PROUD
TRIP TO GREAT AMERICA
Well, there not lots of thing to say today (I mean on Thursday 6/11), that doesn't mean I didn't have fun because I had lots of fun. Although I only went on Demon, but I already overcomed one of my fears, which is loops and drop zone. Demon has four loops and is was very fun; my friend didn't go with me so I went with a different classmate. Then we went to the Arcade, food court to eat, the Psycho Mouse, and last is Boomerang Bay. The funniest thing to play in a water park is water slides, endless river, and the wave pool. It was annoyed because most of the water slides closed on that day, endless river closed. So only the wave pool opened, it was so fun, finally I can show Jasmine and Frina that I can do a flip in the water. I didn't bring my camera because I think that the park is too big, so there is no picture for this trip nor video.
THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL
The last day of school is always the best day and the saddest day (especially for sixth graders). Why best is because you don't have to follow the rules, I mean you do, but less; you get to take your electric stuffs to school like ipod, mp3, ds, camera, phone, and you can even turn it on; you to play the whole day, watch movie, eat and nothing else. Why its sad for sixth graders is because they have to leave elementary school and go to middle school, which is harder for both academically ans socially. At my school, there is a clap out for sixth graders. That's enought for the introduction, its time for me to tell about my last day.
Today I brought my camera I took pictures with anyone I liked : Jessica, Chyah, Mariah, Frina,... and many teachers. What I loved the most is the clap out, its very excited but sad. Every body clapped at you congratulate you, wish you luck for junior high, and of course says goodbye to you. I don't know what happening to me, it easy for me to cry at home (not on purpose) about stupid stuff; but something like a good bye party-I never cry. The saddest things of today is that Frina gonna move to a different school, so does Mrs. Wilbon.
Today I brought my camera I took pictures with anyone I liked : Jessica, Chyah, Mariah, Frina,... and many teachers. What I loved the most is the clap out, its very excited but sad. Every body clapped at you congratulate you, wish you luck for junior high, and of course says goodbye to you. I don't know what happening to me, it easy for me to cry at home (not on purpose) about stupid stuff; but something like a good bye party-I never cry. The saddest things of today is that Frina gonna move to a different school, so does Mrs. Wilbon.
THE GEM OF LIFE
Chinese Title: 珠光寶氣Number of Episodes: 82
Cast:
Cast:
Hong Family: Maggie Shiu – Sylvia Hong Nga Yin
Gigi Lai – Constance Hong Nga Tung Ada Choi – Jessica Hong Nga Sze
John Chiang – Hong Ching Yeung Louise Lee – Hong Bak Siu Yau
Ho Family: Elliot Yue (Ngok Wah) – Martin Ho Fung
Ho Family: Elliot Yue (Ngok Wah) – Martin Ho Fung
Moses Chan – Terrence Ho Jit Lam
Shek Family:
Shek Family:
Wong He – Shek Tai Wo
Bosco Wong – Will Shek Tai Chuen
Sung Family:
Sung Family:
Chan Hung Lit – Philip Sung Sai Man Helen Ma – Margaret Sung Kwok Yuen Yee
Linda Chung – Elise Sung Chi Ling
Queenie Chu – Mandy Man Wai
Queena Chan Dan Dan – Charlie Cheuk Yi
Others:
Others:
Bowie Lam – Calvin Ko Cheung Sing
Kenny Wong – Sunny Yau Yat Tung
Eddie Kwan – Derek Chan Kai Fat
Rebecca Chan – Melissa Yan Wai Ting
Florence Kwok – Catherine Shum Ji Tang
Lau Dan – Suen Wai Tak
Summary (spoilers): A series with a phenomenal cast (both in size and quality), the story goes through just about everything in its 82-episode run. The story revolves around the three Hong sisters Sylvia (Maggie Shiu), Constance (Gigi Lai) and Jessica (Ada Choi), as well as those who are connected to them through family, work or romance. Their father (John Chiang) works in the diamond industry for boss Suen Wai Tak (Lau Dan), and their mother (Louise Lee) is a housewife.
All three sisters start the series as married women – Sylvia is married to pilot Tim, Constance is married to artist Frankie, and Jessica is married to rich businessman Patrick. All three end up separated and living at home within the first few episodes. Tim has another family, Frankie is cheating on Constance with their close friend and Patrick fakes his death to avoid debts. Jessica ends up shouldering the debts, declares bankruptcy, and the rest of the family rally around her.
Sylvia begins to work for Calvin (Bowie Lam), and eventually they strike up a relationship. His business starts to fail, so Sylvia marries Sunny (Kenny Wong) so that Calvin will then forget about their relationship and be free to marry Catherine (Florence Kwok), who has a big company that is capable of saving Calvin’s comparatively small company.
Constance initially doesn’t get along with Terrence (Moses Chan), but they soon become friends. She rejects his advances because he is a renowned player, and she begins to date Derek instead, who is a lying bitter man, but undoubtedly quite in love and obsessed with her. Derek has a misunderstanding with Suen Wai Tak and tries to sue him, with the financial assistance of Calvin, who hopes to benefit from the payout. Derek is eventually jailed for vandalising property and Constance later marries Terrence.
Jessica begins to work for a PR company owned by Melissa (Rebecca Chan). She schemes to meet and strike up a relationship with Melissa’s good friend Martin (Elliot Yue), who is Terrence’s father and extremely rich. She eventually marries Martin and lives the life of a rich wife once again. Shek Tai Wo (Wong He) has known the three sisters since he was young, and he has always been in love with Jessica. He is happy to help anybody and doesn’t feel the need to be very rich or successful. His brother Will (Bosco Wong), on the other hand, is highly ambitious and ruthless in achieving his goal. He ends up working for Melissa and eventually inherits the PR firm from the widowed and childless Melissa when she dies.
Sung Sai Man (Chan Hung Lit) is a rich businessman with several wives. He always takes advantage of his friend Martin, much to the disgust of Melissa and Terrence. He loses his company to Martin after it turns out Martin has been patiently plotting many years to gain his trust so that he can bring down Sung Sai Man in such a way that he has no chance of reviving his losses. Martin takes advantage of Sung Sai Man’s weakness for women and bribes Charlie (Queena Chan Dan Dan) to seduce Sung Sai Man to help his cause. Everyone deserts Sung Sai Man with the exception of his first wife Margaret (Helen Ma) and his granddaughter Elise (Linda Chung), who is a bratty rich girl.
Later in the series, Jessica takes control of the company and goes head to head with Terrence, who thinks that Jessica is brainwashing his father Martin. Will has his own company, Calvin has his company, and the remainder of the series revolves around business wars and love triangles. That’s just the glossing-over summary of the series, but with 82 episodes, it’s difficult to go into too much detail.
Characters:
Hong Family:
Sylvia Hong Nga Yin – Maggie Shiu: Sylvia is headstrong and business-like. She is a total workaholic and she likes things to be right and just, which is why she constantly goes head to head with her mother who is happy to bend the rules if it is advantageous to her and her family. Sylvia was my favourite character at the start, but she became very weak and even a little irrational towards the end. She got slightly ‘evil’ even; her love for Calvin drove all her decisions and she seemed to lose herself, which was disappointing because she started out so strong. Maggie was great, can’t think of much to fault in her acting. There were some questionable clothing choices, but on the whole, she was very glamorous and classy.
Constance Hong Ngai Tung – Gigi Lai An upright moral character who sometimes took her morals too far. She was nice and sweet, and she stayed that way until the end, but she didn’t really know how to look at the big picture most of the time. She was the classic ‘nice’ character, but I found her to be teetering on boring. She whinged a little too much and was too holier-than-thou. Gigi was very pretty in the series, and there was nothing wrong with her portrayal of Constance at all; I just didn’t like the character very much.
Jessica Hong Nga Sze – Ada Choi Probably the character with the most storylines and screen-time. Jessica wasn’t necessarily a bad person, but she was very selfish and ambitious. She couldn’t live without money and she did everything she could to attain it. She didn’t hesitate to use others, but sometimes you could see that she did feel bad afterwards. With a character like that, Ada had so much to work with. She captured every facet of Jessica nicely and really carried the series along, especially around the middle to end parts when it was heavily focused on her.
Hong Ching Yeung – John Chiang Ching Yeung was an honest working man who loved his family dearly. He did everything his wife or daughters requested of him, and he rarely took charge because his wife was the one who did that. At the end when his wife was suffering from dementia, he took hold of the situation and gave his daughters a bit of a dressing down that was sorely needed. Not much for John Chiang to do, but he carried the character naturally and without trouble.
Hong Bak Siu Yau – Louise Lee An extremely clever woman who knew what she wanted and would happily scheme to make it happen. She did what she thought was best for her daughters, and while her methods were questionable, her motives were usually on the right track. A brilliant character; the daughter who most resembled her personality would have been Jessica, but Siu Yau was always calmer and thought things through even better. Louise Lee was awesome! She had such a character change from the smart scheming woman at the beginning to the dementia-riddled woman at the end, and she did all of it perfectly. The character was so much more fascinating than the characters she won praise for in Heart of Greed as well as Moonlight Resonance.
Ho Family: Martin Ho Fung – Elliot Yue (Ngok Wah) At first he seemed like a nice businessman who was willing to be taken advantage of on a business-level in order to avoid trouble. Then you realise that he had been scheming for decades to rid himself of his rival Sung Sai Man. He was more ruthless than Sung Sai Man ever was. He was later kidnapped, which turned him into a paranoid hermit. He gave instructions to Jessica on how to run the company, and he later died of a heart attack. Elliot Yue, faultless.
Terrence Ho Jit Lam – Moses Chan Rich son of Martin, he ran his own smaller company. A credible businessman, Calvin always despised him for being born into wealth without having to earn it. He, like his wife Constance, had big problems looking at the big picture and did everything he wanted to do without restraint. He was ridiculously unreasonable at times. He would do something wrong, and he would deny it. Then, when it was obvious that he had to have done it, he loudly declared “OK, so I did it. So what??”. And then he would start blaming other people. Like when he slept with Elise, it was apparently entirely her fault. And he didn’t understand why Constance was not supportive of his decision to completely destroy her sister! And the character became unredeemable to me when he neglected to save Derek from the burning car because he saw him as a competitor for Constance. I thought he was a terrible character who was probably supposed to be good but turned out annoyingly bad. In terms of acting, Moses is also probably the only main lead I wasn’t happy with. Nothing to do with my dislike of the character, either. I’ve always found Moses to be hit and miss. I really like the guy, and I like his series. He’s great at screwball comedy, but I think he comes up lacking in dramatic situations. Sometimes he still has a way of speaking unnaturally, which really breaks up romantic and ‘everyday life’ scenes.
Shek Family: Shek Tai Wo – Wong He The perennial nice guy. Helpful to all and very likeable, although sometimes a little nagging. His love for Jessica was touching, if not a little blind and stupid as well. You had to feel for the guy who was just so incredibly nice and didn’t get anything in return. Wong He is so good at being pedantic characters, and his crying scenes were top notch.
Will Shek Tai Chuen – Bosco Wong Very ambitious guy. Overly ambitious. Needs money and power, although he does care for his brother who brought him up and put him through higher education. That care and concern stop there, however, and don’t extend to the Hong family who he has actually known since he was quite young and should be quite close family friends with. I’m undecided if he was a protagonist or an antagonist, because he wasn’t *that* bad, but he wasn’t good either. Very cocky and holds grudges. In a cast full of veterans, they had to choose someone young and I’m glad it was Bosco. Of the younger generation in TVB, I think quite highly of him and he didn’t disappoint.
Sung Family: Sung Sai Man – Chan Hung Lit Initially the most evil of them all, he loses everything and he becomes someone who only always had a big mouth. He comes back for revenge, however, but then he never does succeed. He’s a character you’re supposed to hate, but then he has his good moments where he’s with Elise. He really seems to hate his son though. Chan Hung Lit can do comedy (not that there is any for him to do here, but he was hilarious in Best Selling Secrets), and he can do drama. His accent still baffles me sometimes, but I do like how they sometimes had some of the characters (Sung Sai Man, Elliot Yue and Helen Ma) speaking in Shanghainese (I think?) – it just kind of gives you the feeling that these people have known each other forever and ever, which makes everything that happens a little more meaningful.
Elise Sung Chi Ling – Linda Chung Elise starts out as a bratty selfish rich girl who only knows how to suck up to her grandfather. She’s just so despicable in the series that you want to slap her. When her grandfather loses everything, she goes back to studying and becomes quiet and submissive, which is a role that I’m more used to seeing Linda Chung doing! All credit to her for handling the character during the change though – I had my doubts whether she could pull off the bratty and cocky character without coming off as annoying and snobbish, but for the most part, she’s done pretty well. She’s improving consistently, and working with so many veterans has probably helped her a lot as well.
Others: Calvin Ko Cheung Sing – Bowie Lam An awesome character! He’s bad, but he’s so good at it. He gets under everybody’s skin and you can’t help but laugh at how he does it. He had a rough upbringing where his mother worked as a prostitute to support the both of them, so he vowed to be rich and successful. Despite all the bad things he does, he cares deeply for his mother. And he clearly stated that he would do anything, no matter how low it is, if it will be good for him. However, he won’t go around hurting people if it is of no advantage to himself. That’s a selfish person talking, but I like that he won’t feel the need to destroy other people out of petty revenge – like Terrence always wanted to do. Bowie never lets me down.
Sunny Yau Yat Tung – Kenny Wong Like Wong He’s character, Sunny was just a good guy. I was incredibly surprised when he came out as a homosexual though because I really didn’t see it coming and I was so annoyed that they got the most muscular and ‘man’ of the cast to be the gay character! Very caring and friendly, and like Sylvia, willing to do anything for Calvin. I’ve always liked Kenny, even back in the 90s when he had some truly terrible hairdos. His acting hasn’t really improved, but it’s always been passable.
Derek Chan Kai Fat – Eddie Kwan An irritating character at the beginning who was greedy and malicious. He turned into a bitter character who wasn’t greedy anymore, and finally to a really nice guy. The turn was so dramatic that it didn’t even seem like the same guy anymore. It’s been ages since I’ve seen Eddie in a series, it was good to see him on screen again.
Melissa Yan Wai Ting – Rebecca Chan A successful career woman who seemed to be in love with Martin. She didn’t re-marry after her first husband died. She is very smart, so she has high expectations of those around her. I felt bad for her when Martin betrayed her and she found out that he looked upon their long friendship so lightly. The character wasn’t overly developed so I don’t think Rebecca had to do much aside from looking serious most of the time. I’ve never really seen her give a bad performance, so this one really wasn’t any different.
Catherine Shum Ji Tang – Florence Kwok A rich woman who was forced to take charge of her brother's company when he passed away. She was a weak, pathetic woman who had little confidence in herself. She was there to come between Calvin and Sylvia to create the relationship square that they had with Sunny. I think her storyline really was just one of those things that made the series stretch to 82 episodes – it wasn’t entirely necessary. It’s odd seeing Florence play a weak character, she’s always been playing those strong successful types. She did all right considering the character was a little useless.
