HARD FATE

Cast: Damian Lau Chung Yan as Leung Pak Yin (Yin Gor)
Flora Chan Wai San as Mok Hei Yee (Tiffany)
Kevin Cheng as Leung Ka Ming
Niki Chow Lai Kei as Leung Wing Si (Ceci)
Stephen Au-Yeung as Leung Pak Kit
Maggie Siu Mei Kei as Kwan (Ivy)
Plot Summary
Yin Gor is the CEO-owner of Yuk Lung Hin, a successful company specializing in jade. Ivy has stood by his side for many years in the company and secretly loves Yin Gor. But Yin Gor only has eyes for Tiffany, a woman twenty years his junior working at Yuk Lung Hin as a jewelery designer. Younger brother Kit returns to the company after faking remorse, and tarnishes the company name with jealous Ivy's help. He is kicked out although Ivy's role is never discovered.
Although he comes off as a morally upright, dignified and accomplished man, Yin Gor has a deep dark secret. More than twenty years ago he was a drug smuggler and sacrificed good friend Jung (father to Ka Ming) to Mainland Chinese authorities. Out of remorse, Yin Gor sponsored the orphaned Ka Ming, and later on taught him the ins and out of the jade business. Yin Gor and Tiffany enjoyed a wonderful relationship until another one of Yin Gor's dark secrets were exposed. More than two decades ago, his drug smuggler leader forced him to marry his daughter and together they had Ceci and thus Tiffany was a third party in the relationship. Tiffany forgives Yin Gor, and Ceci and Ka Ming eventually start dating. Then in a pivotal plot turn, Ceci's mom returns, and all hell breaks loose.
Ceci's mom had been suffering from mental illness for a few years, and basically goes ballistic when she discovers Yin Gor's infedelity. The estranged couple meet atop a building, and both fall. Ceci's mom dies, while Yin Gor forgets everything that happened. That is... until he remembers. He is temporarily traumatized when he remembers that he purposely let go of Ceci's mom, rendering him a murderer. Predictably, he hides this from the cops and their hypnosis specialists, Ceci, Ka Ming, and most importantly Tiffany. Yin Gor bribes and beats up a witness into fear, while Ceci starts suspecting her father after reading her mother's diary.
After Ceci and Ka Ming track down the witness, Yin Gor is sent to court. He turns the table around on the witness stand, accusing his daughter of perjury and secretly scheming to swallow everything her mother and grandfather left (which was shared between Yin Gor and Ceci). Ceci is heartbroken while Ka Ming is furious, and Yin Gor is found not guilty. And all along this little cat and mouse game, Tiffany (possibly the dumbest character in 2004's TVB) blindly believes her beloved Yin Gor. Until Yuk Lung Hin's reputation is sunk due to Yin Gor's court debacle, and his brother Pak Kit returns to 'help' the business.
In a desperate attempt to save the company, Yin Gor agrees to smuggle drugs with Kit. Of course, things are not so simple. To gain revenge against his traitor brother, Yin Gor cooperates with Shanghai authorities to capture Kit. Death by execution is the punishment for drug smugglers in Mainland China, a fact that is well known to Yin Gor who basically pushed his brother to death. He also doesn't inform Kit that he has a son by Ivy such that he can acquire Kit's estate, a fact discovered by Tiffany when cleaning Yin Gor's desk.
Tiffany then goes into hiding while leaving baby daughter Tung Tung with Ceci, but of course the now deranged Yin Gor tracks them down. Ceci ends up in a coma when trying to chase her dad and getting hit by a car. Yin Gor abducts Tung Tung and hides her from Tiffany, promising her return if Tiffany returns to his side. When he discovers that Tiffany has fallen out of love with him and realizes all his misdeeds and role in Ceci's coma, he commits suicide, leaving Tung Tung with Tiffany. Ka Ming refuses to postpone his wedding to Ceci, and still cleans her room daily hoping she will wake up.
Fast forward 6 years. Tiffany works with her father's jade business, and Ka Ming's jade company has become even more successful than Yuk Lung Hin. Ceci has passed away, and Ka Ming refuses to meet another.
Evaluation of Cast and Characters
Damian Lau as Leung Pak Yin A predictably great performance as the good-gone-bad man. Though nowhere did he have the presence he had in "The Point of No Return", Damian Lau still delivers the best acting of this series. He is convincingly motivated as the morally upright and ambitious Yuk Lung Hin boss and wonderfully believable as the desperate, deranged, almost maniacal Yin Gor. Every facial expression and line delivered flawlessly, Damian Lau is definitely an actor whom you forget is actually acting. Like Chun Pui, Francis Ng, Sheren Tang, Kong Wah, he is an actor who becomes the character he is playing. Many can learn from this veteran. Even his acting within acting (as in the court scene) is brilliant. I also thought he had some creepy romantic chemistry with Flora Chan, which skeeved me out a little. But he looks too old, worn out, and even haggard in this series. [Funn - Leung Pak Yin is supposed to be 50 years old in the series]
