Mingpao Interview with TVB producers Mui Siu Ching and Lau Ka Ho: 50 + 50 = 100

In the newest edition of Mingpao Weekly, there’s a GREAT interview that they did with 2 of TVB’s golden producers (well, technically, ‘former’ producers) – husband / wife team Lau Ka Ho and Mui Siu Ching.

Even though I wouldn’t necessarily count the 2 of them as my favorite producers at TVB (definitely far cry from favorites), I definitely have a lot of respect for their work ethic as well as their contributions to TVB for the past 26 years. They produced a lot of great series starting in the 80s up through today and quite a few of the series they produced in the 80s/90s are amongst my favorites.

LKH and MSC’s departure will definitely be TVB’s loss! I wish the couple the best of luck in their new career with NowTV and hope that in the future, we will be able to see more great series from them.

P.S.: This article is definitely a MUST-READ for long-time TVB fans, as it talks alot about many of the classic hit series from the 80s/90s!

.********.

Source: Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2263

Article published March 24, 2012

Translation: llwy12

Mingpao Interview with TVB producers Mui Siu Ching and Lau Ka Ho: 50 + 50 = 100

Just recently, both Mr. and Mrs. Six (aka Run Run Shaw and his wife Mona Fong) have decided to step down from their decades-long role of leading TVB -- now, another husband and wife couple have also decided to leave Tseung Kwan O: golden producers Mui Siu Ching (梅小青) and Lau Ka Ho (劉家豪). Two series that they produced in recent years – Lau Ka Ho’s Moonlight Resonance《家好月圓》and Mui Siu Ching’s Beyond the Realm of Conscience《宮心計》—each broke ratings records by peaking at 50 points back when the series were broadcast. Due to this accomplishment, the couple have a ‘catchphrase’ that they’ve been using of late: “He [Lau Ka Ho] contributes 50, I [Mui Siu Ching] contribute 50, and together, we contribute 100%.” Such a catchphrase is in line with the usual ‘easy to remember’ and ‘easy to understand’ golden phrases that are usually found in TVB series.

March 23rd marked the couple’s last day at TVB – they will be starting at ‘rival’ station NowTV in April. Our [Mingpao] reporter saw the recent episode of “The Scoop” 《東張西望》that reported on the farewell dinner that TVB executives held for the couple – in the report, Lau Ka Ho was nowhere to be seen and only Mui Siu Ching’s hand as well as half her face were shown – of course, we all understand the ‘reasoning’ for this. No matter what though, the couple expressed that their departure is an amicable one -- there are no complaints – rather, there are many precious memories from their past experiences working at the company and in the future, if they happen to cross paths again, it will definitely be a ‘happy’ meeting.


Alex Man’s ‘blood-stained shirt incident’

Lau Ka Ho and Mui Siu Ching married in 1981. Both started in the industry back during the Rediffusion Television era [their contemporaries included Johnny Mak (麥當雄) and Shiu Yeuk Yuen (蕭若元)] and later on, they became one of ATV’s ‘golden’ behind-the-scenes couples. [TN: Rediffusion Television (aka RTV) is ATV’s predecessor – RTV became ATV in 1982]. In 1986, Lau Ka Ho jumped ship to TVB to ‘test the waters’ and 9 months later, his wife joined him – with the blink of an eye, they have already been with TVB for 26 years.

The first peak in Lau Ka Ho’s career was back in the late 80s when he produced the 2 series that shot comedic actor Stephen Chow (周星馳) to fame: The Final Combat 《蓋世豪俠》and The Justice of Life 《他來自江湖》.

Lau Ka Ho recounts that 'peak' in his career this way: “Well, actually we should go back to 1988 with the production of the 5 episode ‘golden’ series Behind Silk Curtains 《大都會》. Led by Adam Cheng (鄭少秋) and Liza Wang (汪明荃), the series boasted an ‘all-star’ cast, as it utilized practically every single artist employed by TVB at the time. Stephen Chow played Adam’s son – a slippery fellow with a careless attitude – and Tony Leung (梁朝偉) played the honest and righteous older brother; it was during that production that I realized Stephen’s potential as an actor and started to feel that he was not a simple person. My next series [in 1989] was a 30 episode martial arts costume drama – we wanted to go against tradition, so we had actually considered naming the series ‘I Am Not a Martial Arts Hero’《我不是大俠》, since the protagonist in the series is not the typical martial arts hero, but rather a cowardly fellow who makes a living by opening a winery. I needed a completely new ‘face’ for the role, so the first person I thought of was Stephen Chow – the result was success.” [TN: The information about Behind Silk Curtains is erroneous: Tony Leung did NOT play Stephen Chow’s older brother in the series -- Adam’s older son was played by Stephen and his younger son was played by Spencer Leung (梁思浩). Tony’s character had nothing to do with Adam or Stephen.]

Stephen Chow is well-known for his habit of changing a script’s dialogue. However, back then, since he was still a newbie, he would obediently do his research and then meet up with the producer and scriptwriters to pitch his suggestions – even back then, he was very persuasive.

That same year (1989), the anniversary series was to be The Justice of Life, which would be led by actor Alex Man (萬梓良). As producer of the series, Lau Ka Ho decided to add Stephen Chow to the cast, which turned out to be a good move, as the series garnered high ratings. In the subsequent years, Lau Ka Ho was responsible for producing several of TVB’s anniversary series, including 1991’s The Big Family《大家族》, 1992’s The Key Man《巨人》, and 1993’s The Edge of Righteousness《龍兄鼠弟》 – the artist he collaborated the most with at the time was Alex Man. It was during the filming of The Big Family that Alex Man’s famous ‘blood-stained shirt incident’ occurred: to protest his dissatisfaction over the lack of availability of filming timeslots, Alex wore a T-shirt with the words ‘Beg the chicken feather commanding officer to grant filming timeslots’ 「乞求雞毛司令賜廠期」written in red paint (to represent blood) and went around having reporters take pictures.

Lau Ka Ho: “I understand how Alex is – he’s the type of actor who throws his heart and soul into every series. Back then, filming timeslots were definitely very limited and many times, near the end of a production, the filming would be very rushed, which put a lot of pressure on all of us. The last couple days of filming were especially crazy, as the studio would be so filled to capacity that there were no timeslots available whatsoever. Alex took that action out of frustration, however at the time the incident occurred, I was not aware of it. I know he had good intentions and was merely fighting to get more timeslots added so that productions wouldn’t be delayed, but unfortunately, the company has its rules on how timeslots are distributed – if I had known what he was going to do, I would have stopped him.”

It turns out that the ‘chicken feather commanding officer’ who was in charge of distributing filming timeslots at that time was none other than TVB’s current ‘golden’ producer Lee Tim Sing (李添勝).

Lau Ka Ho: “I apologized many times to Tim Gor already, as I know that the company has its policies and the lack of filming timeslots is not his fault. Alex is an actor with a lot of ‘heart’ – even after he finishes filming his own scenes, he would stay behind to help his co-workers with their scenes.”


Leon Lai (黎明) responsible for bringing Michelle Reis (李嘉欣)

Not too long afterwards, a new siu sang rose to popularity at TVB – Leon Lai (黎明). Leon’s first 2 series prior to becoming popular were 1988’s A Friend in Need 《飛躍霓裳》and 1989’s Yankee Boy《回到唐山》—Mui Siu Ching was the producer for both series.

Mui Siu Ching: “After he [Leon] filmed those series, I bumped into him one day in the street -- he excitedly came over and told me he would like to participate in the promotion for both series. Since he only has a singer’s contract with TVB and not an artist’s one, when the series aired, he used his own money to buy a plane ticket back to HK to participate in the promotional events.”

Later on, Leon started gaining popularity in the music world and in 1991, he had his first official lead role in the series The Breaking Point 《今生無悔》, which was also produced by Mui Siu Ching. In the series, Leon plays a ‘prodigal son’ type who rides a motorcycle and makes a living in Taiwan as a stuntman – the inspiration for his character came from the real life background story of singer Dave Wang (王傑). Also, since Mui Siu Ching graduated from the National Taiwan University of Arts (NTUA) with a specialty in television broadcasting, she had a particular fondness for Taiwan arts and therefore incorporated that element into the series: “When I studied in Taiwan, I had a habit of going to the countryside after school and sit there reading a book, watching the sun set – it was very picturesque and idyllic. This is why The Breaking Point had a little bit of that ‘flavor’ to it [for the scenes filmed in Taiwan].”

Mui Siu Ching admits that in real life, she would constantly encourage her husband Lau Ka Ho to learn how to ride a motorcycle, but he never obliged because he felt it was too dangerous, so she had to satisfy that ‘dream’ through Leon’s character in series: “The seriousness that Leon showed toward filming is comparable to Alex Man – in efforts to help maintain good rapport and morale amongst the cast and crew, Leon would often arrange get-togethers during holidays such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and Christmas. Back then, the company [TVB] had a more ‘open’ system – even non-biological children such as Leon [he was signed to Polygram at the time] could become first male lead in a 40 episode series. Nowadays, it’s a lot harder for something like that to occur.”

In 1993, Leon had already become a ‘Heavenly King’ – at that time, TVB invited him to be the lead in the series The Legendary Ranger《原振俠》. Due to his popularity, TVB allowed him to choose Mui Siu Ching to be the producer of the series – Leon ‘returned the favor’ by convincing 2 of his good friends to participate in the series: “Leon helped serve as the ‘go-between’ in helping us get Michelle Reis (李嘉欣) and Faye Wong (王菲) to participate in the series. He was good friends with them and also was close with their manager, so he helped facilitate a meeting between them and TVB. Faye only agreed to participate in a few episodes, so we purposefully added a couple episodes just for her.”

Siu Ching Jie continues: “Michelle pays a lot of attention to her physical appearance onscreen and always tries to look her best for the camera. Whenever I work on post-production editing for my series, I always cut out any excess shots that I feel are irrelevant to the production, however there was one particular shot involving Michelle that I couldn’t bear to cut. In the shot, the camera panned from Michelle’s legs all the way up to her face – from her makeup to her outfit to her hairstyle, Michelle looked so beautiful in that shot that I couldn’t help rewatching that shot again; in the end, I did not make any edits to that scene at all.”

Michelle Reis has often been criticized as being a ‘wooden beauty’. [TN: the ‘wooden’ in this case refers to Michelle’s acting]. Towards this, Mui Siu Ching stated that with The Legendary Ranger being a science fiction / fantasy – themed series, Michelle actually did a pretty decent job – in fact, it was actually Faye Wong’s acting that seemed a bit on the ‘elementary’ side at that time: “There was one particular scene that she [Faye] had to redo. I was personally in charge of the filming for that particular segment and when I gave her various instructions on how to act out that scene, she was very obedient. It wasn’t until later on that I found that was actually Faye’s unique style – she applies the same style with her singing and it’s actually very popular with audiences.”


The Charmaine Sheh (佘詩曼) / Kevin Cheng (鄭嘉穎) rumors appeared ‘somewhat real’

For most producers, it’s usually not too difficult to ‘figure out’ when a series’ male and female lead might be in a real-life relationship outside of filming. Mui Siu Ching admits that during the filming of The Legendary Ranger, she did feel that Leon Lai and Michelle Reis were ‘especially close’.

