*Episode premise spoilers.*
This wasn’t my favorite episode. While it has some good stuff going for it, it leans heavily on a plot that doesn’t really work for me.
At the emperor’s command, Wai Siu-bo has been forced to become a monk (it makes sense in context.) And given that he’s all about fine food, gambling, and beautiful women, he is not about that life. When two benefactresses of the temple see him kissing Sheung Yee in the woods, that sets off a firestorm. The benefactresses, having decided that Siu-bo is a lecher, come at him with swords bared. But because Siu-bo is always most enchanted with women who are tougher than he is, he instantly falls in love with one of them.
The plot in this episode hinges on several things. First, the benefactresses catch Wai Siu-bo with Sheung Yee in the forest. Since he’s now technically a monk, he’s not supposed to be canoodling with women but at all, but he’s not molesting her like they say. However, in the ensuing fight, wherein Siu-bo is already smitten with one of the sisters-in-arms, he tears her dress and accidentally gets an eyeful, which horrifies her.
What follows is an unfortunate wash-rinse-repeat cycle. The benefactresses either attack Wai Siu-bo or accuse him of being a lecher, and Siu-bo gets one of the other monks to protect him from the attacks/defend him from the accusations, all the while continuing to flirt with the one he’s in love with. So, even though the whole thing did begin with a misunderstanding, we’re left with a story in which two women’s accusations of a man’s sexual harassment fall on deaf ears, and the man keeps trying to get close to one of the women despite her repeated objections.
Yes, I get that it was the ‘80s, and there have been plenty of shows that have depicted much worse, and far more recently. And Wai Siu-bo has always been, shall we say, a very determined flirt. But seeing the entire plot of this episode revolve around that dynamic leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It’s not really cute, or funny, here.
But like I said, there are things in this episode that I like. The monk that Wai Siu-bo ropes into protecting him is a total Shaolin nerd, and whenever he fights the benefactresses, he’s constantly calling out the names of their moves and geeking out over them. There’s also a fun bit where Wai Siu-bo receives a confidential decree from the emperor, for his eyes only—the emperor takes Siu-bo’s illiteracy into account in a creative, neat way.
Tony Leung Chiu-wai has some good stuff too, even if I’m not a fan of Wai Siu-bo’s story in this episode. I like his unfiltered amazement at his fellow monk’s moves, and he has a moment of reckoning near the end of the episode that’s nicely done. I’m also fond of his quick thinking of avoiding an attack from the benefactresses when they follow him to a brothel (naturally, when he’s forced to become a monk, he reacts with as many sins as possible.)
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