UPS AND DOWNS IN THE SEA OF LOVE

This is a refreshing series from TVB that has finally screwed its nail in the correct place with its script-writing and casting choices. The cast was delightfully likeable and generally delivered wonderful performances. Much of the setting is on a love cruise boat which provides many of the metaphors during the story, e.g. the "stormy seas of love." The only drawback that prevents this series from receiving five stars is that the plot loses itself, becomes nonsensical, and terminates carelessly with Yama and Jason tying the knot and without giving other characters a more suitable resolution.
Joyce Tang is one fine actress. She has proven capable of morphing herself into various characters in many different costume and modern TVB series. Her character "Ah Din" in this series is rather complex with hidden feelings and thoughts. She is as rebellious and brash as she is lovable and soft-hearted. As she develops, she is actually the true heroine of this whole operation. I think she upstages Nick Cheung and Maggie Cheung. She truly deserves true love towards the end, but I suppose TVB thought it was fine to throw Joyce, "just another supporting actress," into the Spinster's Bin. I guess TVB assumed that viewers want to see Yama and Jason together no matter how costly it is. When "Ah Din" was walking down the aisle to marry Jason and he suddenly turned to Yama to profess his love for her, my mother, a disgruntled viewer, said, "What, are they treating Joyce like an animal?" Since TVB enjoys the concept of "you reap what you sow", why did they just let "Ah Din" sacrifice needlessly and find no happiness? In any case this is one of the "nonsensical" endings.
One aspect of this series I really enjoyed was the language and the clever wordplay. The language is filled with contemporary Hong Kong colloquialisms as well as speech that suits the respective characters' level of education. For example, NG is partially a scholar, a bartender, an erotica novelist, a slacker, and generally an educated man. His language is often hilarious, lying somewhere between the crass and refined.
Nick Cheung, though I never liked him, definitely found my appreciation this time around. His facial expressions and the insinuating tone in his voice made his presence very smug and commanding of attention. His performance kept the series together. At times the direction of the script was pathetic, but Nick's "Jason" remained convincing - he was funny, melodramatic, light-hearted, and angry when the script demanded it.
Maggie Cheung's role "Yama" was nicely performed. Yama was also appropriately evil and cunning when she needed to be, yet she was still funny and likeable. As she was the nice, attractive girl-next-door, it was refreshing to see her character become wicked. Then she became caring and nice once again, and needless to say, the show's over when people become nice.
The divorce, the fight for alimony, and the plot to get Yama a husband were the funniest parts of the series.
It was fun to see a series that begins a love story by introducting the misunderstandings, the traumas and the petty vendettas of two former lovers in such a light-hearted and funny manner. Precisely because these are not funny issues, the story was able to distance itself from the melodrama and focus on the idiosyncrasies of lovers which are otherwise comical. After all the series that portray love as a development into happily ever-after, at least this series tries not to be too mainstream with its storyline.
As foils for the plot, the Tarot and Love Boat themes were too much. We get the point. We do not need metaphors slammed unto our heads like bricks. I hope that TVB will learn how to be more subtle and let the viewers figure out some of the plot and make their own connections.
The first half of the series is rather predictable as many TVB series are. But when Lau Wah appears with his own dark agenda, the entire story twists and becomes a bit more engaging. The acting of Lau Wah was passable but in synch with the comedic purpose of the series. Towards the end Lau Wah's mere appearance frustrated me so much that I wanted him caught red-handed. Of course, in TVB series the wrong-doers are always caught red-handed and appropriate punishment ensues, but Lau Wah's retribution does not happen with the climax one might like to see. Lau Wah's end is not presented satisfactorily at all, so this is one of the negative aspects of the series' hasty ending.
If you want to forget yourself and actually laugh out loud, this is it.
PS I do not own this review.