Chemistry:
Hong Family – None of them look anything alike, but they make for a pretty good-looking family. Sylvia’s relationship with her parents was a little underdeveloped, but the relationship between the sisters was done very nicely. The end where the mother got dementia was very touching, and the effect that it had on the rest of the family was also sad to see. The servant, Ah Ying, was also a nice addition – she always had words to add to a conversation even if they were not the nicest of things. My favourite couple in the series would probably be the parents!
Bowie/Maggie/Kenny/Florence – Nice friendship between the four characters. It was great until it turned awkward with Sylvia marrying Sunny. Calvin and Sylvia started their relationship in a brilliant way – the one-liners were so good, and the courtship was so sassy. It just all went downhill with the unnecessary love-square, and then Sylvia became a little needy. The very end was nice though, with the promise that Sylvia would wait for Calvin after he serves his jail-term. Maggie and Bowie have loads of chemistry, but Kenny and Maggie look so good together.
Elliot Yue/Ada – Despite the obvious age gap, I think they were pretty good together. The characters shared the same ideas and they cared a lot for each other. They even had chemistry and it was altogether believable. Throughout the middle, when Jessica went on a power trip, there were doubts whether she truly loved him, but at the very end you knew that she did. Ada was really cute and girly when she was with him.
Moses/Gigi/Eddie – Moses and Gigi have cooperated before so they look pretty natural together. At the start of the series, I hated all three characters, so it’s fair to say that the triangle didn’t interest me in the slightest. At the end, when I liked Eddie’s character, I was hoping that he would end up falling in love with someone else because he could do better than Constance. Plus, there wasn’t much chemistry between Eddie and Gigi.
Wong He/Linda Chung/Bosco Wong – A really odd triangle, although it wasn’t much of a triangle since none of them got past ‘liking’. There’s a bit of an age gap here with Linda and Wong He as well, but like Ada and Elliot Yue, I didn’t mind it at all. Wong He and Bosco were good as brothers, Bosco’s character was at his most decent when he was with his brother.
Chan Hung Lit and the wives – Chan Hung Lit and Helen Ma were fine together, believable as a long-time married couple. Chan Hung Lit and Queenie Chu were also bearable, but Chan Hung Lit and Queena Chan just didn’t work at all. Queena Chan needs acting lessons and she really needs to learn how to speak naturally.
Overall – I wanted to make this review short and to the point, but I failed. With the huge amount of cast and 82 episodes, it just feels impossible to cut it down. I did like the series overall, but it was way too long. It’s so difficult to maintain that amount of focus for four months. The only other type of show that goes on this long is usually a soap opera, or TVB’s situation comedies, and they’re usually slower-paced or much lighter in theme. Gem Of Life was just go-go-go the whole way through, and it’s so easy to find your interest waning. I think had it been written as 40 episodes, it would have done better. The ratings weren’t so fantastic, although apparently it is partly due to High Definition ratings not being included. The last Chik Kei Yi series that was this long was At the Threshold of an Era, which also didn’t do well at the time but had many watchers during the reruns a few years later. I wonder if Gem of Life will have that kind of hype in a few years' time.
The storyline had too much about business. It was confusing to follow the various take-overs and contracts that they were all negotiating and fighting for. The story and the anti-climactic ending spoilt the series, but the acting redeemed it. Disregarding the storyline, it was a stellar cast of veterans who I can’t sing enough praises about, even though I’m sounding like a broken record. There was so little that was wrong with it from the acting standpoint, which is so rare in today’s TVB series.
The inspiration for the Hong sisters was the famous Soong sisters from the early 20th century. It was said that "one loved money, one loved power and one loved China". I’m supposing Jessica loved money, Sylvia, being the workaholic, loved power and Constance would be the one who loved family (since it’s not a political series)?
The ending... I’m unsure whether to call it a happy one or not. The very ending scene was a happy shot of the Hong family. Throughout the series though, the majority of the main characters did something ‘bad’ and the only one who gets any kind of retribution is Calvin, who would be heading to jail. The actual good guys, Shek Tai Wo and Sunny, end up going blind and in a coma respectively. Then all the fighting stops because everyone suddenly claims that they’re tired. It was all a little rushed and unexplained.
The theme song was sung by Shirley Kwan, and it was so very suitable. It sounded rich and grand, just like the grand setting of the series. The opening credits, however, were terrible. It looked messy and cheaply done.
The series was filmed at several overseas locations, and the scenery at some of the places was breathtaking. It’s obvious that quite a lot of money and effort were put into the series, as well as promotional events – did they over-hype it? The filming took over a year, the promoting began around the same time as the filming – I think there was way too much expectation to live up to.
And finally, one of the best things is the jewelery and diamond theme. Having worked in the jewelery business, I have a real fascination with the stuff and they had some really nice pieces in the show. Which you couldn’t forget was sponsored by MaBelle, since the word came up every ten minutes, which is OK, since I like MaBelle. But the glamour didn’t end with the jewelery; the clothes, cars and yachts were very high society. If nothing else, the series was really good to look at.
Summary (spoilers): A series with a phenomenal cast (both in size and quality), the story goes through just about everything in its 82-episode run. The story revolves around the three Hong sisters Sylvia (Maggie Shiu), Constance (Gigi Lai) and Jessica (Ada Choi), as well as those who are connected to them through family, work or romance. Their father (John Chiang) works in the diamond industry for boss Suen Wai Tak (Lau Dan), and their mother (Louise Lee) is a housewife.
All three sisters start the series as married women – Sylvia is married to pilot Tim, Constance is married to artist Frankie, and Jessica is married to rich businessman Patrick. All three end up separated and living at home within the first few episodes. Tim has another family, Frankie is cheating on Constance with their close friend and Patrick fakes his death to avoid debts. Jessica ends up shouldering the debts, declares bankruptcy, and the rest of the family rally around her.
Sylvia begins to work for Calvin (Bowie Lam), and eventually they strike up a relationship. His business starts to fail, so Sylvia marries Sunny (Kenny Wong) so that Calvin will then forget about their relationship and be free to marry Catherine (Florence Kwok), who has a big company that is capable of saving Calvin’s comparatively small company.
Constance initially doesn’t get along with Terrence (Moses Chan), but they soon become friends. She rejects his advances because he is a renowned player, and she begins to date Derek instead, who is a lying bitter man, but undoubtedly quite in love and obsessed with her. Derek has a misunderstanding with Suen Wai Tak and tries to sue him, with the financial assistance of Calvin, who hopes to benefit from the payout. Derek is eventually jailed for vandalising property and Constance later marries Terrence.
Jessica begins to work for a PR company owned by Melissa (Rebecca Chan). She schemes to meet and strike up a relationship with Melissa’s good friend Martin (Elliot Yue), who is Terrence’s father and extremely rich. She eventually marries Martin and lives the life of a rich wife once again. Shek Tai Wo (Wong He) has known the three sisters since he was young, and he has always been in love with Jessica. He is happy to help anybody and doesn’t feel the need to be very rich or successful. His brother Will (Bosco Wong), on the other hand, is highly ambitious and ruthless in achieving his goal. He ends up working for Melissa and eventually inherits the PR firm from the widowed and childless Melissa when she dies.
Sung Sai Man (Chan Hung Lit) is a rich businessman with several wives. He always takes advantage of his friend Martin, much to the disgust of Melissa and Terrence. He loses his company to Martin after it turns out Martin has been patiently plotting many years to gain his trust so that he can bring down Sung Sai Man in such a way that he has no chance of reviving his losses. Martin takes advantage of Sung Sai Man’s weakness for women and bribes Charlie (Queena Chan Dan Dan) to seduce Sung Sai Man to help his cause. Everyone deserts Sung Sai Man with the exception of his first wife Margaret (Helen Ma) and his granddaughter Elise (Linda Chung), who is a bratty rich girl.
Later in the series, Jessica takes control of the company and goes head to head with Terrence, who thinks that Jessica is brainwashing his father Martin. Will has his own company, Calvin has his company, and the remainder of the series revolves around business wars and love triangles. That’s just the glossing-over summary of the series, but with 82 episodes, it’s difficult to go into too much detail.
Characters:
Hong Family:
Sylvia Hong Nga Yin – Maggie Shiu: Sylvia is headstrong and business-like. She is a total workaholic and she likes things to be right and just, which is why she constantly goes head to head with her mother who is happy to bend the rules if it is advantageous to her and her family. Sylvia was my favourite character at the start, but she became very weak and even a little irrational towards the end. She got slightly ‘evil’ even; her love for Calvin drove all her decisions and she seemed to lose herself, which was disappointing because she started out so strong. Maggie was great, can’t think of much to fault in her acting. There were some questionable clothing choices, but on the whole, she was very glamorous and classy.
Constance Hong Ngai Tung – Gigi Lai An upright moral character who sometimes took her morals too far. She was nice and sweet, and she stayed that way until the end, but she didn’t really know how to look at the big picture most of the time. She was the classic ‘nice’ character, but I found her to be teetering on boring. She whinged a little too much and was too holier-than-thou. Gigi was very pretty in the series, and there was nothing wrong with her portrayal of Constance at all; I just didn’t like the character very much.
Jessica Hong Nga Sze – Ada Choi Probably the character with the most storylines and screen-time. Jessica wasn’t necessarily a bad person, but she was very selfish and ambitious. She couldn’t live without money and she did everything she could to attain it. She didn’t hesitate to use others, but sometimes you could see that she did feel bad afterwards. With a character like that, Ada had so much to work with. She captured every facet of Jessica nicely and really carried the series along, especially around the middle to end parts when it was heavily focused on her.
Hong Ching Yeung – John Chiang Ching Yeung was an honest working man who loved his family dearly. He did everything his wife or daughters requested of him, and he rarely took charge because his wife was the one who did that. At the end when his wife was suffering from dementia, he took hold of the situation and gave his daughters a bit of a dressing down that was sorely needed. Not much for John Chiang to do, but he carried the character naturally and without trouble.
Hong Bak Siu Yau – Louise Lee An extremely clever woman who knew what she wanted and would happily scheme to make it happen. She did what she thought was best for her daughters, and while her methods were questionable, her motives were usually on the right track. A brilliant character; the daughter who most resembled her personality would have been Jessica, but Siu Yau was always calmer and thought things through even better. Louise Lee was awesome! She had such a character change from the smart scheming woman at the beginning to the dementia-riddled woman at the end, and she did all of it perfectly. The character was so much more fascinating than the characters she won praise for in Heart of Greed as well as Moonlight Resonance.
Ho Family: Martin Ho Fung – Elliot Yue (Ngok Wah) At first he seemed like a nice businessman who was willing to be taken advantage of on a business-level in order to avoid trouble. Then you realise that he had been scheming for decades to rid himself of his rival Sung Sai Man. He was more ruthless than Sung Sai Man ever was. He was later kidnapped, which turned him into a paranoid hermit. He gave instructions to Jessica on how to run the company, and he later died of a heart attack. Elliot Yue, faultless.
Terrence Ho Jit Lam – Moses Chan Rich son of Martin, he ran his own smaller company. A credible businessman, Calvin always despised him for being born into wealth without having to earn it. He, like his wife Constance, had big problems looking at the big picture and did everything he wanted to do without restraint. He was ridiculously unreasonable at times. He would do something wrong, and he would deny it. Then, when it was obvious that he had to have done it, he loudly declared “OK, so I did it. So what??”. And then he would start blaming other people. Like when he slept with Elise, it was apparently entirely her fault. And he didn’t understand why Constance was not supportive of his decision to completely destroy her sister! And the character became unredeemable to me when he neglected to save Derek from the burning car because he saw him as a competitor for Constance. I thought he was a terrible character who was probably supposed to be good but turned out annoyingly bad. In terms of acting, Moses is also probably the only main lead I wasn’t happy with. Nothing to do with my dislike of the character, either. I’ve always found Moses to be hit and miss. I really like the guy, and I like his series. He’s great at screwball comedy, but I think he comes up lacking in dramatic situations. Sometimes he still has a way of speaking unnaturally, which really breaks up romantic and ‘everyday life’ scenes.
Shek Family: Shek Tai Wo – Wong He The perennial nice guy. Helpful to all and very likeable, although sometimes a little nagging. His love for Jessica was touching, if not a little blind and stupid as well. You had to feel for the guy who was just so incredibly nice and didn’t get anything in return. Wong He is so good at being pedantic characters, and his crying scenes were top notch.
Will Shek Tai Chuen – Bosco Wong Very ambitious guy. Overly ambitious. Needs money and power, although he does care for his brother who brought him up and put him through higher education. That care and concern stop there, however, and don’t extend to the Hong family who he has actually known since he was quite young and should be quite close family friends with. I’m undecided if he was a protagonist or an antagonist, because he wasn’t *that* bad, but he wasn’t good either. Very cocky and holds grudges. In a cast full of veterans, they had to choose someone young and I’m glad it was Bosco. Of the younger generation in TVB, I think quite highly of him and he didn’t disappoint.
Sung Family: Sung Sai Man – Chan Hung Lit Initially the most evil of them all, he loses everything and he becomes someone who only always had a big mouth. He comes back for revenge, however, but then he never does succeed. He’s a character you’re supposed to hate, but then he has his good moments where he’s with Elise. He really seems to hate his son though. Chan Hung Lit can do comedy (not that there is any for him to do here, but he was hilarious in Best Selling Secrets), and he can do drama. His accent still baffles me sometimes, but I do like how they sometimes had some of the characters (Sung Sai Man, Elliot Yue and Helen Ma) speaking in Shanghainese (I think?) – it just kind of gives you the feeling that these people have known each other forever and ever, which makes everything that happens a little more meaningful.
Elise Sung Chi Ling – Linda Chung Elise starts out as a bratty selfish rich girl who only knows how to suck up to her grandfather. She’s just so despicable in the series that you want to slap her. When her grandfather loses everything, she goes back to studying and becomes quiet and submissive, which is a role that I’m more used to seeing Linda Chung doing! All credit to her for handling the character during the change though – I had my doubts whether she could pull off the bratty and cocky character without coming off as annoying and snobbish, but for the most part, she’s done pretty well. She’s improving consistently, and working with so many veterans has probably helped her a lot as well.
Others: Calvin Ko Cheung Sing – Bowie Lam An awesome character! He’s bad, but he’s so good at it. He gets under everybody’s skin and you can’t help but laugh at how he does it. He had a rough upbringing where his mother worked as a prostitute to support the both of them, so he vowed to be rich and successful. Despite all the bad things he does, he cares deeply for his mother. And he clearly stated that he would do anything, no matter how low it is, if it will be good for him. However, he won’t go around hurting people if it is of no advantage to himself. That’s a selfish person talking, but I like that he won’t feel the need to destroy other people out of petty revenge – like Terrence always wanted to do. Bowie never lets me down.
Sunny Yau Yat Tung – Kenny Wong Like Wong He’s character, Sunny was just a good guy. I was incredibly surprised when he came out as a homosexual though because I really didn’t see it coming and I was so annoyed that they got the most muscular and ‘man’ of the cast to be the gay character! Very caring and friendly, and like Sylvia, willing to do anything for Calvin. I’ve always liked Kenny, even back in the 90s when he had some truly terrible hairdos. His acting hasn’t really improved, but it’s always been passable.
