護花危情 Witness Insecurity review

Witness insecurity is probably the last Linda Chung series of 2012. It's nice and fast paced, and doesn't drag as it's only 20 episodes. If anything, I don't think that some things were explained very well: it was rumoured that the show was meant to have 28 episodes, but apparently that rumour is false.

Bosco Wong as Hui Sir / 許瑋琛

Hui Sir is a witness prosecution unit officer. He has to protect Hailey when there is fear of her being murdered. He learns that she doesn't like to talk to others because she has post traumatic stress disorder. He is patient with her and fulfils his job by protecting her from any danger. When Hailey was not in danger any more, Hui Sir did not have to protect Hailey anymore, and they parted.
Not long after, Hailey was bought back into his life when, his cousin Jojo (to Hailey's request)At this time, her father makes Hui Sir decide between Hailey and his police job. The situation gets more complicated when Hui Sir finds evidence that Hailey's father may have committed a crime decades ago.
When Hui Sir does find enough evidence and Hailey's father gets arrested, he gets ran over by a car.
He then gets on his motorbike, drives to find Hailey, and tells her that he'll protect her from the stars as he died.

I liked Bosco's portrayal as a calm and competent policeman. I never saw Hui Sir having much feelings for Hailey. He didn't really think of her as a friend when he didn't have to protect her any more and he wasn't going to keep in touch with her. He seemed a bit confused when he first learned that Hailey had feelings for him and quickly stated that he felt nothing for her. 
His found some feelings for Hailey when she went missing and did struggle to decide between his job and Hailey. I thought that TVB could've shown more of his struggle to emphasise his feelings.  

It seemed a bit silly when he got ran over in the last episode. He was not bleeding on the outside at all, not even a scratch. He colleagues let him drive off after getting off the floor and looking a but woozy. It was sad that his character died, I hadn't expected it!
For some reason though, I was more sad when Ba Da died. Probably because it was more believable. It was so sudden too :(


Linda Chung as Hailey 喬子琳

Hailey has Post traumatic stress disorder. She saw her own brother die when she was young, and since then she became scared of new people and crowds. She has an attitude that people mistake as being arrogant. When Hui Sir comes into her life, she gradually loosens up. She accepts talking to new people and learns how to be in places with lots of strangers again. She even takes the initiative to get to know Hui Sir, and waits for his love to return when he tells her that he can't forget his deceased ex-girlfriend.
Her father does not approve of Hui Sir as his daughter's boyfriend. Hailey is stuck in the middle when Hui Sir tries to find evidence that her father did illegal things, and her father says that Hui Sir is only interested in her money.
In the end her father is arrested by the police and Hui Sir finds her, dying, but tells her that she does have a place in her heart.

I did like Linda's portrayal. I could really see how scared and irritated she was at the start of the series at other people. However I did think that her change to accepting other people too quick. It also seemed that her love with Hui Sir was more brotherly than romantic love, as it came when he saved her cello (which used to be her brother's) from the fire and knew about the same star constellation as her brother. I only seemed to see romantic love appearing when Hui Sir did not have to protect her anyone and she hadn't seen Hui Sir for a while.
Near the end of the series, I didn't think her character was any different than any other character Linda has portrayed in the past. Her character even became a bit boring for me then.

Paul Chun as Gong San 喬江山

Gong San is a successful business man, and cares about his daughter Hailey the most in his life. He objects to her and Hui Sir as a pair, forcing Hui Sir to leave the police force if he was to be with his daughter. It turns out that 33 years ago, he, his brother and another man named Sapura kidnapped and murdered a rich man to get their first amount of money to start their businesses. The police never traced the evidence back to him.  He tries and failed to prevent Hui Sir from finding this out, and is arrested in the end. He does regret his actions in the end when he is arrested.

A veteran actor, of course Paul did not disappoint! Gong San's actions were quite clear from the start. He cared for his daughter, wanted the best for her and was scared that people will find out what he did in the past and have everything he accomplished taken away from him. A well rounded character. I wonder if he would've let Hailey and Hui Sir together at the start if he wasn't a policeman.

