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Since it’s a Chinese movie, I think it’s better to comment on it in Chinese. However, it’s followed by an English translation.

The Confucian said, "of all the people, women and servants are the most difficult to behave to. If you are familiar with them, they lose their humility. If you maintain a reserve towards them, they are discontented", which indicates that women often change their minds, but from my point of view, that’s not the case. The hearts of women are not, as the meddlesome say, visional like the flower in the mirror and transient like the moon in the water, they are the same as that of the men. The reason why they are seldom comprehended is the existence of the androcracy. The men are above the women, and treat them as if they were so docile, but men are over conceited on this, had the Queen Chen(aka A-Jiao) of of Han Dynasty a dagger in hand, the Emperor’s situation would be in serious danger. Back to the movie, the coup Emperor first raped the Queen mentally and later the body, so the seed of hatred was naturally and consequently planted in her brain.The coups by the Emperor Wu Ze-tian of Tang Dynasty and Empress Dowager Ci Xi of the Qing Dynasty were not accidetns, they were the fallouts of the androcracy in China’s society. Being one of the thousands of concubines, one had to be crafty to survive the system, or it would devour her, just like the old Chinese adage says "Every man for himself, and the devil takes the hindmost". The movie has over emphasized on the evilness of human nature, which’s bullshit, it’s normal to have an evil heart when in such a turmoil, which was reckoned by my ancient Chinese fellows as the aftermath of the failure on moral education, but I think the failure of the system was the true reason.

Although death is often showed in the clip, but certainly not the point that director wants to talk about. It’s about what does he do and the fallouts. You can never put away the sufferings with your eyes shut, it may seem to be working sometimes, but never truly is, for they are just accumulating secretly, waiting in the dark corner for the time to overwhelm you at one blow, for Mr. Pierrepoint, that’s the time when he eventually had no way to separate the two: his job and his life, like he always did, cause the convicted was his only intimate friend, his old pal.

"Leading them to the gallows and pulling the trigger is one thing, but standing with them and seeing the absolute death in their eyes is another." This physically easy but metally torturing job was reckoned as a dirty and filthy or even guilty one, "you will have no luck for the rest of you life", by the ignorant mass, thus clearly not suitable for anyone who tries to have a peaceful life.

Anyhow, it’s indeed very hard to "approach his grisly duties with pride, professionalism and a stoical detachment", which makes him quite a admirable man differs from the groceries delivering lad he used to be.

p.s. Aye~ Do I miss the English accent!