EPISODE 5

Written by Funn Lim

So where was I since the last episode? Sorry for the distracted mental thingy because just learned Lydia Shum died and that kinda threw me off my groove. Just very upset, more because of not having a familiar face anymore and that truly an era has gone by. I am getting old.

Anyway, yes, the business was so good profit was it. Yuk Lun continued to pimp Sin to Yu Chi who of course has eyes only for Yu Fung. Yu Fung looked very distracted as well, and very upset (well if you can call stony faced upset) as well because she was like “The man I love with another woman” when she had an opportunity to run away with him and she didn’t so please MOVE ON GIRL!

Then the 8 nations invaded China and rumours had it Cixi and Emperor have left the palace and were on the run. Yuk Lun wanted to run too but Yu Fung refused because they had invested too much in the business to just run away like that. Sometimes I am amazed how a building is more important than 8 or 9 lives. Anyway…

One night as they locked themselves in they received a knock and they had a mysterious guest that had loads of male servants with red blushed cheeks. Guess who she was? Guess! Anyway they received her, she had a room to herself but all the food cooked by Yu Chi were sent back. They didn’t know why and then super multi-tasking intelligent Yu Fung (that shall be her title from now on) remembered the old lady looking forlorn and she said “If someone is worried, surely they wouldn’t have appetite” and so she decided to serve her deserts. The mysterious lady ate it and wanted to see whose  bright idea it was.

Yu Fung sat opposite the distinguished old lady and they had a  heart to heart talk. The old lady was very impressed that Yu Fung knew she was troubled and she said “You are very eloquoent and learned so you must be from a wealthy family. How come a learned lady like you be in a place like this? How do you cope?” and Yu Fung said “When I got married my mother advised me that all my happiness should be last and my husband’s happiness should be my priority. I learned to push aside my feelings and my unhappiness and I simply believe that my life is decided by my fate and I had to surrender to my fate. There is nothing more to it” and the old lady said “Fate. I believe a woman can hold half the sky and rule the world as well as the men. I can see no reason why women should not be equal to men” and Yu Fung said “I just do what I have to do, do it the best way I can and hope for the best. I can’t complain much, not much will come out of it but if I do my best, put my heart to it, dedicate myself to the task ahead, I believe my sincerity will in the end give me the just results” and the old lady liked what she heard and praised Yu Fung as an intelligent capable woman.

Annoying narrator said “What my great grandma didn’t know was that night she met the Old Buddha. After their conversation the Old Buddha was so affected by great grandma said that when she returned to Beijing she started some serious changes to the administration of the government”.

Let me pause here. Why give this woman the credit? I know, to involve the character in the world that was, to show how capable she was, how she affected the people around her. But Cixi as a distinguished mysterious guest who heard what she heard and went on to make changes to the government? From the way it was narrated, it was as if their chance encounter brought about good significant change to China. Oh please….. why not just show in the 2nd story she met Sun Yat Sen and convinced him to be the father of China? Better yet meet Deng Xiaoping and instil in him the idea of modernising China in later life?

Anyway the guest left. Life returned to normal until suddenly the foreigners invaded Beijing and they kicked down the doors and dragged everybody out of the restaurant. Interpreter (running dog) said “We heard that Cixi passed through here and dined at your place not long ago. We wish to search this premise” and of course they refused and was scared that they will tear the place down and Yu Fung who realised the guest was Cixi grabbed the gwailo’s hand and begged “Please let us go. The lady has left. We don’t know where she is. Please don’t hurt my family, please” but the gwailo roughly pushed her away and one gun was pointed at Yuk Lun who tried to push it away and ended up knocking the gwailo’s nose causing it to bleed. The gwailo was angry and pushed Yuk Lun, wanted to beat him and like a coward that he was, he crawled to hide behind Yu Fung and Yu Fung had to defend her husband and herself as the gwailo pointed the gun at her and he was about to shoot when Yu Chi blocked the shot and he got shot in the shoulder. No reaction by the foreigners because the next scene the doctor came and took the bullet out and said “If he survived tonight, he will be fine. But his right hand (or left? Not sure) will be very weak from now on”.