Derek Chan Kai Fat – Eddie Kwan An irritating character at the beginning who was greedy and malicious. He turned into a bitter character who wasn’t greedy anymore, and finally to a really nice guy. The turn was so dramatic that it didn’t even seem like the same guy anymore. It’s been ages since I’ve seen Eddie in a series, it was good to see him on screen again.
Melissa Yan Wai Ting – Rebecca Chan A successful career woman who seemed to be in love with Martin. She didn’t re-marry after her first husband died. She is very smart, so she has high expectations of those around her. I felt bad for her when Martin betrayed her and she found out that he looked upon their long friendship so lightly. The character wasn’t overly developed so I don’t think Rebecca had to do much aside from looking serious most of the time. I’ve never really seen her give a bad performance, so this one really wasn’t any different.
Catherine Shum Ji Tang – Florence Kwok A rich woman who was forced to take charge of her brother's company when he passed away. She was a weak, pathetic woman who had little confidence in herself. She was there to come between Calvin and Sylvia to create the relationship square that they had with Sunny. I think her storyline really was just one of those things that made the series stretch to 82 episodes – it wasn’t entirely necessary. It’s odd seeing Florence play a weak character, she’s always been playing those strong successful types. She did all right considering the character was a little useless.
Chemistry:
Hong Family – None of them look anything alike, but they make for a pretty good-looking family. Sylvia’s relationship with her parents was a little underdeveloped, but the relationship between the sisters was done very nicely. The end where the mother got dementia was very touching, and the effect that it had on the rest of the family was also sad to see. The servant, Ah Ying, was also a nice addition – she always had words to add to a conversation even if they were not the nicest of things. My favourite couple in the series would probably be the parents!
Bowie/Maggie/Kenny/Florence – Nice friendship between the four characters. It was great until it turned awkward with Sylvia marrying Sunny. Calvin and Sylvia started their relationship in a brilliant way – the one-liners were so good, and the courtship was so sassy. It just all went downhill with the unnecessary love-square, and then Sylvia became a little needy. The very end was nice though, with the promise that Sylvia would wait for Calvin after he serves his jail-term. Maggie and Bowie have loads of chemistry, but Kenny and Maggie look so good together.
Elliot Yue/Ada – Despite the obvious age gap, I think they were pretty good together. The characters shared the same ideas and they cared a lot for each other. They even had chemistry and it was altogether believable. Throughout the middle, when Jessica went on a power trip, there were doubts whether she truly loved him, but at the very end you knew that she did. Ada was really cute and girly when she was with him.
Moses/Gigi/Eddie – Moses and Gigi have cooperated before so they look pretty natural together. At the start of the series, I hated all three characters, so it’s fair to say that the triangle didn’t interest me in the slightest. At the end, when I liked Eddie’s character, I was hoping that he would end up falling in love with someone else because he could do better than Constance. Plus, there wasn’t much chemistry between Eddie and Gigi.
Wong He/Linda Chung/Bosco Wong – A really odd triangle, although it wasn’t much of a triangle since none of them got past ‘liking’. There’s a bit of an age gap here with Linda and Wong He as well, but like Ada and Elliot Yue, I didn’t mind it at all. Wong He and Bosco were good as brothers, Bosco’s character was at his most decent when he was with his brother.
Chan Hung Lit and the wives – Chan Hung Lit and Helen Ma were fine together, believable as a long-time married couple. Chan Hung Lit and Queenie Chu were also bearable, but Chan Hung Lit and Queena Chan just didn’t work at all. Queena Chan needs acting lessons and she really needs to learn how to speak naturally.
Overall – I wanted to make this review short and to the point, but I failed. With the huge amount of cast and 82 episodes, it just feels impossible to cut it down. I did like the series overall, but it was way too long. It’s so difficult to maintain that amount of focus for four months. The only other type of show that goes on this long is usually a soap opera, or TVB’s situation comedies, and they’re usually slower-paced or much lighter in theme. Gem Of Life was just go-go-go the whole way through, and it’s so easy to find your interest waning. I think had it been written as 40 episodes, it would have done better. The ratings weren’t so fantastic, although apparently it is partly due to High Definition ratings not being included. The last Chik Kei Yi series that was this long was At the Threshold of an Era, which also didn’t do well at the time but had many watchers during the reruns a few years later. I wonder if Gem of Life will have that kind of hype in a few years' time.
The storyline had too much about business. It was confusing to follow the various take-overs and contracts that they were all negotiating and fighting for. The story and the anti-climactic ending spoilt the series, but the acting redeemed it. Disregarding the storyline, it was a stellar cast of veterans who I can’t sing enough praises about, even though I’m sounding like a broken record. There was so little that was wrong with it from the acting standpoint, which is so rare in today’s TVB series.
The inspiration for the Hong sisters was the famous Soong sisters from the early 20th century. It was said that "one loved money, one loved power and one loved China". I’m supposing Jessica loved money, Sylvia, being the workaholic, loved power and Constance would be the one who loved family (since it’s not a political series)?
The ending... I’m unsure whether to call it a happy one or not. The very ending scene was a happy shot of the Hong family. Throughout the series though, the majority of the main characters did something ‘bad’ and the only one who gets any kind of retribution is Calvin, who would be heading to jail. The actual good guys, Shek Tai Wo and Sunny, end up going blind and in a coma respectively. Then all the fighting stops because everyone suddenly claims that they’re tired. It was all a little rushed and unexplained.
The theme song was sung by Shirley Kwan, and it was so very suitable. It sounded rich and grand, just like the grand setting of the series. The opening credits, however, were terrible. It looked messy and cheaply done.
The series was filmed at several overseas locations, and the scenery at some of the places was breathtaking. It’s obvious that quite a lot of money and effort were put into the series, as well as promotional events – did they over-hype it? The filming took over a year, the promoting began around the same time as the filming – I think there was way too much expectation to live up to.
And finally, one of the best things is the jewelery and diamond theme. Having worked in the jewelery business, I have a real fascination with the stuff and they had some really nice pieces in the show. Which you couldn’t forget was sponsored by MaBelle, since the word came up every ten minutes, which is OK, since I like MaBelle. But the glamour didn’t end with the jewelery; the clothes, cars and yachts were very high society. If nothing else, the series was really good to look at.
PS I do not own this review.
DEVIL'S DISCIPLES
Episodes: 20Cast
Bosco Wong
Kevin Cheung
Bernice Liu
Sharon Chan
Wayne Lai
Shirley Yeung
Eddie Ko
Johnson Lee
Plot: The Sacred Sword Sect is the most powerful and the most well-known within the Wuxia World. Eddie is headmaster of the Sacred Sword Sect school where Kevin, Bosco, Johnson (not a student) and Bernice are. They all look up to him like the respectable man that he is known for, but their opinions slowly change when his real agenda is revealed.
Eddie is actually a villain of the Wuxia world, who is obsessed with becoming the dominator of Wuxia. He is willing to do whatever it takes to reach his goal, even if it means killing.
The series revolves around Bosco and Kevin learning Kung Fu, defeating Eddie, accomplishing their personal goals and finding love.
Corny right? Yeah I thought the plot was weird too.
Simple Analysis
The Bad
Bosco Wong: He is the honest, caring and innocent student of the Sacred Sword Sect. Probably the only one who does not have a secret and shows his real emotions in front of people. However, he is also the dumbest person in the entire series! Not to mention one of the most useless. His character was so blinded by Eddie's lies that he actually believed that Eddie is the good guy while everyone who says otherwise are all wrong. Everyone could see that Eddie is evil except Bosco. He mentioned that he hit his head when he was younger so I think that is the reason why he cannot think logically. I am sorry to say but I can not give you an analysis of his acting performance because his character annoyed me so much that I fast forwarded every time he was onscreen.
Shirley Yeung: I have never liked her because I have always find her performance very flawed and fake. Plus her characters always annoyed me. In here she plays the Healer, the one that everyone turns to for help when they are in danger of dying. Personally I think her character is very unnecessary. She was basically just put in the series as a third wheel (every series needs a love triangle). I thought she was so selfish when she tricked Bosco into sleeping with her. She can't have him so she lied to him (and herself) by telling him that her dirty trick was all for Sharon's sake. I was actually hoping that she would be one of the ones that die at the end since she can't fight but once again the series disappointed me by having her live.
Bosco and Bernice: Some people say that he looks too skinny for her but actually I think he looks too young for her. She looks much older than him (even though she is not) when they are onscreen together. She looks more like a sister than a lover. Maybe that's why TVB made him end up with Shirley.
The love triangle with Bernice, Bosco, and Shirley: It was stupid.
Kevin's personal story: It was boring. Yes, it was sweet that he was searching for his mom and all but it was very boring because it feels like he was not able to accomplish anything that he wanted to.
The Good
Wayne Lai, Johnson Lee, and the rest of the students: They are entertaining to watch because they are funny. They are the comic relief in the series. Wayne gave an amazing performance like always. His chemistry with Bosco was excellent and he seems to light up the screen whenever he came on.
Sharon Chan: Her performance was much better in here than her other ones in TVB's 2006 series. She was the only one that was actually useful and can actually do something. I enjoy her strong character very much.
Unsolved Questions
1. Bosco kept saying that the Sacred Sword Sect has done a lot for him but what did they actually do for him? His Godmother raised him, his Godbrother watched over him, Wayne taught him most of his Kung Fu and dies for him, Bernice loved him, Kevin and Sharon saved him, even Shirley did something for him. What did the Sect for him? It allowed him to meet Bernice and Kevin? Is that it?
2. The ending. Bosco and Shirley had a kid but then it was mentioned that Bosco would be going on a date with Bernice. So does that mean he is cheating on Shirley?
3. How did Bosco and Kevin learn a kung fu style that took 2 years to master in just two days? They were obviously weaker than Eddie but somehow they could master kung fu that he couldn't in less than half the time he does. That makes no sense.
4. Kevin letting go of Sharon's ashes at the end was weird. She was buried (with her body still whole) when they made her a grave but then he had her ashes. What, did he dig her back up so that he could cremate her?
Final Words
Watch this if you: 1. Are a loyal TVB fan and wants to show support by watching all the TVB series. 2. Are a Wayne or Sharon fan 3. Are a possible Kevin fan
Avoid if you: 1. Are a Bosco fan 2. Are a non-ancient series lover 3. Are a Bernice Lover
PS I do not own this review.
STEPS INTO THE PAST
Episodes: 40Cast:
Louis Koo as Hong Siu Lung
Raymond Lam as Chiu Poon/Ying Jing
Sonija Kwok as Kam Ching
Jessica Hsuan as Wu Ting Fong
Joyce Tang as Sin Yau
Kwong Wa as Lin Chun/Lou Oi
"A Step into the Past" is TVB's latest release of a period drama based on a novel by Huang Yi. First set in modern day Hong Kong, police agent, Hung Siu Lung (Louis Koo), is transported back into the past, three years before the ascension of the Chun King, who is often erroneously credited with building all of the Great Wall of China. Before I make my comments on this series, I must say that I am a sucker for time travel stories. It always fascinates me to read about or watch stories where the hero travels to a different time period and is landed in an environment or culture that is so unfamiliar to his/her own. I also never read the novel by Huang Yi so I don't have any comparisons to make between the original characters or story to the adaptation. If I had, I would probably critique this unmercifully like a Jin Yong adaptation because I've heard from several sources that it doesn't do much justice to Huang Yi's novel.
With that in mind, a bit on the plot. Hung Siu Lung is part of the Hong Kong G4 Special Police force and is invited to take a trip back in time to witness and take some pictures of the ascension of Chun Chi Wong. In return for participation in this ludicrous-sounding mission, he will be able to use the time portal to return to the time before his girlfriend (Sonjia Kwok Sin Lei) married someone else and have a second chance with her. Hung agrees but something goes wrong during the process and he is instead, transported back to 3 years before the day of the ascension. Trapped in the past, Hung tries to find ways to travel to Hom Yueng, where Ying Jing, the future Chun King, is supposed to be crowned. His first acquaitance is Sin Yau (Joyce Tang Lai Ming), a seemingly cold-hearted assassin. Next up the line, characters like Wu Ting Fong (Jessica Hsuan), Lin Chun (Kong Wah), Siu Sin (Michelle Saram), Chiu Poon (Lam Fung), Chiu Nga (Shuet Lei), and Chiu Mok (Lei Chi Hung) are brought into the picture. Wu Ting Fong verbally spars with Hung Siu Lung every time they see each other and eventually falls in love with him, leaving the cold swordsman, Lin Chun, jealous and hating Hung. Siu Sin is the Chiu State's princess who also falls for Siu Lung. She is forced to marry for politics but is promised by Siu Lung that he would take her away. Chiu Nga is the royal sister of the Chiu King and is a widow bringing up her son, Chiu Poon. She is a pawn for Chiu Mok, a villainous minister, who uses her to seduce men and is known by all as a promiscuous woman.
The appearance of Hung Siu Lung basically changes all their lives as Hung helps Chiu Nga rediscover her dignity and teaches Chiu Poon how to be a good person along with martial arts. Wu Ting Fong is upset that Hung doesn't return her love and leaves to wander around. She is later raped by a left-handed swordsman, Lou Oi, after rejecting Lin Chun. Lin Chun loses to Hung in battle, wits, and love. Yet he is determined to have his revenge and to achieve power. He kills Lou Oi after learning his sword techniques and takes Lou's name as his own.
Meanwhile, Hung hears news that Ying Jing is trapped in the Chiu State as a hostage with his mother, Chu Gei (Yu Ying Ying). Rescuing them, he discovers from Chu Gei that the imprisoned Ying Jing is a fake, a decoy. However, when Hung goes to search for the real Ying Jing, he finds that Ying Jing has already died. Hung remembers being warned that if history is altered, his existence would also cease, besides from not being able to go back to the present. In desperation, he claims that Chiu Poon is Ying Jing and starts to tell one big lie. Hung also meets another woman, Kam Ching (also Sonjia Kwok), who looks exactly like his girlfriend in the present, and falls in love with her. The rest of the series is about how Hung must help Chiu Poon/Ying Jing become crowned prince, then emperor, and finally how to rid of their rivals, Liu Bat Wai (Kong Fung), and Lou Oi.
I was very happy at first that TVB finally came out with an ancient costume series, with real fighting, a new story line, real scenery, and not to mention, real horses. I must say that the scenery is beautiful in "Step", with shots taken from settings in China. War scenes are also done surprisingly well, though few, and shots of palaces and arenas with many servants and guards are also impressive. Fight scenes are also done well, with real hand and weapon combat and no special computer effects. For a while, I was wondering if TVB producers were delirious, making such a grand production, because it must've cost them a bundle. It was refreshing to see TVB come out of remaking Jin Yong adaptations and I think I must've been deprived of a good martial arts series for a long time, because I felt like a kid given a lollipop when I first started watching this series.
"Step" is funny at the beginning where Hung Siu Lung cracks jokes and is still trying to cope to the past's language and way of life. I am not a Louis Koo Tin Lok fan, but he was admittingly funny at times in "Step" with the humor. Puns and references made to toilet paper, chopsticks, and even Jin Yong were humorous.
