| REVIEW |
| This review
is written by Seagull. If you have any comments whatsoever, please E-Mail
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Title How Long Year Prologue WARNING Storyline Si Niang(1st
wife) <---> Si Lang <--->Princess Yingjing(2nd wife) Lady She asked Siniang to deliver a peace letter to Empress Xiao (ruler of Liao Empire). Princess Yingjing saw her and was shocked that she's a Yang warrior. Out of respect and admiration, she invited Siniang to dine with her. Silang saw Siniang and wanted to avoid her but was too late. Siniang saw that he was not dead and even became the consort of the Liao Empire, was thus devastated and disappointed. Silang explained to her that Princess Yingjing saved his life and the Empress forced him to be her consort. He has no choice but to agree. Later Siniang brought him back to the Song camp to see Lady She. Lady She is happy that he's alive, but was sad that he became the Liao's consort. Princess Yingjing felt that Silang was hiding something from her and forced to truth from him. She did not know he was formerly a Yang warrior. Empress Xiao too learn about the truth and wanted to kill him, but after repeated pleas from Yingjing she relented and asked them to get out of their sight. Silang was to choose between Yingjing and Siniang. Princess Yingjing asked Siniang out and both of them had a duel, the winner would be able to be with Silang. Halfway through the fight, both of them started laughing at their own silliness and said that the ultimate decision should lie in Silang's hands, there's no point in them fighting over him now. Silang finally came out with a decision. He decided to leave with Princess Yingjing. Siniang, though sad about his decision, wished them happiness and thanked Silang for giving her and identity, a goal in life and a family. Later Yingjing and Silang returned to the Liao Empire upon Jingling's death. Empress Xiao blamed Bamei for killing her daughter. Yingjing hope that Empress Xiao would not make things difficult for Silang. Paifeng was poisoned when she helped Jingling sucked the poison out. In order to save her, they have to get Empress Xiao's hair to make the antidote. Qiniang, Wuniang and Yang An came to the Liao to get Empress Xiao's hair. Silang learnt about this matter and decided to help them. He failed and was injuried. Yingjing, upon learning what Paifeng did for her sister, decided to help them get her mother's hair. Empress Xiao was infuriated when she discovered that Yingjing had betrayed her. She gave Yingjing her hair and disowned her. Yingjing, Silang and their son left the Liao and lead a peaceful life together. Emperor<--->Princess
Jingling aka Lady Wang <--->Beimengduo Seagull's
checklist (in order of priority) Favorite Couple The second couple is definitely Bamei and
Yang An! Another couple is Jiang Bin and Bamei, but luckily they didn't end up together in the end. Whew! The memorable
scenes 2. Yang An was trying to train Bamei for the upcoming contest. He repeatedly beat Bamei to the floor and said:" Yang Ba Mei, stand up, you cannot afford to fall, you must be strong." And when Bamei was fighting Beimengdou, she thought of Yang An's words. This is the time when their feelings grew for each other. 3. Liu Lang was taken hostage by Wang Qin and Wang Qin proposed the Yangs to use the name list which contains the names of the traitors to exchange for Liu Lang. Liu Niang was begging Lady She to use the name list, but Lady She rejected the proposal. She said:" When I think of all the mothers who will lost their sons if a war between Song and Liao were to break out, I couldn't bring myself to handover the name list. My son is a son, other's people's sons are also sons, I cannot use their lives to exchange for my son's life......." 4. I like the scene where Yingjing and Siniang were fighting over Silang, though I think this guy is not worth their breath. I find these 2 woman really adorable and it's through this scene that I love Siniang. She said:" When we were together, I'm Silang's ONLY wife, does your husband dare to say the same thing to you?" After hearing that, I was clapping my hands so hard hahaha. This shows that though Siniang looks weak and delicate, she's strong at heart and when time requires, she can give a great speech hahaha. 