Thursday, May 15, 2008

Ten Brothers


The story begins with a poor man named Chan Dai Ha who sells Chinese desserts and falls in love with an unmarried, wealthy girl named Gei Hao Yee. One day, when Dai Ha is going home, he sees a man carrying something, fall down from the sky. He asks him if he is okay, but the man runs away. Each time Dai Ha tries to help Hao Yee, he does something wrong and angers her instead. One day, Hao Yee and her servant falls down a hill and he saves them. Without thanking him, she shouts at him and mistakenly drinks the soup with the ten magical beans in it. The magical beans made her pregnant so the next day, the doctor said she was pregnant, but because there was a law in her town that she cannot become pregnant before marriage, the villagers gets angry and wants her to be punished. Since she was living with her father, they decided to break the relationship between them and execute Hao Yee. When Dai Ha knows about it, he tells the villagers that he is the father, so Hao Yee does not need to be executed now. Dai Ha brings her to his small house and sleeps on the ground himself. At first, Hao Yee is angry with him, but soon they get along better. One day, their ten babies are born. Together, they both raise the children, but the next month, they all became adults except for one of them, Number Ten. Since the parents are scared of their adult sons, they ignore them and runs away. The children run around town, causing trouble while Number Two and Number Three are adopted by the evil warlord Man Sai Hung's wife, who doesn't want her husband to know that their real sons died. Dai Ha finds the children and secretly give them food. Soon, the town misunderstood them and decides to kill the brothers. Hao Yee and Dai Ha says that they're their parents so the only choice was to leave, so they did. Four and Ten were sold to a circus whose leader was extremely strict and ruled harshly. Nine was sold to a richer family. The sons were taught by their mother, and Number One, who was the most mature, helped Dai Ha on his business on selling desserts. Soon, they find out they have powers, but did not want their parents to know. All of a sudden one day, they all receive a sickness.In the circus, the leader earns a lot of money because Number Four could stretch out his arms and legs. The customers always paid the leader to make fun of him. Meanwhile, Number One went blind, Number Five grew wings on his back, Number Six's head grew very big, and Number Seven's legs grew extremely long. Only Number Eight didn't have any sicknesses. One day, their sicknesses were cured and instead, they found their powers. They wanted their family to be united, so they tried many ways to find their missing siblings. They got back Four, Nine, and Ten, but Two and Three were spoiled by the warlord.They did not know who their real parents were. When they soon reunite, the warlord is jealous of the ten brothers and wants to kill them.The Ten Brothers tries their best to evict the warlord. When everything is settled and the warlord is evicted, a mysterious white-haired man appears in Number One's visions and says that brothers will have to die on August 15 if they do not leave with him. Number One does not trust him, but soon he does. When the parents find out about the prophecy, on August 15, they send away their children. The parents are very sad, but it is not possible for their children to stay. So on the night of August 15, the brothers are sent away to the white-haired man, except Ten starts crying and says that something will happen to their mother. The other siblings have learned that whenever Ten cries for no apparent reason, something will happen. One and Two use their abilities to check in on their mother, and are horrified to see that Hao Yee is dying. The white-haired man tells them that she is dying because she gave birth to ten magical sons - them - and their powers were too strong for Hao Yee for her to survive for much longer. The brothers are told that the only way to save their mother is to become beans again, and the brothers sacrifice themselves to save Hao Yee's life. Five years later on August 15 (Mid-Autumn Festival), Dai Ha and Hao Yee give birth to a son, whom they call Eleven. They look up to the sky and see ten stars, and they tell Eleven to say hello to his ten elder brothers. Although the modern version is the most well known, the old version of the story was about the evil warlord of their town capturing their father. They had to save their father and in order to do that, they had to unite and work together as a team. The 10 brothers' weakness is limestone and they are not able to use their own powers if they come in contact with it until they wash themselves with oil.

Cast


Characters

Depending on the adaptations, different characters maybe found in the story. The only consistent characters among all the versions are the brothers themselves.

  • 1st and Oldest Brother - Capable of seeing miles away with his binocular eyes.
  • 2nd Brother - Capable of hearing miles away.
  • 3rd Brother - Has herculean strength.
  • 4th Brother - Has ability to stretch and is invincible.
  • 5th Brother - Capable of flying.
  • 6th Brother - Has a solid impenetrable head and the smartest.
  • 7th Brother - Can grow in height.
  • 8th Brother - Capable of tunneling underground.
  • 9th Brother - Has a huge mouth that can blow wind and shout loudly.
  • 10th and Youngest Brother - Can cry a river, heal any sicknesses if he cries on people.

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