Review of TVB series "Journey of Love 親恩情未了" (1994)

Cast: Violet Li (李影), Lau Kong (劉江), Angelina Lo (盧宛茵), Marco Ngai (魏駿傑), Louisa So (蘇玉華), Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文), KK Cheung (張國強), Wallace Chung (鍾漢良), Raymond Cho (曹永廉), Gan Pui Gwan (簡珮筠), Ho Kit San (何潔珊), Bao Fong (鮑方), Lily Leung (梁舜燕)


For the past few weeks, I’ve been watching the series “Journey of Love” on TV every night and just finished it a few days ago. Overall, this actually wasn’t a bad series, even though I did have quite a few issues with the way the storyline was written and presented (which I will go into later). I think for me, what really ‘saved’ this series and made it worth watching was the acting from the cast – most (though not all) of the cast put in solid performances and really helped to push the emotional factor forward – this was actually no easy feat considering much of the cast consisted of ‘newbies’ (in acting at least) and the script was kind of messy and ‘all over the place’ (the storyline is extremely clichéd to the point of being hugely predictable, which will become more obvious later on in the review).

First off, before I go any further, I feel it’s necessary to give a brief overview of the plot for this series so that the rest of my review makes more sense (for those who have seen this series already and are very familiar with the plot, you can skip this section if you want).

Summary / Plot

The story is about a benevolent mother named Ho Ah Chun (played by Violet Li) whose husband dies and leaves her with 5 young children to raise (3 boys and 2 girls). Since the family was already poor to begin with, Ah Chun must now work even harder to try and make ends meet so that she can provide the basics for her children. Due to her desperate situation, she resorts to utilizing little tricks to cheat people out of money at the local Mahjjong centers and that’s where she meets Fung Guang (played by Lau Kong) – one of the local ‘bullies’ who hangs out at the gambling places and tries to make people’s lives miserable. After some misunderstandings occur between them, Ah Chun is forced to flee to the Philippines, leaving her 5 children behind in HK in the care of her good friend Lee Bo King (played by Angelina Lo). Unfortunately, she encounters bad luck over there and after being framed for a murder she didn’t commit, she ends up in jail for 18 years. When she is released, she returns to HK and begins the difficult ‘journey’ of finding all 5 of her children and reuniting with them. The entire series is pretty much about Ah Chun’s quest to find each of her children one by one and the hardships / setbacks she encounters along the way.

Even though Ah Chun does end up finding each of her children, the lives that each of them lead turns out to be completely different due to the circumstances under which they grew up.

Eldest son Cheung Ka Sing (played by Marco Ngai) spent most of his childhood working at the local street markets and ends up owning a small local restaurant when he grows up, which he maintains with the support of his wife Suk Kuen (played by Louisa So) and young son Siu Lung (child actor whom I don't know the name of). Ka Sing has a gambling habit and constantly uses money from the restaurant to 'fuel' his habit (which leads to misunderstandings between his wife and mother). Suk Kuen is the typical hardworking, practical housewife whose main goal is to maintain the restaurant while at the same time making sure that her family is taken care of (of course, she has tight control of the finances). Their son is an annoying brat (sorry, but I really didn't like the kid much at all). Overall, they are a decent family trying hard to make a modest living. Of course, things happen over the course of the series that put their marriage to the test, though they end up fine in the end.

Eldest daughter Cheung Ka Wai (played by Sammi Cheng) -- oldest amoung the girls but second amongst all the siblings -- ended up in an orphanage after her mother left. Being the smartest and most educated one out of all the siblings, she ends up having the best lot in life when she grows up -- she becames a high ranking attorney (prosecutor) with a super-nice boyfriend Joe (played by KK Cheung) who, of course, is a doctor (talk about cliches and stereotypes!). She changes her name to Helen while at the orphanage and even though she finds out early on that Ah Chun is her biological mother, she refuses to acknowledge her pretty much until the very end (due to reasons that I won't get into here). She and Joe eventually get married and have a daughter together.

Cheung Ka Keung (played by Wallace Chung) is the middle child who ends up with the most unfortunate lot in life -- while left in the care of Bo King (Angelina), he accidentally falls out the window of her home, hits his head on the sidewalk, and due to damage to the brain, he becomes mentally handicapped. Not able to care for him, Bo King puts him in an institution that specializes in taking care of mentally handicapped children and that's where he grows up until Ah Chun returns. Even though he has the mental capacity of a child, he does eventually learn to be independent and later on is able to take care of himself, though before that happens, he of course has to go through all sorts of ‘issues’ due to society not being receptive to people like him.

The 2 youngest siblings are twins (a few minutes apart in age) Cheung Ka Mei (played by Gan Pui Gwan) and Cheung Ka Jun (played by Raymond Cho). When their mother left, both of them were pretty much still babies (1 year old) and so they weren't old enough to remember their mother at all. Ka Mei remained with Bo King and was raised alongside her own daugher Siu Lai (played by Ho Kit San), but because Bo King had to make a living and sort of neglected her throughout most of her childhood, she grew up to become one of those typical incorrigible 'problem youth' who didn't go to school and pretty much spent her entire day 'hanging out' with good-for-nothing friends and getting into trouble left and right (typical!). Due to her plight, Ka Mei has a rebellious attitude and is constantly angry at everyone and everything, which also makes her a very unreasonable person and difficult to get along with. She pretty much spends most of the series wreaking havoc and causing problems for everyone.

Ka Jun was in and out of the hospital as a baby due to having asthma (I think?), so when his mother left, the doctor who operated on him at the hospital (Dr Wong, played by the late Bao Fong) and his wife (played by Lily Leung) adopted him, changed his named, and treated him like their own son. So pretty much Ka Jun (who is referred to by his English name Dick Wong) grows up in an affluent family and doesn't have to worry about anything financially. Since he was only a baby when his mother left, he does not know that he was actually adopted and Ah Chun is his biological mother until pretty much the last 3rd of the series.


Storyline / Script

As I said earlier, the biggest problem I had with this series was the script, which had a lot of flaws and inconsistencies in it that definitely affected the viewing experience (for me at least). I mean, I felt that the story that the series was trying to tell was quite good and the lessons it tried to teach were definitely meaningful, but the ‘method’ that they used to tell the story was a bit too ‘messy’ for my tastes. The first third of the series or so was actually pretty good, but by the middle / ending sections of the series, it really started to fall apart in my opinion – to the point that I started to get a little annoyed at some of the scenes. At a few points throughout the series, I actually felt that the scriptwriter was really trying to test our (the audience) patience and perhaps were even trying to pull the wool over our eyes with some of the ridiculous story arcs that just didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

For instance: the part where Ka Mei goes all ‘psychotic’ when she finds out that Siu Lai likes Ka Jun (this was back when no one knew about his true identity) and spikes his drink at his birthday party out of jealousy, causes a car accident, then tries to frame him to say he was taking drugs and they end up battling it out in court. That whole segment (if I remember correctly, I think that whole story arc ran the course of an episode or two?) was just completely ridiculous and lame. I mean, come on now – knowing Ka Mei’s background (um, she was dealing drugs at one point), how could it even fly that Ka Jun spiked his own drink at his own party for no reason at all? And for everyone to defend her like she was some angel? Oh and Siu Lai’s reaction was pathetic: when her mother Bo King tells her to ‘go along’ with Ka Mei’s story and ‘frame’ Ka Jun, Siu Lai does it pretty much without question – wait, isn’t this the guy that she supposedly had feelings for and wanted to develop a relationship with? Then why would she so readily agree to ‘frame’ him knowing that he was completely innocent? And then when everything is said and done and Ka Mei ends up going to jail for a few months, Ka Jun not only forgives Siu Lai right away, he also continually seeks her out and still wants to develop a relationship with her again as though nothing had happened (not to mention he still wants to try and get on Ka Mei’s good side for Siu Lai’s sake). Huh? Really? Throughout that whole segment, it just seemed like everyone acted very out of character (except for Ka Mei) – it was almost as though they were playing completely different characters during that part or something!

I also felt that the writers went a bit too ‘overboard’ in trying to make the series overly ‘dramatic’, especially with the main story involving the mother Ah Chun, and therefore made the series way too ‘cliché-ish’ (if that’s a word). I mean, look at all the ‘tragedy’ that the writers put the mother through: her husband dies; she has no money and 5 kids to raise; she encounters a ‘bad guy’ who forces her to flee to Philippines; she gets separated from her kids; she is framed for murder and goes to jail for 18 years; her oldest son has leukemia and almost dies, her middle son is mentally retarded, her youngest daughter is a ‘problem child’, her other 2 kids don’t want anything to do with her; she endures all sorts of mental and emotional anger / frustration / ‘torture’ as well as hardship; she almost gets put in jail again after that bastard Fung Guang dies and she is suspected of doing it, etc. -- then in the end, when all the problems are resolved and just when we think that finally she gets the chance to live ‘happily ever after’ with her 5 children and their families, she gets liver cancer and dies (or at least it’s implied that she dies)! Sheesh!! By the time I got to the end of the series, I really wanted to tell the writers to just leave the poor woman alone already!!!

Now, don’t get me wrong – not all of the script was bad….there were actually quite a few very poignant, very well-made scenes in the series and some parts of the script were pretty decent – it’s just that the writers should have tied everything together in a better way.


Cast / Acting

In terms of the acting, there were actually quite a few very solid performances in this series and as I said earlier, this was really the piece that kept me watching until the end (otherwise, I probably would have given up on the series already).

Here’s my take on a few of the ‘main players’:

Violet Li (Ho Ah Chun) – Violet’s role was a really tough one to do, but she actually pulled it off quite well in my opinion. She was convincing as the benevolent but tough mother who loves her children so much and so unconditionally that she was willing to do anything for them, including admitting to a crime she didn’t commit and risk going to jail. In my opinion, Violet did a good job bringing out the depth of the character and illustrating the emotional ups and downs that she goes through in her journey to find her children – most of the scenes that I found to be most moving to the point of getting teary-eyed were pretty much scenes involving her.

In terms of Violet Li as an actress, I actually don’t know a whole lot about her, as she was pretty much active as a television actress prior to my time and already retired from the industry long ago. I do know that she was one of RTV’s (ATV’s predecessor) fadans back in the day (in the 70s) and then she immigrated to Canada in the 80s, returning briefly in the 90s to film a handful of series for TVB and ATV. I haven’t seen any of her other performances, so can’t really comment overall, but she definitely did leave an impression on me with her performance in this particular series.


