ALL THAT IS BITTER IS SWEET / 大藥坊 [TVB][2014][R] Funn Lim

Written by Funn Lim

The shorter version is she never seem comfortable in this role.

SPOILERS ... SPOILERS ... SPOILERS

Chinese title
大藥坊

This is
formerly known as Big Apothecary! Better change the name, since most can't pronounce the name anyway. Apo what? Apo then carry what?

Year released
2014

First Date of 1st broadcast
08.09.2014

End Date of 1st broadcast
17.10.2014

No. of Episode
30

Cast & Character
All names in Mandarin. I will change them to Cantonese as I go along.

Du Yan Ge as Du Shen / Dou Sam
Linda Chung as Du Jia Qi/Dou Kai Kei
Pierre Ngo as Du Rong/Dou Yung
Shirley Yeung as Feng Yu Qin/Yuk Kam
Raymond Wong as Zhuang Ji Zu (Chong Kai Cho) and Zhuang Ji Zong (Chong Kai Chung)
Natalie Tong as Xu Jun Yue/Hui Kwan Yuek
Pat Poon as Zhuang Dun Ru/Chong Duen Yu
Susan Tse as Wei Qiu Qing
Ruco Chan as Ding Yi Yuan/Ting Yat Yuen
Sammy Sum as Wei Jun/Wai Chun
Samantha Ko as Pian Pian
Elliot Yue as The General Hui Shung Ming
Alex/Jazz Lam
Ching Hor Wai
Choi Kwok Hing
Bak Yan
Choi Kwok Hing as Dr Sheung

Synopsis and Episodic Thoughts

I wrote detailed episodic thoughts until episode 11. Then I switch to opinion and summaries in my blog until the last episode.

NOTICE
At the time of writing this review I was pretty sure who is Kai Cho and who is Kai Chung. Now that my memory fades a little, I am not so sure so any mistake, I! AM! SORRY!!!! in my Linda Chung voice.

COMMENTS

I am gonna talk about this series on the 3 aspects;

1. Story and Characters

2. The stuff I absolutely hated

3. The stuff I absolutely liked

4. The performances

And I am gonna talk about this series from the perspective of a fan of Ruco Chan and Linda Chung.

If you are ready to take out that champagne for Linda because I am not ashamed to admit I am a Linda Chung fan and seen a lot of her series, do keep that champagne in the fridge. You should bring out the plates you do not ever want to see anymore, a nice cosy corner with a broom ready because if it was me, I would be throwing those plates on the floor screaming "Why? WHYYYYYYYYYYYY? LINDA! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?" in that "Linda Chung's Dramatically Betrayed By A Person You Trust And Feeling So Hurt That The World And All Worlds In All Dimensions Simultaneously Come Crashing Down And You Don't Have Your Helmet On Voice" which should have its own entry in the dictionary as a verb; like I just gave that traitor a piece of my mind with my Linda Chung Voice.

STORY AND CHARACTERS

This title is so aptly named in English if you look at the title the opposite. All that is bitter is sweet will eventually become bitter. That's how I feel with the ending. It is not the stupidest ending, that belonged exclusively to Bottled Passion. I mean in recent memory there are a lot of stupid endings so frankly ATIBIS is not THE worst. But it is one of the worst. It is not a genuinely happy ending unless you just want a happy ending for the sake of a happy ending. It continues the run where TVB simply refuses to invest in a good wedding scene which actually completes and ends with a happy couple. But then when I first watched this series, I could have guessed it isn't all rosy and in some ways I got some things right but in many ways, this series really defied my expectations.

The story is cut into 3 segments.

1. Kai Kei and her struggles. This is where the main story is.

2. Kwan Yeuk and her struggles. 

3. Pin Pin and her struggles.

The men are complimentary to these 3 segments. Yat Yuen for Kai Kei and Pin Pin, Kai Cho for Kwan Yeuk and Kai Kei, 2nd Uncle and frankly can't remember who and Ngai Chun for first 3 but it all leads back to these 4 eventually.

Of all the male characters, Ngai Chun had the most to do. Yat Yuen at the end of the day is quite simply the hero and nothing more. Kai Chung is the short tempered rebel with a heart and nothing more. Ngai Chun is the villain, the antagonist to all characters, the go-to evil guy. In fact if there is any compliment to be given for this series, the deaths are very dramatic and probably the highlights of this series. I am sure many of you will clap happily when Ngai Chun died and I was happy for the way he died. 

Before I venture further, I just wanna ask, why the name Kai Kei when everyone struggles to pronounce it? Most sounded like Ka Kei!

Ok, continue.

The story is standard stuff, even if it is supposedly about a strong female character against insurmountable challenges in life to become a success. Ahhh you must have noticed even my short description is inaccurate, that is because this series became different somewhere at the beginning of the series. The trailers, everything misled me to think this is a story about poor little rich Mary Sue who had to learn the hard knocks in life and lead her family to glory again whilst falling for our dashing hero who is dying of a heart disease who she will in the end save. For a series supposedly about the main girl that is To Kai Kei, you know something is gonna go wrong when even the cast sometimes got her name wrong; it is often sort of Ka Kei instead of Kai Kei. For such a series to work, it must wholly be on the main girl and she must be thrown into such situations that we either like her and cheer for her or like her but wonder maybe someone else can do better than her. Problem is I never liked Kai Kei because she was never proactive. She was always the damsel in distress. At the beginning she can't even speak in a timely manner and in the end she can't even count properly. All I can remember of the last scene she saw Yat Yuen and he told her to close her eyes to count to 3, by the time she actually started counting after breathing deep and hard, I have counted to 20. Let's just say Kai Kei redefines ladylike in the annoying slow mo way. Slow mo doesn't mean ladylike by the way. The main problem is that the story is so familiar. Someone did it first and did it better, like Jewell In The Palace which centres on the female lead. In ATISBIS, you get the idea Kai Kei is more of an observer rather than in the centre of it all. It also doesn't work as well because she is not a very interesting heroine. Her situation is dire and interesting but how she goes about it is not. She doesn't have one exceptional moment and towards the end when this series is so saturated with so many characters, our Kai Kei sort of got pushed into the corner and forgotten. There are other more memorable characters in this series and that is why Kai Kei never really fit in. The story does try to show her uniting her family, saving her father, saving people, saving our hero, saving everyone but it never really properly show it all. The limelight should be on her and her actions but the story was too busy with everyone else that there isn't enough focus on her. And I never liked her at all. She seems so weak, so whiny, too gentle and always the cause of everyone's problem that I didn't feel for her at all. And when Kwan Yeuk appears I feel less. When Pin Pin appeared, all my sympathies go to Pin Pin. Like what I wrote in my blog post, like every woman in this series, I detest Kai Kei because she is a non entity in a world where she is supposed to be the supreme entity. 

The story is not standard stuff when it is about Kwan Yeuk. Half the time I was wondering is she nice or is she a bitch in sheep clothing. Well, she is an elegant, educated, practical woman who sees things as they are and a problem solver. She is not Kai Kei, she is who Kai Kei should be. I like Kwan Yeuk even if she was always miserable. Twice falling in love with 2 men who are brothers who both love the same woman. In the end I was never convinced Kai Chung loved Kwan Yeuk but anyway, she got her happy ending and that's pretty awesome. I like how she ended Ngai Chun's life. 

Talking about strong women, Pin Pin is one tough cookie. Her background is not as innocent and protected as Kai Kei or as rich and educated as Kwan Yeuk but she is one street smart girl. Her only flaw is she fell for a guy who refuses to commit but at least in her own tragic way, she got her happy ending. After such cold deaths in Line Walker which I felt nothing, when Pin Pin died and it was a long death scene, it brought tears to my eyes. Could such a giving person ever exist? Someone who so understand how to love and is so unselfish in the sense seeing her death for the man she loved is worth more than living for nothing? She is to me a perfect character or near perfect. Kwan Yeuk had long bouts of jealousy and insane expectations for Kai Chung who never really promised her anything. Kai Kei's head is forever in the clouds that she is so unbelievable as a person. Pin Pin had her faults too but once she think things through, she would gather her wits, come to a correct conclusion and do the right thing, even if it meant her life. For that I like Pin Pin the most even if her character appeared late into the series and died so soon.

Shirley Yeung's character is not worth to talk about much except she is naive. Not naive smart like Kai Kei but so seriously naive you will wonder how she can survive all these years. I never got the impression she ever loved the 2nd Uncle but her ending is good. She smartened up after a lifetime of stupidity.

Let's talk about the men who are complimentary to the women.

We have Kai Cho, the calm beloved first born of Chong family and the lookalike (not twin) Kai Chung, the rebel of the family. Kai Cho is quite a charmer. His death scene which was the 1st major death scene was horrific and major and very upsetting because he is such a nice guy. Everyone likes him and he is Kwan Yeuk's adonis as much as Kai Kei is his goddess. However he appeared briefly and died and then came same actor, different character, Kai Chung who is the annoying righteous guy who is the Incredible Hulk of this series; he is perpetually angry. When he is not perpetually angry, he is suddenly as meek as a mouse, especially when it comes to women. He is the rebel but with a conscience and a heart. But I never really liked him much and sometimes he disappears from the series and from Kai Kei's life. 

Then there's Ting Yat Yuen, the hero of our series, literally. He saves lives, he is a nice guy, he trades with a conscience and a heart. He believes he will die before he is 35 and so he lives as he says;

"..I live my life calculating the risks because I will soon die when I reach 35 and I don't want to waste my time and risk whatever time I have"

Interesting. Usually when people know they're dying, the story is almost always how they live life without calculating the risk and to the fullest since calculating time and risks would be too much of wasting whatever precious time he has. Anyway that is why he doesn't want to commit because he can drop dead anytime soon. At the very start I know he won't die because that will be contrary to the purpose of Kai Kei. I was right except Kai Kei did not save him. I suppose he had time to spare after the age of 35 by the fact that perhaps the disease skip a generation perhaps? I do not know. I consider this a plothole.

