Not Just A Pretty Face [TVB]

Written by Jules

"...it's refreshing to see Joey in a series again and another excuse to see Roger at his best..."

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

Released In

2003



Cast

Roger Kwok- Leonardo (Nardo)

Joey Yung- Chut Chut (Ah Peg)

Kevin Cheng- Wilson

Margaret Chung- Betty

Tiffany Lam- Tramy

Victoria Jolly- Michelle

Lo Hoi Pang- Nardo's daddy

Rain Lau- Nardo's sister

Belinda Hamnett-

Nancy Wu- Ah Peg's sister

Jack Wu- Nardo's little bro

Johnson Lee- Dog Dog

Natalie Wong- Iris

Liu Kai Chi

Rebecca Chan



Plot

(Sorry for the choppiness in the names, I watched this many months ago so some of the names I can't remember).



Anyways, story wise, about this very unattractive girl, Joey Yung's Ah Peg, who became a thing of beauty after plastic surgery and so forth but with one mission, to find a wife for Roger's, egotistic, condescending, insensitive, greedy, I think you get the picture, "Jerk" character in 3 months.



Story

Ah Peg is not only overweight but her nose is a bit big and her teeth a little bucked. However, she feels that being a good person that works hard she'll overcome her appearances and have a successful life. So she works hard at her PR job even though it's a place for the gorgeous girls to work. One day, a new boss comes into town in the form of the nasty Leonardo, or Nardo who has some history with Peg. Peg was in the streets one day and found Nardo passed out so she came and did CPR on him, this triggers mass media on their story making Nardo already embarrassed on the first day of job.



I guess because Ah Peg is ugly and that she had to save his life that way, he has this grudge against her and determined to get her fired. Of course it was a success and now "fei Peg" is jobless. On top of that, she found out her boyfriend (cameo appearance by "a suffering from bad haircut" Ellesmere Choi) has been cheating on her with actually her friend and colleague. Ah Peg gets another blow when she finds out some stuff she shouldn't have concerning her family so this adds to the enormous amount of pressure. She decides to get plastic surgery because she's lost all hope of just being the nice one with the ugly face.



However, complications happened during surgery and Ah Peg is left in a coma. Her spirit then is traveled to the heavens and made a deal with them; she can come back and be her pretty self but under one condition, in 3 months she has to find a wife for the despicable Nardo. Aiding her with the task is her guardian angel in a form of Dog Dog, a real dog but Ah Peg sees him as human form (Johnson Lee).



As the story progress, lots of characters are introduced like the dashing prince charming Wilson, the obvious rich boy but kind of a wimp who's interested in Ah Peg, the pretty and sophisticated Tramy that Nardo wants to court, Michelle the naïve kind young girl who's interested in Wilson, and Betty, Wilson's cousin who's been madly in love with him.



Nardo changing for the better!

At the middle of the series, Nardo hits rock bottom where he lost self respect, money, family, you name it he lost it, even hair! Anyways, though at first he wanted revenge on Ah Peg because he thought she was responsible for his failure but he then changed for the better. Also at this time, he starts falling for Ah Peg because of all her support and everything.



Wilson-Ah Peg-Michelle-Betty

Ok, so bare with me a little while. Ah Peg is instantly attracted to Wilson, well, who can blame her, rich handsome guy, who wouldn't? So Wilson and Ah Peg start dating for a while. However, Ah Peg leaves the country and enters Michelle a…um, actually I don't' know what she is but very rich and pretends to be Nardo's brother-in-law's niece. (Rain is Nardo's sister, and that's her husband). Wilson and Michelle meet and he's drawn to her spontaneity and is definitely attracted to her, however, he's still with Ah Peg. Betty is in the picture as Wilson's over seas cousin who's been in love with him for years but he doesn't have any feelings for her. However, he has to pretend to like her because of his father's wishes for them to get married, something about the fortune and all that. So Wilson is single handily juggling not 2 but 3 women! Anyways, Ah Peg finds out and leaves Wilson but Wilson is persistent that he only loves Ah Peg. However, because of Ah Peg's premonition of seeing Wilson killing himself in front of a grave (presumably hers) therefore, she tries to end things between them so he won't get hurt in the end.



Nardo-Tramy

He likes her but because of his personality she despises him. From seeing him treat old people badly, and his own family members badly she can't stand the sight of him. However, Ah Peg is determined to hook them up because she thinks Tramy's the destined one that Nardo has to marry. So she tries to set them in hopes to fulfill her end of the bargain with the heavens, up but disaster results.