CONDOR HEROES 95

I've watched three versions of Than Dieu Hiep Lu (Return of the Condor Heroes), TVB 84, TVB 95, and TCS 98, and in my opinion the TVB 95 version starring Louis Koo and Carmen Lee is the best version. The performances of the two leading actors were exceptional so it was no surprise that this serial propelled both their careers. Although the 84 serial still remains the most popular version of RoCH, popularity does not mean that it's necessarily the better version. I thought the 84 version was average at best and have many gripes about it, but I'll save that for another review. Since many people are already familiar with the story, I won't do a summary. I wouldn't want to spoil the story for those few who haven't read or seen it yet anyway.
I personally believe that Carmen Lee played the role of Tieu Long Nu exactly as she is represented in the novel. Tieu Long Nu and Hoang Dung from Legend of the Condor Heroes are arguably two of the harder Jin Yong female characters to portray for an actor because there are many facets to their characters. Tieu Long Nu is cold, aloof, unfeeling yet there is a certain innocence and vulnerability in her character. This was evident in her reluctance to leave the mountain with Duong Qua (Yeung Gor) and how she was easily tricked and taken advantage of by many of the characters in the story. Tieu Long Nu starts out as a very cold and unfeeling person but she gradually warms up to Duong Qua and falls completely in love with him. It's important to remember that she is still a very unfeeling person to everyone else except Duong Qua. I've seen other adaptations where Tieu Long Nu was portrayed as nice and kind-hearted, something that annoys me because that is not how she is portrayed in the novel. Because Carmen did such a great job of portraying Tieu Long Nu's cold and unfeeling nature, many criticized her performance for it. I don't think many of these critics ever read the novel. Overall, Carmen's portrayal of Tieu Long Nu was accurate and true to the novel and in my opinion her portrayal is the best so far.
The other main character in the story is Duong Qua (Yeung Gor), another difficult Jin Yong character to portray because of his many traits. At first I didn't like Louis's portrayal of Duong Qua because he didn't look like the Duong Qua I had pictured from reading the novel. Duong Qua is mischievous, cunning, handsome, emotional, and has somewhat of a devil-may-care attitude. What I mean by that is he will do whatever he feels is right not caring what others may think of him. Louis didn't strike me as handsome and I think he could have done a better job portraying Duong Qua's mischievous side. However as the series progressed, I gradually accepted him as Duong Qua. The chemistry he had with Carman was great. You really believed that they were in love and felt bad each time they separated.
The performances of the supporting cast was good, although I thought the supporting cast of the 84 version was better overall. Gigi Fu was absolutely great as Quach Phu (Kwok Fu). I really developed a hatred for her character, which should be the case because Quach Phu is truly a despicable person. Out of the many villains who are out to get Duong Qua in the story, she is the one that does the most harm to him. She also feels no remorse for her actions until the end of the story, despite Duong Qua saving her life on numerous occasions.
Now that I've mentioned all the good aspects of the serial, it's time to discuss some problems I had with it. My number one complaint is the fight choreography. It's terrible. Although there were some decent fight scenes throughout the series, the majority of them were cheesy and looked really awful. Two that come to mind are the first fight Duong Qua and Tieu Long Nu had with golden wheel monk and Duong Qua's duel with Chau Ba Thong later in the serial. It's obvious that this serial was a low budget production. The costumes were dull, background sets looked really fake, what little special effects in the serial looked corny, and the scenery was uninteresting. You just had to look at the giant condor to see proof of how low budget this serial was. It looks no better than the one in the 84 version, which I just happen to believe looked better. I guess TVB didn't want to invest that much money into this production because it is based on a popular Jin Yong story and people will want to see it no matter what.
Than Dieu Hiep Lu is my favorite Jin Yong story and I've watched every version that has come out in the last 20 years except for the Taiwan version. I heard that the director of that version really twisted the story around. I believe this version, despite its flaws, is the best. The main reason for this is the performance of the two leading actors. They had great chemistry together and accurately portrayed their characters. I know the entire story from beginning to end yet I was never bored for a moment watching this series. I was captivated by this series from start to finish. Carmen Lee and Louis Koo did an excellent job of getting the audience to sympathize with the plight of their characters. Overall, I'd say this was one of the best TVB ancient serial of the 90s.
PS I do not own this review.

