She smile and he smiled, she smiled and I think they were about to chat more when everybody's friend, the kind eunuch came rushing to him about some books he wanted and introductions were made and she went on her way.
Meanwhile the girls are still buzzing about this new guy. And who is he? Ko Hin Yeung, quite literally "The professor of chess'. Yes, this handsome dude who has supreme martial arts skills is actually in the palace to teach the maids and gang play chess as he is a chess officer, like his father, played by Kwok Fung. Anyway I have digressed.
There came 3 Japanese ambassadors, actually 2 Japanese ambassadors and their rather stylish and anal looking chess expert who with his calm demeanour won the chess game against Hin Yeung's father who was under pressure. Insults were thrown as you know losing is not an option and the Japanese ambassadors laughed and said sarcastically "Your majesty has been most gracious, pretending to lose to us, very very gracious" which is in effect a slap on his face which is good because I don't like this emperor. The chess expert said "Perhaps your majesty may wish to play against me, I will require a highly skilled chess player and I believe your majesty may be the one" and of course an uproar because this emperor is stupid so officials walked forward and said "Of course not! Your majesty is above all these competition, he is an expert and highly skilled and he will not need to lower his standard just to prove a point!". So expert quickly rearranged the chess pieces and said "Well then, I have rearranged the pieces into this combination which is difficult to beat. I shall leave it here and ask any of your men to try and solve this combination" and everyone panicked since it looked difficult and Hin Yeung looked... well... midly interested as Kevin Cheng could muster the look of "worried" and "interested".
Meanwhile Kam Ling and Fei Yin were doing their chores when Fei Yin nearly tripped thanks to a log of wood, pushed it near the stairs and Kam Ling not knowing tripped on it and sprained her hand. Kam Ling was very angry as Fei Yin taunted her (Fei Yin be careful! I see you as target no. 1 when Kam Ling is in power!). In tears suddenly an older maid walked into the scene and we know her as the senior in the jewelry dept (played by June Chan, I think) and in a rather fake concerned way (why I said fake because it looks like it) she displayed on Kam Ling and Kam Ling cried "I must tell Lady Yuen (Susanna)!" but the senior said "Lady Yuen is pre-occupied with her work. As you know the empress dowager has said our works are not good enough and she is worried about that" and Kam Ling said "But I have an idea ..." and the senior said "Well then, you describe your idea to me and I draw for you since your hand is hurt" and Kam Ling eagerly agreed, displaying perhaps one rare moment of naiveness.
Kam Ling and Sam Hou both were with a crying maid who cried because they were punished due to the last episode's incident and can't visit their families for 6 months but her only parent, her mother is dying and she is very very sad about that and Sam Hou suggested that the head of palace maids will surely relax the rule whilst Kam Ling said "They're all alike Sam Hou! They will bully you and treat you like a servant that we are. Do not trust them!" which is quite a good advice but Sam Hou being pure of heart will never ever ever ever believe such thing is possible. Yes, she is that optimistic or in the real world choose to believe in her own delusions. Anyway Michelle saw them together and said "Didn't I say jewelry and embroidery dept are not yo fraternise together ands exhange news of each dept?" and Sam Hou explained what they were talking about and so Michelle quickly seized the opportunity and said "I will talk to the head of palace maids". I believe if Susanna does A, she will do B sort of mentality.
I can't rmember if this scene was before or after but Lee Yi, the duke (I think I will just call him the duke until he becomes the emperor) walked into his mother's room and his mother was dressed normally and greeted her son warmly. And the duke spoke normally as he is, about the state of the palace and all and his mother said "You must leave soon" and duke said "If you weren't sick mother, I would never have been able to return to you but now that you're well again, I will have to leave and I wish to leave this god forsaken place but for how long must we part this time mother? How long before we rid of the useless emperor and that evil empress dowager before we can be reunited? What sort of life would I lead out of palace knowing my mother is bullied, that I can't even protect a mere turtle and now I can't even protect my own mother? What sort of a man I am?" as he exclaimed in despair but his mother urged him "Don't talk like that, we musn't let anyone know you're normal" but too late. Someone walked in, they both looked and it was... Susanna who was bringing in something and saying "My Lady is quite right at what she said. My Lord must remember never to let your guard down and the longer you stay here, the possibility of you pretending to be child like will be exposed" and Duke looked at her gratefully and said "If it wasn't for your suggestion, my mother and I would have been dead".
