WRITTEN ON February 19th, 2006 BY Richard S AND STORED IN Uncategorized
Thanks to ITV4, I’ve been enjoying repeats of the NTV “Water Margin” series. After last week’s Commons vote will these soon become illegal?
The “Water Margin” is a Japanese NTV series loosely based on ancient Chinese myths. It was first shown in UK in the late 1970s: We used to laugh about its mock Chinese sayings.
The hero (Lin Chung), a charismatic rich aristocrat becomes an outlaw; retreats to a remote mountain stronghold; becomes a rebel leader and executes violent, cunning raids to defeat an ambitious Prime Minister (Kao Chiu) who is oppressing his people.
Lin Chung and his henchmen are called “heroes;” possibly re-incarnations of ancient heroes. Lin Chung aims to overthrow the corrupt regime and replace it with an Ideal Government.
Although it’s set (quotes) “in a time very different to our own;” this sounds rather too topical, and dangerously close to the “glorification of terrorism.”
I don’t know which is worse: the bill as passed by the Commons last week, which applies to any terrorists/guerillas/freedom fighters (you choose) in history; or the original version, which was limited to incidents in the last twenty years, except as designated by order. Can you imagine how ludicrous the Terrorism Act (Designation of Politically Incorrect Resistance Movements) Order 2006 would have looked?