Other thoughts

This is another series that won't stay in my head for long. The ending of Witness to a Prosecution was rushed. It was paced so fast that it only took 6 minutes from where Hui Sir was chasing Gong San to the ending where he died. In some series the climax and resolution are shown within the first 10 minutes of the last episode and the remainder of the episode shows everyone being all happy and gathering together for a BBQ ending.

I think this show is Bosco's first proper male lead, as in the show wasn't about women. He's been second lead enough times with different characters to portray to be able to carry a show by himself. I look forwards to watching him lead another series soon!

衝呀！瘦薪兵團 No Good Either Way review

(Scroll to the bottom for a quicker summary and review from Youtube)

No Good Either way has a fresh storyline and cast. It's the first time seeing Ruco Chan and Kristal Tin this year, and we don't seem to see them very often anyway. It was a series I enjoyed. Parts of the story actually made me laugh out loud, which is rare- I usually only do internal laughings at TV :)

Ruco Chan - Alex/ 巫雅歷

Alex is a product designer and good friend with his boss. He feels injustice when Violet stops him and his friend Steve from being promoted. A light hearted character, Alex and Steve pulls pranks on Violet as a sort of revenge, such as putting her on webcam without make up on in front of an audience at Alex and Ling's wedding.

He has good with relationship "A4", his companions who he works with to design successful products. A carefree bunch, they often slack off work and look for "inspiration" by not doing work, much to Ling's despair, who attempts to get them to concentrate.

Soon, Alex is finally promoted and his funny personality begins to recede. He starts to overwork A4, and when he finds out that A4 had been seeking another company to work for, he treats them badly, putting them in a room with no windows and gives them pointless jobs. He refuses to let A4 help him with a product vital for his company's survival, even when he approach a problem in its design. He becomes frustrated at everybody including his wife and sister as he believes that no body thinks he can design this product by himself.

As he manages to produce a successful prototype of the product needed for his company's survival, Aaron, one of the A4 puts a virus into his computer so the information of the product cannot be seen. In the end he decides that one person is not enough to do things.

In the end he reunites with his wife and sister, and with Aaron arrested, he collaborates with A3 once again to continue to make products for the company.

I enjoyed Ruco Chan's performance, it was the first time he participated in a comedic series with TVB and I thought he was very natural and had chemistry with his friends and family. He performed consistently throughout the whole series, even though I didn't understand why he suddenly become all serious with his job and had a character change.

Louis Yuen- Steve /閔家華

 Many times Steve thinks that he is going to be promoted to manager at his company, but in the end he always finds out that he is not. He loses faith in his company, and opens a fruit juice shop with his Indian friend Inderpal. This business is unsuccessful, and he puts his former job at risk when secretly working at his shop during his office hours. Once filled with the hope of being promoted again, he closes the juice shop. To his dismay, he is yet not promoted. He becomes very unsatisfied again with his job. 
In the end he finally gets promoted to manager.

As usual I though Louis did great. He really is good at the comedic roles. I felt sorry for him, after thinking he is to be promoted each time and not. It wasn't good for him to snoop out of his office work to work in his fruit juice shop though. I was glad he was finally promoted to manager at the end. However to be honest, after seeing him being so depressed and stealing things from his company for his juice shop, it doesn't seem like he really deserves his position. 

It was nice to see him paired up with Leanne Li at the end though I thought it was a bit awkward how she suddenly broke up with her boyfriend and decided to be with Louis instead.

Kristal Tin- Ling / 甯寧靜


Alex's wife and also works in the same company. She puts her personal life and work separately, at home she is a loving wife though she disapproves of her husband's attitude at work. She tries to make her husband be efficient at work and be more responsible, but fails.
Further in the show, her relationship with Alex falls when Alex becomes angry at anyone who intervenes with the product he is making.

Similarly with Kristal Tin, I thought she did her parts well. I find that she is a solid actress. I hope that TVB gives her more opportunities!

Natalie Tong- Kin / 巫健兒

Alex's sister her ambition is to buy a house ASAP and is disheartened by the rising house values. She goes out with Aaron from A4, and the relationship does not go smoothly. They both invest in a house and Aaron does not prepare for paying for his debts by buying impractical expensive things whilst asking Kin to pay for him for now. She later finds that Aaron has told her many lies, and decides to break up with him.
At the end, her boss Jacky asks her to be his girlfriend. Even though he shows that he is a good choice, showing her his health reports and his properties, Kin decides not to be with him.
Later she sees Aaron after being released from jail. It is an open ending to whether the two reconcile.



