Vicky the Viking film summary.
Vicky the Viking is a 2009 live action comedy based on the book Vicke Viking and adaptation of the animated series called “Vicky the Viking“, premiered on September 9, 2009, in Munich, German. Vicky is the son of Halvar, chief of the Viking village of Flake, a strong and big warrior who measures people through muscles and strength. Vicky, small but smart, always proves his father that a man cannot only judged by muscles.
One day the village of Flake is under attack, and all the children except for Vicky himself are kidnapped. Vicky, together with his father Halvar and the other Vikings decide to rescue them. The kidnappers turn out to be Sven the Terrible and his band of Viking pirates, who are hunting for a legendary treasure, and in order to gain it, they need the assistance of a child who has never spoken a lie in his or her life. Whilst in pursuit, the Flake Vikings pick up a young Chinese girl, and together they succeed in rescuing the children.
The Chinese girl.
The Chinese girl called Lifu, is very beautiful, a member of the Chinese National Circus, whose ship is attacked by the band of Viking pirates. Lifu gets lost on the sea, trapped in an old box, and picked up by the Flake people. When Lifu appears from the box, she blurts out a pile of sentences in Cantonese, a local dialect of Guangdong, nowadays China, telling the story about her unfortunate experience. The girl knows quite well about the Viking pirates, at the meeting when she and the Flake people discuss how to rescue the children, she gives the details on what the Viking pirates want, how to approach them, how to calculate the distance, and surprisingly, the topography of the destination. Lifu even knows the story and history of the treasure. And how does she know about these? Well, Lifu explains that she had selective course before. On the journey to the children, Lifu tells more about herself. Her family was poor, and could not afford the taxes, and her father wanted to sell her to the King. Her mother refused, and told her to go far away. So, she goes abroad with the Chinese National Circus.
I don’t know if the filmmaker wants to vaguely criticize China with high tax rates, or something else. But that the girl’s father wants to sell her to the king is absolutely invalidated. In ancient times, the King can have any girl as his wife across his kingdom, not only in China. The King disdains to purchase and doesn’t have to purchase the girl, and the father will not sell the girl to the King. That Lifu is sold to a landlord would be more narrative. Of course, it is more wonderful if Lifu goes bak to China together with her Circus, after married to the big guy. A big reunion, huh?
The Chinese people never go so far that time.
Well, first, let’s talk something about the Vikings. The period from the earliest recorded raids in the 790s until the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 is commonly known as the Viking Age of Scandinavian history. Vikings used the Norwegian Sea and Baltic Sea for sea routes to the south. The Normans were descended from Vikings who were given feudal overlordship of areas in northern France—the Duchy of Normandy—in the 10th century. In that respect, descendants of the Vikings continued to have an influence in northern Europe. Likewise, King Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, had Danish ancestors. Two Vikings even ascended to the throne of England, with Sweyn Forkbeard claiming the English throne from 1013 – 1014 and his son Cnut the Great becoming king of England from 1016 – 1035. Here we know the time span of the Viking Age.
Second, What about China during the Viking Age? The Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the Tang Dynasty (960~1279) are the two famous dynasties. The common of the two dynasties is that their shipbuilding industry, seamanship and navigation are highly developed. Traders with ships full of various goods, such as chinaware, silk, priceless treasures, and so on, travel around the world. The shipping routes are known as the Sea Silk Road. According to historical records, the Road in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the Tang Dynasty are basically the same. The Road begins from Guangzhou City of China, then across southeast Hainan Island, along the east of the Indochinese Peninsula, across the Siam Bay, then to the south by Malay, to the southeast Sumatra Island, to the Java Island, then to the west along Malacca Strait, crossing the Bay of Bengal by Nicobar Islands, to Srilanka, then to the west along the west coast of India Peninsula, across the Arabia sea, along the Hormuz Strait to Abadan of Persian Gulf end, against Euphrates River to Basra, to Baghdad after thousands of land route. And from the Persian Gulf, along Southern coast of Arabia Peninsula, to Bab el Mandeb Strait by Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, and down south to coastal countries of East Africa. It took 90 days from Guangzhou to Basra, and 48 days from Basra to Dar Es Salaam.
And here is the problem. The Suez Canal that links the Mediterranean and the Crimson Sea was opened to ships in November 17, 1869. Any Chinese ship would never appear in Northern Europe sea before that time unless the ship sailed on the land pulled by human, as the film tells it.
