Review of TVB series “Rage and Passion 中神通王重陽” (1992)

Cast (partial list):  Ekin Cheng (鄭伊健), Fiona Leung (梁藝齡), Gallen Lo (羅嘉良), Money Lo (盧敏儀), Wayne Lai (黎耀祥), Newton Lai (黎漢持), Mary Hon (韓馬利), Lee Sing Cheong (李成昌),  Lam Seung Mo (林尚武), Cheung Yik (張翼), etc. with guest appearances by Eddie Kwan (關禮傑) and Vivian Chow (周慧敏)

First off, I would like to make one very important ‘disclaimer’ of sorts – I’m sure that fans of Jin Yong’s novels will be able to recognize the Chinese title of the series instantly and mistakenly think that this is another one of those ‘remakes’ of JY’s works.  To clarify – this series is NOT a remake of Jin Yong’s novels, but rather a fictional ‘prequel’ (or ‘spinoff’) based on a few of the characters from his famous Return of the Condor Heroes story.  Though some of the names are the same and even such details as personality traits and relationships are quite similar to the Jin Yong version of the story that most of us are familiar with, it’s important to note that these ‘details’ were added for effect and enhancement purposes.  Back in the early 90s (1991 to about 1993 or so), TVB actually produced a number of these Jin Yong ‘prequel’ series that technically have nothing to do with the novels and merely ‘borrow’ some details to make their own story.

I put such emphasis on the above point because it truly does affect the way one watches this series.  Fans of Jin Yong’s novels might get ticked off when they watch this series because it ‘distorts’ the original story so much (the ending especially will probably leave fans of the original story scratching their heads) – which is why I wouldn’t recommend watching this series if you’re a Jin Yong ‘purist’ unless you are able to remove the ‘Jin Yong’ element and treat this series as purely a fictional, stand-alone story.  Otherwise, you will definitely have a hard time getting through this series (and the other ‘prequels’ from that era) without wanting to pull your hair out in frustration.

Ok, now that I got that out of the way, a quick explanation on why I chose to watch this series (especially seeing how much I dislike watching shows that are not loyal to the original works on which they are based):   the primary reason is because I like majority of the cast (with a few exceptions of course) and since most of the main actors/actresses in this series no longer participate in HK series, I was truly starting to miss them.  The second reason is because, well frankly, I miss watching ancient martial arts/wuxia series due to the fact that TVB doesn’t make these types of series anymore and few of the other countries do either – so I guess you could say that this was my way of temporarily satisfying my ‘wuxia series’ craving…LOL.  Third reason is because I’ve already seen most of the other early 90s Jin Yong ‘prequels’ (i.e. Golden Snake Sword, Rise of the Taiji Master, Mystery of the Condor Hero, etc.) and was able to tolerate those, so I figured I might as well continue the ‘trend’ of watching.  [As a side note…I only write reviews when I have time (and when I feel like it…LOL) so there definitely WON’T be a review for everything I watch.  Out of the 3 series that I listed above, I only wrote a review for Golden Snake Sword, which I actually recommend for those reading this particular review to also read because my overall sentiments toward that series are very similar to this one.  Those interested can check out the review here].

Before I go into the individual performances and characters, a few words about the script and the overall storyline / plot – basically, my advice is this:  don’t take the story too seriously and you’ll be fine.  When I was watching this series, I found a lot of the same problems/flaws that I noticed in the other JY prequels/spinoffs that TVB made back in that time period – the editing was sloppy, the plot was all over the place, some of the story arcs didn’t make a whole lot of sense at times, and the overall production was just plain messy.   Luckily, this series is fast-paced enough that it’s not a ‘chore’ to sit through like some of the others I’ve seen, but if you’re expecting a ‘quality’ production with a ‘good’ script, you definitely WON’T get that with this series!   Despite the messy script, there seems to be something about this series (and the other prequels I mentioned) that somehow draws audiences (well, me at least) into the story and makes us want to ‘root’ for the main couple in each series – in other words, I would find too many flaws to count with each of the series, yet I can’t bring myself to ‘hate’ or ‘dislike’ the series.  Yes, it’s weird, but hey, it’s the truth….

Oh, and another point worth mentioning – especially since those watching the series will for sure notice it – is the ‘exaggerated’ martial arts effects that this series utilizes.  It seems like each time there is a major battle / fight scene in the series, it’s done in an overly deliberate, choppy, slow-motion manner – to the point that it becomes a bit frustrating to watch (for those who are well-versed with watching shows on the Internet, I would describe the effect of those scenes as  ‘buffering gone awry’).  Needless to say, I definitely didn’t like the overuse of the slow-motion technique in this series, which ended up being more of a ‘distraction’ than anything else.

Anyway, here’s the rundown of some of the main characters from the series (not all of them of course) as well as my comments on the artists who portrayed the characters (note that I usually include much of the plot in my character descriptions, so if you prefer not to be ‘spoiled’ with what happens in the series, then my advice is to STOP HERE…):

Cameo roles:

EDDIE KWAN (Tin Sang) – Eddie’s character Tin Sang is a Daoist priest and the third of four apprentice-brothers in a Daoist sect.   Due to his great affinity with the Daoist principles and his ability to quickly understand and master martial arts moves, Tin Sang is pegged as the next leader of the sect by his sifu (played by veteran actor Bau Fong), which also means that he would be responsible for finding and protecting the missing Nine Yin Manual (九陰真經), since it is the most important manual in all of Daoism (hence also making it the most ‘coveted’ manual in the martial arts world).

Of course, as luck would have it, Tin Sang doesn’t end up taking over the sect as leader.  First of all, he doesn’t feel that he is leader material, plus since he is only the 3^rd apprentice brother, he feels that the leadership position should rightfully go to the eldest apprentice brother, Seung Sang (played by Newton Lai).  However, Seung Sang  also feels that Tin Sang is the best person for the job and even reprimands Tin Sang for not wanting to take the position (for those who are wondering – yes, Newton actually plays a good guy in this series).  

Anyway, the main reason why Tin Sang doesn’t want to take the position is because he had fallen in love with Cheng Yeuk Si (played by Vivian Chow), a blind orphan living in the woods with whom he had a few chance encounters and ended up curing her eyesight.   Due to an ‘accidental’ situation that happens (a ‘far-fetched’ situation in my opinion – but you’ll need to watch it to judge for yourself), Tin Sang and Yeuk Si end up ‘doing the deed’ and Yeuk Si becomes pregnant because of it .  The two of them do truly love each other, but due to fate, they couldn’t be together – Tin Sang unwillingly abandons Yeuk Si after his sifu dies, as he felt obligated to fulfill his sifu’s last wish of him becoming sect leader (no, he doesn’t know that Yeuk Si is pregnant at this point, otherwise he wouldn’t have left her).   Later on, Tin Sang’s evil second apprentice brother Yuen Sang (played by Lam Seung Mo) captures Yeuk Si and tortures her in the hopes that she will rat out Tin Sang as the father of her unborn child, which would then mean that Tin Sang was no longer qualified to be leader of the sect (keep in mind that in Tin Sang’s position, he is supposed to be sworn to celibacy).  Tin Sang succeeds in saving Yeuk Si, but due to Yuen Sang relentlessly pursuing them, they end up retreating into a huge cave-like place [the famous ‘Ancient Tomb’ from the Return of the Condor Heroes story].  Trapped in the cave, Tin Sang and Yeuk Si reconcile and establish a happy life together, growing ‘love’ flowers [another reference to ROTCH] and anticipating the birth of their child.   In the cave, Tin Sang also accidentally finds the Nine Yin Manual that had been missing for years – he studies the martial arts in the manual and within days (I’m assuming here, since the timeframe in the series is a bit sketchy), he has already learned the highest form of the moves described in the manual (which is extremely ironic given what happens shortly after he leaves the cave).

Not long after that, their baby is born and since it just happened to be on the same day that Tin Sang is supposed to take over the Daoist sect, he decides to leave the cave and return to the sect so that he can renounce his position as well as turn over the Nine Yin Manual to his eldest apprentice brother.  Unfortunately, it was already too late, as the evil Yuen Sang also chose to betray the sect on that day – he sets the entire sect on fire and tries to kill everyone there.  Of course, Yuen Sang’s martial arts at the time is inferior to that of his eldest brother Seung Sang, plus his 3^rd brother Tin Sang re-appears right at that time (remember that Tin Sang learned the martial arts from the manual, so Yuen Sang was definitely no match to him either).  Just when it looked like Yuen Sang was being defeated, Yeuk Si shows up with the baby and of course (in typical TVB series fashion), Yuen Sang takes the two of them hostage and threatens Tin Sang to hand over the Nine Yin Manual in exchange for their safety [I’m sure most of us can count how many times a similar story arc has occurred in TVB series].   Somewhere in the process, Yuen Sang pushes Yeuk Si into the fire and she throws the baby into the air – Tin Sang saves the baby and gives him to the eldest brother along with the manual, then tries to go save his wife…needless to say, both Tin Sang and Yeuk Si die in the fire.  This all happens at the beginning of episode 3, so pretty much Eddie and Vivian only guest star for the first 2 ½ episodes.

Performance-wise, Eddie was great as usual!  Despite only having 2 ½ episodes of screen time (plus a bit of a far-fetched story arc with some ridiculous segments), he gave a very convincing performance!  Eddie is one of my favorite actors from the 80s (actually, most of the actors/actresses from that era are on my ‘favorites’ list…LOL) and I can truly say that I’ve enjoyed almost every series of his that I’ve watched from that era (80s and early 90s).  Honestly speaking, Eddie actually didn’t have a whole lot of ‘leading actor’ roles compared to some of the others from that era, but luckily, he did well in all of them, which helped him ‘stand out’ amongst the breadth of talent in those days.  I actually talk quite a bit about Eddie’s acting as well as his most memorable roles in my review of The Swords of Conquest a few years back (those interested can read it here), so I won’t go into too much detail here.  What I will say though is that I wish Eddie had more screen time in this series because I had just finished watching him in Rise of the Taiji Master (another great performance from Eddie!) a few weeks back and was still in my ‘Eddie Kwan’ mode…LOL.  Ah well…I can always go pull out some of his older series from my collection and re-watch those….

VIVIAN CHOW (Cheng Yeuk Si) – Since I told most of Yeuk Si’s story already while describing Eddie Kwan’s character, I won’t go into tremendous detail here (plus there really isn’t a whole lot of development to Vivian’s character in this series anyway, since her screen time is even less than Eddie’s). 

Yeuk Si is a very kind, compassionate woman who lives by herself in a small house in the woods located at the foot of the mountain where a major Daoist sect has its headquarters.  Even though she is blind (I actually don’t remember the details of how she became blind, though her character does talk at length about it), she has a positive outlook on life and spends all her time taking care of the injured animals she often comes across.  She meets the man who will change her life forever (Tin Sang) during a chance encounter when Tin Sang’s eldest apprentice brother Seung Sang is fighting with someone trying to steal the Nine Yin Manual and accidentally injures her in the process.  While Seung Sang runs off to pursue the thief, he tells Tin Sang to take care of Yeuk Si (who was knocked unconscious) as well as tend to her injury.   Tin Sang heals Yeuk Si’s injury, however due to the circumstances, Yeuk Si didn’t understand what had happened and thought that Tin Sang was up to no good.  They part ways, but encounter each other again later and since Yeuk Si doesn’t recognize Tin Sang (due to the fact that she is blind and doesn’t know what he looks like), he befriends her and she accepts him.   Tin Sang finds out Yeuk Si’s background and feels sorry for her plight, so he offers to find a cure for her eyesight – he succeeds in doing so and falls in love with her in the process.  Much of what happens next I already described above, so no point in rehashing all that again…Yeuk Si ends up dying a tragic death together with her love Tin Sang.