Angelina Lo (Lee Bo King) – To be honest, I really didn’t like Angelina’s character in this series – I found her to be a bit on the ‘annoying’ side, especially with the way she treats people and such. And I hate how she agreed to ‘get back together’ with that loser boyfriend (husband?) of hers, Fung Guang – I mean, knowing that he’s not only a bad person, he’s also a penniless drug addict who pretty much asks her for money day and night and even tries to ‘harm’ his own daughter, what was the point of even allowing him into her life again? If she would have cut off all contact with that pathetic good-for-nothing in the first place, a lot of the ‘bad’ stuff in the second half of the series probably wouldn’t have happened (though we all know that of course the storyline had to develop that way in order to up the ‘dramatic’ element).

With that said though, I actually was fine with Angelina’s acting (she put in a strong performance as usual), but I just didn’t like her character all that much, so I really didn’t focus too much attention on her in this series. Besides, I sort of felt her character wasn’t really that important – she’s pretty much just ‘there’ to insert her opinion in things every now and then…pretty much any actress could have played the role without much difficulty (sort of a waste of talent if you ask me).


Lau Kong (Fung Guang) – I guess you could say that Fung Guang was the most detestable character in the series, which isn’t surprising considering he’s the main ‘villain’ so to speak. Even so, his role actually was not that big, though the impact of his character was quite significant – he was there for like the first episode or so and then doesn’t appear again until close to the last 3rd of the series. I feel that his character was primarily there to act as the ‘catalyst’ for most of the ‘drama’ that happens in the series (i.e. it’s because of him that Ah Chun must flee to the Philippines and leave her children behind, thus indirectly having a hand in how each of the 5 children turn out). And it becomes clear when he reappears later on in the series that it’s also partly because of him that Ah Chun’s son Ka Keung becomes mentally handicapped (Fung Guang beat Ka Keung and locked him up in a room – when Ka Keung tried to escape by climbing out the window, he fell and hit his head).

Lau Kong is one of those veteran actors with so much acting experience playing all different types of roles (convincingly, I must add) that sometimes you can’t help but wonder if there is a role out there that he ‘can’t’ do (I think the answer is “no”…hehehe!). Whether he’s playing a villain character (which is most of the time) or a ‘good’ person (mostly father figures), I’ve actually never been disappointed with any of his performances. Nowadays, he’s actually one of the few senior, experienced, talented veteran actors that TVB has left, so hopefully, they treat him well.


Marco Ngai (Cheung Ka Sing) – Marco’s character in this series was pretty much one of those ‘average joes’ who was a good person at heart, but not surprisingly, being human, he falls prey to life’s temptations (money, women, etc.) just like any man would. Of course, as expected, the storyline surrounding Marco’s character Ka Sing is quite stereotypical and in line with TVB’s ‘traditional’ formula (his gambling habit causes him to fall in with the wrong crowd and he ends up having an affair with another woman, which causes his wife to break up with him; then when he discovers the other woman was using him, he regrets it and just when he wants to get back with his wife, he discovers that he has leukemia – of course he is saved in the end and he gets back together with his wife…).

From an acting perspective, I feel that Marco did a fine job, though the role itself probably was not too difficult for him. I’ve always been of the sentiment that Marco has talent as an actor, but unfortunately, his personality and all the stuff that went on in his personal life damaged his career more than it helped him (in my opinion, the breakup of his longtime relationship with Joyce Tang really killed his career in HK, since most audiences seemed to hate him after that). Personally, I neither like Marco nor hate him (I’m pretty much neutral toward him), so whatever he does in his personal life really isn’t a problem to me – he’s a good actor, so I’d much rather watch him in a series than some of the current ‘actors’ that TVB has been promoting recently (just my personal opinion, so don’t shoot me! LOL!).


Louisa So (Yuen Suk Kuen) – Louisa plays the typical ‘disgruntled wife / daughter-in-law’ character who is not a bad person at the core, but just acts bossy and demanding all the time because that’s the only way she is able to survive in the face of everything going on – plus at the end of the day, she’s just trying to protect her family by looking out for the best interests of her husband and son. I really can’t blame her for being somewhat of a ‘bxxch’ in the beginning because putting myself in her shoes, if I all of a sudden had to accept a mother-in-law whose background was a bit shady and a brother-in-law who was mentally incapable of taking care of himself into the house (and have to foot all their living expenses), I would probably be a little bit ‘upset’ in the beginning as well (not to mention having to deal with that unreasonable, psychotic sister-in-law Ka Mei – she’s enough to make anyone go crazy! LOL!). One thing I didn’t like about Louisa’s character though was how she was so biased against her brother-in-law Ka Keung from the beginning, pretty much discriminating against him merely because he mentally handicapped (though again, I can’t completely blame her for that either because that’s pretty much the attitude that most people who are not familiar with how those types of illnesses work would typically take). To be honest, I even started feeling sorry for Suk Kuen later on in the series when her husband betrays her by having an affair and she leaves with her son.

Louisa did an excellent job in her role as Marco’s wife – though I also felt that this role was too easy for her as well, given how great of an actress she is. Surprisingly, she actually had pretty good chemistry with Marco and I actually enjoyed watching their scenes together – they matched pretty well together, whether physically or in terms of personality and interaction onscreen. Louisa is truly a talented actress (if you haven’t seen her performance in Phoenix Rising, I highly recommend it – watching her in that series sent chills up my spine) – unfortunately though, she was hugely underrated at TVB (not surprising considering how TVB has a ‘history’ of underutilizing talent). She actually only started to become somewhat ‘popular’ after she won that cooking show a few years back, which is a bit of a shame considering she was in so many series prior to that and never really got any recognition. Perhaps, like many of her ‘classmates’, she also fell under the HK Acting Academy ‘curse’ and so that’s why TVB never really liked her (it seems that TVB has a pattern of ‘mistreating’ or ‘neglecting’ some of the earlier graduates from the HK Academy of Performing Arts – i.e. Sunny Chan, Power Chan, Mimi Lo, Rain Lau, etc.). Whatever the case, great job from Louisa!


Sammi Cheng (Helen / Cheung Ka Wai) – Sammi’s character Helen was actually very typical of the types of characters she used to play back then when she filmed series – usually some type of professional (lawyer, designer, etc.) with a somewhat haughty attitude (I honestly felt that the whole ‘black-face’ thing she was known for back then sort of applied to her series as well – huge contrast from the way Sammi is now). I actually got a little bit annoyed with her character at first because she always seemed like she was in a bad mood or something – and the way she would say harsh words to her boyfriend Joe or argue with him over some petty issue kind of ticked me off at certain parts. With that said though, I did grow to like her a little bit towards the end, especially when her personality changed after she became pregnant and was more accepting of the people around her (which, btw, I have to mention that they didn’t do a very good job of making the pregnancy look convincing because Sammi’s ‘fake’ stomach was way too big and it made her look extremely awkward…haha!). Also, considering most of the women in this series weren’t really ‘likable’ (aside from Violet and maybe Louisa), I think they found a pretty good balance with the way they developed Sammi’s character.

Acting-wise, I definitely prefer Sammi today than back then, perhaps because she has more acting experience now and is a lot more polished and mature in her acting (plus I like the ‘happy’ Sammi a lot more than the ‘constantly pissed off” Sammi….LOL). She wasn’t bad in this series actually, but I just felt that some scenes came off a little bit awkward – not sure if it was the way the storyline was written or what. Regardless, given the circumstance, this was a decent performance for Sammi – not ‘awesome’, but definitely watchable! (And got to give her some credit for the themesong, which she performed quite nicely.)


KK Cheung (Dr. Joe Tang) – First of all, I’m glad that KK didn’t have to play the villain this time around (haha…I’ve been watching him in too many villain roles lately) – instead, he plays a super nice doctor who ends up becoming Ka Keung’s personal doctor as well as Ah Chun’s good friend. Ironically, he is also the boyfriend of Ah Chun’s daughter Ka Wai (though no one knows it at that time) as well as the best friend of her son Ka Jun (again, no one knows at that time either), so indirectly, he sort of acts as the ‘link’ between Ah Chun and the 2 children she’s trying to find. He is very nice to Ah Chun and treats her like his own mother (of course, he actually does her son-in-law later on in the series). He has a very easy-going personality – the type of person who doesn’t have a temper whatsoever and doesn’t get upset easily (that’s why I say he’s ‘super-nice’ – cuz it takes a lot to get him upset) – interestingly, his personality is completely opposite from that of his girlfriend Helen’s (she’s more high-strung and gets upset easily), but yet they are still able to make things work out well in terms of their relationship (though of course they do have quite a few ‘arguments’ throughout the series). I think that Joe was truly the ‘epitome’ of what a ‘good man’ should be like in the series, which is why I found his character so highly likable.

KK is definitely on my ‘favorites’ list in terms of actors – he’s always convincing, whether he’s playing the villain or the ‘good guy’. He’s also a great husband and father in real life as well (he has 3 children, all of whom are high school / college age). One of the other things I really like and admire about KK is the fact that he went from being an athlete with absolutely no acting experience whatsoever to an established actor with great acting skills – that definitely doesn’t happen very often! Even though he has been in a lot of series since he returned to TVB earlier in the decade, I still feel that KK is very underrated as an actor because up to this point, he hasn’t really been given a ‘breakthrough’ role – he definitely deserves more recognition for his acting than he currently gets!


Wallace Chung (Cheung Ka Keung) – Out of all the characters in the series, Wallace’s Ka Keung was the most challenging one to play and to be honest, I was a little surprised that the producer actually gave the role to a ‘newbie’ (that was around the time that Wallace had just started out in the industry as a singer). Ka Keung had a lot of scenes in the series that required him to express his thoughts and emotions through hand gestures and facial expressions, since his speech was a bit slow due to the damage to his brain – plus his mental capacity was pretty much that of a child. Well, Wallace definitely stepped up to the challenge because his performance was absolutely stellar – to the point that if you were to ask me, I would have to say that he was really the ‘star’ of the series from an acting perspective!! He absolutely ‘outshined’ everyone in the series with his performance – even the veterans! I was very impressed with Wallace’s portrayal of Ka Keung – he was so good in the role, so convincing and so natural!! Most actors who try to play a mentally challenged person (even those actors who are very experienced) would usually go the ‘exaggerated’ route because that seems to be the only way for the audiences to ‘get’ that the person is mentally handicapped (at least that’s the typical TVB way of thinking) – but with Wallace’s portrayal of Ka Keung, there was NOT ONE bit of exaggeration in the acting! From the mannerisms to the facial expressions to the way he spoke, his portrayal was absolutely PERFECT in my book! The other thing about Wallace’s performance is that he made his character very real, yet at the same time endearing for audiences – in fact, he was actually my favorite character in the entire series (couldn’t help being drawn to him). He definitely had too many well-acted scenes to count, so I would have to say that I loved pretty much every single scene with him in it! LOL!

