Get a free giffgaff Sim Hi there...: 2012

Saturday 20 October 2012

天梯 The Last Steep Ascent Review


I wanted to watch The Last Steep Ascent from the beginning as I thought it was lovely how the script is based on a real story. I'm glad I watched the series, it was never boring and it didn't drag. The ending was quite rushed in my opinion though, as I later talk about!

Moses Chan as Miu Tin and Maggie Cheung as Sun Yuet


Miu Tin first meet Sun Yuet, 8 years his senior when she was 18 on her day of marriage. Sun Yuet had left a deep impression on him ever since. Being born in the countryside, Miu Tin has an excellent knowledge of the quality of chinese medicine. When Sun Yuet's husband and owner of their family business dies the business lies in the hands of Sun Yuet who also has to protect it from the villains Kwan Yiu and Sai Ho. Since Sun Yuet has had no experience of running a business she is under deep pressure. Luckly, Miu Tin comes over to help her, even angering his then boss Chai Man who had promoted him to high positions quickly in his own business.

Miu Tin works with Sun Yuet together to protect the business from a variety of problems. The two trust each other entirely on everything and always have endless conversations. This leads people to start talking of the two having a affair even though the two are innocent.

Later Kwan Yiu and Sai Ho finds a secret of Sun Yuet's husband. Exposing it to the rest of the family, all the seniors decided that the business should be given to Sai Ho to manage. Sai Ho has a plan to make the business fail so he can open his own afresh, so he does not have to share the profits with the other family members. He almost succeeds: he ruins the business and sells it to get a load of money. He escapes to Hong Kong. However, Miu Tin could see his plans and he was the buyer of the business and contacted the police to arrest him. His father, Kwan Yiu suffered a second stroke and became wheel bound. Even though he wanted the business for his son, he had always wanted the business to do well.

Since the business went to Sai Ho's hands, Sun Yuet and Miu Tin hardly saw each other any more. When Miu Tin saves teh business once again Sun Yuet's mother-in-law tells her to leave with Miu Tin as she understands that Sun Yuet had developed feelings for him. Sun Yuet decides to find Miu Tin. She is lead to him by the moon and they decided to live up at a mountain where they could see a laughing moon. She brings her three children to the mountain too. Even when the children grow up and leave the mountain, the couple stay there. Mui Tian spends 50 years to make a staircase from the top of the mountain down for Sun Yuet to walk down safely. Mui Tian dies of age old after these 50 years, telling Sun Yuet to live well and long after he leaves and that he will build another stair case for her in heaven if it is hard to get there. When he dies, Sun Yuet leaves the mountain with her children.

I wouldn't say that this pair is boring. It was always nice to see their interactions. I could see their deep trust for each other but not quite where they fell in love. I guess Miu Tin had always remembered Sun Yuet from when he met her as a child, but I don't see how Sun Yuet would feel anything more for him than extreme gratitude. It was nice watching the series though, knowing that the two would end up together and spend a number of  happy decades together! 

Like I said in this post, it's unbelivable how Miu Tin is so clever. Determining the quality of the chinese medicines ok, but now runnning an actual business?? It's even worse when they promote Cheung Kiu to his position. Even thought he's a great guy I don't know where he would have the knowledge to run his own business. Cheung Kiu had never made any big decisions, it had always been up to Miu Tin.

I thought that Maggie's acting was a bit too "see lai" at times especially when she talks. I will miss her though. I remember seeing her on TVB all those years ago before she got ill and now she's leaving TVB again only after filing a few series with them. I like Moses' acting though. I do think he's portrayed almost every single type o character he can now. The only bit of his acting that bothered me was when he was dying. He's this 80 year old dying man but he still manages to talk like he's full of energy will no pauses in between his lines. Also I didn't like their "old" make-up. It didn't look real at all!



Kenny Wong as Cheung Kiu and Aimee Chan as Oi Tai


Cheung Kiu lives in pain as his wife and son had deceased due to him being drunk when his wife gave birth so there was no one around to give her help. Similarly Oi Tai lives in pain. Being the 3rd party of Sun Yuet and her husband's marriage, she is left with nothing when Sai Cheung dies. Worse still she is raped by a stranger and becomes pregnant. When Cheung Kiu finds out after she attempts to commit suicide he assumes that the child belongs to Sai Cheung. He decides to elope with her to a place where no one knows them to start fresh. However on the day where they were to escape Sun Yuet finds out and brings Oi Tai to her home. Oi Tai follows her as she doesn't want to be a burden to Cheung Kiu: she belives that he would be much more successful without her. However it is soon found out that her child doesn't belong to Sai Cheungs. Sun Yuet and her mother in law sympathises with her and forgives her. Cheung Kiu and Oi Tai finally both decide to be together and they get married. Later Cheung Kiu  runs the business owed by Chai Man.

I quite liked this pair, even though like the former pair I didn't really know how they fell in love. I did wonder of Cheung Kiu would look after Oi Tai so much if she didn't have the same name as his wife. But after all the beating ups and sacrifices he made for her I knew that he loved her for who she was. I was very very happy when they finally got married. They deserved it so much! Infact I was worried that they would kill of Cheung Kiu's character just for laughs. Luckily they didn't!

Also as I said on my previous post I enjoyed Aimee Chan's performance in this series. Maybe it was because her character was so pitiful and likeable too. She's going to be in a new series "Cold Mountain, Hidden Dragon"  with Kenny Wong again. I wonder if they will be paired up together again?

Joel Chan as Chai Man and Samantha Ko as Yim


The Cheung Kiu and Oi Tai couple is fighting this one to be my favourite couple. As I said in my previous post it's the first time I've actually seen Samantha Ko acting. I think she did pretty well for her first time in a more prominent role. I thought her crying scene was pretty good when she was in the hospital talking to Moses. The scene dragged on a little though and her crying became slightly whiny and annoying. I'm still suffering from the horrible crying that Christine Kuo does though, so if I can understand what the actress is saying when she is crying, I tend to think she did a good job of it!

I'm happy the pair got a happy ending. It would be too sad if Chai Man stayed blind. I was also worried that the two would die in a plane crash (yeh, I'm always scared that TVB will kill random good character off). I'm a little confused of the two's relationship though. I thought she was his third wife, but then he bought her a ring and said that she would be his first wife?? Can anyone clarify that for me?


Raymond Wong
Raymond Wong woo! I thought I'd dedicate a little paragraph to him. I kept seeing him in the theme song but he never turned up until the finale. I was thinking "RAYMOND WONG!" as soon as I started to hear his voice over. I like Raymond Wong. And that ends my little paragraph :)

The Ending
I said at the start of the post that the ending was rushed. I thought this especially when the police arrested Sai  Ho. It felt like TVB was forcing the baddy to be captured. But then I guess it's revealed that it was because Miu Tin had been watching his steps. 

I also think that Miu Tin wasted 50 years of his life making the staircase for Sun Yuet. She only used it once when he was dying then she left the mountain anyway. Even so it's a good thing. She's accepted his death and is willing to carrying on living for as long as she can for him. It'll probably be scary for her though since everything below the mountain will have changed in the 50 years. As her son said, the mountain had no TV or mobile phones!

I'm happy with the ending though. Everybody lived happily ever after. That's always good!

Saturday 13 October 2012

Sorry for the lack of posts!! +mini thoughts of The Last Steep Ascent 天梯

Sorry I have not been posting much lately or replying to comments, I've just started university and I've been busy, but the biggest reason is because I haven't had time to watch much TVB!

I'm behind on Highs and Lows, I've only watched the first 2 episodes, so my review for that show will most probably be late. I've kept up with the Last Steep Ascent though, so I'll try my best to write a review for the show on time!

