The Voyage of Emperor Qian Long to Jiang Nan

English Title: The Voyage of Emperor Qian Long to Jiang Nan
Chinese Title: Qian Long Huang Xia Jiang Nan
Vietnamese Title: Can Long Du Giang Nam

Cast:
Benny Chan - Emperor Qian Long / Gau Tin Sze
Charmaine Sheh - Empress Fei / Zi Xia
Yuki Hsu - Xiao Yu
Jia Yi Ping - Gu Zi Jie
Liu Wei - Lian Er
Yang Chao - Zhong Liang
Zhang Tong- Concubine De
Mao Yu Feng - E Rong An

I watched this series mainly because of Charmaine, but also because of Benny and Yuki as well. I just have to say, if you're one of those people who, when reading long things, forgets the beginning by the time you reach the end, I suggest you not read this review, because, all I can say is that this is an extremely long review. If you're one of those people who don't like spoilers, then also stop reading, because there are many spoilers within this review.

I watched this in Mandarin, and since I'm not fluent in Mandarin, I didn't really understand what was going on. My friends helped translate the first couple of tapes and the rest I understood from this other summary I read about the series. So most of what I've written is based on what I understood and some from the summary I read.

The story was set in the Qing Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Qian Long in 1740. It started off when Emperor Qian Long was young. At the time there was a cult (the Sun-moon cult) that wanted to revolt against him. It attempted to assassinate him and bombed the palace as well. Everyone was panicking, even the Empress Dowager and Empress. Zi Xia, who was the adopted daughter of the cult leader, fought with the Emperor in an attempt to kill him, but his bodyguard saved him. When she fought with another palace guard he unmasked her, and to everyone's surprise, she looked just like the Empress.

The assassination failed and the Emperor was very mad. He ordered for all his officials to find out about the cult and destroy them. He was so mad that he even scolded his beloved Empress. Out of all his wives and concubines I felt that he loved the Empress most, so that showed how mad he was. Later he found out that the Empress was pregnant and was extremely happy. He decided to go to Jiang Nan and promised her that he would take her as well. Then all of a sudden the Empress mysteriously died after she drank some medicine. The Emperor was again mad. He ordered for the doctor to be executed as he was the one who prescribed the medicine. He even ordered for the jailing of the 2 maids that served the Empress. The Emperor was gravely upset over his Empress' death and kept reminiscing about their past together. Shortly afterwards, he ordered for the release of the 2 maids. One of them had a flashback to the day the Empress died and held in her hands evidence against the murderer, so she was killed. The Emperor then got over his Empress' death and decided to continue with his idea of going to Jiang Nan.

Qian Long left the palace to go to Jiang Nan and he took with him a trustworthy and old minister, his bodyguard (Mao Yu Feng), and the other Empress's maid, Lian Er (Liu Wei). To disguise himself, he used the fake name, Gau Tin Sze. Along his travel to Jiang Nan, he met two other people and they joined him with his adventures. One of them was Xiao Yu (Yuki Hsu), and the other was Gu Zi Jie (Jia Yi Ping). They were the hilarious ones that made us laugh the most. The six of them experienced many things together. They went through a lot of things, such as Tin Sze being discovered as the Emperor, money shortage, being jailed and more. Zi Xia arrived at Bao-Ding Province in search for Gu Zi Jie, who was a Ming Dynasty nobleman hoping to rebel again. She rescued him and Tin Sze from the jail cell, and when Tin Sze saw Zi Xia, it was love at first sight, mostly because she looked like his dead Empress. He constantly tried to woo her, but she continually resisted, causing many funny scenes. There were also many other things that happened between his companions, but I didn't understand much of what happened, so I won't go into much detail as compared to the relationship between Tin Sze and Zi Xia.

Zi Xia started to develop feelings for Tin Sze as well. Both were oblivious to one another's identities. Some members of the cult knew Tin Sze's identity and wanted to kill him. He was hit by a poisonous weapon on the arm and was luckily saved by Zi Xia. He was badly hurt and because of the poison, he was very cold. Added with the rain and leaking roof, matters were worsened. In order to save him, Zi Xia used her body heat to keep him warm for the night. I don't think anything more happened though.

