The Great Five Eunuchs of “The Confidant”
TVB’s last drama before the 2012 Anniversary Awards, The Confidant <大太監> is set to debut with a two-hour premiere on Monday, November 5.
The Confidant held its red carpet premiere at The Grand Cinema on Thursday, November 1. Attended by over a hundred fans, the cast and crew gladly accepted interviews and signed autographs before the two-hour premiere.
Wayne Lai (黎耀祥), Michelle Yim (米雪), and Edwin Siu (蕭正楠) are currently hot favorites to win their respective awards at the TVB Anniversary Awards. Wayne will be running for Best Actor, Michelle for Best Actress, and Edwin for Best Supporting Actor and Most Improved Male Artist. Wayne’s role in The Confidant will bring his third nomination as Best Actor in a row. Asked if Wayne hopes to win Best Actor for the third time, Wayne expressed that he would rather see The Confidant win Best Drama instead.
The Confidant is a biographical-fiction drama that focuses on the historical figure Li Lianying, one of China’s last and most corrupted eunuchs. Li was Empress Dowager Cixi most trusted adviser, and together, the pair ruled as the de-facto leader of the latter years of the Qing Dynasty, overthrowing the power of Emperor Tongzhi.
Popular media usually portrays eunuchs as feminine, manipulative, and have no romantic interest in the opposite sex. However, the eunuchs in The Confidant defy these myths and presents different perspectives on the lives of palace eunuchs. The Confidant will tell the story of five eunuchs with five distinctive personalities and their unfortunate sacrifices for the Qing Empire.
Li Lianying and An Dehai
The Confidant will be Wayne’s second time in portraying Li Lianying. His first time was in 1993’s Man of Wisdom <金牙大狀>. However, both dramas have very different interpretations of the character.
Li Lianying is a eunuch of the Jingren Gong. In his youth, Li and his best friend An Dehai (Raymond Cho 曹永廉) were sold to be eunuchs in the Forbidden City. They were brought up by the wise old eunuch, Liu Duosheng (Chung King Fai 鍾景輝). Afterwards, Li befriends the powerful Empress Dowager Cixi (Michelle Yim), and later becomes the empress dowager’s most trusted adviser and assistant. An also becomes a favorite.
The Head of Eunuchs, Chen Fu (Elliot Ngok 岳華), is jealous of Li and An’s growing power in court, and plans to have them deposed. Luckily, Li is supported by the palace maid Lin Yung (Nancy Wu 胡定欣) and eunuch Yiu Sheung Hei (Raymond Wong 黃浩然). Li and An manage to get rid of Chen, and An later succeeds Chen as the Head of Eunuchs.
With the support of Cixi, Li’s power in court grows stronger, and An begins to see Li as a threat, and later as his biggest enemy.
Yiu Sheung Hei, Ling Sau Tim, and Pang Sam Shun
Yiu Sheung Hei is a eunuch employed in the palace’s medical department. Yiu is a loyal friend of Li, who Yiu treats as his savior. Yiu later meets Princess Heshuo (Aimee Chan 陳茵媺), the aunt of Emperor Tongzhi, and falls in love with her.
Ling Tim Sau (Edwin Siu) is another eunuch from the Jingren Gong, and is an apprentice of Li. A eunuch with a great sense of humor, Ling was also a very loyal companion of Li. However, after a misunderstanding, Li kicked Ling out of the palace, and Ling was almost beaten to death. An later brings Ling back to the palace, and exploits Ling’s hatred of Li to weaken Li’s power.
Pang Sam Shun (Power Chan 陳國邦) is a relative of Chen. When Chen was still the Head of Eunuchs, Pang often abused his power and bullied Li and An consistently.
“The Confidant” Trailer
[vsw id=”7Jq36WwA__8″ source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]
Source: Sudden Weekly #901 via kuangaitvb.com, 3 Weekly #681 via kuangaitvb.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
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Based on the descriptions indicated above, it seems to be a very interesting drama series with five eunuchs having five different personalities. Look forward to watching it.
Can’t wait for this drama…
Can’t wait until Monday. The supporting cast looks superb.
Based on all the clips I’ve seen Wayne Lai should win best actor for this role, he deserves it.
This is definitely a series to look forward to. A good cast to lead and what sounds like a good storyline to sustain.