This is one character that is as helpful as he is noble. He is a bit like Kai Chung except with a cooler head. He is more like Kai Cho minus the wealth and education but he isn't stupid. He is a very appealing character, probably will be popular with viewers, except his only problem is he has no purpose. The fact that he will die when he is 35 is just a motivator. His entire singular purpose in this series is to help and assist Kai Kei. There is no Yat Yuen without Kai Kei. When Pin Pin appears, at least there is some individuality for Yat Yuen but again he is there to save and help Pin Pin. There isn't much dilemma when there should be since he chose Kai Kei over Pin Pin, even if he never really did promise Pin Pin anything. So Pin Pin had no just cause to be butthurt by Yat Yuen's refusal. I just feel at times Yat Yuen is the overhelpful pedesterian who has no legitimate story in this series. Quite a waste of a good character.

Then there's Ngai Chun, who is rather intriguing. The villains are rather intriguing. What is intriguing is he is a competent police but dirty corrupted and sadistic. But he is also defined by his worshipping of Kwan Yeuk as his goddess and admirably so. He is gentle, caring, attentive and sort of speak the truth when he is with her. He never really take advantage of her, never tried to kiss her, the only intimate thing he did was to gently wipe the tears from her face. And I so want to like him, and I do and of course that is wrong because he is supposed to be the villain and so he has to do villain stuff. He is always that sort of guy who has a sadistic cruel streak but I thought maybe Pin Pin is there for a reason. Well, not quite. Maybe Kwan Yeuk will change him but not quite. Since Kwan Yeuk is deadset on Kai Chung who has no other woman for him, Ngai Chun will be the "sacrificial lamb". Oh towards the end he is was evil and his ending justified. But I just wished why can't black isn't always black, white isn't always white? I find him more character than that annoying Kai Chung!

There's To Yung, the 2nd uncle. I thought maybe he has hope to be a better person, like how it was in Safe Guards but nope, in the end still rotten to the core. You can't say he is evil but he is definitely a selfish bad man who prioritises his own interest over another. Whatever he does, his first question is "What do I gain from this?". His ending is proper although he disappeared from the screen many times.

And finally the old ones. Plenty of old people in here with many scenes that overshadow the younger cast and obviously Kai Kei. They're the fathers and mothers.

There's General Hui Shung Ming who is quite a revelation. Like Ngai Chun (before his downfall at the end) he is intriguing. I so want to hate him but I end up emphatising with him. There is no doubt General Hui is a harsh cruel man who is as arrogant as he is brash. But he also loves his daughter very very much. Even his daughter is exasperated by his constant meddling in her love life but in the end it was all for good intentions. Any father who thinks the world of his daughter will do the same thing he did, minus the whole gun pointed to the head thing. He is also working in a highly pressurised work. But I can't understand if he is so rich, why not just cut the bs and just retire? Because he loves power too much? But he loves his daughter more! In the end he is ready to confess his sin and frankly he died a decent man at the hands of the dastardly Ngai Chun. A good ending in my opinion.

There's To Sum, Kai Kei's dad. For me To Sum is on the same page with General Hui, both as arrogant, as self centred, as self assured, as perfectionist. The only difference is To Sum has tact whilst General Hui lives in a world wen he doesn't need to be tactful. Both are good fathers, raising decent daughters. Both love their daughters very very much and think the world of them. However To Sum has the disadvantage if thinking his medical knowledge was complete, and nothing can harm him. In the end he was absolved from the death of Kai Cho who he thought he dramatically killed due to medical negligence. He didn't know the lingchi was poisoned by General Hui's biochemical factory. However I still think he was right to be imprisoned. Part of the reason why Kai Cho died was because To Sum was too arrogant to accept there may be flaws with his pills and his diagnosis. In some ways his diagnoses was flawed because he didn't pay enough attention to the symptoms, such as blackened fingernails. He was so confident that he didn't observe the basics of medicine; observe and diagnose. He jumped straight to medicine. He felt he deserved to be jailed which was great but how he accepted that fate was done in a very profunctory nature. I wanted to see how he finally accepted his part of the blame but the process was too short. And he has the shortest greatest dilemma ever; wife pregnant with his brother's son and all solved in the space of 5 minutes. No great dilemma for him. I do like his ending though; simpler clothings, back to being the physician rather than the businessman.

There's the mayor and his wife, who both are more accepting of a girl whose father pulled a gun and tried to kill their youngest son (and not to mention also a possible terrorist and homocidal maniac) rather than a girl whose father negligently killed their beloved older son. The father is meek who is lucky to have married a smarter more capable wife, much like how in the end Kai Chung the not so smart guy marrying Kwan Yeuk who is obviously the smarter one. They are major players in the story and I enjoyed their dilemma and interactions but I never quite warm up to the cowardly mayor and his smart wife who unfairly blamed Kai Kei for every jinx coming their way.

Finally, the supporting of the supporting. If Kai Kei is lead, Yat Yuen is supporting, then whoever next to Yat Yuen is supporting him and frankly I really like the silly tastefully comedic trio whose name I never quite catch. I know the actors, well 2 of them at least but did not catch their characters' names. They were witty and funny without sounding inappropriate. No silly cute music at the worst possible timing. Their comedy is subtle and I find them cute and did their job well in supporting the main cast. I don't feel they're time wasters.

THE STUFF I ABSOLUTELY HATED

Some are performance based, some are writing based.

I absolutely hated the way there is ordinary people slow mo and then there's Kai Kei slow mo. Even in emergencies, she doesn't break away when someone is holding her back. Instead she will stand still and finish whatever line when at the back of your mind you're thinking "Kai Kei, Kai Cho is dying! Hurry for god's sake!". Her interpretation of time is 10 seconds slower than we are and whilst it is not fatal, but 10 seconds is enough for a dying weakened body man to run away from her and into nowhere. And she never stood up to run and find him. Even when our hero is beaten to a pulp, it took her 10 seconds to register any reaction such as like you know, saving him? When she is walking she tends to trip a lot because you know, she is a gentle soul living in the protective coccoon of her father's love that she has never climbed onto planks and into boats without wobbling. She can't even carry anything without wobbling. She can't even fret at a shorter time. Her fretting is 10 seconds. The way she was there to warn anyone of any danger, when she faced some difficulty, she actually walks away when she should be pushing, running, panicking. She is hardly hard pressed for time.  That is what I absolutely hate. The Kai Kei Time Factor. By the time she is done fretting, I could have finished half the pack of popcorns.

I absolutely hated the illogical story abot Kai Kei insisting the herbs in her foreclosed Sheung Chun Toong to remain exactly where they are. In the end it was Yat Yuen who moved them to a secure location which Kai Kei should have thought that in the first place.

I absolutely hated Kwan Yeuk's condition for a while. Was she a vegetable? Was she immobile? Was she crazy? Or was she just too traumatised for anything? Which is which?

I absolutely hated the notion chinese medicine can cure everything with 1 dosage, 1 acupuncture exercise, etc. 

I absolutely hated the ending. So did Yat Yuen die? When he disappeared before her eyes, I thought she was imagining things and I was like "Oh dear, Ruco dying, YET AGAIN". And then I heard he actually DID disappear before her eyes. So the poison nearly killed him, right? Whilst he got rid of the poison his exertion shortened his already short lifespan because he tried to help the jinx called Kai Kei.  So that should mean he should be dying soon. And yet had the energy to disappear, much like how Kobe did to hilarious effect in Line Walker. It was not figuratively; we are talking literally. And in the end Kai Kei climbs a hill in Yunnan and from afar she sees a guy and she smiled widely. Of course that's Yat Yuen although we are not shown Yat Yuen, probably because Ruco wasn't available for filming. It was just a silly end. Eithe he dies (and all pronogsis was telling us the viewers that) or show Kai Kei actually CURING him as promised. Nope. What we got was like perhaps 5 years later, pharmacy reopened, became a success, Kai Kei a successful doctor, likes picking herbs herself and climbs up mountain and sees Yat Yuen. Or maybe she was falling from some cliff and was imagining things and that was her personal heaven where the dead Yat Yuen was waiting for her. I find the latter a better ending than the crap I saw on TV. It does not justify at all that Kai Kei is a great doctor. DaeJanggeum, THIS IS NOT!

The underwater kiss. TVB, there are kisses and there are CPR. Which is which? And it is so funny Kai Kei is saved by the kiss of life and next thing it was Yat Yuen who was sinking to the bottom of the lake and so she had to drag him up for another session of... you guessed it! Kissing.. CPR I mean.

I absolutely hated the inconsistency in the Chong family's hate towards Kai Kei. Sometimes they do, and with such venom that they declare Kai Kei as a jinx (well, me too) and sometimes they don't, and could even emphatise with them. It disrupts the flow of the story for me.

I absolutely hate the following items;

1. Yat Yuen's hat! Get rid of the hat!

2. Kwan Yeuk outer mini top, she is forever in one.

3. Those silly pants of those GROs in Pin Pin's bar. Ugliest pants ever.

4. The short period of time from no remorse to deep remorse by To Sum.

5. But the most important one that I hated the most was Kai Kei's neck scarf, perpetually on her neck save for 3 or 4 occasions. It is like winter is always there, she is perpetually cold. Or maybe she is hiding the stranglings marks of fellow viewers who hated her. I wanted to rip off that scarf from her neck. I wanted to shred it to pieces. I don't get why her costume is so uninspired and worse, is is THAT cold all the time?

Of all my hates, the scarf is my number 1 hate. 

THE STUFF I ABSOLUTELY LOVED

The deaths. Fantastic. 

Kai Cho was poisoned to death, accelerated by negligence by To Sum. His death scene was so sad, so poignant, t sets the tone for the grief to follow. Everything was perfectly set up. 

General Hui was shot point blank on his temple by Ngai Chun. You know Ngai Chun will kill him but how? Using the general's favourite golden gun and without any time to prepare. Blood splurting, perfect set up and perfect execution, pun intended.

To Yung's death was well deserved and was glad he suffered. He was shot in the back by Ngai Chun anyway, so he was probably dying but in his dying moments he punch a hole or something onto the cylinder with the biochem warfare in it and some splurted on his face and it basically acted like acid. Not a good looking death. But I was glad he died.