I actually haven’t watched very many of Wallace’s series, as I pretty much knew of him back when he made a name for himself as a singer in Taiwan in the 90s (even though he was a HK artist). Then after that, he went to Mainland China to film series. Since I don’t follow Taiwan entertainment anymore and I don’t watch Mainland series at all (for the most part), I never had a chance to watch his series – but now that I’ve seen how great his acting can be, I might very well give his other series a try!


Raymond Cho (Dick / Cheung Ka Jun) – Raymond played the youngest of the 5 siblings, Ka Jun (he’s supposedly Ka Mei’s twin, but they absolutely don’t come across like twins at all). Ka Jun was a likable character overall, but I really don’t feel that the writers developed the character as much as they really could have. There were quite a few parts of the storyline involving Ka Jun that I sort of felt were lame (i.e. the part I described above in the script/storyline section).

With that said, I actually feel that Raymond did a pretty good job with his role, especially considering this was one of his first series and also the character itself was not that great. I did see that there were some scenes where he came across a little bit stiff, especially with some of the heavy emotional scenes, but to me, that’s definitely understandable and forgivable considering he was a newbie at that time (and since he started as a singer, pretty much had no acting experience). Otherwise, for a first performance, he did a pretty fine job! Of course, every time I talk about Raymond Cho, I have to fault TVB once again for failing to recognize his talent because it was already obvious even back then that he had acting potential. If TVB had promoted and developed him properly, he definitely would have been able to be successful.

Since I’ve already talked a lot about Raymond in this blog (plus I just recently translated an in-depth interview about him), I won’t comment on him too much in this review. One thing I will say though is that I actually was surprised that Wallace Chung got cast as the 3rd brother whereas Raymond got cast as the youngest brother – even after Wallace’s character appeared, it took me several episodes to realize that he was the 3rd brother and not the youngest one. Though both actors have that ‘eternal baby face’ look that allows them to play younger characters even though they might be older, it’s definitely obvious when you put Wallace and Raymond side by side that Raymond is older (or maybe I’m just used to watching the Raymond of today and so I’m used to his ‘older’ look?).


Gan Pui Gwan (Cheung Ka Mei) – Ka Mei was probably the second most hated character in the series (for me at least) because all the things she does is just plain despicable and stupid. I mean, ok, I understand that she became ‘rebellious’ and such because she never had parents around to raise her and so fell in with the wrong crowd, but to be honest, she went way too overboard, to the point that when she actually ‘turns over a new leaf’ at the end of the series, it’s unconvincing and hard to believe. I actually hated her character from the beginning and even after she supposedly amended her ways, I still couldn’t get myself to like her (to me, the ‘damage’ was already done). I honestly feel that the writers took the ‘incorrigible’ and ‘rebellious’ thing way too far with her – she was very unreasonable and nasty and just plain immature.

As for the actress who played Ka Mei – Gan Pui Gwan – I actually don’t know much about her and there isn’t much info on the internet about her either. I remember the first time I saw her in a series was in “Instinct” (definitely not her first series) and at that time, I didn’t know her name – I just remembered that she looked a little bit like Marianne Chan (though Marianne was definitely prettier). I’ve seen a few other series with her in it, but none of the performances impressed me (though I do feel that she improved from the time she filmed this particular series to when she guest-starred in DIF3 – took me awhile to recognize her cuz she had changed so much). Anyway, I wasn’t too fond of her acting in this particular series, probably because I couldn’t really concentrate on analyzing her acting due to being distracted by other things about her – in the series, she constantly has this ‘poutiness’ about her and a ‘look’ on her face that seems like she is ticked off all the time…also, her deliberate ‘saunter’ whenever she walked really annoyed me (and I’m usually not the type to notice these types of things, so it must have been very deliberate to the point of ‘obvious in this case).


Ho Kit San (Lee Siu Lai) – Siu Lai is supposed to be the ‘good girl’ character who is used as a ‘juxtaposition’ to Ka Mei’s ‘bad girl’ role – even though they grew up together and their relationship is like ‘sisters’, they are actually completely opposites in terms of personality (the cliché thing coming into play again). I honestly didn’t like the character of Siu Lai at all because she was just way too ‘innocent’, ‘naïve’, and weak, to the point of being lame and pitiful – she pretty much lets the people around her control her life and constantly looks so ‘fragile’ that I swear you’d ‘break’ her if you accidentally pushed her over (yea, I’m being sarcastic, but you get the picture). Oh, and her whole “I’m so conflicted” thing in having to choose between the guy she ‘supposedly’ loves and the friend who is like a sister to her was just ridiculous and dumb – her storyline was very poorly written and her character was pretty much just a ‘filler’ in my opinion. I absolutely can’t stand characters like hers!

Prior to watching this series, I had absolutely no clue who Ho Kit San was (actually, I still don’t know who she is even now). I did some research on the Internet and found out she was in a few other series, but not very many (pretty much you can count them on 1 hand). Well, I guess it really doesn’t make much difference to me, considering her acting was only ‘mediocre’ at best (it’s not like I’m going to run out and watch the series she was in now).

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Like I said earlier, this is a decent series. Sure, there were definite flaws with the script and quite a few inconsistencies with the storyline, but overall, the acting was pretty good (save for 1 or 2 people). Now of course, if heavily clichéd and predictable series bother you, then may want to reconsider – though I would still recommend watching just for the lessons the series tries to teach and don’t focus too much on the storyline.

Oh, and one last thing I wanted to mention – the ‘emotional’ factor is quite high with this series, as there is pretty much drama and tragedy throughout (in fact, I can’t recall a single ‘comedic’ moment in the series whatsoever). For me, episode 20 was especially poignant, as that’s the episode where most of the emotional scenes were (for example: the court scene where the mother recounts everything that happened to her and all 5 of her children are sitting there crying – that scene was especially difficult to sit through).

Also, for a ‘low budget’ series with an ‘average’ cast, this series is actually a lot more watchable than most of the other ones that TVB has made in recent years (though it’s obvious TVB didn’t really care much about the series, since they released it overseas first and then warehoused it for a year before airing in HK).

Mingpao Interview with Raymond Cho: Grateful to his wife for her support; looks up to Wayne Lai as his example to emulate

The latest issue of Mingpao Weekly magazine came out this past weekend and there were actually quite a few interesting articles in it this time (unlike a few of the recent issues where I felt as though MP was starting to go down the ‘tabloid / gossip mag’ route).

Anyway, this week’s issue included an in-depth interview with actor Raymond Cho, who is one of my favorite supporting actors at TVB (my list of ‘favorites’ in the supporting actor category is probably longer than my list of leading actors…LOL!). I’ve always felt that Raymond is a hugely talented actor who is very much underrated at TVB (not surprisingly, TVB hasn’t tapped into his full potential) – he really hasn’t gotten very many good roles at TVB, which is a shame because he is such a good actor!

One of the things I love most about Raymond is his sense of humor – he always manages to turn something negative into a positive (just found out from the article that he learned this from Wayne Lai…hehe!) and make people laugh. I absolutely enjoy ‘following’ his Weibo everyday and reading all the stuff he posts as well as seeing his interaction with his friends – brings a smile to my face each time (his recent ‘bantering’ back and forth with Edwin Siu over the pettiest of things absolutely cracks me up)!

Actually, this interview came at the perfect time because for the past few weeks, I’ve been watching the series “Journey of Love”, which is one of Raymond’s earlier TVB series from the mid-90s -- in fact, I think this was actually his first series, but need to check to make sure, since I don’t really remember (I’ll be doing a review of the series later). It’s definitely interesting to read the below interview and understand what his struggles were during that same time period (mid-90s). I definitely have more respect for Raymond after reading this interview!

Lastly – the interview is LONG (as MP’s interviews usually are), but definitely worth reading! Hope it was as enjoyable a read for you as it was for me! :0)

*****

Mingpao Interview with Raymond Cho:   Grateful to his wife for her support; looks up to Wayne Lai as his example to emulate

Source:  Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2275

Article originally published on June 16th, 2012

Translation: llwy12

Due to filming in Hengdian [China] for TVB series Beauty at War《金枝慾孽（貳）》, Raymond Cho did not get the chance to spend Father’s Day (June 17th) with his 2 children, which already caused in him feelings of regret – in addition to that though, he also was not able to physically take part in his daughter Erin Cho’s one year old birthday celebration. Luckily, with the advances in technology, he was able to stay in communication with his children via video chat on his phone. Little Erin is able to talk to her father constantly using this method, so even when he has to be away for 3 weeks filming in China, Raymond does not have to worry that his daughter doesn’t recognize him – as soon as he returns home, she welcomes him with a bright smile as though he had never been gone. For Raymond Cho, there is nothing else in life right now that gives him more satisfaction than having a happy family and being blessed with a great wife as well as 2 adorable kids [son Brandon is 4 and daughter Erin is 1].

Since he started in the industry 18 years ago, Raymond’s career has not been smooth-sailing – in fact, it can be said that he’s had mostly bad luck in his career. In 1994, he started off as a singer and released a few albums, however he was not met with much success – his subsequent career in the entertainment industry was bumpy and filled with frustrations: “At that time, it was impossible to earn any money being singer. For a period of time, I had even gone to Malaysia to film TV series, but after 2 series, the entire production company went under and I had to return to Hong Kong.”

That period was the lowest point in Raymond’s life – not only was he unable to make enough money to cover basic living expenses for himself, he also was unable to provide for his family, which made him feel ashamed. Without much income coming in, he had no choice but to take out advances on his credit cards to cover his debts: “From 1994 to 1999, I had over $100,000 [HKD] in credit card advances and no matter how much I tried to scrimp and save, I was only able to pay off a little bit of interest each time – it was almost impossible to pay off the credit card debt completely.”

[During the interview], as he recounted this low point in his life, Raymond was able to keep a relatively peaceful tone – after all, this happened more than a decade ago – however life experiences, no matter how pleasant or difficult, are ultimately etched in one’s memory forever: “During that time, I felt absolutely miserable. Luckily though, I had 2 older brothers and 1 younger brother who were able to take up the responsibility of providing for the family – indirectly, this was a great help to me, as my family was very understanding of my situation. Despite how difficult things were, they saw how hard I worked and never once did they ask me to change careers.”


