回到三國 Three Kingdoms RPG review

Spoilers alert!

I really enjoyed "A Step Into The Past" so I had been looking forwards to "Three Kingdom RPG". I also like   all of the main leads. It was quite interesting to see how they put in the story of borrowing arrows from Cao Cao and tying Kenneth's character with it, as well as when he found Hua Tuo to save Zhu Ge Liang's wife.


Kenneth Ma as Sze Ma Shun / Wun Shun / 司馬信

At the start, Wun Shun does not understand how to respect others, and thinks little about others in his actions. In Hong Kong, he masters the skill of playing video games revolving characters of the Three Kingdoms. Unfortunately that is all he is good at. No longer a young man, he does not have steady source of income, and only works as an extra for TV series. Even in this job he is lazy and takes every opportunity to do as little as possible.

One day, during work as an extra for an ancient series, Wun Shun is transported back to the Three Kingdoms era (and luckly he is in costume, and even has a wig to fit in with the people of that time). He meets Fan Gan who looks up to him as his saviour, giving him somewhere to live. Not long after, Wun Shun meets his idol, Zhu Ge Liang. When Zhu Ge Liang is approached by Lau Bei to help him with war strategies, Zhu Ge Liang does not choose Wun Shun to help him, and Wun Shun becomes irritated with Zhu Ge Liang vowing that their friendship is over. Wun Shun later works for Hon Leung, who carries the same position as Zhu Ge Liang.

Through texting his sister, Wun Shun plans to return to the present time at a certain date. During his last few days, he sings a love song to Song Yau and Song Yau develops romantic feelings for Wun Shun, even though he feels nothing.

Finally, the day comes where Wun Shun can return to the future. He causes choas at Lau Bei's house before leaving. Unfortunately he goes to the wrong place to be transported back to Hong Kong so is still stranded in the past. Having ran away and caused chaos from Lau Bei's house, he is captured as a criminal and put into jail. It is not only because of Song Yau that he is released. However he is demoted to a servant.
Later he finds out that Hon Shun has a plan to kill Zhu Ge Liang and blame it on himself. He thinks of a plan to show Lau Bei that Hon Shun wants to kill Zhu Ge Liang. He succeeds, and Zhu Ge Liang then asks Wun Shun to help him with his work.

Later, he gets shot by an arrow and experiences a near death experience. It is here where he fully re-evaluates his actions and becomes considerate for other. Since he had mislead Song Yau into thinking they were a pair, he tells her that though she is a great girl, he has no romantic feelings for her.

His actions later causes him to have to leave his area, but he is wanted dead by Zhu Yu. Saved by Song Yau, he finally finds that he does indeed have feelings for her, but by the time he decides to tell her, she had already gone.

He is later captured by Cao Cao's strategist, who once worked for Lau Bei. Wun Shun is forced to help them defeat Lau Bei, and cannot just escape when the opposition also captures Song Yau.

Later he finds out that he still had an opportunity to return to Hong Kong and vows to take Song Yau back with him. Sadly when this opportunity comes, only Wun Shun manages to get back to the future, watching Song Yau being left in the past.

Now back in Hong Kong, Wun Shun is no longer the boy he used to be, and works to open his own successful fast food chain, whilst tying history of the Three Kingdoms in his business. He watches the weather every day to look for an opportunity to return to the Three Kingdoms era. 30 years past, and there has been no opportunity for Wun Shun to go back. He as a large painting of Song Yau in his office and has the same sandwich everyday- one he made with Song Yau before. He suddenly finds that there is another chance for him to go back to Song Yau and goes the the place where he was to go back.

As Wun Sun approaches the blue light to take him back, he gets a heart attack. Only metres away from the portal light, he realises he can't get there in time, and sings the love song he once sung Song Yau as he dies, arm reached out for the blue light.

Kenneth's character really annoyed me at first. I didn't like his attitude how he always thought he as right and how he always acted as he was above all others.  For example at that start of the show when he though that Raymond's character should have taken him as his helper and threw a huge strop when he didn't. The two had not met for long, and Wun Shun had done little to show he had any intelligence.


There were some complaints from viewers, saying that Kenneth was too old to portray such a character. I personally really enjoyed it. He does comedy very well and pulls all the right faces. I remember chuckling after he fell down the cliff and was said "I thought you said that even cliffs wouldn't put you in a difficult position" to the dead warrior. 

His ending was so sad! So there he was, waiting every day for 30 years for a chance to go back to the past to meet Song Yau again. When he does get the opportunity finally comes he dies. As in the finale, Song Yau does come to the future, couldn't they let him see her first to fulfil his wish?

Also I think that he thought that he really belonged to the Three Kingdoms era after he got back to the future, for when he was trying to go back he said "Song Yau, I'm coming back". It just makes everything that little more sad :(



I think Kenneth Ma is great character. Wun Shun differs greatly from his doctor role in The Hippocratic Crush and his evil role in Tiger Cubs or Grace Under Fire. 