As the story progressed, more things happened in their relationship. Zi Xia's brother, Zhong Liang (Yang Chao), was madly in love with her and attempted to kill Tin Sze many times, but Zi Xia was always there to save him. There was also this one time when her father asked her to marry his son, and after much talk she agreed. However, things didn't turn out as planned; on the wedding day Zi Xia objected to getting changed and left. Love also blossomed between Lian Er and the bodyguard and with Xiao Yu and Gu Zi Jie. Soon after, Zi Xia's brother couldn't help it and told her that Gau Tin Sze was actually Emperor Qian Long (as he somehow found out). Zi Xia was very shocked and hurt about what she heard. She was very loyal to her father, and due to it, she agreed to act as an inside spy for him.

There was an attack where Tin Sze and the others were staying, and his bodyguard was killed, leaving Lian Er greatly heartbroken. Zi Xia found out about it and went to find them, hoping Tin Sze was ok. She reached the bodyguard's grave and saw Tin Sze there, all safe and sound, making her very relieved. Finally Tin Sze told her that he was the Emperor, oblivious to fact that she already knew. He took her into the palace and Lian Er served as her maid. Their relationship grew deeper. They broke through the many barriers in their way, including the Emperor's concubines, who were fighting for the position of Empress, since the Empress was dead. The only barrier that couldn't be broken was the fact that he was the Munchurian Emperor, and she was a Han, in a cult whose primary goal was to bring down the Qing Empire. Zi Xia was constantly reminded of who she was and who he was, causing great disturbance within her.

There were times when Zi Xia wanted to leave Qian Long, causing great pain between the couple. As the story neared the end, things start to get more complicated. Zi Xia was extremely frustrated with her situation. Turmoil built within her and to get rid of the pain, she drank. When she was drunk, she met with her brother, and he tried to rape her, taking advantage of the situation. However, to her luck, before he could do anything, Lian Er came in. Qian Long also arrived and fought off her brother. On that same night, Zi Xia cried to Qian Long about her worries, though not knowing about her brother's intentions, and spent the night with him. At night they were a loving couple, but by morning they were enemies again. The next morning Zi Xia woke and left the Emperor, making him extremely furious.

Zi Xia went back to her father, probably to say sorry as she did the wrong thing by sleeping with her enemy. She said something that greatly displeased him and he ordered for her to kill herself, even though he really didn't want to, as he had always treated her as his own daughter. To me, it seemed that she wanted to repay her father for her wrongdoings, as she picked up the sword that lay on the ground, preparing to kill herself. Her life was not to end that way. Just when she raised the sword to her neck, her brother flicked it out of her hand. He greatly loved her, and despite knowing she loved someone else, he still begged his father for her life. At that one scene, I think her father made her join in as part of the revolution, to kill Emperor Qian Long, the man she loved so deeply.

Then there was to be an end to all the problems that arose, so the cult finally decided on a day for the revolution, which was set on the day of the Annual Fireworks. The members of the cult attempted to assassinate the Emperor; however, they still failed (as we should expect already). Qian Long brought with him a gun and his gun troops as well. Everyone was captured making him pleased, but things all turned around when a sword was placed to his neck. What made matters worse, was the person that held the sword was Zi Xia. They had a short talk and he told her that if she didn't kill him, he would kill her. Her love for him was very strong, making her drop the sword, saying she couldn't do it, even though knowing that she'd just dug her own grave by doing so.

Due to Zi Xia's actions that occurred in front of so many people she had to be executed. Qian Long loved her so much that he didn't want her to die. He went to her jail cell and urged her to run away. He even pulled her out of the cell and pointed to the exit, telling her to run for it, but she refused. She didn't want to run as she wanted to repay him for all he had given her. I didn't understand what they said, but their acting must have been great, because I cried heaps.

The next scene was the day of the execution. Zi Xia stood on the podium, both her hands tied up to the poles. She stood there and had flashbacks about her and the Emperor. The time finally came; the judge threw the stick to the ground. The three of them (Zi Xia, Zhong Liang and their father) were untied and their heads were placed on the chopping board. Zi Xia watched painfully as her brother and father died right in front of her very eyes. It was then Zi Xia's turn. She had more flashbacks to her times with the Emperor as tears rolled down her eyes (and mine too). She looked to the audience and there the Emperor's minister and Gu Zi Jie were at the back, singing her a song. She took another glance elsewhere, and there she saw Tin Sze for the last time, and the executioner's sword came down towards her neck… then, the screen blanked out. It is unclear whether she died or not.