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I'm enjoying The Last Steep Ascent so far. It's not the kind of show that ends dramatically every episode to draw viewers in, but it does leave the watchers with a longing to see how the characters will progress.

My favourite characters were Samantha Ko and Joel Chan. Their characters are fun, together with having a big heart. It's the first time I've seen Samantha Ko actually acting, not dressed in some low cut clothing following a man around with no dialogue. Even though her character is still of a vixen, she has had much more opportunity to show what she can actually do here. I'm enjoying it very much so far!
I don't quite remember when I started liking Joel Chan, it was either during Relic of an Emissary of Curse of the Royal Harem. I definitely remember thinking that he had an excellent performance during that latter show.  I'm sad that Joel Chan has left TVB now, even though he's never been cast as the main character of a series, I've been looking for his performances since COTRH, and there's not been many!
Unfortunately  both Samantha and Joel have had much less screen time in the recent episodes, and I don't see them getting much more towards the end of the series.

Talking of big hearts, the two main characters have massive ones too, but Moses' is slightly less believable. I can see how Moses character knows his stuff with the chinese medicine, seeing how quality the plants are, but he knows what they're for, and recognised the pack of medicine Aimee had as being one for making her pregnancy go well. I think it's unbelievable that a farming man like him can be such a genius!

Another thing I want to talk about is Aimee Chan. I'm not particularly fond of her acting, but I've been touched with her pitiful character this time. I'm still not sure how she's going to do on those series where she's the main female character though, but I'm more confident for her now. I guess we'll wait and see!!

Monday 24 September 2012

Character map of Highs and Lows 雷霆掃毒 (English)

Click on the picture to see it in full size.


巴不得媽媽 Review of Divas in Distress


Divas in Distress was surprisingly good! I liked all the relationship lines and they were all very sweet. As I said before, I wasn't actually interested in this series, but I'm glad I watched it. It had the freshest cast for a while and  there were many times I chuckled at the show (I'm not a laugh out loud person).

I quite like the idea of using the 21 December idea for the ending. It got everybody together and made everyone think about who is important in their lives. The ending was an open ending, that I think we can assume that everyone survived and lived happily ever afterwards!

The use of english songs in this show was also very nice! See the list of songs here.


Liza Wang as Hung and Gigi Lai as Ho

Hung and Ho both used to be actresses. They have been rivals for years: Hung's daughter carried Ho's son's baby and died whilst giving birth. Hung blames this on Ho's son. Ho is stubborn and likes to get her own way and will do anything for that. This includes causing her son, Vincent to run away from home when Hung interferes with Vincent and Yi Hei's relationship.

Ho finds out that her children did not like her demanding ways, and that her daughter got married so early to get away from her. She hides away and it is revealed that she has bipolar disorder.

Hung helps Ho get over her bipolar disorder and she realises that people are not against her. The two become friends again.

Later Hung gets led to think that Ka Long not is Sau's (Ho's husband) biological son. Sau and Ho finds out Hung's suspicions and Ho demands a divorce as she feels mocked that her husband should think that she was not loyal to him. Sau later finds out it was all a mistake and that Ka Long is indeed his son. However Ho is still angry at him.

Time approaches 21 December, and the sky turns red. At this time, Hung helps Ho realise that even though she is angry at Sau, she would want to be with him if it was the end of the world. She forgives and and goes to find her husband. It turns out he was fighting over a bottle of salt with a sei lai as he wanted to cook a meal for Ho. Moved, they return home, inviting Hung to their meal.

The show ends with the two ladies playing on the wii with their family.


To be honest, I thought that there would be more rivalry scenes between these two Ah Jies. But that could be a good thing as the show could be annoying if they were arguing throughout the whole series. Liza's character was really annoying when she tried to split Vincent-Yi Hei and Yi Long Shen-Hannah up, but I'm glad her character thought things out quite a few episodes before the ending. I really liked Gigi in this show, her character was comedic and I thought her interaction with everyone was great! As I said in an earlier post, Hung is another one of those characters Liza portrays all the time. She does do it well though! I'm glad they are all good friends at the end and Hung told Ho how she admired her family. At the start Hung had a hard time befriending people. I'm sure she'll have no problem in doing so anymore!

A special mention to Henry Lee who played Sau. He's been in so many series this year! From villain to Sau, he has been enjoyable to watch in all of them!!

Chin Ka Lok as Ka Long and Eliza Sam as Hannah

Ka Long's wife died 7 years ago whilst giving birth to their son. He never forgets her and promises his mother in law that he will never marry another women. His new colleague, Hannah does not like him at first due to misunderstandings. However after Hannah gets to know Ka Long, she develops deep feelings for him. After a while Ka Long also develops feelings for Hannah but does not dare reveal it as he feels that he is doing his dead wife wrong.

One day Hannah gets ran over by a car, and Ka Long manages to lift a car up so Hannah could be taken out . She goes into a coma. Ka Long visits his wife's grave and admits his feelings to Hannah, and Hung secretly records the dialogue and plays it to Hannah in hope that she wakes up. She does, but she pretends to have forgotten all the memories of her and Ka Long after her dislike for him got changed. Ka Lok confronts her for this when he realises this, and she tells him that she did so as she heard his recording in which he said that  he could not love her. After this she quits her job, and no one can find her.

21 December 2012, apparently the end of the world approaches. Ka Long thinks about Hannah and remembers that he once imagined her in front of him, and there, he said that he would be with her if 21 December was indeed the last day ever.
He receives a withheld call but no one answers on the other side. He knows that it is Hannah, and he tells her that he would be with her. Then a man's voice comes from the phone, and the voice says he is Ka Long's old friend.

Ka Long's boss tells him to make some interviews at a church where youngsters were collecting up to change their ways in hope to go to heaven since it was 20th December. He goes, and Hannah turns up and he reveals his feelings in front of her. The youngsters get annoyed at Hannah getting in their way from cleansing their souls and start to run after the couple. Ka Long states that she hadn't changed as things turn out badly she's around. She asks him if he wants her to change. Ka Long tells her that he doesn't want her to change.

This was my favourite couple in DID. I think that most people like Him / Mandy, but I fell that this pair is happier and Hannah's character was so cute! I loved their development, and seeing Ka Long from nothing to denial to finally admitting his feelings. I was pretty annoyed when Hannah lost the memories of her and Yi Long Shun. Thankfully she was just pretending and she still liked him! 

Eliza Sam had a big role in the series and although there were room for improvement, I could see that she gave it her best. I really enjoyed her performance! I also thought she tackled the crying scenes quite well. I wonder how her status in TVB will be now, going up or down due to this performance. Right now I think it's nice of TVB to give her such a big role so early to try, but if she doesn't improve and TVB shouldn't continue to give her roles as big as this one.
I also mentioned that I didn't like her accent in my initial thoughts of this series. I got used to it pretty soon after though.

Chin Ka Lok was great too. It's not often at all that we get to see him on screen. I hope he gets some recognition from this show as the hot topics will be Him, Mandy and Eliza.



Him Law as Vincent and Mandy Wong as Yi Hei

Vincent is from a rich family and Yi Hei is a decorator with a complicated past. The two give each other a bad initial impression. Vincent's thoughts of Yi Hei changes when he finds her graffiti work and starts to admire her artistic skills. He begins to develop romantic feelings for her and makes excuses to see her more. Still disliking Vincent, Yi Hei insults him and attacks him for being successful by his rich mother and unnecessary body building. Her friend So Gei tells her that Vincent used his own capabilities in his work, and was built up to strengthen his body since he had asthma. He also tells Yi Hei Vincent's admiration of her. Yi Hei decides she likes Vincent, and the two get together.

Vincent's mum finds out, and she does not approve of this relationship. She also finds that Yi Hei has a criminal record and exposes it to Vincent. Yi Hei does not want to share her past with him and they break up after an argument.