So the question about his character, Leung Pak Yin: Good guy or bad guy? I would say neither. I would say selfish guy. Unbelievably selfish to the point of heartlessness. Sacrifices his good friend, leads his own brother to death for money, kidnaps his own daughter, causes the eventual death of his other daughter, never admitting guilt to his wrongdoings, etc. Of course in classic TVB style he is redeemed in the eyes of the audience when he repents and throws himself off a building. Or maybe he is psychotic, someone who can't distinguish right from wrong, at least for part of the series when he believes he is actually protecting Tiffany even if it means murder.
Flora Chan as Tiffany Playing nearly 15 years younger than her actual age, Flora gives the worst performance of the series. She also needs a haircut and a fashion stylist. Note to Flora: Please stick to the strong career-woman type roles that define you as an actress. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Flora Chan is both unconvincing and boring in any other role. She comes off as both stupid and pathetic in these roles, and that's not just because of her character Tiffany. Flora also starred in some dinky little TVB series called "Triumph in the Skies", where she also showed that she just doesn't act well with these characters, they don't fit her. My favourite performance to date from Flora is still her Annie from "Healing Hands". She was protrayed as a chic professional and yet compassionate and romantic in her love for Henry, yet still opinionated and superindependent.. That is the Flora I like and also the Flora that is a good actress. She is not meant to be a tear-jerker, and especially not the kind in this series where she cries desperately. She is the ugliest crier in TVB, second only to perhaps Gigi Lai. I like the strong Flora, not the wimp waif dumb wife Flora. I will take Flora as the strong career-woman character one million times rather than the 'dumb blonde' character even once. With that said, her acting in this series is really, really bad, superimposed by my overwhelming hatred for her character's stupidity.
Kevin Cheng as Ka Ming Smoking hot and the best performance I've seen from this actor, which is not saying much considering my opinion of his past performances leaving much to be desired. He was vapid in "Burning Flame II", comic but unengaging in "Slim Chances", and almost irrelevant in "The Point of No Return". Here he takes on the most likeable character of the series, a man with integrity, intelligence, and compassion, yet with a believable temper. Kevin still needs improvement in the dramatic scenes, he needs more, more, more! He needs to pay more attention and really put himself in the shoes of his character during these dramatic scenes. With that said, I felt he did a nice job as Ka Ming in general and made an adorable couple with Niki Chow.
Niki Chow as Ceci I like her. She is vibrant but not overbearing, chipper but not annoyingly so, and cute without trying to be, even huggably cute despite her model-ish height. The only other time I've seen Niki is the TV version of "Feel 100%" where she played Cherry, where she was funny but not memorable. However, her Ceci is very cute, very fresh with lots of energy. I love her Ceci. And despite the fact that she is a spoiled brat at heart, Niki Chow made her a likeable character, second only to Ka Ming. She would do very well in romantic comedy roles, the expressions on her face whenever Ka Ming did something nice for her were absolutely hilarious yet very very real. However, she really needs to work on the dramatic scenes - I see her potential but like Kevin Cheng she needs to put herself in the shoes of her character. But she and Kevin Cheng are just too gosh-darn-cute in this series, I love them to bits as a couple.
Other Performances Mary Hon was terrific as the mentally deranged wife to Yin Gor. Very scary, very intimidating, and the look in her eyes almost breathed creepiness. Great performance. Stephen Au-Yeung overdid the evil part a bit but in general was ok. Maggie Siu was also ok but I find her boring in here, and Lo Hoi Pang delivered charismatically in his minor role as Ka Ming's future mentor. Michael Tong was predictably dull, while Michelle Yip gave what I felt was her best performance to date, which says much because I've never thought Michelle could act, despite watching basically every series she's been in.
Other Comments (Spoilers!) The theme song is catchy but I wish they took out the lyrics, it ruined the mood. The drawings of the jade jewelery were beautiful. Why did the writers kill off Ceci?! She and Ka Ming made such a wonderful couple to watch. I would rather have the writers kill off Tung Tung instead with Yin Gor, at least to render some kind of poetic justice for Tiffany's stupidity.
PS I love this serie very much, it's very how Niki died, but Niki and Kevin were so cute, and I do not own this review.

