Book and Sword
The act of criticism is an act of distortion and of late, I had been viewing most productions from the same perspective - faulting them for a lack of originality and for lousy acting. In my most recent review 'Return of The Cuckoo', I had such fun with my new rating system that I mentally distorted some television productions to best fit the rating and rather unfairly rated them on that basis. This does not mean that they entirely do not deserve the rating but rather to acknowledge that the bad aspects are not the entire sum of the show.
The new perspective comes courtesy of Zhang Yimou's movie 'Hero' and the intention is to interpret the same anti-hero message in the 2002 production of 'The Romance of The Book and The Sword'. Throughout the serial, Chen Jialuo is the reluctant leader of the Red Flower Society struggling to exert and then to maintain control over the rash hotheads he has to lead. Even the calmer members do not believe there is any other alternative except to overthrow Qianlong, an option Chen never actually takes up until he is completely forced by circumstances to do so.
The last episode is a graphic depiction of the futility of the aim to topple a dynasty at its zenith - almost all the Society's members die violently and quickly, overwhelmed by the large numbers of skilled troops. Chen's teachers who came out of retreat to help him also died and really rather pointlessly, adding to the body count.
Yutong and Yuanzhi - this young couple especially left the impression of a completely needless sacrifice. Yutong got his revenge on the official who framed his family even before joining the Society and Yuanzhi only joined because of him. Neither had sufficient motivation to stay with a lost cause except their naive idealism. Yu Yutong is one character unable to bear any taint on his honour or his loyalty and will go to extremes to make amends if he's breached that code. Witness the reckless ways and means he went about trying to rescue Wen Tailai, culminating in his nearly being killed by Zhang Zhaozhong and then being disfigured later. Such a person would never be able to comprehend not believing in the common cause and the attendant code of honour, much less questioning it to any great extent. He may have harboured doubts about how the aim was to be achieved but never the aim itself.
Zhang Zhaozhong - Represents the strength of the Ch'ing army and by extension, the Emperor. In terms of physical stature, Guo Liang was easily more impressive than the rather diminutive Zhao Wen Zhuo and this impression is further enhanced by making his martial skills on par with Chen Jialuo's. Unlike Chen, Zhang never had any doubts as to what his role was and whether it was justified.
Zhao Banshan & Wen Tailai - Represent different aspects of the Society's vulnerability. Zhao is capable and trusted but in the Court's pay and is symbolically pitted against Wen Tailai who exemplifies the 'ideal rebel', loosely speaking. Wen made the discovery about Zhao but was unable to conceive the possibility of any of his fellow 'leaders' being a traitor and died because of it. Refusing to flee from the troops early on in the serial, he kept reiterating how he was not afraid to die honourably - a viewpoint that was dizzyingly limited and shared by all the other 'leaders'.
Chen Jialuo - As mentioned, he struggles with the task entrusted to him to the point of coming across as ineffectual. He may have had some talent but as a leader he was utterly hopeless. Not surprisingly, Huo Qingtong came across as someone with more spine when it came to making sacrifices and this is the difference between Chen Jialuo, who was unable to sacrifice lives to achieve something, and Qianlong, who had no qualms about sacrificing as many as necessary. Tellingly, Qianlong is surrounded by two loyal and effective henchmen whereas Chen inherits a ragtag bunch and they bring nothing but trouble to whoever helps them. The case of the Zhou patriarch killing his young son for giving away the rebels' hiding place is probably the most twisted interpretation of what it means to be honour-bound. Zhou Qi's father came across as extremely selfish, more interested in upholding the cause than caring for his family. It seems utterly hypocritical to speak of bearing responsibility for the masses when he couldn't even treat his kin right.
After the spectacle of all and sundry dying, it comes to a showdown between the brothers and Qianlong makes his case - he's not such a bad monarch compared to other royal thugs etc. The point is that Chen Jialuo probably figured very early on that killing the Emperor was simply not an option but wasn't strong enough to resist the moral obligation felt to his godfather. He wasn't able to kill his brother, or let down his godfather, or decide which girl he liked or to change history but he was a "hero" to those who wanted him to be one.