I really don’t have too much to say about Vivian’s performance in this series because there is so little to go off of.  Her character is the typical sweet, caring, compassionate type who can also be tough and strong when she needs to be – pretty much the same as Vivian’s personality in real life.  To me, there wasn’t much complexity to Vivian’s character and nothing much interesting about her performance here either.  In all honesty, I really didn’t feel much for Eddie and Vivian as a couple because their love story was so hastily put together and ended so abruptly that I didn’t have time to develop any feelings for them.  Of course, I can understand why their relationship was rushed, since they aren’t the main characters in the series and the purpose of their story was to setup the backdrop for what happens later on involving the ‘true’ main couple (Ekin and Fiona) of the series.  Anyway, since I’ve never been a fan of Vivian’s singing or acting (I’m pretty much ‘neutral’ towards her), not too much comment from me on her performance here.

Main Characters:

EKIN CHENG (Gau Jai / Wong Chung Yeung) – Ekin plays the series’ title character Wong Chung Yeung (which, if you haven’t guessed by now, is the same character mentioned briefly in the LOTCH and ROTCH stories – except keep in mind that this is a fictional prequel to those stories, so a lot of the facts aren’t going to add up). 

Wong Chung Yeung actually did not have a name when he was born, as his parents Tin Sang and Yeuk Si left the Ancient Tomb shortly after he was born and they died not too long after that (pretty much the same day).  After his parents’ death, WCY is raised by his ‘uncle’ (his father’s eldest apprentice brother Seung Sang) and is given the name ‘Gau Jai’ (literally translated as ‘Little Dog’) – however, due to the fact that Seung Sang went insane and lost his memory when he was pushed off a cliff by his 3^rd brother Yuen Sang (more on this piece later) -- WCY had no clue about his own or his uncle’s identity and so he thought Seung Sang was truly his father (he called him ‘dad’ during the first half of the series and later when he finds out his true identity, he starts calling Seung Sang his ‘yi-fu’ or ‘adopted father’).  The two of them lived in some tree-house type thing on top of a mountain located in the middle of the woods that was actually very close to where the main Daoist sect compound once was (I know, it’s a bit confusing…LOL).  Once WCY was a grown man, he took to caring for Seung Sang like his own father, cooking for him and tending to his needs like any filial son would do – during this time, Seung Sang would recite some verses from the Nine Yin Manual (which SS still had in his possession, though he had no clue what it was), thereby indirectly ‘teaching’ WCY some martial arts in the process.

WCY was a very playful young lad and since he grew up in the mountains, he was very ‘naïve’ and had no idea what things were like in the ‘real’ world.   He would often go out into the forest and play with the various animals there, since there was no one else around to keep him company besides his ‘dad’, who sometimes would disappear out of the blue and then show up again when he was hungry (keep in mind that his ‘dad’ is a bit insane, so his behavior is bound to be weird and unpredictable).

One day, while ‘playing’ in the forest, he encounters a woman dressed completely in white (another reference to ROTCH…LOL) who is fighting with some Daoist priest person (we find out later that the Daoist priest is actually one of Yuen Sang’s disciples, who by now has become a crazy, evil Daoist high priest).   Being the compassionate guy that he is, WCY gets in between them and tries to stop the woman from hurting the priest, which ticks the woman off big-time (especially since she already has a preconceived notion about men being the root of all evil and loathes all of them, particularly Daoist priests….more on this later).  The priest ends up getting hurt anyway and since the woman thinks that the priest is dead, she goes on her way….(if you haven’t guessed by now, the ‘woman in white’ is Lam Chiu Ying, played by Fiona Leung).

Not long after that, WCY encounters Lam Chiu Ying again, but this time, she is unconscious due to a major injury – he does what any good samaritan would do and tries to save her life…when he saw that she wasn’t getting any better, he innocently puts her in some warm water spring that he had found that was famous in the area for resurrecting people from the dead (or something like that) – only problem is that she was in there unclothed and when she wakes up, she is of course ticked off to no end (this segment was actually kind of funny because WCY, who grew up in the mountains with animals as companions, was totally oblivious to issues of manners and modesty between men and women, so he totally did not understand why the woman was so upset…I loved the interaction between Ekin and Fiona in this scene – he kept innocently asking her whether she felt better and that he hoped the spring would help heal her injury while she’s in there fuming and just wanting him to go away….LOL).   After this, Lam Chiu Ying is hard-set on ‘killing’ WCY (which is understandable given what we know about what she thinks he did) and when she is cured, she chases him down and pushes him off a cliff (of course he doesn’t die – in fact, he doesn’t even have a scratch on him afterwards….typical dramatic effect, right?).  Hence starts the ‘relationship’ between Wong Chung Yeung and Lam Chiu Yeung (albeit they despise each other at first, then later fall in love), which is pretty much the backbone of this entire series (yup, the series is based on the ‘famous’ love story between these two characters that we only hear small snippets of in ROTCH – but keep in mind that this series is FICTIONAL, so the story evolves totally different from what we are used to hearing in the past…sorry for the redundancy, but this is such an important point to make that I feel the need to keep repeating it, especially since the ending is going to be a shocker for those who are too used to the ‘original’ story).

As the story evolves, WCY also meets Yuen Ngan Fung (played by Gallen Lo), who is a kind-hearted (at first), intelligent, righteous, and very well-mannered Kam prince (those who are familiar with LOTCH and ROTCH will probably remember the background history of the animosity between the Han people and the ‘foreigners’ from the country of Kam due to the battles over power, money, land, etc.).  Ah Fung is different from his fellow Kam comrades in that he has always felt that there shouldn’t be any separation between Han and Kam and advocates both groups co-existing in peace and harmony.  This is one reason why he and WCY become best friends (though in the beginning, WCY doesn’t know that Ah Fung is a prince) – they also experience many life and death situations together and even learn martial arts together at one point.   The two of them even fall for the same woman at first– the kind-hearted and naïve Fok Mo Sheung (played by Money Lo)… (well, in WCY’s case, it was more ‘like’ than ‘love’, since he was obviously ‘meant’ for Lam Chiu Ying…)…in the end, Mo Sheung chooses Ah Fung but remains good friends with WCY.   The rest of the series is pretty much about Wong Chung Yeung’s relationship with Lam Chiu Ying as well as the affinity he has with Daoism, which culminates in the end with WCY becoming the leader of the Daoist sect.

I actually quite liked Ekin’s portrayal of WCY in this series.  Like I said in my review of Golden Snake Sword, I’ve always felt that Ekin has that ‘martial arts warrior’ look and feel, which is probably why he constantly portrayed those types of characters back in the day.  The difference with this particular character (Wong Chung Yeung) as opposed to some of his other ‘tragic hero’ roles is that there is no ‘mean streak’ in his character whatsoever (many of his previous characters were those ‘borderline good/bad’ type roles).  Ekin’s character is actually quite well-developed in the series, as we get to see him evolve from a playful, naïve young lad to a mature wuxia hero with a compassionate heart – his portrayal was quite natural!

FIONA LEUNG (Lam Chiu Ying) – I talked a bit about Fiona’s character Lam Chiu Ying earlier…before I elaborate further though, I have to once again give the ‘fictional prequel’ disclaimer:  if you’re a Jin Yong fan (especially a die-hard one), I strongly urge you to throw out (at least for the time being) whatever you know about the character of Lam Chiu Ying from his novels when you watch this series – otherwise, you will likely get very frustrated and possibly confused with the way her story evolves in this series.

Lam Chiu Ying was raised by her mother Lam Ling So and throughout her entire life, she had no clue who her father was – her mother would only tell her that her father is dead and the person responsible for his death is a Daoist priest named Wong Seung (aka Seung Sang).   Due to her mother’s influence and ‘brainwashing’, Chiu Ying grew up to be a cold, distant woman whose sole mission in life is to kill Wong Seung – she was also taught by her mother that all men are heartless and as a woman, she should never trust a man with her love because he will abandon her in the end.  This is why when Chiu Ying first encounters Wong Chung Yung, she immediately takes a disliking to him (WCY doesn’t really like her in the beginning either, though with his personality, he’s friendly to everyone pretty much, so he’s still nice to her). 

As fate would have it, Chiu Ying encounters WCY again and again – later on, due to a misunderstanding, she thinks that WCY knows where Wong Seung is, so she befriends him and stays by his side in the hopes that she can find Wong Seung through him. [As a side note – during this time, WCY actually DOESN’T know that his ‘father’ Seung Sang is actually Wong Seung or that Chiu Ying’s mission is to kill Seung Sang].   It’s not until way later when Seung Sang is reunited with his 4^th Daoist brother Lien Sang (played by Lee Sing Cheong) that he eventually regains his memory and is able to tell WCY his true identity as well as relay the story of how his parents met and how they died.

Of course, Wong Chung Yeung and Lam Chiu Ying eventually fall in love with each other.  One time, while fleeing the murderous Yuen Sang (who, 20 years later, is still trying to kill his Daoist brothers so that he can get his hands on the missing pages of the Nine Yin Manual that he needs in order to master the highest level of martial arts), WCY and Chiu Ying find the Ancient Tomb and take refuge there (remember that this is the same Ancient Tomb that WCY’s parents fled to 20 years ago and the place where he was born).  WCY discovers some verses from the Nine Yin Manual that his father had written and due to his high affinity for Daoism, he was able to master the martial arts moves contained in the verses fairly quickly.  Then, for a reason that I didn’t fully understand (and still don’t), WCY falls ill and almost dies, but Chiu Ying is right there by his side and saves him – from that moment on, they declare their love for each other and swear that no matter what happens, they will not let the other die alone.

As is typical with these types of story arcs, the relationship between WCY and Chiu Ying is put to the test later on when WCY discovers that the person Chiu Ying has been trying to kill all along is his adopted father Seung Sang (kind of ironic, since Seung Sang is actually Chiu Ying’s biological father – more on this piece later).  Things take a turn for the worst when Seung Sang is killed with a sword through his chest – since the sword was Chiu Ying’s and she was at the scene when Seung Sang died, plus she had had been trying to kill him all along (she actually didn’t kill him though – she refused to kill Seung Sang once she found out he was really her father), WCY mistook Chiu Ying as the killer and without listening to her explanation, he lashed out at her, hurting her in the process.  They part ways and even though WCY doesn’t want to have anything to do with her anymore, Chiu Ying still loves him and pines for him – her hair eventually turns white because of it (so basically, she inadvertently follows in her mother’s footsteps, as her mother was also ‘rejected’ by the man she loved and her hair turned all white due to pining for him all these years). 