GET UNSTUCK IN TIME

CAST:
Roger Kwok
Hui Siu Hung
Flora Chan
Kiki Sheung
Cherie Kong
Patrick Tang
Shek Sau
Matt Yeung

PLOT
This story starts off with Roger doing his work as a police officer and solving cases. At the start he bumps into Flora and they end up disliking each other because she annoys him very much. He doesn't like that she's always reminding him of his father. This is because he thinks that before he died, his father cheated on his mother by going to a brothel. As time passes, Flora and Roger end up being friends. He respects that she's so positive even though she's in a wheelchair. Also Roger found out that his father's old phone is able to call back to his father's time. In the present time, his father is not alive, so Roger is very happy to have conversations with his father. He also ends up caring for him again because he learns to forgive him. Roger's father helps him solve cases from years ago by putting evidence into a can underneath a tree.
After quite some time, Roger and Flora end up falling in love with each other, but Flora's sister has feelings for Roger. This causes a bit of a problem, but it eventually dies out because Flora's sister ends up falling for a fellow police officer on the force too. Flora's sister and her boyfriend help pair Flora and Roger together. Flora and Roger are very happy together, but one night an incident at the ball leaves Flora feeling very awkward towards Roger. She claims that they cannot be together because she is in a wheelchair and that they do not match. This brings an end to their relationship.
One day Roger decides to call back in time and tell his father to save Flora from getting hit by a car. His father doesn't know that Roger is doing this for his own benefit because Roger actually knows that if Flora doesn't need to sit in a wheelchair, things would be better between them. This ends up in a terrible mess because the present is changed very badly. Apparently Flora is now, in the present, a triad chief's god daughter. Even worse, Roger ends up being Flora's sister's boyfriend! This astonishes him so much and he is very confused so he tells his father that he tricked him into changing the past. Will Flora and Roger end up being together? Will Roger fix back the present?
Comments:
Storyline - I think that this series' storyline is quite interesting at first. But when Roger ends up making the present a mess by getting his father to change the past, it dragged on and made the series seem really boring. The start was really good but it ended up terrible because of the sudden change which seem to drag the series.
Actors and Actresses:
Roger Kwok: Roger was terrific in this series! He was very good and he seemed very much like a police officer, which fitted his role. He did his expressions realistically, but later on his expressions seemed so unrealistic. This is because of the fact that he was once a great police officer who obeyed the law, but then he changed into someone everyone felt so sorry for, someone who couldn't stand up for his own beliefs. I felt like he wasn't a police officer anymore. This sudden change of personality gave Roger a good chance to put in some fantastic acting, but it actually made the storyline much worse.
Flora Chan: Flora was quite bad in this series. This was because her personality was much too happy and unrealistic. Even though she was in a wheelchair, she was confident enough to buy fancy shoes. In real life, someone wouldn't be that cheerful about buying shoes! Flora was too much of the happy and go-lucky type and it was just terrible. She was in a wheelchair and this type of personality for her role did not match. She was not good at acting like the triad chief's god daughter either. It didn't seem like the type of role for her, so it seemed very strange.
Overall: Overall this was an ok series. Roger was very good at acting and his personality in this series was very likeable and this gave the series a good actor to begin with. Flora is quite good, but you may find her character quite unrealistic. I recommend it to those of you who love action type movies or those who are Roger fans! This is because he's in a different type of role from 'Square Pegs', giving him a new character to explore so you won't get dull of him so fast.
PS I do not own this review.