I thought Lam Fung and Louis Koo were unnaturally dark in this series. They looked like each other to some degree (same tanning salon?) and their tans did not suit them well at certain angles in the camera. I never thought that Louis Koo is a good actor and is too concerned about his look-cool image (I can already sense the cat-claws out right now from fans). However, I was surprised that he did a decent job in "Step" and as mentioned, he was funny. So all in all, I think he improved but still needs improvement. An extra bit of information, Louis Koo won one of the Favorite Character Portrayal and the Favorite Actor awards during TVB's anniversary for his role as Hung Siu Lung this year. Rumors were also abound that he and Sonjia Kwok are dating in real life after this series.
Lam Fung was not bad as Chiu Poon/Ying Jing. I preferred him as the matured Ying Jing who became corrupted by power later on. He reminded me a bit of how Andy Lau was able to portray the playful side of Hong Hei in "Duke of Mt. Deer 84" and then revert to a supreme ruler--though definitely not as well as Andy was able to do it. There are times, however, that I thought Lam Fung was over-exaggerating his menace and ruthlessness as king. He seemed to be glaring with a bit too much effort. I like actors who can subtly give off an impression as the series progresses and not have to do it in a in-your-face kind of way but I think Lam Fung has potential.
Kong Wah as Lin Chun/Lou Oi was also average. I expected more from him since so many people praised his role in ATV's "Secret Battle of the Majesties". Though I never saw "Secret", I've seen his earlier works and had always thought he was a good actor. In "Step", I thought Kong Wah was trying too hard to be cool and cold. Kong Wah looked bored the whole time in "Step" and going about his role in a perfunctory fashion. I think Kong Wah is one actor misused by TVB and would've had more meaningful roles if he stayed in ATV or tried his luck in Taiwan.
Kong Fung played Liu Bat Wai, the minister who was rumored to have had an affair with Chu Gei and that Ying Jing is really his son. Kong Fung is one of the best actors in "Step" and was able to do the villainous role at ease. Some tidbit, non-related knowledge, Kong Fung is Au Yueng Piu San's husband in real life.
Jessica Hsuan as Wu Ting Fong was pretty good. Her chemistry with Louis Koo was already established in Detective Investigative Files IV. However, fans will be disappointed that her screen time is very sparse at the middle of the series and only until the latter episodes will she come back out. Wu Ting Fong's character is interesting to watch until she gets raped and then she just hides in her shell the rest of the series towards the ending. Jessica's costume looked the nicest out of all the female characters when she was in the braids and colorful clothes but very drab in the middle to end.
Sonjia Kwok as Kam Ching gave an average performance. Her headress bothered me at first but after a while, I kind of liked it, especially compared to her later attires. Don't have much to say about her, except that she was just ok.
For once, Joyce Tang Lai Ming in a period drama did not irk me. As Sin Yau, the assassin, she didn't do a spectacular job, but decent enough and the character did not make me want to throw something at the tv.
Michelle Saram as the Chiu princess was in a word, horrible. She can not act. Her mouth and voice coordination is terrible and the way she delivers her lines is monotonous and flat and dead. She was like a piece of wood in this series, a piece of wood that can smile at times. It was painful listening to her painfully deliver her lines word by word. Her character is also cliche, the typical nice princess who feels like a caged bird and yearns to be free.
Chu Gei played by Yu Ying Ying is the other awful casting in "Step". She might be on par with Michelle Saram on how badly each can utter their lines. Chu Gei was supposedly a beautiful woman who men go ga-ga over yet Yu looked very tired and old in this series. She could not portray the coldness or charm of Chu Gei and only seemed to whine. The development of her character was also unbelievable on how she was so in love with Liu Bat Wai at one moment and then fall madly in love with Lou Oi. I think I must've missed some scenes because I thought she also loved her son, Ying Jing, but once Lou Oi came into the picture, she seemed to have forgotten her motherly love and not give a whim about Ying Jing. The character of Chu Gei is also very dumb to believe all the lame lies that Lou Oi was feeding her about how he only wants power so that he can protect her. The way Lou Oi lied or came up with excuses were so unbelievable. How dumb a woman can she be, especially after learning how Liu Bat Wai used her? I suppose love is blind. Yu Ying Ying also had about zero chemistry with Kong Wah so I was emotionally detached when watching their finale.
Several other things in "Step" nagged me. Hung Siu Lung is a character from the present, and he's a cop too. One would think that his sense of justice and crime and punishment would be consistent with the modern period. However, Hung seemed to kill quite easily and was also able to watch others kill without too much of a flinch. He is also always obsessed with the whole history-can't-be-altered-else-my-existence-would-not-be-possible dilemna, yet Hung killed several times in "Step". I would've thought that is changing history big time because he could've killed someone significant. If he truly believed that altering history would screw it up, he should've made absolutely no contact with anyone in the past because who knows what course fate would take if he happens to just kick a rock (that rolls down a cliff, hits someone on the head, etc.)?
His idea of love is also ridiculous and here's the spoiler: Hung marries both Wu Ting Fong and Kam Ching and claims to love them both. I say, blah! One instance, or more like the whole series, Hung is madly in love with Kam Ching because she looked like his girlfriend in the present and then when Wu Ting Fong comes back out, he claims that he also has feelings for her. Hung even uses sign language to tell Wu the 3 significant words, "I LOVE YOU". Speaking of which, I was getting goosebumps when Louis uttered those words in poor english. I think all along Hung loved Kam Ching because he was willing to stay in the past forever because of her. He had the chance to go back to the present but gave it up because of her. Yet with Wu Ting Fong, all he wanted to do was evade her because he still harbored thoughts of going back to the present at that time. Then out of guilt perhaps, Hung wanted to take care of her. It also seemed like guilt and gratefulness that he was with Siu Sin too, which makes Hung Siu Lung seem like another Cheung Mo Kei in love affairs. He can't seem to reject the girls just because they are nice to him--which really hurts them all in the end.
As the series progressed, "Step" was like an inflated balloon losing its air and credibility. I did not like the transition of how Ying Jing suddenly became all ruthless and heartless, nor his sudden mistrust of Hung Siu Lung at the end. Lou Oi is also able to find someone who looks exactly like Ying Jing at the end and try to take over the empire which takes some convincing because it was so undeveloped. I expected to see the fueding six states have at least one big battle or something but I guess the trailers are only real teasers. I think "Step" would've benefited if we had more war scenes and strategy at how Chun Chi Wong united or battled the other warring states.
All in all, "Step" is far from perfect but watchable and enjoyable at some instances. It's not your typical martial arts series with the hero trying to attain the highest form of martial arts and then defeating the villain. "Step" is more about politics and love relationships and Hung Siu Lung using modern day knowledge to defeat his foes. I think I was just glad TVB could still make a passable martial arts series. Nice try by TVB, but try harder TVB!
PS I do not own this review.
HAP HAK HANG
Cast: Sheren Tang
Tony Leung
"Hap Hak Hang" is another Jin Yong novel adaptation made in the 80's. However, I know this adaptation wasn't faithful to the novel, since one of the main characters was a rapist and his lover, a murderer, I think. Maybe because TVB didn't want to ruin the image of the main lead or because the rapist character wasn't appropriate to be portrayed on TV, but the character is changed from being a rapist to being funny and cunning.
The story stars: Tony Leung as the twins Sek Chung Yuk and Sek Fa Tin, Sheren Teng as Ding Dan. The other actresses who played these characters are unknown to me : Tit San Ho, Dong yee, Thi Giem, Bak Sau Man
Because this series is about twins, you know that Tin and Yuk will be mixed up and there will be many misunderstandings. As for the personalities of the twins, it is very typical : Yuk is cunning, smart, a fast thinker and funny ; Tin is more sentimental, naive, and innocent. You could say that one is night and the other, day.
As you can guess, the twins have been separated at birth, also a typical trait. Their parents were known as 'Black and White Swords' in the mo lam world. One time, they killed the god-son of 'Ghost', an evil character, so that on the twins' one month birthday, 'Ghost' came to avenge his god-son. The parents could only save Yuk and thought that Tin was killed because of a sword through his heart ; however, Tin's heart isn't in the same position as a normal person's is, and that saved him. Because they were afraid of 'Ghost', 'Black and White Swords' lived a discreet life and didn't teach any kung fu to Yuk. His father treated him severely while his mother spoiled him. During all those years, Tin was raised by a hunter.
In one incidence, involving Yuk's encounter with Ding Dan, his parents' identities are revealed. To protect Yuk, he was sent to 'Snow Sect' to learn kung fu. However, Yuk accidentally made the leader's granddaughter, Sau, fall off a cliff. Everyone thought she died and of course, the 'Snow Sect' followers wanted to kill Yuk to avenge her.
On the other side, baby Tin was saved and raised in the forest by the hunter. Later, the hunter dies and Tin was cheated by the leader of 'Heaven Union'. They lied about his origins and forced him to become the leader of 'Heaven Union'. Soon after, the real leader was killed. One day, Ding Dan appeared and mistaken him to be Yuk. Tin falls in love with her.
Soon, Yuk and Tin switched places. Tin was kidnapped by a highly skilled man who had a strange personality and Yuk became the leader of 'Heaven Union'. In 'Heaven Union', Yuk became close to Tin's maid, Siu Giem. However, when he learned that Boi, the skilled doctor of the 'Heaven Union', has planned for Tin to become the leader of 'Heaven union' because they wanted him to die instead of the leader, Yuk started to act wild in the hope that Boi will kick him out. He also thinks about running away.
Actually, every 18 years from 'Hap Hak Island', two men will come and invite the leaders and well-known characters from the mo lam world to follow them to the island. The invitations have been sent 2 times, and the third time is to be very soon. But what made them afraid is that those who left never came back, so people are suspicious and assumed that they are dead. If you refused the invitation, you and your sect will get killed immediately.
Boi, the doctor of the 'Heaven Union', has planned for Tin to become the leader of 'Heaven Union', so that when the two men from 'Hap Hak Island' comes, they will invite Tin and he will disappear. Yuk tries to run away, succeeds, and refuges himself in the 'Poison Sect' of San Ho, a woman that he has met. She falls in love with him. In the 'Poison Sect', Yuk encounters the most well-known rapist, Mo Yung Bak, who turns out to be a very sympathetic guy and will become a close friend. At the same time, he re-encounters a girl named Dong Yee, who he fell in love with when he was still in the 'Snow Sect'.
Dong Yee's family was also well-known in the mo lam world. However, while she was away with her grandma, mother, and other women of the family, 'Ghost' came and killed all the remaining members at home. When, they came back, they found all the bodies. Dong yee's mother committed suicide next to her husband while the grandmother swore vengeance. However, they aren't skilled enough to confront 'Ghost' yet, so have to hide themselves in a valley for more than 10 years. Now, capable of defeating 'Ghost', they exited the valley and kidnap Mo Yung Bak, a good friend of 'Ghost', to threaten him. However, they failed because of Yuk. Later, Dong yee and her family are separated, so she follows Yuk. Yuk loves her very much and this caused San Ho to become jealous. Because of this, San Ho makes Yuk drink a poison that even she herself can't cure. Misunderstandings after misunderstandings occur, and finally Yuk has the pleasure to live with San Ho, Dong Yee, Ding Dan and Siu Giem. At first they argued, but for him, because they all loved Yuk sincerely, they agreed to be good friends.
Dong yee's grandmother re-appears and forces Dong yee to follow her. Yuk immediately ran after them, but loses them. He then encounters two weird guys, one who always smiles and the other who never does. Yuk decided to travel with them, until he learns that they both have great kung fu. Meanwhile, the two guys have some special wine that they can only drink a little per year. Yuk drinks it all and they are astonished that he isn't dead yet. Actually, the wine has cured Yuk's poison and helped him to practice 'Poison Palm'. Yuk is afraid to get killed by those two men, so he proposed to become sworn brothers. The two guys are Sam and Tu (it's very funny because the guy who always smile is played by Bobby Au Yeung, and it's funny how thin he was and all.) Just after, he finds and saves Dong Yee's family with his new 'Poison Palm'. The grandmother dies and asked him to take care of the sect. Because he had became the leader, Dong yee tries to put a distance between them. She will try even more to break their relationship when she learns that 'Ghost', in reality, is her father. She feels bad because she believes her father has killed Tin, Yuk's twin brother. 'Ghost' and Dong Yee's mother were lovers, but one time he left to seek revenge and disappeared. Because Dong yee's mother was pregnant, she had no choice but to marry someone else. Later, 'Ghost' comes back and killed the entire family because he was jealous. Feeling responsible, the mother committed suicide. Dong Yee doesn't know what to do. She finally decides to kill her father, then commit suicide, but she fails. Her father, understanding the reason of her act, commits suicide, but just before, asked Yuk to take care of 'Ghost Sect'.
Finally, Dong Yee tries to put a term to their relationship and ends up lost in a valley. In the valley, she meets a man, Yat, and agrees to marry him, believing that by doing so, she will forget Yuk. At the same time, Yuk's sworn brothers asked him to bring a box to Shaolin : the box contains a precious jewelry that the previous Shaolin leader brought with him to the 'Hap Hak Island'. They all get suspicious and believes Yuk is from the island.. so everyone wants to capture him. Eventually, he ends up being locked up in 'Heaven Union'. He is rescued by his girlfriends and also Yat. Then, Yuk assists Dong yee's wedding with Yat, but the ceremony was never completed. Next day, Dong yee finds out that Yat is in reality a rapist, so runs away with Yuk. All their misunderstandings are cleared.
Dr. Boi has organized Yuk's trial, but he has ran away. To re-capture Yuk, Boi's only solution is to capture Dong Yee, San Ho and Siu Giem, hoping that Yuk will show up to rescue his lovers. In the meantime, Tin has lived with the 'weird man' and learn great kung fu. Tin should have died, because his internal power wasn't enough powerful to learn that great kung fu, but before following the 'weird man', Tin had met an old man who was pursued and murdered. Because Tin tried to rescue the man, he thanked Tin by giving him some little wooden statuettes which is in reality the greatest kung fu of Shaolin. Tin and the 'weird man' start to get along well. During all that time, Tin thinks of Ding Dan and finally, one day, his kung fu is powerful enough and is permitted to return to the mo lam world. He then meets Yuk's parents who believe Tin is Yuk. They soon hear about the trial, so decide to go see. On their way, they meet an old woman and Sau, Yuk's si mui who fell down the cliff. The old woman is her grandmother. One day, Sau's grandparents got in an argument and her grandpa slapped her grandma. So angry, the grandma left the sect and found her own. She rescued Sau and thinks Tin is Yuk, so forces him to follow her. When both finally realized that Tin isn't Yuk, he becomes the grandma's student. Gradually, Sau falls in love with Tin, but knows that in his heart, there's only Ding Dan.
At the meeting/trial, Yuk rescued his 3 lovers by using small sects to help him and also tricks, etc. He also admits that he isn't from 'Hap Hak Island', but no one believes him. Finally, he escaped by the help of his sworn brothers.