Nardo-Ah Peg

Since I spoiled so much of the others I don't want to ruin this one for you. Just know that Ah Peg and Nardo couldn't stand each other, but Ah Peg just has this need for changing Nardo so she begins to support and try to make him a better person. Nardo began to see the lengths of what Ah Peg would do for him and he begins to fall for her. Hmmm…as for other things, watch and find out! Or actually, read on I'm sure I'll spoil something else along the way.



The Cast

Joey Yung

This totally was a Joey series that focused a lot on her character, life, love life, etc well, for at least the beginning part. And so did Joey carry that weight on her shoulders well? Well before I answer that question, I would have to say first, her character was written to be so likeable. Ah Peg is a very kind, cute, and would do anything for the people she loved person. That's why she broke up with Wilson because she didn't want him to get hurt because of her. Then she and Nardo went out, she thought that Tramy might commit suicide because of Roger, so she broke up with him, or something like that. Anyways, a very noble and selfless character. But of course if someone stepped all over her, like Nardo in the beginning she won't let that happened either, but I must point out only after she was pretty. So as Ah Peg, Joey did show all these things. She made me really like her character and feel for her when she was happy or sad. Joey Yung I wouldn't say is beautiful but she is pretty and has an adorable face. As for acting wise, although she did a good job, in some scenes she tends to overact a little, like when she tried to get a confession out of Roger if he liked her or not. She was too jumpy and whiny, kind of a pain. But overall an enjoyable performance.



Roger Kwok

Is it me, or is this man growing more and more handsome in everything he's in? Not only that, he's such a good actor. In the beginning he was such a horrible person that seriously you wanted to wish death upon him. However, with ease he transformed himself into the lovable guy that I couldn't help but love. For me, it's Roger's Nardo that kept me watching and interested. He was such a um…I can't say that word, but not only was he a mean and insensitive guy, he lied to his family, tried to cheat everyone just for his benefit on top of t hat he thinks he's so cool. All with his "Come on, go, go, go!" attitude half made me want to punch him and half laugh right in his face. But his transformed Nardo was just too adorable to watch. He was the opposite of everything he had been before. Yeah…towards the end you kind of see the shallowness when he couldn't stand to face Ah Peg when she's turned into her prior-plastic surgery figure, but when he figured he'll lose her forever, he truly changed. He understood that the only beauty that matters is what's inside. So as for Roger, I would say he was excellent. I watched it because at first I was just interested in his character to see how such a bad person can change into such a sweet guy and Roger did that and his transformation was believable.



Kevin Cheng

The first time I saw him, I thought he was a little scary because he was this psychopath in the very boring Network Love Story but then I thought he was so attractive in his other series like Burning Flames II/Slim Chances. In here, he was cool, whatever Roger tried to achieve with his come on, go, go, go!, he did it with ease. His character was a wimp but he then stood up to his dad said he didn't want to marry his cousin which kind of caused a lot of problems, but he stood up for himself. I would say his way of dealing with women can improve some for I thought he was just so unfair to all three of them. As for acting, he was stiff in his prior series like Burning Flames but in here he was good. Nothing earth shattering or anything but not a wallflower either, his character was sweet as both boyfriend to Joey and good friend to Roger, so I did enjoy both him and his character. Chemistry wise with Joey, I liked them together. Something I don't understand though. How did Joey all of a sudden lose interest in his Wilson and started to like Nardo. Yeah, she was spending lots of time with him, but when she broke up with Wilson, it wasn't she didn't' love him anymore. She seemed so in love with Wilson before, I don't understand how that just died out.



Margaret Chung

I felt like she disappeared or something for a couple of years and now she's back with unfortunately smaller roles. Well, I didn't like her character one bit in here. I could've cared less about her and her obsession with Kevin. In the beginning she was so clingy then she just became pathetic. Yeah, she did change by learning how to take care of herself and so forth but really, I thought Kevin was too good for her. Margaret Chung did ok, I mean first I don't like the character so I didn't really pay too much attention to her but she didn't improve or gotten worse over time. An all right performance but nothing too eye-catching.



Tiffany Lam

One of the Ms. HK's I think either this year or last, maybe this year (She was Miss HK 2002 & now officially retired back to studying-Ed). Anyways, for her first series I thought she did an ok job. She still got loads to work on but compared her to like Sonija who took 2 or 3 years to just be adequate, she did learn fast. I don't' think she's at all pretty though, too much makeup but I don't see anything attractive about her. As for character, she was cold and cool in the beginning with Roger but I thought that he deserved it so didn't mind. But towards the end, she was also another pathetic character. She had an old boyfriend who left her or something and promised to come back, but of course he didn't. After Roger transformed she thought that he resembled her ex so she clung to him like a leech. She even knew that he was seeing Joey, but of course she didn't care. Very selfish and irresponsible, but again, Tiffany herself did an ok job, nothing terrible at all.