REACHING OUT

Episodes:

50

Cast:

Gordon Lam as Dai Fook Sung/Dai Ah Gor

Benny Chan as Lau Yee Sok

Nicola Cheung as Ko Wei Ting/Ninth Sister

Kenix Kwok as Yuk Hiu Guan/Yuk Hiu Hga/Spider Girl

Michelle Yip as Wun Shuet Yee/Jess

Mai Shuet as Chun Kiu

Ha Yue as Lau Lik

Sammul Chan as Kok Kai Bong/Ken

This is one series that I fell in love with. All the ups and downs in life can be found in here. People with dreams to fulfill, people who are orphans, people who are greedy and so on. The title means "beautiful life" in Chinese. It seems to me that life is beautiful, it just depends on the way you see things.
Gordon plays the "number one good guy" Dai Fook Sung or as close people call him "Dai Ah Gor" which means "Big Brother". He's an orphan who loves helping out people, especially homeless people who live under the bridges. He brings food and water to them each day on his bike. He lives with one lazy slut Yee Sok(played by Benny Chan) and Yee Sok's father Lau Lik (played by Ha Yue) whom Yee Sok refuses to admit that he's his father. The two "brothers" are like guardians to Ninth Sister or Ko Wei Ting (played by Nicola Cheung). They grew up together in an orphanage.
Fook Sung meets Yee Sok's so-called his girl, Jess(Michelle Yip). Jess is also an orphan but she lives with her annoying aunt and cousin. She may seem to do things a little differently than Fook Sung but she's actually really nice. She uses her beauty to attract more customers and get things done, but she doesn't like any of them. She fell for the good guy Fook Sung instead of Yee Sok who thought she liked him. She and Fook Sung were together only for a while.
Then Ken (played by Sammul Chan) comes into the picture. Ken's your average kind of guy but he's rich and maybe spoiled. His real mother Kiu(Mai Shuet) was always trying to find him, but when he found out that she was his mother, he couldn't accept it. As for relationships, he won Jess's heart and he stepped right in the middle of Jess and Fook Sung. I'm glad he did, otherwise the most important woman in Fook Sung's life wouldn't get a chance to show herself.
Who is it anyway? Of course it's Spider Girl played by Kenix Kwok! She's the stubborn type who is always against Fook Sung because she's trying to prove to her sister, Hiu Nga, that Fook Sung isn't who he really is. She later falls in love with Fook Sung but left him because she has the same liver disease that her sister died from.
Yee Sok begins to notice Ninth Sister, whom he has known for a long time. However, because of the fact that they used to act like brother and sister, she isn't able to accept him. Typical. But in the end, they become more than the brother and sister relationship.
Who ends up with whom? Take a guess! Obviously it would be the following: Fook Sung with Spider Girl (he donated some of his liver to her. How nice.) Yee Sok with Ninth Sister. Ken with Jess.
Favorite Female Character: I would love to be Spider Girl. It's because I'm 100% stubborn like her and maybe very spicy sometimes. She's always doing cruel things, which I would do but I don't. On the outside, she's really tough but actually she's really kind.
Favorite Male Character: If my favorite female character is Spider Girl, then who's the male? Of course it's Fook Sung. I wanted to watch this series because of him. He's so nice in a way that it makes you feel that there are nice people in this crazy world.
Some Good Characters: Jess was fine. I like Michelle as an actress but I didn't like her character as Jess. I like Ho Hei in "Street Fighters" but not Jess.
Ninth Sister? She was okay. Nicola Cheung is always being said that she has tiny eyes and that she's trying to make them look bigger. I don't care about that. She's really a cute person and she can act (better than Anne Heung).
Yee Sok? Ah ha, he's the guy, which girls would love, right? For me, no. I rather stick to Fook Sung's type. But I have to admit that I really liked Yee Sok, due to the fact that he's the one who brings laughter. You have to say that Benny is a good actor. I've seen him as other characters and so far, I like this one the most.
Other Comments: If you haven't seen this series yet, go rent it or whatever! You just have to see it. Why? I'll tell you why. Excellent perfomances from Mai Shuet and Ha Yue. Excellent cast! Better storyline than others. It has the true meaning of life. Give orphans more hope. So much more!!!