Used one credit card to cover another

It is often stated that when you start to have bad luck, it continues to follow you for a period of time – this certainly seemed to be the case with Raymond. At that time, since he didn’t have any money, Raymond thought about selling the second-hand car he owned for a few thousand dollars to cover his living expenses: “I remember the year was 1996. The day I was to sell my car, a huge rainstorm struck – the moment I drove my car out, it swerved into a gutter near a construction site and the entire car was totaled – just like that, I lost a few thousand bucks!” Right after the accident, in the face of such horrible luck, Raymond looked up at the heavens, gave out a heavy sigh, and silently, the tears began to flow: “It was at that very moment that I finally thought about changing careers – since 2 of my brothers had opened insurance companies, I thought about going into the same field; or I could go into real estate, but I didn’t know anyone in that industry at the time.” Coincidentally, as he was debating the career change, he received an invitation to film a movie – this gave him the little bit of hope he needed to completely dispel the thought of changing careers.

In 1999, Raymond returned to TVB through the help of a friend. At the time, TVB offered him a monthly salary of $3600 [HKD], which was way less than what he made when he first started in the industry – thinking of his plight, the tears again started to flow: “I cried because that’s when the realization finally hit home – being in this industry, of course I understand that the amount of salary the company is willing to give you represents the level of worth you have in their eyes.” After wiping away the tears, he made up his mind to return to TVB and start all over again. Fortunately, one of the directors liked how he spoke clearly and eloquently, so he was asked to film numerous travelogue specials. Even though he finally had income coming in, it still wasn’t enough to pay for basic expenses and he had to continue living a life of using one credit card to cover the debts from another card.

The turning point in Raymond’s career came after he filmed Healing Hands 2 《妙手仁心２》in which he played Dr. Chris Heung – the role was well-received by audiences and soon, Raymond’s salary increased. After much effort, he was finally able to pay off all his credit card debts and was even able to give a monthly allowance to his parents: “At the time, I thought that the tide had finally turned and I could make a comeback in my career, but then shortly after that, I didn’t have any series to film for a long period of time and again, my career stalled.” Career-wise, he experienced many instances of endless hope, only to be heavily disappointed in the end – having to face numerous ups and downs, he expressed: “My feelings at the time was that the road ahead was immense and the future was very fuzzy – just when I thought that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, I experienced a period where I didn’t have any work for 9 months.”

With the ups and downs in his career, Raymond started to believe that a lot of things in life are arranged by fate and began to understand that some things cannot be forced. Now, he constantly remembers the advice that one of his seniors once gave him – do not hope that you will suddenly shoot to the top because the more you hope for it, the more you will be disappointed: “I once had high hopes for a few of the series I had participated in, but in the end, things didn’t go as I thought….” Gradually, he started to understand the ‘rules of the game’.


Got drunk to numb himself

During the lowest periods in his life, in the stillness of the night, sometimes his heart would be filled with melancholy -- in a helpless state of depression, Raymond would grumble at the unfairness of his plight and lament his constant bad luck: “Whenever I thought about my plight, I would cry and my temper would become irritable. I would lie awake every night worried about my future and think about how to carry on with life – sometimes I would also wonder whether I had perhaps offended someone – pretty much all my thoughts were negative.” At one point, he had tried ‘knocking on the producer’s door’ [TN: approaching producer directly to solicit work], but unfortunately, the producer was only willing to give him a very minor role, so he decided to turn it down. This made him realize that the more you tried to knock on someone’s door, the more the person will feel that you’re ‘not worth it.’ Back then, when he was in a bad mood, he would take sleeping pills to help him sleep and also drink alcohol in the hopes of numbing himself so that he didn’t have to think too much.

Three years ago, when his son Brandon was a little over 1 year old, Raymond also experienced a time when he was out of work for months – at the time, he also went through mood swings and felt frustrated: “When my career wasn’t going well, my mood was easily affected – sometimes, when I felt a little depressed, even when I got home, I wouldn’t talk much and instead would constantly be thinking about things. Later on, I learned to cope with it by focusing all my energy on my son – when I saw how happy he was every day, it made me feel better in my heart.” Even though TVB didn’t give him any work for 9 months, Raymond did receive quite a few invitations to film commercials, which helped him earn extra income and also helped ease his feelings of frustration.

Back when his son Brandon was born, Raymond felt that he was truly a gift from the Heavens and happily accepted it – however when his wife Elaine [Chiang] unexpectedly became pregnant again [with daughter Erin], he felt a bit apprehensive and worried: “With another baby on the way, of course the expenses would be higher. I kept thinking about the future and was worried that I wouldn’t be able to provide the best for our second child – I definitely wasn’t prepared.” He expressed that the first time he found out about his wife’s second pregnancy, he felt like fainting because he knew he would now need to consider many things, such as moving to a bigger home to accommodate his growing family and also hiring another domestic helper to help take care of the baby: “The hardships I endured in the past made me feel a bit insecure about my career – I’ve always felt that being an actor is very passive and the future can be very unstable; therefore, I started to feel worried and pressured.”


Right now is the happiest point in life

Luckily, Raymond had friends whom he was able to confide in and they helped to ease his anxiety: “I was told to stop worrying! There are so many people in this world who want to have children but can’t – I have a son and a daughter, what more could I ask for? Plus, if we’re going to take on the role of parents, we have an obligation to raise our children and give them the best life possible.” His good friend Roger Kwok (郭晉安) would often share parenting tips with him and also would advise him not to worry so much.

Undoubtedly, Raymond is a very responsible father, which is partly why he often worried about providing the best life possible for his children – he didn’t want them to suffer one bit. Earlier, there were reports that Raymond encountered financial hardship and therefore had to sell his home at below market price – in reality, he actually sold his home in order to buy a more spacious one, since his wife was due to give birth soon and he wanted to make sure the family was situated.

“Whenever I want to buy anything for myself, I think about it for a long time, but whenever my kids want to buy something, I take out my wallet right away! That’s the attitude most parents take.” He and his wife Elaine barely have time to themselves nowadays – on days that he does not need to work, he would be responsible for buying groceries and cooking dinner: “We pretty much don’t have any time to ourselves – everything that we do, we take the kids into consideration first.”

When little Erin was born, Raymond finally tossed away all worry and happily accepted this new member into the household – in fact, he finds joy in taking care of his daughter now. At the mention of his daughter, Raymond truly comes alive and endlessly talks about how cute she is. He expressed that the thing that makes him most proud is that his son and daughter get along so well – Brandon loves his little sister a lot and every time Erin sees her big brother, she would grin happily: “Right now is the happiest point in my life. I understand now that I am more fortunate than many people and there is no need to worry about what life might have in store – as long as I put my best effort into providing for my family, that is enough.”

His son Brandon is his ‘lucky charm’ when it comes to filming commercials while his daughter Erin is his ‘lucky charm’ for filming series – in the past year or so since Erin was born, Raymond has already filmed 5 series practically back to back, with each role in the series having pretty good development. Two of the series have already aired and one will be an anniversary series – Raymond hopes that his acting will be accepted and recognized by audiences.


His wife quits her job to start own business

Raymond Cho has an excellent wife, Elaine Chiang (姜依蘭), who has accompanied him throughout many of the low points in his life – whether experiencing happy moments or unpleasant ones, she has been by his side supporting him: “Even during the most frustrating and disappointing moments of my career, she never once asked me to change jobs – this is very important to me!” Elaine is a quick thinker and has an overall positive outlook on life; she also comes from a well-educated background, so Raymond often consults with her on matters involving documents and such. Raymond expressed that though he lacks the educational background that his wife has, he has more life and society experience, so he and Elaine complement each other quite well: “We’ve been able to find a good balance and are able to get along very well.” Even though they hired 2 domestic helpers to support with the household chores, Raymond still takes it upon himself to help wash dishes or mop the floor when he is at home – whenever his wife sees him doing this, she always tells him that he doesn’t need to do it, but he doesn’t mind one bit.

Elaine is veteran actor John Chiang’s (姜大衛) daughter and was pretty much raised in a good environment her entire life – since she never experienced financial hardship, she didn’t have the same financial ‘burdens’ that Raymond did, so when the two of them were dating, she never gave him any pressure: “My father-in-law John and mother-in-law Maggie [Li] are great people – all along, they’ve been very supportive of me.”

Previously, Elaine had a steady job with very good income – with both of their salaries together, life was comfortable. When Elaine wanted to quit her job in order to start her own business, Raymond was opposed at first, as he felt that having a steady job provided financial security. However, after their daughter Erin was born, Elaine wanted to focus more time taking care of the kids at home: “With her previous job, she did make good money, but she also worked long hours so by the time she got home, it was very late at night. At that time, I did not have a lot of series to film, so when Brandon was born, I would take care of him more, which is why he’s closer with me. When she decided to quit her job, I objected at first, but seeing that she was going into the children’s apparel business and would only need to be at work for a few hours a day, which gave her more time to spend with the kids, I had no more reason to object. True, it’s necessary to make money, but choosing happiness is also very important.”

Being in the industry 18 years, Raymond no longer concerns himself with being ‘lucky’ or ‘unlucky’ – he takes his job very seriously and is very good about arriving to work on time and being one of the last to leave. No matter what type of role or script that TVB gives him, he always makes sure to do his homework and accumulate experience. Lately, TVB has been giving him roles with better opportunity for development, such as those in Ghetto Justice 2 《怒火街頭２》and The Confidant 《大太監》. Because of their collaboration in The Confidant, Raymond became good friends with the series’ star Wayne Lai (黎耀祥) – he praises Wayne’s work ethic and positive attitude: He [Wayne] is constantly sharing with us his philosophy on life as well as his many years of experience working at TVB. He very much enjoys the acting process and always tells us that no matter how exhaustive the process may be, don’t dwell too much on it – as long as you make enough money to put food on the table, then let it be. Also, no matter what type of character you get, always put your best effort into it – try not to have too much negative energy.” Wayne’s wife Julia often tells us that no matter what kind of adversity her husband encounters, he faces it and never complains.


Wayne Lai never complains

When it comes to Wayne’s advice, Raymond truly takes it to heart – because both of them are close in age and have gone through similar life experiences, they are able to get along well. Wayne often shares parenting tips with him as well: for instance, he said that when his son wants to buy something, he doesn’t buy it for him right away – rather, he gives his son time to think about it more to see if it’s something he truly likes or if he just wants it because his friends have it.

Raymond has nothing but praises for Wayne and his wife Julia – he expressed that both of them are great people and Wayne especially is a great example to emulate: despite his popularity, he is very humble, down-to-earth, sincere and treats all people with kindness and respect. Whenever they film on location and go out to eat, Wayne always insists on treating – even when they are ‘fighting’ over paying the bill, Wayne still does so with an amiable and modest attitude. Raymond expressed that one of the things he admires most about Wayne is his ability to handle all matters with a positive attitude: “No matter how exhaustive or difficult his work, never once have I seen him complain – he also never gets angry or upset. For instance, most actors who have to film all night without sleep and then have to make a 7am shoot the next morning would probably get upset and yell at the PA (production assistant) for arranging such a bad schedule – but Wayne is different, as he never gets upset over those types of things. He never goofs off and never complains – he always has a grateful attitude toward work.”