When Chiu Ying finds out that WCY has decided to become a Daoist priest and take up the responsibility of leading the main Daoist sect, she realizes that her mother was right about men being heartless.  She becomes angry and bitter at being rejected so ‘cruelly’ by the man she loved and from that point, views WCY as her enemy.  Even though she agrees to collaborate with him in order to kill their mutual enemy Yuen Sang, she doesn’t want anything to do with him after that and even admits to killing his adopted father Seung Sang in order to make him hate her.

Since I don’t want to spoil things too much, I won’t go into great detail about the ending.  All I’m going to say is that WCY eventually finds out the truth of who killed Seung Sang and realizes that he had wronged Chiu Ying. They do eventually reconcile (though not right away), WCY renounces his position as leader of the Daoist sect and retreats to the Ancient Tomb with Chiu Ying, where they hoped to spend the rest of their lives together.  I’m not going to reveal the ending, but knowing that Wong Chung Yeung eventually DOES become the leader of the Daoist sect (the script did stay true to that part of the story), I’m sure it’s not too hard to guess what Lam Chiu Ying’s fate ends up being.

In terms of performance – ok, maybe I’m a bit biased, but I felt that Fiona was awesome in this series!  Fiona is one of my favorite actresses and just like many of the actresses from the 80s/early 90s era, she is quite versatile in that she can portray a variety of roles and be convincing in all of them.   Whether she’s playing a sweet, docile, reserved woman with no martial arts background whatsoever or a bitter, angry, spited woman out for revenge, or even a loud-mouthed tomboy (those are just a few of the roles I’ve seen her in – there are many more that are worth watching), she handles each of the roles well.  In fact, part of the reason why I decided to watch Rage and Passion in the first place was because I was in my ‘Fiona’ mood (having just re-watched State of Divinity for the nth time and Rise of the Taiji Master for the first time…both series that she starred in).  Also, since Fiona officially left the entertainment industry several years ago and won’t be filming ‘regular’ TV series ever again, I was really starting to miss her, so I sort of did a ‘marathon’ of her previous series.   One of the things that amazes me about Fiona is how much chemistry she has with each of the male co-stars she has been paired with in each of her series – it’s rare for an actress to have such great on-screen chemistry with each of her partners…that’s one of the things I miss most about Fiona!

Lastly…just a little bit of background on Fiona, since she retired from the industry more than a decade ago and was last active in the TV industry back in the mid-90s, so some audiences today might not be too familiar with her.  Fiona was discovered by a talent scout in the 80s and started off filming commercials – then, in 1987, she participated in TVB’s Super New Talent (超級新星大賽) contest where she won first place in her category (there were 2 winners from that contest – for the females, it was Fiona Leung and for the males, it was Nixon Pang).  Of course, she signed with TVB that year and participated in her very first series -- 1987’s mega production Legend of the Book and the Sword (書劍恩仇錄), where she was one of the female leads.  She was active in the TV and movie industries up until the mid-90s or so, but then her career started going downhill, so she decided to change careers and get out of acting completely.   In the early 2000s (2001/2002 or so), Fiona became a Christian and since then, has devoted her life to her religion (she currently works for The Media Evangelism Association, which is a Christian organization that utilizes multi-media and other technological methods to spread the Gospel and do God’s work).  She mostly does hosting work now for TMEA’s various evangelistic programs and has participated in a few of the movies they’ve produced (along with our famous Christian celebrities in HK).

NEWTON LAI (Seung Sang / Wong Seung) – Since I talked quite a bit about Newton’s character in my earlier character descriptions, I’ll just fill in the gaps here…

As the eldest brother of the Daoist sect, Seung Sang is highly respected and revered by his juniors, especially since he is the most  ‘righteous’ amongst the 4 brothers.  He is very dedicated to Daoism and is also highly skilled in martial arts, however his affinity with the Daoist principles isn’t as great as his 3^rd brother Tin Sang, so he supports his sifu’s decision to make Tin Sang the sect leader instead of himself.  He is an innately good person and remains so throughout the series, even when he loses his memory and later on when he dies. 

Seung Sang understands full well that as a Daoist priest, he is supposed to cut all ties with women and live a life of celibacy, which he follows to the core.  This is why he always got annoyed to no end when his 2^nd brother Yuen Sang’s sister Lam Ling So – herself a Daoist nun (sorry if the word is wrong, as I’m not familiar with Daoist terminology) – would constantly chase after him, trying to get him to accept her (obviously she had a huge crush on him).  He would always avoid her like the plague whenever he could and sometimes would even reprimand her for betraying Daoist principles.  Being a willful, obstinate woman, Lam Ling So was obsessed with Seung Sang and had no qualms about doing whatever it took to get what she wanted. 

After Tin Sang and his wife Yeuk Si died, Seung Sang tried to go into hiding with their baby as well as the Nine Yin Manual – unfortunately, Yuen Sang is hot on his trail and ends up forcing Seung Sang into a small cave-like place (no, not the Ancient Tomb).  Lam Ling So happens to come along (too much of a coincidence, no?) and seeing her opportunity, she sets off an aphrodisiac that she had gotten, which of course causes Seung Sang to lose his senses and “do the deed” with her.  When he comes to his senses, he is ticked off at what Lam Ling So did (the aphrodisiac thing) and berates her, refusing to take responsibility for what happened.  Angry at being rejected, Lam Ling So grabs the Nine Yin Manual and runs out of the cave.  Seung Sang chases after her (with the baby in tow) and attempts to get the manual back – unfortunately, he forgets that Yuen Sang is waiting outside.   The 3 of them fight over the manual and in the chaos, the manual gets split 3 ways – thinking that he got majority of the manual, Yuen Sang pushes Seung Sang off the cliff. 

Amazingly (well, maybe not, since this IS a TVB drama series after all), Seung Sang and the baby both survive the fall, though Seung Sang does go crazy after that and loses his memory (he probably hit his head).  Next thing we know, it’s 20 years later (that was quick…lol) and somehow, Seung Sang managed to raise the baby despite his craziness.   

He basically appears here and there throughout the next couple episodes until he finally regains his memory.    He is no longer interested in leading the Daoist sect and only wants to retire to a life of peace; unfortunately though, Lam Ling So has been pursuing him this entire time, as she is angry and bitter at being rejected by him and wants him to suffer the most hellish fate.  As described in the previous sections, he is killed by Yuen Sang, but not before finding out that Lam Chiu Ying is actually his daughter – right before he dies, he scolds Lam Ling So for being so cruel to their daughter in trying to force her to kill her own father. 

Newton gave an amazing performance in this series, especially during the episodes when he had lost his memory and would wander around the woods like a mad man – the way his character would innocently pop in and out of various situations was actually kind of funny.  Then, when he regained his memory back, he went back to being the overly serious and reserved person that he used to be – the transformation was actually quite significant, yet Newton handled the role perfectly.  I’ve actually liked Newton as an actor ever since his stellar performance in the 1986 version of New Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre (a series I’ve re-watched at least 20 times if not more…lol) and even though he was  known for playing villain roles (his most famous villain role was in ATV series The Legendary Fok back in the early 80s and subsequently in his career, he sort of got typecasted into those types of roles), he was actually quite versatile in his acting.  He retired from the industry in the mid/late 90s and immigrated to Canada with his family, though he did return to HK later and switched to doing business, still occasionally guest starring in series here and there in the after 2000s era (though most of his roles by that time were not very significant).  Sadly, Newton passed away last year (it was reported that he died of complications from pneumonia) – I actually was quite devastated because we lost quite a few veteran artists the last 2 years (Austin Wai and Jacqueline Law in 2012; Newton Lai, So Hang Suen and Kong Ngai in 2013) – since I grew up watching all of these artists on TV, it was difficult for me to hear of them passing one after the other.   Nowadays, when I watch / re-watch series with these artists in them, I can’t help but be saddened by how much talent we lost….

MARY HON (Lam Ling So) – Lam Ling So is truly a tragic character from beginning to end – though it could be argued that she inflicted a lot of the pain she suffered on herself, her plight is still a sad one nonetheless.   Her biggest mistake was trying to force a man who didn’t and couldn’t love her to actually love her and take responsibility for an action that she caused.  Then, when he refuses to take responsibility, the love that she had for him turns into hate and she subsequently plots to have him suffer the worst fate possible – to be killed by his very own daughter.  In a sense, this proved how selfish and delirious Lam Ling So was, as all she wanted was to take revenge against the man who spited her, even if it meant sacrificing her own daughter in order to so.  [In comparisons, her daughter Lam Chiu Ying was much more noble – despite her mother’s actions, Chiu Ying never gave up on her mother and continued protecting her, even if it meant risking her own life to do so…the death scene where Chiu Ying holds her mother’s lifeless body in her arms and weeps at having forever lost someone she loved so dearly was very very sad (and very very well acted by both Mary Hon and Fiona Leung)]. 

After Seung Sang’s death, Lam Ling So loses her mind, as it’s at that moment that she realizes she still loved Seung Sang all these years and actually didn’t want him to die – but she realizes all of this too late…the damage is already done.   She wanders off by herself, unable to accept the fact that Seung Sang is dead, and continually tries to ‘find’ him after that (similar to what she had been doing the past 20 years).  In the end, she dies a tragic death at the hands of her evil brother Yuen Sang, but not without first helping Wong Chung Yung understand the truth of how Seung Sang died, thereby clearing Lam Chiu Ying’s name. 

In the beginning, I actually despised the character of Lam Ling So, as I felt that her stubborn insistence on getting what she wanted at all costs was way too selfish and through her actions, she brought so much pain on others.  Plus she is also the catalyst for Wong Chung Yung’s misunderstanding and subsequent anger toward Lam Chiu Ying for supposedly killing his adopted father, the results of which, as I described above, are devastating on Chiu Ying (again, I’m probably a bit biased here too because Lam Chiu Ying was my favorite character in this series).

By the end of the series however, I could no longer bring myself to despise Lam Ling So – in fact, I felt tremendous pity for her when she FINALLY ‘wakes up’ and realizes how wrong she was in wanting Seung Sang to die…the pain and regret of this drives her mad and so after that, she decides to live in her own world of denial.  She further redeems herself (in my book at least) when she inadvertently helps WCY find out that Yuen Sang was actually the one who killed Seung Sang and that he had misunderstood Chiu Ying all along.  In her final act of ‘redemption’ (which occurs while she lies dying in her daughter’s arms), she tells WCY that Chiu Ying’s hair turned all white because of him and after everything Chiu Ying suffered due to his rejection, she implored him not to let her daughter down again.   At that moment, it was obvious to me that despite all she had done, deep down, she truly did love her daughter and regretted hurting her.  I actually got a little teary-eyed watching that scene….

