Succession War 天命 - TVB Review

Hello everyone,

We are back with a review on Succession War from TVB. This will be shorter than usual because Jay has not had time to finish the drama yet and Cee dropped it halfway to binge 2 seasons of Detective Investigation Files. Our guest contributor, Ah Tao, is back however since he did finish the entire series. This time we will be giving our general thoughts and then moving onto performances from the cast. Ah Tao has a special part in this review where he will be exploring the set use at Hengdian Studios vs TVB City as he's watched plenty of Mainland dramas. Spoilers ahead!

General thoughts:

We were surprised to see TVB broadcast this drama at the same time as Deep in the Realm of Conscience because they're both ancient dramas and filmed in Hengdian. Given the publicity and budget of DITROC, we have already expressed our disappointment in the drama in our review here.

This drama is about the 28 days that Emperor Jiaqing took to eliminate the corrupted and powerful official Heshen. Originally we thought they would change history to make the time period longer for the full drama. However, it seems like the scriptwriters decided to have one episode take up one day's time which is quite different for ancient dramas.

This drama felt a lot more serious than DITROC and looked like the budget was bigger as well. There were a lot more extras this time and the costumes were not as colourful and ridiculous. It was nice seeing the emperor have more than 2 trusted men by his side for running the entire country. The 臣子 (courtiers) even extended to outside the palace. We were impressed with the sets as well, they were new for regular TVB viewers. In particular were the indoor rooms that looked darker and more real, which gave off a stronger mainland drama vibe. One scene that we particularly liked was the wrestling match between Joel Chan and the 17th Prince in an earlier episode, maybe around ep 5? It showed lots of horses coming into a rocky, mountainous area and many soldiers huddled around a wrestling ring. Very fun and new for TVB. Ah Tao will talk more about the sets and filming locations so we will skip that.

This drama adhered to history quite well too which allowed us to brush up our Chinese history haha. Because we are also watching Story of Yanxi Palace, it ties right into this drama. The reigning Emperor (Qianlong) in that drama is played by KK Cheung here. Because this drama was based off of history, we didn't have too many complaints about the plot for once lol. It was refreshing to see things make sense for once given the crappy stories TVB has been coming up with. An element that added to the suspense of the drama were that people all held secrets. These secrets worked well to keep us waiting for the next episode, from the Empress's (Jess Sum) secret romance with Joel Chan to Tau Kau's revenge target being the one she was most devoted to (Ruco's Heshen). Although there were many characters in the drama, we were not confused and they didn't create a mess in the story. It was different seeing so many officials/royalty played by great veteran actors (Law Lok Lam, Lee Shing Cheong, Yu Yang, Savio Tsang etc.) who complimented the Emperor's mediocre performance.

The flashbacks of this drama were hard to keep up with at the beginning and we don't know why that way of storytelling was chosen. They seemed to come many times throughout the drama and ended abruptly to be continued in another flashback. It detracted from the main storyline sometimes. We don't remember a single episode where a flashback wasn't shown, and sometimes there were almost 10 flashbacks. Although it was a creative way to show people's motives and how things tied together, the drama would've benefited from less of them. The only one that provided a new way of seeing things was the very first opening flashback which shows the reality behind the last action in the previous episode. That was well done from the scriptwriters to show that things weren't always as they seemed.

The first few episodes were interesting because it had such a serious tone to it and such a splendid performance from KK Cheung but after his death, it got a little boring. That is why Cee dropped the drama after around 10 episodes. Hearing the positive reviews, Cee picked it up again and finished the rest of the series in 2 days to write out a review ASAP. The last half of the drama gets a lot more exciting with the switching sides of Joel Chan, numerous alliances being made and many secret missions being carried out. We already knew the ending if the scriptwriters would follow history, but it was still exciting to see how Heshen would finally be brought to justice. Even Emperor Qianlong did not kill him while he was still alive and Jiaqing proved to be of no match for Heshen's devious plans for the majority of the drama. We noticed a lot of people did not like the ending and to some extent, we wished that Jiaqing could've brought down Heshen without the help of his father. But the way they characterized Jiaqing, it seemed like he would spend his entire life being close but never enough to finding evidence against Heshen.