Everyone believes Yuk is from 'Hap Hak Island', so they start giving him lot's of gifts : jewelry, money, kung fu scriptures, etc. hoping that they won't receive the 'Hap Hak Island' invitation. At the same time, a man claiming to come from 'Hap Hak Island' has started to kill many persons from different sects. The leaders are invited to go to the island, but it turns out to be a trap set by Yat and someone else. Their goal was to kill as many leaders possible, so later on, they will become the Mo Lam leader easily. Yuk discovers the plans because his sworn brothers help him, but the others don't know and believe Yuk is a dai hup. The ask him to become the leader of mo lam. Also, the man from 'Snow Sect' asked Yuk to come back to the sect, so they could resolve the misunderstanding.
When they arrived at 'Snow Sect', everything has changed. Soon, Yuk and his women were jailed and poisoned. Yuk was jailed next to the leader's cell. The old leader believe he has killed his students, so jailed himself to stop, but it was all lies from his student (Yuk's si fu) who wanted to take over the sect. At the same time, Tin, his si fu and Sau also came to 'Snow Sect'. The grandma wants to challenge her husband. The traitor is killed by a masked man.
Finally, the two twins meet. 'Black and White Swords' soon arrives and they find out that Tin is their son. The twins reunite. Also, at the same occasion, Yuk celebrates his wedding with his four wives, but no guests show up : the leaders have received the REAL 'Hap Hak Island' invitations. Tin, who is the leader of 'Heaven Union', the grandfather, Yuk and San Ho soon received their invitations too. They all left. The day they leave, Tin realized he loved Sau.
It turns out that the owners of the island, two men, invites the leaders of mo lam to help them every 18 years. They have this kung fu scripture hidden in a poem, but no one can understand it. As for all the previous guests, they are still alive, it's just they don't want to leave the island. So everyone studies the poem and tries to understand. Tin is the only one who will learn the entire kung fu, even though he doesn't know how to read. It turns out that the kung fu meaning wasn't hidden in the meaning of the poems, but in the physical traits of the words. Tin manages to learn it all, except the last sentence. 36 years ago, when the owners invited the Shaolin leader, they cut off the last sentence and brought it with them. During the journey back to the island, a storm occurred and their boat sunk. There was a little monk with them, but they all died and lost the last sentence.
At the end, the owners of the island destroyed the poem and urged the mo lam people to run away, their wish has been fulfilled, now they are dying so at the same time, destroyed the island. When everyone comes back to mo lam world, they discover that Dr. Boi has taken over the mo lam world and have become the leader. Soon, they find out that Dr. Boi was really the little monk of 36 years ago. He had learn his kung fu in the last sentence of the poem and he managed to guess all the previous sentences. Tin is no match for him, so his group all have to hide themselves.
To preserve Tin's life who is the only one who can save them, there many sacrifices : Sau's grandparents, some leaders and even his parents. In a battle, Tin is seriously injured and to be saved, someone has to transfer all his/her energy into Tin. The consequence is that this person will get paralyzed. Because Ding Dan feels responsible, she is the one who sacrifices.
But even then, Tin is still no match against Boi. He remembers what the two owners of the island said : if he wants Hap Hak kung fu to attain its maximal capacity, Tin has to find a person who is the opposite of him, but who understand him the most. The best choice is Yuk. At first, they have lots of difficulties, because even though they are brothers, they don't understand each other due to the little time they lived together. After their parents died, Yuk changes drastically and focused on learning kung fu. With the help of the previous Shaolin leader, they are soon able to fight against Boi.
SPOILERS ENDING :
At the end, they challenge Boi and of course win. After their victory, Tin and Sau celebrate their wedding. Yuk plays a trick and dresses as the groom ; however, Sau recognizes him. Afterwards, Yuk and all his wives, plus Mo Yung Bak, leave China for Nepal or India. As for Tin, he stays with Sau and becomes the mo lam leader.
MY OPINION : Seriously, it is a very typical twins story. You can guess easily what is going to happen. If you compare 'Hap Hak Hang' of Jin Yong with 'Twin Heroes' of Gu Long, I'll pick 'Twin Heroes'. Also adding the fact that both adaptations weren't faithful, I still prefer 'Twin Heroes'.
One bad thing is that the series focuses too much on Yuk and not enough on Tin. You see Tin has a really small part, maybe the 3 last episodes. I think they should have tried to put Tin more, developed more on him, since in the novel, he's the main character. As for Yuk, well I have to say, it's way more interesting to have a funny character instead of a rapist. If you have to compare Yuk-Tin to other JY's characters and also, adding Tony Leung acting skills, well Yuk would be a repetition of Wai Siu Bo while Tin would be Cheung Mo Kei.
As for the acting, Tony Leung is again fabulous. Like I said, his characters resemble a lot of what he had already portrayed, so I think it was easy for him. When you look at the series, you sometimes feel that it is two different actors who act, since he did a marvelous job.
As for the actresses, I think TVB could have done better. Among the 5 leading actresses, if you could call them like that, only Sheren Tseng is known. All the others are unknown faces to me and their acting are only acceptable. Nothing exceptional, but average. Sheren Tseng is okay, not more.
The story stars: Tony Leung as the twins Sek Chung Yuk and Sek Fa Tin, Sheren Teng as Ding Dan. The other actresses who played these characters are unknown to me : Tit San Ho, Dong yee, Thi Giem, Bak Sau Man
Because this series is about twins, you know that Tin and Yuk will be mixed up and there will be many misunderstandings. As for the personalities of the twins, it is very typical : Yuk is cunning, smart, a fast thinker and funny ; Tin is more sentimental, naive, and innocent. You could say that one is night and the other, day.
As you can guess, the twins have been separated at birth, also a typical trait. Their parents were known as 'Black and White Swords' in the mo lam world. One time, they killed the god-son of 'Ghost', an evil character, so that on the twins' one month birthday, 'Ghost' came to avenge his god-son. The parents could only save Yuk and thought that Tin was killed because of a sword through his heart ; however, Tin's heart isn't in the same position as a normal person's is, and that saved him. Because they were afraid of 'Ghost', 'Black and White Swords' lived a discreet life and didn't teach any kung fu to Yuk. His father treated him severely while his mother spoiled him. During all those years, Tin was raised by a hunter.
In one incidence, involving Yuk's encounter with Ding Dan, his parents' identities are revealed. To protect Yuk, he was sent to 'Snow Sect' to learn kung fu. However, Yuk accidentally made the leader's granddaughter, Sau, fall off a cliff. Everyone thought she died and of course, the 'Snow Sect' followers wanted to kill Yuk to avenge her.
On the other side, baby Tin was saved and raised in the forest by the hunter. Later, the hunter dies and Tin was cheated by the leader of 'Heaven Union'. They lied about his origins and forced him to become the leader of 'Heaven Union'. Soon after, the real leader was killed. One day, Ding Dan appeared and mistaken him to be Yuk. Tin falls in love with her.
Soon, Yuk and Tin switched places. Tin was kidnapped by a highly skilled man who had a strange personality and Yuk became the leader of 'Heaven Union'. In 'Heaven Union', Yuk became close to Tin's maid, Siu Giem. However, when he learned that Boi, the skilled doctor of the 'Heaven Union', has planned for Tin to become the leader of 'Heaven union' because they wanted him to die instead of the leader, Yuk started to act wild in the hope that Boi will kick him out. He also thinks about running away.
Actually, every 18 years from 'Hap Hak Island', two men will come and invite the leaders and well-known characters from the mo lam world to follow them to the island. The invitations have been sent 2 times, and the third time is to be very soon. But what made them afraid is that those who left never came back, so people are suspicious and assumed that they are dead. If you refused the invitation, you and your sect will get killed immediately.
Boi, the doctor of the 'Heaven Union', has planned for Tin to become the leader of 'Heaven Union', so that when the two men from 'Hap Hak Island' comes, they will invite Tin and he will disappear. Yuk tries to run away, succeeds, and refuges himself in the 'Poison Sect' of San Ho, a woman that he has met. She falls in love with him. In the 'Poison Sect', Yuk encounters the most well-known rapist, Mo Yung Bak, who turns out to be a very sympathetic guy and will become a close friend. At the same time, he re-encounters a girl named Dong Yee, who he fell in love with when he was still in the 'Snow Sect'.
Dong Yee's family was also well-known in the mo lam world. However, while she was away with her grandma, mother, and other women of the family, 'Ghost' came and killed all the remaining members at home. When, they came back, they found all the bodies. Dong yee's mother committed suicide next to her husband while the grandmother swore vengeance. However, they aren't skilled enough to confront 'Ghost' yet, so have to hide themselves in a valley for more than 10 years. Now, capable of defeating 'Ghost', they exited the valley and kidnap Mo Yung Bak, a good friend of 'Ghost', to threaten him. However, they failed because of Yuk. Later, Dong yee and her family are separated, so she follows Yuk. Yuk loves her very much and this caused San Ho to become jealous. Because of this, San Ho makes Yuk drink a poison that even she herself can't cure. Misunderstandings after misunderstandings occur, and finally Yuk has the pleasure to live with San Ho, Dong Yee, Ding Dan and Siu Giem. At first they argued, but for him, because they all loved Yuk sincerely, they agreed to be good friends.
Dong yee's grandmother re-appears and forces Dong yee to follow her. Yuk immediately ran after them, but loses them. He then encounters two weird guys, one who always smiles and the other who never does. Yuk decided to travel with them, until he learns that they both have great kung fu. Meanwhile, the two guys have some special wine that they can only drink a little per year. Yuk drinks it all and they are astonished that he isn't dead yet. Actually, the wine has cured Yuk's poison and helped him to practice 'Poison Palm'. Yuk is afraid to get killed by those two men, so he proposed to become sworn brothers. The two guys are Sam and Tu (it's very funny because the guy who always smile is played by Bobby Au Yeung, and it's funny how thin he was and all.) Just after, he finds and saves Dong Yee's family with his new 'Poison Palm'. The grandmother dies and asked him to take care of the sect. Because he had became the leader, Dong yee tries to put a distance between them. She will try even more to break their relationship when she learns that 'Ghost', in reality, is her father. She feels bad because she believes her father has killed Tin, Yuk's twin brother. 'Ghost' and Dong Yee's mother were lovers, but one time he left to seek revenge and disappeared. Because Dong yee's mother was pregnant, she had no choice but to marry someone else. Later, 'Ghost' comes back and killed the entire family because he was jealous. Feeling responsible, the mother committed suicide. Dong Yee doesn't know what to do. She finally decides to kill her father, then commit suicide, but she fails. Her father, understanding the reason of her act, commits suicide, but just before, asked Yuk to take care of 'Ghost Sect'.
Finally, Dong Yee tries to put a term to their relationship and ends up lost in a valley. In the valley, she meets a man, Yat, and agrees to marry him, believing that by doing so, she will forget Yuk. At the same time, Yuk's sworn brothers asked him to bring a box to Shaolin : the box contains a precious jewelry that the previous Shaolin leader brought with him to the 'Hap Hak Island'. They all get suspicious and believes Yuk is from the island.. so everyone wants to capture him. Eventually, he ends up being locked up in 'Heaven Union'. He is rescued by his girlfriends and also Yat. Then, Yuk assists Dong yee's wedding with Yat, but the ceremony was never completed. Next day, Dong yee finds out that Yat is in reality a rapist, so runs away with Yuk. All their misunderstandings are cleared.
Dr. Boi has organized Yuk's trial, but he has ran away. To re-capture Yuk, Boi's only solution is to capture Dong Yee, San Ho and Siu Giem, hoping that Yuk will show up to rescue his lovers. In the meantime, Tin has lived with the 'weird man' and learn great kung fu. Tin should have died, because his internal power wasn't enough powerful to learn that great kung fu, but before following the 'weird man', Tin had met an old man who was pursued and murdered. Because Tin tried to rescue the man, he thanked Tin by giving him some little wooden statuettes which is in reality the greatest kung fu of Shaolin. Tin and the 'weird man' start to get along well. During all that time, Tin thinks of Ding Dan and finally, one day, his kung fu is powerful enough and is permitted to return to the mo lam world. He then meets Yuk's parents who believe Tin is Yuk. They soon hear about the trial, so decide to go see. On their way, they meet an old woman and Sau, Yuk's si mui who fell down the cliff. The old woman is her grandmother. One day, Sau's grandparents got in an argument and her grandpa slapped her grandma. So angry, the grandma left the sect and found her own. She rescued Sau and thinks Tin is Yuk, so forces him to follow her. When both finally realized that Tin isn't Yuk, he becomes the grandma's student. Gradually, Sau falls in love with Tin, but knows that in his heart, there's only Ding Dan.
At the meeting/trial, Yuk rescued his 3 lovers by using small sects to help him and also tricks, etc. He also admits that he isn't from 'Hap Hak Island', but no one believes him. Finally, he escaped by the help of his sworn brothers.
Everyone believes Yuk is from 'Hap Hak Island', so they start giving him lot's of gifts : jewelry, money, kung fu scriptures, etc. hoping that they won't receive the 'Hap Hak Island' invitation. At the same time, a man claiming to come from 'Hap Hak Island' has started to kill many persons from different sects. The leaders are invited to go to the island, but it turns out to be a trap set by Yat and someone else. Their goal was to kill as many leaders possible, so later on, they will become the Mo Lam leader easily. Yuk discovers the plans because his sworn brothers help him, but the others don't know and believe Yuk is a dai hup. The ask him to become the leader of mo lam. Also, the man from 'Snow Sect' asked Yuk to come back to the sect, so they could resolve the misunderstanding.
When they arrived at 'Snow Sect', everything has changed. Soon, Yuk and his women were jailed and poisoned. Yuk was jailed next to the leader's cell. The old leader believe he has killed his students, so jailed himself to stop, but it was all lies from his student (Yuk's si fu) who wanted to take over the sect. At the same time, Tin, his si fu and Sau also came to 'Snow Sect'. The grandma wants to challenge her husband. The traitor is killed by a masked man.
Finally, the two twins meet. 'Black and White Swords' soon arrives and they find out that Tin is their son. The twins reunite. Also, at the same occasion, Yuk celebrates his wedding with his four wives, but no guests show up : the leaders have received the REAL 'Hap Hak Island' invitations. Tin, who is the leader of 'Heaven Union', the grandfather, Yuk and San Ho soon received their invitations too. They all left. The day they leave, Tin realized he loved Sau.
It turns out that the owners of the island, two men, invites the leaders of mo lam to help them every 18 years. They have this kung fu scripture hidden in a poem, but no one can understand it. As for all the previous guests, they are still alive, it's just they don't want to leave the island. So everyone studies the poem and tries to understand. Tin is the only one who will learn the entire kung fu, even though he doesn't know how to read. It turns out that the kung fu meaning wasn't hidden in the meaning of the poems, but in the physical traits of the words. Tin manages to learn it all, except the last sentence. 36 years ago, when the owners invited the Shaolin leader, they cut off the last sentence and brought it with them. During the journey back to the island, a storm occurred and their boat sunk. There was a little monk with them, but they all died and lost the last sentence.
At the end, the owners of the island destroyed the poem and urged the mo lam people to run away, their wish has been fulfilled, now they are dying so at the same time, destroyed the island. When everyone comes back to mo lam world, they discover that Dr. Boi has taken over the mo lam world and have become the leader. Soon, they find out that Dr. Boi was really the little monk of 36 years ago. He had learn his kung fu in the last sentence of the poem and he managed to guess all the previous sentences. Tin is no match for him, so his group all have to hide themselves.
