UNTRACEABLE EVIDENCE I & II [TVB]

Written by Funn Lim

This review was posted many years ago, exactly when I am not sure but it should be within months from the original broadcast of this series. I am posting it as I have posted it originally.

SPOILERS ... SPOILERS ... SPOILERS

How Long
20 episodes each.

Who’s in it
Bowie Lam, Flora Chan ,Lee San San, and the rest you need not know.

What’s it about
HK’s Forensic Department, Hk Homicide department and love.

Really, what’s the plot
Very simple plot really. It’s about Flora who is a Medical Examiner(those that cut the corpses and find causes of deaths),her relationship with a policeman, Bowie and another young policewoman played by San San. Flora is the type that is always on the lookout for a suitable boyfriend but somehow, modern man cannot accept an independent, intelligent and attractive woman who is a medical examiner. They avoided her like a plague. Anyway ,she did have a love affair once when she was studying in England many many years ago with a married man that will have a disastrous result later in the serials(which if I tell you then you don’t have to see it).Let’s just say that she met the guy again (who now has a son and a wife who is supposedly dead) and they got back together but the kid hates her coz she wants his mom and all that. All is fine until the boy turned up dead, and she discovered that the man she thought that she loved was actually a liar and an abuser of the kid. His wife didn’t die but in jail for supposedly abusing her child but actually, it wasn’t her .A lot of drama there. Anyway, back to the plot proper.

Flora has an eldest sister who is a novelist, who in turn has a 20 year old daughter that hates her mom for neglecting her(rebellious and no manners at all )and her stepfather which she sees as a wimp. Flora’s father who was a bomb expert died9quite tragically) from a bomb blast by a maniac bomber when she was just a little girl. So she only had her dancing mother and sister for companionship. Then there’s Bowie whose wife died years ago and he still misses her. He has a father, a step mom that adores him and a younger brother who is training to be a forensic expert(those that collects evidence and analyze them for evidential value).San San plays a young policewoman who has a father, and she isn’t that rich. She’s a decent girl who works real hard and saves money for rainy days. She has a secret crush on her mentor and her chief, Bowie who in turn has a crush with Flora who hates him at first who in turn is still in love with her ex-boyfriend mentioned above.

Later, Bowie starts dating San San but something happened between Flora and her ex(now present boyfriend) that made Bowie have these second thoughts about his relationship with San San. Flora too had such feelings but they’re afraid of hurting San San so they very unselfishly denied their own love for each other. Then there’s Flora’s niece having a crush on Bowie’s brother, which later turned into a full bloom love affair. It’s really a love story. but of course in between there’s murders (you would never believe how these people died) and investigations and detailed scenes on how the forensic teams work. That’s the interesting part .And then there’s the cliffhanger in the ending where Flora leaves and poor Bowie had to wait for her till Part 2.There she returns after a year and found that the guy was waiting for her. They began their love affair ,lived together but the mother of Bowie disapproves of this woman coz she earns much more and more educated. San San still pines for him but later she fell in love with a lawyer to disastrous results. Shocking in fact. Oh yes, The niece broke up with the brother coz she thinks he’s boring and she fell for a model whilst he being a perfect gentleman blessed their relationship. Basically, the difference between Part 1 and Part two is that more people that you know from part 1 dies.

Any annoying factors
Lee San San. She’s really bad here(worse than in Burning Flame) and you will hate her for being the one that prevented Bowie and Flora together. And also all the interrogation scenes. Very conveniently, everybody confesses their crimes in here but the worse is how they came to the conclusion who is the murder .I mean, just passing by the murder scene makes you a suspect and they would interrogate you with stupid stupid questions like ”You know him so you hate him so you killed him”. Not logical at all. And that is the flaw of the serials.

Hate factors
All those murderers that had no good cause to kill and San San as mentioned above.

Pity factors
plenty here, those that kill and those that was murdered but I think the one that should deserve our pity should be the son of Flora’s ex-boyfriend who was an abused child and died in the hands of his own father. Then you’ll wonder, can we ever love a man who not only lied about his wife being alive but who also abused his own flesh and blood?(Part 1).In Part 2,I have to say it’s San San for having married the wrong man that caused her her life. Yep ,she died, very tragically and this further prevented Bowie and Flora being together coz they think that San San married the guy so to let them go on with their love affair without feeling guilt(why ?I dunno).

Cute factors
Bowie. Though he’s not that good looking but he somehow shows us how a MAN should behave. Very ,as in the way HK drama puts it, MAN.

Fave couple
Definitely Flora and Bowie. They look good together, very compatible and they looked like they are really having a love affair.

Annoying couple
Flora’s niece and Bowie’s brother. The guy’s a wimp, but I would say he’s just a soft kind of guy ,but the girl is sooo rude and no manners. That made them annoying to that effect.

