A Little TLC(w): The Duke of Mount Deer: Season 1, Episode 40 (1984)

*Some spoilers for episode 39.*

Here we are, at the end of The Duke of Mount Deer. Overall, I’m pleased with how it wraps up. I’m glad I finally took the time to watch this series, because it was a lot of fun and a nice early display of Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s acting.

Last episode, the emperor gave Wai Siu-bo one final chance to cut ties with Heaven and Earth Society to prove himself loyal, but Siu-bo was forced to reaffirm his allegiance to the rebels almost immediately after they backed him into a corner. The emperor sees this as the last straw and has Siu-bo arrested. Although people on every side have an opinion about what he should do about it, it ultimately comes down to him and Siu-bo.

As we come to the finale, even the scenes Wai Siu-bo aren’t in are still about him. Whether it’s the empress dowager urging the emperor to make an example of the “humble slave” who made a fool of him or the courtiers pleading for clemency, everyone is in the emperor’s ear, and he’s wrestling with the monumental task of how to deal with this. “A just emperor will not tolerate traitors,” he insists, but at nearly every moment, doubts creep in.

Most of the best scenes here are between Wai Siu-bo and the emperor. There’s a great confrontation at the start of the episode where Siu-bo is of course trying to save his own skin, but he’s also trying to rescue his friend from his intractable hardness. As furious as the emperor is with them, Siu-bo argues on behalf of Heaven and Earth Society, insisting that they’re simply “fools” rather than “bad.” He says that, “A good emperor should win the rebels over. Make them give up the rebellion.”

Where before, Wai Siu-bo would immediately roll over when the emperor got harsh with him, bowing and denigrating himself as he begged for mercy, he abandons that tactic in the finale. Instead, he openly argues with the emperor, and they even trade insults—at one point, Siu-bo actually points his finger right in the emperor’s face as he angrily warns, “I dare you to call me a bastard again.” He’s kind of done with all the bowing and scraping. It’s a “put up or shut up” moment for the emperor—if he really considers Siu-bo to be his friend, it’s time for him to prove it.

Not that Wai Siu-bo has no fear in the face of what is happening. Leung does so well navigating the quick shifts in his emotions throughout the episode. He’s at times angry and affronted, treating the emperor like he’s never been treated before: as any other person. There are moments where he has a calmness, a quiet, about him, keeping his cool and holding to his dignity because he has little else left. When he thinks the emperor might be turning a corner, he’s elated, immediately untensing and letting himself breathe. But when the emperor makes it clear that he’s really in for it this time, he turns frantic, pleading like a frightened child. All of it makes sense in the moment, and Leung takes Siu-bo, and us, on one final roller coaster.

And there you have it! That’s The Duke of Mount Deer. Final thoughts:

Recommend?

In General – I wouldn’t say this series is for everyone, but for what it is, it’s pretty entertaining. It’s a kung fu story mixed with class satire and a dose of farce, and if any of that sounds appealing to you, I think you’ll have a really good time.

Tony Leung Chiu-wai – Yes. Leung is a lot of fun in this and displays early flashes of his raw unvarnished talent. I’m obsessed with the offbeat choices and little bits of business he infuses the character with throughout the series.

Warnings

Violence, sexual references, mild language, drinking, able-bodied actors playing disabled characters, and some unpleasant humor that’s dismissive of consent.

A Little TLC(w): The Duke of Mount Deer: Season 1, Episode 39 (1984)

*Spoilers for episode 38.*

It’s the penultimate episode of the series, and all the trouble Wai Siu-bo has made is coming home to roost! I’m sure he’ll find a way to resolve it somehow, but for now, he’s really going through it. Although some of the situations Siu-bo gets himself into can be ridiculous, the emotions are always honest when it really counts—that’s something I appreciate about the series.

Wai Siu-bo is back in Beijing, where he’s more torn than ever. The emperor has captured his friend Fatso, Green Wood Lodge member and the guy who started Siu-bo on this wild journey all those episodes ago, and the emperor wants to use his execution to make Siu-bo prove his loyalty once and for all. On the other side, the Heaven and Earth Society want him to prove his loyalty to them by taking their vengeance on Cheng Hak-song, who committed a heinous crime against them—except the emperor has made Siu-bo swear not to hurt Cheng. What’s a clever fool to do?