Lau Ka Ho interjects: “For some reason, my series seem to help bring together real-life couples! The Final Combat 《蓋世豪俠》brought about Stephen Chow and Jacqueline Law (羅慧娟) – it was obvious that they were dating at that time, as Jacqueline would constantly be on-set whenever Stephen was around, even though she didn’t have any scenes to film during that time; The Edge of Righteousness《龍兄鼠弟》brought Dicky Cheung (張衛健) and Jessica Hsuan (宣萱) together – I sort of sensed that the two of them were dating at that time, but I didn’t want to be nosy, so I didn’t ask, however I noticed that one time when we were filming on location in the U.S., Jessica secretly went over to knock on Dicky’s hotel room door to wake him up – at the time, I thought it was a bit unusual for her to be so good to him – it wasn’t until later that I found out the truth; the series Down Memory Lane《萬里長情》brought Frankie Lam (林文龍) and Kenix Kwok (郭可盈) together – this was the pairing with the best real life result, as the two of them married and have a child now.”

Mui Siu Ching expressed that the female artist she admires the most in recent years is Charmaine Sheh (佘詩曼). The first series they collaborated in was Forensic Heroes 2《法證先鋒2》, in which the male lead was Kevin Cheng (鄭嘉穎).

Mui Siu Ching: “The emotional scenes between Charmaine and Kevin [in Forensic Heroes 2] were truly done very well, very sweet, to the point that as a producer, I felt that I just had to make them a couple – with the Heavens as my witness, a lot of people actually felt the same way! Later on when I re-watched the clips, I thought to myself: no wonder they were able to absorb themselves in the performance – perhaps it’s because their relationship was ‘somewhat real’ at that time. After that, in Beyond the Realm of Conscience《宮心計》, Charmaine and Kevin were paired together again; even though this time around, there was a story arc with Charmaine and Moses Chan (陳豪) as well, there was no doubt in my mind that the way Charmaine did her scenes with Moses was very different from her scenes with Kevin – I could feel it. The scenes where Charmaine and Kevin’s characters elope and pledge their love to each other – the way they looked at each other, the expression in their eyes, etc. – all made me feel that there was truly something ‘real’ about their relationship [in real life]. There was another scene where the 2 of them embraced each other, both of them in tears – I had a similar feeling at that time too.”

In her position as a producer, of course Siu Ching Jie was not going to ask directly [whether Charmaine and Kevin were truly in a relationship] – plus there was no point asking anyway: “It’s very interesting….when they were hanging out in the studio waiting to film their scenes, the two of them rarely socialized with each other or even looked at each other, yet when I watch them perform their relationship scenes, I truly felt that they were [in a relationship].”

Siu Ching Jie cited yet another example from back when they were filming Forensic Heroes 2 . Siu Ching Jie admits that she is the type of producer who doesn’t always accept performances in one take -- there was one particular scene that she felt was well-performed and so had accepted it already, however Kevin Cheng actually called her later on and asked if he could re-shoot the scene. It turns out the scene that Kevin wanted to re-shoot was the one where his character declares his love to Charmaine’s character: “The re-shoot was truly a lot better! The shot where Kevin grasps Charmaine’s hand – the audiences don’t know it, but that was actually the second take.”

Kevin and Charmaine have never admitted to a real-life relationship and no one knows for sure whether they are together currently. Siu Ching Jie states: “I really like the 2 of them together, as I feel they match each other really well. The two of them are definitely artists with a lot of heart!”


Was ‘scared silly’ by Moses Chan

In recent years, Mui Siu Ching has taken a liking to both Charmaine and Kevin on a personal level.

Two years ago, even though Charmaine did not win the TV Queen award for her performance in Can’t Buy Me Love《公主嫁到》(she lost to Sheren Tang), the series itself did win ‘Best Series’ that year. Looking back through the pictures from that night, Siu Ching Jie could see from Charmaine’s expression how sincerely happy she was that the series received recognition at the awards ceremony.

Siu Ching Jie expressed that every year, Kevin Cheng would make the effort to call her during the Chinese New Year holiday to send his new year’s greetings – even when he was not in HK during the holiday, he would still call her prior to leaving and send his early greetings. Last year, even after winning the TV King award, this ‘tradition’ continued. Siu Ching Jie says that she has great admiration for a man with such heart.

Moses Chan (陳豪) is another artist whom Mui Siu Ching helped to cultivate. When he first joined TVB, very few producers were willing to utilize him – the first series where he was heavily utilized was in 2002’s Where the Legend Begins《洛神》, which was produced by Siu Ching Jie: “At that time, his [Moses] raspy voice had just healed. The series was a costume drama and for the character of Cao Pi, I wanted to utilize a newcomer – only problem was that physically, Moses didn’t fit very well with the costume, especially the hairpiece; we had to tailor-make the costume and hairpiece specially for him, though to be honest, the overall ‘look’ still was not very pleasing to the eye. During the filming of the very first scene, Moses actually scared me silly! During that scene, he and Steven Ma (馬浚偉) had to walk across a traditional bridge (the type usually found in ancient seres) – with Steven’s experience, it was of course no problem for him, but when you look at Moses next to him, it was very obvious that Moses lacked experience – he wasn’t sure where to put his hands and he looked like a puppet; I was worried that perhaps I had chosen the wrong person to play the role. I didn’t want to call him to my office at that time because I didn’t want to hurt his self-esteem, so I used the excuse of the dialogue changing to ask him to re-shoot the scene – with each try, he truly continued to improve and in the end, he won the ‘Most Improved Male Artist’ award.”

Moses has great affinity with audiences and as a result, many of his subsequent series were well received. Mui Siu Ching continued to collaborate with Moses the following year in Family Man《絕世好爸》and after that, turned him over to Lau Ka Ho, who tapped into Moses’ comedic side with 2005’s The Gentle Crackdown《秀才遇著兵》—this route ultimately led to the character ‘Dak Dak Dei’ in Heart of Greed (2007) 《溏心風暴》, which is also the role that helped Moses win TV King.

Back during the filming of Love Bond 《心花放》in 2005, Mui Siu Ching expressed that she actually was not aware of Moses’ relationship with co-star Bernice Liu (廖碧兒) until near the end of filming: “One of the last scenes that we filmed was their kiss scene and at that time, I remember thinking -- wow, so much feeling, great acting there! It wasn’t until I went to ask the director that he told me: ‘Yes [they’re dating]! You didn’t know that?’”


Teaching by example

After 2007, Lau Ka Ho and Mui Siu Ching’s series have been ratings winners almost every year – this helped them break into the Mainland China market and now, it’s time for them to begin a new chapter in their lives: “Both in terms of salary and position, there is definitely more room for development. Our son is almost done with his 2 year lawyer training and will be able to start out on his own soon, plus we are finished paying off the mortgage on our house in West Kowloon, so we can feel more at ease trying our luck outside.”

Since submitting their resignation letters in September of last year (2011), both Lau Ka Ho and Mui Siu Ching are grateful for the warmth and support they have received. These past 6 months have been especially memorable for them: “After having submitted our letters to human resources on the 2nd floor, we were walking back to our offices on the 7th floor when our cell phone rang – turns out that the HR department had contacted Stephen Chan (陳志雲) almost immediately; he invited us to his office for a discussion and later on, Mark Lee (李寶安) joined the discussion as well.

In efforts to urge the couple to stay, management offered to let the couple head up their own production team that would be independent of the current 2 teams headed by Catherine Tsang (曾勵珍) and Tommy Leung (梁家樹). Though the offer was definitely enticing, the couple decided not to reconsider: “Through our attitude toward our jobs, we want to teach our son by example. He has seen with his own eyes how seriously we take our work – even when we get off work and go home, we are still not completely off work, as we head to our separate rooms and work on editing the scripts to our series for hours on end. This helps him understand that making a living is not easy – to get something done right requires a lot of persistence and sacrifice. We hope that in the future, he will take his work as seriously as we do with ours.”

Review of TVB Series “The Hippocratic Crush”《On Call 36小時》(2012)

Main Cast (partial list): Kenneth Ma (馬國明), Tavia Yeung (楊怡), Him Law (羅仲謙), Mandy Wong (黃智雯), Ben Wong (黃智賢), Nathan Ngai (魏焌皓), Candy Chang (張慧雯), Benjamin Yuen (袁偉豪), Derek Kok (郭政鴻), Gigi Wong (黃淑儀), Raymond Cho (曹永廉), Wilson Tsui (艾威), Mary Hon (韓馬利), Paisley Wu (胡蓓蔚), Bak Yan (白茵), Kyle Tse (謝卓言), Marcus Kwok (郭田葰), Candice Chiu (趙希洛), Brian Tse (謝東閔), Catherine Chau (周家怡), King Lam (林景程)


** Disclaimer: This series is about doctors working at a hospital. I'm not in the medical field and am not entirely familiar with much of the terminology used in the medical industry. Therefore, I apologize ahead of time if there is any medical terminology that is misused in the course of writing this review. If anyone reading this is in the medical field and would like to clarify any incorrect terms used, please feel free to let me know. Thanks. **


“The Hippocratic Crush” [referred to in the rest of this review as THC] is one of TVB’s newest series that just finished airing this past week. Those who know me know that I’m not too fond of most of the series that TVB has produced in the past decade or so (for various reasons) and therefore I rarely bother to finish watching a TVB series completely (from beginning to end) anymore nowadays. When I first started watching this particular series, I honestly thought that it would go down the same path (I’d watch the first few episodes, get bored with it, and not bother finishing it) because 1) there were a lot of ‘newbies’ in the cast and in general, I try to stay away from series with too many newbies due to the fact I usually get extremely frustrated with the horrible acting of newbies (and unfortunately, TVB has a bad track record when it comes to casting newbies in series who can’t act to save their lives); and 2) based on the stuff that I had read of the series beforehand, it really sounded like this series would be another “Healing Hands” wannabe [the series was being billed as ‘the younger version of “Healing Hands”’] and since I wasn’t fond of HH in the first place, I wasn’t too interested in watching a similar series that seemed to be yet another lame attempt by TVB to piggyback off the success of a previous franchise.

To my surprise, this series exceeded my expectations and I ended up not only liking the series, I actually ended up ‘falling in love’ with it (to the point that I actually felt like re-watching the series almost immediately after the finale aired…LOL). The newbies in the series weren’t too bad and a few of them actually did pretty good jobs given that this was their first series (though part of it was due to the way their characters were written)…most of all though, this series was nothing at all like “Healing Hands” – in fact, the way the series was written and the storyline flowed made it way better than HH in my opinion (more on this later).

Indeed, there is truly A LOT to like about this series – the awesome script with beautifully written and memorable dialogue, the well-developed characters (the main ones at least) that are written realistically in such a way that we are able to see their flaws and can relate to them on a personal level, the way the storyline flowed naturally to the point that we (the audiences) didn’t have to exert a whole lot of effort trying to watch and understand the series, and lastly, the acting in this series was absolutely superb….practically the entire cast (even the newbies) put in great performances!