PS I do not own this review.

A HERBALIST AFFAIR

Episodes: 20
Cast:

Roger Kwok - Cheung Yee Fai (Ah Fai)

Charmaine Sheh - Ruby Ng Sin Yu (Ah Bee)

Melissa Ng - Geung Sum Yuet
Derek Lee - Kuk Yat Siu

Eileen Yiu - Fung Gao (Gao Gao)

Shuet Lei - Cheung Dai San

Ko Hung - Cheung Wan On

Lo Yuen Yan - Kuk Li Sa

Wu Fung - Cheung Si Sang

Wong Wai - Geung Tiet To

Yu Yeung - Ng Sing

Mark Kwok - Chung Jing Lung

Chan Kwok Bong - Chow Chi Wah

PLOT

Under the backdrop of a modern glitzy Shanghai cosmopolitan and in the guise of the "westernization" and commercialization of Chinese medicine, "An Herbalist Affair" is a warm light-hearted family centered drama with romantic and comedic plot elements that we have seen many times before. There is the suspicious smart up-and-coming salesman carefully keeping tabs on his sassy secretary/assistant assigned to him who just turns out to be the only daughter of the big boss and owner of the company of he's employed. Later, their relationship blossoms into an ill-fated "poor boy rich girl" romance. On another front, two young men from different walks in life and culture meet by chance and become the best of friends only to discover that they are truly brothers sharing the same father. We have a career-minded professional doctor who needs some serious defrosting. And in the course of her reconnection to the human spirit and heart, the doctor also falls in love with the salesman. Finally, an idealistic gullible young chef (the younger brother) who is kind, gentle and good in every way falls for a fun-loving wild child dancer. Will he be lead astray by her wicked influences, or instead, become the gallant knight who rescues her back from the dark side? Before we dig deeper into the story, let's get a rundown of the principle characters first.