From a performance perspective, Mary Hon once again did an excellent job with her role!  Mary Jeh (as everyone calls her) is another one of those amazing veteran actresses who is always so good at what she does.  Of course, it should come as no surprise, as she has been acting since way back when (even before I was born…lol) and has played so many different characters over the years that there’s no doubt she will do a great job.  Mary Jeh truly brought her character to life for me – though I despised Lam Ling So’s actions as well as her selfishness, I was also able to feel for her on an emotional level (her anguish at being rejected, her pain and regret at causing the death of the only man she ever loved, the helplessness of having to live in denial because she couldn’t accept what had happened, etc.).  I think that if it were another actress playing Lam Ling So, I probably would not have such strong feelings for the character.   Actually, I often feel the same way with most of Mary Jeh’s performances – even if I don’t like the series itself, I almost always enjoy her performance.

GALLEN LO (Yuen Ngan Fung) – I talked a little bit about Gallen’s character Yuen Ngan Fung earlier on, but of course there is much more to him than what was mentioned earlier.  Ah Fung starts off as a good guy for most of the series, but later on, he goes down the path of evil after enduring much suffering at the hands of his younger brother Yuen Ngan Bat (who not only kills their father but also takes over the throne that rightfully belonged to Ah Fung).  In addition, Ah Fung encountered one setback after another in his relationship with Fok Mo Sheung, whom he truly did love – since Ah Fung was a Kam prince, Mo Sheung’s parents hated him and refused to let their daughter date him (this has to do with the Kam vs. Han thing I mentioned earlier).  Mo Sheung’s father especially despised Ah Fung, which make sense, since he is an extremely righteous general who dedicates his entire life to fighting the Kams and rescuing his own people (the Hans) from oppression – with that type of background, it’s expected for him to treat all Kam people as enemies. 

Not surprisingly, Ah Fung and his best friend Wong Chung Yeung eventually drift apart, as the paths that they are expected to follow become drastically different:  Ah Fung is determined to get back what he had lost (the royal Kam throne) while WCY is set to become the leader of the Daoist sect, the goal of which is to free the Han people from oppression under the Kams.  The biggest problem though is that Ah Fung becomes a completely different person after his ordeal  -- he becomes hungry for power and longs to learn the highest form of martial arts possible (especially since by this time, WCY is already highly skilled in martial arts and Ah Fung is no match for him in that area).  Therefore, when WCY and Chiu Ying collaborate and defeat Yuen Sang, Ah Fung secretly saves him behind their backs and forces Yuen Sang to teach him martial arts from the Nine Yin Manual.  Of course, since Ah Fung doesn’t have the affinity with martial arts that WCY does, he has no choice but to learn the ‘shortcut’ version, which as we know from all those wuxia stories, is the most damaging to the person’s body and mind.  Needless to say, after Yuen Sang dies, Ah Fung ‘replaces’ him as the primary villain in the series – not only does he end up killing Mo Sheung’s dad, he also pretty much wipes out the entire Daoist sect.  Later on, he also inadvertently kills his own wife Mo Sheung, which sort of makes him crazy (since it truly was an accident and he didn’t mean to do it, plus he did love her dearly).  In the end, there is a big ‘battle to the death’ between Ah Fung and Wong Chung Yeung – I’m sure you can guess who wins that one!

Gallen’s performance as the Kam prince Yuen Ngan Fung was actually quite good (keep in mind that this was around the time when Gallen was just starting to rise to lead status at TVB, having struggled as a supporting actor prior to that).  As the villain, of course Gallen is only the 2^nd male lead in this series (that’s the pattern that most TVB series took at that time – the ‘good guy’ was the main lead and the ‘bad guy’ was the 2^nd lead), but his performance still stood out, especially as compared to his earlier performances in the 80s (remember how ‘wooden’ his acting was in his first few series?).  One thing that TVB actually did right with Gallen’s career back then was casting him as a villain in a bunch of series in the early/mid-90s, as we all know that there is more opportunity for development with villain roles  (the ‘good guy’ roles are more limited in comparisons) and the artists have more chance to shine.  Though I wouldn’t say that Gallen’s character or performance in Rage and Passion was particularly extraordinary (it was actually very similar to his other ‘foreign prince’ roles in those other Jin Yong prequels and remakes), he did a pretty good job here, especially during those scenes when he had to go from good to evil….can’t compare to his later series of course (the ones from the late 90s and early 2000s), but for ‘rising star’ period, it was fine.

MONEY LO  (Fok Mo Sheung) – I actually don’t have a whole lot to say about Money’s character Fok Mo Sheung other than she is the daughter of a general who was originally thought to be dead (her dad is played by Cheung Yik and her mom is played by Wu Mai Yee).  Mo Sheung is the typical ‘innocent good girl’ character who is steadfastly obedient to her parents except for when it comes to matters of love – once she falls in love with Ah Fung, she is forever smitten and there is no turning back (I know, so stereotypical, eh?).  She is pretty much loyal to Ah Fung even to the end, when she finds out that he killed her father and even when he accidentally kills her too.  My opinion of Mo Sheung is that she is a one-dimensional, boring character that the series technically could have done without.

In terms of the acting…well, as I mentioned in one of my previous reviews, I’ve never been able to stand Money Lo as an actress.  For me, she was actually tolerable in this series, but I think that’s because I’ve seen a few of her previous series where her performance was much worse, so this was actually one of the decent ones (or it could be that I did forward many of her scenes, since I wasn’t too interested in her character or her storyline with Gallen….after all, I decided to watch this series primarily because of Fiona and the other cast, remember?).  I still feel that Money should have kept her ‘day job’ at that time (she was a very successful host for TVB) because she was way better at that than acting – which is why it makes sense that she eventually became a lawyer in real life (and a mighty good one at that).

WAYNE LAI (Chow Bak Tung) – I’m sure everyone is familiar with the character of Chow Bak Tung (yes, the same character from LOTCH and ROTCH, except the younger version).  Of course, the background of the character is a bit different in this series, though the personality traits are very much the same…in fact, I feel that Chow Bak Tung was the only character in this series that was portrayed almost exactly the same way that we’re used to seeing in Jin Yong’s works (which is a bit ironic because remember that we’re technically supposed to wipe the original story and characters from our minds when watching this series).  Chow Bak Tung is pretty much the ‘comic relief’ in an otherwise dramatic series that would have been depressingly tragic if it weren’t for his character (I mean, let’s be honest here – in a series where basically all the characters die except for like two or three lone survivors…if that’s not tragic, I don’t know what is!). 

Instead of describing the character in detail like I did with the others, I’m going to skip straight to the performance on this one (no need to describe the character because like I said, he’s basically the only character in this series who is written almost identical to the original story in terms of personality traits, how he interacts with others, how he reacts to situations, etc.).

Those who are familiar with Wayne Lai’s portrayal of Chow Bak Tung from the 90s remakes of LOTCH and ROTCH will no doubt enjoy his performance in this series, as he’s a natural when it comes to this character and is able to portray Chow Bak Tung with ease…though to be honest, I actually prefer his Chow Bak Tung here than in the actual remakes because this is the younger version, which was more fitting to his age at the time – the one in the remakes was way older and having Wayne portray the character at that age just seemed weird to me (I grew up in the 80s, so naturally, I’m used to the 80s versions of LOTCH and ROTCH where  Chow Bak Tung was played by Chun Wong – he will always be the best ‘mature’ version of Chow Bak Tung in my book!).   Of course, seeing that Wayne is one of my favorite actors, I of course loved his performance in this series (not much complaint from me, as he had the character down perfectly).  Wayne’s chemistry with the entire cast was amazingly good and I especially enjoyed all his scenes with his ‘sifu’ Lee Sing Cheong as well as with Ekin and Newton.

I’m actually quite glad that I got to see Wayne’s ‘comedic’ performance in this series because as much as I love him as an actor (and as a person), his roles recently haven’t been as good as the ones he had in the past (Wayne’s acting is still up to par, it’s just that the characters he’s given by TVB to portray nowadays are all very similar).  In fact, ever since Wayne was promoted to first lead status back in 2009, he hasn’t portrayed any comedic or ‘comic relief’ type roles, so I was really starting to miss that side of him.  Watching his performance in this series brought back the ‘old’ Wayne for me, so definitely happy with that!  J

LAM SEUNG MO (Yuen Sang) – I won’t go too much into Yuen Sang’s character either, since I talked about him a lot already in the earlier descriptions.  He’s obviously the villain in the series – a man so evil to the core that by the end of the series, I find myself wishing that he dies an awful death (I’m talking about the character of course).   Yuen Sang’s character is actually the instigator for much of what happens in the series and for all but the last 2-3 episodes, he is basically the ‘common enemy’ that every character in the series is trying to defeat.  Of course, Yuen Sang does die in the end (though whether his death was ‘awful’ enough is really subject to interpretation), but by that time, he had already done so much damage that killing him off just seemed too ‘good’ for him.

Anyway…performance-wise, Lam Sir was great in his portrayal as usual.  In fact, I would say that his portrayal of the character was so over-the-top scary that during several of the scenes, his character actually gave me the creeps (especially in the last few episodes where he is chained up in a dungeon).  Lam Sir is another great veteran actor who is very versatile in that he can play different types of roles equally well.  I’ve seen him play the ‘benevolent father’ roles as well as the ‘evil to the core’ villain roles and all of them are done quite convincingly.

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There were actually a few more characters in the series that would have been worth a mention as well, but seeing that I hit most of the main ones (plus this review is way too long already), I decided to just leave it at what I have written.

Overall, I felt this series was decent and pretty much in-line with most of the other fictional prequels of Jin Yong’s works that were made around that time.  Though the script is heavily flawed and some of the plot is a bit far-fetched (plus the editing is borderline horrible), the acting (from most of the cast), the story, and the chemistry of the cast pretty much make up for it.

In terms of recommendation – well, I feel the same way about this series like I do towards the other prequels:   fans of the artists should definitely watch because most likely you will still enjoy the series despite its flaws;  those who have been craving wu xia/martial arts ancient series should probably watch because there is plenty of ‘action’ (i.e. fighting scenes) to keep fans of martial arts series satisfied.  As for Jin Yong fans – it’s pretty much ‘watch at your own risk’…if you are able to ignore the inconsistencies and ‘inaccuracies’ from the original stories and just take the series for what it is – again, a ‘fictional’ story independent of Jin Yong – then hopefully you should be fine.

Nnadia Chan's (陳松伶) Interview with MingPao

Here's another great interview from Mingpao (I'm a huge fan of their interviews!)...I actually translated this interview a few days ago for AF and figured I'd post it here as well.

It's been awhile since I've heard anything about Nnadia Chan, since she pretty much left the HK entertainment industry. And from the looks of it, she isn't going to be returning to the industry any time soon -- therefore, interviews such as this one will probably be few and far between.

Not sure how many people reading this are Nnadia fans (I have to admit that I'm not a fan, but I really like Nnadia as an actress and a singer), but regardless, I'm sure that you will enjoy this article. The message it conveys is a very positive one as well (one that everyone can learn from)!

Enjoy!