Ngai Chun's death was as sudden as General Hui, except this time it was Kwan Yeuk who shot him on the temple with her father's golden gun. Great death!

Pin Pin's death was the saddest. Knocked from her bicycle and even slapped by Ngai Chun, she basically succumb to her injuries but she died a very very happy woman.

I absolutely loved Pin Pin for her generosity and Kwan Yeuk for her classiness. These 2 girls defined this series for me.

But I absolutely loved that one scene where Ngai Chun was arrested for act of terrorism so to speak. First he taunted Yat Yuen about Pin Pin's death and so Yat Yuen basically beat the crap out of him. Then he made Kai Chung very angry who ended up punching and beating him. In the space of a few minutes, he taunted the Minister Wong who was always the cool headed one but he got so angry this time he kung fu kicked the table which hit Ngai Chun so hard he flew back. Oh what a satisfying scene!!

THE PERFORMANCES

The Good

Ruco Chan is good in a role that is like sleepwalking for him because he has done the cheeky nice fella so many many many times. Whilst his role is not well defined, his performance is good enough for me. Won't win him the TV King but sure to garner a few female fans and will please many hard core Ruco fans who love his brand of acting where his eyes speak volume. He does make a convincing sick dying man. Since when he was filming this series he was reportedly sick, I guess it wasn't much of a method acting for him. I just feel that since I have seen this performance before, I wasn't thrilled by it as much as I should be.

Pierre Ngo is in the obligatory jerk role and frankly, seen him in such roles before except this time his To Yung doesn't repent. I like his performance and he was effective even if pointless in the grander scheme of things.

Raymond Wong successfully pulls off 2 characters with distinct personality but seperated by just 1 eyeglass. I know which is Kai Cho and which is Kai Chung. I liked him more as Kai Cho. As Kai Chung, you have seen that performance elsewhere, where he is mostly very expressive with his eyes.

Samantha Ko has improved a lot in her acting. She is convincing as the unselfish giving Pin Pin and her death scene is as epic as it is sad.

Poon Chi Man is someone I haven't seen for a long time. He was good as the pressured cowardly mayor who we know is a decent man but isn't always standing to what's right.

Du Yange is not that believable as the much feared To Sum but at the end when he is humbled, I think that's where he is at his best.

Susan Tse was sublime as the intelligent Mrs Chong.

The Great

Jazz Lam is the perfect sidekick in a role only he can give justice to.

Wai Ka Hung is the perfect sidekick in a role he perfectly blends between witty lines, serious moments and sad times.

Bak Yan was amazing as the vile small minded grandma who became a better person in the end.

Elliot Ngok was wonderful as General Hui. I couldn't get his performance at first but as the series got on, I began to appreciate his interpretation of the scary brash General Hui. Love his chemistry with Natalie.

The Bearable

Shirley Yeung is not the best actress but surprisingly she is watchable in here as the naive simplistic "brain not all there" Mrs To. Stil can't stand the way she talks.

The Best

Natalie Tong has my vote as the best female performance in this series. Whilst I may dislike her clothing or her helmet hair, or the fact that she hardly smiles at all, I find her less dramatic than she was sayyyyy in A Fistful Of Stances. She was graceful, elegant, sophisticated, intelligent, not that nice but isn't a bad person and she is absolutely believeable as Kwan Yeuk. I love her earlier scenes where she was pining for Kai Cho, later on I love her tender moments with General Hui. She shares great chemistry with Elliot Ngok and balances well with his brashness and her gracefulness. Natalie has finally come of age as an actress. 

Sammy Shum has my vote as the best male performance in this series, and it is of no disrespect to Ruco. Ruco was wonderful but the character was hardly a stretch for him. Sammy is in a role that I have never seen him in before. He has big expressive eyes and he used it to great effect in her. He was whiny and clingy and overall inadequate acting in Line Walker which will win him TVB's Most Improved but frankly if he does win for Line Walker, I will interprete it to include his fine performance in this series. His Ngai Chun is a complex character and he carried the role and around veterans with panache, gung ho and a certain sense of style. As handsome he is to look at, his character was ugly to behold and yet infused with the right amount of romanticism when he is with his goddess and sadism when he is cruel and in the end manic insanity that had almost every male character punching him. He was a revelation and even if he looked young to be the corrupt chief of police, his success was he was believable. Line Walker may gain him his legions of fans but it is in this series where his growth of an actor is reaching a point where I can say, he is almost there as the lead actor kind. I have always said he is one actor where he has the charisma and the looks and the ability to mold his face to any role but the talent is catching up, slowly. Now, it is catching up much faster. He still needs some more "baking" time in the oven called the actor rite of passage but I do believe we are seeing a potentially good actor with star quality in the making. If he has Vincent Wong's acting abilities with Vincent's body and his own looks, that would be deadly and the metamorphosis complete. Right now, not quite yet but on the correct trajectory.

The Worst

Linda Chung. She is by no means a bad actress. She is often better at roles that are opposite of her public image. This role however is sorta like her public image; nice sweet helpful girl. The problem is as highlighted above. The shorter version is she never seem comfortable in this role. The way she delivered her lines is too fact, like she is hurrying to finish the lines so she doesn't need to speak those lines, like she is afraid of them. She is a naturally gentle feminine girl (however much she may like to stress she is a tomboy, etc, don't be fooled) and she didn't need to put on those gentle movements but here it felt timed, calculated and nothing natural. She speaks with a naturaly higher pitch tone, almost lazy and very feminine girl voice but her, she somehow ramped up the girlish tone and coupled with deliberate heavy sighs,it felt like she is always burdened with something. It doesn't help that her character doesn't change much, not in personality, not in clothes. Linda herself did nothing to show that aspect of change. For someone who is well liked in the industry, I somehow hated her Kai Kei. I just felt something is way off with her performance and in the end my conclusion is she is having a bad day in the office. She never felt comfortable in this role; she looked like she'd rather be elsewhere. Not even her favourite costar Ruco can make her feel otherwise. Of course this is just my personal opinion but I thought her best costar was always Steven Ma who is every girl's best costar these days! I lament the fact that Linda is now becoming Myolie; everything she does is poison. Myolie never got out of that, and that is because somehow I feel she lost her enthusiasm for acting. For Linda, maybe it is nerves but she has been in more difficult roles in the past. So maybe Linda has lost her temporary touch. The writing isn't top notch either so that contributes to her failure in this role but at the end of the day, I just feel Linda was the main reason.

VERDICT

Good for an afternoon watch if you have no great expectations. You will be surprised how much you will like the supporting cast and some aspects of this character. Watch it for Ruco but seriously, watch it for Sammy Shum and Natalie Tong who are the stars in this series. I won't say this is a must watch but to those who enjoys such genre, this is a good choice but just don't expect great stuff.

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REAR MIRROR / 載得有情人 [TVB][2014] [R] Funn Lim

Written by Funn Lim

Drama is good for a series which is pretty much flat line in the romance department
SPOILERS ... SPOILERS ... SPOILERS

Released In
2014

No. of Episodes
20

Cast-Character
See here at http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Rear_Mirror

Synopsis
Found here at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rear_Mirror) which is pretty accurate.

A single father who works as a mini bus driver that struggles to raise his young son with a severe food allergy problem alone, meets a female CEO of a huge corporation who seems to have it all on the outside but has struggles of her own due to her father's illness and family members fighting with each other for the CEO position.

COMMENTS
It is billed as a romantic comedy or a rom-com. It is more like draromedy with less romance, more drama and some comedy.

For a drama, it works. The drama is the entire story of the in fighting and outsiders' fighting for the place of CEO. Comedy is provided by Tony Hung's story which is really the real romance of this series. As for the romance itself, there is none between the 2 leads until the very end and even then it is more like suggested rather than all out romance. It felt like a romance story suitable for senior citizens; rather non happening, not very passionate and it is what it is without embellishment which this series badly needs. The embellishment is in the drama and at times I was wondering what am I watching.

You see, this series succeed in none of these elements.

As a comedy, it wasn't very funny. Sure it has its moments, like the awkward charm of Tony Hung's character who kinda grows on you. I like the fact that he learns to be decisive in his love life and goes for the real love of his life. Natalie Tong works well with Tony Hung and they are believable as lovers who became friends who became soul mates. I was not convinced with Tony as the fidgety guy who is unsure of himself with a domineering but nonetheless a father who meant well. I thought this was a role made for Jason Chan who defines fidgety and unsureness but towards the end Jason will have a hard time convincing me he is self assured and grows into a real man. So in a way Tony Hung does badly at the beginning but does better in the end. Truth be told, I find Tony Hung a far better actor than Jason Chan so all things worked out well. But quite a pity; I may actually like Jason Chan if he was in this character. As for Natalie, at times in other series she OTT in everything but in this series, she was fine. I enjoyed her performance and I do like how decisive her MK Mui is. I feel the romance is in this pair as well although the real pair is Louisa and Wayne.

Louisa and Wayne... it sounds like a pair made in heaven but in the end something is missing. Is it the spark? I feel it is more like the story that is unable to assist the spark. For a rom-com about a driver and his boss, there is no romance at all until at the end. For all the talks about being sublime, understated, etc etc the romance or pairing felt more missing than subdued. I get it; their love is like tea, takes time to brew. But we don't see the brewing, we don't even get to see the tea so how are we supposed to be convinced we sipped tea in the first place? Almost more than half the series is about the drama; first the drama about Wayne, his son and ex girlfriend coming back for the son for dubious reasons. Then we have the drama about Louisa and her brothers and step moms and the fight for CEO. Then we have Tony's father arguing with everyone about a project we often hear about (about some clean water project) but never get to see it in action. You will certainly hear one word a lot; CEO. The way this series goes, it felt like CEO is the single most important, more powerful, most awe inspiring and most dazzling position, E-VER. But do you actually get to see the CEO work? Nope. Implied, some board room maneuvering but not much. It is so funny when the board or employees sit down to talk about projects, the scene cuts to the end where "Ok, so now we know what to do..". Yeap, make life easier, just cut through the real work and go straight to the drama. But I will love to sit in this family's board room. Why? Drama every single time. Step moms snapping at one another, brothers questioning the CEO sister, uncle threatening to cut funds for very very personal reasons. Everything is personal in here. The way the business is run, I am surprised anything is ever agreed and carried out.

