A Matter Of Custom [TVB]

Written by pleple

"PART 2 BAD SIGNAL IS COMING + Liza and Danny’s boring part to be fast forward"

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

I have finished A Matter of Custom for a few weeks and I try to replay some parts that I used to fast forward (Danny and Liza’s scene) in order to write this review.

How Long
32 episodes/16 tapes ( if each episode’s length = 45 minutes)

Who
Wong Hei = Kong
Jessica Suan = Moon
Liza Wong = Madam
Danny Wong = Sun(The MD of the big Magazine Company)
Jade Leang = Sun’s sister-in-law(She used to play Louis Koo’s pity lover in Burning Flame)
Ma Jang Ching= A member of Liza’s Custom Team( Who played “Suw Jeng”-Monk’s student in “Journey to the WestI-II)
Melissa Ng = Sun’s ex-wife( who used to play ex-love of Lawrence Au Chi Hua in “Till when do us part “ and “Our own Place)
Cheang Yue Sun = Seaw Yau(Her father was killed by Wong Hei and her mother was died due to Wong Hei)
Liza’s father = 70++-year-old Football player (played by Gallen Lo’s father in At the Theshold of an era)
Liza’s mother = 70++-year-old ex-novel writer ( Played by Grandma in Kindred Spirit)
Sunny Chan = Jacky ( who play Chan Jia Ler ‘s sister in “Burning Flame” and Miss Mo’s secretary in “War of Gender”)
Storyline

Wong Hei, Jessica, Liza and Ma jang Ching are the Custom Officer.
- Wong He is the Custom Police Captain ( The team leader for operation)who used to be the CID policeman but accidentally shot a criminal who has no weapon in hand(Hei thought that this criminal put his hand under the pillow to pick the gun up so Hei shot him but actually that man would pick drug) so he ask to transfer himself to the Custom Department.

- Jessica is the just graduated custom office who worked at airport. One day Liza who actually is her aunt in law pass that air port and cooperate to catch a criminal and see Jessica’s ability so transfer Jess to Liza’s division.

- Liza is Custom Police Inspector( the biggest in the station). She lives with her mother in law and she sometimes take care her parents. Her husband died by accident.

- Danny is the MD of a big magazine company who have a wife(Melissa) but she live abroad because he caused her to be unable-to-pregnant woman. He likes Liza’s mother’s novel and this lead him and Liza to be good friends.

PART 1 HAPPY PART
Liza has her own team which all of them rather close to each other. One day the new comers which are Wong Hei(Team Leader) and Jessica. Wong Hei can not get along with his colleague because he thought he just pay attention to work without need to create relationship. Wong Hei sometimes work with hot temper. Jessica come to work with full intention but without enough experience so she did something wrong and she was assigned only minor jobs. Jessica would like to help Wong Hei to cooperate better with the colleague and she try to open Hei’s private world without any special feeling at first. Hei gradually open his mind to his colleague and Jessica. When Jessica was injured by a criminal by injecting his AID disease, Hei support Jess and they start to have special feeling to each other. They implicitly and secretly are lovers because Jess’s mother did not like Hei and Hei’s father. After that It is about the problem of work and their love life.

PART 2 BAD SIGNAL IS COMING + Liza and Danny’s boring part to be fast forward
Suaw Yau who is the daughter of the criminal who Hei accidentally killed. She wanted to revenge Hei with every way but Hei can not fight back because he has to pay her life-debt. Hei try to change Yau’s mind and take care her until he started to have problem with Jess. Jess start see that this is unsolved problem and she asked to separate. Even Hei did not want to break but he respect Jess and accept to be good friends. Jes’s mother feel good for their break-up. They still love each other but this situation has no way out. After that Jess start to creat new relation with Hei’s brother with Hei’s support. Hei also start to be special with Yau.

For Liza, her parents died and she is alone and create teenage-like relationship with Danny. ( You can see Danny and lIza always hold hand even in front of Danny’s ex-wife and other young colleague who much younger but not show such romantic feeling as both old couple) Danny’s wife come back and still love him. Love triangle happen( Suck Scene ; for example, 1. all Liza, Melissa and Danny go to the restaurant and when Liza sit in a side and Mellissa sit in another side so Danny can not chose which side he should sit with so he ask the bellboy to pick another chair in order to let him sit between both of those women 2. Danny take Mellisa to the hill and she forgot her nech-cloth in his car and when he pick Liza for breakfast , Liza see and realise his hesitation between them) and finally Danny chose Liza.