Yuk Lun was nowhere to be found as Yu Fung fussed around Yu Chi and the reason said by one of them was “Was it so strange he is not here right now? He acted like a coward, of course he had to face to show”.

In the room, Yu Chi grabbed Sin’s hands as he was delirious and said “Please don’t leave me, please don’t leave me, Yu Fung, please…please…” and Sin knew and Yu Fung remained pensive.

Yu Fung boiled the medicine and told Sin to feed Yu Chi but Sin said “I believe it would be better if you do it. He will recover with your care, he needs you, not me” and so Yu Fung spent the entire night by his side, tearfully said “Yu Chi, you must recover if not I will have this regret for the rest of my life. Didn’t you say you never wanted me to regret at all? Didn’t you say you will protect me and be by my side for the rest of my life? You must remember your promise. Please be well, please…”.

Next morning Yu Chi woke up and Yu Fung was very happy he was much better. Suddenly Yu Chi said “I must get to the kitchen. I just dreamed about the perfect sauce for the roast duck we were creating” and Yu Fung had to stop him and reminded him to rest for the next 10 days if he wants to be well.

Zoom to 10 days later, seriously he walked into the kitchen, took up a knife and realised his right hand was weak. Couldn’t even hold a wok and he was so stunned and Yu Fung came in with the rest of the people and he said bitterly “I can’t cook anymore. Why?” and Yuk Lun, despite warnings from his mom said his hand became crippled because of the bullet. Yu Chi bitterly said “I can’t stay here aymore. I will only burden you. I must leave” and even 3rd wife said “You don’t have to leave” and Yu Fung and Sin both said “You can still tell us what to do. We will be your helper”. Thus is the rank of executive rank came into existence, I think. And suddenly a whole bunch of sissy looking people came in and said they were here on the behest of the old Buddha, the old lady Yu Fung served. They were given a case of gold and Yuk Lun happily said “Now we can even open a branch!” and Yu Fung said “See Yu Chi, we need you now more than ever. Please don’t leave!”

So for the next few months I suppose as the politics of the country stabilised, the restaurant achieved greater success with the introduction of the roast duck which I suspect shall become Peking Duck. Everybody loved the idea that the duck can be eaten 9 ways  I think. In the kitchen Yu Fung was very happy and Yu Chi too when Yuk Lun bursts in and asked “What is the ingrediants in the sauce?” and Yu Fung said “It is a secret, only the main kitchen staff may know” and Yuk Lun was very angry and said “I am your husband, I am the owner of this restaurant and I can’t even know?” and Yu Fung gave him a poem and he read it and didn’t understand it and Yu Fung said “The poem contains the keyword to the secret recipe” and Yuk Lun said “A poem?? I don’t understand it!” and Yu Chi said “Well if you become my student, I can pass the secret recipe to you” and Yuk Lun said “Become your student? You wish! Well don’t tell me then but you two better limit your proximity to work only if not be careful if I find you two having an affair behind my back and whisper sweet poems to each other!!” and he ran off. Yu Fung and Yu Chi looked at each other and sighed.