On picture above, which actor is to the right (to the right of the picture) of Michelle Yim? He looks like Raymond Wong. Two raymond Wong?
raymond cho
I had to zoom in and out a few times to see if the one on the right is Raymond Wong (again) and I thought he was until I read the synopsis and I realized he’s actually Raymond Cho! They both looked so alike in the poster above!! Talk about angle…
The only way to weaken Li Lianying’s power is to create a rift between him and Cixi. So I suppose this is a series of them manipulating the downfall of Cixi and having eunuchs in love with princess.
Hope this one is better than Sx4 given that up already. Can’t stand wooden Ron, robotvoice Rebecca and the Goddess of beauty & money, LOL.
Same here. The only character that’s kinda fun to watch is the third wife, everyone else is boring. Totally disappointed with Tavia’s character, if she’s suppose to be some great beauty then the stylist didn’t do a good job, there is not shot of her so far that has any kind of WOW factor. I don’t understand why do they all American (chinglish) accent if they’re supposedly educated in England…shouldn’t they speak with a British accent instead? I’m sorry, but it’s really sad when Damien’s character speaks better english than Kenneth…thought he lived & studied in Canada, no? IMO, they should of just stick with speaking Chinese instead.
The artistes should say some simple English words, not phrases or sentences if they really had to speak some English dialogues as none of them could speak good English.
I agree (and was surprised) that Damian’s English was better than Kenneth’s.
SSSS crashed and burned in my opinion. The Confidant, you better don’t dissapoint me! 😀
What makes it crash and burn, besides the obvious where it is a bit slow. I just think it has a great plot, great cast and i dont find it boring at all.
it’s slow, obvious plot and great cast doesn’t deliver. definitely doesn’t live up to hype
Gold4canada, you’re so right.
I’m enjoying SSSS so far… It’s a tad slow I agree, but not too bad like Korean drama… I think it’s building up nicely and the acting by most characters are solid.
But I do look forward to watch the confidant… Raymond wong looks hot in the tux he wore to the red carpet premiere. The tux fits him so well!
Disagree. SSSS is pretty good so far! The story is interesting. Only bad thing is Kenneth Ma’s wave fringe!!!
I’m enjoying the series so far 🙂
Interesting! Cant wait for this. Bt SSSS is superb as well. A bit slow bt i has a good plot.
Definitely going to be watching this! Seems very interesting and the cast is also superb.
Looking forward to this! This seems much more interesting than SSSS, both story line and cast. SSSS is getting boring for me, with it keeps revolving around Damian’s love life and chiding Kenneth in English.
I like SSSS and I think this serie is pretty good too. I’m watching SSSS now and will watch this serie later.
Only thing bad is you know the love line will definitely not work out!
Oh no…now i’m stuck to choosing who for the awards this year…Wayne Lai’s character here look extremely interesting and good! Now Raymond, Kenneth, and Wayne who to CHOOSE!?
Why is Aimee Chan playing any part in this drama. Ancient dramas especially require people who can speak the language properly, not some heavily accented half Canto. (The princess from A Step into the Past being a case in point)
She is going to butcher the lines and ruin the atmosphere just by talking, and that’s even before you critique her so called ‘acting’.
Total shame because the rest of the cast are great actors! Pity if she drags the whole thing down
That’s true. Forgot about aimee chan’s poor canto when I thought of the great cast! All the others are great though! I’ll try to ignore Aimee.
Christine Kuo was part of the cast of “War & Beauty 2”. Christine’s Cantonese (modern Chinese) is worse than Aimee’s. If she could handle it, why couldn’t Aimee do?
Two wrong doesn’t make it right! I’m so no looking forward to see christine kuo in war and beauty. Oh dear, TVB why torture audience…
We shall find out soon!!!
Can’t wait to watch this. The cast looks good, story is interesting. Hopefully it’ll create some fireworks!!!
By the way Raymond Wong looks so suave walking down the red carpet with Aimee!!! Swoon!!!
can not wait to watch this. Wayne is great; I hope he will get the third best actor award this year.
Should be better than SSSS!
I used to think Power Chan is Wayne Lai.. Realised is different person.. Like his acting..although after so many years as actor, always casting the support of support roles..his acting skill very the good..esp like those comedy roles..Funnily cute & adorable.. Go! Go! Go! POWER.. ^.^