Half-Life Fate (Ban Sheng Yuan)

CAST

Ruby Lin Xinru as Gu Manzhen
Jiang Qinqin (Shui Ling) as Gu Manlu
Patrick Tam as Shen Shijun
Li Liqun as Zhu Hongcai

INTRODUCTION

An adaption of Zhang Ailing's novel, "Eighteen Springs", the series "Ban Sheng Yuan", or "Half-Life Fate", is about two lovers, Gu Manzhen and Shen Shijun. These two people's paths cross at one point, but soon discover the pain caused by fate.

SYNOPSIS

Ban Sheng Yuan is set in Shanghai, China, during the 1930s. It centers around two sisters from a struggling family, Gu Manzhen and her older sister Gu Manlu. A college graduate with a friendly and strong character, Manzhen finds true love with one of her colleagues, Shen Shijun. Meanwhile, Manlu, the oldest of four children, supports the entire family. At the age of seventeen, Manlu sacrificed her pride and reputation to become a "wu nu". This work paid well for Manlu's family, but others found her work disgraceful and looked down on Manlu. Even her own grandmother did not like Manlu's job. Originally, before she took up her work as a "wu nu", Manlu was to marry a respected doctor named Yu Jing.

At the nightclub where she works, Manlu meets a man named Zhu Hongcai, who seems to be a pretty nice man. While his financial situation is not stable, he is kind towards Manlu and helps her through her problems. Initially, Manlu likes Hongcai, but is not completely interested in him. However, after Hongcai is shot in an effort to help Manlu, the two decide to marry.

Manzhen and Shijun's relationship blossoms through several meetings, but there are conflicts as well. Like Manzhen, Shijun has a complicated family. Although he lives in a rich household, his parents are separated, and his father lives with his second, younger wife. Shijun's parents had originally planned for Shijun to marry Cuizhi, the pretty daughter of a local wealthy family. Shijun is obviously in love with Manzhen, bringing about more troubles. Shijun's parents do not exactly like Manzhen because they hoped for Shijun to marry Cuizhi. Meanwhile, a romance develops between Cuizhi and Shuhui, a colleague of Manzhen's and Shijun's (Shuhui was the one who introduced Manzhen and Shijun to begin with).

In the midst of all this romance, Hongcai and Manlu's romance begins to sour. Hongcai spends his nights at nightclubs with younger women, resulting in angst between the two. Additionally, despite the fact that he buys her a rich house, Hongcai treats Manlu very poorly, hitting her and ignoring her. He also develops an interest in Manzhen. It is all quite sickening. Manlu is unable to produce a son for Hongcai and her poor health results in sickness. On the verge of becoming mad, Manlu attempts to escape all this fiery and impress Hongcai by scheduling the rape of Manzhen. In order to ensure Manzhen will give birth to Hongcai's child, Manlu locks Manzhen up in her house. She tells Shijun that Manzhen has married another man, leaving Shijun heartbroken. By the time a disgraced Manzhen escapes a few years later, Shijun has married Cuizhi, resulting in numerous heartbreaks. Manlu realizes her actions and attempts to help Manzhen and Shijun reconcile, but she is in great pain when she discovers Shijun's marriage to Cuizhi. Manzhen refuses to forgive her sister despite her pleas, for what she did was unforgivable, as Manlu knows.

PLOT ANALYSIS

Zhang Ailing is one of my favorite Chinese writers, and I definitely like the plot a lot. It is a tragedy, a sad one, and really shows that life is not always full of happy endings. It also shows how a few experiences can impact a lifetime, as well as how outside influences of evil can destroy innocence (Manlu's involvement in Manzhen's rape being a great example.) The original book was quite moving. The adaptation of this plot dwelled even more on romance, especially between Shijun and Manzhen, making this series even more of a tearjerker. The story is brought to life very nicely. Admittedly, the plot tries a bit too hard, with excessive lengthy scenes between Manzhen and Shijun, as well as pointless arguments that bring the plot nowhere. If the pointless arguments were not enough, it would often take a few episodes for the two to make up.

ACTING

Ruby Lin Xinru as Gu Manzhen
I have always felt Ruby Lin lacked the certain "magic" to shine in a series. Whenever other popular actresses are cast, they tend to outshine Ruby. In both "Huan Zhu Ge Ge" I and II, as well as "Romance in the Rain", Vicki's performance was always more exceptional than Ruby's, in my perspective. In this case, although I do not mean to belittle Ruby's performance, I felt she was clearly surpassed yet again by Jiang Qinqin. Manzhen became rather boring; for some reason, I found it difficult to connect with her. I am perhaps extremely biased when judging, but Ruby took all of the strength out of Manzhen's character. Manzhen became another weepy soap opera - she became pitiful rather than determined. I am sad to say that this was what I would call a typical Ruby performance - lots of tears shed at the perfect moments, but lacking real substance. However, "bad acting" is sometimes the fault of the director rather than the actress - if the script called for a pitiful Manzhen, then Ruby Lin delivered well!