MATTER OF CUSTOMS

Cast: Wong Hei as Lam Chi Kwong Jessica Hester Hsuan as Vung Moon Fun Liza Wong as Lui Fok Ming/Ah Ming Danny Lee as Tao Ling Shan Mak Cheung Ching as Lee Zhi Sek Jade Leung as Bao Gei Heurng Fiona Leung as Queenie/Siu Yuk Gwai William Cho as Lam Chi Kit Joyce Tang as Wan Pui Ling Melissa Ng as Bao Gei Kwun Shirley Cheung as Gung Siu Yao
Summary: (Warning! Spoilers!)
At the beginning, there are two customs teams. One was led by Liza and her co-workers were Jade, Fiona, Mak, and some other cast. They are working together to check a ship out because they believed it contained illegal gasoline. They were correct and one of the outlaws threatened to light his cigarette lighter, which would cause everyone on the ship to die if it exploded with the gas. However, Liza kicked up a plastic cloth in the air, making the outlaw fall and he was caught. After returning to their workplace, she congratulated the team for their great performance and told them she had to go to Macau for a conference. When she was on the verge of returning to Hong Kong, she saw Jessica's ability of working with a suspect well, so she decides to transfer Jessica to her team. (Sidenote, Liza is Jessica's aunt and Liza is Jessica's role model.)
Jessica is now transferred into Liza's custom department. She also planned to move back to Hong Kong, and surprisingly enough, her family's neighbor is Wong Hei and his dad. His dad is also the president of the apartment building and when Wong Hei's dad and Jessica's mom met, they didn't get along. Wong Hei kind of gave Jessica the cold shoulder when she saw that his dad got a cut on his finger and gave him a bandaid. When Jessica arrived at her new workplace, she finds out that Wong Hei is also transferred there as the captain. He used to be a CID, but he shot and killed a man and couldn't take the guilt, so he quits. This is also the reason why he's pretty much a loner.
After the first case, Liza talked to Wong Hei that he should be more of a team player than a loner, comparing him to coffee, because he only drinks black. During the next case, he was nicer. Jessica and Fiona were chasing a suspect who jabbed Jessica with a needle. The suspect has AIDS. So she took a break from work and stayed at the hospital to test if she was infected. Everyone, including her family and Liza's family, was trying to make her feel better telling her she won't get AIDS. She made herself look strong and confident in front of them, until they leave. She ran outside the hospital and cried, Wong Hei saw this and tried to comfort her. He took her swimming, saying it will reduce stress--it worked. When they got the test results, Jessica and Wong Hei hugged because the results of her getting AIDS was negative. So Liza had a barbecue party to celebrate and there, Liza found out that Wong Hei has changed because he was adding sugar and cream to his coffee. Jessica though, thought her aunt didn't like her because she didn't let Jessica do anything serious when they took action except putting the caution labels up so no civilians can enter.
When Jessica saw a motorcycle model in a store, she wanted to buy one for Wong Hei. She saw William Cho, (Wong Hei's brother who is with their mom after their parents separated) with the one she wants, which was the last one and he gave it to her. William seems to like Jessica very much for her personality because of this. They saw each other very soon because Wong Hei invited her to a race, which includes his bother, his mom and dad was also there. Jessica saw that Wong Hei was getting annoyed because his mom wanted to introduced him to this girl, so he and Jessica pretends to be a couple. It didn't fool William though. Well that night, Jessica and Wong Hei became an item :).
Soon, Liza transferred Jessica to a new team and she again thinks that her aunt don't want to let her do a good job. Wong Hei knows that Liza is just trying to train Jessica, but he promised not to tell. The place where Jessica was transferred, required her to work with dogs (I believed one of the dogs was her own) and one her teammates was Joyce. Mak was soon transferred there too, and he thought that Joyce like him, so he made a move to woo her. Apparently, he was mistaken. Jade (Jade Leung) was also depressed because her brother-in-law, who she has a crush on, gave her a sign that she should find someone else, so she met Mak and drank a lot of beers. The next morning they were in bed together after being drunk, and apparently they did it because she was pregnant. He agreed to married her, and at first, she didn't agree because she didn't want him to do this for the baby, but eventually she agreed and because of the marriage, they did love each other for real.