To preserve Tin's life who is the only one who can save them, there many sacrifices : Sau's grandparents, some leaders and even his parents. In a battle, Tin is seriously injured and to be saved, someone has to transfer all his/her energy into Tin. The consequence is that this person will get paralyzed. Because Ding Dan feels responsible, she is the one who sacrifices.
But even then, Tin is still no match against Boi. He remembers what the two owners of the island said : if he wants Hap Hak kung fu to attain its maximal capacity, Tin has to find a person who is the opposite of him, but who understand him the most. The best choice is Yuk. At first, they have lots of difficulties, because even though they are brothers, they don't understand each other due to the little time they lived together. After their parents died, Yuk changes drastically and focused on learning kung fu. With the help of the previous Shaolin leader, they are soon able to fight against Boi.
SPOILERS ENDING :
At the end, they challenge Boi and of course win. After their victory, Tin and Sau celebrate their wedding. Yuk plays a trick and dresses as the groom ; however, Sau recognizes him. Afterwards, Yuk and all his wives, plus Mo Yung Bak, leave China for Nepal or India. As for Tin, he stays with Sau and becomes the mo lam leader.
MY OPINION : Seriously, it is a very typical twins story. You can guess easily what is going to happen. If you compare 'Hap Hak Hang' of Jin Yong with 'Twin Heroes' of Gu Long, I'll pick 'Twin Heroes'. Also adding the fact that both adaptations weren't faithful, I still prefer 'Twin Heroes'.
One bad thing is that the series focuses too much on Yuk and not enough on Tin. You see Tin has a really small part, maybe the 3 last episodes. I think they should have tried to put Tin more, developed more on him, since in the novel, he's the main character. As for Yuk, well I have to say, it's way more interesting to have a funny character instead of a rapist. If you have to compare Yuk-Tin to other JY's characters and also, adding Tony Leung acting skills, well Yuk would be a repetition of Wai Siu Bo while Tin would be Cheung Mo Kei.
As for the acting, Tony Leung is again fabulous. Like I said, his characters resemble a lot of what he had already portrayed, so I think it was easy for him. When you look at the series, you sometimes feel that it is two different actors who act, since he did a marvelous job.
As for the actresses, I think TVB could have done better. Among the 5 leading actresses, if you could call them like that, only Sheren Tseng is known. All the others are unknown faces to me and their acting are only acceptable. Nothing exceptional, but average. Sheren Tseng is okay, not more.
PS I do not own this review.
THE LAST BREAKTHROUGH
Episodes: 30 Cast:
Nick Cheung as Wong Po Fun
Raymond Lam as Ken Tsai Bak Heng
Sonija Kwok as Hong Kiu
Leila Tong as Ha Hiu Ching
What it's all about?
There were 2 doctors, Wang Bo Fen (Cheung Ga Fai) and his fiance (Gigi Leung). One was a heart specialist and the other a gynaecologist and obstetrician. Take a wild guess who was who. As usual the guy was the successful and highly accomplished surgeon tinged with just the right amount of arrogance (not too little to make him unprofessional and not too much to put him beyond redemption). His fiance was your nice fluffy girl who believed in the goodness of all and was a doctor in LIFEFORCE (a volunteer organisation of doctors who helped out in poor areas of the world - mainly in Africa). She had always wanted her busy fiance to join her and he wanted to, but he was always too busy to leave Hong Kong (HK). So one starry night after a candlelight dinner, they were walking along the street hand in hand and they: 1. talked about what a wonderful future they would have and their dreams, 2. All the things they wanted to do together and didn't have a chance to yet, 3. Showed how strong their relationship was ... and when all 3 factors are present you know something bad was going to happen (usually to the girl). Without fail, the girlfriend began to play with her ring, dropped it, ring fell onto the road, girl ran onto the road to retrieve it, a speeding car hit her and drove off. Fen ran to her but could not save her...
Eight years later he has become a well known obstetrician and an adamant supporter and participant of LIFE FORCE (LF). He has remained close with his deceased fiance's sister Ching Ching (Leila Tong), who also volunteers in LF. On an LF mission in Africa, they meet Ken (Raymond Lam) who is heart specialist. He becomes influenced by Fen's self-sacrificial attitude as a doctor and falls in love with Ching, who doesn't pay him much attention. Ken's father is the HK hospital's doctor-in-charge Gao Cheng. He also happens to be the long-time boyfriend of Fen's sister. Gao Cheng's wife died in operation many years before. A misunderstanding that Gao Cheng had an affair and indirectly caused the death of his wife created a bitter gap between him and his son, Ken.
Another main character is the nurse, Hang Kew (Sonija Kwok). Her young brother has a rare blood disease which causes her and Wang Bo Fen to meet. Three love storylines develop simultaneously... I'll be brief. Gao Cheng and Fen's sister finally get married, nothing exciting only that the new mother makes peace with Ken and father and son are reconciled.
Fen and Kew's relationship was triggered by their concern for her brother's illness. Kew likes Fen from the start, but Fen has ex-fiance issues at the time. Another doctor, Fen's friend (let's call him "moustache" because I forgot his name) chases in vain after Kew but later leaves when he finds out Fen and Kew like each other. Kew's brother's condition worsens and needs the bone marrow of a man - who *gasp* was the hit and run driver who killed Fen's fiance 8 years ago! Fen's doctorly nature comes over him and he forgives the guy on the condition he donates his marrow to save the brother. Kew's brother makes a full recovery and both he and his mother conveniently get out of the way in full TVB gallantry with a timely migration to Australia or Canada (one of those places). Fen realises he likes Kew for some weird reason and the two get together - literally. Kew suddenly feels insecure about what their relationship is based on and it takes a while before they get together. They marry; Kew is pregnant with a girl. During pregnancy, Kew runs into problems and is forced to choose between the life of the mother or baby. Of course Fen wants to save her and Kew faithfully sticks by her unborn child. In the end they gamble everything and the baby comes out healthily, but Kew falls into a coma. One year later, Kew is still unconscious, Fen and their daughter visit her, the ending is sort of open, but I think she is waking up.
In Ken and Ching's story, Ba Hun chases after Ching in an upfront way but she does not take him seriously at first. Their obstacle appears in the form of a disillusioned rich girl YoYo (what a name) who has some heart problem and demands Ken's undivided attention. She becomes genuine friends with Ching, who gives her frustrated admirer over to her friend. In a frustratingly well-mannered love triangle, nothing is resolved until Ken gets cancer. With a story development straight out of the TVB textbook, he decides not to tell anyone but it gets leaked out (thanks to poor quality doors of hospitals and bedrooms which must all be hollow) and the last ones to find out are once again the family and lover who react with an appropriate mix of anger and concern. Ching flies in a flurry from Africa to HK to find Ken and convinces him to face his fears and continue cancer treatment. Ching declares her love for him, but he rejects her believing it is only out of pity. However he agrees to undergo treatment and surgery. He ... fully recovers! He and Ching start going out, but fear YoYo's reaction and do not tell her. YoYo finds out, but finally gives the pair her blessings.
Analysis
Cheung Ka Fai carried his role satisfactorily but nothing out of the ordinary, maybe because he himself could not fathom how such an intelligent, unbeatable and selfless doctor could exist - I certainly can't. Let's take for example the case with the pregnant woman in labour who is carrying drugs. Fen delivers the baby, lets her flush the huge bag of drugs down the toilet and lies to the cops so that she can get away. What kind of responsible doctor delivers life in one hand and lets drug dealers go on the other? Of course the script writers put enough emotion to try and justify his reasons and each time he lets guilty people off the hook, there is a socially tolerable ending. He fails to draw a line between what is charitable and what is too far, he allows feelings to take over in too many critical moments. I mean he even lets off the reckless driver who killed his fiance in a drag race and sped off - didn't even call the police. If I were Gigi, I'd be turning in my grave after over 8 years of waiting for justice.
Good, innocent, loving Sonija Kwok just doesn't work. I haven't figured it out whether it's actually her looks or her acting or her past evil characters that is forever embedded in my mind. Her character certainly doesn't help the image. Hang Kew is a total loser in my view in every aspect. As a nurse, she would spontaneously and consistently run off from her duties just because her brother complains of a headache and then feels wronged when she is rebuked for irresponsibility by Fen. As a girlfriend, in the beginning she throws herself at Fen - then after they sleep together she suddenly remembers her integrity and rejects Fen's good intentions on the reason she missed out on the feeling of being "chased". Only a stupid person would gamble her chances of a future with someone she really loves and who loves her as much in return in such a dumb way.
Raymond Lam was suited to Ken in being a budding specialist and with the help of the glasses he gave quite a consistent mature impression. Ching Ching was also adequately cast and acted out, being able to be objective at times (telling Ba Hun off in Africa for saving the little girl by himself) and yet still be considerate to everyone (even to those she didn't know). Ching Ching was sweet and Leila Tong herself is quite likeable. As with Raymond, although her acting is traceable to previous roles, I believe she is among the front line potentials of young TVB actresses.
Won't bother much with other characters as no one stands out. I'd just say that they managed to make YoYo really annoying and ugly with that fringe, they should get someone who can speak Cantonese in the "moustache" guy's role and improve editing scenes where the microphone dances on the top of the screen, it really kills the moment.
Trivia Q: Where do you get one of those white shirts that never get dirty even in dusty Africa? A: Life Force
Q: Since when did Fen suddenly like Kew and what could possibly be the reason? A: He had no other friends; the nurses in his surgery were either taken or untouchable.
Q: If you were in desperate need for a bone marrow transplant, there are one in a million chances of you finding the perfect donor and you are in a tvb series, where would you start looking? A: Try the person next to you or perhaps any stranger who stumbles into your path.
Hmmm.. 1. How did Hang Kew's stomach bloom overnight on news of her pregnancy? 2. Kew's mother and brother (she was oh so close to and couldn't be parted from) almost disappeared after his recovery. 3. I can't stand Sonija's moping look, where her bottom lip pushes out in a pout and then she speaks in this - it's not my fault manner (does it every series) 4. Candy Lo's character as the disabled village girl - for half the time she forgot she had a limp and for the other half of the time didn't know which leg had the limp 5. Poor Bosco's role was practically useless 6. Ken looked remarkably well for a person undergoing radiation treatment, as his hair seemed to grow thicker. Same goes for Kew who after lying motionless in a coma without exercise for a year looks exactly the same and with the same hairdo. 7. TVB really like using their new technology in making graphic car- hit-person scenes, I've probably seen it in at least 3 other series. Maybe they could now focus on improving other special effects ... such as the sunrise between Ken and Ching before he leaves in the last episode.
Final Words - for those who made it this far The theme of international volunteer doctors is quite fresh, has a positive message and allows the series to be shot somewhere audiences have never been before. However the novelty was over burdened by stereotypes (most pairs were male doctor with female nurse) and with the story structured on cliche used so many times there must be another name for them. It seems that TVB is always trying with new themes and yet not really making a breakthrough (get it, get it? Hahhaha, sorry) as they've used the same plot development over and over again. At least it had a proper ending unlike many other ill-fated series. Overall it is your average series. If you like happy-go-very-lucky series, watch it, and the Africa shots are quite pretty. And I guess Raymond and Ching were kind of cute.
There were 2 doctors, Wang Bo Fen (Cheung Ga Fai) and his fiance (Gigi Leung). One was a heart specialist and the other a gynaecologist and obstetrician. Take a wild guess who was who. As usual the guy was the successful and highly accomplished surgeon tinged with just the right amount of arrogance (not too little to make him unprofessional and not too much to put him beyond redemption). His fiance was your nice fluffy girl who believed in the goodness of all and was a doctor in LIFEFORCE (a volunteer organisation of doctors who helped out in poor areas of the world - mainly in Africa). She had always wanted her busy fiance to join her and he wanted to, but he was always too busy to leave Hong Kong (HK). So one starry night after a candlelight dinner, they were walking along the street hand in hand and they: 1. talked about what a wonderful future they would have and their dreams, 2. All the things they wanted to do together and didn't have a chance to yet, 3. Showed how strong their relationship was ... and when all 3 factors are present you know something bad was going to happen (usually to the girl). Without fail, the girlfriend began to play with her ring, dropped it, ring fell onto the road, girl ran onto the road to retrieve it, a speeding car hit her and drove off. Fen ran to her but could not save her...
Eight years later he has become a well known obstetrician and an adamant supporter and participant of LIFE FORCE (LF). He has remained close with his deceased fiance's sister Ching Ching (Leila Tong), who also volunteers in LF. On an LF mission in Africa, they meet Ken (Raymond Lam) who is heart specialist. He becomes influenced by Fen's self-sacrificial attitude as a doctor and falls in love with Ching, who doesn't pay him much attention. Ken's father is the HK hospital's doctor-in-charge Gao Cheng. He also happens to be the long-time boyfriend of Fen's sister. Gao Cheng's wife died in operation many years before. A misunderstanding that Gao Cheng had an affair and indirectly caused the death of his wife created a bitter gap between him and his son, Ken.
Another main character is the nurse, Hang Kew (Sonija Kwok). Her young brother has a rare blood disease which causes her and Wang Bo Fen to meet. Three love storylines develop simultaneously... I'll be brief. Gao Cheng and Fen's sister finally get married, nothing exciting only that the new mother makes peace with Ken and father and son are reconciled.
Fen and Kew's relationship was triggered by their concern for her brother's illness. Kew likes Fen from the start, but Fen has ex-fiance issues at the time. Another doctor, Fen's friend (let's call him "moustache" because I forgot his name) chases in vain after Kew but later leaves when he finds out Fen and Kew like each other. Kew's brother's condition worsens and needs the bone marrow of a man - who *gasp* was the hit and run driver who killed Fen's fiance 8 years ago! Fen's doctorly nature comes over him and he forgives the guy on the condition he donates his marrow to save the brother. Kew's brother makes a full recovery and both he and his mother conveniently get out of the way in full TVB gallantry with a timely migration to Australia or Canada (one of those places). Fen realises he likes Kew for some weird reason and the two get together - literally. Kew suddenly feels insecure about what their relationship is based on and it takes a while before they get together. They marry; Kew is pregnant with a girl. During pregnancy, Kew runs into problems and is forced to choose between the life of the mother or baby. Of course Fen wants to save her and Kew faithfully sticks by her unborn child. In the end they gamble everything and the baby comes out healthily, but Kew falls into a coma. One year later, Kew is still unconscious, Fen and their daughter visit her, the ending is sort of open, but I think she is waking up.
In Ken and Ching's story, Ba Hun chases after Ching in an upfront way but she does not take him seriously at first. Their obstacle appears in the form of a disillusioned rich girl YoYo (what a name) who has some heart problem and demands Ken's undivided attention. She becomes genuine friends with Ching, who gives her frustrated admirer over to her friend. In a frustratingly well-mannered love triangle, nothing is resolved until Ken gets cancer. With a story development straight out of the TVB textbook, he decides not to tell anyone but it gets leaked out (thanks to poor quality doors of hospitals and bedrooms which must all be hollow) and the last ones to find out are once again the family and lover who react with an appropriate mix of anger and concern. Ching flies in a flurry from Africa to HK to find Ken and convinces him to face his fears and continue cancer treatment. Ching declares her love for him, but he rejects her believing it is only out of pity. However he agrees to undergo treatment and surgery. He ... fully recovers! He and Ching start going out, but fear YoYo's reaction and do not tell her. YoYo finds out, but finally gives the pair her blessings.