But that's not just the problem.

Earlier on we see Louisa as someone no one respects or rather no one even looks at her. She was in the legal department and of no significance to the corporate structure since daddy runs things with uncle. I never had the impression the father loves her very much or even prioritize her at all. And then she became CEO and I thought it is because she was the one least involved in the squabble. But thereafter we see how daddy loves her, enjoys her company, taking trips down memory lanes about her mother, her childhood, etc etc. But I never had the impression the father loved her the most. In fact it was understood she is there on temporary basis; eventually she has to give way to one of her brothers. I find that very insulting. Of course in the end we know the father's real intentions which is really all about challenges to keep his mind alert and he enjoys challenges very much.

When the series seems to be steering towards something interesting; how the driver protects his lady boss, how she deals with problems after problems, the entire thing stopped and switches gear to Wayne and his son's mother and the paternity suit and the entire custody hearing. That came out of nowhere because earlier the mother came back, did DNA test and then said cryptically "You won't win against the biological father" and then she disappeared for a good number of episodes and then came back when the plot requires some drama. And then more drama as the biological father wins the case, kid moves in with bio-daddy and quite as sudden, the kid is returned and the series switches gear to corporate takeover. And as I was beginning to enjoy the corporate takeover, there is a double corporate takeover and we learn the true nature of both the bio-daddy (KK Cheung) and the father (Chung King Fai) which really is very interesting. The entire dilemma would have merited a few episodes except quite as sudden, bio-daddy disappears from screen and father has dementia and we learn uncle was always right. Cut to 3 years later and the main pair meets again, some cryptic lines and the end.

And in retrospect, I realise I only ever truly enjoyed 2 parts of this series; the story of MK Mui which really steals the limelight of romance which this series is supposed to be and how Wayne did the Tokyo Drift thing with Louisa's car at the beginning which is really the drama for me. The suspense is great for watching but after that it kinda made me feel I was watching something incomplete; something that is half baked. The only thing I learn from this series is CEO is everything. Louisa's character even won one of the Top 10 Female CEO in the country. Which is funny. So there's top 10 female CEO and top 10 male CEO. Feels like TVB awards; dividing the pork. I don't even thing the portrayal of CEOs is anything near resembling a CEO in real life. All I can here is CEO this, CEO that, CEO here, CEO there. The court room drama is exactly that; drama. It is badly written, and mainly to facilitate that short moment of difficulty for our hero and his young son. It felt put on; it didn't feel natural. It would have been fun if one of the lawyer characters in The Other Truth guest star as one of the lawyer. Now that would be attention grabbing.

Performances wise, I am torn.

I am a huge fan of Wayne Lai who I feel deserves every single accolade showered on him. He is an actor's actor; a character actor with character. He is also an actor who can portray romance; he tends to be one of the most flirtatious and romantic actor on screen without being overly lewd or depending on so called physical aspect. He can stand 10 feet away from the girl and still show us passion and deep love. Which is why he is so disappointing in this series. For one, his character Sunday is certainly the most super achiever of a character. A former delinquent turned gangster turned reformed learned dude turned mini bus driver turned driver turned photographer turned cafe owner turned cafe franchise owner. His Sunday doesn't give me an impression he is poor; the way HK goes, England is like so cheap for everyone. I thought maybe he is some CEO in disguise or something. Ahhhh that is if this is a Taiwanese rom-drama! It isn't, of course. He felt out of place. He was god-awful in the first few episodes. It felt like he just walked out from Forensic Heroes 3, changed career and became a mini bus driver. I find his performance pretentious and he lacked chemistry with the young boy actor. But as TVB series go, give it 7 episodes or so before we are all brainwashed and so I was; by the 7th episode I got used to his over sophisticated driver character but I never could shake off the feeling Sunday is an impossible character. I was never convinced by him, never felt for him, never cheered or cried for him. That was for Tony Hung's character, not this Sunday.

Louisa So was also god awful in the first few episodes until she got into the rhythm of things. Her Anson never truly touched me. I was never convinced with her niceness. I kinda thought she cared more for her dog than for the kid. I never thought she ever truly loved her vet boyfriend at all. I find her cold, and that is Louisa's fault. She never exuded the warmth that is needed for Anson. I also dislike the way she slurs her speech. It is worse than I remember. Louisa is normally a competent actress but this series did not manage to bring out the best in her and quite frankly, I don't even think she bring out her own best for this series.

Natalie Tong impresses me. I used to dislike her OTT acting, like everything is personal to her even if it is someone else's problem. But in this series she balances well in her performance as MK Mui who is for me the most memorable character in here. Her chemistry with Tony Hung works and she is very enjoyable to watch. She is less sleepy looking, less bored looking and looks more alive in here.

Tony Hung as I have commented above is not suitable for the first half of the series but grows into the character in the 2nd half.

Benjamin Yuen and Stanley Cheung as the half brothers were enjoyable to watch since they don't have much to do except to antagonise Louisa's Anson in the boardroom.

Amy Fan is enjoyable to watch. I feel she is one of the very few whose character is fully fleshed out. She nails the part of Vanessa (Wan-Nai-Sa aka Play with Sand).

Elaine Yiu is typecast as the ungrateful disgruntled ex girlfriend who runs away from a relationship for own selfish reason. That being said, she has grown into a competent actress. I shudder to think of how she was in Safe Guards and my god, she has come a long long way. I wished she has more varied characters  though. And she should take care not to slur her words, if not she will end up like Louisa So.

The young actor, not sure what is his name, is a very handsome boy! That's the first thing I noticed. Whilst I didn't like his acting at first, not as good as the ones in Coffee Cat Mama, he grows on me.

Ram Chiang has a role in here, a very important one even if I was thinking his role will be a villain, in love with Anson, etc etc. I was pleasantly surprised that he is personally without much drama and I like that. As always, a wonderful actor, as long as he is not the CEO.

The veterans were the ones who truly shine. From the bickering step moms that is Susan Tse and Mary Hon to the typecast Lau Kong as another angry uncle/demanding father, KK Cheung as the nice guy/bad guy/nice guy/bad guy/nice guy/bad guy character (yeap, series was indecisive as to vilify him or deify him) and Chung King Fai, the ultimate bad guy. In fact Chung King Fai steals the show in the end with the way he was so calculative and turns out to be the biggest villain. Pity is there is no consequence for this character except for dementia which was a blessing in disguise because it heals the rift between the 2 brothers. I would have wished Anson walk away from her father and run away with Sunday to England because what the father did was inexcusable. Unfortunately, this series decides not to go extreme in anything. The dilemma flat lines before it reaches the ultimate drama.

VERDICT
You can see it both ways; 20 episodes of nothing much or 20 episodes of too much. Either way, nothing is adequately portrayed or fleshed out or represented. It felt like it was badly edited or filmed in a rushed way without adequate films to cover all the intended scenes and stories. Great for those days where there's absolutely nothing to watch. I enjoyed it for that reason. But if there is something else on the telly, give this a miss. I wouldn't recommend it even for Wayne Lai.

This series will appeal to those who wants to watch something that is nothing much. Drama is good for a series which is pretty much flat line in the romance department.

P/S
I like the poster. One of the least packed poster in recent memory. However Natalie and Tony shouldn't be in the middle. Looks out of place.

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BLACK HEART WHITE SOUL / 忠奸人 [TVB][2014] [R] Funn Lim

Written by Funn Lim

He is not the worst actor in this series, and to me this is one of if not Ron Ng's finest ...

SPOILERS ... SPOILERS ... SPOILERS  

 

TITLE DECIPHERED
Chinese title is 忠奸人 which is a pun to the word Middle Person. Except here it is literally "Good Bad Person". Love the title. English title also rather good except at the end of the day no one is ever Black Heart White Soul. Plenty of black hearts, no white souls.

RELEASED IN
2014

NO. OF EPISODES
30

CAST-CHARACTER
Entire cast list here at http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Black_Heart_White_Soul

SUMMARY
Thanks to Wikipedia.

This series will talk about the "grey area" of humans, that there is no absolute "good" or "bad".

MY POSTS
Did some short comments on this series here at http://www.point2e.com/2014/07/o-black-heart-white-soul-tvb2014.html

COMMENTS
At the end of this series I arrived at one conclusion about this series; I liked none of the characters because none of them are likable for some reason. This is not a series where you have cute cuddly characters with cute silly nicknames, except for Funny Sir. But nothing about him is ever Funny. This is not a series about redemption even if at first I thought it probably is about the bad dude in wheelchair playing nice at the end because he is really really really sorry. No one is ever really sorry or remorseful of anything in this series. No one is ever really happy either. This is a series about misery and how everyone is miserable in the end, except for one man but his is a sort of twisted happiness.

You can say this is one of TVB's best series for 2014. It also is one of the best for many many years if looked as a whole. However it is also one of the most confusing and inconsistent series ever. It started well, towards the middle it went insane when the original story was done with, it had to take a new direction without abandoning the original story but it ended with a bang. The deaths were mostly justified although I will say the deaths were spectacularly done. I can't complain about that. The end for those who remain alive is aptly miserable and subdued. The very last scene to me will remain as one of the most major revelation in TVB's TV history and will be one many fans will debate and argue eventhough it is rather clear and non debatable. Or rather you will debate about unseen characters who will be directly affected by that ending we see. There were some happy endings for some minor characters who had a major role to play, or some forgotten ending for some but mostly I do feel this is one series where the ending is pretty clear for all even if it is like I said may be debated for a while.

So what is this story about? A legal drama? A cop drama? A mole drama? Nope. It is a drama about being human and the flaws that defines us.

