Short End of the Stick (TV series)


Short End of the Stick is a 2016 Hong Kong period comedy television drama produced by TVB. The drama is TVB's 2016 Lunar New Year drama, starring Wayne Lai, Nancy Wu, Natalie Tong, Rosina Lam, Edwin Siu, Power Chan, Raymond Cho, Grace Wong and David Chiang as the main cast. It premiered on February 9, 2016, airing every Monday to Friday on Hong Kong's Jade and HD Jade channels during its 8:30-9:30 pm timeslot, concluding March 27, 2016 with a total of 35 episodes.
Short End of the Stick is an indirect sequel to TVB's 2012 drama The Confidant. Short End of the Stick also stars most of the same cast from The Confidant. Both dramas centers around the lives, struggles and betrayals of eunuchs, but unlike The Confidant which was a melodrama, Short End of the Stick is a light hearted comedy. The Confidant main protagonist Li Lianying, played by Wayne Lai is mentioned as part of the plot in Short End of the Stick.
The drama is a comedic depiction of the lives of eunuchs after the fall of the Qing dynasty and their eviction from the Forbidden City by the last Emperor of China, Puyi.

Synopsis

Eunuchs Lee Suk-gung, Dan Tin and Chan Siu-fung lived a peaceful life serving the Emperor and the royal family in the Forbidden City. Suk-gung worked in the kitchen as a cook and master carver, Tin worked in the Physician quarters and Siu-fung was a beautician who made the ladies in waiting presentable. After the fall of the Qing dynasty and eviction of all eunuchs and servants in the Forbidden City by the last Emperor of China Puyi, for constant theft of valuables, the three Eunuchs band together to survive outside the Forbidden City as civilians in Beijing. Life as civilians is harsh for the three as they face constant prejudice from revolutionists for being associated with China's imperial past while making a meager living working as kitchen help at an alleyway food stall and rent a small room living together in a dingy neighborhood.
At a rally held by Yip Ching-yee, a cruel revolutionist bent on eradicating anyone associated with the Qing dynasty, the three witness a former high-ranking eunuch they were acquainted with during their time in the Forbidden City, being humiliated and abused by Ching-yee and his group of revolutionists. They are told by Ching-yee to join in on humiliating the captured eunuchs. Not wanting to because they are afraid, they meet and befriends Chiu Jun-sing who tells them he is also "one of their own" and that better them doing the abusing of the eunuchs being persecuted than by Ching-yee's group. Chiu Jun-sing is actually a pretend eunuch living off his relative, the former high-ranking eunuch being humiliated by Ching-yee because the high-ranking eunuch has many priceless valuables taken from the Forbidden City in his possession. Jun-sing helps the eunuch illegally sell these valuables, which is a national crime.
Their troubles begin when Siu-fung is seduced by a prostitute who tricks him into selling himself as a slave to the Americas. Suk-gung and Tin save Siu-fung in time before he signs his life over but before doing so Siu-fung had divulge to the prostitute that he is a eunuch. While walking by they see Jun-sing being prosecuted by Ching-yee for being a eunuch but Jun-sing does not want to blow his cover as a pretender since he has priceless valuable in his possession. Suk-gung, Tin and Siu-fung pretends to be vengeful cheated husbands out for revenge against Jun-sing to save him from Ching-yee but they're outed as eunuchs by the prostitute who earlier tried to trick Siu-fung.
Now wanted criminals by authorities for having a national artifact in their possession and Ching-yee for being eunuchs, the four escape to Shenzhen. During their escape, Siu-fung was hit by a bullet. Once they arrive in Tianjin they take Siu-fung to a hospital where the staff refused to treat Siu-fung unless they have money. In order to save Siu-Fung, the three decide to mug someone. After looking at possible victims they decide on a cruel looking woman beater who happens to be a female dressed like a man. During the struggle to rob her, she suffers an asthma attack. Worried that she could die from her asthma attack, they take her to the same hospital that they took Siu-fung. They soon find out that she is Kam Dai-nam from the powerful and rich Kam family. Hearing that her niece was bullied, Dai-nam's aunt Kam Heung comes to the hospital with her servants to seek revenge.
Kam Heung lets them go and pays for Siu-fung's medical expenses when she realizes that the trio only robbed for money to save their friend's life. However Siu-fung's medical expenses was not a charity and the three are sent to work as servants for the Kam family until their debt is paid off. Suk-gung and Tin are satisfied with this arrangement since life as a Kam servant is similar to the life they had in the Forbidden City.
Kam Heung is head of the Kam family and manages the family rice merchant business because she is the only child alive born to the main wife of her father. Her older brother and Dai-nam's father Kam Cheong, has no status in the family since he was born to a concubine and his offspring are all daughters. Besides managing the family business, Kam Heung has to deal with a bickering household where her late older brother's wife gets her way and belittles everyone in the family because she gave birth to the Kams current heir, and she also has to deal with a trouble making business rival who steals from them and constantly makes fun of the Kams for having insufficient male heirs.
Suk-gung and Tin's professionalism, intelligence, obedience, patient and complementing words soon prove to be the perfect servants to the Kams. Dai-nam also take a liking to Siu-fung and showers him with luxury when he brings her good luck in gambling. But the trios secret as eunuchs could affect their standings with the Kams when they find out the Kams have an hatred for eunuchs because the family was cursed by legendary powerful imperial eunuch Lei Lin-ying, because the Kams ancestors had offended Lei. Afraid they will be facing prejudice, Suk-gung and Tin decides to revert to their dirty eunuch tactics, along with the help of Jun-sing they steal valuables from the Kams to fund for their passage escape.
When strange things starts happening on the Kam family grounds, everyone in the village start to believe the Kam curse. The eunuchs who have seen this kind of situation in the Forbidden City between the Emperor's consorts know that someone is up to no good and secretly warns Kam Heung, In order to prove the curse is just a saying, Kam Heung encourages all the single females over thirty to get married. Her plan however backfires when the Kams enemy Tsui Tai-Fu, pushes her to get married herself. Suk-gung, Tin and Jun-sing sees this as an opportunity to ripoff more of the Kam fortune by hiring a stranger to enter into a fake marriage with Kam Heung. Meanwhile, Suk-gung, Tin and Jun-sing's roommates find their stolen stash and reports it to Kam Heung, however ironically Suk-gung and Tin had donated all the money they pawned from stolen goods to the local western doctor who needed it for his son's medical expenses. This makes the eunuchs reputation in the Kam family even better since they think the eunuchs stole to help save a life and Suk-gung soon becomes Kam Heung's personal advisor.
On the day of Kam Heung's husband competition everything goes wrong. Tsui Tai-Fu sends his nephew to beat the man Jun-sing hired to win the competition, and the man hired is found out as a wanted criminal. Embarrassed by the whole situation, Kam Heung runs away with Suk-gung following her. When the two are found by the rest of the Kam family, the two are in a compromised position due to accidentally consuming a performance enhancer and mistaken by onlookers to have acted in an indecent manner. Not wanting to expose himself as a eunuch, Suk-gung agrees to Kam Heung's idea of going into a fake marriage with her in order to avoid the village punishment of being drowned alive.

Cast

Eunuchs

International broadcast

Awards and nominations