Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Here's the English translation of the opening theme of Last Night of Madam Chin: Step the endless annoying dance steps, drink endless intoxicated mellow wines. Who will keep his good night for me, whisper at my ear gently? Countless handsome guys and beautiful girls, endless ups and downs in life. Who will tell me his pasts? Worryingly I stare at a lantern. *I had ever infatuated with the affection between two lovers, liked a colorful flying butterfly. **I was ever heartbroken at sad farewell, broke down and wept at the dew wet stairs. Red light will be turned off soon, drunken men are awake, at this moment I shall say goodbye to it. The play comes to the end and the audiences disperse, I turn around and glance. Hmm...... my last night. My reaction? The song really portrays the sad life of a cabaret girl like Jin Zhaoli. She had become a paramour to a rich man and later, she gets a devoted lover in Sheng Yueru. She faces the life of a cabaret girl and an imp...

Last Night of Madam Chin felt like a traditional Chinese drama watched by my late grandmother. Okay, I didn't really mind too much about what my late paternal grandmother borrowed on betamax back then. I only later found out they were the oldies like Liu Xuehua and Qin Han. Before Last Night of Madam Chin, I saw the Qiong Yao series called "Romance in the Rain" (2001 version) and later saw pieces of the 1986 version and read a synopsis. Last Night of Madame Chin had a very powerful effect with its melodramatic plotline. Although I didn't like the sad setting, it was easy to appeal to my emotions. As a sucker for melodramatic plotlines, tears and romance stories, this drama gave me the impression Qiong Yao wrote it . Even if the novel was written by Pai Hsuen Yung, it felt like a Qiong Yao drama with how it was written. I could talk about a bit how my emotions were with the love story that pissed off my mother. It was written that a rich banker's son Yueru falls...

Last Night of Madame Chin was a challenge to watch with all the issues I had with it. You have a rich guy who falls for a bar hostess, he is single-minded about love. You have social issues like women's lack of rights and a chauvinistic society. You have the setting in 1930s China. You have the leading lady suffering for years for the sake of love. All that really sounds like a novel written by Qiong Yao in spite of the novel not being written by Qiong Yao but Pai Hsien Yung, another noted novelist. My first Qiong Yao drama was the 2001 version of Romance in the Rain. Later I watched the 1986 version which was downright sadder so I didn't really enjoy it that much. Qiong Yao dramas are full of melodramatic plotlines like in Romance in the Rain, you have Shuhuan and Yiping. In Madame Chin's story, you have the story of Zhaoli and Yueru. I would like to drag down some similarities with Qiong Yao novels one way or another. Zhaoli is like a Qiong Yao heroine. Comparing her...

Based on the novel by Pai Hsuen Yang, I really thought this may have also been partly written with help of Qiong Yao seeing that this is literally a drama that cries BUCKETS and I mean BUCKETS of tears. In fact, it's set in the Republican era, a very sad drama. So we have Vic Zhou play as the main guy Yue Ru who like Qiong Yao's male protagonists are portrayed weaker willed plus Fan Bing Bing's role as Jin Zhao Li is vastly seen as a woman who undergoes severe psychological suffering just for the sake of love. Of course, I found this quite disgusting since Yue Ru a rich guy falls for a dancing girl. I mean if he could fall for a lower class woman, fine, but a dancing girl? It's hard to take sides on anyone especially Yue Ru's father who is a cold ruthless guy. Really I can't side with anyone and also beneath Zhao Li's dancing girl guise, she does have a sense of honor which Yue Ru's father doesn't have. So really I feel like this Republican era dr...

So far I've begun rewatching this show which was based on a novel by Pai Hsien Yung. However I can't help but see there are similarities of it to some of Qiong Yao's stories namely... It is set in the early Republican era where are severe traces of chauvinism and feudalistic family dictums. Also it seemed to match with the ideas of bar girls who had more dignity than most rich people. Loads and LOADS of tears. Really, I thought that this was a very teary eyed drama similar to Qiong Yao's many novels.  Also you have PLENTY melodramatic plotlines and dialogues and not to mention females who go through intense psychological suffering for the sake of love. Zhao Li's story is as such where she endures a lot of stupid stuff like being a bar hostess which really, really she is forced to do so due to the chauvinism around her. You have male protagonists who are often mentally weaker than the female protagonists. Vic Chou's character of Sheng Yue Ru might be compa...