For me, an important element in watching a series is whether I feel an emotional attachment to the characters in the series and alot of this has to do with how natural and convincing the acting is. I feel that this is one area where a lot of TVB’s series in the past decades have been lacking – the ‘emotional relevance’ aspect. Granted, the lack of emotional relevance could be due to bad scripts or bad acting or both (as well as a combination of other things), but to me, I've felt that in the past decade, TVB has been more concerned with churning out worthless series in efforts to promote their favorites rather than truly focusing on giving us audiences (and many long-time followers of TVB dramas) a sincere, high quality drama. With THC, I feel that that TVB has finally broken this cycle by delivering a well-written, well-produced, well-acted, and overall well put together series (though whether they will be able to keep up the momentum with their upcoming series remains to be seen – personally, I highly doubt that the consistency will be there).

Ok, so with all that said (believe it or not, I’m actually just getting started…LOL), on to the actual analysis….


SCRIPT / STORYLINE

As I mentioned above, one of the biggest draws to this series is the excellent, well-written script. It’s been a long time since I’ve come across a script written this beautifully, with so much heartfelt dialogue [no, not the ‘cheesy’ type] and so many memorable lines.

With this being a medical drama, putting together the script is definitely no easy feat, as the writers have to do their research so that the medical piece is presented in a way that is true to the profession, yet not too overly technical for regular TV audiences. At the same time, the storyline still has to be both engaging and realistic so that audiences can relate and want to continue ‘chasing’ the series – trying to keep the script well-balanced is definitely a huge challenge.

In terms of the ‘medical drama’ part, I feel that I really need to praise the writers (Poon Man Hung & Suen Ho Ho) as well as producer (Poon Ka Tak) for their “sincerity” with the script and the overall production – throughout the entire process (from writing the script to actual filming), the team actually had 2 real-life doctors on the set serving as consultants, helping to give advice on various aspects of working at a hospital and also ensuring that the surgery scenes were done as realistically as possible. In addition, one of the actors in the series – Marcus Kwok (who played neurosurgery trainee Tong Han Bong) – is a doctor in real life (he was a hospital emergency room doctor back when he lived in Australia) and so he was able to provide some guidance with the medical piece as well.

If I had to describe the script for this series in one word, I would have to say – REALISTIC. In a nutshell, that’s truly the essence of what made this series so unique. All of the characters in the series are portrayed in a way that we as audiences can relate to, even those of us who are not in the medical field, because they are presented to us so realistically. The doctors in the series are portrayed not as ‘superheroes’ who can always be counted on to save lives, but rather, they are ordinary, flawed human beings just like the rest of us – they make wrong decisions, they do things that are irrational and at times selfishly unreasonable, they go through periods of not knowing what they want in life, they have their ‘off’ days where nothing seems to go as planned and they let their frustrations get the best of them – in other words, they are regular people driven by their emotions just like us, except with the added pressure of the work they do. This made each of the characters very ‘relatable’ for us as audiences – for me personally, I found myself disliking a few of the characters in the beginning but then as the series progressed, I eventually grew to like them.

Overall, the storyline also flowed extremely well – most of the scenes were done very meticulously, which helped to keep the storyline engaging and the emotional level high….to the point that it didn’t feel like we were watching a drama series, but rather we were right there in the middle of the action. Hand in hand with this is the dialogue -- it’s very obvious that the writers put a lot of thought into coming up with the dialogue in this series, as much of the dialogue was heartfelt, meaningful, and really made the audiences reflect on how it applies in our own lives. I especially liked the ‘montage’ segments where a series of short yet related scenes were tied together simply by Zi Yu’s (Tavia Yeung) narrative in the background – there may not have been any exchange of dialogue between the characters in those segments, yet the emotions conveyed were especially poignant and touching.

Here are a few examples of the scenes where some of my favorite dialogue occurred (NOT all-inclusive, as there were way too many great scenes with great dialogue – too difficult to list them all):

.-- the scene where Andy’s grandmother (Helena Law) dies – the last dialogue she has where she expresses her thoughts about death and regrets was really moving (and so true too!).

.-- the entire memorial service segment for Yat Hong (Nathan Ngai) – the speeches that both Jing Jing (Candy Chang) and Yat Kin (Kenneth Ma) gave were so heartfelt, moved me to tears…

.-- both scenes where Yat Kin (Kenneth Ma) proposes to Ji Yu (Tavia Yeung) -- the one at their colleagues’ wedding as well as the one at the hospital…those scenes definitely had the BEST dialogue in the entire series!

.-- all of the scenes where Ben (Benjamin Yuen) reprimands Mei Suet (Mandy Wong) – absolutely loved all of Ben’s ‘speeches’

Lastly, I have to say that it’s really too bad that the 2 main scriptwriters for the series (Poon Man Hung and Suen Ho Ho) already left TVB (they work for CTI now) because they truly did an excellent job with the script for this series. Their departure is definitely TVB’s loss!

.---.


CAST / CHARACTERS

This is another one of those series that proves you don’t necessarily need an ‘all-star’ ensemble cast in order for a series to be successful – the right mix of talented artists, veterans, and newbies (plus a good script of course) can also create a ‘runaway’ hit.

On first glance, the cast for this series may not seem very impressive, especially considering how almost a third of the main cast consists of newcomers with little to no acting experience. Yet, somehow, the chemistry of the cast was excellent and each person – whether lead, supporting, or guest star – gave it their all, resulting in well-acted, high quality performances from practically everyone in the cast. Now THAT is definitely a rare occurrence in TVB series, especially in the past decade.

Unlike my past reviews, I’m actually not going to go into too much detail about the characters themselves, since this series just finished airing and most people have already seen the series. Also, the cast is quite large, so it would be too difficult to do a detailed analysis of every single character.

So to start off with the main cast….

Kenneth Ma (Cheung Yat Kin) – nicknamed ‘Yat Kin Tau’, he is a neurosurgery final year trainee who later becomes a neurosurgeon specialist. I really like the way the character of Yat Kin Tau was written (actually, I like the way all the characters were written to be honest) – his character is very well-developed in that the focus isn’t just on him being a doctor and saving lives, rather there’s also a huge focus on his life as an ‘ordinary’ person outside of work – plus there’s the emotional transformation that he goes through, especially in the second half of the series when he encounters one setback after another. This made his character very realistic in the sense that we are able to relate to him as a person. Without a doubt, Yat Kin was definitely my favorite character in this series!

In terms of Kenneth’s performance in this series….well, let me put it this way – the first word that came to my mind after watching Kenneth’s performance here was: WOW!!!! His acting in this series was excellent, outstanding, superb, awesome, etc. (I could go on and on with the adjectives!). He delivered each line of dialogue with such great precision, every facial expression and body gesture was done perfectly, which I applaud him for because that's one of the areas that is the most difficult when it comes to acting -- having the right facial expressions at the right times for the right situations! Kenneth’s performance was so natural and realistic that he was able to make his character Cheung Yat Kin became a real person to me and I couldn’t resist feeling emotionally attached to him. This was especially true during the last 5 episodes of the series when his character is going through difficult times with the loss of his brother and finding out the woman he loves has a potentially life-threatening illness -- he did the emotional scenes so perfectly that I couldn't help but be drawn in by his performance. I absolutely felt for him during all the emotional scenes and found myself laughing and crying with him in many of the episodes.

Kenneth definitely has a way of conveying emotion well through his eyes – this was especially apparent during the scene where his character Yat Kin performs surgery on his brother Yat Hong (who is gravely injured after an accident) but is unsuccessful and he ends up dying from his injuries – even though most of Kenneth’s face was covered with a surgeon’s mask during that time, the intense emotion of that scene was still apparent just based on the ‘acting’ he did with his eyes! Another great scene that really showcased Kenneth’s strong acting skills was the ‘crying’ scene with Tavia at the basketball court (where Yat Kin releases his feelings of frustration and guilt over his brother’s death) – his crying was so sincere and heartfelt that I could totally feel his pain and ended up crying as well [to be honest, I really felt like reaching out and just saying -- NO, IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT!!!]. The other part that I was absolutely impressed by with that scene is that Kenneth was still able to say his dialogue so CLEARLY and with so much emotion! Alot of times, when I watch crying scenes, I actually cringe because so many of the artists nowadays can't seem to cry and talk clearly at the same time, so when they do crying scenes, the dialogue gets all jumbled (I have to rely on reading the Chinese subtitles on the screen to understand what they're saying...) -- on top of that, alot of them can't get the emotion right either, so the crying scenes end up being just so lame and unconvincing. But with this particular scene -- everything was done perfectly: the crying, the dialogue, the emotion.....BRILLIANT!

I’ve always felt that Kenneth has a certain ‘sincerity’ about him when it comes to his acting – perhaps that’s why most of the characters he plays are so endearing to me (I really enjoyed his performance in “A Fistful of Stances” and absolutely ‘adored’ him in “Speech of Silence”…also liked most of his other performances in between…). Out of all the male artists from his ‘generation’ (those who started in the late 90s/early 2000s), he’s pretty much the only one whom I’ve liked since the beginning (and the only one who has been able to evoke an emotional response from me when watching his series). It’s really a shame that all these years, he was never really promoted as much compared to the others from his ‘group’ despite his acting skills being so much better than some of the others (aiye, TVB and their politics!). Well, I’m glad that Kenneth is finally getting the recognition he deserves now, after his well-received performance in THC – he absolutely deserves it! And yes, I am going to throw my name in the hat to support him for TV King this year (I know he won’t win, but I would love to at least see him in the Top 5). Definitely looking forward to more great acting from him!


Tavia Yeung (Fan Ji Yu) – nicknamed ‘Yu Jai’, she’s also a final year trainee, though her specialty changes from neurosurgery (since her father is a renown neurosurgeon) to cardiothoracic surgery later on in the series. I will admit that I found Yu Jai a bit annoying in the beginning of the series because she seemed to carry a lot of bias with her and allowed it to cloud her judgment at times, to the point that she would refuse to listen to what others had to say, even if it was the truth. Luckily her personality changes later on in the series (still a bit stubborn, but in a good way – maybe that’s why she matched so well with Yat Kin? LOL) and I actually found myself liking her (though not as much as I liked Kenneth’s character, of course).

This series definitely changed my impression of Tavia as an actress – maybe it’s the way her character was written or perhaps she has truly matured in her acting now. In the past, Tavia has always been on my ‘tolerable’ list in terms of actresses (meaning that I didn’t hate her, but I wasn’t fond of her either). I actually felt that she had potential when she started off (in the late 90s), but unfortunately, TVB didn’t do a very good job with her career because in the last 7 to 8 years, they either gave her too many ‘similar’ roles (i.e.: “Rippling Blossom”, “Yes Sir, Sorry Sir”, “Men With No Shadows”, etc.) or they gave her roles that didn’t fit her (i.e.: “Beyond the Realm of Conscience”) -- since her characters always seemed to be similar, it made her acting come across as the same as well…the result is that I slowly became tired of her and just didn’t want to see her in series anymore. Also, she was one of the actresses whom I felt didn’t do crying scenes very well – the crying always appeared forced and exaggerated to me (I especially hated the crying scenes in “Mysteries of Love” and “Men with No Shadows” – I pretty much cringed every time I saw a crying scene and didn’t even bother finishing either series). In THC though, my experience was completely different – her crying scenes were done really well and she was truly able to bring out the emotional element in her scenes. And for the FIRST TIME, I actually enjoyed Tavia’s performance! I felt that she portrayed the character of ‘Fan Ji Yu’ perfectly, bringing out the character’s professionalism as well as reserve and determination, yet showing that she’s only human and will go through those same ‘breakdown’ moments that most of us do when we encounter tough situations. In fact, I went from disliking her character in the beginning (as I mentioned above, her character was a bit annoying in the first few episodes) to liking her character a lot and actually rooting for her and ‘Yat Kin’ (Kenneth) to get together!