Time passes but the two still has feelings for each other. Vincent finds out Yi Hei's past and that she has dysgraphia, he follows her around and sees that she is stuck when applying for a competition to win a holiday in Japan. She cannot write her name and Vincent steps forward to do it for her, writing her name out 68 times. He also convinces her to get  beak together with him.

At this time, Vincent's mum realises she was wrong to separate the two, so makes Yi Hei the winner of the holiday. She hopes the two get back on good terms on this holiday. The two go to Japan and Vincent proposes and she accepts.

Back in Hong Kong Yi Hei finds out that Vincent had won a highly regarded award and that he had proposed to her before she found out in case she had thought she wasn't good enough for him again. She also finds out that he had been taken twice his asthma medication because he had n allergic reaction to her smalls as she is a decorator. She decides to sacrifice for him by giving up her job. Vincent knows that being a decorator is a thing that makes her confident so he doesn't wnat her to sacrifice for him, so he decides to end the relationship and leave HK. Yi Hei realised this and manages to stop him, and tells him that it;s her turn to sacrifice. The two hug and stay together.

Vincent takes Yi Hei to the top of a mountain where there is a beautiful view of HK. The two look at the scenery.

This was my favourite couple at the start. I loved the bickering scenes between the two and the things Vincent did in order to be able see her more, only to give himself a bad impression! Vincent stalking Yi Hei should be creepy but I found it sweet. I was happy when they finally got together, but then Vincent's mum spoiled everything- their relationship didn't feel very romantic any more when Yi Hei repeatedly distanced herself from Vincent. It was just too long winded and draggy! 

I didn't like the forceful nature of Vincent's, trying to force Yi Hei to have lunch with him, trying to force her into inviting him to Japan. I thought it was funny at the start before the two were together, but it must be annoying to be with someone like that! But we could really see how much Yi Hei meant to Vincent. Vincent was always the one in the pair trying to make things work and he even left home when his mother didn't approve of Yi Hei. I guess that makes up for his creepiness :) To be honest if it wasn't Him Law and Mandy Wong playing their respective roles, I would find Vincent to be very creepy.

We know that Vincent likes Yi Hei as he admires her art. I don't know what Yi Hei likes Vincent for: at the start of the day she hated his guts, by the end of the day she decided to be with him. But she did cry for him and sacrificed her job for him in the end which showed that she did love him deeply.

As I mentioned in this post about TVB newbies, Mandy Wong already seems like she's been acting for years. Same stuff here. I'm still looking for a character from her where she doesn't pull a really annoyed face all the time. Such as this one:


Him Law also has a face that I find him pulling in lots of scenes such as


And especially when his character is stalking Mandy's. However I do find that wooden expression of Him's very appropriate for those scenes.

Gu Ka Ming as So Gei
I loved this character! I recognise his face from past TVB series and I'm very happy that I now now see Gu Ming Wah and think "He's So Gei from Divas in Distress!" His stylist did a good job and so did his interpretation of a feminine man! 


I guessed that he would be with Ka Long's boss (posted that on twitter). What a compatible pair! I love the dance that they did that brought them together!










Chung King Fai as Han Man and Mimi Chu as Jenny
I loved this pair as well! They were really funny and their story was sad. It's great they had their happy ending though! I thought their walk on the beach in their white clothings was very romantic! 

Mimi Chu has always been a comedic character to me, and even though there are comedic sides to her character, I could see the serious side to her which was hurt deeply from her relationship, but still thought fondly of the good memories. 

I liked how Han Man always said "To ____ or not to ___", but I do think he overdid it. But he didn't deny Jenny being his girlfriend which was sweet, but they proceeded to link arms afterwards which implies that he admits in indirectly. What a sweet couple :)

Monday 17 September 2012

The fate of the characters in King Maker

I was just thinking about the fates of the main characters in King Maker. It's quite depressing,click the picture below to see it bigger:

See my review of King Maker here.

Sunday 16 September 2012

造王者 King Maker review

Spoilers alert!
Click here to see the fates of the main characters from the character map. It looks depressing. 
This series started out great: the first few episodes of this show were the highlights of the show. They were gripping and entertaining to watch. I started to get bored of it when Pierre Ngo's character when back to the palace and became his normal self again as the storyline slowed down. The last episodes got more exciting again, but I then thought the plot in the last two episodes were quite horrible!

In fact, thinking back, the whole storyline after the first few episodes was wibbly wobbly. I'm don't know what the heck what happened. I really wanted to like this show. I did at first too until I watched the last episodes. The Show shouldn't be called "King Maker", it should be "I wonder what Dong Chiu is gonna do next?". The show seemed to be revolved around Yu Jing and Dong Chiu, whilst the next to the throne was just a sub-story. Dong Chiu just creates havoc.


Apart from the first episodes, there are only two good things I remember from the show:

1) I thought it was funny that Dong Chiu called his son "Chuk Sang" (animal) and his son would answer immediately as if it was his real name. I found this funny every time!

2) Yeung Chung didn't die and got a happy ending. I was worried throughout the series that he'd get murdered trying to protect Yu Jing, but he didn't.


The ending reminded me of The Life and Times of a Sentinel. There was a big scene where there was someone trying to steal the throne and talking about who is the King's son. Also Yu Jing giving the false poison wine to Dong Chiu is like Steven Ma giving Kenneth Ma the fake poison. I also started laughing when Dong Chiu said that he would be king and his people got their swords out as once again, because I thought that but was really out of place.

It's a bit sad that there are not many character with truly happy endings. Yeung Chung does, even though he'll have to listen to Yu Ching's woes. Yu Ting does even though I think she's married a silly man.

I think the 3 happiest people will be Guai Wor, his mother and wife. Even though they got sent to a poor place, they have each other, no more schemes and most importantly, freedom.


Overall storylines and thoughts of the main characters:

Wayne Lai as Yu Jing 余靖

He is banished to an island for a lifetime of laborious work after the crown prince, Guai Sing is captured by the King's opposition. He loses contact with his two younger siblings, who he knows have gone missing. 10 years later, he is released from the island when Guai Sing is also released. By now, Guai Sing is no longer the next in line to the throne, for his brother Guai Wor is instead. Yu Jing continues to work for Guai Sing, hoping that he could still be king one day. Since released from the island, Yu Jing meets Sam Niang, a widow and clever women and they immediately bond, trusting each other with their secrets.

Later on Guai Wor gets thrown out of the palace due to taking part in a scheme designed to kill the king.  Guai Sing becomes crown prince again. Later on Ju Ying finds that his two younger siblings are two people he recently met and they reunite.

His enemy Dong Chiu is looking for a way to get rid of Yu Jing as Dong Chiu also took part in the scheme to kill the king. The two men was already in bad grounds from before, Yu Jing did not agree with the methods Dong Chiu used to get what he wanted.

Dong Chiu eventually frames Yu Jing for helping the people that captured Guai Sing. Sam Niang takes all the blame and is imprisoned and sentenced to death. Having developed mutual romantic feelings for each other, Yu Jing vows revenge.

Yu Jing finds out that Guai Sing is not actually the King's son, but still helps him as long as he agrees to give the throne to the King's third son after 10 years, and be a good king in the meanwhile. Dong Chiu finds out about Guai Sing and plans to expose this secret but Yu Jing manages to turn it around and fool everyone.

Dong Chiu's daughter and Yu Jing's old romance Yuk Kiu sacrifices herself to save Yu Jing being stabbed by Dong Chiu's servant. Before she dies, Yu Jing promises that he wouldn't kill Dong Chiu for his evil deeds.

