FAKE EMPEROR

Starring: Francis Ng, Fung Bo Bo, Catherine Hung Yan

Set in the closing years of the Qing Dynasty - the Chinese empire have suffered humiliating defeats by the allied forces of the British and French armies. In one particular battle, a British general suddenly dies from an asthmatic attack, and the British blames the Qing government for his death. They demand a war memorial is built in Beijing, and that Emperor Kwang Hsu (Francis Ng) must pay his respects to the dead general.

The Dowager Empress Cixi (Fung Bo Bo) finds this preposterous, but what can they do? Their armies are defeated, and they don’t have the power to stop the demands of the British. They also cannot let the emperor, who is the Son of Heaven, and one above all, to demean himself by paying respects to invaders of his country.

They concoct a plan by finding a person with a spitting-image of the emperor, to let him be a fake emperor, and force him to do the things the British demands. Then, theoretically, it isn’t the real emperor who is demeaned, but the fake one, so they would not lose any face.

With me so far? Enter Ma Bian (Francis Ng), a barber in the capital, whose likeness to the emperor gets him invited to the Forbidden City to play as emperor. Empress Cixi orders officials to teach him in the ways of being an emperor, and how to behave himself in public. Of course, farce and comedy ensues, and Ma Bian enjoys his time as the most powerful man in the empire. He marries his childhood sweetheart Xiao Hung (Catherine Hung) in the Palace, and do all sorts of silly things. Certainly after a while, Ma Bian becomes bored of playing the emperor, and thinks of ways to leave the Palace, but Cixi would always find him. In the end, he faces the British and French during the Memorial Day, and does something so memorable that even Cixi applauds his audacity.

Okay, you must have guessed by now that this is a comedy. Unfortunately, it isn’t a good one at that. There are some humourous moments, but these are outweighed by all the cheesy ones. There is no great action to speak of, and the situations are often puerile. This has the mark of Wong Jing all over, and like all terrible Wong Jing comedies, it is predictable and unfunny. A positive note has to be Francis Ng, who you don’t often get to see in a period comedy drama, and his performance makes a change from the modern day actioners. Another worthwhile mention goes to Fung Bo Bo for her good performance as Empress Cixi, who manages to turn a nasty, wicked, corrupt individual from history into someone sympathetic and endearing.

Overall, Fake Emperor has its moments, but not enough to save it from being a farce.

RATING

4 / 10