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.
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| 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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