So it was Susanna who suggested the whole idea!
Susanna said as she took the pheonix hairpin and placed it on the grateful Concubine Zheng's head "I have only wanted to save this piece of art, which was why I suggested that this hairpin is cursed. But I never thought the empress dowager would placed it on your head, to transfer the curse to you. I felt very guilty, it was not what I wish it to be so why not just use the reputation of the curse and make it as if it caused my lord's misfortune? That way I can safeguard the hairpin and both your lives" and Concubine Zheng nodded and thanked Susanna and duke said "My mother would have been very lonely if not for your company all these years and for that I am grateful" and Concubine Zheng said she needed to go to her room for a moment although she looked sick and walked unsteadily then Susanna looked at the duke and said "You do realise she is only pretending to be well again? She wants you to leave this palace as soon as possible. Her love for you is boundless, she is prepared to suffer for your safety" and the duke nodded, knowing his mother pretended to well again so that he will leave and be safe again.
Pause here.
I really love this scene and even if I dramatize it a bit adding some words but the intent is the same. So Susanna actually felt very guilty over what happened. I felt very sad for Concubine Zheng and felt the duke's frustration. He is rather brave to want to stand up and fight but he can't do that since his mother is worried sick everyday. In fact this is possibly the best scene thus far to show how Susanna is involved and it also shows Susanna as someone noble and above those petty bickerings.
Meanwhile meeting time and Susanna was about to bring up the issue about the maid's predicament when Michelle stepped forward and said the situation and of course the other heads and even the head of palace maid said "Isn't this maid from the jewelry dept? Why then is the embroidery dept speaking on her behalf?" and Michelle cunningly replied "She may not be from my dept but I feel for her predicament. As her own supervisor reacts so slowly to her predicament, we as sisters of the same place must speak on each other's behalf" and Susanna having more urgent things in mind (like the duke's problem) walked forward and pleaded for the maid's case as well and to cut the long story short, the head of palace maid after consulting with the other 2 dept (I know now Kara Hui is head of food dept, not sure about the other one whom I believe is Lui Shan) agreed. Michelle then said "Let me make the necessary arrangements" and that was agreed too.
As Susanna, Kara and Lui Shan walked together, both were angry about Michelle on behalf of Susanna. Why Michelle was so eager to take credit, etc until Kara said "Maybe the palace maid's predicament reminded Lady Chung of her own predicament. Remember her own mother? Not being able to see her mother for one final time must have caused quite an impression in her" and Susanna looked like she knew what they were talking about. So their rivalry may have started from Michelle unable to say farewell to her dying mother.
Anyway I thought the maid will be allowed to leave the palace to visit the mother but better yet, the mother was carried into the palace and it was a tearful reunion.
Pause here.
I must say the young actress was rather good in this tearful scene.
Sam Hou brought them packets of medicine, paid for by Michelle who looked from afar with tears in her eyes. I believe Michelle is as Kidd said incredibly immature but she isn't a bad person, just someone in a lot of misunderstanding which I know TVB will take their own sweet time to reveal to me. Anyway she turned and wiped her tears and saw Susanna who was rather shocked to see Michelle that way and Michelle said "Are you so surprised I am capable of tears? Yes I am! Who won't cry in the face of such a scene? You never knew my regrets but it is my regret never to have been able to see my mother for one last time. What is that you're holding? Money? Why pretend to care when you clearly don't?"
