Monday, April 9, 2018

The King of Legend (2012)


I finished watching this series yesterday. It's Chinese version of The Count of Monte Cristo. Compared to the movie version with Jim Caviezel and the French mini-series with Gérard Depardieu, I personally think this Chinese version is closer to the original book. It’s rather hard to believe that the Chinese are better than the French in adapting the book, but I think it’s mainly because of the running time. The Chinese series consists of 39 episodes (@ appr. 41 minutes each) while the French series are only of 400 minutes.

This series is rather slow, full of dialogues, and lack of actions. However it’s very riveting and captivating. I think whoever wrote the script must have loved the original story very much.

In this series, the time setting and location were changed. The main character here was Lin Tian-long, a sailor from Jiao’ao village, who lived with his old father. He had a beautiful  fiancée, Mei-zi. Gu Siang-ru and Lei Li-gang who were jealous of him, sent an accusation letter to the police. At that time, Yuan Shih-kai was in power and Dr Sun Yat-sen was the opposition. The letter accused Lin Tian-long to be an agent of Sun Yat-sen. This letter was written in Wan Rong’s café. The prosecutor, Tang Zhen knew at once that Lin Tian-long was innocent, but because the letter implicated his future father-in-law, Tang Zhen sent Lin Tian-long to Prison No.7, a remote prison in an island where nobody ever escaped.

Liu Yun-long plays Lin Tian-long
 18 years in prison, Lin Tian-long befriended the ex-emperor’s teacher and learnt many things. He finally escaped from Prison No.7 and gained a treasure. He was richer than a country.

If in the original story, the treasure was buried in an island. In this version, the wealth was kept in a bank. The translation said it was HSBC. The old teacher gave Lin Tian-long the password to get the treasure.

Back to Jiao’ao, Lin Tian-long found that his father had been dead and Mei-zi married to Lei Li-gang. Wan Rong, the café owner, told him that Lei Li-gang forced his father to drink poison. Lin Tian-long gave a big diamond to Wan Rong and his wife, and this diamond led to Wan Rong’s wife’ death and Wan Rong was sent to prison for killing his wife. This couple reminded of The Thénardiers from Les Misérables. The wife was very irritating, especially with close-up shots.

The scene where Lin Tian-long saved his ex-boss, the owner of Luck the ship, was very touching.

Meanwhile, Gu Siang-ru, Lei Li-gang and Tang Zheng all had climbed the ladder of success and society. They all now lived in Shanghai. Gu Siang-ru was very rich and had a bank. Lei Li-gang had become a general. Tang Zheng was a successful prosecutor.

In this series, Tang Zheng and his right-hand man, Ah Fuk, were very mean. Ah Fuk was some kind of hitman who targeted Tang Zheng’s enemies. For example: Lin Tian-long’s friend, Ah Zheng, back in Jiao’ao petitioned the prosecutor to take another look at Lin Tian-long’s case. Tang Zheng sent Ah Fuk to silence him (but Ah Zheng survived). Tang Zheng went as far as reporting his own future father-in-law to the police, which led to a massacre.

In Shanghai, Lin Tian-long patiently set traps for his enemies. He wanted them to perish in their own desires. I think the innocent victim here was Gu Siang-ru’s daughter.

The ending was very good. Lin Tian-long, Ah Zheng and Li San together roamed the sea. It also showed Lin Tian-long read The Count of Monte Cristo book.

Please note that South Korea also has a series with the same title, but a different story.

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