|
The series starts with Simon who is an extremely poor lad. He
switches his occupation quite frequently--he has been a mountain
thief, a beggar, a monk, amongst other things for his survival
during the reign of Mongols. But little did he know that his fate
would take a 180 degree turn when a respected figure he served
as a master entrusts the symbol of the Sung Dynasty to him, to
have it delivered to the leader of the Ming Sect. Simon takes
the royal seal and begins his long journey.
He becomes a subordinate of some anti-Mongol general. That general
has a daughter (played by Wong Yee Gum) and a foster daughter
(Money). Simon is already acquainted with Money because her dad
was killed by mountain thieves and he happened to save her there.
So Money likes him, but he is attracted to Wong Yee Gum. Wong,
on the other hand, despises Simon for being poor and dirty. Instead,
she is in love with Sean who works for her father's archenemy
(anti-Mongol nonetheless). Sean eventually becomes the head of
his army and gets married to Wong. On their wedding day, Simon
feels humiliated and he vows revenge. He takes Money's hand in
marriage instead.
Sean is pretty ambitious and he wants to establish his own nation
against the Mongol regime. So he plots to kill Wong Yee Gum's
dad and succeeds. He frames the murder on Simon, so now Wong Yee
Gum hates Simon to her bones. Simon, along with his 3 sworn brothers
including Bobby, also wants to build his own nation. He is no
longer interested in making the leader of the Ming Sect the new
emperor because the guy is such a loser. So he ends up killing
the Ming leader, which upsets many people, including Lai Hon Chi
who worked for the sect (he is later executed by Simon). Simon
also recruited a malicious advisor, Dai Chi Wai (when is he ever
a good guy!), and took Carrie, a prostitute, as his second wife.
The only problem is that Carrie is Dai Chi Wai's paramour, but
Simon wouldn't know that. ^^
Now, the fight is on between Simon and Sean, who both grew quite
powerful with big armies. Predictably, Simon wins over Sean and
manages to kill him. Wong Yee Gum is now really pissed off, because
she was pregnant with Sean's child when he died. On top of that,
Simon rapes her (ack!) and forces her to be one of his concubines.
Simon also overthrows the Mongol Empire and establishes the Ming
Dynasty and becomes the emperor.
Next, Simon proceeds to kill all of his sworn brothers because
he is afraid that they will abuse their power and stand against
him later on. Poor Bobby. :( Money is worried that Simon is killing
too many people, but he would not listen to her.
20 years later, Simon has a secure nation (seemingly) with the
help of his advisor Dai Chi Wai, and 4 major wives who each have
a son. Money's son is the oldest and the heir to the throne. Wong
Yee Gum's son is the 2nd oldest but he is not actually Simon's
son. He is Sean's son, but Simon thinks otherwise. Simon treats
Wong Yee Gum and her son very poorly. The 3rd son was conceived
from a dancer and he is rather dumb. The 4th son, Au Wai Lun,
is the smartest and the most ambitious, and he is Carrie's son.
Wong Yee Gum has been planning her revenge and she succeeds by
killing Simon's first son, the heir. Simon executes her and her
son. Money thinks it's a bad karma that her son died because Simon
killed too many people. She becomes ill from then on.
Au Wai Lun thinks he can be the heir now because his brother
is dead and he is the smartest, but Simon makes his grandson the
next heir instead. Au Wai Lun is upset about it, plus he finds
out that his mother was a prostitute! He was so ashamed that he
went ahead and stealthily killed his mother and her secret lover,
Dai Chi Wai. He then becomes quite filial to Money, so she adopts
him as her own son.
By now, Simon and Money are both old and Simon has seen way too
many closed ones die. He sees through his 4th son, Au Wai Lun's
ambition and sends him away. Simon grows extremely frail and cuckoo
after Money dies from her illness, and wishes to give his throne
to his grandson. But Au Wai Lun throws a coup and comes to the
capital with his army. But before Au Wai Lun can kill Simon with
his own hands, Simon dies of natural causes. Au Wai Lun, after
taking care of the little emperor (his nephew), automatically
becomes the next emperor.
So much for Simon, born to be a king huh?
With the exception of Money Chan, there are no particularly "good"
characters in this series. The fact that many of them are real-life
figures contributes to this. Simon's Chu Yuen Jeung, in order
to secure the beginning nation, had no choice but to be ruthless
(not that it's justified). Sean was somewhat cowardly and deceitful,
but not evil enough to be "evil.' Wong Yee Gum was a big
snob, Carrie Ng was a golddigger, Dai Chi Wai was mean but still
an effective advisor, Au Wai Lun was ambitious but a good ruler--so
the line between goodness and evil is rather blurry here.
I liked Money's character the most in this series. Despite Simon's
flaws bordering the evil, she remained devoted and faithful to
him. She had to suffer so much because she was the first wife
and she was with him through his bad times. She sought consolation
from her son only to see him killed by someone who was once her
foster sister. The most touching scene was when she died because
Simon cried so much! He was all, "Sau Ying, you can't leave
me, you are the only one left!" Of course, being the emperor,
he would not have addressed his wife by her name, but in her deathbed,
he did. That heartless man knew how to cry after all. :*(
I found the series to be a good depiction of how someone can
rise as an emperor. Although Simon's Chu Yuen Jeung was
ruthless, sometimes that was what it took to retain stability.
This was the first series I saw Simon in (I thought he looked
a bit like Roger Kwok, hehe) and I was very impressed by his physique
and portrayal of his character. A decent option for any Simon
lovers looking for a quick history lesson, however accurate it
may be. =)
|