MATT THE CHARACTER
None defines those than the main character, Matt who is in a wheelchair. Usually when we see a character on TV in a wheelchair, he is one we view with sympathy and in TVB world, usually the nice sweet one. At first that's what we thought Matt is until the first revelation is exposed; his true colours is not as simple as we think he is. Even then as a viewer who is quite emotionally invested in this story, I thought perhaps he can be redeemed. But as the series progresses, I realise the story is not keen on redeeming Matt; it in fact vilifies Matt and exposes him not just as a pretentious bastard, but a pretentious bastard with selfish intentions whose first and foremost interest is his own interest. To Matt, it is always what have I got to gain from all these? First it was money for surgery to his legs. For that he sacrificed an innocent woman's liberty.  Then it was for career and for that he sacrificed a really sincere man who wanted to atone for what he did wrong and to be Matt's friend. Then it was for love and for that he sacrificed everybody else, even if most deserved it. At the end it was for forgiveness, which in itself is a giving act but when it comes to Matt, it was not an act of selflessness but an act of utter selfishness and for that he sacrificed his own life, liberty and freedom. A heavy price to pay but he calculated it, he planned it, he thought about every move like a shrewd chess player and in the end he deduced he has more to gain than to lose. Even at the end Matt is a very calculative man, flawed and nothing likable. Can he be pitied? At times I do whenever he is being compared to the bigger villain and is proclaimed to be the worst of the lot. He wasn't. Yes he is manipulative, he uses love and friendship so perhaps that made him the biggest villain of all but he didn't kill. He never directly harmed another to be more precise. I never liked him, at times I try to feel for him and every time I almost succeed, there is another reason to dislike him. But I never hated Matt. It was never enough to hate him. In fact there were times I feel he indirectly helped the people he supposedly hurt.

For example, May his wife. He was the reason she was convicted of a crime she did not commit although he is not the reason she was arrested in the first place. And yet if without Matt, this silly May will still be chasing after bad guys and will eventually end up in prison some way of another. She seems so immature to me at first I felt prison matured her into a better more sensible person. In part it was due to Matt's encouragement, however insincere he may be, whatever he did May changed for the better.

Another example is Ming his own brother. Ming was imprisoned for a crime he did commit but it was entrapment from Matt. Ming was told by May that Matt was the reason, instead of anger, Ming reasoned whatever it may be, Matt helped him appeal his conviction and in a way if he was never greedy he would never have been caught in the first place. After being caught he reasoned he became a better man.

I know it is twisted logic but somehow Matt did the right thing but he did them with the bad intentions.

Another example is the issue of Scarlett, another silly woman and the violent numero uno villain, To Yee Hang. May find it disgusting that Matt manipulated and encouraged Scarlett to kill To Yee Hang when frankly, Scarlett didn't need any encouragement at all. That woman was stupid in the first place. I feel by wanting to kill To this Scarlett is doing the world a huge favour.

Same goes for Matt killing Lau Yim. Everyone blamed Matt for stabbing Lau Yim on the neck when everyone seems to forget Lau Yim was strangling Matt in the first place. It was part self defence part murder but the world is better off without a violent criminal like Lau Yim who killed without reason nor remorse. He even enjoyed killing people, such as throwing the fainted Sap Chai off a building, quite literally. No one remembered that but they all piled on the guilt on Matt for killing Lau Yim, which made absolutely no sense.

Unless of course you're talking about absolute black and white situations. For a series that is all about the grey, towards the end there is an insane need to justify everything in black and white matter. That is why I feel for Matt when he tearfully and frustratingly cried when May betrayed him as May said she did it because he was wrong, but to Matt, whatever he was doing was to protect her and for his own gain and there is no absolute right or wrong but in this cruel world, it is only me, myself and I. Sounds selfish but in that instance, I agree with Matt. This series almost destroyed itself when it needed to be right, wrong, black, white about everything. But the last scene proved otherwise and that is to me an apt ending which is why the English title is sort of on point.

Matt is the driving force of this series but other characters had almost equal billing in terms if interest and impact.

HIS ENDING'S DRAMATIC SCALE
Woahhhhhhh!!! Cooooool!

He will die, eventually since his kidney's done for. He needs dialysis. But he will die a very happy man in prison because he confesses all his crimes, got himself probably decades and will die in prison but he atones his image before May who will be bound by either guilt or pity or love or all to spend the rest of HIS days to visit him in prison. Problem is he didn't really genuinely atone for his sins. He faked his atonement to gain May's pity because what Matt wants, he will manipulate, he will cheat, he will beg, he will pretend, he will confess all crime, he will sacrifice his life to get what he wants. And he wants May's attention and in throwing away everything, he in the end won what he wants and so to me, Matt is the happiest person in this series in the end. Poor May.

ROGER THE ACTOR
I made an observation earlier on on how this series was gonna depict Matt, will there be car chase scene, foot chase scene, etc etc when I kinda realise you know, all these were impossible.

His disability was supposed to be the driving force of Matt's nature but frankly I have never seen such a mobile disabled person which is positive to see but not much impact for the series. Towards the middle, Matt could have been fully able bodied instead of disabled, it made no difference. That doesn't mean Roger was terrible. Quite the contrary, Roger was masterful. Ok, so the legs moved, didn't seem heavy or dead weight enough, he was super agile for a person whose legs can't move, rather OTT in some scenes (especially his evil stare and sneer which reminded me of Tavia Yeung's awful evil look in Beyond The Realm Of Conscious.. sorry... Conscience) BUT his best scenes, all towards the end and in that scene where May confronted him to tell him she had betrayed him and he cried out in frustration.. those scenes showed why Roger is one of the acting kings of TVB. Some other actors may be able to act as well in this role without going overboard but Roger did an amazing job. He was willing to go so low for this character, I applaud him.

ALTERNATE CHOICE
Ruco Chan is my other choice for this role just so to match Ron Ng in age. Roger is arguably and admittedly too old but perhaps maybe Matt and Funny aren't supposed to be matching in age anyway. Frankly I do not know. However I do  not know if Ruco could go as low as Roger did, even as a villain Ruco manages to be the desperate hero these days whilst Matt isn't supposed to be pitied or admired. In that sense Roger is to me the only choice for his ability to make the character so despicable.

FUNNY SIR THE CHARACTER
Funny Sir almost had  a point to justify his extreme hatred and determination to catch Matt for his crimes. Almost until he went too butt hurt for me. It was almost vengeful, vendetta sort of butt hurt because Matt used him, he almost had Funny killed, etc etc. I get it that Matt is terrible, Funny is angry but the most infuriating thing about Funny is, he thinks he is always right even when he is as ruthless and at times as terrible as Matt. He drove his girlfriend to almost madness and depression, he married someone he love for the reason to get close to her dad to investigate her dad, he had a part in causing her to lie in a vegetative state at the end, he caused his own mother's death, he reasoned Matt was worse than To which was pure stupidity in my opinion (for one Matt never executed his own wife point blank without remorse), he used May to make sure Matt continue to go his criminal ways just so he can catch Matt later. I know he is supposed to be a righteous character but I do get a feeling towards the end he was supposed to be so out of his mind with vengeance he has lost his way until his mom died and in a moment of clarity he became the straight as an arrow cop again. Problem is I still hated Funny because I find him unjustly in his accusations and a hypocrite in justifying his actions. I am not sure am I supposed to hate Funny but like one commenter said some time ago about Ron in Ruse Of Engagement, he always manages to star in a character that "stops the world from spinning" sort.

HIS ENDING'S DRAMATIC SCALE
Blahhhhhh!!!

Doesn't die, not maimed, lives to tell the tale. Skeptical over Matt's supposed atonement but still friends with May. And he will be the richest of them all. Why? To Yee Hang dies without a Will, Scarlet the wife dies, Gillian the daughter in persistent vegetative state and may die and so in the end all passes to the son in law, Funny Sir!

So unfair.

RON NG THE ACTOR
Poor Ron Ng. He somehow could make Funny so annoying or maybe on paper Funny is a funny sort of character, in a bad way. I will say this series is perhaps Ron Ng's best dramatic role, because I see more than bored stoned out look on his face. He could look angry stoned out, sad stoned out, etc etc. In this role he cried, he shouted, he teased, everything in one role. His best moments were the buddy-buddy moment, his worst will be his dramatic moments, but that being said, Ron Ng gave his best in here. He is not the worst actor in this series, and to me this is one of if not Ron Ng's finest eventhough I will say he was better in Triumph In The Skies II BUT Isaac is way classier than Funny. But you gotta give him props for looking admirable even when being called Funny Sir at the most dramatic moments in this series. As for his Funny, I don't know, could it be the Ron Ng curse that every dramatic character he plays always ends up being so "stops the world from spinning"?

MARCO MA THE CHARACTER
Marco Ma is the villain with a heart in here. His downfall is he is not as ruthless and self serving as Matt, not as manipulative and evil as To, not as carefree as a villain as Lau Yim and fell for the wrong woman that is Scarlet. Basically he is this series 2nd most pitiful character. I really do feel for this man.

HIS ENDING'S DRAMATIC SCALE
Nooooooo!!!!!!!

Tried to kill himself after that Scarlet woman was a super bitch to him but he didn't die, had me guessing was he or was he not but in the end confirmed he was indeed crazy due to the impact of the water thing in the car thing in the river thing. And he remains so at the end and for me, 2nd happiest character in this series since he forgot his misery.

LOUIS CHEUNG THE ACTOR
Fast becoming one of my most favourite actor in TVB. I don't know what is it about him. He is not very good looking, he is not very tall, he is not even considered dashing but I can't stop looking at him. He wears those Bosco silly looking costumes and guess what? He wears them so much better! Bosco looks like hobo, Louis looks like a rich guy. His character reminds me of Bosco's in Ultimate Addiction and Louis was more convincing as a rich guy who has a secret. This man has serious acting chops, serious singing chops, serious dancing chops and he has a great speaking voice and very expressive eyes. And he does kissing scenes too without complaining. He made Marco Ma memorable and manages to maintain his dignity and in some ways his humanity, thus making Marco Ma the reluctant villain and the least despicable amongst the men in this series. He is the actor to look out for.

