Personal Review: Legend of Xiangxi (2)

Legend of Xiangxi finished with a big exclamation mark. All significant men roles died at the end and all died of fighting with the JAPs. Sannu’s death was the most heroic one because he died of protecting his loved one (using his own body as the bullet shield) from being shot by a Japanese officer. It appears that for most Chinese screenwriters/directors, when a story reached a point that all conflicts cannot be easily resolved in a smooth way, then one or both parties of the conflicting sides should either die or lose their minds completely (or became a nun/monk, etc). The difference for this story is that it got a good excuse for doing so because it was set in a war background so that death is sort of inevitable in a way.

I am kind of speechless at this moment. I still like this show, otherwise it would not have attracted me to stay so late every night knowing that the aftermath would be to go to work yawning with red eyes for over a week; however, my affection to this show is much more focused on my personal passion for the leading male role: Sannu. He has very consistent personalities throughout the show. His faithfulness and dedication to the loved one made him risk his life so many times (and eventually lost it) regardless how “badly” his former lover treated him during the second half of the show. When there was only one thing left for me to enjoy the show, I do not know whether or not I can still say that this is a great TV series.

There may be a few things that can be improved to make this show logically and emotionally sound:

1. A common mistake for Chinese movies/TV plays, as a way of making the story with more dramatic turns, is to have “bad” people almost always outsmart the “good” ones. When it is time for the “good” ones to realize the truth behind the disguise, it is usually too late because damages have already been done. In other words, there are shockingly lack of good surprises. As the result of this, audiences would be left with unbearable pain.

2. Suisui should not have married Suo Yunchao though the marriage itself was interrupted by Suo’s untimely death (or shall we say just the opposite). I think deep inside, Suisui knew how desperately Sannu was still in love with her and by marrying someone else, he would be hurt hardly and it would make the already very tensed relationship between Pai Bang and Suo’s army even worse. She should have treated Suo as her big brother and try to persuade Sannu to give up his hatred for any fellow Chinese but to join the Japanese-fighting unions. Making Suisui first marry Suo and then widowed, right before she lost another two men who loved her dearly, seem to make the story too unbelievable and not only for Suisui, nobody would be able to imagine what is the best way to swirl the emotional gear.

3. The war scenes need to be improved. It does not have to be very grand, but each detail is important. Comparing with American movies/TV series that have war episodes, the war scenes in Legend of Xiangxi were far too primitive and much less convincing.

4. Though I cannot think of a better ending, the show could be extended a few minutes just to give audiences a flashback of the touching and sad love story between Sannu and Suisui (it could include other types of flashbacks for other people). It could happen while Suisui was carrying Sannu’s body down the mountains. Lots of people have watched the movie Titanic, though the leading male role, also the leading female role’s true love interest while aboard Titanic, died close to the end, the movie did not stop there. It ended with a dream scene where Rose went back to Titanic and saw all those people that died in that tragedy including Jack. It gave an otherwise sad story a perfect ending - an ending with hope and satisfaction.