That night there was a celebration feast with the staff where Yuk Lun happily gave out ang pows which everybody knew was Yu Fung’s idea since they all thanked him. One each was given to Yuk Lun’s sis and husband and they were grateful and the husband promised to work hard in the restaurant whilst the sister will take care of insane mom and invalid mom. All was happy when suddenly Yuk Lun stood up and said “Well this is the best occasion to announce this. As the head of the household I have decided to play cupid on behalf of Sin. So Sin I shall ask Yu Chi to marry you. What do you say?” and Yu Fung was surprised he said that and said I think she will look for him since he wasn’t there yet. Sin quietly said “Sir, I don’t think the time is right. I am too low in my status to marry someone as great as Master Yu Chi and I can’t agree with your arrangement” and Yuk Lun said “Nonsense! I can decide for you. You will be like my sister, what nonsense about status?” and even Yuk Lun’s mom said “I will buy you the items needed, give you a very good respectable wedding” and Yuk Lun said “There it is decided! Where is Yu Chi?” and Yu Fung came out and said “No need to look. Yu Chi has left us and he gave us a letter” and I can’t remember the contents of the letter but the gist was he said goodbye, it was time for him to go and the narrator I think was the one who said he left and “I suppose his fate with my great grandmother was not to be and she shall never see him again”.

Next episode, Yuk Lun disappointingly slipped back into his playboy ways with the same prostitute who was responsible for his downfall and later he raped Yu Fung.

Frankly I thought everytime he slept with Yu Fung she wasn’t very willing so basically I suppose you can say he rapes her each time he had sex with her.

Ok, the performances, same old same old. Not bad, not good, just passable. I have no comments on that except I can argue until the cow comes home that Charmaine Sheh was wooden and no one would agree with me. So I shall stop saying that. She wasn’t wooden, that is the truth nor was she very appropriately expressive. She was mostly pensive expressive, frowning or smiling. You know back to day one of her acting days with 2 expressions, frowning when sad and smiling when happy. The degree of how she frowns and smiles will determine the era of course. Here she is reserved frowning and reserved smiling. I feel it is a pain to hear her deliver the lines because it was quite flat line. Not toneless, but same high pitch tone. Joe Ma was Joe Ma. Not bad I suppose but I don’t like his Yu Chi even if he took a bullet for her because it felt forced.

The entire love story felt forced but what felt even more forced was the meteoric rise of the restaurant and how Yu Fung became from dutiful wife in an era which expects women to stay at home to being the de facto head of the household and entrepeneur. Her encounter with Cixi was terrible, I hated it. I hated the forced significance of it simply because I hated Cixi.

Now I am beginning to hate Yu Fung too. I mean this was like her Princess Cheung Ping character. No doubt a great lady, dedicated, hard working, intelligent, nice, loyal, blah blah blah and with all these qualities the entire story is designed for the viewers to LOVE her. You know Mika’s song, Love love meee, love love meeeee. Well the more the series did that, the more I dislike her to the point now I just hate her. There is something very annoying about her Yu Fung. Don’t get me wrong, I hate Yuk Lun. That character is deisgned for you to hate and why not? What a coward to hide behind his wife’s back. But Somehow I hate Yu Chi because he’s like a loyal dog who just refuses to move on and leave (in the end he did but guess what? He shall return!!!) and now I hate Yu Fung too because she is too perfect, too flawless, too nice, too smart, too everything. Like I said in the previous recap, she is like the super multi tasking intelligent woman. Of course that scene where she met Cixi was designed to explain why she worked like a dog for the Wong family. She accepts her fate, she works the best way she can. So basically she should be applauded for her efforts and all but the story shows very little of the process of her efforts but zoom past to the end results. Even the process were fast, and I find the entire process of her becoming from her sheltered life to independent entrepreneur without realising it (since in the olden days it is not a matter of choice but a matter of circumstances) was shallow and totally unbelievably simplistic. Even the so called intervening factor to show doubt, fear and hardship, the war was shallow and designed only to show how much a coward Yuk Lun was and how much Yu Chi loved her. Shouldn’t argue with that but the view of the war was also simplistic and when there should be more drama, it had moments of drama. I really don’t know where the rest of the time has gone in this episode but I just feel there were many wasted moments, many unnecessary moments.  And her love affair or non love affair with Yu Chi was irritating.

Frankly I hate them all.

How now can I stand 3 more generations of the same pair?

I think I ended my recap last episode with the following line and I will not hesitate to end it the same because my feelings is the same…

urghhhhhh

 

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