A pivotal episode. A lot goes down here, and some of the looser plot threads from earlier episodes come together in a big way. I’ll tread lightly to avoid spoilers.
The Yangs and the Pans have both pledged to serve the Emperor Song in fighting against the rebelling Liao clan. But while the Pans are in charge of calling the shots with the army, it’s largely the Yang sons executing those orders on the field, giving the grudge-holding Pans a lot of power over the Yangs’ lives. Also exerting a lot of power over the Yangs’ lives? Lord Yang, whose devotion to his Emperor outweighs his concern for his sons. When Liao invites the Emperor to a parlay, Lord Yang, fearing a trap, volunteers his sons to go in the Emperor’s place.
There might be a tendency to paint Lord Yang’s actions – in both this episode and the previous one – as “cultural differences,” a societal thrust that demands greater allegiance to sovereign than family. I could see some who might suggest that Lord Yang’s seeming callousness toward his sons’ safety is “a Chinese thing,” but I think that would mischaracterize the situation. For starters, I’m sure plenty of characters on Game of Thrones pulled similar moves, and from a national perspective rather than a familial one, it’s the same sort of mentality behind leaders sending the youth of their nations off to die in wars, especially ones of questionable necessity. And within the narrative itself, it’s clear that Lord Yang has no moral high ground. When he offers up his sons to send them into the belly of the beast, they may ultimately do as he says, but not without protest, and not without shock at his words. Likewise, their mother back home may be loyal to the Emperor, but she cares a lot more about the safety of her boys than the outcome of any war.
I won’t say much about the details of the ongoing war or what occurs at the parlay, for the sake of spoilers, but I will say that there’s some pretty great action in this episode. Cool battle scenes and fights with a lot of character. Some of the characters, by the way, fight using the long spears that I recognize best from Red Cliff, which I think are really neat weapons and lead to some excellent fights. Additionally, we get a couple more tiny glimmers of connection between the humans and the stuff with the deities from the first episode – I wouldn’t necessarily say they all make an abundance of sense, but I appreciate getting something on that front.
Seventh Boy is in the thick of things on the battlefield, very brave/bold and always putting others before himself, although at times he puts sense aside in order to do so. His older brothers repeatedly call on him not to get ahead of himself – he usually obeys, but barely, and only if doing so wouldn’t allow any of his brothers to remain in immediate danger.
This performance didn’t make a huge impression on me early on, and I found it enjoyable but further proof of how far Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s skills have developed since the early days of his career. However, I really am liking it more and more, and even if Seventh Boy is slightly less prominent here than he was in the last two episodes, I was really struck by a key scene here. In particular, I love the scenes that show Seventh Boy’s gradual realization about some of the things the Pans have done. Even though the Yangs and the Pans have been at odds the whole series and Seventh Boy knows they’re not exactly bastions of integrity, there’s a moment here where he stands in the throne room listening to Elder Statesman Pan, and he just looks so dismayed. Seventh Boy is entirely open and artless, and even when he fully expects them to be underhanded and/or treacherous, he’s still bowled over when he witnesses it. It’s a terrific moment of acting, demonstrating how Leung could command the camera even in the days when he was young and green.
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