TO YEE HANG THE CHARACTER
There must be some irony that the character is a bald benign looking guy who loves his daughter the most and he turns out to be a rapist, an abuser, a violent wife beater, a murderer who does not gets his hands dirty except in the end, a control freak and a dirty businessman all rolled into one. Villain of the year? Perhaps because he is to me the ultimate villain. There are some inconsistency of course, like  how again and again TVB never ever depicts a decent legal aspect in a drama, many of them revolving To Yee Hang but on the dramatic scale, this is one character you will be scared of and wanna smack as well. By the way I don't quite like how rich people are depicted. Surely there must be some nice kind hearted not very control freak rich person out there somewhere? This series tells me all rich successful people are bad people.

HIS ENDING'S DRAMATIC SCALE
Perfect!!!!

Seriously, no TVB drama has ever ended a villain's life as satisfying as this series. First he ran away and off into the streets, turned back to smirk and suddenly WHAM! Got hit by a car and his back hit the stationary lorry when the same car that hit him got knocked at the bumper by a car that couldn't stop in time and so our villain was now knocked a second time and pinned between the car and the lorry. What could have made it ultimate death will be his prolonged death like blood oozing out of his mouth and he tried to move his mouth to speak but couldn't and then slowly die a painful death. But one can't complain too much. I will take this death as it is.

WAISE LEE THE ACTOR
I am however not convinced with the acting, maybe he looks too nice, you know. Maybe that's the point. In retrospect, maybe he wasn't egoistical looking enough, not angry enough, not control freak enough but in a way it was a competent performance by a veteran. Perhaps if he had been too this or too that he would have been a caricature because towards the end To Yee Hang was in the danger zone of being a caricature. Therefore, good performance.

LAU YIM THE CHARACTER
He has got to be the coolest most heartless villain ever, and yet this very same heartless villain put above all else the value of friendship. He was Marco's henchman and friend from prison and even when Marco betrayed him, he lied for Marco. I don't know; this cruel evil man threw Sap Chai down a building simply because he could and he betrays May his lover and also beats up his sister and yet I admired his sense of brotherhood. Strange.

HIS ENDING'S DRAMATIC SCALE
Great but too short!!

Matt struggled with Lau Yim who was strangling Matt when Matt took out a swiss knife and plunge it into his neck. And that is how Lau Yim aka Ah Fo perished. Need more blood.

MATT YEUNG THE ACTOR
Since Matt Yeung is mostly expressionless but cool, this character suited him perfectly. No complaints although at first when the series started he was this super cool gangsta who robbed a designer bag store, I was like what? Poor gangsta issit? Rob a store? Of course that was before the whole story started.


NG SHING YEE THE CHARACTER
Aka Sap Chai. The most pitiful and perhaps the most blameless character even if he was flawed. He got set up from the get go and his ending was so sad and very very dramatic.

HIS ENDING'S DRAMATIC SCALE
Off the roof and puns intended!

Seriously, he was knocked unconscious and then Lau Yim carried him and threw him down the roof and we even get to see his body hit the floor. Very very dramatic and shocking, perhaps so shocking everyone watching with me gasped loudly. Now THAT is dramatic!

DAVID TO THE ACTOR
I did not realise this was the young actor playing Anne Heung's dark skinned son in Love Is Beautiful until Kidd reminded me and my god, now I remember. He looks the same. Excellent performance. He does look like a man in desperation, very scared, etc even if at times I feel too much scenes of him acting like a coward. The thing is his Sap Chai never really became brave and I suppose that is why this series rock. Not one character becomes the hero of the day but all of them are flawed.


MAY THE CHARACTER
Started out intriguing, the middle sort of disappear from the story and then came back into the storyline. I feel her story is not standalone; hers is to serve the purpose of Matt's story. Maybe to show that he has a loving side even if we viewers like May at the end finds out and accept the harsh truth; you can't love someone who proclaim to love you the most and yet treat everyone like shit. You can't ignore that. And Matt loves only himself at the end of the day, even if he wanted to sacrifice his own life for May, he did it because he knew he would look good in front of May and not out of the goodness of his heart. Which is realistic. I however ended up disliking May because I feel this series tries too hard to be black and white with characters. May is like a complete canvas where you can see everything, guess everything. The moment she found out Matt was responsible in part for her imprisonment, she broke up with him. When she saw the youtube video, she reconciled. When she was told by Miu Miu Matt seems to be the bad guy in disguise as the good guy, for a moment she hesitated and yet she went on to investigate him. In the end she betrayed him when she knew he did a lot of bad things (which to me isn't that bad to justify the betrayal). However as justice would have it (yes, justice because she needs to suffer too) she will probably bind herself to Matt when she finds out Matt confesses to everything and is dying, thinking he truly repents when he doesn't. What I would have love to see is May being hopelessly devoted to Matt. When she first found out about the prison thing, I would have hoped that she buried it deep inside her, forgive Matt and move on because by that time Matt was the man who in more ways than one encouraged her and changed her for the better. Prison was actually better for her. Then I was hoping it would fester, create a fake lull until she finds out about Ah Fo's death BUT even then she shouldn't have been angry. Ah Fo was violent criminal, she should understand. But it should be Ming's incarceration that should open her eyes and in the end she will come to a natural and sad conclusion the man she loved never was that man at all. Hence the betrayal which would justify the tears, the anger, the disappointment. Come on! You got on with a guy who took money to put an innocent woman into jail, how much worse can he be than that and yet you still got on with him. Surely everything else wasn't as worse. I feel May was badly fleshed out. I didn't feel for her because I feel she knew what she was getting; in fact when she betrayed Matt I thought she was more despicable. After all by that time we knew Matt did everything for her and frankly his crimes are more white collar than murder and stuff.

KRISTAL TIN THE ACTRESS
At first glance, a total and absolute miscast. She is too old for this role and she is not pretty enough because since May is pursued by quite a few, one would assume she is pretty and also because she is so idealistic and into romance with bad boys, one would assume young, maybe mid 20s at most. However her face suits when it comes the "strong on the outside, very weak on the inside". Kristal always gives me an impression she is a very independent strong woman. May shows the same aspect but when things fall apart, she crumbles and falls down hard. That is where again she is back to being a miscast. I am not convinced by her performance. It doesn't help she looks the same and dresses the same like in No Good Either Way except I like her more there and I do here. I also find the character not very well written so Kristal is basically given a weak character to play and she disappears from the screen and from the story, as if she is not the leading character next to Roger and Ron. Not her best work, not even memorable in that sense.

ALTERNATE CHOICE
If Charmaine was younger, I will say Charmaine Sheh. Now, ok you can go "WHAT?!" but I will say Aimee Chan but she is not very believable as someone not very educated but she has this youthful look, before the baby came along. Selena Li can play the bad girl turned desperate girl turned dutiful girlfriend turned angry girlfriend but I can't stand the way she speaks. So... at the end of the day I will say Linda Chung because this can be rather similar to her excellent and best role in A Journey Called Life. However the role can also be adapted to a Mainland China character working and living in HK so that will widen the pool of actresses.

SCARLET THE CHARACTER
One despicable woman. I should have guessed she would be such when she started the affair with Marco. On a scale of selfishness, she matches Matt but the difference is Matt is selfish but tries hard not to hurt his beloved whilst Scarlet is selfish and she has no problem walking over Marco's dead body.

HER ENDING'S DRAMATIC SCALE
Bull's eye!

I don't condone domestic violence and I felt pity when she was abused, raped, bullied by To Yee Hang. But when she from victim became the aggressor, and in light of poor Marco, I didn't care. She deserved the beatings. Quite simply because she crawled on all fours back to him. She had a chance to run away with Marco and enjoy riches, live a good life in South America. Imagine; samba in Brazil, tango here, flamenco there but she said she wanted revenge. Revenge my foot! She wanted more money and status and name and fame which only To Yee Hang can give. No pity for her. She asked for it. Her ending as well even if To Yee Hang did it in a cold blooded way, again no pity for her.

LEANNE LI THE ACTRESS
A very prominent role for her, in fact she sometimes have more screen time and more story than Kristal Tin. Was she good? Ok lar. She is not the best actress around. She still speaks haltingly, and breathing heavily. Fans seem to praise her that she has improved. Yeah, she improved but she wasn't great. Competent is the word but she does do the "fidgeting" aspect perfectly. Poor girl though; had to wear ballet slippers the whole time even when in revealing tight gowns that benefits from super high 6 inches monster heels.

One thing I must comment on. Remember all those 2 seconds rape scenes by prominent actresses which became the selling point of the series? And yet here is Leanne, filming a rather graphic scene (by TVB's standard) of her being forced by Waise's character. It was a long scene complete with visuals and sounds and some inter cut scenes with Louise and back to her and the guy on top of her looking very very in distress. And yet not one word on this in English news site, not that I know of. Anyway whatever pity I felt for her kinda eroded in the next few episodes in this series' attempt to vilify almost every character in some ways.

GILLIAN THE CHARACTER
Quite a pitiful character; deceived by her father whom she sees as a saint, betrayed by her husband whom she loves very much, despised by a mother in law she respected, hated by her own stepmother. And she has no friends. She is always alone. She is highly educated, very nice, very kind hearted to the point she can hurt people with her kindness (Sap Chai for example) and elegant in her educated rich girl kinda way. Pampered but not arrogant and never self centred. She is the perfect daughter that one could hardly believe To Yee Hang managed to give birth to. However she is also too much rainbows and ponies in her mind; too idealistic, too trusting and too mollycoddled that she can't face the truth of whatever is the truth. In the end one question is answered; she chose her father. Even when confronted with her father's criminal activities, she chose to run to her father and expose her husband. I think by that time she was already half mad. Blame Funny.

HER ENDING'S DRAMATIC SCALE
Bone crushing!

Poor poor girl. She was accidentally pushed by her father who was struggling against Funny when she fell head first. I thought she broke her neck. Nope, she just never woke up from her coma. No happy ending for her. Blame who? Funny!

