Line #64 Film/LegendOfTheBlackScorpion


1	[[quoteright:342:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Banquet_1706.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:342:''Hamlet'', [[RecycledInSpace IN ANCIENT CHINA!]]]]
3
4	''The Banquet'', known also by its international release title ''Legend of the Black Scorpion'', is a 2006 {{wuxia}} adaptation of Shakespeare's ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', with a few notable changes and twists. Gertrude's {{expy}}, the Empress Wan, is rewritten as a much younger and more ambitious woman, who is playing a game of her own as the revenge plot marches on.
5
6	In the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Wu Luan is a prince who leaves home to pursue the arts and forget his heartbreak, since his father the Emperor has married Wan, the girl Wu Luan loves. Three years later, his uncle murders his father and takes the throne and the beautiful Wan for himself. Wu Luan returns to court at the summons of the Empress to protect him from assassination attempts, and from here he attempts to learn the truth of his father's death and exact revenge on his uncle, while struggling to come to terms with his feelings for not only his step-mother but also his former betrothed, the devoted [[TheOphelia Qing]].
7
8	In the meantime, the new Emperor is completely smitten with Wan and she uses this to her advantage, carving out a place for herself in his court and consolidating her own power. The Empress has a plan, and she is biding her time, waiting to make her move.
9
10	Because of the time it was made, the similar setting and themes, and the fact that Creator/GongLi was originally slotted for the role of the [[Creator/ZhangZiyi Empress]], the movie is often compared with ''Film/CurseOfTheGoldenFlower''.
11	----
12	!! This film contains examples of:
13
14	* ActionGirl[=/=]DarkActionGirl: The Empress, depending on how you look at her goals.
15	* AlasPoorVillain: It's hard not to feel a little sorry for [[spoiler:the Emperor when he realises he was just another pawn in the Empress's plan, and accepts death at her hands because "if it is your will, how can I refuse?" He dies in her lap.]]
16	* AllForNothing: [[spoiler: Wan ultimately ends up losing everything she actually loved in her grab for power. Then someone kills her.]]
17	* AmbitionIsEvil: As it's based on ''Hamlet'', the Emperor murdered his brother to usurp his kingdom. [[spoiler: Wan plans to return the favour so she can rule on her own as [[SheIsTheKing Emperor.]]]]
18	* ArrangedMarriage: Wu Luan and Qing were engaged. It was a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage on her side, but he barely seemed to notice her.
19	* TheBardOnBoard: The story is based on ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''.
20	* BecomingTheMask: Wu Luan and Wan have a discussion about the power of masks in theater and whether or not wearing one brings about a greater performance. This as Wan is slowly becoming one with her ToughLeaderFacade.
21	* BlackWidow: [[spoiler:The Empress only married for power. Once she's in position, she murders her husband.]]
22	* BloodFromTheMouth: [[spoiler:Qing]]'s death, due to drinking poison.
23	* BloodIsSquickerInWater: Blood flowing into water is something of a motif in the film. At one point the Emperor dropping a red grape into water evokes earlier examples of actual blood in water and signals that an execution is coming.
24	* BreakTheCutie: Qing, who starts the movie as a hopeful young bride-to-be and is slowly broken by the corruption around her. [[spoiler:[[KillTheCutie Then she's poisoned.]]]]
25	* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: Wu Luan and Qing, who deconstruct this as the original play does.
26	* TheChessmaster: The Empress.
27	* CostumePorn: In particular, everything the Empress wears.
28	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: The elderly Pei Hong is executed by being beaten to death. All the more cruel and unusual for the fact that he invented the method.
29	* DecadentCourt: Pretty much everyone is trying to kill everyone else.
30	* DefrostingIceQueen: The Emperor thinks that his wife is this, even telling her if she is a lump of ice, she will melt in his mouth.
31	* DiabolusExMachina: [[spoiler:Just as it seems the Empress has come out on top, an unseen assassin stabs and kills her.]]
32	* DownerEnding: It's based on ''Hamlet'', remember.
33	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:The Emperor]]'s death is ultimately rather pathetic as he realizes [[spoiler:Wan loathes him. He deliberately poisons himself with the cup she prepared for him.]]
34	* DueToTheDead: One of the Emperor's [[PetTheDog rare good moments]] involves ordering that [[spoiler:Qing]] have a state funeral.