Analysis
Cheung Ka Fai carried his role satisfactorily but nothing out of the ordinary, maybe because he himself could not fathom how such an intelligent, unbeatable and selfless doctor could exist - I certainly can't. Let's take for example the case with the pregnant woman in labour who is carrying drugs. Fen delivers the baby, lets her flush the huge bag of drugs down the toilet and lies to the cops so that she can get away. What kind of responsible doctor delivers life in one hand and lets drug dealers go on the other? Of course the script writers put enough emotion to try and justify his reasons and each time he lets guilty people off the hook, there is a socially tolerable ending. He fails to draw a line between what is charitable and what is too far, he allows feelings to take over in too many critical moments. I mean he even lets off the reckless driver who killed his fiance in a drag race and sped off - didn't even call the police. If I were Gigi, I'd be turning in my grave after over 8 years of waiting for justice.
Good, innocent, loving Sonija Kwok just doesn't work. I haven't figured it out whether it's actually her looks or her acting or her past evil characters that is forever embedded in my mind. Her character certainly doesn't help the image. Hang Kew is a total loser in my view in every aspect. As a nurse, she would spontaneously and consistently run off from her duties just because her brother complains of a headache and then feels wronged when she is rebuked for irresponsibility by Fen. As a girlfriend, in the beginning she throws herself at Fen - then after they sleep together she suddenly remembers her integrity and rejects Fen's good intentions on the reason she missed out on the feeling of being "chased". Only a stupid person would gamble her chances of a future with someone she really loves and who loves her as much in return in such a dumb way.
Raymond Lam was suited to Ken in being a budding specialist and with the help of the glasses he gave quite a consistent mature impression. Ching Ching was also adequately cast and acted out, being able to be objective at times (telling Ba Hun off in Africa for saving the little girl by himself) and yet still be considerate to everyone (even to those she didn't know). Ching Ching was sweet and Leila Tong herself is quite likeable. As with Raymond, although her acting is traceable to previous roles, I believe she is among the front line potentials of young TVB actresses.
Won't bother much with other characters as no one stands out. I'd just say that they managed to make YoYo really annoying and ugly with that fringe, they should get someone who can speak Cantonese in the "moustache" guy's role and improve editing scenes where the microphone dances on the top of the screen, it really kills the moment.
Trivia Q: Where do you get one of those white shirts that never get dirty even in dusty Africa? A: Life Force
Q: Since when did Fen suddenly like Kew and what could possibly be the reason? A: He had no other friends; the nurses in his surgery were either taken or untouchable.
Q: If you were in desperate need for a bone marrow transplant, there are one in a million chances of you finding the perfect donor and you are in a tvb series, where would you start looking? A: Try the person next to you or perhaps any stranger who stumbles into your path.
Hmmm.. 1. How did Hang Kew's stomach bloom overnight on news of her pregnancy? 2. Kew's mother and brother (she was oh so close to and couldn't be parted from) almost disappeared after his recovery. 3. I can't stand Sonija's moping look, where her bottom lip pushes out in a pout and then she speaks in this - it's not my fault manner (does it every series) 4. Candy Lo's character as the disabled village girl - for half the time she forgot she had a limp and for the other half of the time didn't know which leg had the limp 5. Poor Bosco's role was practically useless 6. Ken looked remarkably well for a person undergoing radiation treatment, as his hair seemed to grow thicker. Same goes for Kew who after lying motionless in a coma without exercise for a year looks exactly the same and with the same hairdo. 7. TVB really like using their new technology in making graphic car- hit-person scenes, I've probably seen it in at least 3 other series. Maybe they could now focus on improving other special effects ... such as the sunrise between Ken and Ching before he leaves in the last episode.
Final Words - for those who made it this far The theme of international volunteer doctors is quite fresh, has a positive message and allows the series to be shot somewhere audiences have never been before. However the novelty was over burdened by stereotypes (most pairs were male doctor with female nurse) and with the story structured on cliche used so many times there must be another name for them. It seems that TVB is always trying with new themes and yet not really making a breakthrough (get it, get it? Hahhaha, sorry) as they've used the same plot development over and over again. At least it had a proper ending unlike many other ill-fated series. Overall it is your average series. If you like happy-go-very-lucky series, watch it, and the Africa shots are quite pretty. And I guess Raymond and Ching were kind of cute.
PS I do not own this review.
BEST BET
Episodes: 20
Cast: Michael Tse Linda Chung Wayne Lai Anne Heung Yvonne Lam Chan Hoi Yee
Plot: Michael is the luckiest person in town. He could gamble endlessly and still not lose. He meets Linda, the love of his life, on a fateful day. Unfortunately, she hates gamblers because her family fell apart when her father wouldn't give up gambling. Ironically, her father's gambling is the reason that brought them into a marriage.
Wayne is the owner of a local casino. He and Michael used to be best friends but turned into enemies when Wayne tricked Michael into losing when they were younger. The two constantly compete over everything they can find.
Anne is Michael's distant cousin who had came to town in hope of marrying a rich man (Michael). However, the person that she got to fall for her was Wayne. The two actually teamed up to take Michael's money.
Performances: [Michael Tse as Yee] He started off as the spoiled gambling addict, then into a Wayne's goon, and finally into a loving husband. I thought his acting was pretty good throughout the changes. Before watching the last episodes I actually thought he had became so addicted to gambling that he was willing to work for Wayne. 8/10
[Linda Chung as Lai-Ying “Sure Win”] I have never really like her acting. I've noticed that all of her series are good series but her performance was not so good. She holds only two expressions throughout the entire series. Her happy face and her “dramatic” face which is just her biting her lips slightly and making her eyes look like she's mad. 5/10
[Wayne Lai as Sing] I think he is supposed to be the villain in here. He was actually more funny than evil. His obsession with feet was hilarious! 9/10
[Anne Heung as Mary] This is the first comedic performance I saw from her. I think she did a good job being the money loving scammer Mary. Some of her scenes with Wayne were funny. 7/10
Chemistry: [Michael and Linda] She showed no chemistry with Michael even though she is supposed to be his loving wife. He was barely able to show some sparks with her. 6/10
[Wayne and Anne] They were funny to watch. At the end when he admitted that he never stopped liking her, it was a cute scene for them. 8/10
[Chan Hoi Yee and the servant] Sorry I do not know his real name. I thought they make a good pair. Instead of feeling ashamed that she had amnesia, he felt ashamed because he was a servant. 7/10
PS I do not own this review.
FORENSIC HEROES
Episodes: 25 Cast:
Bobby Au-Yeung - Tim Sir Yoyo Mung - Madam Leung Siu Yau Frankie Lam - Doctor Koo/Sam Linda Chung - Ding Ding Florence Kwok - Yvonne Fred Cheng - Kong Jai Jay Lau - Charlie Natalie Tong - Mon
Synopsis Tim Sir (Au-Yeung) and the police force are in charge of solving murder cases. Siu Yau (Yoyo Mung) is the head of her department. Sam (Frankie Lam) is a doctor whose responsibility is to find out the victims' causes of death and other health-related jobs. Ding Ding (Linda Chung) is an investigator who helps to solve cases.
In between these cases, the characters of this story have a lot of personal issues to deal with. Yvonne (Florence Kwok) finds that her husband has been cheating on her because she does not want to have children. Kong Jai (Fred Cheng) develops a crush on Ding Ding, but soon finds out that she likes Sam. Tim Sir's wife, Charlie (Jay Lau) dies after being accidentally poisoned by a nurse. Although Tim says he is not ready for another serious relationship, he develops feelings for Siu Yau and vice versa.
Sam meets a young girl named Mon (Natalie Tong), who has been taking many wrong paths in her life and he is helping her to get her life back on track. Sam writes books about crime-solving and murder, which Mon enjoys very much. What Sam does not know is that Mon has strong feelings for him. Mon is jealous of Ding Ding because Sam is dating her. But one particular day, the police force is called to a very strange case. The murder victims have been killed in the same way the victims were in Sam's books! When the force begins to suspect Mon - they find her dead. Who is this strange serial killer and why are they killing people following Sam's books?
Review
Bobby Au-Yeung as Tim Sir I have always liked Bobby in whatever series he had a role in. My dad is a big fan of his, so I have watched a lot of movies in which he has starred. Before "Forensic Heroes", I found Bobby was always playing comedy roles, at least - that's what I remember. I felt that Bobby was able to portray a sophisticated character - yet he had a kind heart and knew when he was able to relax and be himself. I found that Bobby did a very good job in "Forensic Heroes".
Yoyo Mung as Madam Leung Siu Yau I don't really like Yoyo. She is pretty and she did a pretty good job in this series, but she never really draws me in. Whenever I see her on the screen, I don't feel anything. I found that her character got stronger towards the end of the series. However, I do hope to see more of her and I hope that her acting improves.
Frankie Lam as Doctor Koo/Sam Frankie sings the theme song for this series, which isn't too bad. I enjoy watching Frankie on the television screen as he helps different people. I think he and Linda Chung look completely adorable together. I don't have much to say about him, except: good job!
Linda Chung as Ding Ding At first, I thought of her as a minor character. When she started developing feelings for Sam instead of Kong Jai, I thought that Sam would reject her and she would end up with Kong. But I was surprised when Sam admitted that he was in love with Ding Ding and he was going to treat her right. However, as I got to know her character I liked her a lot. I thought she was really cute and she portrayed her character well. I really like Linda Chung and I hope to see more of her in the future.
Fred Cheng, Florence Kwok, Natalie Tong, and Jay Lau as Kong Jai, Yvonne, Mon, and Charlie Kong Jai is Madam Leung's younger brother. He is a hard worker and likes Ding Ding. But when he realizes that she is in love with Sam, he backs off - he feels that there are only two people in the world who he should lose to: Sam and Tim Sir.
Florence Kwok plays the role of Yvonne, another investigator who helps solve crimes. She takes clues from the crime scene for examination at the crime lab. Although she is not a very important character, you see a lot of her.
Mon is played by Natalie Tong. Personally, I think Natalie Tong is very fit for this role. Mon is a very naive and immature young girl. She doesn't understand that although Sam is dating Ding Ding, he cares about her very much. She continues to be jealous of Ding, and even pushes her down the stairs!
Jay Lau is seen during the beginning of the series and in some flashback scenes in the middle and end. She plays the role of Charlie - Tim Sir's wife. However, due to an accident, she is sent to the hospital. A nurse taking care of her unknowingly gives her medicine that is considered poisonous to certain patients. When Charlie dies, Tim is suspected for her death but soon the truth is found out. Although Charlie is deceased by the middle of the series - she plays an important role of Tims' decisions - especially regarding Madam Leung.
Last Words I enjoyed this series very much! Not only was it filled with mystery, it kept you at the edge of your seat the whole entire way. I am glad that they didn't include too much romance because that would ruin the whole mood of the story. The actors and actresses did a very good job and I am proud to say that I give this series 5 out of 5 stars. If you are a big fan of Bobby's like my father, or you enjoy mysterious and suspense-filled crimes - rent or buy this series and enjoy!
Synopsis Tim Sir (Au-Yeung) and the police force are in charge of solving murder cases. Siu Yau (Yoyo Mung) is the head of her department. Sam (Frankie Lam) is a doctor whose responsibility is to find out the victims' causes of death and other health-related jobs. Ding Ding (Linda Chung) is an investigator who helps to solve cases.
In between these cases, the characters of this story have a lot of personal issues to deal with. Yvonne (Florence Kwok) finds that her husband has been cheating on her because she does not want to have children. Kong Jai (Fred Cheng) develops a crush on Ding Ding, but soon finds out that she likes Sam. Tim Sir's wife, Charlie (Jay Lau) dies after being accidentally poisoned by a nurse. Although Tim says he is not ready for another serious relationship, he develops feelings for Siu Yau and vice versa.
Sam meets a young girl named Mon (Natalie Tong), who has been taking many wrong paths in her life and he is helping her to get her life back on track. Sam writes books about crime-solving and murder, which Mon enjoys very much. What Sam does not know is that Mon has strong feelings for him. Mon is jealous of Ding Ding because Sam is dating her. But one particular day, the police force is called to a very strange case. The murder victims have been killed in the same way the victims were in Sam's books! When the force begins to suspect Mon - they find her dead. Who is this strange serial killer and why are they killing people following Sam's books?
Review
Bobby Au-Yeung as Tim Sir I have always liked Bobby in whatever series he had a role in. My dad is a big fan of his, so I have watched a lot of movies in which he has starred. Before "Forensic Heroes", I found Bobby was always playing comedy roles, at least - that's what I remember. I felt that Bobby was able to portray a sophisticated character - yet he had a kind heart and knew when he was able to relax and be himself. I found that Bobby did a very good job in "Forensic Heroes".
Yoyo Mung as Madam Leung Siu Yau I don't really like Yoyo. She is pretty and she did a pretty good job in this series, but she never really draws me in. Whenever I see her on the screen, I don't feel anything. I found that her character got stronger towards the end of the series. However, I do hope to see more of her and I hope that her acting improves.
Frankie Lam as Doctor Koo/Sam Frankie sings the theme song for this series, which isn't too bad. I enjoy watching Frankie on the television screen as he helps different people. I think he and Linda Chung look completely adorable together. I don't have much to say about him, except: good job!
Linda Chung as Ding Ding At first, I thought of her as a minor character. When she started developing feelings for Sam instead of Kong Jai, I thought that Sam would reject her and she would end up with Kong. But I was surprised when Sam admitted that he was in love with Ding Ding and he was going to treat her right. However, as I got to know her character I liked her a lot. I thought she was really cute and she portrayed her character well. I really like Linda Chung and I hope to see more of her in the future.
Fred Cheng, Florence Kwok, Natalie Tong, and Jay Lau as Kong Jai, Yvonne, Mon, and Charlie Kong Jai is Madam Leung's younger brother. He is a hard worker and likes Ding Ding. But when he realizes that she is in love with Sam, he backs off - he feels that there are only two people in the world who he should lose to: Sam and Tim Sir.
Florence Kwok plays the role of Yvonne, another investigator who helps solve crimes. She takes clues from the crime scene for examination at the crime lab. Although she is not a very important character, you see a lot of her.
Mon is played by Natalie Tong. Personally, I think Natalie Tong is very fit for this role. Mon is a very naive and immature young girl. She doesn't understand that although Sam is dating Ding Ding, he cares about her very much. She continues to be jealous of Ding, and even pushes her down the stairs!
Jay Lau is seen during the beginning of the series and in some flashback scenes in the middle and end. She plays the role of Charlie - Tim Sir's wife. However, due to an accident, she is sent to the hospital. A nurse taking care of her unknowingly gives her medicine that is considered poisonous to certain patients. When Charlie dies, Tim is suspected for her death but soon the truth is found out. Although Charlie is deceased by the middle of the series - she plays an important role of Tims' decisions - especially regarding Madam Leung.