LISA THE ACTRESS
Sometimes Jillian, sometimes Julian, sometimes G-lee-en (not as bad as Triumph In The Skies' Zoe), I do not know this actress. At very first glance I knew she had major work done to her face. If you think why Funn should you concentrate on her looks when acting skills should matter, well TV is something you watch, meaning you see. I can't help it; if actresses go to a cheapskate plastic surgeon or did extensive facial work, I am bound to notice it. I can't ignore it. I googled her original face and she did her eyes, her nose and not sure what else. Her makeup doesn't help. Her hair which was long at first is a wig but I question if her short hair is also a wig. She looks like this Mainland Chinese actress, Sun Fei Fei whose face is pretty but is so plastic she could hardly emote anything. Lisa is still young, her work is a lot but not enough to kill the muscle on her face, so yes, there's quite a lot of emoting. But I can't help it; she looks so plain weird, it is just embarrassing to watch. The surgeon did a terrible job. That being said, the pity is this girl has serious acting chops. She can act! True! She can! I mean she was more than competent. But her face, I just can't get over her face. It was scary, like one scene she suddenly appeared to catch Ron going through Waise's stuff. She looked very very scary.

OTHER CHARACTERS & PERFORMANCES
Miu Miu is annoying like hell. But the actress May Chan is good. I know the voice is annoying with the babytalk voice but I do think it was deliberate. But yes I agree, I wanted her to just shut up. Strangely though, Miu Miu is the character with the voice of reason many times over.

Becky Lee is Denise pronounced as Dennis. Poor girl, forever the unwanted unloved one to the hero, in this case Marco Ma. If Marco had married Denise, all would have been perfect. Denise is a loyal friend and lover, she never betrayed Marco and even till the end she would visit Marco. Becky the actress did a very good job. I enjoyed her performance even if she looked very very very sad with too much lip gloss.

Madam Sinn is another interesting character that fades in and out of the story that at times she seems pointless. Kiki Sheung did well as the stern but loving mother. Her scenes with Ron are very good to watch and Ron always does well when with a veteran. As if he suddenly feel "Eh I gotta do better in this scene because it's Kiki Sheung man!!!". That sort.

Can you believe Jason Chan has a role in here? Yeap! As a hot shot young lawyer named Alvis. Seriously, this man is good looking, he speaks good English with an English accent, and when he doesn't talk, when he just stand there and do nothing, say nothing and just smirk, he really looks the part. But then he had to speak. He is TVB's worst siu sang and yet he would have been perfectly cast as Tony Hung's character in Rear Mirror with all the fidgeting and the unsureness in his speech. Pity he is often cast as someone so very confident in himself and yet I feel he doesn't have that.

Not sure who is the actor who plays the bad cop who laid a trap for Sap Chai and his gun. He was thrown into the sea and drowned though I am not sure if it was on Marco's order or the boat people wanted his money and threw him into the sea. Looks the part, plays the part well.

I don't know who is the actor portraying Kwong King Cheong but I will bet his character's name is the most spoken of character apart from Hung Kwok Tung because the series started with these 2 characters. His character is also one of the few surprises in this series; he had nothing to do with Hung Kwok Tung's death or even Sap Chai's death. Funny never seem to declare this gangster as "worse than To Yee Hang" despite the fact that he was head honcho for Marco then Matt then To then Scarlet and then himself. And he has the happiest ending next to Matt; he got away with ALL his crimes because no one seems to be arresting or investigating him. The actor did fantastically well. He really looked like his character.

The actor who portrayed Hung Kwok Tung is the catalyst of this series and yet I do not know his name nor can I comment on his performance since he has so few scenes. But his death was dramatic.

SOME NITPICKING
The PP Vs May case is strange. I mean the arguments were well put forward; Roger did well and presented well and they were all logical. But the downfall for the case which is the fingerprints is also the downfall of the logic. Fingerprints on the bags is easily explained; she works there, she must have touched the bag. Why she kept the bag can also be explained; she panicked. She didn't have criminal record so she is not a seasoned criminal. Her reaction is expected. Why she told no one can also be explained. Ah Fo is her boyfriend, he is a violent man, if she tells he might kill her or maybe she loves him too much to betray him. The fingerprints on the necklace which was given by Hung Kwok Tung to his fiance/wife is harder to explain; but no one can say when Hung showed the necklace to his fiance/wife, May did not touch it in admiration or something. Doubt can be cast. It doesn't make sense at all in that sense.

VERDICT
Very good entertainment, very good series, well written for some characters, very well acted generally and for the first time, a series with a proper end for every character. The ending is one that I really really like. I like how bold it is, how controversial it can be and how in the end the anti hero never became the hero. He remained the anti hero or rather the villain. Now that is bold writing. Sadly the others had to be black or white which is disappointing but illustrates how frustrating for a man like Matt who lives in the real world whilst the rest live in their la la land. This is a series populated by villains, so I am sure you will find one to hate, one to pity and one to like. My bet is hate To Yee Hang, pity Matt at some point and like Marco Ma.

A must watch because even if it just a decent series, it is a very good decent series.

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Ghost Dragon of Cold Mountain / 寒山潛龍 [TVB][2014][R] Funn Lim

Written by Funn Lim

One thing was absolutely dismal and total fail with this series; the kung fu. It was so terrible, so amateurish, so inadequate, it is not even worth reviewing this aspect.

SPOILERS ... SPOILERS ... SPOILERS

RELEASED IN
2014

NO. OF EPISODES
30

CAST-CHARACTERS
Kenneth Ma - Chu Cheung Sing
Pierre Ngo - Ngau Tai Lik
Power Chan - Ma Chuen Kung
Selena Li - To Fa / Yan Mei Leung
Lin Xia Wei - Yeung Mau
Raymond Cho - Hung Sap Kau
Lau Kong - Fung Nam Tin
Ram Tseung - Emperor
Law Lok Lam
Cheung Kwok Keung - 4th Duke/Royal uncle
Mary Hon - Empress Dowager
Candy Chang - Wan Ling
Eric Li - Sheh Pak Nin
Kelvin Leung
Hoffman Cheng
Jonathan Cheung - Jin's prince

SYNOPSIS
The Tin Kei Agency of the Northern Song, an investigation agency specializing in solving strange cases in the kingdom, is headed by the wise Fung Nam Tin (Lau Kong), who leads a group of extremely well-trained constables. His favorite apprentice, Chu Cheung Sing (Kenneth Ma), is wisdom and courage embodied in one, but Nam Tin and Cheung Sing end their partnership when they fail to come to a consensus on how to solve a particular case. Cheung Sing ends up leaving the agency to live a simple and peaceful life with his wife, To Fa (Selena Li).

Ten years later, the aging Nam Tin orders three of his most-skilled apprentices – Ma Chuen Kung (Power Chan), Ngau Tai Lik (Ngo Ka Nin), and Yeung Mau (Lin Xiawei) – to reach out to Cheung Sing and convince him to return. Cheung Sing agrees to work with the agency again, but his personality often clashes with his three partners, causing the four to frequently fight. Meanwhile, Cheung Sing is separated from his wife, but his feelings become conflicted when he ends up meeting a prostitute who looks exactly like her.

Cheung Sing learns that the opposing Jurchen kingdom has placed a mole within the Tin Kei Agency and his good friend, Hung Sap Kau (Raymond Cho) is exploited by the enemy. Cheung Sing does not know whom to trust. The line between friend and foe continues to be blurry. [Jaynestars]


FOR MORE INFO
Some episodic reviews here at http://www.point2e.com/2014/07/o-ghost-dragon-of-cold-mountain-tvb2014.html

COMMENTS
Originally billed  as a return to wuxia until the story proper begins and it is nothing about wuxia. It is in fact a modern concept of a series with semi pseudo modern lingo throw in everywhere purportedly in the Song Dynasty which could have been Ming Dynasty for all I care and with characters doing things that I don't suppose anyone will understand. For one, what is this "Tin Gei Agency"? What does it do? Why is it there? Why the people in the town who knows the officers in "Tin Gei Agency" doesn't seem to know them when they're supposedly in disguise whilst looking the same or are they in another town? Is this Infernal Affairs in ancient time? And oh no, not another twin sisters storyline!!

But you know what? I like it. I was charmed by it. It has its good points as well as many many bad points but the effort and sincerity in the performances are good enough reasons to give this series a chance. Just a chance because I am sure you may be tempted to give up after 3 episodes. If you keep going, it takes a good further few more episodes to like this series and by the end of it, if you persevere, it has one of the most complete and to me satisfying ending in a TVB series. It is not Brother's Keeper crap or Ruse Of Engagement sadness; it is hopeful and for some, joyous.

The story itself is confusing. It tries to be too modern with the modern lingo and concept.

For example, Cheung Sing's wife suing for divorce based on Cheung Sing's adultery with her evil twin sister, Yan Mei Leung. Looks good in modern times but in olden times, if she succeeded and in a highly moral society like Song Dynasty, Cheung Sing and Yan Mei Leung would have been drowned. So it made no sense, but it made for a rather romantic moment as Cheung Sing repeatedly and forcefully tells Yan Mei Leung he couldn't care less about her. In fact, he couldn't care less about his unborn child "baking" in Yan Mei Leung's body which to me is nice to watch. It is realistic. This man is not gonna give up on the love of his life over a fetus.

Then there's the medical procedures, etc which made me see this series is pseudo Criminal Minds meets CSI meets FBI meets CIA. "Tin Gei Agency" has more characteristics of FBI (investigating federal crimes) than just a simple investigative bureau. They only investigate cases that falls within national crisis, like deaths of ministers, etc although after a while they investigate basically everything.

The story is nothing amazing, not consistent and you will need to suspend logic and well and everything your mind is telling you, such as this is a silly series. There are times I wonder where is the consistency, at most times I wonder "how on earth???" where the plot needed to proceed and didn't do too well in bridging between 2 scenes to proceed credibly. This is especially so during "Yan Mei Leung disguising as To Fa" scenes. There were too many things Yan Mei Leung seems to know about To Fa to make any of those scenes credible. It was quite simply too convenient.

