Vendetta of An (2025) A Recommendation
The city of Chang’an has been the subject of numerous films and dramas over the years. In part because it was THE capital city of several dynasties and it was the capital of the Tang dynasty for much of its rule. The city’s name is palpable with irony — while it contains the promise of peace, yet if history and the stories are to be believed, tumult seemed to be more of a feature in that great bustling city inhabited by many of the country’s greatest rulers.
While the Vendetta of An is as advertised — a revenge story in the manner of Nirvana in Fire and The Longest Day in Chang’an, it is much much more than that. The protagonist is Xie Huai’an aka Liu Zhi played by the always reliable Cheng Yi but he’s not the star of the show. That honour belongs to the labyrinthian city of Chang’an. His fate is inextricably tied to the city as his name denotes. Although he’s unequivocally out for blood, finding his father’s betrayer is only part of a larger plan to save the city from a political cat and mouse skullduggery that threatens its hapless folk struggling to survive regardless of what manner of despot happens to be in charge. Needless to say any ongoing power struggle affects their ability to eke out a living.
The villain that lives rent free in Huai’an’s headspace is the turncoat Yan Fengshan (Zhang Hanyu) who once served as his father’s subordinate in Huben. The ruthless general isn’t content to be somebody else’s minion so he overthrows the existing imperial family and installs a puppet ruler, the young and malleable Xiao Wenjing (Zhou Qi) to soothe the masses, while he gets to pull the strings behind the scenes. Big brother of the imperial family Xiao Wuyang (played by the near ubiquitous Liu Yujun) will have none of it. He musters his troops from the north and successfully expels the usurper from the royal city.
Unfortunately for the royalists, Yan Fengshan escapes and grabs the youngster for a bit of leverage. Or so it seems. Huben agents are still running loose lurking about the city’s nooks and crannies, blending in and acting as sleeper agents. Luckily for them the resourceful Xie Huai’an has his own people doing his bidding. So it’s a case of spy vs spy. Who knows if one’s neighbour is of the enemy camp? It wouldn’t be too far fetched to imagine being stabbed in bed. The veteran campaigners are only too aware that the war has just taken a different turn. One that Huben excel in.
It is in this context that the son of the man who created Huben is recalled from a small provincial town where he’s been laying low for 15 years. He’s been putting the finishing touches to his grand strategy for bringing down the culprit who destroyed his clan. Nicknamed “bai tou” (white hair) by those who know him best, Xie Huai’an is the “boogey man” for his leery adversaries — the genius strategist who can turn the tide of war without lifting a sword. The moniker comes about as a result of a freakish occurrence in his younger days and he wears it as part of his arsenal.
Draining the swamp of unnamed Huben operatives is an intractable problem. They are loyal to Yan Fengshan and I’m supposing that everyone loves a winner. Beyond that they’re cannon fodder in a war conducted largely via espionage and guerilla tactics.
While war seems defensible under such circumstances, the show remains ambiguous about its overall efficacy in resolving geopolitical or internal disputes. The cost of victory is notoriously high. The death toll… incalculable. War is inevitably a last resort when both sides are equally determined to hold their positions at all cost. Everyone is impacted bar a handful of wealthy elites. Everyone sacrifices something for the big picture whether it be a pair of legs or a pair of eyes. Or even worse, their humanity.
The war that Huai’an wages is, at its root, psychological. It’s a game of weiqi. Or poker. He’s not shy about bluffing and tugging at the heartstrings when it suits. Appearing as a mild-mannered scholar wandering the streets of Chang’an sets him up as a roving target apparently but for some reason he’s invisible or invincible. He has conversations with people who want him dead and often they end up dead instead. It’s not always clear if his enemies underestimate or are just plain curious about the quietly confident disposition that they let their guard down unawares. It isn’t a simple case of plot armour but there’s more than a suggestion that Huben’s greatest nemesis is spiritually endowed for a moment such as this.
The lion’s share of character development belongs to Xiao Wenjing the former puppet emperor, now subordinate of Xie Huai’an. It should be a mandatory rite of passage for all future leaders and monarchs to undertake such an arduous journey lest they get lost in their ivory tower bubble. Although they were once classmates at the imperial academy, Wenjing is now Huai’an’s reluctant pupil who is being moulded into the man who must learn to be an emperor all over again.
The cast is largely known to the audience. Zhou Qi who plays Wenjing has been doing the rounds lately played a character with a similar arc in Legend of Zang Hai. Liu Yujun of course is known for playing villains also has a supporting role here as the other emperor. My happy discoveries or rediscoveries from this experience are Ye Zuxin as General Gu Yu and Tong Mengshi as Ye Zheng, Huai’an’s trusty offsider and friend.
For those unaccustomed to stories of war and stratagems with no romance at the end of it, Vendetta of An might be a challenging watch. Indeed there is a bleakness that envelopes the atmosphere surrounding the city in keeping with the show’s premise. For the most part the show moves along nicely although goes off on the odd tangent that is never really just a tangent. The well-shot action sequences are often exciting, fast and furious. Mostly I’m in awe of how it reminds me of the strategic tit for tat that characterized the Three Kingdoms era.
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