Yeap, their rivalry must have started from this incident.
Meanwhile Sam Hou, being rather free from what I can observe is again walking from left to right of the palace bumped into Concubine Zheng and chatted with her. I tell you, she is so free she can chat. She can chat with anyone so there goes the whole rank thing. But then Concubine Zheng is very humble, she was a maid before. She remembered Sam Hou fondly and then heard a piercing scream and saw the Japanese chess expert in pain, probably migraine and Sam Hou and Zhend rushed to his side and saw the part of the face covered by his hair rather stylishly was disfigured and being shocked Concubine Zheng fainted and that guy ran away and Sam Hou screamed or rather spoke loudly for help.
Meanwhile, the emperor and gang are worried at losing face. They knew they would lose to that expert. Anyway announcement came that duke is here to say morning to empress dowager as required and the empress dowager said "He alone? That woman must be unwell again due to that incident with that Japanese chess expert. I have no mood to see the idiot, send him away" but then the emperor, evil emperor if I may add said "Wait...what if we use the idiot to kill the chess expert and then with the uproar blame it on the idiot who esd very angry with that chess expert? When we need to we can then kill the idiot, so we can get rid of them both" and unsurprisingly grandmother approved of such evil scheme.
Susanna was pleased with the new design by Kam Ling and said she will reward the designer and Kam Ling said "So there's no need to sweep the floor anymore?" and Susanna surprised said "When did she ever had to sweep floor?" because the designer was June and Kam Ling shocked said "But I am the designer! I described and she drew! I came up with the idea!" as she tearfully said so and June pretending to look shocked said "I did the design. You said yourself your hand is hurt. I drew this, please believe me Madam" and Susanna said "Enough! Since Kam Ling has no proof, I can't believe Kam Ling" and of course Kam Ling cried.
Then Kam Ling met with Sam Hou who in my memory has yet to do any real embroidery was packing something as Kam Ling said "And then Madam Yuen pulled me into the room and you know what she said? She said I must learn from this, never to trust someone. She said that! And what's the use of being the head if she can't even decide in my favour when she knew the injustice? Sam Hou what are you doing?" and Sam Hou said "I am bringing medicine to that chess expert" and Kam Ling said "But he is for the Japanese!" and Sam Hou smiled and said something I can't remember.
Sam Hou saw the guy screaming in pain and she said "Here is some medicine to cure your migraine. I have seen it worked before so do take it!" and the Japanese guy threw the medicine away and screamed at Sam Hou to leave which she did.
She is so free she can have time to cook medicine?!
Anyway the duke was led by an eunuch to where the japanese chess expert was sitting and said to the duke "Take this stone and throw it at him. He was the one who hurt your mother! Take revenge!" and duke said "He was the one! I will call for help to beat him up!" and the eunuch said "No, no that will be too late! Do it now!" and Sam Hou so happened to walk by and knew what was happening and the duke was thinking how to get out of this when Sam Hou loudly said "Oh see a huge turtle!!!" and the duke turned, the japanese guy interrupted so left and the eunuch annoyed and duke said "Turtle? WHERE?! WHERE?!" and the eunuch said "He's left!" and duke said "So lucky him!" and Sam Hou quickly said "Come with me my lord, the turtle is over there" and so duke followed Sam Hou and after a while Sam Hou said "My Lord, there's no turtle. I was trying to stop you from hurting that man" and duke asked "Why?" and Sam Hou said "My mother taught me never to hurt others for self gain and you musn't too" and the duke smiled and left and as he turned his face changes that to relief and he turned to see Sam Hou walking away and he smiled, thankful for Sam Hou's help.
Pause here.
I would be very surprised the Empress Dowager did not drag Sam Hou to some secret room and kicked her to death but again Sam Hou is incredibly lucky because there was no consequences at all.