PART 3 WONG HEI’S BAD LIFE
Another criminal come to revenge Hei which cause Yau’s mother died and Yau can not be with Hei anymore so she go away. Hei feel sad for guilty and has no chance to pay his another life-debt to Yau. Furthermore, he accidentally caused colleague death so he can not stand his fault and run to be a bad guy even Jess try to help him but he said that he need his private time. Jess finally found that Hei is a bad guy who addicted to drug and work for drug seller criminal. Danny also join drug seller criminal team. The team leader is a woman named Jacky who is a daughter of the super rich tycoon and is the drug seller agent for her father. Actually Wong Hei is an undercover cop who come to catch the drug-seller Tycoon while Jess and his family who do not know the fact of undercover try to bring Hei back to the good world. Hei was afraid that Jess and his family will be injured by that bad gang so he has to pretend to do many bad thing to push them away from that danger. Finally he can catch Jacky but he can not reach the Tycoon (like in our real life that the police can catch only small bad guy and let the big tycoons live with happy life around the society) and he is drowned in to the sea without explanation.

END

Jessica and Wong Hei
They are one of the best on-screen couple I have ever seen. I used to think that Jessica with Louis Koo are the best but Hei and Jess may be better. Even in this serie, there are not much live life scene between them because this serie concentrate more on old couple like Liza& Danny and Liza’s parent. Wong Hei and Jess are good at acting to make the audience believe that they love their couple very much no matter who are their couple.

In Burning Flame, Hei has to be in love with Esther who many people said that they are not compatible couple but Hei can act and make us believe that at that time Hei love Esther until Hei can betray his brother. Or in the scene when his mother was dying and he can act to show how much he love his mother which attack every audience’s heart. As you can see him like this in every series, his acting skill is brilliant.

In Detective Investigator File IV and Old Time Buddy, she make me believe that she love Louis and Au Jen Yui the most. She used to be said that she is not pretty when she first come to the entertainment business(like in the Recipe of the Heart) and she can prove now that she has both acting skill and charming look. She is better in long hair look like in AMOC.

Liza and Danny
This couple is boring until it is hard to explain about them. I’m like other audience who can not tolerate them by fast forwarding but I have to replay for this review. They are too old to be the main theme of any series. TVB try to push Liza to the heroin custom woman. At the first part (before she met Danny), she is like the super woman who is the idol for any custom woman. Liza dresses like a guy (in the black shirt) Jess saw Liza as her idol so Jess would like to be a custom officer. Liza’s team always praise her that she has a lot of experience and is valuable officer but actually she did not do any thing much. I always wonder what she do is valuable. After she met Danny, she change her dress to be like a pre-teenager who has small flower skirt and colorful and sweet suit. Furthermore, she will hold Danny’s hand in every place ( sweeter that any teenager couples) Danny has white hair in the front part of his head who has only two kind of face expression; 1- twist face( has many wrinkles in his face) to show his moody temper and serious feeling. 2- smile to show his happy emotion. Liza and Danny are too old to have such boring love triangle like in this serie as I have said before. Worse than that in the last part of the serie, Liza would like to have a baby and she talk to her ex-mother in law( Her ex-husband’s mother) who Liza and Danny respect like her own mother and finally Liza got pregnant at the age of 52++ years old. Oh No!

Favorite scenes
Every scene that has Jess and Hei or even has only one of them. It is good enough to see their acting. A very few love scenes in this serie are very very cute or even every scenes when they are still lovers.

Example: Hei and his father have some problems and Jess who at that time is Hei’s girlfriend is in her house which is close to Hei’s house would like to come to pamper Hei so Jess told her family that Jade Leang has love problem and she has to be her adviser. After that Jess come to Hei’s house and when she would go back to her house, her mother saw them together and ask why she is in Hei’s house so Jess said that Hei broke Jade’s heart and scold Hei that wish him had no girlfriend. This is cute message since she actually is his current girlfriend. You can see more cute scenes in AMOC.

I also like Jade Leang and Ma Jang Ching’s scene. They gradually develop their relationship from nothing to more and more deep feeling. They have bad moment of life so they take some alcohol, got drunk and slept together until Jade got pregnant so they have to marry without any feeling. After that they start to learn each other’ s life for the sake of their coming baby but they develop their relationship more and more. They are the only happy ending couple.
Favorite couple

Definitely, Wong Hei and Jess. They have chemistry and they have great acting skill to drive that chemistry more real and natural. They are always the couple even in the part that they are not the lovers anymore. They always care and understand each other. Actually it is hard to explain in a few words but you can realize by yourselves.