Last Words I enjoyed this series very much! Not only was it filled with mystery, it kept you at the edge of your seat the whole entire way. I am glad that they didn't include too much romance because that would ruin the whole mood of the story. The actors and actresses did a very good job and I am proud to say that I give this series 5 out of 5 stars. If you are a big fan of Bobby's like my father, or you enjoy mysterious and suspense-filled crimes - rent or buy this series and enjoy!
PS I do not own this review.
REVOLVING DOOR OF VENGEANCE
Episodes: 30 Cast:
Joe Ma: Martin Ko Fung, the CEO of Royal Court Hotel. Kenix Kwok: Becky Koo Bik Kay, head of communications at Royal. Ron Ng: Wong Kai Kit, Wong Yuk Ting's third son Ella Koon: Li Hoi Sum, Kit's good friend Derek Kwok: Martin's assistant and good friend, an intelligent lawyer. John Chiang: Cheng Wing Fat, the younger brother of Ting's first wife and the uncle of Ji and Yip. Ellesmere Choi: Wong Kai Ji, Wong Yuk Ting's oldest son. Mok Kar Kiu: Wong Kai Yip, Wong Yuk Ting's second son. Winnie Yeung: Kai Ji's wife. Mary Hon: Kit's mother and Yuk Ting's second wife. Elaine Yiu: Fat's daughter. Lo Hoi Pang: Ko San/Tsang Dai Hoi
Plot Overview (Spoilers)
Lau Dan is the founder of the Royal Court Hotel, a five star hotel in Hong Kong. Business isn't well, and on top of it all, his three sons are constantly fighting with each other. Ron Ng is actually the son of his second wife. When Lau Dan's first wife, the mother of Ellesmere and Kar Kiu, was sick, he hired a nurse, Mary Hon, to take care of her. They had an affair and she became pregnant with Ron, but she did not move into the Wong household until the first wife passed away. The two older sons regard Mary Hon as the third person in their parents' relationship, and therefore never liked Ron and call him a "Yee Lai Jai" (it's an insulting term).
Ron is basically a very angry, irrational young man. He does not enjoy a good relationship with his family, with the exception of his mother, whom he cares about and loves.
One night, Lau Dan died in a car accident. Enter Joe Ma. He somehow mysteriously had 40% of Royal Court Hotel's (RCH) shares. He later tricks Mary Hon into giving him her 5% of RCH's shares that Lau Dan left her. This angers Ron Ng and he cooperates with his two older brothers and swears to get RCH's shares back. In the process, the three brothers form a close bond.
John Chiang is Lau Dan's first wife's brother. Because he had tried to use RCH for personal gain before, Lau Dan does not trust him in the Board of Directors. Chiang places Kenix to spy on Joe. Kenix does what he asks because he helped her in the past.
Ella is Ron's good friend who is always there for him.
Comments:
I've heard that this series is similar to "Golden Faith" (GF). I guess some aspects of it is similar, because they are both about big businesses, angry young men learning to grow up, an ultimate villain, etc. I would also say that both of these series are unrealistic, but I can accept that, since television can be used as an escape from our ordinary, mundane life. Despite this, however, I find that I prefer "Revolving Doors" to GF. Maybe the cast of GF is stronger, but I find "Revolving Doors" very enjoyable. The pace of the series is great, not too fast so that the viewer won't understand anything, and not too slow to the point where it is drags. I found some parts of GF unnecessarily slow. Okay, so ends my Golden Faith-Revolving Doors comparison. I'll move on to the series itself.
"Revolving Doors" is a high budget series. It is obvious from episode one - you can tell from the beautiful tailored suits, the elegant hotel set (the pool is so nice!), the makeup of the artists. Its cast includes some of TVB's most heavily promoted (i.e. Ron Ng, Joe Ma) and valued (Kenix Kwok).
This series was highly enjoyable, despite some faults. If this storyline had only been about the schemes of the rich people world, it would have been a bore. There are subplots which tie very nicely into the main story and which are enjoyable to watch. Some of them are:
-Ron and Ella's relationship. Ron doesn't think sometimes. I hated the way he trusted Elaine Yiu over Ella and actually slept with her. Why does he always sleep with women he doesn't like? (in reference to "Twins Of Brothers") Elaine Yiu really made me mad. She is so darn evil. I think Ella should have chosen Raymond Cho.
-The few scenes where the audience was able to tell that Kenix really loved and cared about her son. Joe's interaction with her son and his love for Kenix was very sweet also.
-Ron's family, the relationship between him and his mother, him and his father, and him and his two brothers.
-We, as the audience, got to see Kenix change from following John Chiang's orders to get close to Joe, to falling in love with him for real. Interesting.
-Joe and Lo Hoi Pang's father and son relationship.
-The strength of Ella's brother and Ron's friendship.
-Derek Kwok and Elaine Yiu's relationship. Derek is so sweet to her.
-Joe and Derek's friendship. I love the way they work together and their chemistry is amazing. Every time they laugh over some successful scheme of Joe's, I would laugh along with them!
Cast performances:
Joe Ma: I don't understand why people don't like Joe Ma. It's not like he is an overly-promoted actor whom TVB conjured out of thin air (ahem Ron Ng). I remember this guy has been playing minor roles for a long time. The earliest role I remember him having is in "Detective Investigative Files 4" - he had an affair with Maggie Siu. He came a long way. I think he played Ko Fung well. He wasn't spectacular, but he was acceptable. I did not find myself shuddering in his presence. There are times when I would feel a sense of authority and power from his character, like in that scene when he pretended to shoot Ellesmere and Kar Kiu. His height also adds to his authority. Joe Ma's performance wasn't breakthrough, but it was decent and solid.
Kenix Kwok: In interviews, she claimed that her character was fresh because she was a (subtle) villain. I honestly didn't find her performance that challenging. All she basically had to do was act like a good person most of the time, something that she usually does in her other movies, and act out a few scenes showing her "bad" side. In the end, she stopped being the bad person and loved Joe for real. What I'm saying is, her character wasn't particularly hard to portray. I'm not saying Kenix didn't do well. She did a great job! I just thought the hype over her character's "badness" was a bit ... hyped and overrated.
John Chiang: One word: spectacular. His conniving expressions are so natural, his smile is so charming and annoying. I would expect nothing less from him.
Ron Ng: This guy improved heaps! His acting is still slightly wooden at times, but a huge, huge improvement over his other recent series. His chemistry with Ella was great. His anger was believable and his acting was acceptable. Hopefully he'll continue to improve.
Ella Koon: Not bad, for her first movie. Her character, Hoi Sum, is sure to make you fall in love with her. She is straightforward, kind, caring, and naive.
Derek Kwok: I've always admired his talents as an actor. He is one of the most versatile actors TVB has, and he is way under-promoted. I'm glad TVB decided to give him a role as a good guy, for once. He pulled it off very nicely. He did a great job as the smart and intelligent lawyer buddy of Joe Ma.
Elaine Yiu: Oh my goodness. Even with her horrible acting, her character made me so angry. I mean, if you can't get the guy, let go of the guy! This girl cannot cry to save her life.
Final words:
Comment about the ending (spoilers!) - I personally thought the ending was a little too perfect. It is supposed to be a mainly dramatic series, and I don't like the idea that bad guys gets what he deserves, and good guys live happily ever after.
I wonder how Joe and Kenix could end up together. Both of them lied and used each other extensively in this series; is there enough love between them to overcome this mistrust? If their relationship doesn't have a firm foundation of trust, it makes me wonder if they'll really live happily ever after. But again, this is TV world, not reality, so that's okay.
About the Ron and Ella pairing: I think Ella deserves someone better, someone who actually cherishes and trusts her. Raymond Cho is someone whom she should love, but alas, love is often nonsensical. I thought the part when he sang and proposed to her was so sweet - he also has a great voice! Ron didn't trust her when she said she didn't talk about Chloe behind her back, Ron slept with Chloe, he couldn't even deal with his own conflicting feelings about the two women who loved him, ... get the point? In short, Ron's character is a really indecisive, emotionally confused character. Ella deserves better. I wish she had ended up with Raymond instead of Ron, whom caused her nothing but pain. But love doesn't care.
This series is definitely one of the better series TVB produced. If you like variety, "Revolving Doors of Vengeance" has it all: the typical tycoon drama with a hint of love, fairness, and comedy.
PS I do not own this review.Plot Overview (Spoilers)
Lau Dan is the founder of the Royal Court Hotel, a five star hotel in Hong Kong. Business isn't well, and on top of it all, his three sons are constantly fighting with each other. Ron Ng is actually the son of his second wife. When Lau Dan's first wife, the mother of Ellesmere and Kar Kiu, was sick, he hired a nurse, Mary Hon, to take care of her. They had an affair and she became pregnant with Ron, but she did not move into the Wong household until the first wife passed away. The two older sons regard Mary Hon as the third person in their parents' relationship, and therefore never liked Ron and call him a "Yee Lai Jai" (it's an insulting term).
Ron is basically a very angry, irrational young man. He does not enjoy a good relationship with his family, with the exception of his mother, whom he cares about and loves.
One night, Lau Dan died in a car accident. Enter Joe Ma. He somehow mysteriously had 40% of Royal Court Hotel's (RCH) shares. He later tricks Mary Hon into giving him her 5% of RCH's shares that Lau Dan left her. This angers Ron Ng and he cooperates with his two older brothers and swears to get RCH's shares back. In the process, the three brothers form a close bond.
John Chiang is Lau Dan's first wife's brother. Because he had tried to use RCH for personal gain before, Lau Dan does not trust him in the Board of Directors. Chiang places Kenix to spy on Joe. Kenix does what he asks because he helped her in the past.
Ella is Ron's good friend who is always there for him.
Comments:
I've heard that this series is similar to "Golden Faith" (GF). I guess some aspects of it is similar, because they are both about big businesses, angry young men learning to grow up, an ultimate villain, etc. I would also say that both of these series are unrealistic, but I can accept that, since television can be used as an escape from our ordinary, mundane life. Despite this, however, I find that I prefer "Revolving Doors" to GF. Maybe the cast of GF is stronger, but I find "Revolving Doors" very enjoyable. The pace of the series is great, not too fast so that the viewer won't understand anything, and not too slow to the point where it is drags. I found some parts of GF unnecessarily slow. Okay, so ends my Golden Faith-Revolving Doors comparison. I'll move on to the series itself.
"Revolving Doors" is a high budget series. It is obvious from episode one - you can tell from the beautiful tailored suits, the elegant hotel set (the pool is so nice!), the makeup of the artists. Its cast includes some of TVB's most heavily promoted (i.e. Ron Ng, Joe Ma) and valued (Kenix Kwok).
This series was highly enjoyable, despite some faults. If this storyline had only been about the schemes of the rich people world, it would have been a bore. There are subplots which tie very nicely into the main story and which are enjoyable to watch. Some of them are:
-Ron and Ella's relationship. Ron doesn't think sometimes. I hated the way he trusted Elaine Yiu over Ella and actually slept with her. Why does he always sleep with women he doesn't like? (in reference to "Twins Of Brothers") Elaine Yiu really made me mad. She is so darn evil. I think Ella should have chosen Raymond Cho.
-The few scenes where the audience was able to tell that Kenix really loved and cared about her son. Joe's interaction with her son and his love for Kenix was very sweet also.
-Ron's family, the relationship between him and his mother, him and his father, and him and his two brothers.
-We, as the audience, got to see Kenix change from following John Chiang's orders to get close to Joe, to falling in love with him for real. Interesting.
-Joe and Lo Hoi Pang's father and son relationship.
-The strength of Ella's brother and Ron's friendship.
-Derek Kwok and Elaine Yiu's relationship. Derek is so sweet to her.
-Joe and Derek's friendship. I love the way they work together and their chemistry is amazing. Every time they laugh over some successful scheme of Joe's, I would laugh along with them!
Cast performances:
Joe Ma: I don't understand why people don't like Joe Ma. It's not like he is an overly-promoted actor whom TVB conjured out of thin air (ahem Ron Ng). I remember this guy has been playing minor roles for a long time. The earliest role I remember him having is in "Detective Investigative Files 4" - he had an affair with Maggie Siu. He came a long way. I think he played Ko Fung well. He wasn't spectacular, but he was acceptable. I did not find myself shuddering in his presence. There are times when I would feel a sense of authority and power from his character, like in that scene when he pretended to shoot Ellesmere and Kar Kiu. His height also adds to his authority. Joe Ma's performance wasn't breakthrough, but it was decent and solid.
Kenix Kwok: In interviews, she claimed that her character was fresh because she was a (subtle) villain. I honestly didn't find her performance that challenging. All she basically had to do was act like a good person most of the time, something that she usually does in her other movies, and act out a few scenes showing her "bad" side. In the end, she stopped being the bad person and loved Joe for real. What I'm saying is, her character wasn't particularly hard to portray. I'm not saying Kenix didn't do well. She did a great job! I just thought the hype over her character's "badness" was a bit ... hyped and overrated.
John Chiang: One word: spectacular. His conniving expressions are so natural, his smile is so charming and annoying. I would expect nothing less from him.
Ron Ng: This guy improved heaps! His acting is still slightly wooden at times, but a huge, huge improvement over his other recent series. His chemistry with Ella was great. His anger was believable and his acting was acceptable. Hopefully he'll continue to improve.
Ella Koon: Not bad, for her first movie. Her character, Hoi Sum, is sure to make you fall in love with her. She is straightforward, kind, caring, and naive.
Derek Kwok: I've always admired his talents as an actor. He is one of the most versatile actors TVB has, and he is way under-promoted. I'm glad TVB decided to give him a role as a good guy, for once. He pulled it off very nicely. He did a great job as the smart and intelligent lawyer buddy of Joe Ma.
Elaine Yiu: Oh my goodness. Even with her horrible acting, her character made me so angry. I mean, if you can't get the guy, let go of the guy! This girl cannot cry to save her life.
Final words:
Comment about the ending (spoilers!) - I personally thought the ending was a little too perfect. It is supposed to be a mainly dramatic series, and I don't like the idea that bad guys gets what he deserves, and good guys live happily ever after.
I wonder how Joe and Kenix could end up together. Both of them lied and used each other extensively in this series; is there enough love between them to overcome this mistrust? If their relationship doesn't have a firm foundation of trust, it makes me wonder if they'll really live happily ever after. But again, this is TV world, not reality, so that's okay.
About the Ron and Ella pairing: I think Ella deserves someone better, someone who actually cherishes and trusts her. Raymond Cho is someone whom she should love, but alas, love is often nonsensical. I thought the part when he sang and proposed to her was so sweet - he also has a great voice! Ron didn't trust her when she said she didn't talk about Chloe behind her back, Ron slept with Chloe, he couldn't even deal with his own conflicting feelings about the two women who loved him, ... get the point? In short, Ron's character is a really indecisive, emotionally confused character. Ella deserves better. I wish she had ended up with Raymond instead of Ron, whom caused her nothing but pain. But love doesn't care.
This series is definitely one of the better series TVB produced. If you like variety, "Revolving Doors of Vengeance" has it all: the typical tycoon drama with a hint of love, fairness, and comedy.
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