Media Review: “Short End of the Stick” (“公公出宮”)

Background of the Drama

“Short End of the Stick” is a 35-episode TVB-produced Hong Kong television drama aired from 9th February 2016 to 26th March 2016 which is directed by Marco Law (羅永賢). The drama centres on depicting the lives of the three eunuchs—Lee Suk-gung (portrayed by Wayne Lai), Dan Tin (portrayed by Power Chan) and Chan Siu-fung (portrayed by Raymond Cho)—after they left the Forbidden City since the fall of the Qing dynasty in the early 1910s. Noticed leading lives as civilians is hard in Beijing, the three eunuchs decided to move outside Beijing; by chance they start their new lives in Shenzhen working for the local rich Kam’s family.

Auteur Theory, Marco Law the Director and the Drama

Graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with Sociology major in 1988, Marco Law the director of the drama has been taking part as playwright and director in making television dramas in Hong Kong relating to issues on gender and social realism. As per auteur theory suggested by Sarris (1962), it can be discovered auteur-director has specific and similar personal technique, style and meaning in every own creative work. Marco Law is no exception—such can be found from his works over the fifteen years, for instance, “The Threat of Love” (“Loving You 我愛你”) released in 2000 featuring ten different modern love stories; “Life Begins at Forty” (“花樣中年”) released in 2003 describing the mid-life crisis in career and love relationships of men; “At Home with Love” (“樓住有情人”) released in 2006 portraying values educated youth in Hong Kong have in this growingly materialistic world; “Grace Under Fire” (“女拳”) released 2011 showing how a woman fights against various challenges where sexual discrimination is involved to become a famous person in Chinese martial arts.

Genre, Social Reality and the Drama

As written from the official website of the drama, the genre of the drama is situated as period comedy television drama. The period of the drama is set up as the early 1910s in China and the tone throughout the drama is light-hearted. It is noticeable the drama can also be identified as the Cantonese realism genre, as referring to the idea illustrated by Hartley, Saunders, Montgomery and Fiske (1994) that a continuous linkage in form and substance is present between genre and society on the basis of social reality—since there are scenes screening matters of family ethics ranging from marital fidelity, filial piety to jealousy of siblings towards family heritage.

Audience’s Decoding, Articulation and the Drama

It can be observed the audience of the drama generally holds a dominant-hegemonic position of decoding out of the three positions of decodings as put forward by Hall (2000) that the drama is a family-welcomed comedy. There are plenty of scenes audience can articulate them to issues happening and on debate in the current society.

   

For example, Kam Heung (portrayed by Nancy Wu) manages Kam’s family business since she is the only child of her father’s main wife and she is a more capable one to manage the family business. She is like a female idol from the eyes of women in the village. However, there is a low birth rate crisis happening in the village since women in the village are capable and hence they are picky for men to marry. Kam Heung soon turns thirty and there is pressure forcing her to get married so as to motivate women in the village to marry. Such scene reminds audience that women in Hong Kong become more capable and independent nowadays and that can be a source for articulation.

   

Another example can be seen from the compliment given from the three eunuchs who are workers of the Kam’s family business. Audience can articulate it to current workplace.

 《公公出宮》 第5集
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fwW1aACYE&nohtml5=False

References of Texts:

http://programme.tvb.com/drama/shortendofthestick

http://www.skypost.hk/newsDetail/headline?headline=%E3%80%8A%E5%85%AC%E5%85%AC%E5%87%BA%E5%AE%AE%E3%80%8B%E7%A0%B4%E5%92%92

Hall, S. (2000). Racist ideologies and the media. Media studies: A reader, 271-282.

Hartley, J., Saunders, D., Montgomery, M., & Fiske, J. (1994). Key concepts in communication and cultural studies (p. 267). London: Routledge.

Sarris, A. (1962). Auteur theory and film evaluation. Wartenberg and Curran, eds, 99-107.

References of Photos:

http://yvv.cn/ktv/mv/230477.html

http://tvb4life.pixnet.net/blog/post/59543420-%E5%B0%88%E8%A8%AA%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%A7%E5%A4%AA%E7%9B%A3%E3%80%8B%E7%9B%A3%E8%A3%BD-%E7%BE%85%E6%B0%B8%E8%B3%A2-%E6%89%93%E5%B7%A5%E4%BB%94%E8%81%B7%E5%A0%B4-%E7%94%9F%E5%AD%98

 

Name: Luk Oi Yin

Student Number: 10556023, 21619821

Word Count: 550