TVB 50th Anniversary Gala – My Thoughts

With this year being TVB’s 50^th anniversary, I decided to tune in to their Anniversary Gala celebration that took place on November 19^th (this past weekend) just to see if they would do anything “special” to celebrate such a significant milestone.  Most people know that I’ve been following TVB since the 80s era and back then (as well as throughout the 90s), the anniversary gala each year was truly a “grand” event that I always looked forward to watching – it was absolutely a glamorous affair where all the stars would come out and give us audiences a truly entertaining and memorable show.  Nowadays, things are obviously different – the anniversary gala has ceased to be a “grand” affair for at least a decade now and every year, it seems like TVB is merely “going through the motions,” haphazardly throwing something together just because they have to (after all, being HK’s main free-to-air TV station, they can’t “not” celebrate their own birthday, as it would make them look really bad).  I’ve continued to watch the anniversary galas the past couple years, even though most of them have been horrible – I do so mostly out of curiosity to see whether, for once, TVB will make a decent gala show…unfortunately, each year, I am hugely disappointed, as the show gets worse and worse each year, to the point that I wonder why I even bother watching.  Though I knew better than to have any type of expectations for a TVB program, I still went into the 50^th anniversary gala hoping that perhaps this time, with it being such a special occasion, TVB won’t let me down.  Looks like this was wishful thinking on my part – while the show overall was heaps better than last year’s gala (which I don’t consider a compliment since last year’s gala was the worst one ever, both in terms of ratings and content), overall, it was still disappointing in that the show was pretty much “same old same old” as previous years in terms of being lackluster, boring, and hugely disorganized.   Writing this post up now, several days after the gala aired, I honestly can’t remember much of the event, which is already a sign that the show was not memorable.  This is especially significant given the fact that I am able to vividly remember almost all of the past galas that took place back in the 80s and 90s even though it has been years since I last watched those shows, yet I can barely remember any of the galas from the past 15 years.  It’s pretty sad and I guess in a way, it shows how little I care about TVB nowadays compared to the past. 

The only 2 things I remember from this year’s anniversary gala were also the 2 best segments of the entire show and in the spirit of giving credit where it’s due, I will give TVB a rare pat on the back for both these segments (don’t get used to it though, lol).  The first segment I thought was done well this year was, surprisingly, the anniversary gala skit – this time around, the skit was actually kind of funny (I have no problems admitting that I got a few laughs out of watching certain artists make fools of themselves):  Wayne actually made me laugh when he resurrected his classic imitation of Roman Tam, I chuckled when Raymond Cho imitated Wayne, and yes, FAMA was hilarious with their imitations of Dodo Cheng and Eric Tsang (and watching Eric “beat them up” afterwards was funny too, lol).  Of course, when I compare this year’s skit to the “classic” ones from the older anniversary galas, it absolutely pales in comparisons – but taken by itself, there was obviously some thought and effort put into the skit this year and for that, I will give TVB some brownie points.

For me though, the biggest highlight of the entire show was the “Hidden Heroes” segment where TVB paid tribute to all the “green leaf” (supporting) artists who have worked for them over the years.  This segment was technically in two parts – the first part consisted of Fook Luk Sau (Wong Cho Lam, Louis Yuen, Johnson Lee) dressing up as comic book super heroes (Batman, Wonder Woman, and I can’t remember who the third one was) to battle 3 “enemy villains” played by veteran green leaf artists Law Lok Lam, Jimmy Au, and Lau Kong.  To be honest, the “fake battle” was kind of cheesy and if it weren’t for the 3 veterans, I probably would’ve stopped watching the segment altogether, but I’m glad I stuck with it because part two was truly AWESOME!  After the corny battle scene, FLS announced that there was actually more and when they turned around, all of the “green leaf” artists were standing on stage (the ones who attended the gala of course).  The first row of artists were specially chosen to represent the various types of “supporting” roles that we see often in TVB series and each of them were formally introduced as well as got the chance to say a few words to the audience.  I loved this segment and actually got a little teary-eyed seeing so many wonderful supporting actors / actresses up there finally getting the “5 minutes of fame” they deserve.  For once, TVB actually did the right thing by giving these unsung heroes (the true pillars of all TVB series) the credit they deserve and even though it still wasn’t enough time in my opinion (take parts one and two together and it was only about 15 minutes max), it’s already a huge improvement considering these artists usually get no recognition at all in past galas.  Again, to give credit where it’s due, kudos to TVB for thinking about the “green leaf” artists this time around and for putting together a segment that was truly memorable as well as fitting of a 50^th anniversary celebration (enjoy the praise while it lasts TVB because it’s rare for me to give any nowadays….).

Below I’ve included a link to part two of the “green leaf” artists tribute (on Youtube) as well as a brief “write-up” that HK01 did on the segment.  I hope you enjoy the segment as much as I did! 

One last note -- I’ve also done tributes to green leaf artists on my blog in the past and I honestly hope that other bloggers who follow the HK entertainment industry will do the same.  There is never enough recognition or credit given to supporting artists (mainstream media cares mostly about the lead/popular artists and/or artists who are controversial and constantly put themselves in the line of media fire), so whenever I see tributes of this sort to these “unsung heroes,” I have no problem heaping on the praise.  It’s a small token of my appreciation and gratitude for these artists’ unwavering dedication and efforts at making HK entertainment still worth following!