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Mingpao Interview: Nnadia Chan forgives and forgets

Source: HKChannel (Original source: MingPao)

Translation: llwy12

Many years ago, Nnadia Chan sang a children’s song called《烏卒卒》[loosely translated as ‘Dark’], which became so popular that it was known and sung by everyone ‘from the streets to the alleys’. She had also participated in many of TVB’s ‘classic’ series such as《Songbird》, 《Instinct》,《Cold Blood Warm Heart》, etc. in which she got the chance to collaborate with such ‘cool’ guys as Leon Lai, Ekin Cheng, and Louis Koo, and also became one of TVB’s fa dans. Behind all the fame and fortune however, Nnadia had to endure some painful experiences: she once ran away from home and broke off all relations with her family for 20 years, plus her relationship with her former manager ended unhappily due to a misunderstanding – within a day, she was left to fend for herself, with barely a penny to her name. Despite going through so many peaks and valleys in her life, Nnadia continued to hold steadfastly to her belief in the ‘2Fs’ – Forgive and Forget – believing that as long as one is alive, there is always a chance to start over again. In the end, she was able to achieve this – not only had she made amends with her family and now has a great relationship with them, but she is currently a happy housewife, as she recently revealed that she married Mainland actor Zhang Duo and the couple are living a wonderful life together.

In recent years, Nnadia has virtually disappeared from the Hong Kong entertainment industry; even in the Mainland, she is barely seen in any recent series – her last Mainland series was 2008’s 《Single Mother》. Recently, Nnadia returned to HK and while attending the Book Fair in July, she announced that she and her boyfriend, Mainland actor Zhang Duo, married already and so she is officially ‘Mrs. Zhang’. In addition, she has agreed to film the new ICAC series for RTHK,《ICAC 2011》, in which she will participate in one story. Nnadia expressed: “The main reason for my return to HK this time around is to oversee the remodeling of my mother’s house and also to sort out my massive book collection; because of the huge number of books, there is no way to ship them to the Mainland, so I decided to donate most of them to the library. I also checked my emails online and discovered that a lot of people had contacted me, including RTHK. Apparently, ICAC had chosen me for an upcoming collaboration and I also was interested in the role, so the agreement was made almost immediately. Actually, I’ve been wanting to give back to society for quite some time, so this is a great opportunity to do so.”

In between a foolish person and a nice person

Nnadia has high praises for the ICAC, saying that the bureau is one of the most righteous agencies in government. Asked whether she had ever encountered a situation involving corruption in real life, Nnadia replied: “I never encountered a real corruption situation, but I’ve seen people give small gifts – in my opinion, that’s not considered bribery, but just a normal human act, usually as an expression of gratitude…the most important thing is that it doesn’t cross the line. It’s just like in life, when people take things to the extreme – helping someone too much can lead to spoiling that person, while reprimanding too much could push the person over the edge. In all matters, it’s necessary to find the proper balance – I’m actually still learning this right now, don’t know if it’s too late.” (Could it be that you are relating your own experience of helping someone to the point of spoiling them?) Nnadia responded: “Of course I’ve experienced it, which is why I would think that way. Actually, all along, my personality has always been one that is very tolerant and forgiving of others, to the point that I can’t even tell whether I’ve become a foolish person or an extremely nice person – I feel that I’m probably somewhere in between.” (Are you referring to your former manager?) “I’m just relating experiences that I’ve had, it doesn’t matter whether it was with my former manager or with someone I may encounter again in the future – what has happened is already in the past.”

Fell painfully, picked herself up quickly

With regard to the breaking off of her relationship with her former manager, it had actually resulted in Nnadia losing all of the money that she had put in much ‘blood and sweat’ to earn during her 20 years in the entertainment industry. Despite such a huge setback, Nnadia did not give up and instead, bravely picked herself back up again and continued to persevere. Her actions set a great example for today’s youth and demonstrate that in the face of defeat and despair, don’t give up easily.

Nnadia expressed: “During that time, I held onto my belief in the ‘2Fs’ -- no, not curse words, but rather the words Forgive and Forget. I chose to forgive the person and also forget the bad experience – as long as I’m still alive, there is no doubt that I will be able to start over again, plus when I came into this world, I had nothing anyway.” Nnadia also revealed that back when she first entered the industry, she was still a student, so she would bring her homework with her on the set – having to balance school and work was no easy task: “I understand that sometimes, one’s dream can be in conflict with real life. My advice to the younger generation is to not give up on education so easily. If there is financial burden, then work part time while continuing to go to school – in fact, that’s how my sister completed her Masters program. Sometimes, no matter how difficult it may seem, if you are able to properly manage your time, it’s definitely possible to accomplish.”

For now, no plans for a baby

Nnadia admits that she is very much enjoying her current life with her husband and the couple mutually decided that they do not want to have children as of yet. “Currently, we are not concerned about carrying on the family name. My parents were never rich and had to work hard for most of their lives to raise their children. It’s the same for many parents – they have to make so many sacrifices and take on a lot of responsibility for their children, so having children is not an easy decision and shouldn’t be taken lightly. For us, another reason we chose to put off having kids is because I want to spend more time with my mother and properly handle the issues in my family. That’s why I say that after getting married, I sometimes feel like a ‘social worker’, since I seem to be resolving family issues most of the time. Actually, my family definitely needs someone to handle various issues that occur – if a small issue isn’t taken care of, it could quickly escalate into a big issue. Every family has their own share of difficulties and problems, but no matter how hard it may be to handle, it’s still necessary to face it head on.”

Ran away from home, broke off ties for 20 years

During the interview, Nnadia revealed that she had run away from home many years ago and as a result, was not in contact with her family for 20 years. It wasn’t until Nnadia bumped into her younger sister on the streets of Central District one day while she was filming a series that her relationship with her family started to change. In the end, she was reunited with her family and the misunderstandings they had eventually dissolved with age. Nnadia indicates that currently, she has a very close relationship with her family: “Whether it’s members of my own family or other people, I’ve developed better understanding of them and wholeheartedly want to be involved in resolving issues. In reality, sometimes the smallest issue could be of the utmost importance and many small issues added together could become a big issue. Actually, the concept of being the primary problem solver in the family is not difficult to learn, but you need to understand your own abilities and see if you’re capable of handling it – otherwise, you could potentially create even more problems and the relationship could get worse instead of better. When I say ‘ability’, I’m referring primarily to the ‘time’ factor – some issues can’t be resolved in 1 day or even 1 week – even if it takes a few months or a few years to resolve, you have to be willing to invest the time and face the situation as a family. If your family happens to be elsewhere, in another country for example, then constant communication via phone is necessary.” Nnadia indicated that she sets aside 1 day every week as family day, also called ‘settling accounts day’, during which each member of her family spends time together talking and communicating honestly with one another.

Her husband is her ‘third eye’

Nnadia admits that her personality is still the same as before and hasn’t changed much despite everything she has experienced. She deeply believes that her personality will never change, so all she can do is constantly learn and improve: “In my heart, I try to keep a ‘scale’ that helps me measure whether things are fair or not – the most important thing is making sure that there is fairness. I’m very open to advice from my husband Zhang Duo as well as other people – my husband is actually a lot more rational than I am, probably because he has been very independent since he was young; therefore, I listen to his advice very objectively and with an open mind. He is my ‘third eye’, as he is very thorough when it comes to weighing the pros and cons of a situation.

Her most unforgettable pain

Nnadia reveals that the situation that has affected and changed her life the most is losing both her father and grandfather within 2 years of each other. Watching both of them struggle so hard to stay live is something that she will never forget: “Compared to everything I experienced in the past, none of it mattered anymore! Watching your loved ones leave you and realizing that there was still so much that you hadn’t done for them yet and so many things you haven’t told them – it’s difficult to find words to describe that type of feeling, especially knowing that you can’t make up for those lost times! That’s why now, I don’t care about what others may think of me. For example, when I was asked about why I didn’t return to work after getting married and when I will be filming series again, my only response was to smile – because that’s my own personal issue and as long as I feel happy and am enjoying the moment, that’s all that matters.”

Talent can’t keep negative trends away

Nnadia can be considered a multi-talented artist – in addition to singing and acting in TV series, she also starred as the female lead in God of Songs Jacky Cheung’s acclaimed stage musical 《Snow Wolf Lake》, plus she has also written books and essays related to beauty and also served as the spokesperson for a beauty salon. Possessing such a perfect blend of skill and talent, it is definitely the entertainment industry’s loss that Nnadia is semi-retired from the industry and has decided not to return to filming series.

“I don’t have plans to film any more series in the near future and don’t have much interest in singing again either. Right now, I want to concentrate fully on my job as ‘social worker’ for my family. In the future, if I encounter a good script, I may consider it, but it also depends on what type of message the series intends to convey. In the current entertainment industry, I see a lot of people working hard to fulfill their dreams, but unfortunately, the atmosphere is not that good – people like me are too fragile, so it’s necessary to leave, only strong people can continue to stay.” (Is it because of the ‘leng mos’ [young models] that are causing such a negative atmosphere in the industry?) “I’m the fragile type and would probably ask them why they are like that – I also would probably tell them to put more clothes on.”

Nnadia indicated that the reason why she agreed to participate in 《ICAC 2011》was because of the opportunity to interact with the ICAC and learn more about them – plus she felt that she has reached a certain age that is suitable for the type of character that she will be portraying; in the past, most of the characters she played were ones that always needed to be ‘saved’.

Assistant director for Ekin Cheng

Throughout her career, Nnadia collaborated with many male artists – including Leon Lai, Jacky Cheung, Ekin Cheng, Julian (Chilam) Cheung, Louis Koo, Roger Kwok, Adam Cheng, etc.

“One time, I started thinking about Ekin Cheng all of a sudden, probably because I collaborated with him the most in the past. I remember back when we were filming《Instinct》, Ekin once said that he wanted to be a director and told me to be his assistant director. I believe that if he were to become a director today and asked me to be assistant director, I would help him! Back then, Ekin was always very passionate about his work, but I was never able to match his enthusiasm, as I really wanted to pursue an education. Knowing that I was more interested in school, Ekin even told me back then that I should stop filming series and go back to school, as the knowledge I would obtain is mine and is something I could always use.”