About the same time, Jessica and Wong Hei broke up because they both thought that they were too similar, they were both high-tempered for example. He later went with Shirley. She is the daughter of a dad who is gay and was killed by Wong Hei when he was a CID. She's very insecure but Wong Hei broke this part of her and loved her very much. William Cho also made a move on Jessica and they were dating too, but during their dating, his mom didn't like Jessica that much because of a misunderstanding. So she broke up with him later on and he went out with Joyce after a time. Shirley left when her mom was killed but Wong Hei still loves her, until he saw her one day using drugs. He and Jessica tried to help her, but she says she can't, she says that she has AIDS, she can't live much longer. Wong Hei stayed by her side until she died (very sad).
Later on, Jade's sister, Melissa, came back wanting to have her relationship back with Danny after she left him 8 years ago because she had a miscarriage and she can't have babies anymore. But, Liza was also in the running after all. Danny was there to help her writing Chinese calligraphy, and when both her parents passed away, he was also there. He ended up choosing Liza (married her). Melissa wasn't angry at the decision, she stayed in HK and befriends them and stays with Jade, helping her since Jade was pregnant.
The next case deals with a lot of cocaine being ship to Hong Kong. When they were investigating, Queenie was taken hostage and Wong Hei told her to trust him. She did, so she pulled away from the suspect and Wong Hei took a gun shot, and it hits Queenie. She died and the suspect died too because Jackie shot him. The whole team was really sad, especially Jade because they were best friends, but she didn't have a bad impression of Wong Hei because of this. However, Wong Hei felt the same thing when he shot Shirley's dad, so he told the chief of customs he wanted to be an underdog to investigate the case. This was private, so only that captain knows. He acted like a jerk and everything, and everyone hated him. He was with the gang, and there he finds that Danny is there too. Danny was forced because one of the people had evidence of him accidentally killed his mom when he was young (she was a whore). On the mission, Wong Hei had to hit Jessica and his dad to proved this, which was really hard for him to do this. The killer Jackie liked Wong Hei, and he knows he have to get to her, so he slept with her (Jessica saw this too, he saw Jessica at a corner and he kissed Jackie). After they slept with each other, the next morning Jackie saw that her stuff wasn't in the right place and became suspicious of Wong Hei.
As time grew, the case was almost done, and his identity was revealed. Melissa was caught because she knows their secret and Jackie tries to make Danny kill her. He couldn't do this and Wong Hei saw that she was suffering, so he killed her. Danny was caught and he went to jail. Everyone else was dead except Jackie and she told Wong Hei she's going to come and kill him and everyone around him. Everyone thinks he's just over thinking, but Jackie planted a gas that would've killed them, but luckily Wong Hei saves them in time. Wong Hei and William decides to make their parents and Liza's parent go on a vacation to get away from danger, but before they went on an airplane, Wong Hei's dad went to the bathroom for a long time. They had a feeling that he might be in danger so Wong Hei and William chased Jackie and she put their dad on a rope and dropped him, so he suffocated and died, Jackie left the scene.
The next day Wong Hei and Jessica were marrying, but Jackie caught Jessica and tied her to a pole in the sea. Wong Hei came, and he and Jackie ate all the pills in a bottle that help them shoot more accurately. They both took some shots at each other on different boats. Wong Hei saw that Jessica was almost drowning so he shot the rope off, but at the same time, Jackie shot him and he fell in the water. Jessica screamed and untied herself. Jackie was about to shoot her too, but Wong Hei popped up taking one shot and it killed Jackie. At the end, Wong Hei fell in the water too, and Jessica went searching for him as the customs are coming. (This ending wasn't necessary saying that Wong Hei died, it's just a cliffhanger, so if the series gets high ratings it will have a sequel).
PS I do not own this serie.

