La~mour

Friday, September 22, 2006

The Banquet, a great movie!

THE BANQUET

I seem to be affected emotionally from movies, especially those encompassing love, hate, death and sadness. I have come to understand and eventually fall for the marvels of Art in the past, in those times under tyrannical rulers in China. It is really beautiful but it took me this long to unravel that beauty. Who knows who we were in our previous lives, perhaps we really did have a part to play in those olden times?

The Banquet, impressed me with its outstanding cinematography, luscious costumes and impressive settings, coupled with competent acting and graceful fighting stances. A Shakespearean Hamlet-like epic love story infected with jealousy and desires, with its treachery most intriguing and entertaining, against this background of internal turmoil and external threat.

The plot, set in ancient China during the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom where usurping of powers are imminent, lives Empress Wan. Previously known as Wan-er, she was the childhood love of the Prince Wu Luan. But when the Emperor (Wu Luan’s father) forced Wan-er to marry him, Wan-er became his stepmother. A devastated Wu Luan isolated himself in the forest, lamenting about his loneliness in poems and songs. Though beautiful and powerful being the Empress, she still loves deeply and harbours forbidden desires for Prince Wu Luan. Until one day Empress Wan summoned Prince Wu Luan back when the Emperor was killed and the Emperor’s brother took over the throne. Out of desperation to protect Prince Wu Luan and to seal her status as Empress, she marries the new Emperor Li. What a sacrifice yet again. Wanting to ensure no threat in his reign; Emperor Li dispatched assassins after Prince Wu Luan’s life but perhaps out of 天意 he was to no avail. Qing Nu who has an unrequited love towards Prince Wu Luan tries hard to dissipate his loneliness. When the Emperor Li proclaims a big banquet, both Wu Luan and Empress Wan realized it’s the best time to strike. Empress Wan offers a poisoned wine to the Emperor but before he could drink it, Qing Nu interrupts to perform for them, drank a sip of the poisoned wine and died in Prince Wu luan’s arms who hid in the band of performers with Qing Nu for a chance to kill the Emperor Li. The ironic thing was, as much as either Empress Wan or Prince tried to kill him, Emperor Li died willingly by drinking the poisoned wine. With the Emperor Li dead, Empress Wan willingly offered to take up punishments from Prince Wu Luan who was to succeed as the Emperor. It was quite a scene I felt, like two long lost separated lovers finally reunite only after so much turmoil. Oddly, my heart did soften at some scenes as such, as well as the one portraying the General Yin’s brotherly love for his sister Qing Nu. General Yin wanted to kill the Empress from the back as he blamed her for the death of her beloved sister. But Prince Wu Luan who sat facing the Wan-er, saw that coming and halted the blade with his raw flesh fingers. He died in Empress Wan’s arms from the poison in the blade, with his last phrase “能死是好”。 I guess that’s the only time she cried genuinely for the man she loved truly. Everyone's tired of the internal turmoil that went on, dying seems the simplest or rather the best thing to happen. All of a sudden, so many people died in the banquet that was supposedly a happy event. With her men dead, especially one she really loved, blinded by desire and power, she ended up 一无所有.
Before she can take on the Emperor’s status, a Maiden Sword stabbed her from the back, shot by an unknown person, which belonged to Prince Wu Luan in their Martial Arts practices. She grimaced at the person who killed her and died, like in regret and disbelief.

Who killed Empress Wan? One person’s feedback was this interesting. He felt that the killer to Empress Wan was Prince Wu Luan.
Here’s what he felt:

1. From all the main characters, the way the Prince died was too fake, its not like he was stabbed or decapitated or something, he just touch the dagger that according to General Yin its poisonous, then he died. This kind of dead can be faked out by him.

2. As what’s with general Yin, he might have plot the whole fake poison dagger thing with the prince. There’s a scene to proved it, remember the scene when two of them r arguing on the throne on the snow scene, just after he saved the prince from the imperial guards. He says something like the time will come and ask the prince to wait or something.

3. As why the prince killed Empress Wan, although all of us r blinded and think that they r really in love, actually the Prince really hated her. There’s only one explanation. The real killer of his father is Zhang herself and not the 2nd king, which all this while we think the killer is. There's no proof showed the 2nd king poisoned the 1st king.

4. Point no 3 also can be proved, remember after Zhang left after had a little argument with the Prince when he was washing his long hair, then a drawing mysteriously appeared that shows how the king was poisoned. The killer in the drawing resembles a bit like a female figure.

5. Also, Zhang seems like someone whos good at using poison anyway, can be proved at the poison shop. She loves the prince, but forced to marry his father must created huge hatred that motives her to poison the king, so that the prince will take the throne or something.

6. The most obvious clue is the green sword that killed Zhang. Thats the sword the prince used. Its was broken in a fight but i guess only him can make a new sword since he is an artist anyway.

7. As what's with Zhang's handmaiden, i believe she does also one of the character that have a plot all this while, and the one that change the whole perspective of the movie, but was totally ignored by the viewers and the screen. Why the camera shows her face with the strange reaction when the 2nd king was abt to drink the poison, well, there's only one explanation. She knew Zhang poisoned the 1st king, and also she knew that Zhang wants to poison the 2nd king too.

8. As who drop the mystery drawing to the prince, here goes. The drawing appears just seconds after Zhang left the Prince. Hello, who else was near both of them? Zhang's handmaiden of coz!

I though his feedback was quite amusing but it kinda made sense somehow. So, who do you think it was? It was a great movie I felt, as an overall but i'll stick to my perspective that the Emperor Li killed the latter to usurp the throne and to get his hands on the femme fatale. But as to the murderer of Wan-er, i'd believe it might be Wu Luan, the fact both were lovers and both practised on the Maiden sword together; the maiden sword was a holy and powerful sword i guess.*shrugs* my darling and i felt so too(=

"Desire has the capacity to destroy or create all things"
欲望可以毁灭一切，也可以制造一切。

LA~mour at 4:34 PM