5 years later all the men grow facial hair. Meanwhile, Yu Jing continues to help Guai Sing run the country and keeps Dong Chiu on a deserted island, giving him enough food to survive. Dong Chiu tells him that the real loser of the two is Yu Jing, as he now is trapped into aiding the King forever whereas Dong Chiu can do what ever he wants on his island.
The show ends with Yu Jing considering Dong Chiu's statement.

Apart from his little sister, Yu Jing lost everything that was important to him: Sam Niang, his brother and helping the rightful king. It's sad that he probably won't be ever happy again, his life now only consists of running the country. I'm glad he still has Yeung Chung who will stay his loyal friend forever. I don't understand why Yeung Guk sides with him instead of Guai Sing, getting rid of the killers Guai Sing got to kill Yu Jing. I thought Yeung Guk was loyal to the king, which Guai Sing would soon become, but he's working under the orders of Yu Jing now.

I like fact that there aren't any major lovey dovey scenes in any of Wayne's performances. It's not that I don't like them, but sometimes you can see affection between couples without having to have those scenes. 
I don't like how nasty he was to his little brother just because he was an eunuch. Yu Jing doesn't seem to be a person who discriminates other people!

We'll be seeing Wayne in The Confidant soon! Let's see if it's TV king worthy! As the chinese say, his next character is going to turn around by 360 degrees. I also look forwards to seeing Michelle Yim again, and the ambiguous relationship between Wayne and Nancy. I do like their collaborations!



Kent Cheng as Dong Chiu 董昭

A man who will do anything to benefit himself, he lied to his daughter so she would marry a bad man to save the family. He blames his schemes on other people and is the enemy of Yu Jing who does not like his ways of doing things. Dong Chiu gains the trust of the King, Guai Sing and the Queen. In order to make Guai Sing the crown prince, he tricks Gwok Chu, an old acquaintance of the Queen to work together to kill the king, but he actually causes the plan to fail and also cause the king to abandon Guai Wor as the crown prince.

Yu Jing guesses that Dong Chiu is behind everything, and the latter is determined to get rid of Yu Jing. Along the path he frames Yu Jing for working with the King's opposition, but Yu Jing's acquaintance Sam Niang takes the blame and is put to death instead.

He continues to plot, and when he finds out Guai Sing isn't actually the King's son he tries to steal the throne. He fails and Gets put on an isolated island by Yu Jing who regularly supplies him with food. There are subtle hints that he may have gone mad.

I don't really understand what he was evil for. He wanted status and he had it (fair enough with Yeung Chi San). Otherwise he just decided to be evil and kill random people along the way. It seems that Kent just talks very loudly every time he is angry, and occasionally waves his arms about. I didn't like his expression when he was trying to convince the Queen that he was always loyal to her at the end of the series, it just looked like a puppy face a child would pull.

I remember his hand started shaking, the first time when his daughter was really angry at him, but him insisting that he always loved her, the second some time in the palace. Nothing came out of the hand shaking, unless it was the start of him going crazy, but he never did. I think he talked to the dog on purpose as Yu Jing was there to show that being a King Maker does not bring a pleasant future.

Also I thought it was random that a dog was on the island in the end. If Yu Jing didn't bring it there there shouldn't be a dog on the island!


Krystal Tin as Sam Niang 嚴三娘

A smart and caring widow, she meets Yu Jing and even though they know nothing about each other, they quickly develop a strong friendship which later turns into romantic feelings. She takes blame from Yu Jing who is framed by Dong Chiu to have been unloyal to the king and is sentenced to death. Even though the King takes back the sentence after finding she really wan't guilty, Dong Chiu  brings her sentence forwards, and she takes the poison wine just before Yu Jing arrives in attempt to save her. She dies in Yu Jing's arms.

No comment about her character, it wasn't very memorable and it didn't seem to be important at all apart from her sacrifice. It was very sad when she died but at least she got to see Yu Jing before she did. She had many happy moments in her life.


Natalie Tong as Yu Ting 樊紅纓
The long lost sister of Yu Jing, she lost her memory as a child and was bought up by Sam Niang, and thought that Gwok Chu was her Dad. Her "Dad" finds out her real identity, and that her real father caused Gwok Chu's family to be sentenced to death and uses her to harm her big brother before telling her the truth. Yu Ting then remembers who she really is and is reunited with her brother. Meanwhile she gets to know Guai Sing who develops feeling for her.

Gwok Chu attempted to assassinate the King but failed but escaped. Since everyone thought Yu Jing really was Gwok Chu's daughter, they wanted to kill Yu Ting too. Yu Jing reveals to others that she is actually his long lost sister so shouldn't get punishment. Furthermore Guai Sing and Yu Ting lie to the King saying that she was carrying his baby so she could not be murdered.

She is then brought to live in the palace, as the Queen decides to determine her fate after she gives birth to the baby. She does later get pregnant and becomes Queen when Guai Sing becomes King.

I liked Natalie Tong here. I'm still recovering from her performance from The Life and Times of a Sentinel as I also mentioned on my review of No Good Either Way

I was not impressed by the scene where she stabs Yu Jing in the chest, and thought it was rather a fail. Not the acting, but that bit of storyline. When Yu Jing stabs Yu Jing, Pan Gwok Chu comes out all proud because he achieved his goal of seeing the Yu siblings harming each other. Apart from Yu Jing looked pretty fine and still managed to smack his head on the ground 36 times before fainting (in fact I think that's what made him faint, the headbutting, not the stabbing in the chest. Then when Sam Niang comes out she and Pan Gwok Chu seem to be equally matched in fighting, but Fan Bong Jue remains unharmed when all the other Fan people came out to fight him too. I don't understand too how he managed to escape, his loyal person came out and suddenly all the Fan men forget about capturing him? So he manages to escape with 2 people against about 20 people. Yeah right. At least she had a happy ending.

Pierre Ngo as Guai Sing 趙貴誠
He is the crown prince, but due to his brother's scheme, he gets captured by the King's enemies. He loses his status and his dignity as the capturers frequently abuse him. He is released back to his home after 10 years a nervous wreck and took a period of time before returning to his usual self with the help of Yu Jing. He becomes crown prince again after scheming by Dong Chiu. Guai Sing later finds out about the bad deeds Dong Chiu commits.

Guai Sing also finds that he isn't actually the King's son. Dong Chiu also finds out and plots against Guai Sing, however he fails. Guai Sing puts him in Jail and leaves Yu Jing to sort him out.

Guai Sing becomes king. His third brother dies of illnesses, therefore he gets to keep the throne.

Much like the series, his character was best to watch in the first few episodes. Even though what happened to him was cruel, it was touching to see. He randomly got evil for a bit in the end as he wanted to kill everyone. But I don't think the killing personality is his personality, but just there to show how greedy someone can be to become king. I'm still not convinced. But I think it might also be because he is really indecisive and can't make his own mind so when his real dad says "Kill Yu Jing" he thinks "ok then", but then Yu Jing says "don't kill me" he thinks "ok then". Without Yu Jing, he would be a terrible king as he doesn't seem to be intelligent at all. In fact, if the king is not blood related to previous king he should let Yu Jing be king instead. Silly king solved.


Elaine Yiu as Yuk Kiu 董玉喬
Yuk Kiu was the most pitiful character. Her life just went wrong after Yu Jing got sent to that island for 10 years. She got tricked into marrying a villain by her father and was not treated well and beaten. The love of her life, Yu Jing does not want her anymore. When she finally gets to leave her husband she leaves as a scheming bitter women who will trust no one at all. Which is a pity because before that I very much hoped that one day she could get together with her step son Yeung Guk. 

I thought her character would get really annoying after she got crazy and slapped her servant, thinking she was Sam Niang. Apart from nothing actually grew from that random crazy-ness so it was a pointless scene. Also the scene were she was really determined that she would never get used again and hated everyone was also pointless as she still got used and still head over heels with Yu Jing.


