Li Han-hsiang
had a love for portraying ancient China and for the Shaw Brothers he directed
a number of historical epics beginning with Diau Charn and following that
up with the Kingdom and the Beauty, Yang Kwei Fei and The Empress Wu. Between
those he made a number of other films for Shaw - very few which have made
it to DVD - and of course The Love Eterne, at that time the most popular
film in Hong Kong cinema history. Then mysteriously, he skipped off to Taiwan
to set up his own company but without the resources of the Shaw Brothers
it failed. As far as I know, very few of those films have shown up in a digital
format as well. In 1972 he returned to the Shaws and after The Warlord he
directed a series of sex comedies (fengyue) that feel so strange if you have
seen his earlier films. Most had period settings but were full of nudity
and moaning and groaning. Then in the midst of all that rubbish, he returned
to his true love with this film.
It is a grand lavish beautifully shot historical
drama that is visually a masterpiece. The sets, the costumes, the hundreds
of extras, the rituals, the splendor is all dazzling eye-candy. The Shaws
recreated the Forbidden City on their lot and Li makes use of every inch
of it. He brings on an incredible cast of Shaw stars and character actors
- Ti Lung, David Chiang, Ivy Ling Po, Chen Ping, Tanny Tien and all those
older Shaw actors we come across all the time. And as the Empress there is
the great Lisa Lu giving a subtle but powerful performance. Lu had quite
the career - born in China, immigrated to the USA and got roles in loads
of TV shows - the most on Have Gun Will Travel as Hey Girl. A few small roles
in films as well and then in 1970 she jumped over to Hong Kong to make her
first film there - The Arch, considered one of the great dramas of its time
and from a female director. Since then, she has gone back and forth between
Hong Kong and Hollywood. She was in Crazy Rich Asians. She dominates the
screen every time she is on it. Sometimes by simply raising her eyebrow.
Other times by sending a chill through you. She makes every other actor look
small.
I found it all fascinating as most of it
is based on fact. The Empress Dowager Cixi was one hard knuckled player.
You had to be to survive the constant palace intrigue. She began as a lowly
courtesan to the Emperor Xianfeng. She had to compete against 60 other candidates
in 1851 to become one. She kept working her way up the Courtesan rankings
- 5th, 4th, 3rd. She had a son which gave her prestige as it was the only
surviving one. When the Emperor died in 1861, her son was the heir. Power
plays were a constant and doling out favors when needed. She played it well.
A few executions helped. Her son became Emperor on his 17th birthday but
a very bad one. When he passed away - possibly from syphilis - in 1875, Cixi
appointed a nephew as the heir. This is Ti Lung in the film some 20 years
later.
The entire film takes place within the Forbidden
City and is a barrage of palace intrigues at every level - the eunuchs, the
advisors, the concubines and of course the Emperor and the Empress Dowager.
Though he was Emperor, she still ruled by a hard hand behind the curtain.
Some are loyal to the Emperor, some to Cixi - some like David Chiang as a
eunuch tries to play it down the middle. The Emperor has good intentions
- the Ming Dynasty has begun its slow disintegration and he wants to make
reforms, fight the Japanese but he has the backbone of a marshmallow and
Cixi is a master chess player along with her eunuch played wonderfully deviously
by Miao Tian. She out maneuvers everyone. China loses the war to Japan and
had to cede Taiwan and Korea to them. There are revolutionaries down south.
The military is outmoded. The West is making moves. The story is continued
by Li Han-hsiang in The Last Tempest in the following year. To many I expect
they will find this very dull going. It is just one intrigue piled on top
of another - with lots of dialogue and no action. Those expecting an exciting
teaming up of Ti Lung and David Chiang will not get it. Though in one odd
scene, Ti rides him like a horse. Both of them are very different than in
their martial arts films. Come for the glorious sets, stay for the intrigue.