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Chinese Version:

陳松伶寬恕忘仇

陳松伶早年憑兒歌《烏卒卒》唱到街知巷聞，演過《天涯歌女》、《笑看風雲》及《天地男兒》等無綫經典劇集，分別與黎明、鄭伊健及古天樂等型男合作過，成為當年無綫的當家花旦。可是名利雙收的背後，她亦遭遇過慘痛的經歷；曾經離家出走，與家人斷絕來往20年；與前經理人因誤會決裂，一夜之間變成身無分文。陳松伶經歷人生起跌，幸好她多年來堅守「2F」信念，即Forgive and Forget（寬恕及忘記），認為人只要有生命，總可以重新站起來。結果，她做到了，現在與家人感情要好，亦已下嫁內地藝人張鐸，過幸福生活。

陳松伶（松松）近數年絕迹香港娛樂圈，就連內地也罕有她的作品，對上一齣劇集，要數到2008年的內地劇《單親媽媽》。松松最近重返香港，在書展上宣布已成為張太，與內地男藝人張鐸已結為夫婦，又答應港台客串《廉政行動2011》其中一個單元。松松說﹕「今次回港，主要是想為母親的物業作裝修，並整理自己一批藏書，因有太多無法運去內地，唯有送去圖書館。其間上網看電郵，發現有很多人找我，當中包括港台，原來廉署選角揀中我，自己亦有興趣參演，於是一拍即合。其實我一直想回饋社會，今次都算是一個機會。」

傻人與好人之間

松松大讚廉政公署是最正派的政府部門。現實生活中有否遇見貪污事件？她說﹕「真正的貪污未見過，只見過有人送少少禮物，但人情不等同賄賂，可能是表示感謝，最重要是不要踩過界線；等於做人一樣，過多幫助會變成溺愛或寵壞，太過嚴厲責備，就似將一個人推到盡頭！凡事要中庸，不過我仍是學習階段，不知道會否學得遲。」

是否曾經過分溺愛身邊人，所以有感而發？

「當然是經歷過，才會有這想法。其實一直以來，我做人寬容性好大，大到自己是否變成一個傻人或過分好人，自己都搞不清楚，感覺是兩者之間。（所指的是否前經理人？）只是代入自己一直以來遇過的事，不論以前經理人，還是會再接觸的人，過去的都過去了。」

跌得傷 起得快

提到與前經理人決裂一事，記得松松當年因此失去在圈中打滾20年、辛苦掙回來的血汗錢。但松松遇上挫折並無放棄，還勇敢地站起來，足以給年輕一代借鏡，不要遇上少少挫折便輕易放棄，甚至尋死。

松松說：「那段時間心中抱住兩個F的信念，但不是粗口，是Forgive and Forget，選擇寬恕及忘記，不要記着慘事，只要自己仍有生命、仍然健全，就一定可以重新站起來；况且，來這個世界時，亦是什麼也沒有。」松松自爆入行初期，不時帶功課到片場做，要兼顧學業及事業，甚感吃力，「生活同理想會有衝突，年輕人不要輕易放棄學業，如經濟沒能力，可以半工讀，我的妹妹也是這樣完成碩士課程，有時如何艱難都好，只要好好分配時間就可以。」

暫時未想生BB

松松坦言享受現時的生活，夫妻二人已有共識暫時不要小朋友。她說：「我們這刻沒有傳宗接代的想法。我的父母不是有錢人，要經過大半生辛勞，才將子女養育成材；為人父母要為子女負出及承擔，所以不是隨便話生便生。另一個原因是我想多留一點時間陪母親，以及處理家人的問題。所以，有時感覺自己婚後變成『社工』，化身『家庭事務所』去處理問題。其實家中真的需要一個人去處理所有問題，一些小事沒人理會可能會化為大事，每一家都有本難唸的經，但如何難唸都總要去面對。」

離家出走20年

原來松松昔日曾離家出走，與家人沒聯絡20年，最後在中環街頭拍劇時遇上胞妹，情况才得以改變，之後與家人重聚後，箇中誤會隨年紀長大而化解。松松指現時與家人關係是最親密的，她說：「無論自己的家人或外家，都多了了解，願意坦誠解決眼前問題；其實芝麻綠豆小事也很重要，加起來也是一件大事。其實『家庭事務所』理論不難學習，但要看清自己的尺度，本身也要有能力，否則會製造更多事端，關係愈搞愈差。能力是指時間，有些問題不是一日或一星期可以解決，要一起面對，一兩個月甚至一兩年都要付出。如果分隔兩地，要多點電話聯絡。」松松指每周會有一天作為家庭日，也叫作清算日，互相傾訴慰問，認真的溝通，說出心事。

丈夫是第三眼

松松自嘲性格依舊，沒有因任何事醒覺，深信亦沒有「醒」來的一天，唯有繼續學習及改進，「我心中只會抱持一個秤，最重要是大家公平。我會聽取丈夫張鐸及其他人的意見，丈夫較我理性很多倍，可能是他自小已很獨立，我會採取客觀態度聽取他的意見。他是我第三隻眼睛，對好與壞看得更透徹。」

最難忘的傷痛

松松透露影響及改變自己最大的，是兩年內先後目送爸爸及外公離世，兩人如何不想過身及掙扎過程，是她一生人不可以忘記的事，「相對以往自己種種經歷，已是不再重要，因為最愛的人在你面前離去，原來自己還有很多事未為對方做、有很多說話未跟對方講，那種難過感受是難以形容的，亦無法彌補！。所以我現在不會理會別人的看法。例如被問到為何婚後不工作、不再拍戲？我只會笑一笑，因為這是自己的事，這一刻感覺享受就可以。」

才藝難擋歪風

陳松伶不單止唱兒歌出色，曾擔正做張學友經典音樂劇《雪狼湖》女主角，實屬演得唱得之人，加上曾出版美容書及散文集，又為美容院任代言人，可謂聲色藝俱全，如今半退休不再拍劇，實是娛樂圈一大損失。

「暫時不會再拍劇，對上一套劇集《單親媽媽》是兩三年前的事，現在對唱歌的興趣不是太濃厚，只想專心做好『家庭事務所』這份工。日後若遇到好劇本才想，也要看主題是宣揚什麼信息。現在的娛樂圈，我看到有不少藝人為理想而努力，但風氣不是太好，我這類人太脆弱了，所以要走；堅強的人才可繼續留低。（是否指o靓模的風氣不太好？）我很脆弱的，會問她們點解，也會忍不住叫她們著多件衫。」松松指今次為港台拍攝《廉政行動2011》，是想借機會接觸廉署，加上去到一個適合的年齡去演這類角色，以往自己演的，多是被人拯救的人。

松松當年扮鬼扮馬唱兒歌。

做伊健助導

松松合作過的男星不少，四大天王有黎明及張學友，其餘鄭伊健、張智霖、古天樂、郭晉安及鄭少秋亦在不同劇集合作過。

「有次突然想起鄭伊健，因過往合作最多的男星是他，記得當時拍《笑看風雲》，伊健說想當導演，叫我做助導。如果今時今日真的叫我做助導，我會幫他做的。當初伊健是滿腔熱誠去工作，而我就很想讀書，伊健也有叫我不要拍劇，回去上學，讀多一點書，得着是自己的。」

Review of “Golden Snake Sword 金蛇郎君" (1993)

Cast: Ekin Cheng, Angela Pang, Jacqueline Law, Wun Yeung Ming, Lau Kong, Ma Ching Yi, Cheung Yik, etc.

** Note: The series was originally filmed in 1991, but warehoused and released overseas in 1993. I’m not sure if the series ever aired in HK (though I assume it probably did at one point).

I will be the first to admit that I didn’t think I would like this series at all, given that the cast – on first glance – did not seem entirely appealing to me (Ekin and Jacqueline have always been steady in terms of their acting and I like them overall, but I’m not a huge fan of either – plus Angela was supposedly the female lead in this series and you know how I feel about newbies leading when they don’t have any acting experience….). Also, based on the title, I thought at first that this series would be another one of those dreaded, butchered, “cheap adaptations” of Jin Yong’s novel (which TVB was notorious for in the 90s), so I was a bit reluctant to give this series much thought. Needless to say, I only watched the series because it came on TV – if it hadn’t come on TV, I probably would not have chosen to watch it on my own accord.

First off, I realized while watching the series that it totally has the wrong title – I’m actually not sure why they used the title 金蛇郎君 (literally translated as “Golden Snake Master”) because the series has nothing to do with that at all. It’s not a remake of that particular JY story, that’s for sure. True, it does try to ‘incorporate’ certain elements of that story in the series – for example: having Ekin’s character discover some mountaintop cave during one particular episode where he finds the golden snake sword and martial arts manual belonging to the Golden Snake Master and learns the kungfu from there – but that was for only one episode. Though there are mentions of the Golden Snake Master throughout the series, the way the mentions were done made it seem like his role was more of a “historical figure” or a “rumored legend”. I’m thinking that perhaps that particular title was used for the series because Ekin’s signature weapon was the golden snake sword and also because in a way, they were trying to draw some similarities between Ekin’s story and the Golden Snake Master’s story (they also used the title “Golden Snake Master” for Ekin in the laster half of the series). I think the best way to describe the intent of the title is to say that it was meant to tell the story of a “Golden Snake Master” in a later generation who goes through similar suffering. Also, those familiar with Jin Yong’s “Crimson Sabre” story will definitely recognize the similarities in the storyline (in fact, Angela’s character in the story is totally a ‘rip-off’ of the Wan Yi character in JY’s “The Crimson Sabre” except with a few important differences – more on this later).

I actually wasn’t paying much attention to the series in the beginning because I didn’t think the series was going to be any good (and quite a few of the beginning parts were truly boring), so not surprisngly, I didn’t understand much of what was going on in the first 5 to 6 episodes. Also, there were various parts in the storyline in the first couple episodes that really did not make much sense either and I was so confused, it sort of turned me off from wanting to continue watching. It wasn’t until around episodes 7 and 8 (or so) when the love story involving Ekin and Angela’s characters started that the storyline picked up a little and I became more interested in watching (ok, I confess – I’m a sucker for “tug at your heartstrings’ type love stories in done correctly with artists who match up well – plus Ekin and Angela had good chemistry and it was refreshing seeing someone other than the ‘usual female leads’ paired up with Ekin for a change).

This series was very much a ‘hit and miss’ for me – there were some parts of the storyline that were okay and kept me interested, but there were other parts of the storyline that were quite illogical and ‘non-sensical’. If it weren’t for the fact that I liked Ekin’s character (and Angela’s to some extent) and also enjoyed the story between the two, I probably would not have bothered to keep watching, especially since there were so many things about the series that annoyed me. Also, one word of caution for those who may be debating whether they want to watch this series or not – if you’re a die-hard Jin Yong fan, you may want to think twice about watching this series because there is a high probability that you may get ticked off. There are SO MANY elements in the storyline that are obvious “rip-offs” of various Jin Yong works (and other famous martial arts-themed stories) that it’s not even funny – it’s almost as though the scriptwriter and producer were lazy and simply lifted some of the ideas from the novels, changed some things around, then put it all together to form a “supposedly” un-related story (a ‘hodge-podge’ of sorts of JY’s works) – which could be why I felt that some parts were choppy and didn’t make sense…a poor editing job (certain scenes cut out) could have contributed to the confusion as well. Die-hard Jin Yong fans with a keen eye will surely recognize many of the so-called “coincidences” between the series and his works (I’m not a ‘die-hard’ fan, but even I recognized certain ‘similarities’ to at least 3-4 of his works). TVB definitely took a lot of liberty with the script, that’s for sure (similar thing that they did with “The Crimson Sabre” in 2000, but that was worse because that was promoted as an adaptation when it was a completely different story while this one wasn’t a direct adaptation but rather a “copy cat”). In my opinion, this series really shows how much the writers lack creativity (or in some cases, lack the time to produce a truly good script) – which is probably one of the (many) reasons why TVB stopped producing as many ancient series in the 90s and after 2000 compared to back in the 80s.