Then she got used again by her father, what a poor girl. Then she died for Yu Jing too.

Patrick Tang as Yu Ting 余清 (Sheung Hei 常喜)
I don't know why his big brother had to be so nasty to him at first. I also thought that Sheung Hei was a villain for some reason. The ending would have been much happier if he hadn't died, as Yu Jing would have had both his siblings alive. Sheung Hei's life is sad too, he lost his family at a young age and was deceived into becoming an eunuch. But his last part of his life was happy as he was reunited with his family, and at least he took his own life, not murdered.


Samuel Fong and Kingdom Yuen as The King and Queen

The King is quite a useless king. He listens to and then believes in everything anyone says and does not seem to have much judgement himself. I remember in the scene where the men were blaming the failed attempt of the assassination of the king on each other, everyone had their say, Yeung Chi San, Dong Chiu, Yu Jing... and the King just believed in the latest story he was told. I like the actor that played the king. He can do any character at all and be really convincing...

...I hadn't seen Kingdom Yuen for a while and she had a measurable amount of screen time here. It was quite weird for me watching her play such a proper character. I'm used to her playing those feisty and comedic characters so I just couldn't watch any of her expressions without feeling like I'm watching something weird. I can't really comment on her acting because of that, there's an image of Kingdom Yuen that has formed in my head from the past and I can't get rid of it. My Mum says that she did really well though.




Friday 14 September 2012

天梯 The Last Steep Ascent: English Character Map

Click on the image below to see it in full size:

I haven't watched the finale of King Maker yet, but I will be writing a review when I do!
*Edit: I have done so now, read it here.

Tuesday 11 September 2012

Why I would like to see Nancy Wu lead Rosy Business 3!

I just thought I'd like to voice my opinion on the casting of Rosy Business 3...

As you probably know, TVB are producing RB3 in early 2013, and Lee Tim Sing has chosen Myolie Wu to be the female lead since they have been unable to recruit Sheren Tang. I don't think it's a bad choice: even though out of the top of my head, I don't they they match very well, I wouldn't know before I actually watch the series. And I trust the two persuade the audience to like them as a couple anyway, as to me, they are both great at their jobs and can portray all types of characters convincingly. 

However as the title of this post says, it would be awesome if they had cast Nancy Wu as the female lead instead! She was part of the cast in both Rosy Business and No Regrets, so the change of the female lead wouldn't be so out of the blue. She has already been paired with Wayne before in "Forensic Heroes 3" and they will have some sort of relationship line in the upcoming "The Confidant", so they'll already be compatible to some of the TVB audience. 

It's true that Nancy Wu has never lead a series before, but RB3 would be just the right drama to secure Nancy Wu as a leading fadan.  Having her pair up with an experienced actor like Wayne for her first leading series would also give her status that push to make it up there with those like Selena Li. 
I would trust Nancy to make a good job of leading this drama too, even if it's a big production. I've seen many people on forums and other blogs  hoping that Nancy Wu will be promoted soon, and she is such a great actress anyway! I consider her to have better acting chops than some actresses that are promoted much more such as Selena Li and Aimee Chan (I have a post here where I ranked 30 TVB actresses in terms of how much I felt they were promoted).

So there's my mini rant about why I would like Nancy Wu to lead this new series. I'm quite confused if it is supposed to be RB3, or it's just a new drama Lee Tim Sing is producing. He denies its production, now they say it is happening after all? Still, whether it is or not, I want Nancy Wu to be promoted! I really do think that if she does get to lead a series, Wayne Lai should be cast as her partner. Maybe it could be a male dominated drama just so Nancy gets some leading experience before she gets another leading role with more screen time.

Wishful thinking though, sadly it seems that TVB likes to keep Nancy under-promoted. What are your thoughts?






Monday 10 September 2012

7 of my favourite TVB theme songs

Following my post on 8 english songs used by TVB that I liked, I thought I'd do a post on the TVB theme songs that I liked too!

I was only going to do my 5 favourite songs, but it turns out I can't count and I chose 6 songs, and by that time I just couldn't take any of them away from the list!

Also it appears that I like songs with creepy beginnings. I'm a weird person.
I'll put an asterisk on those songs :) 


*6) 心竅 from "Ghost writer" by Steven Ma (蒲松齡- 馬浚偉)
My first song with a "creepy beginning. This is not the type of the song I would want on my MP3, but I love Steven Ma's voice in this.


*5) 傷城記 from "L'Escargot" by Ron Ng and Linda Chung (缺宅男女- 吳卓羲+鍾嘉欣)
I didn't like this song at first when hearing it during L'Escargot. It didn't help that the piano at the start of the song got cut horribly in the video at the start of the show. I only started liking it when I listened to the full version. Then I really loved the starting instrumental. I think it sounds quite "creepy" but beautifully creepy as the piano pattern crawls about with the cello in the background. I like the tune and the singing too, I personally don't think Ron can sing very well, but he's ok here. But to be honest this song only made the list because of its first 25 seconds. I liked it that much!

4) 最幸福的事 from "Witness Insecurity" by Linda Chung ( 護花危情- 鍾嘉欣)
The cello introduction is very pretty and I really liked Linda's style of singing here. I think because TVB kept playing this song in the series, it got stuck in my head more, so I liked it more and it made this list :)


3) 有意 from "Burning Flames III" by Kevin Cheng and Myolie Wu (烈火雄心3- 胡杏兒+鄭嘉穎)
This song is played at the end of the show, so it is not strictly a theme song. I like both of their voices. It's a song I can listen to all day!

2) You light up my Life from "My Sister of Eternal Flower" by Raymond Lam (花花世界花家姐- 林峯)
This song is so happy and peaceful. I like the instrumental. I love Raymond Lam's voice too! It's just a lovely lovely song!


*1) 小故事 from "A Journey Called Life" by Steven Ma and Linda Chung  (金石良緣- 馬浚偉+鍾嘉欣)
I count the start of this song as being creepy because of that women's ghostly voice.
I reserved the top spot for this song, there was no competition for my number one favourite song! I didn't watch this series and I only noticed this song by watching random Youtube videos. I then found myself looking for the song to listen to again and again. I think that Steven and Linda's voices match really well and they both have good emotion. I remember thinking that Linda somewhat spoilt the theme song for "A Watchdog's Tale" because Steven Ma sung it so happily and cheekily, whilst I though her parts were just  missing something and unmatchable to Steven's parts. But again, their singing really matched in this number one song.

I've read about this series and lots of people say that this is a really good show. I'm a bit tempted to watch this series now, but even if I do, I'll have to wait until there's an airing TVB series that I don't want to watch. I can't watch 3 TVB series together at one time!



If you've noticed that I've only listed 6 songs here, whilst the title of the post says that this post will have 7 songs, then well done!
I haven't put my 7th song in the list above has it isn't actually the theme song of its series and I don't think it was played at the end either, but it was played in the series instead. I love it too much not to include it in my list. It's also a bit of a cheat to add another song to this list:


愛在記憶中找你 from "The Drive of Life" by Raymond Lam (歲月風雲- 林峯)
This is my all time favourite song of LF's.



Out of the 7 songs, Linda Chung is in 3 of them and both Steven Ma and Raymond Lam are in 2 of them.
I think that Linda Chung and Raymond Lam are in my list more than once because of coincidence, I don't go looking out for their songs even though I think they are both good singers, LF especially!   
However I do think that I listened to the Steven Ma songs initially because they were sung by him and I love Steven Ma. It's such a shame he left TVB! There aren't many people in TVB that can sing and act well, as well as having many other talents.




So these are my favourite TVB theme songs. Which is yours?


Wednesday 5 September 2012

List of english songs in Divas in Distress 巴不得媽媽

*Edit on 6/09/12 Thurs 14:04- Download link to Brian Tse's version of "Can't my eyes off you". See end of post.