Xiao Yu and Gu Zi Jie left the palace to live happily ever after, together. Two years later, Qian Long decided to visit Jiangnan again with Lian Er and the minister. He saw Xiao Yu and Gu Zi Jie, who had two children and were advertising something. It was a festival of some sort; there were fireworks and lion dancers. As he was enjoyably watching the lion dancers, one of them took off their head costume, and there, right in front of his eyes, stood Zi Xia. They stood face to face and as she smiled at him and he smiled back. However so, it is unclear whether or not it was Zi Xia, whether or not it was an illusion.

To me, I somehow felt that the person was Zi Xia. The day of the execution, they never really showed that she died. Another thing was she had a different hairstyle when Qianlong met with her again. If he was to hallucinate about her, then wouldn't he think of her with the hairstyle he knew her with?? Anyways, I know that that isn't a good enough reason to say it was Zi Xia; however, I still hoped that it was Zi Xia, even though it is something you can also greatly doubt.

I found this to be a very enjoyable series. The Empress' murderer was one of the Emperor's concubines, Concubine Du (Zhang Tong). Yuki's character, Xiao Yu, was the daughter of some rich family. However, she really was working for a high-ranking minister in the palace. Her job was to protect Benny on his travels to the south.

Benny Chan: It was very obvious that he was the main focus of the story. Benny was really cute in this series. At first it was weird to see him with the Munchurian hairstyle, but after a while, it didn't bother me any more. I never really liked the thought of Charmaine and Benny as a couple, but in this series, they were such a cute couple. They had so many cute and sweet scenes together, making the ending even sadder. It was weird to listen to his voice and Charmaine's dubbed. Though the dubbers were really good, you could somehow tell the actors' voices was dubbed. This would be the first time that I've seen such a playful Emperor Qian Long, but Louis Koo's Emperor Qian Long in War and Remembrance was quite playful and very flirtatious as well.

Charmaine Sheh: I've always been a Charmaine fan, so I'm sorry if my opinion here is a bit biased. To me, I felt that Charmaine's acting was very good. As Empress Fei, she was very elegant, and as Zi Xia, a swordswoman, she was very different. I can't really find the right word to describe Zi Xia, all I can say is that Charmaine was quite different as the two people. This would be the first time that Charmaine wore Munchurian clothes. At first it did look odd, but after a while it seemed all right. Also, in this series, it was the first time that I saw Charmaine dressed as a guy. Charmaine was standing opposite a female, but she still looked very feminine. She also made me cry A LOT during the jail scene, but that also required great acting from Benny as well. I loved Charmaine in this series; she looked so young and beautiful. Also, in this series Charmaine played the flute. Her music skills have also improved from the first time she played the flute in Crimson Sabre. In "Crimson Sabre" it was pretty good, but her fingers weren't moving too well with the music and she blew out of tune. In this series it wasn't perfect but it was getting better, she only made a few mistakes, making it seem more real. Also, I noticed Charmaine's scar as well when I neared the end, it's not that noticeable though.

Yuki Hsu: I found the first appearance of Yuki to be very weird, especially with that mouth thing that she did. Yuki's character was highly amazing to watch. She was very cute with her costumes and hairstyle. The one I liked most was the Munchurian one she had when she went to the palace with Benny. I found her headgear to be very cute as well. Yuki and Jia Yi Ping made a very cute couple. They were the funniest in this series. This would be the second time I've seen Yuki, and I just have to stress that she's so cute!

Jia Yi Ping: When this guy first appeared, he seemed quite ugly due to his disguise, but later when he took off his disguise, he looked a lot cuter. No matter how cute he is though, I say the bodyguard is cuter. His character was also interesting to watch. Too bad he's not a Hong Kong actor, because I would love to see him again in future series.

Liu Wei: At first my friend thought she was going to play an evil role, keke. She's not beautiful, but quite pretty. I didn't like her character much though, but really pitied her when she wanted to kill herself. I thought she was going to die due to the opening clips, but then she didn't. She and the bodyguard made a cute couple. Their story was quite boring, but some how I still enjoyed much of their presence. I really thought that she and the bodyguard would end up together, but too bad they didn't. I was crying a bit when he died, really wished he didn’t.