Wayne’s philosophy is that he should be counting his blessings that he even has a job – that’s why whatever work opportunities he gets, he treasures and puts all his effort into it. Seeing Wayne’s optimism and contentment when it comes to his career, Raymond couldn’t help saying: “Being in Wayne’s presence, I definitely learn a lot!” It’s precisely because he has an example to follow now that Raymond is slowly learning to look at the positive side to every situation and to complain less. In the past, he would feel that work was exhausting and difficult, but now looking back, he is grateful for the opportunity to sharpen his skills – without the hardships he endured in the past, he would not have treasured the current fruits of his labor as much as he does now: “At one point, I was so scared of not having enough money that I would constantly scrimp and save, then when things would get better and I’d have extra money, the temptation would be to splurge it – but now, my past experiences have taught me to spend wisely. In life too, I’ve learned to be more steadfast and down-to-earth – that’s why it’s true that one’s life experiences definitely helps one to grow.”

Review of TVB series “Bottled Passion 我的如意狼君” (2011)

Cast (partial list of the main & supporting cast): Raymond Wong (黃浩然), Niki Chow (周麗淇), Elaine Yiu (姚子羚), Jack Wu (胡諾言), Rebecca Chan (陳秀珠), Katy Kung (龔嘉欣), Eric Li (李天翔), Joel Chan (陳山聰), Raymond Cho (曹永廉), Claire Yiu (姚嘉妮), Ching Hor Wai (程可為), Samuel Kwok Fung (郭峰), Vin Choi (蔡淇俊)


I will admit that I had doubts about watching this series at first because I’m not too keen on Niki Chow as an actress and since she is the female lead in this series, I wasn’t sure how things would turn out -- plus I'm not a fan of Elaine or Katy either (their acting has always fallen in the ‘tolerable’ category for me). However, I decided to go ahead and give the series a try primarily because of 3 reasons: 1) I’ve always liked Raymond Wong (male lead in this series) as an actor plus I like majority of the supporting cast, so I figured even if I don’t like the female leads, the rest of the cast would make up for it (and I was right to some extent); 2) I knew this was produced by Lee Tim Sing (which means there will be a certain level of quality to it) – plus Tim Gor is usually quite involved when it comes to writing the scripts for his series and I’ve enjoyed many of the series he has done in the past, so that gave me more confidence that this would be a decent series at least; and 3) the ‘pre-modern’ genre of this series is one of my favorite genres.

I’m actually very glad that I decided to give this series a chance because it turns out that I ended up LOVING this series (I know, it’s hard to believe given how particular I am with series nowadays). In fact, this is such a great series and I enjoyed it so much that it has officially become my absolute favorite series of 2011 (as well as one of my all-time favorite series from the entire decade)! To be quite honest, it has been years since I’ve encountered a series that took me on such an emotional roller coaster as this one: majority of the series made me cry (literally went through an entire box of tissues!) while some of the scenes made me laugh and others made me angry – still others had me sitting on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what was going to happen next (the suspense factor)….very few of TVB’s series in the recent decade have been able to balance all these elements so well in 1 series (usually, 1 or more of the elements is sacrificed), which is part of what made this series so memorable and awesome.

Before I go further, just a word of warning…this review will most likely be quite long, as I enjoyed this series so much that it had sort of become an ‘obsession’ of mine lately (LOL) and so obviously I have a lot to say about it…..therefore, to those willing to spare time reading this review, I sincerely thank you in advance!

.--.

STORYLINE / SCRIPT

Normally, when doing a series review, I would talk about the cast and characters first, since most of my thoughts regarding the storyline / script will usually become apparent in the discussion about the cast. But for this particular review, I felt it was appropriate to talk about the script first because in my opinion, the absolutely well-written script and engaging storyline were amongst the biggest reasons (in addition to the fine acting from majority of the cast) why this series was so enjoyable and successful on many levels. I definitely have to applaud the scriptwriting team for putting together such a great script (and of course, part of the credit goes to producer Lee Tim Sing as well, since he always plays a huge part in writing of the scripts with all the series he produces).

One of the (many) things I like most about the script / storyline is the way the love story between Raymond Wong and Niki Chow’s characters was written (more on this piece later). I like how their relationship in the first half of the series is not the 'obvious' love relationship thing that TVB is so famous for doing, but rather, a more 'subtle romance' approach that really drives up the emotional factor. Indeed, in my opinion, the beauty of this series is in the ‘subtleness’ of the script – there were quite a few scenes where the dialogue was replaced by simple actions by the actors (hand gestures, body language, facial expressions, etc.) that in and of itself, already conveyed a wealth of emotion. With that said however, the important thing is that the writers / producer did a great job of keeping the ‘subtleness’ balanced throughout the series – meaning that they were careful to include just enough of it to keep the emotional level high, but didn’t overuse it (there were other parts of the script that were similar in style like this). Now don’t get me wrong – the careful dialogue was just as important and there was definitely a lot of it in this series -- in fact, there were many memorable lines in my opinion that really contributed to the overall effectiveness of the script.

As the article from Nan Fong Daily News stated so well, one of the biggest attractions of this series is the way the producer Tim Gor handles the storyline / script: “the plot is fast-paced and the story-telling effect is strong, which often evokes in audiences the desire to ‘chase’ each episode – each time, he incorporates just enough ‘tension’ in the series to draw audiences in and the more they watch, the more ‘flavorful’ the series gets.” This quote absolutely suits this series almost perfectly, as I can honestly say that the way the script was written and the series was produced, there wasn’t a single boring scene in this series -- from the moment I watched the first episode all the way up through the tragic finale, I was absolutely hooked! Normally, in most series, even the ones I like, I usually will find some scenes boring or draggy – but that was not the case here…every minute of this series was absolutely worthwhile (to the point that I felt like this series flew by way too quickly).

Now of course, the script wasn’t perfect by any means (no script ever is) and this one definitely had some flaws (the ending itself is a bit contentious, but more on that later) – however this script overall was definitely one of the best that I have seen in years! Once again, great job to the writers and to Tim Gor for such a wonderful script / storyline!


CAST / CHARACTERS

This series absolutely proves that you don’t need to have an ‘all star’ cast in a series to make it successful and accepted by audiences! Even though this series did not have any ‘big name’ artists in it (well, what most people today would consider ‘big name’ anyway), the cast was definitely strong in terms of acting, as most of the cast were truly high caliber actors and actresses who were able to carry this series extremely well with their brilliant acting. It’s rare to have a series where almost every artist who participated pulled off their roles extremely well, to the point that it’s actually hard for me to choose a favorite character in this series because all of them did such fine jobs and there were so many of them that I liked, especially on the male side (though if I truly had to choose, my top picks would be Raymond Wong’s Tung Boon Sin, Eric Li’s Law Yat, Jack Wu’s Dr Yuen, and Raymond Cho’s Tsui Ping).

The other thing that I really enjoyed about the casting in the series (and part of what made this series so great in my opinion) was the awesome chemistry that existed consistently throughout the entire series – not just in terms of the romantic pairing (between Raymond and Niki), but also in the other areas as well (such as the relationship between Niki and her family, the friendships between Raymond and Eric as well as between Niki and Jack, etc.). I truly believe that one of the most important things in a series is the chemistry of its cast and this series definitely illustrated that all across the board. One of the reasons why this series moved me so emotionally (in addition to the script and the acting) was because the chemistry came across so genuine that I truly felt a connection to each of the characters and when things happened to them, I truly felt for them.

Anyway, here’s my take on each of the characters and the artists’ performances:

Raymond Wong (Tung Boon Sin / Lee Ho) – Raymond’s character is actually quite complex. His real name is Lee Ho and when he was 8 years old, he was adopted from an orphanage and therefore had to separate from his childhood friend Ngau Nai Tong whom he was very close with and took care of, since she was crippled. Little did he know that the couple who adopted him did so as part of a plot by Dong Kwok Hing (played by Rebecca Chan), who was planning to use the child to deceive her husband Ko Siu Tong (played by Kwok Fung) so that he would stop looking for the illegitimate child he had with another woman. Afterwards, when the plan falls through and Lee Ho is kicked out of the house, Dong Kwok Hing tries to kill him by pushing him into a ravine so that her husband would never find out she was behind the plan. Amazingly, Lee Ho survived and later ends up in Nanjing, where he has to rely on deceiving people and performing magic tricks in order to make a living. He encounters a kind elderly man, Uncle Shek, who is the butler to a wealthy family – Uncle Shek becomes like a father to Lee Ho and when the master of the house Mr. Tung and his young son dies, Lee Ho takes on the identity of the young master Tung Boon Sin. Using this identity, he returns to Guangzhou to take revenge against Dong Kwok Hing and the entire Ko family for what was done to him as a child. As part of his plan to ruin the Ko family, he deceives Ko Yee Kiu (played by Elaine Yiu) into falling in love with him while at the same time, pretends to make a play at her younger sister Yee Nga (played by Katy Kung) so that the sisters would hate each other. Yee Kiu falls into his trap and ends up losing everything she has – plus the rest of the family gets the punishment they deserve as well. During this process, Tung Boon Sin meets Tsui Sum (played by Niki Chow) and decides to use her as part of his revenge plan, since the Ko family was interested in the land that her family’s soy sauce factory was built on – however he never anticipated that he would actually fall in love with her. Later on, he finds out that Tsui Sum is actually the childhood friend that he had been looking for over the past 20 years. Most of the series from this point pretty much revolves around Tung Boon Sin’s revenge against the Ko family as well as his relationship with Tsui Sum. Even though the character of Tung Boon Sin is billed as a ‘bad guy’ of sorts because of what he does to the Ko family (especially the innocent Yee Kiu), he’s actually a good guy at heart, it’s just that his suffering as a child caused him to want revenge.

Raymond Wong did an EXCELLENT job in the role of Tung Boon Sin -- his performance in this series was absolutely amazing and convincing! Tim Gor once said in an interview that Raymond was well-suited for the role of Tung Boon Sin – well, I would actually venture to say that he wasn’t just ‘well-suited’ for the role, he was actually PERFECT for it! It’s obvious that Raymond put a lot of effort into the role, as his acting in the series was so METICULOUS -- from the first time his character appeared in episode 1 all the way to his tragic end in episode 21….every facial expression, hand gesture, even the crying scenes were all absolutely well-executed, to the point that I truly felt he was the one carrying the whole Boon Sin / Tsui Sum storyline and it’s really because of his fine acting that all those scenes between him and Niki were so emotional (for me at least). Also, I never realized it before, but those eyes of his sure can act! The wealth of emotion that Raymond conveyed with his eyes – whether it’s anger, happiness, playfulness, sadness, etc. – was so amazing, it definitely was difficult not to be drawn in to his character in the series. Raymond definitely deserves a lot of credit for making the character of Tung Boon Sin SO MEMORABLE!