Raymond Lam as Zhu Ge Liang

Zhu Ge Liang is a scholar who is seeked by Lau Bei to work as on of his strategists. He has an intelligent mind, helping Lau Bei to solve many different problems. This causes jealousy from others such as Hor Leung and Chow Yu who both plot to murder him. Luckily both of their schemes fail. He meets Wun Shun before becoming Lau Bei's strategist. After getting to know Wun Shun, Zhe Ge Liang thinks of him as a good friend and trusts him greatly. Zhu Ge Liang cares deeply for his wife, a women with poor health but with a good understanding of war strategies and who can help him in developing his own strategies.

He continues to help Lau Bei fight his wars.

Wasn't very fond of Raymond's moustache at the start of the series, but I got used to it! 

I really did like Raymond's portrayal of Zhu Ge Liang. It was different to any other characters he had done, and he came across as a modest, wise and calm person. I liked how his character cared for his wife, and they had great interactions in the series. It did seem like Zhu Ge Liang wouldn't have got very far in his career without his wife though since she was always helping him with war strategies and translated old scripts. 
It was also nice to see him trusting Wun Shun as a close friend. 

His character didn't really get an ending, as in he was still doing what he'd been doing the whole series which is fine. It was lovely to see that his wife could stand up again though.

Tavia Yeung as Song Yau

Song Yau is a housemaid at Lau Bei's house. Having worked there since she was young, Lau Bei and his wives see her as their daughter. Wun Shun affected her life from the start when he told of freestyle loving in Hong Kong, leading her to not accept a marriage proposal from a well-educated, good natured man from a rich family.  She is later mislead into thinking that Wun Shun had romantic feeling for her, and she started to have feelings for him too.
Wun Shun develops guilt after a while, and leaves Song Yau heart-broken when he tells her that he never had feelings for her.

She is later captured, by the opposition of Lau Bei to force the also captured Wun Shun to help them defeat Lau Bei.

Wun Shun tells her that he would take her back to Hong Kong. When the time comes, Song Yau is unable to travel to the future with him, watching him leave her. At the end of the finale, it shows Song Yau arriving in the future 30 years after Wun Shun went back. However, Wun Shun was already dead. Song Yau tears up.

Tavia was the female lead of Three Kingdoms, but I felt that Leung Ka Ki had more screen time for her. I enjoyed Tavia's limited screen time, even though she isn't important in the series apart from being Kenneth's love interest. To be honest, I think she was also there to make watchers feel pain when she and Wun Shun could never get together.

Top notch acting though as usual. This was her first collaboration with Kenneth. They shot The Hippocratic Crush later. I think it certainly helped with their chemistry there!

Others

There wasn't any weak acting here. I loved the acting of Lau Bei and his two brothers. All the interaction between the men was very likeable to me. I've heard some complaining that the relationship between the men seemed homosexual, but I didn't think so. To me, it showed that they were loyal to each other and caring to others as well: if they treated each others with such respect they should also care for other people.

I also really enjoyed Leung Ka Ki, as Zhu Ge Liang's wife. Wearing minimal make up to portray the ugly and ill- healthed wife of Zhu Ge Liang  (personally I thought she was still quite pretty), I thought she gave it all. I look forward to seeing her again in another TVB series!

Fan Gan was a great addition to the series. I got worried about TVB killing his character a few times. I felt sorry for him when Wun Shun kept bossing him about but he wouldn't complain. It was sweet when Wun Shun started to think of him as a good brother of his. I hope that he got promoted to a high rank on the war field and got lots of money!
Fan Gan is a great loyal friend. Great portrayal too! I didn't remember seeing the actor either, but he definitely left a deep impression on me here!

It was nice watching Kenneth's character meeting the ancient people, especially Zhu Ge Liang, who was his idol. It was also funny how he often used Hong Kong Slang and even some English when he was in the past. You'd think that after being in the past for so long he'd get used to talking proper chinese right? Another scene which I remember finding very enjoyable was when he just got transported back, and saw loads of pandas on the mountains (however fake looking they were!). It just seemed to add the cherry on the top for me to show how different things were to be for Wun Shun!

Again with the ending: it just wasn't very nice for me! Even though we only saw Wun Shun missing Song Yau, no doubt she also missed him until she got to the future too. Then she saw an aged and dead Wun Shun. It's going to be awkward for her as she's in the future now, and has no Hong Kong identity, which basically means she'll be thrown out of Hong Kong. Her only hope would be Wun Shun's little sister who only knew of her. So it's a sad sad ending for both characters. As again, it seems like Song Yau's character was to distress the audience watching this series. If she wasn't there, Wun Shun would be happy in the future, whilst still becoming rich and successful.

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!