This is predominantly a male centered drama, but the women have their smarts here too. They all had different personalities as well, showing the complexity of navigating your way through the Forbidden City. One cannot simply be innocent and kind and get through everything fine. There is always give and take, if you live with a good heart, you will no doubt become the target for the power hungry. We felt everyone was cast correctly besides Natalie but more on that later. The women in this drama showed great support to their male counterparts and the relationship scenes were not cringey and cliched. We would've liked it if we saw more of why Heshen was so in love with Tau Kau and why Tau Kau never accepted his proposal but the independent, foreign educated Cheung Mei agreed right away.

There were many, many casualties and suicides in this drama, particularly towards the end and we can't even list them all. Some of them weren't necessary but they came out of the Emperor's "righteous" ways of running the country. Anyone who showed signs of betrayal to the Emperor were killed right away. None of them touched us particularly because that wasn't the point of the drama. Perhaps the only really touching death was Cheung Mei's after being poisoned by the Emperor in an attempt to show she was trustworthy. She still managed to get so much of the plan across despite her state.

Extra thoughts:

We didn't really understand the water dropping and the plate rising with the 子 character at the end of the episode before the credits rolled. If anyone has a clue what its for, let us know. Someone told us it had to do with time? But we're not sure.

A cool fact we learned while researching about this drama and the history behind it was that the name 天命 was also the era name of the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Nurhaci. We wonder if this has anything to do with the drama.

Performances/Characters:

Ruco Chan as Heshen - We knew Ruco would have no problem with this role because of his experience in ancient dramas and he has always shown to be solid actor. This time was no different. He has stated earlier that he portrayed Heshen to be a smart and charming man, although his intentions were misplaced. The previous depictions of him in present adaptations show him to be pure evil. This allowed him to be a more dynamic character. He showed good range from being charming, cunning to emotional over his wife's (Cheung Mei's) death. Mostly it was his genius plans that got him all the riches, he was not as ruthless as the Emperor who killed his own brothers with no second thought. He still kept most of the people around him alive, even Joel Chan after he had convinced his own brother to commit suicide. If he was truly that selfish, he would've just killed his brother for being a liability in desperate times. This drama also didn't really show his greed, it was just in one flashback that they explained he wanted power because his brother gave him the idea to quit living under people's order. A lot of people were rooting for him to make it through and live in this version of the story. However, we were happy with his eventual death. Overall a great leading role for Ruco, definitely redeemed himself from The Unholy Alliance.

Shaun Tam as Emperor Jiaqing - This is our first time watching Shaun Tam, we read a lot of complaints online about his one dimensional acting. Like other netizens say, he was always angry and had a low raspy "Batman" like voice. Given all the negative reviews, we think that he did well in his quieter scenes conversing with people other than Heshen. He really elevated the hate on Heshen and that comes from his worry that Heshen will rule the country rather than himself. It looks like he's coming back with another drama in August so hopefully he can show us another side of him, but he already looks murderous on the poster lol.

Selena Li as Empress Xiaoherui - It seems like she only films around one drama per year which is a shame because she is a solid actress. We've always liked her and don't recall any bad performances from her either. She has a great, elegant quality that helps her portray this role well. The character itself can only said to be too kind-hearted which caused her kidnapping and eventual miscarriage. She harbored a lot of secrets to protect Jiaqing and even though she seemed like a soft and frail woman, she had the upper hand against Jiaqing because she had done so much to protect him. He seemed unreasonable and we felt so sorry for her. She was also the greater person in a lot of arguments, letting Elaine's character get away with a lot of things, proving Yoyo's character's innocence in the end despite her evil intentions to be Empress. Hopefully Selena is able to come back and film more dramas, TVB is in need of better actresses.