After seeing Tavia’s performance in THC, it dawned on me that TVB has perhaps been taking the wrong direction with her career – I feel that Tavia is actually better suited for ‘professional’ roles (i.e.: doctor, lawyer, etc.), especially at this point in her career. Both her recent role as a doctor in THC and as a lawyer in “The Other Truth” were well-received by audiences and can be considered ‘breakthrough’ roles for her. For the record, despite how much I liked Tavia’s performance in this series, I’m still not a fan of hers by any means (and I don’t think I ever will be), but I do want to see her do well and hope that TVB will do the right thing when it comes to managing her career.


Kenneth / Tavia pairing -- Ok, I admit that I'm definitely a 'Yu-Tau’ (Yu Jai + Yat Kin Tau) fan after watching this series! I absolutely adored the Kenneth / Tavia pairing – they had such awesome chemistry throughout the series, even though the two of them don’t officially become a couple until the very last episode. Of course, I would have loved for Yat Kin and Yu Jai to have gotten together earlier in the series, but I realize now that it was actually better the way their relationship progressed slowly because that’s part of what made the relationship so poignant and endearing. I really like how their relationship was portrayed in the series, as it was not the typical ‘cheesy’ romantic formula that TVB likes to use: from the start, even when they were just colleagues working in the same hospital, their relationship was a rocky one, with Yu Jai misunderstanding Yat Kin in the beginning and letting her personal bias get in the way of seeing the type of person he truly was. Throughout the series, the relationship between Yat Kin and Yu Jai develops gradually (they go from colleagues to friends and then eventually to lovers) – they grow to love each other after overcoming various misunderstandings and hardships…in a sense, they had to build their relationship from scratch and to me, the path that they took to get there is more in line with what a real-life couple would go through. I have to say that I absolutely enjoyed every scene between Kenneth and Tavia in this series, whether it was an intense emotion-filled scene or a relaxed, playful one (which definitely says something about how well their relationship was written, given that there have not been very many on-screen couples that I’ve liked in the past decade or so). I will definitely miss ‘Yu-Tau’ now that the series is over!


Him Law (Yeung Pui Chung) – nicknamed ‘Onion’, he is a first year neurosurgery trainee (I believe the official term is ‘houseman’?). He’s really the opposite of what we would consider a doctor to be like, as he’s a bit ‘messy’ (his shirt is always untucked and his hair is somewhat disheveled in some scenes) and he has a very playful attitude (which at times is mistaken for being lazy). Underneath all that though, he’s really a good doctor who cares a lot about his patients, which becomes more apparent once he finally ‘cleans up his act’ – plus he has a great sense of humor!

I really enjoyed Him Law’s portrayal of Pui Chung in this series – he made the character very human and very lovable from the beginning (pretty much no matter what mistakes Pui Chung made, it was hard to be mad at him for long because he just had that ‘cuteness’ about him that made audiences like me want to easily forgive him…lol). Him is definitely one of those younger generation actors with huge potential to become an established actor one day – it’s amazing that he’s relatively new in terms of acting (he started in movies in 2005 and only started filming TV series in 2008 – prior to that, he was a lifeguard) and pretty much had no acting training or experience when he started in the industry, yet his acting is way better than many of TVB’s current ‘popular’ siu sangs! Now I’m not just saying this because he did a great job in THC – the reality is, he has delivered consistently solid performances in all of the series that he’s been in since 2008, to the point that in a few of his previous series (“Suspects in Love” and “Your Class or Mine” for example), he even ‘out-performed’ many of his ‘seniors’ (veteran actors such as Joe Ma, Bobby Au-Yeung, etc.). I’ve always found Him’s acting very natural and convincing, so there’s no doubt in my mind that he CAN act, he just needs a little more polish and also a forum where he can continue to cultivate his skills – unfortunately though, he’s not a TVB-managed artist (to my understanding), which means that most likely TVB is not going to invest much time or energy in promoting him. If he’s going to continue working for TVB in a greater capacity, let’s hope that Him will be able to reach his potential there and not become a ‘victim’ of TVB’s notorious politics like many of the talented actors who came before him.


Mandy Wong (Hung Mei Suet) – she is also a first year neurosurgery trainee (houseman) and is Yu Jai’s long lost biological sister. Mei Suet has a very strong, bold personality – she is overconfident, smug, and often unwilling to accept defeat or failure. Also, after she finds out that Yu Jai is her sister, she becomes very ‘competitive’ and constantly wants to be better than her (whether it’s her love life or career), which causes her to do things that are irrational and immature. I actually hated her character in the beginning because of all the things she does (plus I just found her outright rude and annoying) – luckily though, she’s not a bad person at the core and after she makes a huge mistake at the hospital that almost costs a patient his life, she finally listens to the advice that her colleague (and later her boyfriend) Ben gives her and changes her ways. In the last 5 episodes of the series, she actually becomes quite likable!

Just like Him Law, Mandy is another one of those artists who is particularly gifted in the area of acting, though the difference with her is that she actually graduated from the HK Academy of Performing Arts and also participated in TVB’s Acting Classes. I was actually surprised to read that she’s a former Miss HK (2007 pageant, where she made it to the Top 5 in the finals) because my impression of the Miss HK contestants from the past decade is that very few of them (if any) can actually act (huge difference from the Miss HKs of the 70s/80s/90s). Even though I respect Mandy as an actress and feel that she definitely has the potential to become a strong actress some day, I’m just not very fond of her on a personal level – I can’t explain why because I actually don’t know why….maybe because she comes across as a bit ‘diva-ish’ to me and that happens to be one of my pet peeves? Well, whatever the case, Mandy definitely did a good job in this series from an acting standpoint, though it probably would have been better if her character was a bit more developed (since she’s pretty much just ‘there’ for like the first third of the series and only becomes ‘part of the action’ about midway through the series).


Benjamin Yuen (Lau Bing Chan) – his character is actually named Benjamin in the series (haha..I wonder how that happened?) and he’s also a senior trainee (3rd year?) specializing in Orthopedics. His character is portrayed as a ‘playboy’ whose main interest outside of work is inviting his female colleagues out on dates. He’s one of Yat Kin’s best friends and together with their other good friend (Derek Kok’s character Lui Siu Yik), they all hang out together after work – their relationship is like brothers. Ben’s character is actually quite interesting because the impression he gives everyone is that he’s very nonchalant and doesn’t take love relationships seriously, but later on in the series, we find out that all of that is actually a façade to help him cope with a previous failed relationship. Even though it always seems like he’s very carefree and takes everything lightly, he’s actually the most observant out of the group and stands up for his friends when it’s most needed. Surprisingly, Ben was actually one of my favorite characters in the series – I really liked the way his character would reprimand Mei Suet whenever it was appropriate and set her back on the right path. And I also loved the brotherly relationship between him and Yat Kin as well as Siu Yik – their chemistry in this series was excellent!

In terms of Benjamin as an actor –this is actually the first time that I’ve ever seen him in a significant role (or it could be that I just never paid attention in the past because his roles never really stood out) and I was pleasantly surprised by the way he ‘delivered the goods’ with his performance in this series. I use the word ‘surprised’ because he’s the Mr. HK winner from 2007 and everyone knows how I feel about beauty pageant winners from the past decade – my impression has always been that they can’t act and are better off keeping whatever job they had prior to participating in the pageant. This is the first time that I’ve actually liked a performance from a Mr. HK pageant winner! Anyway, I’m glad that Ben had a standout role in this series – let’s see if he keeps up the momentum with his upcoming series.


Ben Wong (Chong Bok Mun) – Ben plays a senior neurosurgeon and is Yat Kin’s superior. As always, Ben put in a fine performance and even though I wasn’t too fond of his character in the beginning (because he would always get all jealous and worked up over something that he thought existed but really didn’t), his character sort of grew on me as the series progressed and I ended up liking him a lot, especially in the last few episodes in the series when he finally ‘wakes up’ and realizes he was wrong all along. I’ve always liked Ben as an actor since back in the “Kindred Spirit” days, so I was happy to see him as part of the cast – he was one of the reasons why I chose to watch this series in the first place and he definitely did not disappoint!


Nathan Ngai (Cheung Yat Hong) – Nathan plays Kenneth’s younger brother Yat Hong; he was seriously injured in a car accident during his youth and as a result, he is confined to a wheelchair for life. Even though he is disabled, he does not let that get in the way of living his life to the fullest – he pretty much approaches life with a very upbeat, positive attitude. To be honest, I don’t know anything about Nathan except that he’s a newbie and this was pretty much his first significant role in a series. I liked his performance though and I must say that for a newbie, his acting is not bad – in fact, a few of his scenes actually moved me to tears (which rarely ever happens when I’m watching a newbie performance). Sounds like I will be paying more attention to his performances in the future!


Candy Chang (Gan Jing Jing) – Candy plays a trainee / intern at the hospital, but I honestly can’t remember what her specialty was – all I remember is that she is good friends with Him Law’s character Pui Chung and later becomes Yat Hong’s girlfriend (though they’re only together for a few hours due to Yat Hong dying in an accident). I don’t know a whole lot about Candy either except that she’s another one of those beauty pageant winners, though I do remember that she was one of the ‘Star Ladies’ in the variety show “All Star Glam Exam” hosted by Grasshoppers. TVB must really like her because this was her very first TV series, yet she already had a significant role (I guess you could say she was third female lead after Tavia and Mandy)...hmmmm….well, in terms of performance, I actually don’t think she was that great– the way she said her dialogue, I could totally tell that she was a newbie. I guess I would say that her performance was ‘tolerable’, though I’m not too interested in watching future performances from her – I’m pretty much going to wait until she proves herself with her performances in upcoming series.


Gigi Wong (Wong Siu Ying) – the mother of Yat Kin and Yat Hong; she works at the hospital as a cleaning lady (I think?). Gigi was absolutely brilliant in her role, especially during the episodes when her beloved son Yat Hong is injured and subsequently dies – her portrayal of a mother’s reaction upon losing her son was soooo convincing and heartwrenching, I couldn’t help crying throughout all of those scenes. Of course, I’m not surprised that Gigi put in such a good performance because my mom is actually a fan of hers and I’ve been watching her series since I was little – the younger generation may not realize it, but Gigi was actually one of TVB’s most popular fa dans in the 70s and back then, was known for her acting as well as her looks. She was retired for many decades and only returned to the industry recently (well, relatively recently – about 10 years ago). I loved her performance in this series – another great performance from a veteran actress!