5. The scene where Wuniang went to Mt Wutai to look for Wulang. I love the scene where she's scolding all the monks. She was saying all these monks never practice what they preach, and in their quest for their so called holy spiritual world, they have hurt their most beloved ones. They always say that Buddha has a merciful heart but how many of them truly practice what Buddha taught? Well, actually I don't really understand when monks teach people not to indulge in worldly affairs and to seek enlightenment. I'm watching Madam White Snake at the moment also and if u remember Fa Hai tried to separate White Snake and Xu Xian because they belong to different species. But why? What's their business when they didn't hinder you or harm anyone? Why can't the monks mind their own business? I always believe that if someone did something that hurt the welfare of the public, then it's time to intervene, otherwise, let them be, let them do what they want to do. Don't start enforcing your own moral beliefs and own set of thinking on others just because they think differently from you. Don't try to be morally upright and self righteous. Why bother and poke a nose into people's affair? Humans are born differently, we have our own thinking, believes etc. If everyone were to think and act the same, aren't we just mere robots living a mere existences? The immortals and monks in the serials always tell people not to get entangled with love affairs and to seek enlightenment, this is something that baffled me. What's the point of being able to live for thousands of years when you are void of happiness, sorrows, love etc? Aren't humans born to love and hate? I agree sometimes hate and love can grow out of hand, but isn't that what makes life worth living? I guess I just don't have the so called "Hui Gen" so I'll never understand how those monks and nuns feel. 6. The scene where Jingling died. Beimengduo was devastated and started to raved at everyone: "You killers, you all killed her! We are on our way back, why can't you believe us? She's such a kind hearted girl, why did you kill her! I'll make you all pay for this!" Then he started to carry Jingling and run towards the cliff and jumped down. Very sad. I cried. I cried really hard. Very nicely done. 7. Paifeng released Jingling and Beimengduo to let them spend a day together alone. Jingling and Beimengduo spent a peaceful day together. The next day, when Jingling woke up, she murmured:" It's dawn already, we should go back." Beimengduo asked her if she's sure, because they can run away now, and live the life they have always longed for. But Jingling rejected his idea and said:" Yesterday was a gift from Paifeng, I am happy to have a day that I can live as I like, Paifeng is my friend, I cannot do something that would cause her trouble." I truly respect her from the bottom of my heart because despite knowing she would most probably die if she go back, she still insist in going back because of a promise. The "I
don't get it" factor The second thing that baffled me was why Wulang wanted to be a monk. He said that he wanted to be a monk to atone for the sins that the Yang family committed, because they killed a lot of people during the war. I can understand him for feeling guilty and wanting to atone for the sins, but MUST HE BE A MONK to do that? Must he abandon his wife to do that? I mean u can still chant and pray if u are not a monk right? Praying comes from the heart, not from your identity. Praying as a monk or a normal person doesn't make a difference does it? I just don't understand his insistence in becoming a monk. And he mentioned that he has intention of becoming a monk before war broke up. Then why in the first place did he get married? Aren't u hurting your wife in this way? And from the talk with Wuniang, he seems to still love her. WHYYYYYYYYYYY??? The
Performance Rated I want to specially mention the Singaporean actress Michelle Chia who acted as Princess Jingling. I think she did a magnificent job. Do you know that she's actually a host and not really an actress in Singapore? I'm taken aback by her great performance! I never really like her as an artiste but this serial totally changed my mind and she's very very pretty in the serial. Impressive crying skills also. Bravo! One thing I want to mention. I seriously and sincerely hope Roger would take some other kind of roles and not this kind of act noble and act good and a bit wimpy roles. I HATE IT TO THE CORE! I hate it hate it hate it hate it! Now I just hate the sight of Roger. ARGH. Seeing him reminds me of the word WIMPY. That bad! I really think he was better back then when he acted as villain. Seagull's
recommendation Okok enough of crap, rent this serial if you are looking for some good dialogues, awesome fighting, great costumes. The best thing about this serial is the fighting. Very brilliantly done, each move is swift and elegantly done. This is very rare indeed when nowadays a lot of stations are using computer effects and animations to dupe the audience. I HATE fightings with no real substance except computer effects. The best example I can think of is that very highly talked about movie "Legend of Zu". This movie is really lousy and was so "exciting" that I actually zzzzzz while I was watching.
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