35	* DyingDeclarationOfLove: Reversed, as [[spoiler:Wu Luan]] confesses his love for [[spoiler:Qing]] as the latter lies dying.
36	* DysfunctionalFamily: The imperial family, played for drama.
37	* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: To some extent. The Empress says that it has been so long since anyone called her by her real name that she had forgotten it.
38	* EvilUncle: The Emperor, what with that whole killing Wu Luan's father and taking the throne thing. Fitting as he's Claudius' {{Expy}}.
39	* FaceDeathWithDignity: Surprisingly, [[spoiler: The Emperor. After realizing Wan intended to poison him, he calmly drains the goblet she gave him and walks over to lay his head on her lap, at no point showing any trace of fear.]]
40	* {{Fanservice}}/MaleGaze: Lingering shots of Creator/ZhangZiyi in her birthday suit are littered throughout the film, including a BathtubScene.
41	* FemmeFatale: The Empress becomes this more and more as the film goes on.
42	* FirstLove: Wan for Wu Luan. He's clearly still hung up on her for most of the film.
43	* {{Foil}}: Qing and the Empress, Pei Hong and Minister Yin, the Empress and Wu Luan.
44	* GambitPileup: The banquet at the end of the film.
45	* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: The general response to the Empress. There were those who had misgivings about her at the beginning, [[spoiler: but by the end virtually everyone hates her. When she is killed by an assassin, her courtiers quietly abandon her to her fate.]]
46	* TheGoodKing: Wu Luan's father is implied to have been this.
47	* GreenEyedMonster: The Empress has Qing brutally whipped simply because she asks to be exiled together with Wu Luan.
48	* HappyMarriageCharade: The Empress pretends that the Emperor is winning her over while plotting to kill him.
49	* HotBlooded: Yin Sun, the Laertes {{expy}}.
50	* IWillWaitForYou: Qing feels this way about Wu Luan, although she knows he can never be hers.
51	* IfICantHaveYou: Pretty much everything the Empress does to Qing is driven by the fact that she is still in love with Wu Luan and doesn't want Qing to marry him.
52	* TheIngenue: Qing, though she does show surprising insight into the Empress's personality.
53	* InsistentTerminology: The first conversation of the movie between Wan and the Emperor is basically them deciding if they will settle into the role of husband and wife by playing with calling each other in-laws.
54	** Pei Hong dies for referring to Wan as the Empress dowager, loudly and clearly.
55	* KnightTemplarBigBrother: Yin Sun is very protective of Qing, fully prepared to kill for her sake, and holds a grudge against Wu Luan because she loves him but he can't make her happy.
56	* LadyInRed: The Empress wears either red or black for most of the film. Scenes emphasizing her sexual dominance over the Emperor show her in, or surrounded by, red fabric.
57	* LaughingMad: Pei Hong, after he finds he's the only man of integrity left.
58	* LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine: Qing and the Empress. In their first scene together they're even wearing white and black respectively.
59	* LonelyAtTheTop: Disregarding the fact that [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity she's gone slightly loopy by this point]], [[spoiler:[[SheIsTheKing Emperor Wan]] is left desolate and alone by the end.]]
60	* LoveObstructingParents: Wu Luan's father married the woman Wu Luan loved and hoped to marry. Can't get much more obstructive than that.
61	* ManipulativeBastard: The Empress. She plays the Emperor's emotions effortlessly, and easily manipulates Minister Yin through his daughter.
62	* ManlyTears: Wu Luan sheds some for his father after performing a play that accuses his uncle of murder.
63	* MayDecemberRomance: Wan was younger than the previous Emperor's own son when they married, and is undoubtedly decades younger than the new Emperor as well.
64	* MeaningfulAppearance: The color white is significant.
65	** Wu Luan wears white throughout the film while most of the cast wears some combination of red and black, highlighting his loneliness, lack of allies at court, and purity. His mask on the other hand turns increasingly dark as the court becomes more corrupt.
66	** The Empress wears white when widowed at the beginning of the film, and during her first on-screen meeting with Wu Luan. This is an emphasis of her lost childhood innocence and purity.
67	** Qing is generally seen wearing more white than most other characters, but it isn't until the end that she's dressed all in white. Echoing Wu Luan's introduction, Qing performs at the banquet wearing the same pure white outfit and the mask that has become increasingly stained and black. [[spoiler:By the end she is dying, and Wu Luan finally realizes he loves her.]]
68	* MeaningfulEcho: "Do you know why I love this colour..?"