Derek Kok (Lui Siu Yik) – Derek plays a nurse (yes, a nurse) at the hospital; he is Yat Kin’s good friend and is a single father with a young son named Lung Jai. To be honest, I really didn’t see the point of Derek’s character in this series – I mean, he has a relatively decent amount of screen time, but he really doesn’t do much to advance the storyline. For me, it seemed that pretty much anyone could have been placed in his role because the character itself was kind of useless (except to provide some comedic relief every once in awhile) – in fact, his character could have been cut out of the series completely and I doubt anyone would have noticed the difference! Derek is one of the most underrated actors in TVB – I grew up watching his performances throughout the 80s / 90s and he’s one of the best ‘green leaf’ actors from that generation that is still around. It’s really a pity that TVB has been giving him sucky roles in the past few years (can’t remember any significant or ‘breakout’ role that he’s had in the past 5 years or so) – not sure what they have against him (probably TVB politics at play again), but I really wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up leaving TVB due to the lack of recognition for his talent.


Wilson Tsui (Fan Chi Ngok) – Wilson plays Tavia’s father and also happens to be a renown neurosurgeon; he’s also Yat Kin’s (Kenneth) teacher and mentor. Wilson is another great veteran actor from the 80s generation whom I also grew up watching. He’s very talented and his acting skills are excellent, but personality wise, he’s not the vocal type and so all these years, he’s pretty much been relegated to playing either villain roles or insignificant fourth/fifth line roles. If I remember correctly, this is one of the few times that he actually plays a famous doctor and I actually feel he did a great job (though there are audiences out there who feel that he doesn’t fit the role). Whatever the case, I liked his performance and especially enjoyed his chemistry with Tavia and Kenneth. Unfortunately though, we won’t be seeing him in any more TVB series because his contract already expired last month and he has already signed with Ricky Wong’s CTI. Such a shame – another talented actor who served TVB for over 30 years has left the company!


Raymond Cho (Chin Ho Tak) – Ray is a cardiothoracic surgeon and is Yu Jai’s superior (after she switches to that specialty midway through the series). Ray didn’t have very much screen time in the series (darn!) but the few times he did appear, he made a significant impact. Even though he doesn’t appear too often, I still enjoyed his performance in the series and absolutely loved his character – the scene in episode 23 (or was it 24?) where Yu Jai goes to Dr. Chin’s house for dinner and he advises her to tell her family about her illness was one of my favorite scenes from the series – the interaction between him and the actress who played his wife during that scene was absolutely sincere and natural! Of course, I was hoping to see more of Ray, since he’s one of my favorite actors, but given the storyline and the huge cast, I could understand why his screen time would be limited. Oh well….


Kyle Tse (Andy Law On Dik) – Kyle plays an orthopedic first year trainee; in the series, there was actually a storyline involving him and his grandmother (played by Helena Law). Just like with the others, I don’t know much about Kyle except that he’s a newbie and his acting definitely needs polish (he had the same problem as Candy in that the acting was a bit stiff and the way he said the dialogue made it obvious he lacked experience). I actually didn’t mind his performance, but that’s because he had the benefit of acting opposite Helena Law, who was absolutely EXCELLENT in her role as his grandmother. The scenes between Andy and his grandmother were able to move me to tears primarily because of the way the story was written as well as the awesome acting of Helena – if it weren’t for her, those scenes probably would not have had as huge of an impact.


Paisley Wu (Tou Kar Mun) – Paisley plays the Head Nurse (not sure if that’s the right term) at the hospital and is Lui Siu Yik’s superior (she becomes his girlfriend later on). Just like with Derek’s character, Paisley’s character Tou Kar Mun is another one of those characters whom I feel didn’t need to be in the series. The storyline involving her and Derek’s Siu Yik was a little weird and really did not have much to do with the overall plot / storyline at all – to me, it was pretty much a filler. This was one area of the otherwise awesome script that I didn’t like – I would rather that they remove the storyline involving Derek and Paisley completely and instead spend more time on the other sub-stories. If I were the writer, I definitely would have written this piece differently. With regard to Paisley’s performance – did anyone else think that her performance was a bit too OTT? The way she talked sounded like a little girl throwing a tantrum – I sort of got annoyed with her voice after awhile….maybe she should stick to her ‘day job’ as a singer rather than trying to venture into acting….


“The Hippocratic Crush” versus “Healing Hands”?

A lot of people have been trying to compare THC to one of TVB’s classic doctor series, “Healing Hands” (HH) – in fact, the HK Media now refer to Kenneth as ‘the new generation Paul Ching’ (Lawrence Ng’s character in HH)! If you want to hear my honest opinion – THC is a way better series than HH. I’m actually one of the few people who was not fond of the original HH in the first place (don’t shoot me!) – all these year’s, I’ve only watched the HH trilogy once and pretty much refuse to re-watch any of the installments because I just didn’t like the series overall. The main reason is because despite the strong cast (many of whom were my favorites at the time), I felt that the storyline in HH was way too “messy” and didn’t flow. And the way the relationships were done in that series was so lame (please don’t get me started on the whole Paul and Jackie thing in HH…absolutely hated that storyline!) – I didn’t feel anything for any of the characters and was pretty much annoyed with most of the series (which is why I only watched it once – didn’t want to frustrate myself by sitting through the series again). In THC, the characters and their relationships were written in such a way that we as audiences were able to relate on an emotional level.

The reason why THC is better than HH in my opinion is because THC portrays doctors more realistically – the premise of the series is that doctors are ordinary people and will go through the same trials and tribulations that the rest of us do -- whereas HH goes with the more ‘stereotypical’ approach of putting doctors on a ‘pedestal’ as a very unattainable and unapproachable profession. For example: in THC, when the doctors get off work, they go home and spend time with their family or ‘hang out’ at each other’s homes or play basketball (or some other sport) together….in HH, when the doctors get off work, they all meet up at some fancy bar to sip red wine and chase after pretty girls – the impression I get is that they’re pretty much ‘living the good life’, which is not in line with what we ordinary folks do in our daily lives.


CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

As I said earlier in this review, “The Hippocratic Crush” is one of the best series that I’ve seen from TVB in years – from the script to the acting to the overall production, the series was very well-put together. It’s been awhile since I’ve watched a series where there was very little to complain about -- even the ending to the series was done well, which is VERY RARE when it comes to TVB series (as a point of reference: out of all of 2011’s series, I only liked the ending to 1 series -- all the rest I didn’t care for).

I actually loved the way they did the ending to THC – it was not tragic, but it wasn’t ‘happily ever after’ either…the way they did it was perfect and very fitting to the overall theme of the series. In fact, I loved the ending so much that after the finale aired, I kept re-watching that last scene several times (couldn’t get enough of Yat Kin and Yu Jai holding hands and calling each other ‘husband’ and ‘wife’…LOL).

As much as I will miss the ‘Yu-Tau’ pairing now that the series is over, I’m actually not too keen on watching a sequel to this series that continues their story, primarily because I already know that TVB is going to completely screw things up by going the ‘love triangle’ route (which is their typical formula). I’m sure many fans of the series will agree with me when I say that I don’t want to see ‘Yu-Tau’ separated in the sequel – and I absolutely don’t want the series to follow in the “Healing Hands” mold where the relationships are poorly done in the sequels and the male lead ends up having one girlfriend after another because his other half always ends up dying (argh….that was the other thing I hated about HH).

In terms of recommendation – it’s obvious that I loved this series and would absolutely recommend watching it, especially since my review only ‘scratches the surface’ and doesn’t even do justice to how good the series is. My only real complaint overall is that the series was way too short, resulting in some parts being a bit too rushed (episode 21 is a great example of this) -- there were certain sub-stories that had so much potential and could have been further developed, but weren’t. They definitely should have made this series 30 episodes instead of 25 – an additional 5 episodes would have been perfect to develop a few of the sub-stories and tie up some of the loose ends a little better.

Lastly, I wanted to make one comment regarding ratings and awards. Those who know me know that I’ve never been one to care about ratings or awards (especially TVB awards) because they mean absolutely nothing to me and will never affect my opinion of a series. However, seeing that both ratings and awards mean a lot in the HK entertainment industry and can pretty much be considered the ‘determining factor’ on whether someone becomes popular or not (it’s sad, but that’s the reality unfortunately), then for the sake of the artists and the crew who did such an awesome job in this series, I sincerely hope that both the artists and the series will get the recognition they deserve come awards time (at least the ratings for the series were high, so that definitely helps!). Of course, with TVB’s stupid politics, there’s no telling what will happen – but seriously, if no one gets any recognition at all during awards time (which I hope doesn’t happen), I am really going to consider boycotting TVB!

TVB series “The Hippocratic Crush” 《On Call 36小時》(2012): Theme Song Translation

“The Hippocratic Crush” is one of TVB’s newest series that is currently airing. There’s actually one more week to go before the series is over, so I’m going to save most of my commentary for afterwards, when I do the review of this series.

I will say though that I’m actually really enjoying this series, which is a bit of a surprise to me considering I wasn’t too interested in this series prior to it airing because I wasn’t too keen on the cast. After watching the first few episodes though, I couldn’t help but be impressed by the performances by some of the cast members (I’ll talk more about this in my review) – plus the script is pretty well put together for the most part (especially considering the various subplots in the series) and the storyline is quite engaging (though there are a few flaws that I’ll discuss more about later on in the review).

Anyway, for the purposes of this post, I’m going to focus primarily on the themesong for the series, which is called ‘Serial Drama’ (連續劇) and is sung by Joey Yung. I’m not a Joey fan by any means (and I’m still not a fan, despite how much I like this particular song), but I will admit that she did a good job performing this song – she definitely gave the perfect amount of emotion to the song to really bring out the essence of the song as it relates to the series. And definitely, the more I listen to the song, the more I feel that it suits the series extremely well (especially the lyrics).

Since I really enjoyed this song, I decided to go ahead and translate the lyrics into English. I must admit that this was quite a difficult task because some of the words used in the song sound best in Chinese and when translated into English, some of the ‘emotion’ and ‘feel’ is definitely lost. Also, some of the lyrics were a bit ‘deep’ and in essence, don’t sound good translated into English (with my translation, I sort of feel I didn’t do justice to some of the lyrics, but hey, I tried my best!).

One quick note…since I really liked the lyrics to this song, I did do a little bit of research on the person who wrote the lyrics -- Roy Lin (林日曦). When I found out who he was, it made a lot more sense to me why the lyrics were so ‘poetic’ and a little bit on the ‘difficult’ side to translate…Roy is one of the apprentice students of the HK music world’s most renown and talented lyricists – the ‘master’ of song-writing, Lam Jik (林夕) [those familiar with HK music will definitely know who he is]. Looking through the lyrics and listening to the song again, I can definitely sense the ‘Lam Jik influence’ in the song!

Below is the English translation of the song, along with a link to listen to the song from Youtube (note that I didn’t post the MV because I didn’t feel it was appropriate to do so due to copyright issues) . As is the case whenever I do song translations, the translation below is purely my own interpretation of the lyrics and so most likely will be different from other translations of the song that may be out there.

Lastly, if anyone has feedback regarding the theme song itself, please feel free to comment!

.---.