LEGAL ENTANGLEMENT

Plotline
Straight and to the point. Sammi is studying to become a lawyer to regain custody of her young son, whom she lost to her ex-husband who had cheated on her. For 5 years she has had no contact with the two, and spends her days loathing Mark because he was her ex-husband's lawyer. They work together at the LC Law firm where Mark, Joe, and Martha are lawyers and Sammi is an apprentice. Joe begins to have a crush on Sammi, who rejects him, and spends his days sitting at home listening to classical music. Why? Because he has a severe overbite which diminishes his looks. Because of his less-than-dreamy outward appearance, Joe suffers from major low self-esteem and constantly gets insulted by Martha, who's no dish herself.
But then Martha starts to have a thing for Joe when she begins to discover his inner substance and good heart, and the two have a "one night stand". Although he loves Martha, Joe is unwilling to start a relationship because of his lack of self-confidence. Eventually they get together, while Sammi has begun to grow feelings for Mark. Unfortunately, he's dating DoJ lawyer Tracy and Sammi vows not to come between them since she knows of the pain that can come from third parties. But Mark realises the one he loves is Sammi (can this get anymore predictable?) and breaks up with Tracy, who leaves for overseas for a break. She's followed by knight in shining armour Fai, a private investigator who was in charge of protecting her when she was receiving threats. When Tracy finds out that Fai secretly took care of her while she was gone, she is touched and they get together at the end also. Sammi regains custody of her son and she and Mark take care of the son, while Sammi never realises her dream of becoming a lawyer. The end.
Wow. Shortest plot summary ever.
Evaluation of Cast and Characters
Hacken Lee is terrific in here. He's not the best dramatic actor but he has brilliant comic instinct. His character is witty and intelligent, and Hacken Lee underacts charismatically as the super-intelligent but comes off as sometimes less-than-sympathetic Mark. He has the most hilarious lines of the series, and I loved his characterisation. Remember in the beginning when they showed his apartment and he had all these knick-knacks and toys because of Mark's fear of boredom? Hacken Lee is one of the rare singer-turned-actor who actually succeeds. He's an actor with presence and personality. Very good job and the best performance of the series. Of course, let's forget the fact that he and the actress who plays his mother have zero chemistry since their age difference is much too small.
Kenix Kwok has always been one of my favourite actresses but I find her too naturally pretty to make a convincing semi-housewife and scrimping woman who is clumsy and always in a rush. Her glasses and centre-parted hair gave her a silly screen presence, but quite frankly she and Hacken Lee had zero romantic chemistry also. Kenix Kwok also had no chemistry with the boy who played Sammi's son. It wasn't a bad performance per se, it was more of her talent being wasted since she wasn't given much to work with. However, her concluding speech near the end in court during her custody battle was done very well and was very touching.
Ng Yi Lei was such an ice queen in here that I wanted to kick her. Martha isn't that likeable of a character to begin with. "Face" is everything and she's cold and just downright mean. But Ng Yi Lei showed absolutely no vulnerability in the character. A better actress would have given the audience SOMETHING likeable about Martha's character, but unfortunately Ng Yi Lei was all primadonna. Annoying and vicious. Horrific performance.
Michael Tse is a different story. He's one of TVB's more low-profile actors but a very good one at that. Very few people seem to notice his moldeable face and good acting ability. I thought he gave a heartfelt performance as Joe in here, although I also thought the writers overexaggerated his character's overbite and bad looks. The harsh reality is, the legal profession depends greatly on looks. It's like business. How can you trust someone to fight a case for you when his appearance is so unlikeable? Very few people can look beyond appearance and first impressions are always lasting. BUT, Joe is a very compassionate character and Michael Tse did a very nice job showing the character's low self-esteem. His funniest scene was the one when he was alone in his office trying to dance with his coat hanger - totally hilarious and agreeable as the good-hearted Joe who was eager to please Martha.
Lau Cheuk Kei was ok as Tracy, she does look fairly professional and isn't someone who overacts (thank god), but she did come off as cold and unfeeling in half of her scenes. But I do find her pretty in a natural way, and she's quite natural in front of the camera (probably due to her work as a K-100 host). Stephen Au didn't have much to show here, nothing great, nothing terrible, while Myolie Wu is charming enough in her minor role. Shek Sau... dull as CC Kwan, having no chemistry with the actress who played his lover. BUT his scenes that portrayed the frosty relationship between CC and Mark were good.
Plot Analysis
I guess you can tell by my plot summary that there's not much to analyse in here at all. This series is nothing too new and if it weren't for the casting, the plot would be as interesting as burnt toast. It's as if TVB had some extra bucks they didn't know how to spend and just spent it on a half-baked story that resulted in Legal Entanglement. The cases, though, were interesting enough but I'm thinking TVB didn't spend too much time researching on the technical-legal aspects for them. There were two that I liked though: one was the case about surrogate motherhood and the other was one on the transsexual.
I was annoyed at the ending. Why didn't Sammi become a lawyer?! So she spent years working her butt off to become a lawyer just to regain custody of her son, then she gets custody of her son and then suddenly that hard work goes out of the window! And how DID she get custody of her son anyway? I never heard of an apprentice who could fight her own custody battle in court. Besides, they dragged the ending for so very long. The last 5 episodes could have been done in 2. All the "QQ, I'm your mom", "QQ, Mom loves you" blah blah was getting redundant.
PS I do not own the review.

