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!

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!!

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.

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.