Link to song: 'Serial Drama'

Chinese lyrics credit to Roy Lin's Sina Blog

[Translated by: llwy12]
*** PLEASE CREDIT IF RE-POSTED!! THANK YOU! ***

連續劇
Serial Drama

電視劇《On Call 36小時》 主題曲
TV Series “The Hippocratic Crush” theme song

主唱: 容祖兒
Performed by: Joey Yung

作曲: 鄧智偉
Composed by: Tang Chi Wai

填詞: 林日曦
Lyrics by: Roy Lin

編曲: Johnny Yim
Music Arrangement by: Johnny Yim


開首的一篇是某某出生
The opening chapter starts with someone’s birth

媽媽給寶寶奉上這一生 頭一吻
A mother dedicates her entire life to her baby, a kiss on the forehead

開端之後或晴或暗
What follows this opening could be brightness or darkness

怎麼走就像連續劇也欠缺安穩
No matter how we move forward it’s like a serial drama, lacks steadiness


或者　於某集我可抬頭欣賞到你
Perhaps, in a certain episode I can lift my head and admire you

或者　一轉念便要失去你
Perhaps, upon second thought I’ll lose you

或者　轉折漸太多　遺忘怎擁抱你
Perhaps, the twists and turns gradually become too much and I forget how to embrace you

或者　擁緊偏已斷氣
Perhaps, as soon as we embrace tightly, the breathing has already stopped


情人們一呼一吸相愛到底　結局或同樣
Lovers, with each breath, love each other to the end, even if the ending turns out the same

仍想將你我這幕　演得更理想
Still want to perform this scene between us more ideally

能修補即管修補　不要再想　再一刻人便缺氧
Go ahead and fix what can be fixed, don’t hesitate anymore, one more moment and it will be lost

熟悉的歌曲　等與你合唱
A familiar song, I’m waiting to sing it with you

無人需要落寞的過場　前來鋪滿浪漫的過場
No one needs a lonely interlude, come forward to an interlude filled with romance


新一章怎可是你我分開
How can the new chapter be about our separation?

可否改寫得像你我當初還相愛
Can it be re-written like the beginning, when you and I were still in love?

只可惜上集難逆轉
Unfortunately, it’s too difficult to reverse the previous episode

傷感的下集仍然未播　我會修改
The next episode filled with sorrow has not aired yet, I will amend it


如果　當晚沒有分神來緊張佈置
If that night we hadn’t gotten distracted with nervously putting our feelings in order

如果　不必誤會再猜疑
If we did not misunderstand then suspect each other

如果　將對白說得平和　不加諷刺
If we had spoken our dialogue more placidly, without adding sarcasm

如果　真的可有下次
If there really could be a ‘next time’


情人們一呼一吸相愛到底　結局或同樣
Lovers, with each breath, love each other to the end, even if the ending turns out the same

仍然能拖緊彼此　走絕地雪霜
Still can hold on to each other tightly to walk through the dangerous snow and frost

如能重修好一雙　不要再想　再一刻人便缺氧
If able to reconstruct one pair, don’t hesitate anymore, one more moment and it will be lost

明知可一起　不要再獨唱
Knowing you can be together, don’t continue to sing solo


情人們一呼一吸相愛到底　結局或同樣
Lovers, with each breath, love each other to the end, even if the ending turns out the same

仍想將你我這幕　演得更理想
Still want to perform this scene between us more ideally

如能重修好一雙　不要再想　再一刻誰亦要退下場
If able to reconstruct one pair, don’t hesitate anymore, one more moment and everyone will need to leave the stage

多得你在場　多得我在場　天空也在場
Thankfully you are present, thankfully I am present, the sky is also present

演好這一章　呼吸太無常
Perform this chapter well, as breathing is too unstable

Review of TVB Series “The Swords of Conquest 怒剑啸狂沙” (1991)

Cast (partial list): Eddie Kwan (關禮傑), Kathy Chow (周海媚), Yeung Tak Shi (楊得時), Money Lo (盧敏儀), Dickson Lee (李家聲), Rain Lau (劉玉翠), Jimmy Au (歐瑞偉), Josephine Lam (林其欣), Wang Wai (王偉), Derek Kwok (郭政鴻), Law Lok Lam (羅樂林), Liza Wang (汪明荃), Law Kar Ying (羅家英)

This was one of the few 'major' series from the early 90s that I actually had not seen yet. I remember watching TVB's 24th Anniversary Gala (1991) and this series was featured in it (which makes sense, since it was that year's anniversary series) and at that time, I had made a note to myself to watch the series when I got the chance....that was almost 20 years ago and I just recently got around to watching it (I know, a bit late huh? Better late than never, I guess!). One of the main reasons why I wanted to watch this series was because at that time (back in the 80s / early 90s), Kathy Chow was one of my favorite actresses (she still is even now, though I haven't really kept up with her much since she switched her career to the Mainland) and I was interested in seeing her ‘fresh’ pairing with Eddie Kwan (another artist from back in the 80s whom I like).

The setting of the series is the Tang Dynasty era -- however the storyline does not revolve around the Imperial palace or the emperor (or anything of that nature), which I'm happy with because I'm sort of tired of the whole Imperial palace theme thing myself. Rather, the story focuses on the experiences of the ethnic minority groups during that era and the 'oppression' that they suffered at the hands of the Han Chinese – this made the storyline quite interesting and fresh because it's definitely not often that you find this type of theme in a TVB series. The other 'unique' thing about this series is that majority of the scenes take place in the desert, which means that much of the filming was done on location in the real Tibetan outdoors rather than inside some fake studio set at TVB -- no wonder the background scenery was so gorgeous! TVB really took this production seriously because I had read that the cast and crew actually traveled to Tibet and other ethnic regions in China to do the filming back then (wow, it's hard to imagine that the notoriously cheap TVB actually took productions so seriously back then....all those ancient series that they film nowadays -- most of which take place inside a studio with fake sets -- definitely pale in comparisons!).

Overall, this series definitely fell into the “like” (aka “worth watching”) category for me, as I enjoyed the chemistry between most of the characters and the storyline was actually quite decent – most of all, I like majority of the cast, so that in itself was a big motivation for me to continue watching this series. In fact, this is actually one of those series that I don’t mind re-watching again because I enjoyed it so much the first time around. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the series was perfect because the script absolutely did have some very glaring issues with it (which I will go into later on in the review)….in general though, this is definitely a decent series that I don’t regret watching.


CAST / CHARACTERS

As I said above, one of the reasons I enjoyed this series was because of the cast, since many of them are amongst my favorites in terms of actors and actresses that I like. Granted, I wouldn’t necessarily call the cast ‘all-star’ and was actually surprised that this was an anniversary series given the fact that most of the cast members were not necessarily the most popular ones at that time (early 90s). Either way though, the casting for this series was quite decent (with the exception of a few people, that is) and if we look at it from an acting standpoint, the cast was actually quite solid!

Unlike with some of my other reviews, I’m actually going to talk about 2 minor characters in the series first because both of them were only in the first episode, so it just makes more sense chronologically (plus I don’t like either artist and their performances weren’t that great anyway, so I might as well get it out of the way).

Law Kar Ying / Liza Wang (Hung Tin Yau / Yuen So Juk) – Law Kar Ying’s character Hung Tin Yau is a local governor in the region who finds out that a fellow governor Fok Jing Wai (played by Wang Wai) has been oppressing the local ethnic tribes and killing thousands of innocent children for his own selfish gain. When he confronts Fok about the situation, he is captured and brutally killed, leaving behind his wife So Juk and their 2 children, Yat Fei and Yuet Ying. Fok captures So Juk and because he is captivated by her beauty, he tries to force her to be his wife. She relents for the sake of her children, but secretly plots to kill Fok so she can avenge the death of her husband. When that plan fails, So Juk kills herself in order to protect her innocence, since her children had already been saved by a friend of her husband’s. Pretty much for the rest of the series, the focus is on the couple’s children and how they go about avenging their parents’ deaths.

In typical fashion, TVB took the opportunity to ‘exploit’ a real life celebrity relationship by casting veteran artist Liza Wang and her boyfriend (at the time) Law Kar Ying in cameo roles as the parents of Eddie Kwan and Money Lo’s characters. Even though technically, what happens to the couple in the first episode is really the ‘catalyst’ for the rest of the events that happen in the series, I still consider the two of them only ‘minor’ characters because both of them die barely three-fourths of the way into the first episode, so their actual roles were very small.

I’m actually totally fine with Liza and Law Kar Ying having such a small part in the series because to be completely honest, their performances were horrible! I’ve never liked Law Kar Ying as an actor (don’t like him as a person either) because he always manages to come across very exaggerated and fake with his facial expressions as well as the way he recites his dialogue – his performance in this series was no exception (I wasn’t expecting much from him anyway, so ok). Liza Wang, on the other hand, was a huge disappointment – her performance in here was so unemotional and wooden (and also came across really fake) that I got annoyed just looking at her! I mean, ok, granted that I’ve never liked Liza anyway (actually, I can’t stand her at all) but really, for a veteran actress with tons of experience who was one of the top fa dans in the 1970s (and the early 1980s to some extent), I would have expected at least a decent performance from her – plus it’s not like she had that many scenes anyway, so it shouldn’t have been THAT difficult to do a decent job. (The scene where Liza’s character finds out about her husband’s horrific death was especially poorly done – after watching that scene, I couldn’t help thinking: ‘WTH? What kind of a reaction is that?’). Come on now – did they really have to cast Liza and Kar Ying in the role as the parents? They very easily could have cast another veteran couple in the same roles and they probably would have done a thousand times better! This may sound harsh, but I’m actually glad that neither Liza nor Law Kar Ying’s characters made it to the end of the episode because if they did, I’m not sure if I would have continued watching the series (obviously I don’t have much patience for that kind of stuff). Well, at least I already made a note to myself to skip the first episode the next time I re-watch this series!

Ok, now on to the REAL cast…..

Eddie Kwan (Hung Yat Fei) – As a child, Yat Fei narrowly escapes death at the hands of the evil Fok Jing Wai (played by Wang Wai) after the death of his parents and is rescued by his dad’s good friend Ngat Kut (played by Law Lok Lam), who is also the leader of the Tubo tribe (a Tibetan ethnic group). During the rescue – in which Ngat Kut gets hurt and Yat Fei gets separated from his little sister – they end up being saved by Po Chak (played by Choi Kwok Hing), the spiritual leader of a Tibetan Lama temple. At the request of Ngat Kut (who has to return to his tribe), Po Chak takes Yat Fei in and becomes his ‘sifu’, teaching him martial arts. When Yat Fei grows up, he goes off to find Ngat Kut, who tells him about the circumstances of his parents’ deaths as well as the person responsible for the killings, Fok Jing Wai. When Yat Fei initially tries to kill Fok Jing Wai (who had since been promoted to a General) but fails, he decides to capture Cheuk Mah (played by Kathy Chow) the fiancée of General Fok’s younger son Fok Ting Yuk (played by Yeung Tak Shi), and use her to go against the Fok family. What he didn’t anticipate though was that he and Cheuk Mah would eventually fall in love with each other after going through several hardships together. In a nutshell, pretty much from that point until the end of the series, the storyline revolves around Yat Fei and Cheuk Mah’s relationship as well as Yat Fei’s attempts to avenge the death of his parents and also help save the local ethnic people from being mercilessly oppressed and killed by the evil Fok family.

