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!!