Even though Raymond has been in the industry for a long time, I never really knew much about him until he joined TVB a few years ago. I watched most of the TVB series that he was in prior to this one and even though I liked his performances and always viewed him as a solid, talented actor, I didn’t realize his true potential until now. I absolutely loved Raymond in this series – his performance impressed me so much that I’ve become somewhat of a ‘fan’ now and am definitely looking forward to future performances from him!


Niki Chow (Tsui Sum / Ngau Nai Tong) – Niki’s character Tsui Sum is the adopted daughter of the Tsui family (though this fact is not revealed until halfway through the series) who takes on overseeing the family’s soy sauce factory after her (adopted) father dies. She has a strong-willed personality (which makes sense given that she has to oversee an entire factory), but at the same time, she also has a kind and compassionate heart. When Tung Boon Sin first enters her life, she is moved by his story of his childhood friend Ngau Nai Tong, whom he has been waiting for 20 years to be reunited with and even tries to help him find her. Not surprisingly, Tsui Sum is smitten by Boon Sin’s charm and even falls for him after he repeatedly helps bail her family out of trouble. He persuades her to sign over the rights to her family’s soy sauce factory to him, hoping that he would be able to save the factory from demise, but he ends up selling the factory to the Ko family as part of his revenge plot. When Tsui Sum finds out that the person she trusted with all her heart was deceiving her all along, she is devastated -- but with the help of her family and the doctor friend (played by Jack Wu) she meets at the hospital, she eventually overcomes the pain and starts anew rebuilding the soy sauce factory (that is, until she and Boon Sin cross paths again). Without going into detail, of course Tsui Sum and Boon Sin eventually become a couple, but the twists and turns that occur in between is truly what makes their love story so poignant and memorable.

Contrary to popular opinion, I actually think that Niki did a decent job in this series. Sure, her acting wasn’t great by any means, but it wasn’t horrible either – I actually did not get as annoyed with her performance in here as I have been in her past series. The problem I’ve always had with Niki’s acting in the past is that she’s too wooden at times, which makes her acting look forced – plus she has a certain intonation in her voice which sometimes makes it sound like she is reading the dialogue rather than reciting it, which is why her acting always comes across as very unnatural to me. That being said though, I will say that she has improved A LOT in this series because even though she still had the same problems (yes, I was able to detect it right away), it was not as pronounced as in previous series. And I have to admit that Niki does crying scenes way better than most of the actresses at TVB nowadays (it’s kind of ironic that I find Niki’s crying scenes quite natural and convincing, but her acting overall doesn’t have the same effect).

I think that overall, the reason why I found her character tolerable was because of the chemistry that Niki had with Raymond Wong in this series – I actually enjoyed almost every single scene that the 2 of them had together. Perhaps because of Raymond’s great acting in this series, he was able to bring out the best in Niki because I felt that each time the 2 of them interacted in a scene, the emotional impact was very high. I actually think that NIki and Raymond make a great onscreen couple – for me, this was one of the best pairings that I’ve seen in years!


Jack Wu (Yuen Yau Hin) – Jack plays an established young doctor who actually turns out to be the illegitimate son that Ko Siu Tong (Samuel Kwok)had been looking for and eventually found. He’s a very kind-hearted person whose main goal in life is to be a good doctor and help as many people as possible. Though he and his father reunited many years ago, he does not want his father to acknowledge him publicly because he has no interest whatsoever in the Ko family fortune or their business. However, due to various things that happen, he eventually returns to the Ko family and helps out with the business. He meets Tsui Sum (Niki Chow) after she becomes his patient at the hospital where he works and he helps her through the illness that was brought on by Boon Sin’s deception. Even when he returns to help take care of the Ko family business, he still continues his ‘job’ as the Tsui family doctor. The two of them end up developing a life-long friendship. Also, he is pretty much the only good person in the entire Ko family.

Jack Wu has always been one of those actors whom I’ve found to be extremely underrated. He’s quite solid in terms of his acting skills and I’ve always found his performances consistent and likable. In the past, I always felt like Jack was typecasted into those ‘boy next door’ type roles -- perhaps because of his boyish looks -- and never really given a chance to play more mature, ‘professional’ roles much. That’s why I feel that Tim Gor made the right choice to cast Jack in this series as Dr Yuen because the character is quite different from the roles that he used to play in the past and it gives Jack a chance to show his acting skill. Of course, he still needs a little bit of polish in the role, but overall, he put in a fine performance!


Eric Li (Law Yat) – Eric plays Tung Boon Sin’s best friend Law Yat who is also his ‘partner’ in helping him carry out his revenge plans. His role is more behind the scenes, as he does a lot of investigative work for Boon Sin and reports back his findings, then, based on this, the two of them plan out their next moves. The reason why Law Yat is so devoted to helping Boon Sin is because he saved his life a long time ago, so he swore he would follow him from that moment on. The unique thing about Law Yat and Boon Sin’s relationship is the great chemistry between the two – they understand each other so well that oftentimes, they seem to know what the other is thinking and they are able to execute their plans effectively. The bond that these two share is unique and their relationship is similar to that of brothers rather than simply friends, which becomes more obvious as the series progresses (especially in the last few episodes when Boon Sin’s life is in danger). Law Yat has a playful personality, but when it comes to helping Boon Sin execute his plans, he takes his responsibilities very seriously – once the serious discussions are over however, Law Yat never passes up the chance to ‘tease’ Boon Sin about Tsui Sum. I love watching these two interact – the ‘teasing’ scenes between these two are especially hilarious and provide a welcome comedic respite from the otherwise serious / tragic nature of the series.

I was thoroughly impressed with Eric’s performance in this series! His portrayal of Law Yat was so well-executed and natural, I couldn’t help finding his character endearing and charming. Actually, this isn’t the first time that Eric has pulled off an impressive performance, but unfortunately, most of the roles he’s had in the past were insignificant ones where he never really got a chance to showcase his talent, plus he was mostly typecasted into minor villain roles as well (most audiences probably recognize Eric for his villain roles). His role in this particular series was probably one of the first ‘meatier’ non-villain roles he was given and without a doubt, he absolutely excelled in it!

I actually read up a little bit on Eric after watching this series and was surprised to find out that he has actually been in the industry since the mid-90s – he actually graduated from TVB’s Acting Class in 1995 and has been in numerous TVB productions since then (another actor who has toiled at TVB for numerous years without much recognition). Boy, I really hope that TVB gives him more significant supporting roles to play rather than the usual ‘villain x or y’ because it’s obvious that he has good acting skills and great potential (come on now, he’s 100x better than those Mr. HKs that TVB keeps putting into their series!).


Rebecca Chan (Dong Kwok Hing) – Rebecca played the role of the main ‘villanness’ in the series, Dong Kwok Hing. She is the matriarch of the Ko family and has a significant amount of ‘clout’ because she came from a well-to-do family and her husband Ko Siu Tong (Samuel Kwok) was able to build his business based in large part on funds provided by her family. She and Siu Tong have 3 children: oldest son Yee Tai (played by Joel Chan), second daughter Yee Kiu (played by Elaine Yiu), and youngest daughter Yee Nga (played by Katy Kung). The best way to describe Dong Kwok Hing is that she is a ‘control freak’ -- ever since her children were little, she has always ruled them with an iron fist, arranging every aspect of their lives from where/when they should go to school to whom they should marry. Also, she spends a lot of her time trying to make her children seem like ‘model children’ in front of their father by hiding anything bad that they do from him, primarily because she is afraid that if he found out, he would cut the children off from any future inheritance. Dong Kwok Hing is actually a very important character in the series because it’s really because of her scheming and her actions that trigger the whole revenge thing with Tung Boon Sin and pretty much becomes the catalyst for everything else that happens in the series.

Once again, Rebecca did an excellent job as the villain character (seems like she’s been doing more and more villain roles in the past several years). Of course, as a veteran artist, it’s no surprise that her acting would be great – with her level of experience, she has pretty much mastered the skills when it comes to executing her role well. Not sure how many people notice, but whenever Rebecca does villain roles, she does the facial expressions extremely well, especially with the eyes (the way she stares menacingly at people with those piercing eyes can be quite scary). With that said, she is still able to play the benevolent mother roles well too – now that’s versatile acting! It’s interesting how Rebecca has come a long way from TVB fa dan in the 80s to top villainess in the current era. I grew up watching her series and even when she was a fa dan, I always felt that she looked more mature than most of the other fa dans at the time (though she wasn’t really that much older). Anyway, another great performance from a veteran!


Elaine Yiu (Ko Yee Kiu) – Elaine’s character Yee Kiu is the oldest daughter in the Ko family. She’s quite smart, but because of the way she is raised, she is constantly under her mother’s controlling shadow. On the surface, she is obedient to her mother and does whatever she is told to do, even if it means that she must marry a man she doesn’t love in order to further the business relationship between the 2 families – however, inside, she really hates the way her mother tries to control them. Because she wants so desperately to get out from under her mother’s control, she tries to win her dad’s favor by succeeding with the family business, so throughout most of the series, she is battling her older brother Yee Tai to gain the upper hand in the business. She meets Tung Boon Sin during a business transaction and though impressed by him, she doesn’t get involved with him because she is engaged already. However, as the series progresses and she gets more and more frustrated with her mother’s controlling nature (plus her dad doesn’t appreciate her efforts with the family business), she eventually falls for Boon Sin’s charms and starts dating him behind her fiance’s back (which is all part of Boon Sin’s plan, though unbeknownst to her of course). In the end, under Boon Sin’s encouragement, she defies her mother and breaks up with her fiancé (causing him to commit suicide)…after giving up everything she has and running away from home, she discovers that all along the whole thing was a setup – Boon Sin never loved her and was pretty much ‘playing’ her the entire time as part of his revenge plan to destroy the Ko family.