Yang Chao: This guy I just have to say is ugly. When standing next to Benny he appears to be even uglier. At first I hated him so much. He attempted to rape Zi Xia TWICE and tried to kill Tin Sze on several occasions as well. However, I really admired his true love for Zi Xia. He had many chances of killing Tin Sze, but didn't. His martial arts skills were higher than Zi Xia and Tin Sze, and once he held the two by their necks and could have killed Tin Sze. However, Zi Xia told him to kill her first if he wanted to kill Tin Sze. The scene that made me admire his great love for Zi Xia most was when he begged his father for Zi Xia's life. Again, I cried so much at that scene (I know, I'm such a softie). After that scene I didn't hate him as much any more, but still couldn't grow to like him either.

Zhang Tong: At first I actually thought she was going to play a nice person, but later on, I realised that she was the bad one. She came out as the gentle, innocent and lady-like person that seemed so caring and got along well with the Empress. I would probably classify her as pure evil in a sense. After the death of the Empress, she seemed like the one that had the best opportunity to become Empress. She really had her hopes up; all until she met with Zi Xia, whom she thought was Empress Fei. I also think that she took part in the revolution as well. There was this one scene where Zi Xia went to meet with the people who were part of the revolution and she was there as well. Too bad she didn't die in the end, but she didn't get a happy ending anyway, so that's good.

Other Concubine: Her character was really annoying, as typical of a concubine. She liked to fake things, like when she faked her crying in front of the Empress's coffin. Even though she seemed evil, but she looked quite cute at first, until later when she was just pure evil. The thing that made me hate her most was what she did to Zi Xia. She was one of those jealous concubines, and when she went to Jiang Nan to find the Emperor and saw him with Zi Xia, she pretended to be nice to her, but instead tricked her into falling into her trap. She then ordered for some men to rape Zi Xia. I really hated her there, but luckily the Qian Long turned up on time to save her. What made me a little more pleased, was that afterwards, she was given a potion type thing and hair grew all over her face. I laughed so hard at that scene; she really deserved it.

Martial Arts / Fight Scenes:
There really weren't too many of them here, as it was more of a love series. The fighting wasn't overboard or anything, and that was good. The only complaint that I had was they relied too heavily on the camera to move around. The camera kept moving too much that it made it hard to see what they were doing, and it made the fighting seem quite fake. You couldn't see any strings, but somehow you could kind of tell that they were used. Overall, I would say that fighting scenes were done very well, especially when I've always doubted the Mainland-style doing things and have held a grudge about them.

Costumes:
The costumes used were quite nice for some and not so nice for other. Benny had some really nice clothes as Gau Tin Sze, and had the normal yellow royal robes as Qianlong. The only one that I didn't like was this peasant one he had when he went to live with the peasant family, which I think was Charmaine's younger sister / cousin, or really close friend, because she called Charmaine 'Jie Jie'. The outfit wasn't very nice and it was sleeveless and just looked weird on Benny.

Some of Charmaine's dresses were really nice, and some were ok. There was this one light blue one she had that was really nice. I did mention above that Charmaine looked funny with the Muchurian outfit, but after a while she looked really nice in them. I think out of all the dresses, she wore the pink one the most, and I didn't like that one much. She also had this other dark blue and the sleeves of it weren't that long. At that time period I'm sure women still had to cover themselves as much as they could, but that one you could see the lower part of her arms. I think she had some other ones that showed part of her arms as well. The dress that I loved most was the one she had with the light blue top on.

For Yuki, she had some really cute ones to go with her hairdo and her cute face. Her dresses were probably the least nicest out of all the girls, but very cute. The thing with Yuki's costumes was that she only wore pants and I hardly saw her in an actual dress. The only time I remember was when she was in the palace and wore the Muchurian dress.

Liu Wei had some ok dresses and some really nice ones. Considering she wasn't lead, and Charmaine was, she had some really nice ones compared to Charmaine's. This bothered me at times!

The "I Don't Get It" Scenes:
- At the beginning when the members of the cult wanted to assassinate Qian Long, Zi Xia and her brother both fought with him. They had veils on, but he didn't, therefore meaning that they saw his face, knowing what he looked like. Then later on when they met him again, neither of them recognised him, and didn't know he was the Emperor. Weird stuff.

