It’s wonderful to have tuition-free week somewhere in between the semester. It is a much needed break to relax for a while before continuing to the last half of the semester. Too bad, it’s almost the end of Friday by now and my last tuition-free week of the semester is over. In this break, I get to chill, having a lot more rest, and do assignments slowly…I mean very slowly. After this, there is no such thing as ‘slowly’ anymore as more important deadlines are around the corner before the end of my first semester.
The coming Monday is ANZAC Day, and is a public holiday here in Australia. Yup, my holiday would be extended for an extra day. Searching up the web leads me to learn that ANZAC Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations and the contribution and suffering of all those who have served. Oh, now I know. It’s a memorial day. We have no such holiday back in Malaysia. I only remember April 25 every year as my second sister’s birthday.
Recently, I had concluded watching a new TVB drama entitled ‘The Last Healer in Forbidden City’. It is a Hong Kong historical fiction period drama of 20 episodes which revolves on the account of a physician played by Roger Kwok, of the Guangxu Emperor mysterious death at the age of 37. The story tells mostly before the Emperor’s death and how the very talented physician make his way and contribution into the palace. The drama is actually partly based on true events (real history) and partly fictional for the drama purpose. I’m happy with this mixture as I’m quite interested in the history of the late Qing dynasty and I’m happy to see how it mixed with the fictional storyline to create this series.
It’s a short series and I quite enjoyed it overall. Roger Kwok is excellent as the main male lead while Tavia is also steady as the first female lead. The supporting cast consisting of Pierre Ngo, Jonathan Cheung and veteran actress, Helena Law as Empress Dowager Cixi were all fantastic in their respective roles. The story, despite not the best I have seen (I expected better) and also came with several plot-holes, is acceptable in current TVB’s standard. However, the very ending of this series left me frustrated. They just kept showing the two main leads suddenly staring at the sky for almost a minute long in the very end of the drama’s 20th (final) episode when Roger Kwok asked Tavia Yeung whether she managed to find her love. I knew the way the scene was done is to make it an open-ending but I absolutely didn’t find it right or necessary here. Keeping it closed and everything resolved would be be a better conclusion in my opinion. Anyway, I still enjoyed this drama but will be quickly forgotten by the year end before the awards season. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Healer in Forbidden City’ a total of 7.3.
(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)