69	* MissingMom: There is no mention of Wu Luan's birth mother. Or Qing and Yin Sun's mother.
70	* {{Motifs}}: Masks. Wu Luan's signature item is a WhiteMaskOfDoom, the Emperor's troops and the palace guards all wear [[FacelessMooks face-concealing battle masks]], the actors in Wu Luan's play are masked, and Wan outright says that the greatest performance lies in turning one's own face [[BecomingTheMask into their mask.]]
71	* ObliviousToLove: Wu Luan spends so much of the movie focused on the Empress that he can't tell Qing is honestly in love with him.
72	* OhCrap: During the banquet, when characters realize they, or someone they love, is going to be or has already been poisoned.
73	* PerfectPoison: The black scorpion venom that killed the old Emperor.
74	** [[spoiler: Whatever poison the Empress gave to Qing and her husband.]]
75	* PoisonIsCorrosive: [[spoiler:Wu Luan's hand starts to rot after he grabs a poisoned blade.]]
76	* PyrrhicVictory: [[spoiler:The Empress wins the throne, but loses the man she loves in the process; first to another woman, and then literally when he dies.]]
77	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The role of the Empress was originally intended for Creator/GongLi, who was busy with ''Film/CurseOfTheGoldenFlower'', or another actress of that age like Creator/MaggieCheung. When Creator/ZhangZiyi took the role, the character was aged down and the story was rewritten to allow for Wan to be younger than Wu Luan.
78	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: The Empress gives one to Wu Luan. You can actually pinpoint the moment she gives up on him when he argues with her.
79	* ReassignedToAntarctica: Wu Luan is made an ambassador to Khitan. Everybody knows he's really being sent to his death for pissing off his uncle. [[spoiler: At the end of the film, Minister Yin is exiled to the far north by Empress Wan, after losing both his son and daughter.]]
80	* SarcasticClapping: After Wu Luan's play, the Emperor slowly claps, signalling that the audience may also applaud. But what happens immediately following shows that he understood his nephew's challenge and is going to kill him.
81	* SceneryPorn: Largely in black, white, red, and gold, though scenes at the outdoor theatre are overwhelmingly green.
82	* SettingUpdate: ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' was set in medieval Denmark. This film is set in 10th-century China.
83	* ShowWithinAShow: Wu Luan puts on a play for the Empress's coronation. This doesn't just get the Emperor, the tension in the room implicates that everyone knows what he's on about.
84	* SiblingTriangle: The Emperor murdered his brother and married his brother's wife. Wan didn't want anything to do with this, but she submits. Or appears to.
85	* StalkerWithACrush: The Emperor had been watching Wan for a long time before they marry. He's very familiar with her routines for removing her makeup and entering her bath.
86	* StarCrossedLovers: Wu Luan, originally with Wan, and then with Qing. The crossing of their stars in both cases is highlighted by the fact that in the scenes where the couples are closest to realizing their mutual affection, Wu Luan and Wan/Qing are both wearing [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience all white]] and moving together in a synchronized fashion. Wu Luan spars with Wan and performs a dance with Qing. And then everything falls apart.
87	* TearsOfBlood: Instead of the ghost of the prince's father, we have the father's armor weeping blood from the eye-holes.
88	* TheUnreveal: [[spoiler: At the end of the film, an unseen assassin stabs Empress Wan in the back and kills her. The look of horror on her face as she turns and points at the camera implies she knows the identity of her murderer, but the audience never finds out.]]
89	* UnresolvedSexualTension: Between Wu Luan and Wan. This tends to come out in their InsistentTerminology behind her relation to him as his stepmother in order to maintain the necessary distance between them.
90	* WaifFu: A wuxia film with Zhang Ziyi is almost guaranteed to have this.
91	* WhatTheHellHero: The Empress admonishes Wu Luan more than once when he says or does something stupid that's going to get him killed.
92	* WhiteMaskOfDoom: There's no denying that Wu Luan's mask is pretty scary. Later [[spoiler:Qing]] puts it on, and is soon killed.
93	* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: [[spoiler: After forcefully taking power at the end of the film, Wan's sanity has clearly started to fray after losing Wu Luan, to the point that she's almost comparable to [[TheOphelia Ophelia]]. At least until she's suddenly murdered.]]
94	* YouKilledMyFather: Again, it's ''Hamlet''.

Context Film / LegendOfTheBlackScorpion