Victoria Jolly

Unlike Tiffany who did an ok job, she was horrible, by the way she's also another Miss HK(She was Miss HK First Runner Up 2002 if I am not mistaken & now also officially retired back to studying-Ed). Oh my god! Her Cantonese is worse than mine and she looks like this doll without an expression all the time, especially when she had all that make up on, totally scary! Instead of being a cute character who's impulsive and naïve, she annoyed the heck out of me. Definitely the worse performance in here compared to everyone else. But again, it's her first series so I won't say too many mean things about her.



Johnson Lee

Dog Dog. The dog is very cute and I would imagine obedient in real life. As the dog, at first, Johnson did at times act like one, with his tongue sticking out and so forth. He provided some of the humor in the series and actually it was the funniest thing when all of a sudden Roger would be hearing voices and it would be of Dog Dog's/or now we have to say Roger's grandfather. Hilarious the way he sang those old songs and everything that would just freak Roger out and thought he was getting mental. Very enjoyable character.



Others

Since I'm getting lazy, here's some others I thought should be mentioned. First, Rain Lau who got cheated of a bigger role. I don't' understand why TVB is not promoting her enough, give her any meaty role and she'll be awesome in it. Maybe though, she's having conflict with filming Virtues of Harmony II, I don't' know, but she didn't show up that much to me. She was funny as usual but just a waste of talent basically.



Joey's sister, played by Nancy Wu was cute. I enjoyed her and her pair with Roger's brother, Jack Wu, who by the way is also not bad to look at. There little love life isn't shown that much but it's sweet when they're on screen. Lo Hoi Pang gave his veteran performance along with both Liu Kai Chi and Rebecca Chan as parents of the main couple. Sometimes funny as the nosey parents meddling into their children's love lives, but of course at the same time caring parents that'll do anything for them.



Belinda Hammnet's character at first was obsessed with Roger she even lied that she was pregnant just so she could get close to Roger, so another pathetic character who'll do anything for just the affection of a guy. She got annoying when she goes, 'come on baby cheer up" all the time too. What's up with this series and weird English phrases? However, Belinda herself was very into her role and I would say she was above even good as, man, I forgot her name in here.



Odds and Ends

The theme of the series of course was beauty isn't something that appearance can measure but of who you are. A very common and classic theme for TVB to use. But why make Joey pretty again if that's what you want to convey? That would defeat the whole purpose. But as you watched you'll see, if Joey told a lie or did something that was evil her old features like her nose or teeth will come back. So she truly has to be a good person in order to keep her outer beauty. Even towards the end while dating Roger, Joey transformed into her old self again, Roger didn't realized that appearance isn't everything until it was too late. So good theme but once used too many times in here.



Roger and Joey as a couple. I forgot totally to mention about them, since it's what the series is all about. Roger to me has been paired with so many actresses but I think the best would have to be with Charmaine Sheh. They were just too cute together. Yeah, there's the recent all hyped about Square Pegs and some might argue and Jess is his best match. Well, that's not the Roger that I'm talking about. Usually, Roger's the cool, average and very modern Joe that he's been so many times, so as that he Charmaine fits him best. Anyways, as for Joey, they seem more of a best friend, best buddy kind of thing in the beginning. As the story progressed, you can see that the characters will do anything for each other especially at the end Roger would do anything to see Joey again was just a tug at the heart. The two deserve to be together. But you know what? I thought it would be a little more definitive of his love if Joey came back as being ugly again but Roger wouldn't care and still be with her. Of course at the very end a very cliché ending, she'll be pretty again somehow. Too corny for your liking, huh?



Themesong was sung by both Joey and ROGER! I know! Roger singing? Well, it wasn't bad but I have to say that Joey is a good singer with a very sweet voice. The actual themesong though was a little weird, upbeat appropriate for the series but still won't win a Grammy or anything.



Should you spend your money on this or not?

Yup. It's entertaining, heart warming, funny even though it has elements of every other series you've seen. However, it's refreshing to see Joey in a series again and another excuse to see Roger at his best. There's of course Kevin and usually I'll watch him in anything. The plot was well paced, not too many drag parts, story although not anything new and innovative, but it was pretty well told. Performers did their best and again, the one who stood out was Roger. Give it a try, you'll laugh, frown and hope for everyone to have a good ending.



Rating





Interesting Facts

Both Tiffany and Victoria aren't going to renew their contract with TVB because both want to continue their education, something I find so refreshing in young girls. Instead of being drawn to stardom and fame, well in HK at least, they turned down their opportunity to go back to school in I think Australia. Good for them and I wish them the best.



Ratings for this series weren't bad at all actually until the ending episodes though, but I think it was contributed to Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. Just shows how popular Roger's getting!

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