Episode 1 Summary: A Bloody Coronation

Characters:
Li'Er: The female lead, granddaughter to the great Commander in Chief of Wey. She is introduced as an intelligent and capable of young woman who is tired of all of the violence. Part of this is because as a woman she feels helpless to do anything to stop it; the other reason is that she has seen people in her community and her family all die because of the violence. While she wishes to aid her grandfather in anyway that she can, I think she believes that being a hero is not very admirable because all the heroes she knows are dead, leaving her the last in her line.

Crown Prince/King Zheng: Our male lead. He is introduced as a young man with remarkable self-control, his emotions in check, and presented almost like a sharp blade ready to cut down his enemies with complete detachment. He shows a calm affect but sometimes he reveals a sarcastic and bitter attitude as he confronts the people around him. Not exactly cruel and mean but neither is he warm and fuzzy.

Gongsun Yu: The Commander in Chief of Wey, who once sought to ally himself with Qin to oppose Wei but instead saw Wei collapse and Wey become enemies of Qin, an enemy they cannot defeat.

Ge Nie: Rumored to be the best warrior of Qin. He has abandoned his state because he is disgusted by the power games and the general degeneracy that the state has fallen into.

Jing Ke: desciple of Gongsun Yu, childhood friend to Ling'er, very loyal.

Lu Buwei: A political leader of Qin who has managed to obtain a great deal of power by maneuvering the Crown Consort's child, Zheng, into the path of crown prince. People speak of him with equal parts derision and dismay because he is incredibly cunning and ruthless. He helped sow discord between two lords (Xinling and Anxi) which weakened the state of Wei and catapulted him to power. He has since won over ministers and expanded his power.

Dowager Empress: Mother to Zheng, and has a reputation for not exactly concealing her numerous sexual encounters. It has had such a negative impact on the throne that Zheng has lost power, been humiliated as she exercises her authority as regent inappropriately, and given rise to rumors that he has 'many fathers'.

Summary:

The entire purpose of this episode is to set the stage for things to come. We are introduced to a series of characters and events, and given a bit of history behind the current chaos. Ten years ago the King attempted to unite the states through Vertical Integration. This did not work well and resulted in in-fighting and chaos. It allowed people like Lu Buwei to rise to power and also is the reason behind Zheng being Crown Prince. But he is just a chess piece in Lu Buwei's pursuit of power. He knows this. While the show does not directly state it, it is clear that he is preparing for the rocky transition of power as his coronation nears. This is shown to be problematic as his mother is easily manipulated by her lover's, who take advantage of her loneliness. She gives the seal to her current lover, a minor official, who then tries to assassinate her son, but fails miserably.

Elsewhere, Gongsun is attempting to organize a final defense of Pyang City, which is soon to be attacked by Qin. He tries to court the loyalty of Ge Nie, a soldier who has defected and is known for his martial arts brilliance. Unfortunately he fails. He then decides to stand and fight--illustrating that he is part of a dying class of men who are married to ideals like honor and virtue. He knows that he will lose this battle, conceals it from his granddaughter, and goes to his death.

Ling'er wants peace. But she is also practical and respects her grandfather's choices. She acknowledges the limits placed upon her by her gender given the time period but seeks to circumvent this by being smart. She is devastated to learn the truth, that her grandfather has gone to fight to his death, and rushes to his side only to see him die. His dying breath is that she live for herself, and that seems like good advice given the chaos that is certain to ensue now that Zheng has assumed the throne and literally baptized it in blood by beginning to clean house, first with executing the traitors and then moving to exile his mother who he probably wanted to kill.

What is Interesting:
1)The way the show is filmed is very similar to Western Action and Japanese action films. The director uses a lot of film techniques like cut scenes, slow motion, zoom in, and tracking to name a few. That, coupled with the transition between different scenes, which heavily contrast each other, and violent battles--it reminds me a lot of Tarantino films (minus the weirdness) John Wick, and Old Boy, to name a few.

2)The music takes a departure from the traditional Chinese music we so often here and is a lot more like a Christoper Nolan film--think of trailers for films like Batman, or a Michael Bay movie and you will know what I mean

3)the director is clearly trying to experiment and pull away from a lot of the traditional filming styles we are used to in dramas. he uses little CGI, films on site, and clearly wants this to be dramatic and over the top but everything in the film, from where people stand to what they wear seems to have been carefully planned

4)the writing is heavily influenced by Western cinema and we even see that directly as there is a scene copied from the Godfather when the Dowager and her Lover wake up with a deer's head in their bed. This is meant to communicate that he is powerful, that they had better listen, and a brutal change is coming. It also tells the audience that while a romance this is also going to be dark--just look at the cover art. The emperor looks almost like a villain and our female lead is standing there in red, looking not like a lamb but not exactly like she is gaga in love--she isn't even looking at him--and there are dark clouds in the back.

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