Elaine Yiu as Cheung Mei - Not much to comment on her performance. It was good as we expected from Elaine. She is great supporting material but not sure if she could take on a drama by herself. She is lacking a bit of that leading lady charisma. Having said that, she's definitely proved to be a solid actress who's done well to refine her emotional scenes. The character was well written and smart who was extremely devoted to Heshen even though he did questionable things. At first it seemed like she didn't care that Heshen loved Tau Kau as well. We thought she was a minority in women to show no signs of jealousy. In the middle part, there was some animosity shown towards her but mostly just because she would be a risk to their plans and Heshen's life. All in all, her character had one goal and she died saving Heshen.

Natalie Tong as Tau Kau - Honestly, Natalie is the weakest link in the major characters along with Shaun Tam. We were surprised with how mediocre her acting was given her experience with ancient dramas, but it just shows that she is not a versatile actress. Her delivery of speech is quite modern and she acts quite immaturely. We did not enjoy any of her emotional crying scenes because she was yelling at the same time. Her voice was shrill and annoying with no regard to subtle anger or expression of emotion. She seems to have lost her touch, she was not great in Stealing Seconds either. We're not sure what TVB was thinking giving Best Actress to her last year, but enough about that. She needs to redeem herself with a good performance, perhaps in Big White Duel. It is also the scriptwriters fault for having her characters all be sad and whiny and never end up with the man she loves.

Matthew Ho as Fengshen Yinde - It was surprising to see Matthew play Ruco's son as their ages are more suited for playing brothers or such. We thought he did a solid job here and showed himself to be a versatile actor since we had concerns that he could only play soft characters when he debuted. His voice is soft but he used it great here and was able to show his frustration and anger with his father Heshen. It was an interesting choice to have him be righteous and fight against his father, usually it's like father like son. Next time, we would like to see Matthew tackle a more evil character.

Joel Chan as Fuca Fuchang'an - He has played many supporting roles in the past few years who have often stole the spotlight from the main character. Joel is partnered frequently in dramas with Ruco and we have no complaints because they're both good. Towards the end, his character got interesting because you couldn't tell when he would go against Heshen or Jiaqing even though he pledges his devotion to both of them. It's lucky how he gets through so many sticky situations. Knowing TVB, there's always got to be an illegitimate son and this time it was Joel. He didn't use it much though until the very end and it was surprising that Jiaqing didn't kill him as he did with 8th Prince and 11th Prince. We were happy with Joel's performance as always, don't think he's disappointed us.

Other honourable mentions: We are impressed with Stephanie Ho's performance as the 10th Princess. She has moved out of her cutesy, innocent girl roles and was more subtle in her acting. Yoyo Chen has always played rude, manipulative girls. This role is not any different and we have yet to see her as a nice, innocent woman. Ah Tao even believes she could have played Tau Kau and might've had a better ancient feel to her than Natalie. KK Cheung was great as the aged Qianlong which kept us hooked in the first few episodes! So were all the other veteran actors! It was a solid cast all around besides Shaun and Natalie.

Production Set Analysis (proudly brought to you by Ah Tao):

Hello! Since this drama was partially filmed at Hengdian World Studios, I thought it would be interesting to explore how this drama utilized the sets there as opposed to the ones back in TVB City. As a mainlander and also a mainland drama viewer, I wanted to show you guys how the production team used the additional filming options to their advantage. Be prepared to see plenty of screenshots.

The Forbidden City

First of all, it is important to note that for one of the first times in history, a TVB production team finally utilized an indoor set at Hengdian, like the one below:

I'm fond of what I'm assuming to be the same, if not very similar, settings:

How am I so sure this was at Hengdian? Well, here are some that I can tell is from TVB City:

Note in the TVB sets, you never really see a straight passageway outside the door - there's always a wall right up by the door! At Hengdian, we can see that the outdoor palaces are also usable for indoor scenes.

