Treatment of Original Feature Film/TV Film. Illustrate your essay with specific examples.

The year is 202 BC. Dwelling in rural China is a flourishing tribe derived from the Manchu. They’re a self sufficient community that focus their efforts on farming and martial arts and traditions. They are led by a man named Delun. He is a wise man with a great devotion to his people. Over the past few years Delun had led his tribe through the unification of Middle China and into the Han Dynasty with reasonable success. But now he feared for their future.
Though the tribe had remained relatively unaffected for the remainder of Emperor Ziying’s reign and the last of the Qin Dynasty, China was now beginning to develop, making hugeadvances in the arts but in particular in the sciences. The Han Dynasty had begun to push China into a new modern era and Delun feared that the modernisation arriving in China would force his people to abandon their ways and traditions and in so doing lose what was a harmonious and easy way of life, but more seriously given the news that he had received of late, he feared that the new Han Emperor would attack and wipe out his people in order to make his advances and extend his borders.
Delun had decided it was time to generate some protection for his people and believed the best way to do this was to destroy the Han Dynasty from the inside out. He had discussed his fears with his most trusted advisers and had reached a plan. He plotted a plan to kill the current Emperor – take out the leader and you take out the orders behind the troops by infiltrating, bribing the necessary officials and override the Han Emperor from within the palace. In order to do this he would have to reach the Emperor, Emperor Wu, without him realising the threat. It was upon that realisation that Delun concluded that the infiltrator needed to be a woman so that the Emperor would not suspect.
Delun therefore sent out a request to his tribe, expressing his concerns and asking girls of a suitable age to come forward for the task and report to him immediately. He decides that there is only one fair way to choose a suitable girl. He collects the names of all the possible candidates and selects a name at random. The name that Delun withdraws, however, isn’t even the last person they would have chosen, let alone the first.
Jiao Ling is a feisty but very beautiful young girl. Her mother had died giving birth to her and since then Jiao had been brought up by her father, Yang and her brother, Bolin, and has therefore been brought up in a very masculine household. Her father, Yang, adored her deeply. He was a very gentle character. He was kind and enjoyed living his simple life. He was immensely proud of both his children but the masculine way of life was all he could give Jiao. As a result, the girl had developed into a bit of a tomboy. Jiao’s brother, Bolin, was essentially her best friend. He had taught her all she knew about the ways of the Samurai, which she knew very well having lifted her first sword aged four. Bolin was more adventurous than his father and this was most likely where Jiao got her feisty side from. She had never been interested in learning to run a household though she helps her father and brother with the chores every day. She had never had any interest in learning how a Chinese lady of her tribe was expected to behave. Jiao is, however, a kind and gentle girl, dedicated to the life of her tribe and is very close to her father and brother.
When Jiao heard that she had been chosen for the task she went to Delun and begged that someone else be chosen. She solemnly believed that she did not have the necessary skills that would be required of her. Granted she was skilled in the ways of the Samurai but she did not know anything about dancing or female etiquette. She had not learnt the appropriate etiquette and her other feminine skills were too far below par for her to fool the Emperor or anyone else in the palace.
But Delun refused the request. He was adamant that what he stood for was fairness and democracy and that taking another girl’s name from the list and forcing her to do the task in Jiao’s stead because she didn’t at present have the necessary skills would be damaging to his reputation as a leader as well as going against his fundamental principles. However, he granted Jiao more time to prepare herself. The threat at present was not urgent and action did not need to be immediate.
So Jiao studied hard with the help of Yang and Bolin. She was forced to train day in and day out in the art of dancing and feminine etiquette. The women of the tribe took it in turns month after month to help Jiao as well, while her father and brother continued her training as a Samurai so that she could defend herself should she need to. Time passed and eventually Delun called for her. It had been at least two years since she started her new training and her progress had been witnessed by all. Delun believed that she was now ready.
Jiao goes to Delun upon his request and he relayed his plan to her in detail. The day that the Emperor chooses his mistresses was drawing near and Delun saw this as the perfect opportunity to get Jiao into the palace and gain access to the royal court. After having Jiao made up to look like a Han woman, Delun had some appropriate clothes brought forward for Jiao to take with her and all bid her farewell and good luck. Jiao watched as her tear-stricken, father and brother became smaller and smaller dots on the horizon.
Jiao arrived just outside the palace some days later at nightfall. She knew from long discussions with Delun and his advisers that the girls were presented to the Emperor on a day of celebration that would take place the next day in front of the main entrance to the palace.
The next day Jiao stood forward with the other girls. She was hoping that the Emperor would choose her for the sake of her people but wished that he wouldn’t so that she could return home to her loving father and brother. Emperor Wu was a young and impressionable sort of man. Being a little naïve he shared much of his responsibilities with his mother the Empress. He could not have been much older than Jiao. After the Emperor inspected all the women an official announced those that had been chosen. Jiao was among them.
Over the next few days Jiao carried out the duties demanded of her by the Emperor mainly involving dancing and accompanying him around the court. Jiao also spent many of her first few days and nights exploring the castle and learning as much as she could about the royal officials in order to carry out her duty to her tribe.
Jiao was relieved to see the increasing interest that Emperor Wu had in her. She began to spend much of her time with him and he readily disregarded the other concubines and as the days passed the couple appeared to become closer and closer and more and more attached to each other, so much so in fact that Wu gave her a noble mistress’ title and called her Fūrén Jiao Ling. She hoped that the more she gained his trust the more likely it would be that people would not suspect her.
