Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (2003)

Demi-Gods and Semi-Gods

 Based on a story by Jin Yong. The story center around Qiao Feng, who becomes leader of the Beggar Sect, Duan Yu Prince of Dali and a Shaolin monk Xu Zhu.  Qiao Feng's story centers around discovering his true identity, Duan Yu on the many women in meets and Xu Zhu got in the struggle for the leadership of a powerful.  Their stories bring them together and takes places through many kingdom.

Qiao Feng

The show starts with the story of Qiao Feng, whose father and mother are taking him to meet a friend in the Song kingdom.  They are attacked because they are Qidan from the Kingdom of Liao and not Han suspecting that they were there to spy.  The mother is killed and the father jump off the cliff with them but in the last minute sends an infant baby Qiao Feng back up.

Qiao Feng was my favorite character he had a sense of justice, was loyal, smart, honest but had quite a temper and hated being accused of something. Everyone started to mistrust and hate him when they find out that he was not Han Chinese and he was framed for the death of his adoptive parents and his Shifu among others.  

One thing that is prevalent in a lot of Chinese literature is identity and family.  I admire that to a certain extent.  People and society seem to look down on someone and even mistrust them when they are not attached to a name, clan or area.  And I see how knowing something like that in say ancient China would have made sense.  However Qiao Feng had been with this people for a long time.  What kind of actor would have have needed to be to deceive everyone 24hrs a day.  Also the since of family.  We find that Qiao Feng's father killed his adoptive parents and Shifu framing him for their deaths. However, when they find each other, Qiao Feng is suppose to just listen to him, defend him and be happy about what he did.  If the father had wanted him to be raise by the Chinese, why did he send him back up from the cliff? And in thirty years why has he never come for him.  Plus these people didn't kill your wife but took care of your son.  

After thirty years all the man gets is to become a monk to make up for all the harm he caused? Most of that harm was done to his own son. 

Duan Yu

The second character's story we start to follow is Duan Yu.  He is a prince of Dali, his uncle is Emperor but for some reason as no kids so Duan Yu is his heir.   We meet him when he has run away from home and is trying to stop the deaths being caused because of a fight between sects.  When we meet Duan Yu, he seems the scholarly type, who dislike's violence to the point he will not learn any martial arts and is generally happy.  It's sad that his sense of non-violence was relegated to that one scene because later when he runs into Mu Wanqing he says nothing when she kills two women but helps her still their cloths.  Mu wanqing, like many of the other women he later encounters and shows interest in except for Wang Yu Yan and Ah Zu at first are his half-sister from all his father's thrice.   Some have mentioned that they didn't like Duan Yu fall so much for Yu Yan but I did.  Because he went to illustrate that Duan Yu would not be his father or cause all the trouble that his father did.  At first he is attracted to Mu Wanqing but after finding out they were related he no longer wanted to but still seemed to care about but she didn't want any relationship where they were not lover.  So, I can see why to some it might seem like he might be like his father.   Unlike his father Duan Yu only wanted Mu Yu Yan.

Xu Zhu

I think I grew to like Xu Zhu lease.  He is suppose to be kind hearted, a little slow and devoted to death to Shaolin vows. But like Duan Yu where is non-violence protest only appeared during that one time.  I could not put up with him some of the times especially when it involved the Child-Grandma you can decided to learn kun-fu to save the live of a deer but you can't say a word to stop misunderstanding and stop fighting?  He ends up being thrown out of Shaolin, becoming the leader of a sect of female fighter and the lover of a woman he meet in a dream.

Duan Zheng Chun

Duan Zheng Chun is we first learn Duan Yu's father.  Many of the women that Duan Yu meets end out being his sister because of all that affairs that Zheng Chun had.  His character was quite despicable at times.  I really don't understand what all these women saw in him.  All of the women were beautiful, smart and talented in their own way but over decades after everything he had done, lying and deceiving in the end they all still loved him.  I was seriously hoping for at least one to have moved on particularizing Duan Yu's mother.  There is a scene where Zheng Chun is standing with three of the women and he turns to one and says that he loves only her and the others were just for fun.  They are fighting and he gets knocked over and all the women run to his side cooing over him.  He was most despicable in the end scene where Wang Yu Yan's mother also a past lover as captured him and the other women.  Murong Fu kills the other three women and he decides to goat Murong Fu into stabbing her too but then dares to say he was just scolding her and that he loves all his women and stabs himself. Really?  

We find out that Duan Yu is not Duan Zheng Chun's son because she was angry at his betrayals and had an affair of her own. So, Duan Yu is not related to any of Duan Zheng Chun's daughters. 

Ah Zhu

Ah Zhu is one of Duan Zheng Chun's daughters and Qiao Feng's lover. She a great master of disguise, and kind.  She dies when she disguises herself as her father and goes to fight Qiao Feng.  She asks Qiao Feng to take care of her sister since they both grew up not knowing their parents.  I was really was saddened by her death and anger by what we got instead.

Ah Zi

Ah Zi is what we get instead of having Ah Zu around.  Ah Zi a sadist.  She could find pleasure when hurting and torturing.  She was even more happy when she could kill someone.  She was always playing the victim claiming that she was being bullied so Qiao Feng would hurt people for her.  This brings me to another theme that is prevalent in these types of stories that of "please take of ___ (usually a woman)" that someone says on their deathbed.  Now I understand on in ancient Chinese society this would have made sense but the extent to which this goes to excuse even the most wick acts just enrages one.  You see that in Ah Zi every time she would do something wrong, you would see that Qiao Feng knows it's wrong, all Ah Zi as to say is that you promised to take care of me and because of his quilt he does nothing.  Also somehow he is suppose to love and marry her because he promised to take care her even though we all see he has no such feelings for her.  Even if, Ah Zi loves  Qiao Feng she knows the kind of person he is yet she doesn't care.  She wants him and him her way.  Even when she loses her vision which was her own fault she no second though about someone else being murdered so she can see again.  I was really upset by the ending when Qiao Feng sacrificed himself so a war would not start. Suddenly, Ah Zi gets to jump off the cliff with his body, so he would be her.  He didn't love her.  He should have had his brother bury him next to Ah Zu.  But Ah Zu died and Ah Zi got to around hurting people and in the end she gets to have Qiao Feng without his permission.

Murong Fu

In the end, Murong Fu who wanted to reestablish his kingdom went mad.

Wang Yu Yan

She was in love with Murong Fu and started to have feelings for Duan Yu.  Towards the end she final realizes that Murong Fu has no feelings for her and she decides to let herself love Duan Yu.

One thing I had a grip on in this show that I had very much with in The Four is the punishment some people got.  Especially, Qiao Feng's and Murong Fu's fathers and in a lesser case Xu Zhu's father who's a monk during the show.    Murong Fu's father is the one that sent the news that caused the attack on Qiao Feng's family,  the monk is the one that lead the attack and Qiao Feng's father murder his adoptive parents among others.  From what I understood, the man was the leader of Beggars Sect and not to long after the attack become a monk.  Qiao Feng is 30 years old but Xu Zhu is around 24 so that means he had his affair when he was already a monk. Just between these three men there have been countless death, pain and heartache, but what is the punish that they get?  Two of them get cured of their ailment and become monks and the third was a monk for over two decades.  I am sure the life of a monk is no piece of cake but is that really the punishment they get for what they did.  

This series was good and interesting in some parts, others were boring and just took too long.