In fact, this is the only real 'palace' that's at TVB City:

I especially despise the 'fake outdoor sets' that were actually built indoors at TVB City. Like, I know they are necessary for most ancient dramas, but yuck!

The roof tile and exterior wall colours are not correct at all considering the era. Both the real Forbidden City buildings and the Hengdian ones look like this:

Note the Manchu script on the name plaque below. It will be handy in a little while:

I guess the Emperor (Shaun Tam) couldn't afford palace guards though?!

This area below is ironically overused in mainland dramas despite how much I cherish the use of it in this series:

In one case, TVB was very creative in deciding that they should use a building from Hengdian's Qin-Han-Tang dynasty palace collection. (Maybe that was the only place they could get their hands on the night they filmed this scene.) Note how the building exterior once again has the wrong colour combinations and how the name plaque has no Manchu script on it:

Garden Time

Moving on to the imperial garden, there's also a stark contrast between what's at TVB City and at Hengdian:

Guess which is where?

Here is an honorary mention to a place that's in soooo many ancient productions:

Heshen's House

While what appears to be the exterior buildings were filmed in Hengdian, the rooms inside are sets built back in Hong Kong. This is normally the way TVB has done things for dramas like Deep in the Realm of Conscience recently. 

That's not to say that the production staff and construction crew back home do a terrible job when making the indoor sets. One of the biggest constraints, however, with doing things this way is that the indoor scenes lack natural light and therefore suffer from an unrealistic overabundance of artificial light.

But on a 'shoestring' budget (compared to mainland productions), I guess I can forgive them.

Outside Forbidden City...

Let's look at the gates first with a guessing game. Hint: the pair of gates are in the same order in terms of their locations as the imperial garden settings!

The production team utilized both the Qing Dynasty street at Hengdian and the ancient street (which is used in dramas from like every historical era) at TVB City. While this provided a lot of variety in the street scenes, I still like the Hengdian street since it's both more spacious and realistic:

Tau Kau's house is also a building at Hengdian, although we never got to see what's inside. Not that we needed to have more of her in the drama...

Meh is the only remark I have towards the TVB City street:

The production team only utilized the new TVB City ancient street addition built in 2015 in two or so scenes as far as I could tell:

The Great Wall...for Real

Since we started off with innovations, we'll end with some. For this drama, the production crew actually visited the actual Great Wall of China (and what I presume to be some cliffs in that area if not in Hengdian) for some outdoor scenes. The scenery is exhilarating and pleasant. I definitely hope TVB forks out some spending in future ancient dramas so we could see similar scenes.

Verdict

The change of scenery in this drama was refreshing, especially because the production crew used new settings that were never featured in previous productions. What I didn't like, however, was the fact that we saw both TVB City and Hengdian sets that serve the same purpose. I know this would lead to a bigger variety of scenes, but I would have liked if TVB forked out enough money so we could ditch the Hong Kong sets all together for once. For once!

I'm a little tired of seeing the same fake-looking garden and palace, and not only because I watch mainland dramas too - a grand storyline needs an equally grand artistic presentation. If the production crew wants to portray political affairs far more intricate than the normal family gossip fare, it helps for the viewers to see the sheer scale of feudal Chinese institutions accurately represented.

I'm hoping this innovative trend continues, if only for the grand productions. The use of Hengdian indoor sets should have been a given if TVB management wanted to send entire crews to the mainland. I'm looking at you, Deep in the Realm of Conscience.

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The overall rating for this drama is 8.5/10 which is relatively high considering the caliber of TVB dramas in recent years. Thank you for reading the review! We know it was rather long this time, but we wanna make sure to get all our thoughts out there. We are working on writing some more reviews lately given that we finish dramas. If you are ever wondering what we are watching, just check out our drama list here, and Ah Tao's is here.

- Cee, Jay and Ah Tao!