Hin Yeung was looking for a book at the palace library but kind eunuch said head eunuch took the book and head eunuch appeared and said he was having the book to find ways to beat the combination which looks like a trap when he said "We can't just walk into the trap" and Hin Yeung suddenly thought of a way to beat the combination, and he performed in front of the emperor and gang and the emperor said "Brilliant! To fall into the trap, walk into it and then beat the puzzle, what a solution!" and everybody was happy and the head eunuch recommended Hin Yeung as the guy to play against the expert and the emperor agreed and said "But as this is a matter of national pride, professor Ko, if you lose, you will lose your head, remember that" and Hin Yeung wasn't too pleased with that.
Hin Yeung's father was worried and said "I thought if I forbid you to be a scholar and then take on the job as professor of chess it will be a safe job! Who knew playing chess can lead to death?" but Hin Yeung assured his father he will be fine that he can beat that dude.
Sam Hou again came to the dude's place but his face was in a wash basin, she rushed to take his head out of the water and he awoke and she said "You musn't lie your head in the wash basin just to relieve your migraine. It won't work and worse still you may drown. Here, take my medicine..." and the guy looked at her and asked "Why are you treating me like this? I will be the cause of your empire's shame. The chess player due to play against me will die if he losses. By saving me, you will cause this man's death" and Sam Hou said "I am just a lowly palace maid and I don't know much about politics. What I do know is you must help those in need of help and you do need help. I just don't understand how a relaxing game of chess can turn into this deadly competition. A game of chess is supposed to be an exchange of ideas on strategies, not this. What joy then is to be gotten from such a game?" and Sam Hou left and the dude looked at her and drank the medicine.
Pause here.
True. What joy if a game of chess can lead to death? Let me speculate; he will lose deliberately to Hin Yeung quite simply because he had no more joy in such deadly games when chess is not supposed to be deadly. We shall see.
Sam Hou was with kind eunuch when head eunuch came to see her and said "You were delivering medicine to that chess expert" and Sam Hou nodded and he said "I want you to deliver one more to him" and Sam Hou said "May I know what medicine is this?" and the eunuch said "It is of no concern to you" but Sam Hou said "But I will need to know if this medicine will interupt with the one I just gave him, whether the base is hot or cold and such" but the eunuch said "All you need to do is to deliver this, you don't need to know anything else" but Sam Hou knew what he was getting at and she said "I won't do it. I won't hurt someone deliberately, I can't" and the eunuch was so angry he raised his hand ready to strike (YES! FINALLY A CONSEQUENCE!) but darn it, Hin Yeung interrupted him and said "What good will it do to force this upon the young maid? Are you suggesting I will lose?" and the eunuch said "Of course not, I was just merely trying to help and enlist this young maid to assist our empire for greater good" and Hin Yeung said "That is not necessary; I can beat him" and so the eunuch left and kind eunuch sighed with relief. Sam Hou looked at Hin Yeung and smiled and said "Thank you for your help. Are you confident in beating him?" and Hin Yeung looked at her and simply said "Truth is, I have no idea how" and the smile on Sam Hou's face was wiped off instantly.
Next episode, Kam Ling was accused of seducing the duke and was punished severely by Susanna with the duke watching.
Like I said, Kam Ling never had a chance. She was always punished, bullied, pushed around, how can she not be power crazy whilst Sam Hou was always rescued in the nick of time. I just want to see Sam Hou gets severely punished and yet retained her belief that people are good, now that would be a more convincing argument.
In fact it would have been more interesting if a good girl gone bad and a bad girl becomes good.
I can see where the Sam Hou character is heading as in she being such a pure at heart touches those cynics, like the chess player. You treat people nice, people will inevitably treat you nice, sort of concept which is great but in the end boring.
I can see where the Sam Hou character is heading as in she being such a pure at heart touches those cynics, like the chess player. You treat people nice, people will inevitably treat you nice, sort of concept which is great but in the end boring.