Here’s a brief rundown of some of the main characters from the series as well as my comments on the artists who played the characters:

.>> Ekin Cheng (Gai Lien Wan)– Not surprisingly, Ekin plays a chivalrous warrior who is skilled in martial arts. His character appears to be a playful, spoiled youth in the beginning who is pampered and protected by his ‘sifu’ (and god-father of sorts), but it turns out that he is actually a very righteous person who really hadn’t gone through much hardship in the beginning so didn’t really understand the difficulties of life or how evil people around him could truly be. After he is framed by his enemies and accused of killing a lot of people (which he obviously didn’t do), resulting in his god-father’s entire family – including his fiancee Loong Yee, whom he loves very much – sacrificing their lives in order to save him, he ‘grows up quickly’ so to speak and his personality changes – he becomes ‘cold and unfeeling’ to everyone around him (or tries to at least). He also becomes hell-bent on doing everything he can to find out who the mastermind was behind the killing of his god-father’s family and seeking revenge for their deaths (sound familiar?). He finds the Golden Snake sword and martial arts manual, learns the skills in there, and sets off on his path to ‘revenge’ – though later on, it also becomes a mission to find out who he truly is and the reason why his sifu’s family had to sacrifice for him.

On the way, he meets Ha Hou Yin (played by Angela Pang), who is the daughter of the man responsible for framing him and causing his god-father’s family to be killed (Ha Hou Yi, who was played by veteran actor Cheung Yik). Even though Lien Wan vows never to love another woman again after his fiancee died, he ends up falling in love with Yin and subsequently does everything possible to take care of her and protect her. Later on in the series, we find out about Lien Wan’s true identity (which he didn’t even know himself, since he was adopted by his god-father at a very young age) – he is actually supposed to be a ‘prince’, since his biological father was originally supposed to be a successor to the Ming Dynasty imperial throne. Supposedly, Lien Wan’s background is the catalyst for most of what happens in the series, as a powerful Eunuch (play by Lee Sing Cheong) was plotting all along to get rid of all the potential descendants of the throne, which included killing Lien Wan. In a nutshell, without revealing too much about the ending or details of the storyline, that’s basically the premise for Ekin’s character and everything he goes through in the series.

I’ve never been a fan of Ekin’s, but I do have to say that he did a great job in this series. He’s one of those actors who has that ‘martial arts warrior’ type look and feel, so that’s probably why he’s put in those types of roles often. I actually liked his performance a lot in this series, as I felt that he balanced the ‘good’ and the ‘not so good’ sides of his character quite well, probably because he’s good at portraying the dramatic, conflicted type characters who are inherently good, but sometimes resorts to extreme tactics to achieve justice. I like how Ekin’s character in the series is very strong-willed and doesn’t let the people around him push him around and he doesn’t give up easily – even when he is defeated, he continues to fight for his loved ones as well as his convictions. I’m glad whoever wrote the script didn’t make his character a villain because frankly, I’ve never felt that Ekin’s villain roles are convincing enough. He does play the tragic warrior/hero characters quite well though! If I had to choose, I would have to say that his character was my favorite in this entire series.


.>> Angela Pang (Ha Hou Yin) – Angela’s character is very compassionate (which is what attracts Ekin’s character to her) and even though she looks like a meek, quiet woman on the outside, she is actually very strong and brave on the inside (she doesn’t know any martial arts whatsoever). To understand how Angela’s character is, just think of the character Wan Yi from “The Crimson Sabre” or “Sword Stained with Royal Blood”, as the character was pretty much a direct copy from there (personality traits and everything). Even the situations that Yin goes through are similar: she is a docile but defiant young woman who is kidnapped by the man her father is trying to destroy (Lien Wan), then falls in love with him when she realizes he is actually a good righteous man, marries him, and eventually has a child with him. Of course, she also defies her father later on because of his evil deeds.

Even though the character was an obvious copy, I would have to say that Ha Hou Yin is a more “ideal” version of Wan Yi because of some of the extra elements that were added to her personality (which the original character didn’t have) and also the fact that she and her lover do have a happy ending. Some of the differences that I saw between the 2 characters (Ha Hou Yin and Wan Yi): 1) Yin doesn’t die in the end and gets to live ‘happily ever after’ with the man she loves, 2) Yin goes through a lot more pain and suffering than Wan Yi did (mainly at the hands of her former fiance Ying Tin Ming, played by Vincent Wan) – this part is probably because she is a ‘main character’ who appears throughout the story, whereas Wan Yi only appears during certain parts of the story, 3) Yin is a lot stronger in personality than Wan Yi: she knows exactly what she wants and is not afraid to do what is right -- plus even though she is filial to her father, she is not blind to his actions and doesn’t let him control her.

I admit that during the first 7 episodes or so, I had no clue that the character of Ha Hou Yin was played by Angela Pang. I was able to recognize and name all the other artists up to that point except for her – it wasn’t until I saw her name in the closing credits during episode 8 that I finally realized it – though I probably should have guessed because she was the one who sang the theme song and subtheme song when it would have made more sense for Ekin to sing it.

I actually don’t know too much about Angela because she hasn’t been in the industry for that long – the most I knew was that she is a singer, as she entered the industry after winning a singing contest, but I didn’t know that she had participated in TV series as well (though the number of series she participated in were very few – her role in this series was probably the biggest one of her career). Like most people, I mostly remember Angela from her popular duet with William So 《從不喜歡孤單一個》(a beautiful song, by the way) in 1993/94 –from hearing her perform that song and others, I’ve always associated her with having a very strong, powerful singing voice, plus physically, she is quite tall and comes across to me as the ‘tomboyish’ type for some reason, so it was just difficult for me to imagine her playing such a feminine, demure character as she did in this series. (Actually, just listening to how she sings the themesong and subtheme to this series, it’s very hard to imagine that the person playing the role is the same person – those who choose to watch the series will know what I mean).

I feel that Angela’s character was ok for being a ‘newbie’ (to the acting scene at least). There were some parts where it felt like the dialogue was rehearsed, but then again, I felt that way during other parts of the series with some of the other artists as well, so I can’t really blame that on her acting in particular. One indication that her performance was ok – I actually liked her character…in fact, her character was my 2nd favorite one after Ekin’s. Anyway, I’m not going to comment too much on her acting because I honestly don’t have enough information to go off of -- though I will say that I did like her pairing with Ekin and they had pretty good chemistry (in the second half of the series at least).


.>> Jacqueline Law (Yuet Buen Wan) – Jacqueline plays one of the ‘Holy Maidens’ from the Sa Tin Ba Sect – a sect that views all females as superior and males as mere ‘slaves’ whose sole purpose is to help them continue the family line, after which the male’s fate is to die (um, I didn’t really get the ideology here, but ok) – basically, the sect is one of the biggest ‘evil cults’ in the martial arts world. She’s actually the daughter of the sect leader so she has an important position as the future leader of the sect. When Ha Hou Yi uses the sect to frame Lien Wan (accusing Lien Wan of being in cahoots with the sect to destroy the rest of the world), Yuet Buen Wan rescues Lien Wan and falls for him, even defying all sect rules in order to be with him. Unfortunately, Lien Wan only loves his dead fiancee and even though he is grateful to Yuet Buen Wan for saving him and taking care of him when he was injured, he doesn’t love her and will only treat her like a sister. Yuet Buen Wan is so in love with him and obsessed with him that she won’t accept the fact that he doesn’t love her and subsequently does all sorts of crazy things to try to get him to change his mind – then, when he refuses to change his mind and declares that he only loves Yin, she plots to kill him out of rage and jealousy (um, yea, that’s a dumb move!). I don’t know if I would consider her character a villain – she’s pretty much tortured by love for a man who will never be hers and it causes her to do a lot of very evil things. Plus she does sort of redeem herself (somewhat) in the very last episode. I guess the most I can say is that her character in here is a “mad woman” (meaning crazy and stubborn).

My thoughts regarding Jacqueline’s character -- um, TVB must have known that she was leaving their company and therefore gave her such a crappy character in here. Her character was downright annoying, stupid, crazy, wicked, unreasonable, stubborn, bxxchy, etc. (I could apply so many more adjectives to describe her character, but will stop here). Her obsession with Ekin’s character was WAY overboard – she went from loving him to wanting to kill him because he didn’t love her, then still loving him and wanting to be with him and getting jealous and envious….geez, she was like all over the place – she basically keeps making advances at him when he had already made it clear to her over and over again that he doesn’t like her. They made her character out to be such a desperate and unreasonable woman in here, it really ticked me off. Oh, and it really disgusted me to see her keep pushing herself on Ekin’s character and wanting to be his lover, even after she finds out in the later half of the series that she
is actually his half-sister (same father, different mothers)…I mean, is that gross or what??? Urgh!!! The one redeeming factor is that she comes to her senses in the end and saves Ekin’s character (and later dies protecting him).

Jacqueline’s character was such a waste in this series. First of all, her role was clearly a supporting one because Angela was the lead in this series (one indication that TVB didn’t think too highly of her at that time, probably because this was her last series and she was going to leave TVB). Having a lead actress relegated to a supporting role isn’t necessarily a bad thing if the character she plays is a well-written and well-developed one – but in this case, not only was Jacqueline playing a supporting role, her character absolutely sucked! With Jacqueline’s good looks and acting skills, it’s such a shame that they gave her such a pathetic character to play in this series!


.>> Vincent Wan Yeung Ming (Loong Zheng/Ying Tin Ming) – Vincent’s character in this series is obviously the villain -- well, not really during the first 5 episodes or so, but he does turn into the evilest of all villains later on as the series progresses (and when I say ‘villain’ I mean it – he’s basically crazy and likes going around killing innocent people for no reason). Ying Tin Ming’s original name is Loong Zheng -- he is the son of Lien Wan’s god-father, Loong Sau Yat (played by veteran actor Chu Tiet Wo) and is therefore Lien Wan’s “see hing”. Tin Ming never had a good relationship with Lien Wan because he always felt that he was better than him and as his god-father’s son, had a certain authority over him. In a way, he was also jealous of Lien Wan getting all of his father’s attention, especially since Lien Wan was a bit rebellious in his youth and didn’t always listen. When Lien Wan is accused of being a traitor and is being pursued by the other sects wanting to kill him, Tin Ming doesn’t understand why his father goes to such great lengths to protect Lien Wan, even at the expense of sacrificing the lives of everyone in their family to do so (we later find out that it’s because Loong Sou Yat used to be a palace guard in the Ming Dynasty so it was his responsibility to protect Lien Wan, who would have been a potential successor to the throne). After everyone in his family dies except for him (because he refused to heed his father’s instructions to sacrifice in order to save Lien Wan), he takes refuge with the Ha Hou family and changes his name. He does not realize that Ha Hou Yi is actually a traitor in cahoots with the Eunuch and instead of seeking vengeance on behalf of his family, he embraces Ha Hou Yi as a father. As he gets more and more powerful in the area of martial arts, he also becomes more and more evil and maniacal – even more so than his ‘mentor’ Ha Hou Yi -- which eventually leads to his demise.

Tin Ming’s biggest problem is that he lets hatred and jealousy overtake him and push him over the edge. His hatred is primarily directed toward Lien Wan -- he hates Lien Wan's guts because 1) he blames Lien Wan for the tragedy that resulted in all of his family being killed (even though it was really Ha Hou Yi who was the mastermind behind it), and 2) he is humiliated that his fiancee Ha Hou Yin (whom Ha Hou Yi endowed to him as his wife only because the families were very close) falls in love with Lien Wan and runs off with him -- even the woman who eventually becomes his wife, Yuet Buen Wan (whom he truly does love a lot), only loves Lien Wan and not him.