Some characters had you wondering "are they, aren't they" which at times make for good suspense but at most times just confuses the hell out of me. When there is a spy in "Tin Gei Agency" and we know that much earlier on, we are left wondering who can that be? It was pretty obvious but not quite sure.

At first I suspected Sheh Pak Nin but he turns out to be a loser and nothing else. Disappointing though because this character could have turned out to be either redeemed hero or ultimate loser and he was the latter. I was hoping he would be redeemed when half way through the series Chuen Kung told Cheung Sing that Pak Nin lost his confidence due to the presence of Cheung Sing and I was really hoping Cheung Sing would try to help Pak Nin to find his groove again. Unfortunately the series needed a villain and Pak Nin was it. Poor Eric Li.

Then I suspected Chuen Kung because I like the potential dilemma; his father was framed as a traitor and so potentially he had every reason to turn on the Song Dynasty although it is shown earlier on Chuen Kung was steadfastly loyal to the emperor, his boyhood friend as well as saviour (the emperor saved his life from execution and becoming sort of stateless when his father was declared a traitor). Towards the end I was really hoping his father WAS a traitor or was a mole and so the son will continue his work. But then, that would be a great insult to what a great guy Chuen Kueng was. So in the end I am quite pleased he turned out to be a hero although he also had me guessing who he loved and guess what? His ending is very satisfying as well.

So in the end it was the chief of the agency who became the PM, that was Fung Nam Tin. You probably have guessed he was the one but yet, there is something you can emphatise with this Fung Nam Tin. He probably became a Song citizen longer than he was a Jin citizen. He was placed as a mole since very very young and he worked his way up which shows he was a capable man. He seemed to genuinely care about the emperor but we all know that is a fallacy. But he also seemed to genuinely care about his subordinates, like Cheung Sing whom he treated as his own son, his 2nd chance at life to Tai Lik, his gentle approach to Yeung Mau and his leadership with his agency. Like how Cheung Sing said in the end, Fung Nam Tin treated them with kindness, so was he a bad person? I find Fung Nam Tin very intriguing for the fact that he is a mole, he probably believe in his country's case and he was probably quite conflicted with his dual identity. His sorry ending was in a way bittersweet eventhough frankly he had zero chance at what he was doing. I find that the revelation of his deviousness half baked and rushed.

Then there was the 2 strange characters.

The emperor is one strange man. Many times he showed himself a kind person but useless. It was agreed he wasn't a good candidate to be emperor, and he only got the position because I believe his brother died young. He never wanted the position anyway. Many times this emperor had me wondering was he pretending or was he really that dumb? Let me assure you most of the time he was really that dumb. However his ending was to me the best ending for this series. In fact anyone questioning how will he survive will be answered by Chuen Kung himself. No half done or half baked ending. His ending was complete and the most joyous one for his situation.

The 4th duke/royal uncle is also strange. First he was the villain, trying to take over and supplant the emperor and he became sort of mad with anger when he failed and was imprisoned in a temple for the rest of his life. Even his eunuch was devious and I thought that was the end of his story until of course he will be revealed as the ultimate villain. Well, I was wrong. Fung Nam Tin was the ultimate villain and the 4th duke's story did not end when his bid for the throne ended. In fact the 4th duke's story has a rather strange twist and in the end a good one which redeems his character and just shows in the beginning all his wariness and suspicion over the emperor and Fung Nam Tin was justified.

But for me, I enjoyed this series because of a few interesting reasons. Some you may agree, some may baffle you.

I really do enjoy Kenneth Ma's performance in a limited sort of way. He looks great in this series, however I still dislike how he manages to "wimp" his every character by simply being really bad at showing sadness or crying. I hate how his character became so wimp like towards the end, nothing heroic, and certainly nothing suave. That being said, I also find him effectively funny when he is needed to be funny or cute or humorous. Just don't expect him to be great at the dramatic parts. Not a bad performance in my book and one of his better ones.

Surprisingly I also enjoyed Selena Li's performance. I will even declare this is her breakthrough performance and by her own standard, it is her best ever. And I stress, her own standard because a better actress, or rather a more nuanced actress would have been better than Selena Li. You can see she tried really hard in 3 different personalities and it shows. As To Fa, she was silly, not so bright (but not stupid either) and loud as the supportive wife of Cheung Sing. As Yan Mei Leung, she was dark, brooding, devious and a very very very angry woman. The third character was in the last episode she is the changed Yan Mei Leung who more gentle, refined and a happier person. I can certainly see the differences in all these 3 distinct personalities and I salute her for a job (or jobs) well done. However she seems rather OTT in the first 2 personalities, that to make the difference she has to be so totally and very very different which makes her performance not as great as it should have been. But she has improved a lot, she made the effort, she did her part(s) and kudos to her breakthrough and best performance todate.

I thoroughly enjoyed Raymond Cho's performance. He may be too old for this sort of character but he happens to excel as the goofy guy in this series who provides the comedy and the drama as well. I really enjoyed his chemistry with the male cast and although Candy as Wan Ling was not the best performance ever, they shared this cute chemistry together, mostly because of Raymond Cho. I also love how cute Raymond Cho was with Law Lok Lam. Have you ever imagined Law Lok Lam, the man with such a fierce and serious face with a very serious demeanour and a serious reputation as an actor (although a caring one) could be cute and funny? Yes he was! Check out his many cute moments when he was with Raymond Cho, especially the later scene where his character was facing the emperor waiting for rewards. It was just a little or small gesture but any gesture capable of bringing out the cuteness in this awesome well respected titan of a veteran is much appreciated.

I also enjoyed Pierre Ngo's performance as Tai Lik. He seemed like a ruffian at first and I thought for a while he may be an eunuch (how awesome would that be?!) but in the end he has a heart of gold. His character went through a huge change, for the better and even his complexion got smoother towards the end. Pierre Ngo is a dependable actor when in the right role and in here, he is supporting at best but he manages to stay within the eyesight of viewers and yet does not grab the limelight from others. In short, he is a team player and I enjoyed his performance.

I never liked Lin Xiawei. I never considered her pretty and I never liked the way she talked with that baby voice but luckily, she turned off the baby voice and adopted a serious voice. If her Yeung Mau is a tomboy, she failed. But if her Yeung Mau is strong and steadfast in her duty and person, then yes, she did well. However I never liked Lin Xiawei for reasons I do not know why. I just don't like her and so whilst she was ok as Yeung Mau, for me she didn't stand out nor should she since she is not the leading lady. Yes her face may be the biggest in the poster, bigger than Selena but the truth is she is at best supporting.

The one I absolutely love is Power Chan as Chuen Kung. That man is pure arrogance but I don't think he knows he is arrogant. He knows himself as very smart, the smartest of them all, very capable and very wise and he doesn't seem to know it offends people since he knows he is just that sort of a person and everyone should just accept that. Many times in earlier scenes he always declared himself as the most capable. He is in fact the most capable and should be leading the departments or even as the main top guy or even the PM. However he is not and I will assume he is the most important, respected and with the highest profile of anyone in a lowly position as his. But he is wise and perhaps the best representative of the Song era and none of the modern lingo and jargon we hear. He is the "what if" for me; meaning if the series were properly written in the way Chuen Kung best represent it in terms of his speech and in his seriousness, perhaps this series would have been a classic. Chuen Kung also happens to have perhaps a great unexpected ending and he also has the distinction of uttering my most favourite line in this series (not verbatim);

Your majesty, a person should only be concerned with 3 stages in life; past, present and future. Since whatever happened has happened, why worry about the past? Since whatever is going to happen you can't know, why worry about the present? Since whatever is going to happen has yet to happen, why worry about the future?

That line hit me like a runaway train. Very very wise and a complete gem. Who knew TVB actually had smart writers writing such a classy line eh? By the way Power Chan even got the chance to repeat his famous line from The Confidant (the one about the fiery phoenix) and in this series, he did it in a masculine way. I really do understand why Chuen Kung got all the attentions of the ladies!


But sadly, the writing isn't as classy for the rest of the series. This is such a confusing series. The title suggests a good wuxia series about the wulin world but it is so far removed from that. The English title is deceptive. The dynasty suggests it is about moral, law and justice but this series isn't really that. The content suggests a smart olden day Ruse Of Engagement sort of story; a mole within the organisation with a huge emotional back story but that was never properly realised, never properly told. It was more of a climax rather than the story itself, meaning it meant to shock more than assist in telling a complete story. The characters are fun to watch but in the end dragged down by the modern lingoes, modern concept and nothing resembling the olden days of Song Dynasty or any dynasty for that matter. It never felt Song, never felt ancient. In fact it would have been better to set this in Ming Dynasty to show highly skilled corrupt eunuchs but then there's no story of the barbarians or invaders like the Jins. Hence the necessity of this dynasty. The story is not consistent enough to be compelling but there were some moments where the story is good enough to chase and this was towards the end. The beginning of this series is more on investigations which were rather fun to watch but again bears no resemblance to the route it will eventually take for the ending. Like I said, not consistent but rather enjoyable to watch.

However 2 things were absolutely right with this series.

The costumes are good even if limited. And the scenery is jaw droppingly awesome, all filmed in China and is the redeeming factor of this series, apart from Power Chan. I love the natural surroundings, I can see Hengdian I believe but the temple where 4th Duke was supposedly imprisoned was amazing looking. You have got to see it to believe it. It may not felt like Song or ancient dynasty but these scenery and locations made this series look credibly well budgeted for a series set in ancient times. You can't fault the locations.

One thing was absolutely dismal and total fail with this series; the kung fu. It was so terrible, so amateurish, so inadequate, it is not even worth reviewing this aspect. In fact this series consciously knows how terrible it is that there are very very very few scenes of major kung fu moments and even if there were, they were mostly short. I find it very sad that TVB who were once rather good with all those kung fu in ancient series could be so terrible in this series. Maybe lack of good practice. TVB hasn't made any decent wuxia series in recent years. Maybe it is time to bring out the trampoline and go back to basics.

VERDICT
A good entertaining series that many will find elements to enjoy. I certainly enjoyed it very much, much to my surprise.

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