Anyhow right now I am intrigued by Moses' character Lee Yi and those surrounding him that the boring Sam Hou. To be fair it is early but ep 3 and still she is really 1 dimensional. In fact the supposed villains and prince in exile are the ones interesting but even Kam Ling is right now rather 1 dimensional. But Sam Hou.. she is seriously too bland for a heroine. As the series progresses I hope to see some temper tantrums or is she too perfect for that?
Performances wise, I won't comment much except to say Mary Hon and the increasingly less screen time Susan Tse didn't disappoint. A quick check and the evil emperor is Edwin Siu who I suppose deliberately does not have the kingly feel but does his job competently. Tavia is too early to tell since her role is minimal whilst the majority of the scenes goes to Charmaine whose character is like I said extremely bland. Her performance is still scene per scene and I see the old Charmaine back, like the one in the days before Return of The Cuckoo which is both good and bad; good as in ladylike and feminine which suits her role and bad because every action seems very deliberate, from hunching her shoulders and taking out that bowl of medicine and the occasional giggle. What I can't stand is her incessant smile so I was rather pleased to see the last scene of this episode where her smile got wiped off, which is great.
Michelle and Susanna both are saddled with 1 dimensional character, more precisely Michelle herself. Even with today's revelation about her mother, I felt I am quite bored with her incessant bickering with Susanna and I hope at least for one scene where Susanna just slap her silly.
One person I am most surprised by was Moses Chan himself. I thought he handled his role very well, from childish to mature in a split of a second and I really like his Lee Yi. I just hope by ep 10 he doesn't become an idiot in love. Lee Yi, Sam Hou is not worth it.
As for Kevin Cheng, I have not much to say except he suits Sam Hou; both as bland. He should have bulked up for this role. I saw how pitifully thin he was in that official's garment and the shoulder pads are even bigger than his face. He doesn't look convincing and the scholarly and heroic Ko Hin Yeung. I want to like him but I just feel he is wrongly cast based on not looks (oh he is good looking) but the persona. Not heroic enough.
As for the others, I notice there is only 4 to 5 eunuchs at this moment. Too few ke-le-fes and too many women. And all the women are dressed too unbelievably oppulent that it took me sometime to recognise the more oppoulent the hair and more decorative the dress the higher rank. Some dress do look utterly familiar though, like the one work by Susanna.
The next episode will probably show how Kam Ling descend into power madness and I don't blame her. She seems to get the bulk of the punishment. I still can't believe Sam Hou got away yet again with her interference with 1st the dress, then the whole Duke to kill Japanese chess expert and then refusal to poison that same chess expert. This palace is a very nice place from the way I see it, at least to Sam Hou who probably walks on rose petals falling down onto the floor as she takes each steps. I understand why her character is the way she is but the writing as in characterisation is terribly simplistic. Why is the palace such a horrible place for her mother, Susanna, for the consorts and Kam Ling and yet perfectly fine for Sam Hou? You see the discrepancies here?
Doesn't help that so far most scenes involve Charmaine and all I see is her doing absolutely nothing of significance except of course to do bad things which is a great lesson to be learned but in a TV series settings, perfection doesn't mean walking with wide eyed wonder all the time. Innocence can be something else as well other than proclaiming I won't do bad things. I really hope some bad things really do happen to her to shake her conviction. Then there will be something interesting about Sam Hou rather than just walk left, chat, walk right, carry stuff, chat some more and be really painfully nice. Maybe one scene will have her cradling a dog or something. I hope not! Because then as a contrast they will show Kam Ling killing the dog! Not fair at all!
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December 4, 2010 at 6:20 PM
LOL maybe not dogs...but perhaps rabbits (foreshadowing here).
I, too, wished Charmaine's character went through more hardships! TVB is usually really good about letting heroines enduring torture and hardship so viewers can empathize...but I assure you she will be punished - unfortunately nothing big though :)
Rosanne Lui/Lui San plays the Head of Furnishings btw.