In terms of Vincent’s acting – I really don’t have a lot of say about it because I’ve always been indifferent to him – I neither like him nor hate him, it’s just that his acting really isn’t my style. I will say though that his villain character in here was truly evil – even worse than Ha Hou Yi’s character in a sense – to the point that at times, I really felt like slapping him (maybe that’s an indication that he did a decent job in this series?). Well, there WERE some scenes where he was a bit stiff and his lines came across as rehearsed, but unless you’re really paying attention, you probably wouldn’t really notice it. Good thing they had him play the villain role in here as those are the roles that suit him best – I actually don’t like watching him play the ‘good guy’ roles because he just isn’t convincing in those roles.


.>> Lau Kong (Gai Po Gwun) – I actually didn’t like this character very much, as he is very selfish and majority of the time, is only thinking about himself. I mean, yes it is a pity that he was supposed to be successor to the throne but because of the evil Eunuch and the traitor Ha Hou Yi, he becomes crippled and is constantly locked up as a prisoner in Ha Hou Yi’s dungeon. I can understand him wanting revenge against those who wronged him, but he shouldn’t pull innocent people into it and use them / manipulate them selfishly for his own gain. The way that he treats his former lover Chor Lau Ying (played by Ma Ching Yee) is actually quite deplorable in my opinion – he knows that she loves and admires him deeply, however because he only loves his first wife (Lien Wan’s mother), he won’t allow himself to love her, yet still has an affair with her (hence Yuet Buen Wan is born) but leaves her to fend for herself. Even 20 years later, Lau Ying is still devoted to him and saves him numerous times whenever Ha Hou Yi tries to inflict harm on him – yet he takes advantage of her devotion to him to manipulate her to do things for him!

Also, the way he treats his son Lien Wan is pretty despicable as well. Even though he knows that Lien Wan is his son (though the son doesn’t know it), he doesn’t treat him as such and doesn’t even let him know of his lineage for most of the series so that he could use him to do things that he wanted – it’s almost like he isn’t capable of emotion or feelings and can only think of exacting revenge, no matter what it costs him. I absolutely hated how he kept trying to ‘use’ his son to get revenge for him after they were reunited – when he knew full well that Lien Wan was against seeking revenge and only wanted to live a normal, peaceful life with his wife (Lien Wan has never been one to care about title or power – at that point, he just wanted to retire to a hidden place with his wife Yin and anticipate the birth of their child).

In efforts to accomplish his mission of “revenge”, Po Gwun even lures Lien Wan away and captures Yin, then notifies Ying Tin Ming so that he could kill her, hoping that would spur Lien Wan to want to kill Tin Ming (and thereby indirectly help Po Gwun get his own revenge) – that is just so wrong that he would even think about hurting his son and daughter-in-law like that! Luckily, Po Gwun finds out just in time that Yin is pregnant with Lien Wan’s child and decides at the last minute to protect Yin instead of harming her for the sake of his future grandchild (and he gets captured by Ying Tin Ming because of it). That’s pretty much the only ‘unselfish’ and sensible thing he did throughout the entire series!

Lau Kong’s acting is great as usual – well of course, since he is a veteran actor, I definitely expect it to be good. I’ve always appreciated Lau Kong’s performances from the many series I’ve seen of his in the 80s – he’s one of those steady actors with tons of experience who is pretty much convincing no matter what character he plays.


.>> Ma Ching Yee (Chor Lau Ying) – This character is another pitiful one, though not as bad as Jacqueline’s character in my opinion. Lau Ying is the leader of the Sa Tin Ba Sect – on the surface, she makes people think that she dislikes men (because of the pain she endured from her previous relationship with Po Gwun), but in reality, she is still very much in love with Po Gwun and is still pining for him. When she finds out about Po Gwun’s plight, she is pained and does everything she can to save him from danger time and time again, hoping that he will have a change of heart and return to her and their daughter. Unfortunately, he does not return to her – he only uses her to help him carry out certain tasks that he can’t do himself. I would have to say that Lau Ying is a ‘tortured soul’ her entire life, as she even dies a tragic death at the hands of her daughter, who is upset at her for having given birth to her to be Lien Wan’s half-sister (ok, this part was REALLY twisted – how the heck is Lau Ying at fault for Yuet Buen Wan’s fate? And her daughter kills her because of it? Makes no sense!). Also, even at the point of death, Lau Ying is still concerned about Po Gwun’s safety and asks Yam Zhi Zhai to go save him (even though it’s obvious he didn’t love her) – pitiful and sad indeed!

I actually have never really liked Ma Ching Yee’s acting because she just comes across as too fake to me. Luckily, most of her roles have been supporting only and usually, because of her age, she usually plays the ‘mother’ characters and therefore generally does not have a whole lot of screen time. She was tolerable in this series....


.>> Cary Choi (Fung Fei Shuet) – She belongs to one of the 8 Main Sects that is deceived by Ha Hou Yi in the beginning and therefore her fiancé kills Lien Wan’s first lover, Loong Yi. After Lien Wan becomes powerful in martial arts due to learning the Golden Snake Master’s skills, he returns to seek revenge on the 8 Sects and purposefully kills Fei Shuet’s fiancé on their wedding day – she helplessly watches her fiancé die right in front of her eyes and instantly becomes a widow. From that day forward, she hates Lien Wan and vows to avenge her fiance’s death by killing Lian Wan at all costs. Later on, when she encounters Lien Wan again, she continues on her mission to kill him and wants to do so in front of Yin so that she can feel the pain of becoming a widow – unfortunately, Fei Shuet’s skills are no match for Lien Wan’s and she is defeated by him again and again (he doesn’t hurt her though because by this time, he is already remorseful for what he did and causing her so much pain). When Yin becomes really sick and needs a special medicine in order to save her and the baby, Fei Shuet steals the medicine before Lien Wan is able to get to it. In exchange for the medicine, Fei Shuet tells Lien Wan to drink a poison that will cause him to be in pain for 49 days, after which he will die an ugly and painful death – he agrees to drink the poison in order to save his wife and unborn child. Throughout the 49 days, she follows the couple around and sees how much they love each other and are willing to sacrifice for each other – she realizes what true love is about and so lets go of her hatred and gives Lien Wan the antidote that saves him. She forgives him for killing her fiancé and even becomes his ‘sworn sister’ and helps save him several times after that.

Cary has a small part in this series – to the point that I wouldn’t even call her a “supporting” character because she has way little screen time, but her role is very important during the last few episodes especially. I don’t have too much comment with regard to her acting, as she has never really played a big enough role in most of the series of hers that I’ve seen for me to make a judgment. She was primarily active in the late 80s/early 90s and retired from the industry back in the 90s, marrying a producer and living an ordinary life now.


.>> Choi Kwok Hing (Yam Zhi Zhai) – He plays the ‘grandmaster’ of the Loong sect who also happens to be a friend of Po Gwun (as well as his love rival 20 years ago in pursuit of Chor Lau Ying). He takes a liking to Lien Wan (well, he’s one of the few who knows both Po Gwun and Lien Wan’s true identities) and helps him constantly. Of course, being the grandmaster, his martial arts is quite good. His character is really a comical one in here, as he has a happy-go-lucky type personality and never seems to take anything seriously. He is the one who ends up revealing that Po Gwun is really Lien Wan’s father.

The character is played by veteran actor Choi Kwok Hing. I really don’t know a whole a lot about him, so can’t really comment – in fact, I’ve seen him in so many series, but never even knew his name! I only researched his name recently while writing this review.


.>> Lee Sing Cheong (Eunuch Cao) – He is the evil Eunuch who is trying to get rid of Po Gwun and Lien Wan because the Emperor feels threatened that they may overtake the throne some day (even though Po Gwun already expressed earlier on that he had no intentions of becoming Emperor). He shows up every once and awhile throughout the series to direct either Ha Hou Yi or Ying Tin Ming to do his bidding.

Even though he had a small role, Lee Sing Cheong was great in this series. His Eunuch role was very convincing – I can’t remember if I’ve seen him play eunuch roles before (it’s possible, since he’s been active in the industry for so long), but he was definitely perfect for the role.


.>> Cheung Yik (Ha Hou Yi) – His character is the ‘original’ villain in the series, but his status and power is later overtaken by Ying Tin Ming (who even kills him off to get rid of him). He’s the father of Ha Hou Yin (Angela’s character) and on the surface, he appears to be a righteous person, having tremendous power and respect in the martial arts world – but underneath, he’s actually a bad person who does various evil deeds. Plus he’s a traitor in that he works for the Eunuch to wreak havoc on the martial arts world.

This series doesn’t do justice to veteran actor Cheung Yik’s great acting skills. I know that Cheung Yik usually plays evil characters, which is where he excels (though he has also played the ‘benevolent father’ role a few times before as well), but in this particular series, his evil side never really showed through – I mean, if you compare him to Vincent Wan’s character, well, Cheung Yik’s character can be considered ‘tame’.

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Overall, as I said earlier, I was ok with the series. There were definitely some parts that were overly draggy and I felt were very unnecessary (while at the same time, there were some parts that seemed incomplete, as though scenes were cut out). And yes, there were definitely a lot of ‘illogical’ things that happened – I mean, I know that with ancient series, there is a certain amount of leeway and it will never be ‘realistic’ like a modern series, but still, there were things that happened that didn’t even make sense in an ancient series setting (again, part of this could have been due to editing as well).

I do have to say though that the second half of the series was a lot more fast-paced than the first half and so that made the series more tolerable. Also, the big battle scene near the end of the series in which Lien Wan tries to save his dad and instead gets badly injured and supposedly 'killed' – that actually was quite an intense and suspenseful scene…the most climactic scene in the entire series. Oh, and the ending was a bit illogical in my opinion – all I’m going to say is that it’s a ‘happy’ ending to some extent, which I guess I really didn’t have too much of a problem with for this series because I don’t like overly tragic endings and this one was just right in that regard (though I can tell you that the ending is definitely predictable). Even though I’m glad the ending occurred the way it did, I still have to mention the fact that it was not entirely logical.

In terms of whether I recommend this series or not – well, that’s a tough one because I wouldn’t say that I hated the series, but I wouldn’t say that I loved it either (it was sort of in the middle for me). Fans of Ekin Cheng should definitely watch because his performance is actually quite good in here (I’m not a fan, but even I couldn’t help admiring his character in this series). And those who are familiar with Angela Pang and would like to see how she fares as an actress rather than a singer will probably be interested in this series as well (like I said earlier, Angela is the female lead, so she has a lot of screen time). Also, the Ekin / Angela pairing was quite interesting and I actually liked seeing them together, so that’s another plus. Oh, and of course, if ancient series are your thing, then that could be another reason for watching (though to be honest, there aren’t as many large-scale ‘fighting’ / martial arts scenes in this series compared to some of the other epic ancient series that TVB has made in the past – BUT there are enough fighting scenes to satisfy most martial arts series lovers). As for the illogical parts – well, if you’re able to ignore it and just watch the series for the message it is trying to convey, then you should be fine.