Cheng Mei (Fighting For The Motherland)

Cheng Mei is the villainess in the 2020 Chinese historical fantasy movie Fighting For the Motherland (original tital Xin Qiji 1162, or 辛弃疾1162).

Story[]

Summary[]

Fighting For the Motherland takes place in 1161, during the Jin Dynasty's military invasions of the Song Dynasty. Cheng Mei (played by Jiajia Chen 陈佳佳), plays a Jurchen Princess leading an invasion of the Southern Song Dynasty along with her father the emperor of the Jin Dynasty, Wanyan Liang in 1161. She's seen with her head held high as a commanding officer, a noble, and usually wearing a beautifully gold-embroidered fur-trimmed cloak, along with gorgeous, gold-encrusted plate, with leather accents and elegant robes underneath.

Introductions[]

The story starts off with a general under Wanyan Liang named "Hu Er" inflicting a Pyrrhic victory against a city guarded by Song General Xin Qiji. He returns back as the sole survivor of 2000 soldiers. Cheng Mei eagerly takes this as an opportunity to grant herself favor in front of her father, asking to avenge "Hu Er" by assaulting Xin Qiji's army in his stead, due to his failure to achieve complete victory with superior odds of. His father disagrees - he has larger ambitions to conquer China, and doesn't want to waste resources on a small outpost. He praises her for her loyalty, but warns her not to act out of line.

Planting a spy[]

Unfortunately, the Jin army is unable to ignore our dastardly hero Xi Qiji and his newfound girlfriend - their supply lines get ambushed and various patrols get destroyed by Xi Qiji's small but motivated group of survivors, who are now growing to greater numbers due to an alliance with nearby Song general "Geng Jing". Cheng Mei takes great offense to this, as they are clearly the superior army with better cavalry, armor, weapons and numbers, and shows frustration at her fathers words to not take direct action. She devises a ploy to undermine Xi Qiji's relationship with Geng Jing instead - seducing a nearby monk named "Yiduan" that mentioned that he was one of his childhood friends to become a spy and to sow distrust among Xi Qiji's camp, and report back to her with his movements. She asks him to steal Xi Qiji's imperial seal, the only way he is able to request supplies from the Imperial Song Government, and to sabotage the camp defenses.

Ambushing the Song[]

Yiduan is successful at first, stealing the imperial seal and causing Xi Qiji's camp to fracture and mistrust each other. He even sabotages the camp gate so that it's unable to close. Xi Qiji however intercepts the spy on his way to the Jin camp, defeating him and retrieving the seal. Cheng Mei is furious at the spy's failure to return, and sets off with thousands of the armies most elite cavalry, ignoring her fathers warning.

Cheng Mei arrives with "Hu Er", another trusted general, and a group of the elite Jin soldiers. She sees the gate to still be open, and what seems to be the spy Yiduan waving to them to come in. She leaves half of her army outside with her trusted general in reserve and eagerly storms the base herself with the other half along with "Hu Er", eagerly wanting to berate the spy for his partial failure. Shocked, she soon realizes too late that the spy is actually Xi Qiji in disguise. He reveals that he has played her. Song troops surround and slaughter the both Jin forces, and as Cheng Mei's panic turns to desperation. She releases a signal for rescue, only for Xi Qiji's follwer to throw the head of her trusted general at her feet. Desperate for her life, Cheng Mei bargains to her opponents, promising riches, fame and a lucrative lifestyle to any soldier who stands down, only to be laughed at. Xi Qiji's kind heart takes over to her surprise, letting her go as long as she leads to Jin army away. He has only one condition however - that he be allowed to duel "Hu Er", which he promptly does and kills. Defeated, and with her two best generals dead, Cheng Mei accepts, but of course, with no intention to fulfill that promise.

Sowing Discord[]

As Cheng Mei returns to camp defeated once again, she is surprised to see her father show no signs of anger. In fact, he is intrigued by Xi Qiji, and wants to destroy him more than ever. He notices the first spy's success, and devises a ploy to further fracture Xi Qiji's camp and lure Xi Qiji's followers to join the Jurchen Army with the promises of gold and riches. No followers joined when Cheng Mei beckoned during her invasion, but she does mention that she felt many of the men were considering leaving the Song army, but simply needed to be asked more often. Zhang Angguo, a prominent deputy in the Song army obliges, assassinating Geng Jing and defecting to the Jin army. Zhang Angguo is initiated into the army in front of the Jin Emperor and his fine dancers, as Cheng Mei plots their next move.

Preparing for All Out Assault[]

The Jin army deploys for their next major attack. Seeing this and furious at Geng Jing's assassination, Xi Qiji sallys out to attack. Wanyan Liang, the Jin Emperor beings a bold speech to bolster the morale of his troops while Cheng Mei smugly watches from the side. He defers to her to finish the speech, proudly displaying the loyalty of their newly defected deputy. Zhang Angguo publicly denounces the Song and praises his initiation into the Jin army, as Cheng Mei and the Jin Emperor let out their evil laughs.

Xi Qiji's attack[]

Xi Qiji's attack reaches the camp, catching the Jin Emperor and Cheng Mei off guard with a sudden fire attack on their supplies. A heavy attack ensues, with Cheng Mei eager to finish off her nemesis. The Jin Emperor holds her back once again, mentioning the importance of leaving an escape route. As usual, Cheng Mei agrees exuberantly, but with intent to finish the hero off. A fight ensues, in which she easily overpowers Xi Qiji. (Her choreography and stunt work is quite amazing - I'd recommend this film if you are a martial arts fan). Things change when the hero's girlfriend joins the fight. Xi Qiji sets off to slay the Jin Emperor while his girlfriend fights the head villainess. The heroine shows much less honor in a fight than the hero, surprising Cheng Mei with a flurry of kicks and a low blow. Full fight sequence here