*A few stage-setting spoilers.*
I’m still working on keeping everything straight, but purely on a Tony Leung Chiu-wai level, I am definitely all in on The Duke of Mount Deer. As I started this show, looking at the number of episodes, I was mostly excited and a little nervous, not quite sure what I was getting into. But this is just so much fun.
In the first episode, Wai Siu-bo gets caught up with a martial arts adept who’s a Ming loyalist, and while Siu-bo isn’t one for politics, he gets semi-taken under the guy’s wing (he’s given his name, but Siu-bo constantly calls him “Fatso,” so I will too.) After a disagreement about a set of loaded dice, Siu-bo and Fatso wind up captured by an old man who, although in poor health, is quite the adept himself. Lacking the martial arts skills of either his new friend or his captor, Siu-bo needs to rely on his wits to survive, which can be a bit of a tall order for him.
Like I said, I don’t have the plot down completely yet, but I’m starting to put things together, gradually putting names to faces and keeping track of who supports Ming vs. Qing. I’ll admit that some of the politics doesn’t hold my interest quite as well, but that’s mainly because Wai Siu-bo’s misadventures are so entertaining for me—I always want to get back to them.
The characterization that seems to be emerging for Wai Siu-bo is that of a “clever fool.” He’s irresponsible and shortsighted, and he makes easy mistakes that get him (and Fatso) into trouble. He has more confidence than he merits—completely assured, for instance, that he can instantly transform his loaded dice into major gambling winnings. He screws up a lot and knows pretty little, but he often walks around like someone who has all the answers.
But for all that, when the chips are really down, he’s usually able to demonstrate some quick thinking to get him out of the fire. Fatso would call Wai Siu-bo’s tactics “dirty tricks,” but Siu-bo would argue that he’s just seizing an advantage where he finds it—he’d rather be underhanded and alive than honorable and dead. He can’t necessarily talk himself all the way out of a dicey situation, but he can at least shift his circumstances just enough to stay alive. This episode sees him finding “refuge” in a veritable lion’s den, where he’s made fairly dependent on someone who will definitely kill him if he slips up. He’ll have to stay on his toes to navigate his current surroundings, and I can’t wait to see it!
Now, obviously, this show isn’t going to rank near the top of Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s performances. When movies like Hero and In the Mood for Love exist, that would just be absurd. But it’s interesting; characters like Wai Siu-bo and other entries from Leung’s likable-scoundrel catalog appear to have far less in common with Leung than his soulful romantics who communicate mainly through their eyes. What I mean is, in interviews, Leung’s go-to move seems to be “introspective and soft-spoken,” which is right in the wheelhouse of many of his most acclaimed roles. So in that way, playing a hapless schemer who never stops talking actually demands a lot from him. It’s a perspective that makes me appreciate this branch of his work even more.
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