Best Actor/Actress
Wong Hei. Hei can use eye and face expression very well even Hei was blamed for his very small eyes. In AMOC, when hei has to do bad thing to his beloved persons like Jess or his parents, you can realize his deeply pain from his eyes and some nonverbal expression. I used to hear that Hei is an actor who ask the director to improvise some scripts to make better acting and act more naturally. I hate overact and underact which I will watch the right act with the great timing from Wong Hei and this will be much better if he has great actress like Jess. Somebody said that Hei got a little bit similar role but actually Hei has versatile roles in each series.

Jess can play very well as in other series. I like Jess’s natural acting. She can pair with any actor-Nick Cheang, Louise Koo, Booby Au Yung, Gallen Lo or Wong Hei.

Ma Jang Ching (He is the “Sua Jeng” in Journey to the west)is another one who play well. He can perform well both in humor and serious scenes. He should be in diet to have adroit body.
The scene that I used to think that I needn’t see but it is good to see

When I read some brief story from the forum, I would not like to see the scenes when Wong Hei break up with Jess and be with Sew Yau. When I really watch, I feel good to have a chance to watch and did not skip those parts.

When Sew Yau ‘s mother was killed because Hei used to be undercover and make the bad guy (who is the gay with Sew Yau’s father and jealeous Wong Hei and sew Yau’s mother )would like to kill Sew Yau’s mother finally. When her mother died, she feel that she can not be with Wong Hei who partially is the cause of her dad and mom, so she left Hei. Hei feel very sorry because Hei hurt Sew Yau many times and have no chance to take care her. As time passes, one day Hei went to catch the vender drug sellers and found one of that buyers is Sew Yau who faced a lot of bad situation and feel sorry for unable to be with Hei(the one she love very much). Hei hurt very much and want to help Sew Yau(He owed her a lot) He would like to protect Yau and more and more when he knew this is the last period of her life since she has AIDS. I would like to say that even Wong Hei is not with Jess actually, I love this part due to his brilliant acting. You should not skip this part, you may be sad and realize his pain.

Hate scenes, hate couple and hate actor/actress + Annoying Factor
Liza and Danny SURE. This serie will be memorable if there is no such couple. I used to like Lisa in At the theshold of an era because she play the role that suitable for her age and there is not much scenes for her. I would not like to see the old person to act like she is 25++ year old woman and not want to see old people life. They talk about the topics that I am not interested like tea preparation, very antique novel and old Chinese paintbrush. For their love life, I would like to die for their scene—holding hand, love triangle, jealeous

Example: Danny can not chose who he love the most. Melissa and Danny do to the hill and remind about their love. 8 years ago, Melissa got pregnant and Danny did not want to have a baby ask her to be aborted. Melissa made an argument for that issue and accidentally fall from hill until she can not have baby anymore. That the reason why she went abroad for 8 yrs. Back to the current period, Melissa’s neckcloth blown to the tree and Danny pick it for her, she hug him and ask for a chance to be together again. At the same time, Liza can not tolerate such love triangle(actually Liza should not tolerate such love triangle for a long time- too old to do like pre-teenager lovers) and she will leave. She is in the very big conference for her adopt child ‘s success ceremony which is full of the Press and people, Danny’s news reporter come to her and ask the question form internet whether she would like to have her own child (Oh my God, she is 52++ yrs old how can ask such question) and she answer that it depend on who is her husband. Danny come out with the computer among the exciting expression of the Press and people( What such old couple will do to show their romantic..Occh) and he straight to Liza and kiss her in front of a lot of people to show their love(they think this is very romantic but for me, it is distasteful. Even Liza was said to be the treasure of TVB but she has limitation for her role due to her old age(She is quite beautiful for 52++ yrs old woman but not look good enough to be like 30 year old woman.) TVB should keep some treasure in the casket/box, not always show out but should give the chance to younger such as Wong Hei, Jess, Louise, Bowie Lam, Gallen Lo, etc.