However, their closeness spread throughout the court and many began asking questions. The other mistresses had grown jealous since the Emperor had spent so much time with Jiao. So little was known about the new girl and three mistresses in particular named Daiyu, Changying and Jiayi demanded that her background be traced. Daiyu in particular was interested in seeing Jiao fall from her current position as she had been the favourite before her and now distinctly disliked being second. She was an evil girl but also a very beautiful and in some ways very much like Jiao, only her first duty was entirely to herself and her own welfare.
Despite the fact that Wu had expressed his deepest adoration for Jiao, his mother the Empress, doubted Jiao and believed the slanders against her name or at least believed they were possible. She ordered Jiao’s background to be traced and after a short amount of time Jiao’s true identity was discovered.
Empress Shuang was a kind lady. She was also very beautiful despite her age. She was obviously much admired by men in her younger days. But she had a firm side to her. She was a very strong individual morally and let her traditional Chinese beliefs guide her in most of her decision-making. She treasured her son’s happiness dearly and having a great deal of concern for her son’s welfare and to preserve his reputation as Emperor, Shuang used her power to sentence Jiao to death. She also knew that her son was simply not strong enough to place the order and so ordered it without his knowledge.
Jiao is dragged into an execution ceremony and was sentenced to be dismembered by the royal court for her deception. Meanwhile, Wu is being distracted by Daiyu but he can only think about where Jiao had disappeared to. After continually pressing Daiyu, who is actually only too pleased to tell him, Wu discovers what is going on and enters the execution hall at the pinnacle moment, just as Jiao is about to be killed. Wu begs his mother to let Jiao go and seeing his devotion to Jiao, Shuang agrees on the provision that the couple never speak to each other again and is demoted to a dancer in the court.
In her new position Jiao is bullied and tortured because of her previous status with the Emperor. Jiao, however, hadn’t forgotten why she came to the palace but her concern now was that she could only truly see Wu at times of celebration having been relegated to a mere dancer of the court and even then she could only see him from afar as she was not permitted to go anywhere near him.
Jiao was desperate to get close to Wu again and so she spent the next 5 years practising her dancing. She would sneak out of the palace and train with a Han lady down one of the side streets and having poured all her energies into the training and working hard she eventually became the Emperor’s lead dancer. During this time Empress Shuang and the ministers had encouraged Emperor Wu to broaden their borders and develop the nation as far as possible and Jiao’s people were coming under serious threat. If something wasn’t done Jiao’s people could be in serious danger of complete removal.
Another of the Emperor’s birthday celebrations arrived and now, as the lead dancer, Jiao had the opportunity to offer a solo dance in tribute to the Emperor and she hoped Wu would do something about their situation. The dance reminded Wu of how much he missed Jiao and came to the decision to risk his life and go against his mother’s will to approach her. He simply couldn’t go on living so far away from Jiao and yet still being tempted by her – the feeling was utterly unbearable.
But when Wu approached Jiao, Delun warned her that returning the feelings was an insult to her tribe and at any rate would do her no good right now. He reminded her that she was not a Han and therefore could not pursue a relationship with Wu as the court knew this. She would have to use her other skills now to enter the palace.
Naturally, this angered Wu, and to show his anger in its full force Wu threatened to destroy the tribe. Jiao, fearing for the future of the tribe, and most importantly, for the safety of her father, Yang and brother, Bolin, went to Wu and expressed her adoration for him and told him that she would stay with him forever but that he must call off his troops even though she did not truly return the feelings. Wu in his happiness agreed and took Jiao back to the palace.
Having finally got what he most desired, Wu called off the attack on Delun and the tribe. He appointed Jiao leader of the inner palace but his new decision; made Shuang and his ministers restless. The destruction of the tribe meant that the Han Dynasty could expand and develop, growing throughout China. Wu’s current promise and infatuation prevented that. After much pressure from Shuang in particular because of her severe dislike for Jiao and her tribe, but also from his ministers, Wu agreed to break his promise and suppress the tribe.
By the time Jiao heard what Wu had done she was too late to warn her people. They were completely destroyed and her family now gone forever. Jiao now needed to make a decision – her first duty was to her tribe and she could not forgive anybody for doing the irreparable damage that Wu had done. Her agreement with Wu had been broken and she was therefore free to do as she pleased. It was now demanded of her by her duty, that she do the only honourable thing she could to support the tribe that she adored so much.
That night was meant to be the night that Jiao would poison the Emperor with a glass of wine that had been laced with arsenic. But Jiao now decided to change her plan. She danced for the Emperor as always but it would be the last. She poured her heart and soul into the performance. When she had finished she took a glass of wine and toasted the Emperor. She raised the glass and then put it to her lips. She drank the entire glass in one gulp and continued to dance. A very short time after that Jiao’s dancing began to flow oddly. She seemed disorientated and Wu began to feel threatened by her movement. Suspecting she had found out about his military decision, Wu took his sword and lunged at Jiao. But he was too late. He realised quickly that what lay attached to the end of his sword was already dead. Wu took her glass smelling the arsenic and realised it had been meant for him. Wu couldn’t help tears rolling down his cheeks, both in relief and sadness,