Jiang Qinqin as Gu Manlu
In my personal opinion, I felt Jiang Qinqin was the true lead actress of this story, rather than a supporting actress. This is because of how she blew me away - in my eyes, her performance far surpassed the rest of the cast. Ruby Lin fans may have different opinions, but I think that Jiang Qinqin is a phenomenal actress. Besides being exquisitely beautiful, she has great acting talent. I often wonder why Jiang Qinqin was cast as Gu Manlu, considering Manlu's harsh nature and rash actions. However, Jiang Qinqin took Manlu's character and portrayed it in a way that I sympathized with Manlu. Honestly, she became my favourite character, because of the challenges she was faced with. She was really a good person inside, and I felt so bad for her, especially the way Hongcai treated her. This is the first time I have seen Jiang Qinqin in an antagonist role, but she depicts Manlu in a way that she is no longer the antagonist. In some scenes she acts almost as if she were crazy - in others, she acts aloof - these are perhaps the best scenes to observe Jiang Qinqin's spectacular acting. Her age made her a little unbelievable as Manlu, which is one of the few places where she stands weak against Anita Mui (who portrayed Manlu in the 1997 movie). Nevertheless, an extraordinary performance.

Patrick Tam as Shen Shijun
Honestly, Patrick Tam was not bad, but I felt he lacked chemistry with Manzhen. This may sound odd, since the couple's story was so heartbreaking, but if it were not for the script, I am not sure I would particularly love this couple. He lacked that sort of "magic" as well, the spark that brings romance alive. Rather, Patrick Tam was pretty stiff. He was not very good in scenes with Cuizhi where he tried to act annoyed. In the ending where the two reunite, Ruby Lin seems to do much more of the work than Patrick Tam.

Li Liqun as Zhu Hongcai
Hongcai was obviously my least favorite character - he acted absolutely awfully towards poor Manlu. Besides that, he raped his wife's sister, Manzhen. How horrible and repugnant is that? However, while watching the series, I did remember the whole point of Hongcai was probably so the audience would hate him. It would bring out sympathy towards the other characters. Li Liqun delivered just such a performance as Hongcai - he created a character the audience was sure to hate. His carefree, friendly, but mysterious and somewhat untrustworthy attitude at the beginning was very well-depicted - I love the scene when he dances with Manlu. Additionally, when he becomes "evil" after marrying Manlu, he is quite believable, coming home drunk and throwing temper tantrums. One thing Hongcai failed to do was win my sympathy, but I do believe the script was too filled with his antagonism to leave room for sympathy. This was not the fault of the actor. A rather impressive performance, in my eyes.

COMPARED TO 1997 MOVIE: BETTER OR WORSE

Stating the obvious, "Ban Sheng Yuan" is definitely a longer production than the 1997 movie. This leads to strengths and weaknesses: the romance between Shijun and Manzhen is much deeper and heart-wrenching in this series, but some of the simplicity is lost. The actress who portrayed Manzhen in the 1997 movie was better, in my opinion. She gave Manzhen a more strong, independent character, rather than Ruby's pitiful, tear-jerking version. Obviously, the costumes and production of the series was much better than the 1997 movie - a higher budget is evident.

I have to agree with other critics when stating that "Ban Sheng Yuan" is more of a Qiong Yao production. Rather than a Zhang Ailing book, the series is quite a sob story - typical Qiong Yao. Manzhen's character was softened to the point where she was like a Qiong Yao heroine. I could even sympathize with antagonists like Manlu. Obviously, Qiong Yao had no involvement in this film, but perhaps this is because of Ruby Lin's performance and the direction of the movie.

COSTUMES

Considering they spent a fortune on the costumes, it is easy to say that they were quite glamourous. I particularly liked Manlu's wardrobe as a "wu nu" and all of Manzhen's outfits before she became separated from Shijun. It reflected the feeling of old Shanghai.

SOUNDTRACK

I do not particularly like Ruby Lin's singing. In "Huan Zhu Ge Ge", I was not very impressed by Zhao Wei's vocals at the time, but Ruby Lin was worse. Even after her performance in "Ban Sheng Yuan", I still believe she is not much of a singer. Her tonality is flawed, as well as the way she enunciates.

However, judging on the song itself and not its singer, the opening and ending themes of "Ban Sheng Yuan" were very good. The opening theme song gave a feeling of old Shanghai (the scenes on the screen helped) and the ending song, "Cha Sheng Er Guo", was very touching.

RATING

In forms of a mathematics equation:

2 stars for Zhang Ailing's excellent plot + 1 star for performances by Jiang Qinqin and Li Liqun + 1 star for costumes + 1 star for soundtrack =

5 stars - 1 star for a pitiful Manzhen and for an excessive of a "Qiong Yao-style" plot

= 4 stars