Roger as Ah Fai plays a striving ambitious salesperson and department head of Bo Wor Medicine Company, a leading distributor of Chinese herbal remedies and pills in Hong Kong. He jets back and forth from Hong Kong to Shanghai trying to promote the company's products while at the same time uses his contacts and the company's resources to do some peddling and selling of other products to make some money of his own on the side. His best friend, Chi Wah (Chan Kwok Bong), who also works for the company is part of this underground operation as well. Ah Fai starts out as a ruthless and driven Hong Konger whose only desire is to make money. Cynical and opinionated, he has a lethal tongue with a reputation of running his office assistants so ragged that they always wound up quitting on him in a month's time or so. However beneath all the roughness, Ah Fai is a proud but caring individual who does not shy away from responsibilities, especially towards his family. When his grandfather, Cheung Si Sang, gets a stroke and falls into a coma, Ah Fai drops everything and goes on a frantic search for a mystery woman in Shanghai in order to fulfill his grandfather's dying wish.
Charmaine as Ah Bee is a bright and optimistic designer who also happens to be the only daughter of a rich and powerful businessman, Ng Sing, the owner of Bo Wor. Having just returned from her fashion studies abroad, she makes a bet with her daddy to see how long she could hold a steady job in their family company. This leads her to become Ah Fai's secretary/assistant. At first, Ah Bee and Ah Fai don't hit it off. Ah Fai gives her the run-around and sends her off on pointless errands to buy this or that snack. It's his way of making sure that she doesn't discover his side business since he believes she's a company spy initially. However, Ah Bee's cheerful attitude, quick wits, and willingness to help others (him especially) soon win him over. A romance between the two develops during their search for the mystery woman in Shanghai. Yet, things change quickly when they head back to Hong Kong and Ah Fai gets fired from his job when his side operation comes to light. He also finds out Ah Bee's true identity and accuses her of snitching on him. Strung out to dry, Ah Fai opens his own company. The two love birds do settle their differences, and Ah Bee goes against her father's wishes to help Ah Fai out both financially and physically. Given their class differences and the ill will Ah Bee's father has against the Cheung family (Ng Sing blames Ah Fai's grandfather - a former famous Chinese doctor - for his wife's death when he refused to treat her terminal kidney problems with Chinese herbal medicine), their match never turns into fruition. Ng Sing plots to break them apart by using every means possible - threats, guilt, even money. Finally, when Ah Fai's older sister runs into huge gambling debts of over $3 million HK, Ah Fai chooses to sacrifice their love in order to borrow the huge sum of money from Ah Bee's father.
On the other front in Shanghai, we meet a newcomer to the small screen Lee Ho Lum as Kuk Yat Siu, who plays the perfect example of a filial son - talented in cooking, helpful to others without wanting anything in return, mild-mannered, and full of starry-eyed ideals. As a top chef of a grand Shanghai hotel that Ah Fai was staying during his many business trips there, the two meet when Yat Siu comes out from his kitchen to take away the dish from a very hungry Ah Fai because it did not meet up to Yat Siu's exacting standards. Through a series of chance encounters, the two eventually click, and Ah Fai becomes Yat Siu's first Cantonese speaking friend. Even though Yat Siu is a native Shanghainese, he knows how to speak both dialects, Mandarin and Cantonese fluently since he had been raised by his widowed mother who originally came from Hong Kong. When he learns of Ah Fai's moving quest to fulfill his sick grandfather's last wish, he goes all out to help Ah Fai by rounding up his network of friends and knocking from door to door asking for this mystery lady. As it turns out, they did not need to look very far. In fact, it is Yat Siu's mother who they should be searching for all along.
Years ago, Ah Fai's father, Cheung Wan On, had an illicit affair with Li Sa in which she wound up pregnant with Yat Siu. The father being a "little" man always afraid of confronting issues did nothing. Yet the grandfather, having found out about it, was sympathetic to her plight. He never told anyone the secret because he did not want to break up his son's family. He tried helping Li Sa out when she left for Shanghai, but eventually lost touch with her. This becomes a lingering regret of the grandfather's because he never did more for her and the unborn child.
Kuk Li Sa from the start realizes that "she" is the one Ah Fai was sent to find, but she had changed her name and had long moved out of the neighborhood that they were searching. With her relatively happy and stable life as the head of her own tea restaurant and ill feelings toward the irresponsible man that left her, she hides the truth from the two brothers. In one of the series most comedic moments, Ah Fai who Yat Siu has just invited to stay overnight in their Shanghai flat accidentally knocks over the broken picture plate of Yat Siu's father. As the two young men work to piece the plate back, Ah Fai offhandedly remarks how familiar the eyes were, not realizing that it was actually an old picture of his own father. In duress, Li Sa scolds them frantically to not touch her things, especially her dead husband. Up until that point, Li Sa had always come across as a very nice and soft-spoken mother figure who never raised her voice, so everyone is taken by surprise at her odd reaction. In the end, Yat Siu does find out her secret and goes to Hong Kong to visit the other family he never got to know.
Also from Shanghai is Melissa Ng's character, Geung Sum Yuet, who is a smart, career-oriented medical doctor at one of Shanghai's top hospitals. She has duel MD's in both Western and Chinese Medicine and uses both types of disciplines when treating her patients. Besides being a doctor, she also finds time to teach Chinese Medicine at the Shanghai University and help her father, Geung Tiet To, a renowned doctor of Chinese medicine, in his study and research the scientific and medical properties of well-known Chinese herbal plants. Their goal is to "Westernize" these remedies into a pill form and try to bring all aspects of Chinese medicine into the 21st century. She is articulate, disciplined and hardworking, and tries very hard to meet her father's high expectations. Geung Tiet To and Kuk Li Sa are good friends and sworn siblings. Therefore, Sum Yuet and Yat Siu also grew up together and treat one another like close siblings.
Living under the same roof as Yat Siu and Li Sa since her father's always away on medical conferences, she is very close to all the action brewing between Yat Siu, Ah Fai and his family, and Ah Bee. She plays a hand in getting her father to help Ah Fai's grandfather out through the use of alternative Chinese medicine in his recovery from his stroke. Also, when Ah Fai needed a marketable product for his upstart company, Sum Yuet tries hard to persuade her father, yet again, to let Ah Fai be the distributor of her father's research and medicinal products. Geung Tiet To agrees but only on one condition - that Ah Fai go to Shanghai University to enroll and pass a basic course in Chinese medicine that's offered to first year Chinese medical students. Ah Fai in his desperation to rescue his floundering company and pay back the loan he owed to Ng Sing does take up the challenge. As luck would have it, Yuet Sum becomes his professor there. As his relationship with Ah Bee draws to a close due to familial pressure, another possible love interest for Ah Bee, and Ah Fai's pride of not turning into a worthless boyfriend living off from his rich girlfriend's money, a small spark of chemistry ignites between Ah Fai and Sum Yuet. From the start, the two always had been at each other's throat. But time and close quarters makes them reassess their former opinions of each another that later grows to mutual appreciation, respect, and even love.
How this brewing love triangle will end between Ah Bee, Ah Fai and Sum Yuet is one of the climaxes in this series that would spoil all the fun if revealed. As for what happens to Yat Siu and his fun-loving wild dancer, Gao Gao, they do get together in the end after too many snide mumblings and intervention by Yat Siu's father (who brands Gao Gao as the evil spider spirit that lures his pure honest monk of a son into her seductive web cave, an allusion to Tong Sam Jong in Journey to the West) and a climatic hijacked bus chase sequence through the major streets of Shanghai metropolis.