I’ve really got to say that Eddie Kwan did an excellent job as the ‘tragic hero’ in this series. His acting was ‘right on the mark’ in my opinion and really brought out the essence of the character Hung Yat Fei perfectly – a character who is assertive without being arrogant, compassionate without being weak, and righteous to the point of being willing to sacrifice his life for his family and friends, yet at the end of the day, he’s only human and makes mistakes just like anyone else. [One of Yat Fei’s most admirable traits is his devotion to his friends and family (his wife Cheuk Mah, his sifu Po Chak, his ‘godfather’ Ngat Kut, his good friend / buddy Ah Bo, his sister Sit Bing, etc. ] I really liked Eddie’s portrayal of Hung Yat Fei in here and truly feel that he’s a perfect fit for the role. For me, it was refreshing to see Eddie in this type of role because up until this point, most of the Eddie series that I’ve watched in the past (the ones in which he had a significant role, that is) were primarily modern or pre-modern series (in case you’re wondering, no I haven’t watched any of the famous “Zu Mountain” series that he starred in) so that’s probably why I found Eddie’s role in this series ‘refreshing’. (And yes, I will admit that I did find that Eddie looks very handsome in ancient costume!) In terms of the acting, I actually had no doubt that he would do a great job, as I’ve always found him to be quite a versatile actor with a wide range of skills. In most of the series that I’ve seen of his, the characters he portrayed were markedly different, yet he handled each role extremely well -- some of the most memorable ones for me were his portrayal of the shy, introverted, cowardly Kiu Chi Ho in “Police Cadet ‘84”, the smart, serious, suave, reserved Hong Kwun in “Battle Among the Clans”, and the brash, tough, emotional, fiery-tempered Lam Kar Wai in “The Link”. Well, now I can add another ‘favorite’ to the list – Eddie’s portrayal of Hung Yat Fei in this series!


Kathy Chow (Cheuk Mah) – Kathy’s character Cheuk Mah is a woman rom the Tubo tribe who is smart, beautiful and compassionate. When she first comes on the scene, it may seem at first that she is one of those typical weak characters who gives in to society’s conventions and doesn’t dare to be defiant. But we soon find out that there is actually a quiet persistence and courageous valor about her that sets her apart from others (she shows this persistence throughout the entire series, in almost everything she does). After she meets Hung Yat Fei and realizes that he is the man she truly loves, she does not hesitate in following her heart, even if it meant defying convention and breaking off her engagement to Fok Ting Yuk – she was a strong woman who was not afraid to love wholeheartedly, even if it meant sacrificing everything she had. Actually, I really like the way Cheuk Mah’s character was written because typically (in the TVB model that is), characters such as hers would come off as weak and pathetic (which is the type of characters I can’t stand), but hers was written completely different – to the point that it becomes easy to understand why Hung Yat Fei would fall in love with her in the short amount of time that they are together in the beginning of the series. With their personalities, both Yat Fei and Cheuk Mah actually complement each other quite well in the series (more on this piece later).

As I stated earlier in my review, Kathy is one of my favorite actresses, so it’s actually no surprise that I enjoyed her performance in this series. Kathy is one of those actresses who looks good and performs well in both modern and ancient series alike, in my opinion. Even though when she first started acting, she was somewhat typecasted into those ‘sweet good girl’ type roles, it’s definitely obvious that throughout the years, her acting has matured a lot – and she’s one of the few actresses who actually does crying scenes very well (not like many of today’s so-called actresses who make me cringe whenever they cry in a series!). Also, I’m sure most people will agree that Kathy is a truly beautiful actress when it comes to looks – it’s a shame that she didn’t film as many ancient series as she did modern ones (well, not while at TVB anyway) because she truly looks stunning in ancient costume (especially in ethnic costume, as with this series).

Eddie / Kathy pairing:

Relationship-wise, I loved Eddie and Kathy as a couple in this series! They had such awesome chemistry and all of their scenes together were so sweet and natural-looking! I liked how they were such a loving couple in the series, yet the ‘romance’ part was done tactfully with just the appropriate amount of affection without going overboard -- which is good because I can’t stand the overly ‘mushy’ romantic stuff, especially in ancient series. (I did notice that they held hands a lot throughout the series, which was actually kind of cute – and you don’t see that a lot in ancient series). As I said earlier, I found the Eddie / Kathy pairing very refreshing, especially given the fact that this was their first (and I believe only) significant pairing together as a couple. Given how endearing this couple was, it’s really too bad that the storyline involving their relationship was SO tragic – I mean, here you have such a deeply loving couple who had gone through so much hardship together and suffered as well as sacrificed so much just to be together, yet at the end they are separated forever (without giving away too much detail about the ending, basically all I’m going to say is that one of them dies at the end). Sure, it made sense the way it ended, but still, that doesn’t make it any less tragic, especially given how much I liked them as a couple. The story of their romance was already very touching, but for one of them to die in the end….I was definitely moved to tears by the end of the series!


Yeung Tak Shi (Fok Ting Yuk) – Yeung Tak Shi’s character Fok Ting Yuk is pretty much the main villain in the series. After his mother died when he was a kid, Ting Yuk was sent away by his father Fok Jing Wai, who believed that his son was bad luck and could jeopardize his life and career in the future. Even after Ting Yuk grows up and is allowed to return to his father’s side, he is still not completely accepted into the household, as his father’s preference for Ting Yuk’s older brother Ting Guai (played by Derek Kwok) is very obvious. Knowing that his father doesn’t like him, Ting Yuk tries to do everything he can to gain his father’s favor and constantly ‘battles’ with his older brother, as he feels that in terms of intelligence and physical prowess (martial arts), he is better than his brother. Ting Yuk meets Cheuk Mah by chance and, smitten by her beauty, gets her father to agree to betroth her to him (Cheuk Mah agrees to marry Ting Yuk in order to help protect her father, even though she knows she doesn’t love him). However, on the day of their wedding, Cheuk Mah is kidnapped by Hung Yat Fei and subsequently falls in love with him, which drives Ting Yuk mad. From that point on and throughout the rest of the series, Ting Yuk’s main goal is to kill Yat Fei (which would avenge his honor and help him gain his father’s favor due to the history of his father killing Yat Fei’s parents) and also get Cheuk Mah back, even if it’s against her will. Even though technically, his entire family is evil, he is actually the worst of the bunch, as he not only kills hundreds of innocent people throughout the series, he also ends up killing his own father and brother as well. Of course, such an evil person will meet his own demise in the end (typical ‘good triumph over evil’ concept), but by that time, the damage has pretty much already been done.

To be honest, I’m not quite sure what I thought about Yeung Tak Shi’s performance. Overall, I feel that he’s a decent actor, but I actually prefer him in ‘good guy’ roles rather than in villain roles (ironically, in his short career as an actor, he did more villain roles than good guy ones). His acting is not bad, but I just don’t feel that he is convincing enough as a villain –when he tries to do the evil laugh for instance, it sounds a bit forced, plus his facial expressions are not as strong. I think I would have been more accepting of his villain role in this series if he was the only villain and there was no one to compare to… but, unfortunately for him, he was only one of many villains in the series – and when you’ve got ‘expert’ villains such as Wang Wai and Derek Kwok in there, they definitely overshadowed him in the ‘villain’ area (both actors played a lot of villain roles throughout their careers and are extremely good at it – especially the late Wang Wai). Anyway, overall I feel that Yeung Tak Shi did a decent job in this series, though I would have definitely preferred that they cast someone else in the role (David Siu would have been PERFECT for the role!!!!).


Dickson Lee (Ah Bo) – Ah Bo is Yat Fei’s best friend from childhood and their relationship is more brothers than friends. Ah Bo is smart, practical, and always trying to find ways to make money (his dream is to open his own cattle farm…lol…silly guy!). He knows martial arts, but is not as good as Yat Fei at it because he really has no desire to become a martial arts hero – he just wants to live a happy, carefree life doing what he likes to do. With that said though, as an orphan himself, he understands how Yat Fei feels in wanting to avenge the death of his parents – and since the two of them are like brothers, Ah Bo pretty much sticks by Yat Fei’s side and helps him carry out his plans (yes, he’s basically the ‘trusty sidekick’ in the series). Later on, he meets Sit Bing (played by Money Lo), who is the daughter of the ringleader of a group of bandits and eventually develops a crush on her (though she treats him as a friend only throughout the series, until the end when they finally get together). Overall, I would say that Ah Bo is the much needed ‘comic relief’ in this series and is a fitting complement to Yat Fei’s more ‘tragic’ character.

Dickson was awesome in this series! He really made the character of ‘Ah Bo’ come alive with his portrayal -- the ‘chirpy’ personality, the ‘genuineness’ of the character (he wants to earn money, but at the same time, he wants to help out his friends and those he cares for), the ‘carefree’ personality – all made Ah Bo quite an endearing character (he was one of my favorite characters in the series). I’ve always felt that Dickson is way underrated as an actor – I’ve seen most of his performances and he’s always very solid in each role that he takes on. And he’s actually a pretty versatile actor who can portray a wide range of characters extremely well (I’ve seen him as the good guy, the villain, the trusty sidekick, the little brother, the prodigal son, etc.). It’s really too bad that he hasn’t gained more recognition for his acting or promoted much by TVB because he’s one of the few middle-aged ‘green leaf’ actors left out there nowadays who can REALLY act!


Money Lo (Sit Bing / Yuet Ying) – Sit Bing is actually Yat Fei’s long lost sister who got separated from him when she was a few years old (during Ngat Kut’s rescue of the children). At that time, a group of bandits happened to be passing by and the leader, Sit Bak Chun, decided to adopt her. Growing up, Sit Bing had no clue that she was not Sit Bak Chun’s biological daughter and it’s really not until close to the end of the series when she finds out her true identity. Her personality is typical of what one would expect growing up amongst a group of bandits – tomboyish, loud-mouthed, bossy, etc. She’s not a bad person by any means, it’s just that she can be unreasonable and stubborn at times and after awhile, it starts to get annoying (to me at least). Honestly, I sort of feel that the character of Sit Bing was the least developed one in this series – there’s really not too much to say about her except that that she’s annoying!

In terms of the acting – well, seeing that I’ve never liked Money Lo as an actress (can’t think of a single performance of hers that I actually enjoyed), it’s no surprise that I didn’t like her performance in here either. Money is definitely not a very good actress – she’s very stiff and wooden and her acting just comes across as fake and forced to me (my biggest pet peeves when it comes to watching someone act). Also, I always feel as though she is reciting her dialogue rather than interpreting and ‘acting’ it out, which is probably why there’s usually very little emotion from her. Her performance in this series was particularly annoying because I just felt like she was yelling ALL THE TIME – I mean, ok, I get that she had to be loud and obnoxious because of the environment her character grew up in, but in all honesty, she over-exaggerated it way too much! There were scenes where she didn’t have to yell, but she still did it anyway and it was freakin’ annoying – at one point, I couldn’t help cringing at the sound of her voice!

Sorry, but back in the day, Money definitely should have kept her ‘day job’ as a host rather than foray into the acting realm. She was actually quite good as a host (she’s most famous for hosting TVB’s music programs, especially JSG, as well as many of TVB’s large-scale variety shows such as the annual Anniversary Galas). Also, she actually has very good verbal skills, which is a necessary quality when you’re a host / MC (this is why I was a bit surprised at how poorly she handled the dialogue in the series). Interestingly enough, in terms of career, she actually went down a path that is very different from former artists in the industry – she became a lawyer (and a mighty successful one at that)!