See my review of Divas in Distress here (link opens in new window).

If you read my post on the song in episode 6 of Divas in Distress played when Mandy Wong and Him Law are on screen, and also the post on english songs used in TVB series, you would've listened to quite a few songs already!

Well, Divas in Distress has played more than one english song, here are the songs. If there are more songs, I'll add them to this list. I'm not sure about the singers though apart from "Can't take my eyes off you". If I post the wrong version it would be nice if someone could correct me so I can change the video :)

1. "Can't Take My Eyes Off You"- song in episode 6 when Mandy Wong and Him Law are on screen.




2. "If you don't know me by now" -song in episode 6 when Liza Wang is talking at her daughter's grave.
Version by Stephanie Ho: See bottom of post for download links.




3) "Separate lives" -song near the start of episode 7 when Him Law is thinking about Mandy Wong.
*Edit (22/09): I had the wrong version before, here's the right one! It's sung by King Lam and Stephanie Ho (林景程 and 何雁詩), another two people from The Voice. It probably means "If You Don't Know Me By Now" is sang by someone from The Voice too! See bottom of post for download link.





As above, here's my other post on other english songs that TVB has used for other series:
8 English Songs Used in TVB series
If you want to listen to more music, you could read this post:
7 of my favourite TVB theme songs


*Edit on 6/09/12 Thurs 14:04!!!
Click here for the download link to Brain Tse's version of "Can't take my eyes off you": (Credits to here. The song was not uploaded by me.)

It's not the whole version, and the song ends mid-sentence. It is 1minute 51seconds.

*Edit on 24/09/12 

Click here for the download link to King Lam and Stephanie Ho's version of "Separate Lives": (Credits to here. The song was not uploaded by me.)

*Edit on 27/09/12

Click here for the download link to Stephanie Ho's version of "If you don't know me by know": (Credits to here. The song was not uploaded by me.)







Tuesday 4 September 2012

8 English Songs Used in TVB series

In my recent post here about the English song "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" in Divas in Distress I have realised that TVB has pretty good taste in music when picking English songs to put in their series :)

I've posted Youtube videos here of the songs that I remember and really like! Please note that none of these videos belong to me!

1. "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Brain Tse. Used in Divas in Distress (巴不得媽媽).
So I was only introduced to this song yesterday by episode 6 of Divas in Distress. Like I mentioned there, I can't find the actual version which was sung by Brain Tse from series 2 of TVB's The Voice.

So here's another version by Barry Manilow


A few of you have sent me youtube links to the full version, and I thought I had updated the post for it, but it turns out I haven't! Sorry! Anyway so here's the full version of Brian Tse's cover!


*Edit: found the download link to Brian Tse's version of "Can't my eyes off you". Find the link at this post.
2. "Some Say Love" by LeAnn Rimes. Used in Ghetto Justice 2 (怒火街頭2).
I think of this as the Ah Deng and Sum Sum song, played when Sam Lee and JJ Jia are onscreen.

There are other songs by a singer called Adele used in Ghetto Justice 2, but I didn't include them in this list as I knew the songs already! For anyone looking for them, the song names are "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone like you".


3) "Close To You" by The Carpenters. Used in Let It Be Love (4 in Love).



4) "Top of the World"  by The Carpenters. Used in Let It Be Love (4 in Love).


5) "Summerboy" by Lady Gaga. Used in Let It Be Love (4 in Love).
I was surprised when I found that the song is by Lady Gaga as I've never enjoyed her music. I can't deny that I like this one though, and it's pretty catchy!


6) "Wonderland" by Susan Barth. Used in The Rippling Blossom (魚躍在花見).
I think they only played this song once near the end of the last episode. It's a lovely song!


7) "Save The Best For Last" by Vanessa Williams. Used in Fly With Me (飛女正傳).
I didn't really like the series itself, and the only good thing I remember from it is this song. Otherwise I remember Moses Chan's wig and the silly storyline which wasted Ada Choi's appearances in TVB.


8) "In Another Time" by Jodie Simmons. Used in Shades Of Truth (水滸無間道).
From 2002, I don't actually think I watched this series fully. It was 10 years ago! The only thing I remember from that show is Gigi Lai's hair and that Chilam is in it. The song however I still remember, and I still remember the majority of the lyrics!



...9) Any more?

These are the english songs that I remember TVB using. There must be ones that I've missed out though, leave comments below if you know remember any others! 

If you enjoyed this post, you can listen to mores songs in this post:

Monday 3 September 2012

Divas in Distress: The song for Him Law and Mandy Wong

I watched the preview today for episode 6 of Divas in Distress:


The english song in it is pretty nice even though we only hear a snippet of it. I've spent over an hour trying to find it now!

The lyrics in the bit of the song played there:
You're just too good to be true,
I can't take my eyes off you,
You'll be like heaven to touch....

I love you baby

I quickly found that the song is called "Can't Take My Eyes Off you". Only problem is that there are lots of covers of the song! I've gone through the original and all the covers noted in this Wikipedia article and I swear that none of them is the one played in the preview!

The nearest one I found is this version below: (* Edit: see below!)


It's definitely not this one, in my opinion they sound most similar.

Here is Brian Tse's full version:


Does anyone which version it is that they used in the show?

More of the song will probably be played in episode 6. I wonder if it will be a song they play for Mandy and Him like they had one for JJ Jia and Sam Lee in Ghetto Justice 2?

Meanwhile the trailer looks good :) Mandy and Him are my favourite pair in this series and I'm interested in the hardships that they have to go through to hopefully be together in the end. I also wonder how Him will feel when he finds out about he is starting to like this "lower class girl" who causes him to cover his nose every time he sees her!

*Edit: Mandy has stated on her Weibo that the cover is by Brian Tse, 謝東閔, who came from The Voice 2. I can't find the full version but I will post its whereabouts if I do find it!
** Edit: This song has made me think about other english songs that TVB has used in their series. Click here to see my new post to listen to some of those other songs!

Sunday 2 September 2012

5 TVB Series that were much better than I expected!

There so many new TVB series every year. Whilst I look forwards to watching some, there are some series that I'm just not interested in. It might be because I'm not interested in the cast, or it might be because the storyline doesn't appeal to me. Some of them I do watch to pass time, some I watch now and then, but some I end up really enjoying. For example I'm watching Divas in Distress now, which I had minimum interest in, but I'm finding myself quite enjoying the show!


Here are another 5 of those series, ranked with the last one mentioned being the one I like the most. Series 4 to 1 were actually one of those series that left me longing for the next episode Monday to Thursday and slightly miffed on Fridays as I had to wait for the weekend to pass before I the next episode was available. 

5. Ten Brothers 十兄弟 (2007)


Story in 3 sentences: 
-Kenix Kwok eats some magic beans and gives birth to 10 sons. 
-Frankie Lam who is her admirer looks after the children with her, which all grew up almost overnight and all have different magic powers. 
-They all develop a loving family relationship but all 10 sons sacrifice their life for their mother in the end.

I didn't see the appeal with 10 men with weird haircuts acting like children. It was quite sweet actually, it was lovely seeing the brothers learning what is happening around them. They all had a kind heart but didn't understand what was right and what was wrong. It was also nice seeing the newly wed Kenix Kwok and Frankie Lam leading together as a pair. The show was quite comedic as the brothers utilised their different powers. The ending was sad though, even though all the brothers died happily and together.

4. Relic of an Emissary 洪武三十二 (2011)
Story in 3 sentences:
-Michael is an unlikable imperial guard who loses his memories and becomes good, and serves Joel Chan, the King.
-He finds out that he actually works for Joe Ma who wants the throne, but is now loyal towards Joel Chan.
-When Joe Ma becomes king he chops his arm off and lives away as a commoner with a princess.