TIME BEFORE TIME

This series marked the brief return of Kathy Chow Hoi Mei to TVB. At the same time, it was very successful in introducing the name Gordon Lam Ka Tung into households.

A ghost-human love story might sound like a cliché to a lot of people. However, with a strong cast and a well-written script, this series turned out to be very entertaining and emotional. The story started with the lovers, Siu Fu Yung (Chow Hoi Mei) and Luk Man Kwong (Gordon Lam Ka Tung), who were poisoned on one rainy night. On the way to hospital, Siu Fu Yung died and her soul was trapped in an umbrella. Twenty years later, Hui Tai Kwong (also played by Lam Ka Tung), who is a worker in the shop Kwong Cheung Leung, accidentally released Fu Yung’s soul from the umbrella. Fu Yung mistook Tai Kwong for her lover, Man Kwong, but he did not remember her. Tai Kwong had a childhood sweetheart, Mei Ying (Florence Kwok) who was also very much in love with him. She set out to find the person who was responsible for their tragic deaths twenty years earlier and why Tai Kwong looked exactly like Man Kwong.

Kathy Chow Hoi Mei was perfect as Siu Fu Yung, a heart-broken ghost whose only goal is to be reunited with her lover, Luk Man Kwong. The plot blends the love story of Fu Yung and Man Kwong into the present very well. How their love started and the obstacles that they had to overcome to be together set the background for why Siu Fu Yung was so determined to reunite with Man Kwong. Kathy Chow has an onscreen presence and she graced it with the confidence of an experienced actress and her acting charm. Her various costumes were beautiful and made her stand out from the rest of the cast. Kathy Chow turned in a poignant performance despite after many years away from TVB to prove that she still has what it takes to be a leading actress. Kathy Chow’s Siu Fu Yung is beautiful, demure, gentle, lovely, pitiful but not totally hopeless or useless.

If someone had said to me in the past that Gordon Lam Ka Tung would one day become a popular leading actor, I would not have believed it. To be honest, he doesn’t have the look. At times, I feel that his face is much more suitable for villain roles. Yet Gordon Lam Ka Tung proved himself in this series to be a very capable actor who could act in comedy and drama. As Man Kwong, he was playing a charming, rich man who was devoted to Fu Yung. As Tai Kwong, he was an uneducated but honest and hard-working man. Man Kwong and Tai Kwong may resemble each other but they are essentially two different men. One is of past life, in love with Fu Yung. One is of the present, in love with Mei Ying.

Florence Kwok is an excellent actress who has never been recognized for her talents and always has to take on non-lead roles, to the point that she was fed up with the entertainment circle and retired to work in office. Kenneth Lau delivered a decent performance as a young man who is kind-hearted. The rest of the cast also turned in strong performances.

The series is well edited with the story being told at a balanced pace without confusing the audience. The light-hearted comedy entertained the audience vastly but did not distract them from the main story. The setting is boring since it was in TVB studio but the costumes were beautiful.

*SPOILERS*: The ending bothered me a bit. Even though Fu Yung understood that her Man Kwong was now Tai Kwong and that she was a ghost and he a human so it was impossible for them to be together, she still waited patiently until the day he died so they could reincarnate together. Tai Kwong was happy to meet her when his spirit met hers, so it meant all these years that he had been living with Mei Ying, his heart was still with Fu Yung. Fu Yung never disappeared completely from their lives as Mei Ying had thought; she was always lurking around, waiting for the day that Tai Kwong would be hers.

In one series, you have comedy, romance, ghost, everything in one package. As it was a successful series, other series tried to follow its path such as “Seven Sisters” and “A Loving Spirit”, but these can’t be compared to the good script and excellent cast of “Time before Time”.
PS I do not own this review.