Rain Lau (Sik Lan) – Sik Lan is another young woman from the Tubo tribe who lost her parents at a young age and so was ‘adopted’ by Ngat Kut as a god-daughter of sorts. In the beginning, she and Ngat Kut’s son Ba Tou (played by Jimmy Au) were supposedly a couple (well, he likes her and wants to marry her and she has some feelings for him), however after she meets Yat Fei, she is attracted by his physical prowess and develops an affinity for him. This causes her to ‘dump’ Ba Tou so she could pursue Yat Fei (interestingly enough, she was originally attracted to Ba Tou in the beginning because of HIS physical prowess…now she dumps him because she is attracted to someone else’s physical prowess – geez, talk about being superficial!!). Unfortunately for her, Yat Fei only loves Cheuk Mah and has no feelings for Sik Lan whatsoever (he pretty much treats her like a little sister). Despite Yat Fei rejecting her, Sik Lan refuses to give up and even after Yat Fei and Cheuk Mah are married (which invokes Sik Lan’s jealousy even more), she continues to scheme, constantly trying to think up ways to harm Cheuk Mah and get rid of her. When all her evil little schemes are ‘found out’ at the end, her ‘jealousy’ turns into ‘hatred’ and from that point on, she is hard set on killing Yat Fei and Cheuk Mah, even learning a deadly form of martial arts in the hopes of achieving her goal. She dies a painful, tortuous death in the end (which is kind of fitting given everything she had done).

I’ve got to say that I absolutely hated Sik Lan in this series – her character was so deplorable and despicable -- she was definitely evil to the core, even up until the moment she died. Literally everyone around her treated her so nicely (Ngat Kut treated her like his own daughter, Ba Tou treated her like a queen, Yat Fei and Cheuk Mah treated her like their sister), yet instead of showing gratification, she lets jealousy get the best of her. The worse part was when she collaborated with the evil Fok Ting Yuk to kill her own Tubo people when they were completely innocent and never did anything to harm her! For me personally, I found it sad that she had such a devoted suitor in Ba Tou – he was such a good man and so dedicated to her, yet she treated him so awful….she didn’t deserve him at all!!

I definitely have to give credit to Rain Lau for her excellent portrayal of Sik Lan – even though the character itself was absolutely loathsome, it was actually very very well-acted. Rain is an amazing actress but unfortunately, she has been hugely underutilized by TVB all these years. I mean, come on now -- with her credentials (graduated from HK Academy of Performing Arts, established film actress who won HKFA awards for Best New Artist and Best Supporting Actress) as well as her talent, she deserves way more recognition than TVB has been giving her (it’s such a shame that TVB chooses to promote stupid pageant winners who can’t even speak Cantonese correctly over talented actresses such as Rain!). It’s obvious that TVB doesn’t care about Rain because her contract with TVB expired a few months ago and no one bothered to contact her to renew (in fact, I don’t think TVB was even aware that her contract expired!! ) – so after her contract expired, she decided to join CTI. GOOD FOR HER! Though I don’t care all that much for CTI (I’m not fond of Ricky Wong at all), I’m just glad that Rain decided to leave TVB because she’s way too good for them in my opinion!


Jimmy Au (Ba Tou) – Even though Jimmy’s character Ba Tou was a bit hard-headed and stubborn and sometimes didn’t think before he acted (plus he held somewhat of a grudge against Yat Fei for most of the series because of Sik Lan and also because of the fact that his dad Ngat Kut sacrificed his own children’s lives in order to save Yat Fei and his sister when they were little), at the end of the day, he was a good, righteous man. I actually feel sorry for the way he was treated by Sik Lan – he totally did not deserve to be treated that way. I liked his character a lot and was definitely saddened when he died like halfway through the series (way too early in my opinion).

Jimmy is another talented actor whom I’ve been following since the 80s. The first series I saw of his was “The Grand Canal” and I absolutely adored him in that series (though the story has been re-made numerous times throughout the past few decades, to this day, I haven’t been able to accept any other actor playing the role of Lee Jing – goes to show how memorable his performance was in that series). Unfortunately though, in recent years, he’s been getting mostly third-fourth line roles, which is sad considering how good his acting is. Perhaps it’s because he was mostly typecasted into doing ancient series for a long period of time (yes, he does look good in ancient costume, but still…) and since TVB hasn’t done too many ancient series in the last decade, he hasn’t had very many opportunities? Well, he’s good in modern series as well, so I’d definitely like to see him participate in more series!


Josephine Lam (Chin Chin) – Chin Chin is a former prostitute with a compassionate heart who becomes good friends with Yat Fei and Cheuk Mah and helps them throughout the series to go against the Fok family. After finally earning enough money to buy her contract back from the brothel, she very easily could have gone off to live a life of freedom in another city, but instead, she decided to sacrifice herself by becoming General Fok’s lover and staying at the General’s mansion so she could be a ‘spy’ of sorts for Yat Fei. Even though she also has a crush on Yat Fei, she doesn’t act on her feelings and instead, chooses to help him save Cheuk Mah, especially during the time when Cheuk Mah is held captive at the General’s mansion. She even willingly sacrificed her life at the end in order to save Yat Fei and Cheuk Mah from falling into Fok Ting Yuk’s evil trap (that one scene where Yat Fei and Ah Bo cry when they find out about her death was very touching!). From beginning to end, Chin Chin was truly an admirable character!

Though I’ve never been fond of Josephine as an actress, I will say that she was great in this role. For once, she gets to play a ‘good’ person rather than the villainous ‘bxxch’ or some insignificant ‘vase’ character, which is refreshing to see. I actually liked her quite a lot in this series (though it definitely helped that she got one of the best roles of her career with this series). [As a side note: I had actually just finished re-watching “Rain in the Heart” prior to this one and in that series, Josephine was the villain who does all sorts of bad things to Kathy – so it’s kind of interesting that in a sense, Josephine ‘makes up for it’ in this series with all the good things she does for Kathy…(just a random related thought)…LOL].


Law Lok Lam (Ngat Kut) – Since I’ve mentioned a lot about the character of Ngat Kut above already, I won’t go into much detail here. I will say though that the character of Ngat Kut is a very honorable and righteous man – not only did he willingly sacrifice his life and that of his family in order to save the Hung family (or what was left of the Hung family), he also cared about the people in his tribe and willingly fought to free them from oppression, making that a life-long goal for himself. It comes as no surprise then that he was so well-respected and revered as a leader of his tribe.

As for the acting – well, let’s just put it this way: Law Lok Lam NEVER disappoints! So far, I haven’t watched a performance of his that I didn’t enjoy or like (even if I hated the series overall, I would still like his performance). He has always been one of the veteran actors on my favorites list (and will continue to be!).


SCRIPT / STORYLINE

Overall, I feel that the storyline had lots of potential, however it was, unfortunately, underdeveloped. In my opinion, this was one of those series that really should have been more than 20 episodes because too much of the plot was rushed to the point that certain parts of the series didn’t flow. The first third of the series was quite good and actually very well put together, but near the middle as well as the last third of the series or so, the plot sort of started to fall apart – things started happening way too quickly and as a result, some scenes really lacked the emotional element (there were a few times where I was like ‘what? That’s it?’). I don’t know for sure whether the problem with the storyline was actually due to inconsistencies in the script itself or perhaps whoever did the post-production editing on the series did a lousy job. The reason I say this is because the second half of the series was very choppy and the layout of some of the scenes was odd (almost felt like there were some parts of the scene cut out) – which leads me to think that perhaps it might be an editing issue?

One example that leans towards the ‘editing’ theory: the part in episode 16 where Cheuk Mah (Kathy Chow) is being held captive at the General's mansion by Fok Ting Yuk (Yeung Tak Shi) and Yat Fei (Eddie Kwan) is anxious to go save her: one of the scenes shows Ah Bo (Dickson Lee) trying to stop Yat Fei from going to General Fok's (Wang Wai) mansion by himself and Yat Fei's sifu suddenly comes riding toward them on a horse; he tells Yat Fei that he needs to calm down and think things through first because trying to rush into the mansion to save Cheuk Mah without any type of plan will only cost him his life. At this point, I was thinking that the next scene would show them discussing their plan or something, since that's the next 'logical' step to take, but instead, it looks like something was 'lost in editing' here because the scene suddenly cuts to show someone in black running out of the General's mansion with what appears to be a girl dressed to look like Cheuk Mah on his back and a whole bunch of people (including Fok Ting Yuk and his sifu) running after him. Meanwhile, Yat Fei and Ah Bo are already inside the General's mansion fighting the soldiers. After watching this part, I remember thinking to myself: "Um, did I miss a scene or something? How did they go from arguing while riding on horses to all of a sudden fighting soldiers?" There were actually other scenes that were the same way -- this one just seemed to stand out more.

Now don't get me wrong -- I hate slow and draggy series just as much as the next person, but I also don't like it when series go the opposite extreme and become too rushed and overly fast-paced. In my opinion, that's the biggest flaw with this particular series -- it was TOO fast-paced and rushed, especially in the second half, which made it seem to me that the producer was under time constraints and therefore was in a hurry to end the series without thinking about whether stuff made sense or not. I'm actually surprised that the series was so short and the producer / writers didn't take the time to develop the storyline more given that this was an anniversary series (um, yes, they actually spent more time and energy on anniversary series back then, unlike now) -- plus I assume that it would have been considered more of a 'grand' production given all the investment made in the 'on location' filming in the desert and such, so I would think that more time would be spent on the script as well as editing.



CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Ok, now that you’ve read my ‘play-by-play’ on the series, you probably don’t need to watch the series anymore, huh? JUST KIDDING!

Anyway, in terms of recommendation, I would definitely say that this is a ‘keeper’, as there are a lot of ‘positives’ about the series that, in my opinion, outweigh the ‘negatives’. If you’re the type who likes martial arts, this series definitely delivers in that area, as there are plenty of action / fighting sequences throughout the series to keep viewers engaged (in fact, if I remember correctly, there is at least one major fight scene in pretty much every episode). If you’re into the romance element, there’s the Eddie / Kathy love story, which is on the one hand hugely tragic, yet at the same time irresistibly endearing . For a little bit of comic relief (the perfect amount, not too much), there’s the interaction between Dickson and Eddie as well as Dickson and Money. And of course, there’s also the ‘family struggle’ element, which is played out throughout the course of the series by the ‘dysfunctional’ Fok family. Oh, and don’t forget, the biggest ‘attraction’ of this series – the cast and the beautiful scenery! For me, these 2 elements alone made the series worth watching (and made me able to ‘forgive’ some of the inconsistencies of the script as well as the so-so editing).
My only ‘caution’ about this series though is that it is quite TRAGIC – pretty much two-thirds of the main cast dies, most of them in a tragic manner (technically, if you count all the minor characters and ‘kelefes’ who died, the number is even greater). So if you’re not into overly tragic series, this one might be a bit too overboard for you – otherwise, if you choose to watch, definitely do NOT expect a ‘happily ever after’ ending.