I didn't watch E.U so I never got with the obsession over Michael Tse's "Laughing Gor".  I do think that Michael is a good actor but to this day his presence in a series won't make we interested in it. I also wasn't interested in Elanne Kong either and assumed that she wouldn't do a very good performance but she proved me wrong as I really liked Elanne Kong in this. The storyline was very captivating, rather dramatic but I still wanted to watch it. It was rather unpredictable too!

Question off the topic, can someone tell me if the Laughing Gor in E.U, Turning point and Lives of Omission the same person, or different characters with the same name? I'm a bit confused there, thanks!


3. Wax and Wane 團圓 (2011)
Story in 3 sentences:
-Roger Kwok and Sunny Chan are relatives but their families are against each other with their respective noodle businesses.
-Sunny Chan turns into horrible person, Roger fancies his little brother's girlfriend.
-The two family solves their misunderstanding, Sunny Chan becomes a goody again as Ron Ng and Kate Tsui go back together again.

From the start this series seemed like a rip-off of Moonlight Renaissance, they both have the family feud and the man and women from each side who just wants to be together. I loved the all the acting and seeing the transformation of Roger and his attitude towards Kate and her family. The most annoying thing was Sunny's character when he got jealous of Roger, but I'd say that's down to some fine acting too. The series had a nice ending too with everyone paired, and I like happy endings!

2. Rosy Business  巾幗梟雄 (2009)

Story in 3 sentences
-Wayne Lai begins work at a rice business run by Sheren Tang and her husband in hope of making money to give back to his village.
-The two form a great friendship as they stop Pierre Ngo and his mother try to steal the business as their own.
-Wayne contracts a deadly disease spreading around town and dies, and Sheren lives to bring trucks full of rice back to his village.

I didn't even watch the first couple of episodes. I only started to watch bits of the later episodes when my parents were watching it on TV, but I found myself watching the whole of the rest of the episodes shortly after. This show was so popular after all and won countless awards. I actually liked "No Regrets" more but I can't include that in this list because I wanted to watch that series as soon as TVB announced they were to produce it!

1. A Fistful of Stances 鐵馬尋橋 (2010)


Story in 3 sentences:
-Yuen Qiu's husband disappeared and she had to raise her children up herself but her eldest son is also lost.
-Grown up, she finds the eldest child, Kevin Cheng and they all want to know what happened to her husband, and they are certain it's something to do with Dominic Lam.
-The truth is found, Dominic Lam was the murderer and Kevin Cheng becomes a martial arts master.

I wasn't very sure about the rankings of the other 4 series, but this one definitely tops the list! Another series similar to Moonlight Renaissance but coupled with martial arts action.
I remember the first few episodes being a bit slow when they were revealing the past and questions of the families. I also remember Jacky Heung, who played Dominic Lam's son. He was pretty bad at acting.
However the interactions between the siblings were so warming and Kenneth Ma was so cool in this series! Dominic Lam was so incredibly evil in this series too and Natalie Tong really shone. The martial arts storyline was exciting, and my blood boiled when I saw Nancy Wu's character.
I'm glad it had a happy ending too! It's a series that I would very much like to watch again. 


Any more?

Were there any series that you found yourself not initially interested in but loved by the end of it?

Monday 27 August 2012

巴不得媽媽 Divas in Distress initial thoughts and Character chart (in English)

I think that Divas in Distress is a rather daring series. It doesn't have any of the top fadans or siu sangs. The only 'in' casts are Mandy Wong and Him Law, who funnily enough are paired together in this series.


To be honest, it's one of those series I'm not interested in. I'm not really that interested in the plot of this series, and probably wouldn't watch it if I were at school or university. But as it's holiday time for me, I'll watch anything TVB puts on!


I think it's quite nice though, having two veteran actors Liza Wang and Gigi Wong as the main characters then some new-comers. Don't forget Chin Kar Lok, who debuted in the acting industry at 1985 who is the male lead here for his third series. I thought he was excellent in A Bride for a Ride which was a massive comedy, so I wonder how he will be in a slightly more serious role!


I've only watched the first episode of Divas in Distress so far. I'm not really drawn into the series yet. The start of the episode bored me at the start but got a bit more interesting towards the end when they start to draw the characters together and show that Liza and Gigi have some ongoing feud. 


Newcomer Eliza Sam had the most screen time for the actresses in this episode. I was looking forwards to her performance. It's a new face, and even though this character might be a bit too main for her since she's only started acting, I hope she starts well, or she's going to flop, like Matthew Ko who hasn't had a dominant role since "Man in Charge" with Kenneth Ma.
I'm neutral towards her performance so far. I didn't notice her accent much in Ghetto Justice 2, but as soon as she opened her mouth in Divas in Distress I heard it. I think it's quite light, but just in a way that makes her quite hard to understand. I think it's better than Christine Kuo's, but not as good as JJ Jia's. As there's 22 episodes of "Divas in Distress", I hope that I will get used to it! 
Acting wise I could see that she's giving it all her throwing herself into it which is quite nice. Because of this though I think she's exaggerating sometimes with her facial expressions and movements. For her first major role though, I'd say she's doing quite well so far. Let's see how she performs through the whole series.


Haven't seen much of Liza or Gigi yet. Liza always tends to play the rich lady with a good posture but bad temper, and it looks like it's going to be the same again. I don't remember seeing Gigi in any major roles before so I look forwards to seeing her on screen too!


Here are the character maps for Divas in Distress, the original one and one that I translated to English. The relationships seem much more simple than the ones in King Maker!







Sunday 26 August 2012

怒火街頭2 Ghetto Justice 2 review




Even though I knew the vague outline of Ghetto Justice last year , I never watched it, but after all the rave reviews and prizes it won, I decided to watch Ghetto Justice II.
I also heard that the first series focused on murder cases, so some preferred the first series. I guess most of the the cases in GH2 might not have been as exciting as it dealt with less severe cases. Still, I can't compare because I didn't watch the first series!
Spoilers alert!

Kevin Cheng (鄭嘉穎) as Law Ba (羅力亞)

Law Ba is released after 3 years of being in prison and gets his lawyer license back. Working with Kris, he runs the legal advice centre to help the local people with any legal problems. It is revealed that he was once married to a women, and he meets her, Lynette, again 10 years after they split up. They had never divorced, and Lynette had been looking for Law Ba for the last 10 years, facing all sorts of dangers, for Law Ba left their relationship without saying anything. As Lynette finds out that Law Ba has another half, she agrees to leave their relationship, but does not want Kris to know that they were married to retain some dignity.

As Law Ba solves more cases Kris finds out that he is a married man. Though angry, she understands that the past was the past, and that Law Ba loves Kris, not Lynette.

Later on, due to differences in thoughts of a case involving Law Ba and Kris' friend and also questions between Law Ba and Lynette's realtionship, the two become cold towards each other. During this time, Lynette decides that she will fight Kris for Law Ba as she feels that Kris does not sacrifice enough for Law Ba, whereas Lynette would. Though Law Ba and Kris' heart are towards each other, there is always something in the way to stop them from reconciling.

The last case involves the evil landlord, Dai Chiu Long who gets murdered after a visit from Kris and Law Ba. The police finds Kris holding the Hockey Stick which was used to murder the villain, and Law Ba unconscious. Law Ba initially forgets what happens what happened before he got unconscious, but later remembers that he had actually murdered Dai Chiu Long himself, and Kris had knocked him out to frame herself to protect him. He comes out with what he did, and Kris is freed but he still has to be found guilty or not guilty of intentional murder. In the end, he finds evidence that Dai Chiu Long is a violent man, and that Kris' mother was in danger of death, which was why Law Ba murdered him. The jury finds that he is unguilty of intentional murdering and he is also set free.