Personal Comments:
The Chinese title of this series, "Ching Hien Bak Zhi Gwei" roughly translates to the love and relationships contained inside the hundred of wooden apothecary drawers that line the back wall of a Chinese herbal shop. Each drawer is reserved for a specific dried herb, and in some ways, every main character (and even some of the minor ones) is given an opportunity to shine in this light but richly layered dramedy (drama + comedy).
Playing against type, Roger trades in his normally straight laced image for a rougher look with mussed-up dyed hair and long side burns that reminded me of Dai Tao Mun (Gallen Lo) in "Secrets of the Heart". It took me about a chapter or two to buy into this new look and bossy attitude, but like Ah Bee and Sum Yuet, I too, became touched by Ah Fai's good intentions and sincerity towards those he loves.
As for Charmaine, her portrayal of Ah Bee is the most natural I've ever seen of her. Maybe it has to do with the fact that Ah Bee is familiar territory for Charmaine since it's another incarnation of the rich pampered heir of a medicinal empire she played in "Seven Sisters". Or it could be that with given enough practice, she's finally picking up on the art of how to breathe life into a character. Whatever it is she's pretty convincing in showing all sides of her character from the cute to the ugly.
Melissa also does a bang-up job playing the cold but believable doctor from Shanghai who's well versed in Chinese and Western medicine. I was impressed by her Mandarin and English speaking skills when she conducted all her classes in Mandarin and even gave an interview in English that explained the possibilities of alternative medicine to the foreign press.
As for the newcomer Lee Ho Lum, he turns in a fairly decent debut performance. He does not have the picture perfect face nor the muscular physique to be a breakout hit like Louis Koo and Raymond Lam, but he's natural in front of the camera and exhibits some good comedic timing interacting with the veteran actors. In addition, he and Ying Ying have enough chemistry that made their romantic development believable.
Finally, a special mention must be made for all wonderful performances put in by the supporting cast, especially Wu Fung, Lo Yuen Yun, Ko Hung, Wong Wai and Chan Kwok Bong. Without these characters and their special quirks and antics, this series would probably be not as enjoyable or amusing as it turned out.
Besides the acting, another element that makes "An Herbalist Affair" worth watching is the spectacular Shanghai scenery in which the story plays out. From the modern night-time skyline to the quaint rural back villages to Shanghai's many bridges - from wide heavy traffic metal wonders over Wong Bo Kwong (Yellow River) or the old stone bridges that connect a running stream or canal together, there are glimpses of a grandiose city that knew how to blend its old architecture with and the new and did it well. Much research and investment has been done to scout out and shoot such great on-location scenes. And it gives this series a refreshing context despite the over-use of familiar plot devices and storylines. All in all, while "An Herbalist Affair" will not turn any viewer into an expert on Chinese herbal remedies, it does leave a satisfactory taste in the mouth for its mild (no major blowups nor all-out evil antagonist who kills everyone off lurking in here) but vastly warm and charming tale of one happy "herbal" family.
PS I do not own this review.