We get scenes with lots of characters here—the emperor, Heaven and Earth Society, the wives, Cheng and his family—but pretty much everything is revolving around Wai Siu-bo. As such, I don’t have a lot to say about the other characters today. Cheng remains despicable and generally The Worst, and Or is used in a plot against him. Both the emperor and the Heaven and Earth Society are demanding Siu-bo’s allegiance even as they mistrust him. The emperor threatens him with castration, suggesting that he “be a real eunuch” in exchange for Siu-bo’s pleas to grant clemency to Fatso. Yep, once again, the emperor’s showing himself to be a true friend (eyeroll.) I swear, his entitlement and pettiness in his friendship with a peasant is one of the realest things about this show.

Tony Leung Chiu-wai is great here. Wai Siu-bo is boxed in on all sides and running out of options, and while he’s certainly scared and angry in reaction to his circumstances, it goes deeper than that. He’s hurt. He may be duplicitous, and he’s been playing every side since the beginning, but for all his dishonesty, he’s not actually disloyal. If anything, he often cares too deeply for his friends, which gets him into trouble when those friends are mortal enemies with one another.

He spends a lot of this episode freaking out: pleading with former friends who believe the worst of him, snapping at his wives when he feels like they aren’t helping him enough with his predicament, and wracking his brain as he tries to figure out how on earth to get out of this one. Within all that tumult, he has his resolute moments, such as his declaration, “Death is better than failing a friend,” but for most of the episode, he’s roiling with his various dilemmas.

One episode to go! How’s he going to pull it off?

A Little TLC(w): The Duke of Mount Deer: Season 1, Episode 38 (1984)

*Episode premise spoilers.*

If last week’s episode felt like a bit of a detour, this one brings Wai Siu-bo back into the thick of things. Yet again, matters are heating up, and I’m excited to see where we go from here.

Since the events of episode 37, Wai Siu-bo and his wives have settled into life on Take All Island. He isn’t 100% content—he could do with not quite so many bananas in his diet—but he’s been enjoying himself. However, he still misses the emperor, and the feeling is mutual. When the emperor reaches out for him to return to Beijing, Siu-bo worries about the strings that come with that invitation.

After having been away from them for a bit, we get plenty of both the emperor and Heaven and Earth Society in this episode. The biggest takeaway is that, yes, the emperor still gonna emperor—despite missing Wai Siu-bo terribly and desperately wanting them to reconcile, he’s only going to let that happen on his turns, and he goes from zero to sixty real quick when Siu-bo doesn’t instantly jump at his offer to come back to the palace.

Meanwhile, Heaven and Earth Society aren’t on the best terms with Wai Siu-bo either. They’ve been misinformed on some of the details of a major development from last episode, and they’re wrongfully blaming him for it.

By and large, then, Wai Siu-bo is just stuck. He’s happy with his wives on Take All Island, using dice to come up with names for his growing number of babies, but he’s still not really built for the quiet life and he does miss the emperor. But when the emperor summons him, it’s on the condition that his playing-all-sides days are over in a really decisive way, which is a step he doesn’t want to take. Not to mention, with Heaven and Earth Society all over him, he’s caught between trying to get his former friends to see sense and keeping himself and his family safe. (Well, his wives are the ones protecting him, but it still weighs on him.)

Continuing the trend of portraying Wai Siu-bo’s relationship with the emperor as borderline romantic, this episode features Siu-bo telling his wives his favorite type of cake (cassia layered cake, which the emperor used to give him,) then sadly remarking, “But I don’t know how he is doing.” This, by the way, is quickly followed by a scene where the emperor goes to their old training room and eats cassia cake while watching the snow fall out the window, complete with flashbacks of the two of them in happier times while a slow, sad version of the opening theme plays in the background. They’re so cute.

Some nice moments for Tony Leung Chiu-wai here. It’s a quick bit, but I really like a scene where he’s forced to reckon with some of the collateral damage he left in fleeing Beijing earlier. You can see the guilt playing out over his face as he tries to keep a lid on it, since the other person isn’t aware that he was responsible. And I like his delivery when he realizes why the Heaven and Earth Society have turned on him, crying, “Why don’t they believe my good deeds? Why are they so ready to believe my bad deeds?” For someone who makes a regular habit of lying and cheating, Wai Siu-bo’s honor is still important to him.