To my surprise, I was actually quite impressed with Elaine’s acting in this series. I haven’t seen a whole lot of her series in the past, but the ones that I have seen I was not impressed with, so I wasn’t really expecting much from her going into this series. I was pleasantly surprised though to see how much more mature her acting has become – with many of the emotional scenes involving herself and Raymond as well as the ‘showdown’ scenes between her and Rebecca, she was able to deliver consistently. In fact, in that one episode especially where Yee Kiu defies her mother and runs away from home, only to find the letter that Boon Seen leaves for her telling her the whole thing was a setup – all of the scenes were done so well by Elaine that I truly felt sorry for her character...when she read the letter, I could sense her pain! Also, that last scene in the finale where her character Yee Kiu seeks out Raymond’s character Boon Seen at the office and stabs him was actually quite well-acted. Great improvement for Elaine!


Raymond Cho (Tsui Ping) -- Raymond Cho plays Tsui Sum (Niki)’s older brother Tsui Ping. He is a very honest and upright person who is not good at making decisions and doesn’t really have much of an opinion on anything, however, he has a heart of gold. Even though he is the oldest son, he knows that with his somewhat shy personality, he’s not suited to manage the family’s soy sauce factory, so he’s perfectly fine with his sister overseeing it. He prefers to live a simple and happy life and let the other women in his life (his wife, sister, and mother) make all the decisions for him – in a sense, he has a ‘happy-go-luck’ type personality. One of Tsui Ping’s best qualities is his unwavering devotion to his family, especially to his little sister Tsui Sum – other than his mother, he is the only one who knows Tsui Sum’s true identity, but that doesn’t prevent him from treating her as his biological sister. The way he loves his sister so much and tries to protect her at all costs is truly very touching and sweet!

Ray Cho never fails to impress me with his acting! No matter what type of role he gets – whether serious, comedic, villain, etc. – he always handles the role extremely well. The character of Tsui Ping may not be a major character in the series and compared to the others, he may not have as much screentime, but his role was still very endearing and enjoyable. I loved all those scenes he had with Niki where the two of them would have their heart-to-heart brother/sister talks as well as those scenes where he would be so concerned for his sister’s well-being that he would be on the verge of tears (moved me to tears as well). Ray’s character (as well as his performance) was definitely among one of my favorites!


Additional Cast:

Claire Yiu (Tsui Ping’s wife Wan Yau) – As Tsui Ping’s wife, she is loud and bossy (in a nice way) with a blunt personality and a bit nosy too, but underneath all that, she actually has a good heart. In fact, her character was quite funny and enjoyable in this series. I especially loved her interaction with her ‘husband’ in the series, Ray Cho – they sure make a compatible, cute couple in my opinion…LOL!

Ching Hor Wai (Mrs. Tsui) – Her character is pretty much the typical ‘benevolent mother’ role, except that she ends up having an illness similar to Alzheimers and slowly starts to lose her memory. Even though her role can be considered minor in comparisons to the others (I think she probably has the least amount of screentime), her character is critical in being the one who knows the background of Tsui Sum’s childhood and eventually revealing those details to Boon Sin. Ching Hor Wai gives her usual steady performance in here.

Katy Kung (Ko Yee Nga) – Katy plays the youngest of the Ko daughters and is actually the one who deserves most to meet a miserable fate in my opinion. Her character is bxxchy and incorrigible – at home, she pretends to be a good girl to win her parents favor, but outside, she shows her true colors as a promiscuous teenager who smokes and has a nasty, arrogant temper. Knowing her personality and temper, Boon Sin purposefully leads her into thinking that he likes her when he actually doesn’t and this causes her to be at odds with her sister Yee Kiu. Later on, when she finds out that Boon Sin’s true love is actually Tsui Sum, Yee Nga gets jealous and ends up pushing her down a cliff – the incident causes Tsui Sum to once again become crippled. Obviously I disliked Katy’s character – she was just way too annoying and fake (and it’s unfortunate that she ended up getting off scott-free thanks to her mother, continuing to live her wild life in another city)!

Joel Chan (Ko Yee Tai) – Joel actually portrayed his role quite well in this series, but since I’ve never really been fond of him as an actor, I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to him in here. Besides, his character had more of a significance in the first few episodes of the series during the whole battle over the soy sauce factory and stuff –later on, he pretty much just follows his mother around and does whatever she tells him to do.

Samuel Kwok (Ko Siu Tong) – I’m actually kind of disappointed that Kwok Fung didn’t have a more significant role in this series, especially given that he is the patriarch of the Ko family. I sort of felt like all he did pretty much was just appear every so often to chide his children and his wife whenever something bad happened in his family. The two scenes where he had the most significance were in the announcement of Yuen Yau Hin as his son and also when he officially disowns his oldest son and sends his wife away after he discovers the nasty things that they did. For such a great veteran actor, too bad his role was less significant.

Tracy Ip (Ko Yee Tai’s wife Bak Wai) – Her performance is probably the only one that I really didn’t like -- her acting came across too robotic and fake to me and it seemed that she had difficulty saying her lines (perhaps because of her slight accent?). Anyway, since her role was relatively minor and didn’t appear a whole lot, I was ok with sitting through it.

.--.


THE ENDING

I normally don’t like to go into too much detail with the ending, but with this series, since the ending was a bit contentious, I figured it’s important to talk about. (The sentiment from the general public seems to be that the overall series was great, but the ending was bad because it was so tragic -- specifically referring to the part where Tung Boon Sin dies tragically and Tsui Sum doesn’t find out until years later).

Indeed, the ending truly was agonizing and absolutely heartwrenching! Episode 20 actually ended very sweetly (and close to the ‘happily ever after’ ending that most of us wanted), but then episode 21 came along and it ended up being so tragic that part of me really wanted to pretend episode 21 didn’t exist (though of course that’s not possible because that’s the critical episode that ties up all the loose ends).

Personally, I had mixed feelings about the ending – on the one hand, I could understand the purpose of making the ending tragic so that it’s more memorable (which the series definitely did), but on the other hand, I could also see how the writers could have written the ending differently, in a way that would have been more satisfying to the audiences (if not ‘happily ever after’, then even a semi-tragic one would have sufficed for me – especially since that’s the type of ending I had in mind anyway).
I actually don’t think that I would have a problem with the tragic ending (the part where Boon Sin dies) itself if that entire segment had been handled better -- because the way it was portrayed in the finale really did not make a whole lot of sense from a logical standpoint (plus the ‘tortuous’ way in which that part was portrayed – the whole ‘tripping through the streets with blood gushing out of wound’ thing -- was really unnecessary in my opinion).

Anyway…as much as I didn’t want to see the series end the way it did, I will admit that it definitely upped the emotional factor and made the series all the more poignant and memorable!


CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

Overall, “Bottled Passion” was an excellent series! Even though the series is technically a romantic love story at its core, there’s actually a good mix of other things in there that make the series well-balanced enough for those who may want to watch this but are not into romantic dramas. I personally enjoyed this series tremendously and for me – taking all things into consideration such as script / storyline, cast, acting, etc. -- it’s truly the Best Series of the year (officially now, since 2011 is over already).

This is definitely a series worth watching (I’m already planning to rewatch it soon, which is rare for me) for all the reasons stated above (plus at 21 episodes, it’s short enough so as not to be draggy). Now of course, if you’re the type of person who doesn’t like watching ‘tearjerkers’ at all (it’s pretty much a guarantee that this series will evoke tears at one point or another), then yes, perhaps reconsider…but if you want to see how a truly high quality, well-written, well-acted, and well-produced looks like, then this series is definitely the one to choose!

Review of "When Lanes Merge 情越雙白線"

I recently watched this series in its entirety when it came on TV. Even though I had heard alot of praises for this series from various people, I really did not have high hopes going into it because majority of TVB's productions have been huge disappointments for me this past decade. Plus I had attempted to watch quite a few of TVB's 2010 series already and was only able to get through 2 of them completely -- I gave up on the rest of them after the first few episodes (for various reasons), since I didn't want to waste my time any further. Also, I wasn't too fond of the cast for this series -- the male side was fine, but I didn't like most of the actresses on the female side -- which was sort of the reason why I had put off watching the series in the first place (despite the series being on my "to watch" list for quite some time already plus owning the DVD).

Surprisingly, this series exceeded my expectations -- and that's saying alot for someone like me who has already lost all faith in TVB and its abilities to produce good series. Though I still hold that sentiment about TVB (most of their series nowadays are still crappy), I will admit that this particular series is one of those 'rare gems' that stands out from the rest of the pack. Of course, the series has its flaws and there were certainly some things I didn't like about it, but overall, the positives outweighed the negatives (for me at least).

As with most of my series reviews, I'm not going to talk about every single 'good' or 'bad' thing about the series because frankly, I don't see the need to do so (plus I'm always of the belief that it's best for people to watch the series for themselves to form their own opinion on it, since everyone's tastes are different). So I'm basically just going to highlight a few things that stood out to me in terms of the storyline and characters....

In terms of the storyline, it revolved around something that we do every day -- driving -- as well as the consequences of not following traffic laws and regulations. With this storyline and theme, I'm not really surprised in a sense that many audiences liked the series because the realism of the plot made it easier for audiences to relate. The series is a bit 'heavy' in the sense that it deals with alot of 'drama' and tragedy such as car accidents resulting from drunk driving or reckless driving and people dying or getting seriously injured as a result -- and it is a bit painful to watch how the lives of the families and friends of all involved (the victims of the accidents as well as those who cause the accidents) get turned upside down as a result of one person's actions. But that's life -- and that's where this series is successful -- depicting the tragedies of life and the aftermath. After watching this series, it really made me think twice about being reckless when driving!

With regard to character development and the acting -- well, here is where I need to applaud the writers and the actors for doing a great job, especially the male cast (though I have some reservations about the females -- but more on that later).

Here are some of the highlights:

Kent Cheng (Taxi Gor):  Kent Gor illustrates once again why I enjoy watching veteran actors' performances so much -- his portrayal of 'bad boy' Turbo's (Raymond Wong) father Taxi Gor was close to perfect! He definitely brought out the emotional aspect to the character and did a fine job showing us the complexity of the character -- a father who has immense love for his son, yet at the same time is frustrated with his son's actions and to some extent, feels guilty that he, as the parent, had a hand in his son going down the wrong path (by spoiling him when he was a child). His relationship with his son in this series was very interesting because it was not 'traditional' -- even though he would constantly argue with his rebellious son and yell at him profusely when he does 'reckless' stuff (to the extent of telling his son to his face that he is "a piece of trash"), it's obvious that he still loves him very much -- yelling at his son is a way of acting out his helpless frustration and desperation while at the same time holding out hope that he can still 'reform' his seemingly incorrigible son and bring him back on the right path. And to see all the pain and suffering that Kent's character goes through all because of his son's reckless actions (i.e.: selling his 2 taxi licenses in order to pay compensation to the dead victim's family, enduring the wrath of the other victim who becomes disabled because of the accident, working long hours despite his age and not being in good health just so that his son could have as 'normal' a life as possible once he got out of jail, etc.) -- it definitely made me appreciate the parent / child relationship so much more.

