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Understanding Huadu Chronicles' Plot on Restoring Gender Balance

So I am always a holder of many unpopular opinions but I will vocalize them every now and then, especially that I like Huadu Chronicles which was a box office flop.  Maybe it's because I'm a fan of Twins.  Now I would try to understand the symbolism of the film and what it may be a commentary of.  For starters, the story is all about gender imbalance.  The emperor's once love interest had become the empress of China, has taken women's rights to the extreme and she has become a Feminazi in her own bizarre way to the point she has also banned any form of love.  Any woman caught in the act of loving a man was already declared an outcast.


The main antagonist is your wicked Empress Fei who has gotten bitter. Well maybe, the men of her day were all pigs so I can't blame her in part for what happened to her.  The backstory between the empress and her twin sister (both played by the same actress) was their love for the emperor.  The emperor slept with her identical twin, thinking that he slept with his true love.  The bitterness consumed the empress' heart, she dethroned her lover and became the embodiment of bitterness.  She hates love to the point that she bans it.  Her cruel laws even affect the women of the land because she would only treat men as "cattle", bitter about her ruined relationship with Wei Liao, the former emperor.  The message behind her feminazi laws is that two wrongs don't make a right!  At the end, she realizes how wrong she was when Wei Liao joined her in death.


Wei Liao on the other hand is the wrongly accused lover.  He slept with the Empress Fei's twin sister, unaware and that led to everything.  But for him, he only wants to restore balance hoping to restore the trust of the woman he loves.  He was once the Emperor of China but he was dethroned by his lover.  Rather than fight, he chose to stay by his side, even castrated himself in the process.  To be honest, I admire how this man seeks to right the wrongs of the empress by restoring gender balance rather than the endless cycle of chauvinistic views of both genders.  In the end, he chose to die together with his woman when the prophecy of the Empress' fall came.  I loved how he chose to die with his woman to truly restore the balance of both genders.  His death with Empress Fei symbolized reconciliation and sacrifice, which would end her bitter regime and restore her humanity at the last minute.


The role of Charcoal Head, Block Head, Spring and Blue Bird represent the attempt to restore gender balance.  Blue Bird is an agent of the majestic Empress Fei, Spring is running a brothel composed of men, Charcoal Head is the Star of Rex who will restore balance to the two genders, not make men reign supreme over women.  Block Head is well his best friend.  I kind of love how Blue Bird and Spring see that not all men are evil.  This also started to deliver its message that even the army of female soldiers betrayed the queen in the process!


Master Blackwood and Edo Bowman represent separated lovers.  It's obvious that Edo Bowman isn't happy about the queen's mandate of banning romance.  She genuinely loves her husband Master Blackwood and vice versa.  I really got touched to how she encouraged her ENTIRE ARMY to turn against Empress Fei's unjust mandate, how the male and female soldiers all united to restore balance of both genders.  I just love how Edo Bowman misses her husband so terribly and how happy I was when both were reunited.


After the all of Empress Fei, the Star of Rex that is Charcoal Head gave to Block Head the crown and of course, the marching of both Charcoal Head and Spring represented both genders have returned.  Of course, women do laundry better and men do dirty work better.  They both started to agree to create a fair rule which will prevent either side from overpowering the other. Women were after all taken from the side, to be the equal to men, to be his beloved and not from the foot to be trampled upon nor the head to rule over, but the side to be loved.

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