- The hairdos - I'm sure that during the Qing Dynasty everybody, men and women, all had to have their hair in long plaited ponytails. However, in this series, Yuki and Liu Wei didn't. So I was just wondering, why is it that way???? Anyhow, Yuki's hairstyle was really cute on her.

- I thought that all females in the palace had to wear some headgear, but in this series I didn't see any of them wear it, except Yuki.

- This is not really an 'I don't get it', but good enough. I just felt that Qian Long got over the Empress's death too early. Ok, she was poisoned, he hugged her crying (and me crying too) and telling her not to die and panicking for a doctor. She died; he carried her body outside and just stood there really sad. He just thought of her and nothing more and continually had reminiscent flashbacks about their past. He went to her coffin, cleaned out the cob web there (and note he is the Emperor) missed her and had more flashbacks. Then, he decided to go to Jiangnan and was all happy, laughing and stuff. Sure he could get on with his life. Then he didn't think of her any more until later on. He met Zi Xia and went around trying to woo her (at that time I'm sure that was a kind of disrespectful act, but hey, he was the Emperor). It was until near the middle that he thought of the Empress again. Zi Xia was playing the flute for him and he called out, "Ah Fei". Then he didn't think of her much any more. He thought of her here and there, and that's normal. BUT! The time period in which it took him to move on with his life was so short, and might I stress, the Empress was his MOST LOVED wife.

Sweet/Cute Scenes:
- At the beginning when Benny tried to woo Charmaine, they got into a fight and they accidentally kissed on the lips, Charmaine slapped him and left the restaurant.

- After Charmaine saved Benny when he was poisoned. They were sleeping on the bed (cement/wood thing) and used their clothes as blankets. In the morning Benny woke up first, to see Charmaine beside him then he gave her a peck on the forehead. Later they sat on near the river fishing and Benny wrote I LOVE YOU on the ground for Charmaine.

- Yuki and Jia Yi Ping were fighting about something, then all the lights went out (this was at night). They had one candle left only and Jia Yi Ping held it in his hands. Yuki smiled at him and he moved the candle closer to her and realised how pretty she was.

- Near the end Benny and Charmaine were on the streets and they helped to solve a couple's marriage problem by solving a problem the wife gave out. She had some fish and 2 butcher knives stuck on the wood, and she said as long as someone can successfully chop it then she would forgive her husband. Benny volunteered to do it but was struggling, so Charmaine came to his aid and the two of them accomplished the task and helped save the couple's marriage (I think that was what happened).

- Overall, it was pretty much all of the scenes Charmaine and Benny had together. At the beginning it was funny, especially when Benny was wooing Charmaine and she resisted. Once they got together it was sweet and romantic. That continued until near the end when it became sad, romantic, sad, sweet and sad. So overall, majority of the scenes Charmaine and Benny had together were ALL wonderfully sweet and cute scenes.

- There weren't that many cute scenes between Liu Wei and the bodyguard. Their story, like I said, was quite boring. Also, I spent my time paying attention to Charmaine and Benny's story, so I don't know if there is any between them or any more for Yuki and Jia Yi Ping.

This series was like a cross between tragic drama and comedy, so it was quite enjoyable for me. I personally love tragic dramas and comedy comes a close second, so this series was extremely great for me.

Benny sang the themesong and sub-themesong and they sounded really good (I've always listened to themesongs in Chinese, so I can judge this one). Now some last words before I finish off. I just have to stress, Charmaine was really beautiful and young in this series (and my friends agreed on this part too, and they're not her fans). Benny was really cute. BUT, most of all… CHARMAINE AND BENNY WERE SO CUTE AS A COUPLE.

Now as I said, I'm a big softie, so I cried heaps. If you're like me and really emotional, you will cry A LOT as the story nears the end. If you’re a fan of ancient martial arts stuff then you should watch it. If you like sad dramas then get it. If you like comedies then rent it. If you like a mixture of comedy and tragedy, then surely rent it. If you’re a fan of Charmaine and/or Benny, then you have to watch it. If you fit all or most of the above, then it's a MUST WATCH. So whatever you do, just watch it, because it's really good and worth your money.

The reason for it not being a 5-star and only 4 1/2 is because of some of the small lags in the middle. The Emperor's companions were annoying at times. Last thing is that the story had too many typical things in it. There were many things that I guessed and was right about. Overall, an EXCELLENT series.

Screenshots:
http://www.settv.net/metro/m079/