In the last scene, we see that Law Ba and Kris are back together again, and they run off with their closest friends when they receive a call that they are needed in another legal case.

Before I forget, did anyone notice his varying hair length at the start of the series?

Anyway, I guess this is the scrawny man that everyone loved so much in the first series! I've noticed that I've started to do his hand gesture thing when I'm speaking and I'm trying my very best to stop doing it : D

His scenes with Kris were very sweet, I like it when he rubs his head up and down Kris' shoulder. I could definitely see chemistry between the two main characters! 

I thought the character dealt his relationship with Lynette very poorly. He knew that Lynette still liked him, but still spent all that time with her and talk of their "good old days eating custard tarts".


What confused me was Law Ba and Lynette's relationship. Why did no one, even Kris suggest that maybe they should get a divorce? Throughout the whole series Law Ba was a married man. Even when they take their marriage certificate to scare off Lynette's pursuer in her surgery they seem to forget that they're still tied by a marriage certificate. Law Ba is a lawyer, out of everyone you'd think that he'd notice that he's still married. And he still is right to the end of the series. 


Myolie Wu (胡杏兒) as Kris (王思苦)


Whilst Law Ba is serving his sentence in jail, Kris covers his job for him. When he is finally out of prison, she persuades him to submit an application to get his lawyer license back. Though he does not at first, he does later and it turns out that Kris had saved his lawyer equipment, confident that one day he'd be a lawyer again.

She later finds and and forgives Law Ba when she finds out that he was married to her new friend Lynette and she knows that Law Ba loves her.

Later Lynette gets into a coma because of protecting Law Ba. Kris feels that Lynette is the one that sacrifices herself more and promises that as long as she woke up, she would leave Law Ba so Lynette could be with him.

Later Kris attempts to cover up Law Ba after he murders Dai Chiu Long. Law Ba admits the murder himself , but the court sees him to be not guilty of unintentional murder so he does not have to go to prison. In the last scene, Lynette wakes up and reminds Kris of her promise to leave Law Ba for herself. It turns out that Lynette said this on purpose so the two can get back together, whereas Lynette finds her own man.

Kris' character is a strong women with strong thoughts, but who loves her man dearly. She is willing to get life imprisonment instead of Law Ba, and even though she doesn't in the end, it shows that she is not the only one that will sacrifice herself for Law Ba.

I thought this was an entirely convincing portrayal of a character by Myolie. To me, her portrayals normally are. Even though I don't think she should have got her Best Actress award in 2011 for The Curse of the Royal Harem I definitely thought it was her turn (Tavia this year please!). 

Sam Lee (李璨琛) as Ah Deng (阿釘) and JJ Jia (賈曉晨) as Sum Sum (心心)




Ah Deng truly misses Jing Jing, his love who died from the first series. Sum Sum also misses her boyfriend who died years ago, whose last words were to tell her to find her own happiness. The two meet and after initial misunderstanding, they feel a connection. Though Ah Deng does not admit his feelings at first, the two get together in the end as he almost loses Sum Sum. They decide to marry in the end

I really like the song that plays when the two are on screen! Click here if anyone wants to listen to it!

I think this is my favourite pair in the series other than the main pair. Again, as I never watched the first series, I never saw Ah Deng with Jing Jing so I can't miss their pairing. However for this new pair, I just like all their scenes and it's sweet how they both have someone who they'll always miss, and it'll make them cherish each other more. It's also nice to think they can visit their other loved one respectively together at the same place whilst giving the other their own space.

Alex Lam (林子善) as MJ (米佐治),  Raymond Cho (曹永廉) as Leung Bao (娘爆) and Crystal Li (李雪瑩) as Grace

MJ becomes a magistrate since last series. The women he had feeling for married someone else. Leung Bao is a police man, and Grace is a new solicitor at the legal advice centre. The three have a light hearted love triangle in the show. Even at the end, Grace states that she is undecided between the two men, and the three stay good friends.

They are all good people and I like their screen times but they didn't really stand out to me apart from Raymond's case and when Grace helped MJ get over his fear of being a solicitor. Their acting were fine, Raymond and Alex as always, and I thought that Crystal made a good crack at her first series. I thought that Grace was a good character to portray for the first time, for she is  a simple character who is just happy most of the time, so is probably relatively more easy for a newbie to act out.

I think the triplet's storyline didn't pop out at me because they aren't the mains, and they are for comedic effects, so there aren't any heart warming moments. 

Personally, I like the Grace-MJ pair!

Christine Kuo (苟芸慧) as Lynette (景伶俐) and King Kong (金剛) as Chok Man (黃作文)

Lynette ran away from home and married Law Ba when she was just 18. Law Ba disappears after a while and she spends the next 10 years loving and looking for him, getting in all sorts of danger. Good hearted, she stays in Hong Kong and opens a surgery to help local people. Coincidentally, it's at the same place as where Law Ba works. One day she finally sees him, but realises he has girlfriend. Angry, she drives of a random person's car and crashes it, ending up in hospital. Learning that Law Ba has moved on, she agrees to leave their relationship, but as she had already met and befriended Kris, she does not want Kris to know of their previous relationship. She uses time to try to forget about her relationship with Law Ba.


The person's car she drove and crashed was Chok Man's: a also good hearted man, who not only is at all angry at her for ruining her car, he is attracted to her. When he lets her know of his feelings, Lynette realises that she still loves Law Ba and she is going to fight for her love.

Lynette later goes into a coma, and Kris promises her that she can be with Law Ba when she wakes up. When she does, she reminds Kris of her promise, but decides that she wants to be in a relationship where the man loved her more than she loved him, hence ending up with Chok Man in the end.


I don't think Lynette's character was necessary. I expected massive turmoil when Kris found that that Law Ba was married but it was over in 10 minutes. Then there was just a minor argument between the two women about who is better for Law Ba. As I said in this blog post about TVB newbies, I didn't find Christine's acting convincing, even to the end, even though I think I'm more used to her acting. The thing is, King Kong has a pretty bad accent too when he speaks Cantonese but I really like him, he has great charisma and more importantly I think he is a solid actor. Just look at him when hosting game shows and him in this series or No Regrets!

Back to Christine's character I didn't feel sorry for her at all. I think it's due to Christine's unconvincing acting once again. I just couldn't feel pity for her! I'm guessing that at the end she was just reminding Kris of her promise so Kris and Law Ba would somehow get back together again. But I had no idea how that was supposed to work.*

As soon as King Kong's character came out I was like, go on, just win her heart because I just found Lynette's situation in her love triangle to be useless. On the other hand, for Lynette, good for her in the end! Chok Man has no fault! He must be the most perfect character in the entire series. Still, I thought Lynette seemed to be a bit selfish. Does she actually like Chok Man? And she said that the first person she thought of when she woke up was Law Ba. Did she really mean it? I hope she actually thought about Chok Man, leading on her accepting him, rather than really just wanting someone who loved her more than she loved him.

Also was there a stated reason for Lynette to have an accent? Sum Sum is from mainland so she has a reason, but Lynette is daughter of a Hong Kong man?

*I notice that I seem to be attacking Christine a lot. Just want to make it clear that I just don't like her acting, otherwise I get the impression that Christine is a kind, simple and innocent girl  :) 


Other thoughts

I started watching this series with great expectations. Though I enjoyed the series, I don't think it's as good as how the first series sounded. Glad none of the main characters from the first series died though as I discussed in this post about TVB sequels. The last case was quite exciting to watch, and having Law Ba in jail again for a bit seemed to bring the series to an end as that's where he was at the end of the first series and the start of the second. The very last scene was very cheesy though, with the friends running to the new case. But still, yaaay happy ending! That makes everything better and I accept the cheesyness!!