*Episode premise spoilers.*
We’re changing it up a little here. Wai Siu-bo is on a mission and on the road, in a new locale with some old friends and new folks to encounter, of both the enemy and ally variety. It’s fun to see things get stirred up!
In order to take on the villainous empress dowager, the emperor has sent Wai Siu-bo on a clandestine mission to find someone who can help take her down. Wai Siu-bo is…reasonably dedicated to the task, although he seems to have a little trouble grasping the “clandestine” part. Along the way, he learns a surprising revelation, indulges in some petty revenge, and makes new friends who help him deal with the mercenaries pursuing him.
We hardly spend any time at the palace in this episode, instead mainly following Wai Siu-bo on his travels. The emperor is trying to hold things together until Siu-bo gets back, a task made more complicated by the unexpected presence of the princess of the court. I can’t swear to this, but based on the dynamic, I’m pretty sure she’s the empress dowager’s daughter, which probably makes her the emperor’s half-sister. At any rate, the princess is highly suspicious of the emperor’s efforts to subdue her mother, which doesn’t help his efforts to keep the empress dowager in line while simultaneously pretending everything is business as usual.
The rest of the episode is pretty much all Wai Siu-bo, which is just fine with me. What doesn’t our clever fool get up to in this episode? He arranges to be secreted out of Beijing in a coffin—smart. When the man hauling the coffin (a member of the Green Wood Lodge, I believe,) stops at a tea house, he cracks open the coffin to serve his master—not so smart. Siu-bo gets on the radar of dangerous people immediately, and from there, it’s just a wild series of wriggling out of one mishap after another.
He gets some help from Princess Muk and Fong Yee, but his would-be dalliances with the former get him in trouble with other members of the House of Muk. An old acquaintance comes in clutch at an unexpected moment, and that results in some forward motion on the sutras and why so many people are looking for them. He discovers that the empress dowager has sent goons after him, and his only hope of escape comes from what might be ghosts? In other words, he has a lot going on, and all of it is entertaining.
Some fun, noteworthy bits from Tony Leung Chiu-wai in this episode. I get a kick out of how gleefully Wai Siu-bo exacts his trickster vengeance on a rival for Fong Yee’s affections who comes for him. I love that, when Fong Yee tells him to sit out on a fight, because the real warriors will handle it easily, he exclaims, “I know we will win, that’s why I was going to have some fun! If we were going to lose, I would hide myself.” I really like a moment where he’s expected to explain himself in a precarious situation and has to deduce on the fly which explanation to give—for Wai Siu-bo, it’s less about truth and more about “which answer will keep me alive a little longer?”
And as is so often the case, some of my favorite moments are rooted in little non-verbal things Leung does. The slight way he glances back self-consciously before confessing his ignoble background to a new ally. The way he makes immature faces at his rival but drops the attitude as soon as Fong Yee turns toward him. The way he undresses under a blanket when he’s been offered shelter for the night, holding the blanket up with his chin to protect his modesty. I think part of what I love about moments like this is the fact that these actions are so timeless and relatable. In a period piece, characters can sometimes get caught up in the manners and traditions of the day, which may be accurate but can also create a kind of distance from the audience. A lot of my favorite period performances capture those historical elements while still feeling immediate and relevant to modern viewers, and Leung’s fidgets and pulled faces help Wai Siu-bo feel more grounded and real.
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