Worst Acting Award
Danny got my worst Acting award from me. For Danny, I know he used to be famous in action movie long long time ago but he can’t act at all. Furthermore, he don’t know that his acting is unnatural, in the news Danny blame Wong Hei that Hei do not follow script by improvising script. Danny said like bad rating is the result of Wong Hei’s performance and I hope you guy can realize who are the cause of bad rating. Hei always play with their colleague. I used to read Hei’s interview that Hei will study his script at home and come to work and join the cast to get along well when they are on screen. Sometimes he ask for adapt some part of script to make it more natural. Old style acting like Danny can not get it. I am glad to hear that Danny will not participate more in TVB deries. Good news right?

Unreasonable Factors
1. How can Liza be expected to be pregnant at the age of 52++?

2. Why Danny do not want to have a child but do not make birth control. When his wife got pregnant, he ask her to be aborted.

3. Why many women in AMOC must love Danny?(Just an old man who always make his face wrinkled and smile with reclined face(make 45 degree face like / ) Liza, Jade Leang and Melissa love him very much. I can’t believe this.

Unanswered Questions
1. Does Queenie(who is Wong Hei’s colleague who Hei accidentally cause her to death and she is the reason for Hei to be the undercover cop) die in the serie because at the last part a woman who has the same face as Queenie walk with a foreigner. Is she alive? I thought that Wong Hei ‘s inspector use Queenie’s issue to make Hei work as undercover for the police station.

2. Is Wong Hei died? Even he was drawned in the sea, I’m not sure. If this serie has high rating, I am so confident that there must be sequel but when it has not high, what happen next? I do not want to accept the sequel from Wong Hei’s MV(I have watched all of them) which also did not give the exact answer. Some said it is happy ending and some said it is sad ending, it depend on your own interpretation.

If I can change some part of AMOC
1. I will cut all
a. Liza and Danny’s part
b.Liza’s parent's part

2. I will find the way out for Wong Hei. Actually I accept that Wong Hei is hard to survive at the end when he did a lot of faults but every problems have solutions. For example, Hei should know that Queeny was not died yet. Give him the light life and happy love life. I believe human can have the happy life after bad life. In “nothing to declare”, Hei can have the happy life after bad life. If this serie can be changed as I want, I strongly believe that it must be one of the best series in the audience’s heart.
Worth Renting or not?

I would like to recommend that I watch this serie for Wong Hei and Jessica. Even there are a lot of Liza and Danny’s scenes, Wong Hei and Jess make this serie worth renting. You have right to fast forward undesirable part. For Wong Hei or Jess’s fan, you should not miss this. If you are not Wong Hei and Jes ‘s fan yet, let try to know why many people praise Wong Hei’s acting skill. Two Thumbs up for him!!

Rating
N/A

Interesting Facts
1. This serie did not get high rating. If you have watched it, you will find the true reason for such rating. ( Actually some series, which many people said that it has very bad script like Healing HandsII , got very high rating in Hongkong. It is hard to guess Hongkong people’s heart)

2. After that Danny come out to blame the AMOC production for bad script and preparation and also blame Wong Hei that Hei is not pay attention to the script. Danny said that he will not participate in TVB series anymore(good news), he can earn more money by producing low budget movies. If anyone did not watch this movie, they may blame Wong Hei for not high rating but actually not because of Hei but Danny himself. In acting world, pay attention is not enough but the actor have to find the way to act well and naturally. I hope others agree with me. I can’t accept Danny’s message to blame Wong Hei. Hei can not fight back because Danny come from old generation who is like more seniority.

3. All casts, except Danny, get along very well. They make very good team. Wong Hei write a letter in his forum that he like this cast team very much and he is afraid of the fact that they all will busy after AMOC until they can not contact each other. Hei is close to Jade Leang since they play in Burning FlameI together. Hei and Jess still contact each other. After AMOC, Jess have to go to work for “Back to the past” serie with Loius Koo in Paking, Hei has a work around China so he went to visit Jess and ask to play in that serie. Hei got a small role as an eunuch(King’s servant). I see Wong Hei with Jess in other events; for example, in Super Trio Game show- Hei, Jess, Jacky and Ma Jang Ching or in the preparation of TVB 33rd anniversary which Wong Hei did not participate in the actual ceremony because of his busy work.

4. There is a rumor that Wong Hei will pair up with Jess again in Burning FlameII. I hope this is true and Hei will not pair with Joey Yung.

5. Wong Hei is fluent in many languages such as Mandarin, Cantonese and English. For Jessica, she is fluent in English since she studied abroad for many years.