I thought Natalie Tong did well in this series. Nothing to make me go wow, but it was comfortable watching her. I had always liked her acting, but in The Life and Times of a Sentinel. I thought her performance there was terrible, and I'm still recovering from it. I anticipate her first leading series with Wayne Lai, hopefully with such an experienced actor she can prove to us that she's main lead material!
I liked Kin with Jacky, and did want her to be with him in the end. But thinking about it more, I don't think that Kin would be happy with Jacky in the relationship. He makes a very good friend, but as a partner, he would lack the romance and surprises that Kin would want in her relationship.

Jason Chan- Aaron / 姚以朗


Part of A4, his is part of a designing team led by Alex. He becomes frustrated by Alex when he believes that Alex does not give his work appreciation. When he is approached by another company he accepts, and when Alex finds out the dislike between the two increases further. He later betrays the company by attempting to stop the company from survival after money problems. He serves a year in jail for doing so, and delivers pizzas afterwards. In the end he appears to have become more mature, being more mature as a whole.



I thought that almost all actors and actresses did well in this show. Only Jason Chan bothered me. I thought his expressions were quite often the same, especially during his confrontations with Alex. I also didn't like his character. I thought Aaron was selfish and didn't think of others. It seem to me that he never took his relationship with Kin seriously. He offered to pay of the house they bought together, but didn't plan ahead and had to have his girlfriend pay for his debt. He was not by Kin's side when they were supposed to refurbish their house together as he was scared of it being haunted, and masked it with a lie. I liked Jason Chan in Be Home For Dinner, but I don't think he's ready for being the main lead yet. But I'll get to decide only when his new show with Linda Chung airs!




I have enjoyed this show. It has been great for passing time. Not a memorable series though, but worth it for a simple and relatively quick paced series to watch!

Review of "Master of Play" (心戰)

Quick review on youtube (longer review below):



(No Good Either Way review http://therearethreehahahas.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/no-good-either-way-review.html)

Plot in short (spoilers alert!)

Characters-

Siu Nam 靳兆楠 (Adam Cheng)

Ivan 章世言 (Moses Chan)

Ester 李楚蕎 (Maggie Siu)

Natalie 章世婷 (Aimee Chan)

Kong Sir 江Sir (Matt Yeung)

25 years ago, Siu Nam's 4 years old daughter Tansy was abducted, the kidnappers mistaking her for another child. Since then he never heard anything about Tansy; she never returned and her body was never found. 25 years later Siu Nam still strongly believed that Tansy is still alive. 

25 years later after Tansy disappears, Siu Nam meets siblings Ivan and Natalie. It is revealed through Ivan's memories and thoughts that he was one of the kidnappers of Tansy, but her fate was not revealed to the audience. Guilty of his actions, Ivan allows his little sister to befriend Siu Nam, and the two become good friends. 

Further on the series, Ivan starts to murder people. He murders a relative and also Jerry, Natalie's ex-boyfriend. After the Jerry's corpse is found by the police, the hunt begins for the murderer. Soon afterwards

Ivan's fiance, Ester splits up with him due to his fidelity. More murders are committed, adding pressure to the police. 

Meanwhile, slightly earlier in the story Siu Nam finds that he can get into people's character and find out about the thoughts decisions that the person makes. He helps the police to solve cases from this. Naturally he is also involved in helping to solve these murder cases. He suspects that Ivan is the murderer at one point. Since the murders occurred on Wednesdays, Siu Nam watched over Ivan on a Wednesday night, yet another murder was committed that night. Siu Nam therefore apologises to Ivan.

Shortly after Ester and Siu Nam become a pair. Ester wishes that Siu Nam stop helping the police with the murder cases, especially when the man who chopped off her arm three years ago is believed to be involved in the case by the police.

For several reasons Kong Sir kidnaps Ester and tries to replicate the situation where her arm was chopped off to help solve the case. With no development Kong Sir attempts to chopped her other arm off to make her memories more vivid. 

