"Story ... About the legendary Kam Sai Wai, who truthfully till now I haven’t heard of..."
SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!
Released
2003
Cast
Raymond Lam
MichelleYip
Rain Lee
Eddie Cheung
Fiona Yuen
Mimi Lo
Jimmy Au
Story
About the legendary Kam Sai Wai, who truthfully till now I haven’t heard of. The story focuses on his journey in “mo lam” and of course his struggle with the two women in his life, Rain and Michelle, (forgot their names).
Plot
So Kam Sai Wai is this jungle boy who lived with his xi fu where there’s no civilization. His master died leaving him just alone and instructed him to go where there is land and find Lui Sai Leung. During his journey he befriends Michelle and a monk, who was very amusing but again forgot his name.
Like a martial arts series, this contains twists turns, obstacles that Kam Sai Wai, our Raymond has to face. And of course the most difficult of them all, choosing between two lovely chicas Michelle and Rain. Oh, before I forget, Michelle has a special identity, an assassin instructed to cause chaos in the mo lam world. Rain on the other hand is the innocent little girl who is Lui Sai Leung’s disciple but for some reason in here, just always cries and in need of rescue.
I’ll stop right here because a) I don’t want to ruin too much if you haven’t seen it, and b) well, I kind of forgot most of the sub plot.
Raymond Lam as Kam Sai Wai
I remembered enjoying him a lot in here. Not only that, but he adds a charm to it. He didn’t fight that much because now a days, computer does most of the fighting for the actors so we basically see him fly around a lot everywhere. For example, by just raising one hand, a million soldiers all fall to their feet, impossible to me, but I guess cool to the producers. Ok, back to acting. Raymond, to me is a great actor for not being in the business too long. His character might be a little boring but sometimes, it’s just cute to watch him being a dupe I guess. I do have to complain that the script didn’t tell me exactly who he really liked. I mean, in the beginning I thought it was Rain because he was just too nice to her and terrible to Michelle. But in the end, of course it was all different. So maybe he did like her but it just wasn’t shown well. Ok, now on grooming tips, Raymond, the hair really needs to go. Plus isn’t it in the Qing Dynasty where every dude’s hair is supposedly in braids? Wouldn’t he be stopped every block if his hair is so untamed like that?
Michelle as- I remember! Shing Nam
She I had to say was the only female character I liked! Which is so unusual for me to like Michelle in anything. First, I don’t like Michelle as an actress because I seriously think all she does is have just one face and then say her lines. But I do give her credit when there’s a scene which calls for her to be super mad; she’s awesome in those scenes. Luckily in here, her character’s personality saved her and I truly enjoyed her. Although, at times I just felt like screaming, “make a facial expression, anything!” I have to say, her acting has improved, still has some room for more, but on a whole she’s not a terrible actress anymore. With Raymond, they were a cute couple possibly because they had all that chemistry when working on Eternal Happiness. Truthfully, I like them better in here than the stubborn, sometimes unreasonable Mang Lai Kuan, and the dense headed Wong Fu Siu Wah. Anyways, good job for Michelle for making me like her.
Rain as Chi Wah
All the names are slowly coming back to me!
Anyways, this chic cannot act! I thought Michelle was bad, she was worse than Michelle! I do like her singing though so I’ll give her a break. Just practice some more and come back. As Chi Wah though, the character really annoyed me. Every minute I knew she was going to do something to irk me. Chemistry with Raymond was well, ok. They were rumored to be going out so they couldn’t be that bad on screen right? Maybe because I wasn’t really paying attention to the two of them, but I didn’t see any sparks there. Her character to me was just too weak. It drove me nuts when Fiona did something to her and she wouldn’t fight back or even talk back to her. Everything Raymond had to do for her.
Fiona Yuen
Wow she was the b word in here. I just couldn’t stand her. However, she was very pretty and I will always think Fiona is cute. Her chemistry with Hui Siu Hung was less than zero. Couldn’t stomach them.
Mimi Lo's Lee Sum Mui and Chan Kwok Bong's Kong Nam
Thank goodness for these two! They were making me laugh as the series was going on. They fit together also as a good couple. Mimi is actually quite pretty, she also is a good actress and is very natural in all her scenes. However, for some reason I couldn’t stand her in Treasure Raiders, but I’ll be looking forward to her upcoming series. Chan Kwok Bong, this guy just makes me laugh when he’s standing there. I am so grateful for him for making this series as enjoyable as it is because of him. However, he’s character’s attitude towards Michelle could use some adjustment.
Eddie Cheung
Ah Eddie! He really got cheated of a better role. He appeared so little that I just really feel unfair for him. Well, he’s definitely retiring now and that’s it with him and TVB. He was Mimi’s overprotective daddy in here and what can I say, it’s just Eddie giving his veteran performance. We’ll miss you Eddie!
Jimmy Au
Another veteran guy I that I love. You know in the 80’s I remembered him being so cute! Well, in here he’s the beggar’s king but because of the evil Tsang Wai Kin he lost his life and eventually handed the title to our very long haired Raymond. Good performance by Jimmy but again being underrated.
What’s good about it?
Well, it’s been a super long time since I’ve seen something of martial arts or about the “mo lam” that captured my attention. Although, there were some dragged parts, the series as a whole was quite entertaining and brings back some of the longing, for me, to see a great martial arts series. So give it a chance, and hopefully, TVB would in the future remake something that has lots of sword fights, twists and turns, etc about the kung fu and martial arts, because I’m ready for something really good.
The ending. Not a typical happy one so it was refreshing. Both Raymond and Michelle did really well in it, especially Michelle. She could cry and I didn’t think it was fake! Raymond, at first was nonchalant which was upsetting to me and then he figured out what was up and finally spilled his heart out. Well, not really, but his expressions just told us that yeah…he really did care for Michelle and he’s genuinely sad that she’s gone. As for Rain, I think I let out a chuckle when Raymond left her standing by the river. I know, I’m horrible but hey, she annoyed me.
What’s not so good about it?
It was kind of short so not a lot of stuff happened for me to include it as an adequate kung fu series like my favorite Legend of the Condor Heroes where like a million things happened to the main characters. I know, who asks for a long series since I’m so against Virtues of Harmony which is like a 1198 episodes long. But it doesn’t have to be that long, just long enough so things develop and story to spice up!
I wouldn’t say dragged storyline but there’s isn’t any hype about it either. Nothing too twisty or turny that I was like…OH MY GOD! How did they pull that off? But all in all it wasn’t boring either.
Should you rent it or not?
Yes…it’s something to watch because it is entertaining. It’s not a masterpiece but it’s not a piece of trash either. Watch for Raymond if you’re his fan and definitely for Michelle’s improvement and likable character.
Rating
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