The scene in episode 3 or 4 when both Taxi Gor and Turbo go to the hospital after Turbo's drunk driving accident to apologize to the victim's family and the doctor comes out to tell them that they weren't able to save the victim -- that scene was especially intense, suspenseful, and well-acted....I literally jumped when Kent's character slapped Raymond's character so hard and so many times -- now there's professional acting for you right there!


Raymond Wong (Turbo):  I will admit that I was hugely impressed with Raymond's performance in this series. I never really took notice of Raymond prior to last year because he had just joined TVB not too long ago and none of his roles really stood out before that -- so at first, I assumed that he was just another newbie actor with mediocre skill whom TVB was trying to push in our (the audience's) faces. But, it turns out that I was wrong (about the 'newbie actor' and 'mediocre skill' part at least) -- Raymond is actually not new to the industry, as he started in the late 90s in movies and a few years ago switched to television, so up to last year, he already had 13 years of acting experience. And he definitely does have the acting skills as far as I can tell from the little I've seen of his performances. No wonder he was able to handle his first lead role (in this series) so well!

I like how Raymond's character develops throughout the series -- he is obviously a 'bad boy' in the beginning (no, not the evil villain type by any means) -- he was pretty much a tempermental, rebellious young guy who couldn't hold down a steady job and instead spent most of his time hanging out with his buddies and enjoying the thrills of driving / racing fast cars (hence gaining the name Turbo). Then, after he drives drunk and ends up killing someone (and severely injuring another person) and gets sent to jail, he changes his ways and truly tries hard to be a good person. What I like though is that the ‘transformation’ is not the typical “now I’m going to become the perfect son” type of thing – even after he is released from jail, he still has a fiery temper and a somewhat rebellious streak about him (and still argues with his father), but he has matured in his thinking and knows how much his father suffered because of him (as well as the pain that he caused the victims’ families) and so he thinks more before he acts.

Also, the genuine love and concern that he has towards his father is admirable – even though on the outside, he is always arguing with his father and comes across as though he doesn’t care, on the inside, he is really concerned for his father’s well-being. I especially saw this during the ‘jail visit’ scenes between him and his father – i.e.: the part when he is sitting in the room waiting for his father to come for his scheduled visit and when his father is late, he keeps looking worriedly at the door…when his father finally arrives all out of breath and sweating, he’s worried and tells him to be more careful and take care of himself. Then, when the time is up and he gets up to go back to his cell, he tells his father to wait until he catches his breath before leaving (obviously genuinely concerned for his health). Maybe it’s just me (and my ‘old-school’ way of thinking), but I’ve always been of the mindset that someone who can be that good to their parents (I’m talking genuinely filial here, not faking it) -- no matter what happens -- can’t possibly be THAT BAD of a person at the core.

Also, the 2 scenes where Turbo shows his remorse for the pain he caused both the widow of the guy who died in the accident as well as ruining the life of Kwok Fung’s character – where he gets down on his knees and sincerely begs for forgiveness – I will admit that I got a bit teary-eyed for those few seconds (again, that’s saying a lot). Once again, it goes to show how much of an impact Raymond’s performance in this series had.


Sonjia Kwok (Cheung Hui Mun):  To be honest, I don’t really have much to say about Sonjia’s character – I guess I’m basically neutral towards her character (I neither like her nor hate her). I honestly don’t think that Sonjia’s character stood out that much, at least not to me. She actually plays the typical “ex-girlfriend of the main character who still has feelings for him but he loves someone else” character – nothing really exciting or refreshing about her character. I also didn’t like Sonjia’s ‘look’ in this series – the short hair that she sported made her look way older than she really is and as a result, I don’t feel that she ‘matched’ Raymond’s character (it made her look older than him – not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I just couldn’t really see them as a couple).

In a sense, I feel that Sonjia’s character was a somewhat supporting role in the series because she definitely did not have as much screen time as Kate – in fact, there were some episodes where she didn’t appear at all or if she did, she was part of a group scene and had very little dialogue (if any). I’m thinking that her primary purpose in the series was to be a potential love interest for Raymond so that TVB can do their typical ‘love triangle’ thing that they manage to do in most series – if that’s the case, I would rather they have cut her character out completely rather than do a mediocre job of character development.


Kate Tsui (Ko Lai Sum):   I’ve never liked Kate and after watching this series, my opinion of her hasn’t changed. Kate’s character is a traffic enforcement officer who is at odds with Raymond Wong’s character Turbo because of his reckless driving (not surprisingly, since she IS a traffic cop after all). But their relationship becomes even more strained after Turbo causes an accident when driving drunk and she is the first officer on the scene. After Turbo gets out of jail, the 2 become friends and eventually become a couple (of course – typical TVB).

I’m not too fond of Kate in this series because to me, her character comes across as fake – maybe it’s her (bad) acting that caused me to think this way, but I really felt her character was boring and didn’t display the emotion that I would expect her to. She is also definitely not convincing as a traffic cop (in fact, she came across as very awkward in that role). Maybe she should stick to playing those ‘vixen’ roles that she seems to do so well in (perhaps because it’s closer to the image that most audiences have of her?).


Ruco Chan (Kwan Shu Yan):   Ruco’s character is obviously the villain in the series. On the surface, he is the CEO of a big company and tries to pass himself off as a respected business person, however underneath that ‘cool’ and ‘calm’ demeanor is an evil, heartless monster who has no qualms about driving recklessly and even injuring or killing people in car accidents that he causes. He and Turbo are enemies because he once caused Turbo to crash the car that he was driving, which resulted in his dad Taxi Gor to be seriously injured – but the worst part was the fact that Ruco’s character schemed to cover up his involvement in the accident, using all the people around him to his advantage. Of course, as with most of the villains in TVB’s series, his character encounters a tragic, yet predictable end….

Ruco is another artist who ‘jumped ship’ to TVB from ATV and even though I have not seen too many of his series so far, I can tell that from the few I’ve seen that he his acting skills are quite good. (What’s with all those ATV artists having such good acting skills?). Even though I disliked Ruco’s character in this series, I do have to admit that he did a good job of portraying the “coldheartedness” of the character.


Raymond Cho (Au Yiu Jun):  In most of his previous series, Ray usually plays some type of ‘professional’ character such as a doctor, lawyer, police officer, business man, etc., so it was definitely refreshing to see him play a ‘common man’ type character this time around – a working class taxi driver and family man whose main objective is to give his wife and son the best life he could afford. He’s the typical ‘little man’ character who pretty much lets his wife run the show at home he feels that his wife had to ‘marry down’ because of him (since they only married because she became pregnant), so he wants to do everything he can do to prove his love for her.

I like Ray’s character in this series – even though he doesn’t have too much screen time, I still enjoyed his humorous and straightforward personality in the series. But honestly, why did they pair him up with Elaine? Her character was such a bxxch – he definitely deserved way better than that!


Elaine Yiu (Wai Wai):  As usual, Elaine plays another annoying, pathetic character. She plays Raymond Cho’s wife – a mother who obtains a job at a prestigious, high-paying company and obviously makes more money than her taxi driver husband, which means that she also ‘wears the pants’ in the house because she is the ‘main breadwinner’. And of course, as is typically the case, she has a willful, defiant personality and always insists that she is right, refusing to listen to anyone, not even to her own husband when he tries to warn her against getting too friendly with her boss (played by Ruco Chan). Everyone knows that her boss is a bad person who is responsible for hurting many people in car accidents, then covering up his actions, yet she continues to blindly follow him, naively (and stupidly) insisting that he is not that kind of person and that everyone is prejudiced against him (sound familiar? Yup, the same type of stupid, annoying roles she typically plays). The worst part is how she almost ruins her marriage because she believes Ruco more than she does her own husband Ray, even slapping her husband and yelling at him in her boss’ defense! (Ok, that scene was a bit overboard – I actually wanted to slap Elaine silly after that.)


Kwok Fung (Ngai Chiu Fat):  Veteran actor Kwok Fung plays a working class café owner who makes a living by making tasty beef balls, which is pretty much what he has done his entire life and what he raised his family on. But when he becomes one of the victims of Turbo’s car accident and severely injures his arm, his life gets turned upside down – because his craft depends upon using his hands and he refused to get therapy even after he was injured, his situation grew worse, to the point that he was no longer able to continue with his craft, therefore losing the café that he had worked so many years to maintain. He becomes depressed and takes on drinking and gambling, plus his personality completely changes, becoming angry, aggressive, and violent – by taking out his anger on his family (his wife and teenage daughter), he ends up losing his family as well.

Kwok Fung has been around forever it seems (I pretty much grew up watching his series) – he is one of those seasoned veteran actors who can pull off pretty much any role he is given with ease. That was definitely the case in this series as well – not only did he have to maintain an accent in the series (and make it sound natural rather than forced), he also had to go from ‘ideal husband and father’ to his family’s worse nightmare. I really can’t imagine who else would be able to play this complex character as well as Kwok Fung did!


Kingdom Yuen (Fen Jie):  My first impression of Kingdom’s performance in this series – WOW! I’ve always known that Kingdom can act, as I’ve seen many of the series that she participated in and she is always excellent in her roles as well as extremely convincing. Her role as Kwok Fung’s wife was very well acted – all the emotional scenes that she had were amazingly convincing, especially the scenes where she gets beat up by her husband and subsequently when she stands up to him and fights back.

There were actually quite a few ‘gripping’ scenes that Kingdom was involved in where I couldn’t help but think how underrated she is as an actress as well as how much the younger ones can learn from her. To be honest, out of the entire female cast in this series (lead as well as supporting), Kingdom’s character was the ONLY one I liked – despite how tragic her character is, it was definitely refreshing to see such quality acting!

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Concluding thoughts:

Overall, I was disappointed in the female cast of this series (except for Kingdom Yuen) because all of their characters were pretty much “forgettable”. I’m actually not sure if I should blame the writers for the bad character development on the female side or the actresses for their mediocre acting – either way, when the female cast is placed up against the male cast, there is a very obvious difference in terms of the characters as well as the acting.

In terms of whether I recommend this series or not – well, it depends….it’s definitely not an easy series to get through because of the tragic theme and the intense emotional aspect. Also, with the two extremes in acting on the part of the cast (the female cast, except Kingdom, really dragged the series down whereas the male cast pretty much kept it going), it’s easy to get frustrated at some of the draggy scenes involving the female cast. Luckily though, the series is short (only 19 episodes) and for the really boring scenes, there’s always the option of forwarding through them (as I ended up doing a few times myself)! So pretty much – watch at your own risk!