Mismatched couple
San San and Bowie. Looks more like sis and brother to me but if you look carefully, you have a feeling the onscreen sparks kind of reflect their offscreen feelings for each other(Well, maybe mostly from San San).This was too much to the point that Bowie screamed(really life) that he wants to adopt San San as his sister to dispel any rumors of love affairs!!

The award for Best Actor goes to
Bowie. A terrific actor that can play both good and bad guy roles. He was also excellent in Healing Hands though the show isn’t. Man, can he speak decent English too.

The award for,”Well,good try but not good enough” as an actor goes to
San San. Why? Go see the serials and if you still ask this question, I could only say that you’re in love with her coz love makes us not see what we should see.

The most dramatic change
Can’t think of any probably because when yours truly was watching this erials,it was like eons ago.(Pert 1).In Part 2,the husband of San San who was a cool lawyer but later became the crying grieving husband. Never expected so much drama from him. I think his name is Choi Chi kit.

Fave scene
Any scenes that involve Bowie and Flora together. They really have what they call, chemistry.

Least fave scene
Any scenes with San San and Bowie together .They really don’t look good together .But there’s still the chemistry there but not the one mentioned above.

So,the verdict
Can’t say I love it but can’t say I like it. Just say it has been educational, not the love part(I mean you’ll only be more confused if you emulate how they solve the love thing0 but the forensic stuffs.No technical stuffs here,simplified for viewers like us so don’t expect any medical terms like in Healing Hands.
To beam yourself to the review of Healing Hands,please click on the title.

But it must’ve been better than…
Detective Investigation Files IV? The love plot in DIF was better and so was the investigation process but maybe it’s because I like Bowie and Flora, so I guess both are ok.But O-Kei ½ was much more superior in every sense than the serials above only less stylish.

Any redeeming factors
As I have mentioned above, the forensic scenes. Should’ve been more of that.

Be serious now
Serious??? Yep,this serial is very very serious. Oh,that wasn’t your question?

Any interesting facts
A lot. Anyone ever read Patricia Cromwell’s novels? Well, credits were not given but anyone that read the book will see the glaring similiarities in the characters and you could even see that they got some medical knowledge from the book.

1.The title character,medical examiner.

Novel : An Italian woman ,in mid forties and an expert in being a medical examiner whose beloved boyfriend ,an FBI who died in a bomb blast and she was scarred by this memory .She has a niece and an older sister who is a children’s book writer. She has a good relationship with her mom.

UT : A chinese woman, in late twenties who is a medical examniner ,had a beloved father who died in a bomb blast and she was forever scarred by that memory.She has a niece(20 years old) and an older sister who is a novelist .She has a good relationship with her mom.

2 The policeman character

Novel : An old man ,fat and divorced, excellent in his investigative skills and has a love hate relationship with the title character. They never had an affair but rather good partners.

UT : A middle aged man whose wife died some years back, excellent in his investigative skills and has a love-hate-love-love-love relationship with the title character. And they make great partners.

3.The niece character.

Novel : A young girl, pretty, rebellious and a computer genius Has a great relationship with her aunt but has a rocky relationship with her mom whom she hates for neglecting her and because of her boyfriends. She is a lesbian. Later she works for the FBI.

UT : A young girl, pretty, rebellious, and…not genius in anything except being rude. Has a great relationship with her aunt but hates her mom and her boyfriend. She is a heterosexual, and later patched things up with her mom.

4.The eldest sister character.

Novel : Mentioned briefly there ,irresposible and doesn’t care about her daughter ,and a successful children’s book writer.

UT : Loves her daughter but dunno how to go about showing it and a successful novel writer.

Conclusion : You may think, Aiyah, these similarities so general but actually, they aren’t. So it just shows that TVB writers do read.

5.One scene shown in the serials.(For Part One)

There was one scene where they got the killer but the DNA found in the murder scene does not match the killer they caught. In actual fact ,the killer had a bone narrow transplant that changed his DNA pattern to that of the donor, only his DNA in his brain cells, sperms can never change. That was how they caught him
This was in the book. I know, I know it’s an open medical fact but and open medical knowledge?? No way! The writer must have got his/her source from this book. But the difference between the book is, The title character has no time even for herself and in constant danger from serial killers. Great books mind you. The serial? So much time Flora has. That is the illogical part. Frankly ,the book is much much more better. I recommend ‘From Potter’s Field’ and ‘Unnatural Exposure. You’ll learn a lot.


Another scene shown in the serials for part two.

I know maybe it’s pure coincidence but the scene where a forensic guy, young and depressed due to the death of his loved one ,planted an evidence in the form of string(rope) and was found out later. In an excellent miniseries called trial And Retribution Part 1,there was a similar scene only this time it was a young policeman. If you really wanna watch a good drama on forensic experts and great investigation skills with great plot, watch the named miniseries. It’s from England, very slow but very very shocking. Those who reads this from Malaysia and has ASTRO, you can watch it there on Channel 4 when they do repeat them.