dare to scream at the Queen because the Queen has power within the concubines and as noted in this series, she even had the right to cut budget. So it's very annoying to watch such drama when I can't buy all that. The fact that the Queen is kind hearted is irrelevant. Jan Lau's portrayal of the queitly scheming concubine is more accurate and more true.

Problem 3

Chow Sai Hin lying that he farted when it was Cheung Ping who did and thus incurring the wrath of the King's mother and causing Sai Hin to be severly punished by the King's mother.

Why is this a problem? Obvious isn't it. The King's mother said Cheung Ping is the apple in her eye. So whatever Cheung Ping did would be right and perfect. So she farted. So what? She probably wouldn't be punished and King's mother may be even charmed by this sudden accident. And if Cheung Ping have admitted that fact, that evil concubine would not be able to say anything negative. The only reason the scene was like the way it was is because to show how gallant and brave Sai Hin is and how loving he is to Cheung Ping. To me it showed Cheung Ping as such a coward who didn't know her influence on the King's mother. She never even said anything when the teacher was punished severely.

Problem 4

Sai Hin and Cheung Ping in love.

Why is this a problem? Not really a problem but we are constantly reminded every 2 minutes that they are made for each other. By the end of episode 1 I had enough of that over sweet love story that didn't have a beginning but certainly will have an end. From the start we all know Sai Hin and Cheung Ping is in love. So get over it!

Problem 5

How old is Cheung Ping? The evil concubine said every since the Queen came into the palace, for 8 years the King never visited her. So I assume Cheung Ping is 7 (since pregnancy is about 9 months plus a few months for conception) and Sai Hin may be afew years older, maybe 12?

Why is this a problem? The kid playing Sai Hin is the right age if Sai Hin is a young teenager but the girl who plays Cheung Ping is too old. But the young actors did quite a good job.

Problem 6

Maggie Siu and Moses Chan parents of Charmaine Sheh!

Why is this a problem? Obvious isn't it? If Cheung Ping was 8, I say ok, right age to play parents. But When Cheung Ping is 18 (zooming 10 years later), Maggie Siu looks too young to be her mom and Moses Chan too young to be her dad. But assuming Maggie Siu married into the palace when she was a young teen, maybe. But Maggie Siu looks great for her age, she should not play a mother.

Problem 7

Moses Chan and Sonija Kwok.

Why is this a problem? I predict these two will be a problem to this series, especially Sonija Kwok a horrible horrible actress. Just 2 minutes of promo and she already irritated me with her sleep walking and effortless acting. When people say effortless mean this person is so good she can do it all by not trying at all. But for Sonija Kwok this means she is so bad she looks like she isn't trying at all!!

As for Charmaine Sheh (pretty looking but looks old because too thin) and Steven Ma (too tanned and again too dramatic in his expressions), I will reserve my comments as the episodes go by.

I will be sure to add the above in my upcoming review of this series.