Media Review: The Executioner 刀下留人

 

The Executioner, premiered in December 2015 on Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) Jade in Hong Kong, is a television drama exploring the philosophy of life and death. Set in Ming Dynasty of China during the Chenghua Emperor's reign, the story narrates the contrasting protagonists, an executioner and a midwife, who are involved in a political whirlpool of the imperial court.

Compared with other historical costume dramas of TVB, The Executioner adopted an unfamiliar theme featured with a cast of less famous but well-seasoned performers. The story is presented through sophisticated acting skills and dialogues of the characters, rather than existing popular idols. Acted by Kenny Wong, Yip Sheung Luk is an executioner who kills numerous criminals with a cool personality. Conversely, Fa Yui Hung (Maggie Shiu) is a selfless midwife who gives life. They meet coincidentally, and gradually develop a close relationship with a list of suspenseful and mysterious incidents. Their lives are threatened by an unknown baby boy, who is saved by Sheung Luk's executioner blade and later brought up by Yui Hung.

Although it takes time for the plot to develop from the beginning, the story is engaging when the secrets keep unraveling in later episodes. Apart from the unusual occupations of the main leads, there are uncommon scenes and impressive dialogues. To echo with the theme, The Executioner has a quite detailed description of ways to die. For example, there is a scene where two protagonists discuss the best way of committing suicide. Also, the process of Lingchi (an execution by cutting in pieces slowly) was outlined.

In addition to the nontraditional settings, the fate of the chief actress is out of audiences' expectations. Yui Hung is a good person but becomes the victim of political conspiracies at the end. In relation to the genre of mass media, melodrama series produced by TVB are usually conventional in nature. Typically, main characters in historical period dramas will have their lives saved in the execution scenes, with someone yelling "Drop the Blade" (which is also the literal translation of the Chinese name of The Executioner). Nevertheless, this cliche is absent this time that the female lead dies before the story ends.

According to Chandler (1997), genre defines the relationship between mass media and the audiences, where the producers create expected needs for media consumers. With these specific systems of expectation, the market tends to create superficial and easily communicated media texts for a particular genre. They keep reusing the same resources with little differences in terms of labour and materials, in order to fulfill the pre-sold expectations of the loyal audience. Indeed, It has been criticising that TVB drama consumers are primarily housewives enjoying formulaic storylines, instead of the younger generation who is active audience that is less likely to decode media messages with a dominant-hegemonic position (Hall, 2000). This results in standardised production practices like manufacturing commodities of the industry, and dramas without a happy ending may receive complaints (for instance, To Catch the Uncatchable).

Overall, The Executioner has an impressive storytelling with a rare character-driven plot. Its theme is innovative that avoids most formulaic settings. With the unexpected death of the leading actress, this drama is to a great extent a breakthrough in the genre of TVB's melodrama.

(540 words)

References
Chandler, D. (1997). Introduction to genre theory. Retrieved from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/chandler_genre_theory.pdf
Hall, S. (2000). Encoding/Decoding. In P. Marris & S. Thornham (eds.). Media Studies: A Reader. (pp.51-61). Washington Square, N.Y.: New York University Press.

Chow Lok Yi Judy 10518985/21620362