Surprisingly, Ester grabs a knife and plunges it into Kong Sir's body, and even complains about him moving about too much as his is getting blood everywhere which she has to clean up. 

She then strangles him to death. 

Siu Nam starts to suspect that Ester is the murderer and also finds that Ester does not actually love him. Ivan also discovers the same. After Ivan confronts Ester it turns out that Ester found out about Ivan murdering Jerry. She killed all the other people to cover up for him. Ester then admits the murders to the police, lies that she also killed Jerry and commits suicide in jail.

After Ester's death Siu Nam and Ivan gets into a battle of wits. Siu Nam deduces that Ester's story must be a cover up for Ivan. Ivan decides to kill Siu Nam, but accidently murders Steve, his close friend instead. 

Natalie finds out and is angry at her brother. She then gets ran over by a car. 

Siu Nam guesses that Ivan is the murderer of Steve. However when Natalie wakes up in hospital she tells the police that her brother was with her at the time that Steve was murdered so Ivan could not have been the murderer. Furthermore she tells Siu Nam that she is his long lost daughter Tansy. She says that kidnapped by Ivan and his father, Ivan accidently killed his father and raised Natalie as his own sister.

Afterwards, Natalie reveals to Siu Nam that she is not actually Tansy, but only lied to save her brother as he killed Steve. Ivan also then tells Siu Nam that his father killed Tansy. After some conflict, Ivan strangles Natalie and Siu Nam kills Ivan to save Natalie. 

Realising that Tansy is dead, Siu Nam gets stuck into Ivan's character as he believes that Ivan's character has more meaning than his; Ivan still had a sister, but Siu Nam had no one anymore. 

To prove to Natalie that Siu Nam was her brother, Siu Nam decides to perform a live magic trick on TV. He is in a box suspended in mid-air above a big fire. He is chained together and has only minutes to unlock the locks and save himself. If not the box will fall and he will die in the fire.

Of course, since he is not Ivan, he cannot perform the magic trick. He realises that he is not Ivan, but Siu Nam. Being fully awake, he throws himself towards the walls of the box to try and free himself.

The next scene is an extract from Shakespeare's "The Tempest". We hear Siu Nam's voice. He tells us that he has finally let the past go, accepting that Tansy has gone forever and he finally feels at rest.

My thoughts

An open ending, we do not know for sure whether Siu Nam's character survived. 

As it is an open ending, I believe he did: to be honest I don't have a reason, but as Siu Nam decides that he wants to continue living, I believe he can.

Personally, even thought the ending was thrilling, I felt slightly let down by the feasibility of the magic trick. In real life, how ever "cool" a magic trick is there should not be the possibility of a the magician dying- it would make terrible television if it did. There would be lots of safety measures, and if Siu Nam did fall into the fire a load of firemen would immediately pop out and put out the fire and the paramedics would swiftly whisk him to hospital. The company hosting Siu Nam's magic trick would not want to be sued.

I felt really sorry for Siu Nam. I could tell how much Tansy meant to him and his sadness in realising that Tansy really was dead. I find the saddest thing is that he'll never know where her body is.

I find at weird how Natalie reacts to things. When she found out that Ivan was having an affair whilst going out with Ester she cried lots over it, moving out and refusing to talk to him for ages. It can be understandable as it was also during a time when Ivan was changing.
However she also got really upset about Siu Nam when she found out he was going out with Ester. I found this a but silly as Ester had already broken up with her brother a while ago and Natalie knew that it was Ivan's fault.
Yet when she found out that her brother had killed Steve, although angry, she still talked to him. This could be because she has matured. But, I don't remember her crying for Steve at all, they were good friends after all.

After the first week or so I was slightly bored. Though I thought the episodes were watchable, I was never fully engaged into the story. I just wanted to know the ending. However I watched every episode. I know the show was supposed to have lots of deep and meaningful issues. Unfortunately I didn't understand much of them.

However it is nice to see TVB doing something different. I do think it is a good production. Good main leads, and unexpected twist and turns. Personally I didn't think Master of Play was scary either. Definitely not suitable for young children. But if people are bored of those typical TVB dramas with a barbeque ending,  Master of Play is a good alternative.