Video source: HK01 article

***REPOST*** Mingpao Interview with veteran actor Law Lok Lam: ‘Together at the other end of the world’

As most of you have probably noticed, I’ve been posting up quite a few articles that feature interviews with veteran TVB (or, in some cases, ‘formerly TVB’) ‘green leaf’ artists (aka ‘supporting artists’)  in the past few months.  Part of this is actually ‘intentional’ on my part because in all the years that I’ve been following HK entertainment, I’ve always felt that ‘supporting artists’ never get as much attention paid to them as leading artists do (well, by most ‘mainstream’ audiences at least), despite the incredible talent that they have.  Some of these artists toil diligently and endlessly for decades, yet are rarely ever ‘recognized’ by audiences or by the company they work for, which is truly very sad.  As I said in my earlier “tribute” post about green leaf / veteran artists (read it here), these artists are absolutely ‘essential’ to a TV series and in many cases, they are the ones who actually ‘carry’ the series from an ‘acting’ perspective.

Personally, I have a lot of respect for veteran artists, especially ‘green leaf’ ones and to be quite honest, there are many times where I would actually pay more attention to the supporting cast in a series than to the leads.  And of course, there will always be a soft spot in my heart for veteran artists whom I grew up watching back in the 80s (though many of them are no longer active in the industry nowadays).  This is one of the reasons why I decided to translate and post up so many interviews with these artists that I’ve come across in my ‘readings’, especially since many of today’s audiences may not know who these artists are and may not appreciate their talent or their contributions to the entertainment industry.  Hopefully, by doing this, I can do my part in helping to give these artists the long overdue ’15 minutes’ of exposure that they rarely get but absolutely deserve! 

With all that said, one thing I hope to do in the next couple months (hopefully if time permits) is translate and post up on my blog as many of the veteran/green leaf artist interviews as I can—both current interviews as well as older ones (believe it or not, the ones I’ve translated so far are just ‘scratching the surface’ – there are many more interviews with veteran/green leaf artists that came out in just this past year alone that I’ve been accumulating, but just didn’t get around to translating!). 

To kick things off, here’s an OLD interview from an old issue of Mingpao Weekly magazine (Issue# 2215) that was published back in April 2011 (almost 2 years ago).  I had actually translated and posted this interview on AF back then, but for some reason, forgot to post on my blog as well (can’t remember why)…anyway, this interview is with another one of my favorite veteran actors, one who is still active in TVB even today:  actor Law Lok Lam.  Those who followed HK television entertainment back in the 70s era probably remember Law Lok Lam when he used to play lead roles….but since most of us probably don’t remember back that far, I’m sure fans of TVB series from the 90s will probably remember the series Blood of Good and Evil (我本善良) [one of the best TVB series ever made in my opinion!] as well as Law Lok Lam’s critical role in that series.  Even though I’ve seen many of Law Lok Lam’s works and always enjoy his solid, versatile acting, I will say that his performance in BOGAE definitely had the biggest impact on me (partly because that series is one of my all time favorites – loved everything about that series!). 

Unfortunately though, Law Lok Lam has pretty much been relegated to playing minor roles in recent years – even though he is in a lot of series, very few of his roles have been significant or even memorable, which is absolutely a waste of his acting talent!   I sincerely hope that TVB learns to cherish their veteran artists more because these types of artists (versatile, experienced, solid actors/actresses) are very hard to come by – especially at this critical time when TVB already lost so many veteran artists (either to retirement or to rival stations) and therefore need to retain as many of these artists as they can.  Hopefully TVB 'gets the message' and does the right thing...

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Mingpao Interview with veteran actor Law Lok Lam: ‘Together at the other end of the world’

Article originally published in April 2011

Source:  HK Channel (Original Source:  Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2215)

Translation:  llwy12

Having to die 5 times in 24 hours, this type of career can be considered a ‘tragic drama’, but it can also be considered a ‘farce’ -- netizens composed a song entitled  ''同是天涯羅樂林'' for him and also gave him the title of ‘extraordinary person’.   Veteran actor Law Lok Lam (羅樂林) played the ‘first generation’ Yang Guo [TN:  the role Andy Lau made famous in Return of the Condor Heroes] in 1976, but never became popular or famous from that role. In the classic love story, Yang Guo waited for Siu Lung Nui for 16 years – a story that is at the same time inspiring yet tragic;  for Law Lok Lam, after several decades as a ‘green leaf actor’ (supporting actor), he suddenly becomes an international star – a situation that similarly evokes tears among laughter.

Law Lok Lam married at a young age and after having 2 daughters, he and his first wife divorced.  After that, he married actress Chan Po Yee (陳寶儀) and became famous actress Connie Chan Po Chu’s (陳寶珠) brother-in-law [TN:  Chan Po Yee is Connie Chan’s younger sister].  With those types of connections, Law Lok Lam could have lived a glamorous ‘star’ life, but instead, he chose a lifestyle that is both simple and unadorned – he enjoys going to the local open-air street market in Kowloon City to buy groceries and sometimes meets up with friends at a Kowloon City sushi restaurant for some drinks and chit-chat.  In fact, for this interview, he requested for the reporter to meet him in Kowloon City to chat over a meal of ox tendon noodles.  With regard to his lifestyle, Law Lok Lam expresses:  “I like ‘genuine’ -- to me, the worst thing in life is being ‘fake’.”

Whether it’s bumping into him in the street, seeing him at a local HK diner, or seeing him on TV for a ’24 hour’ timespan, Law Lok Lam indeed lives with us ‘under the same skyline’.

From a background dancer to one of director Chang Che’s core actors

Law Lok Lam was born in ChaoZhou, a prefecture in Guangdong, but immigrated to Macau in his teens.  In terms of education, he dropped out of school after his first year in high school and at the age of 14, came to Hong Kong with his family.  During those years, he worked at a plastics factory and was responsible for following the truck drivers on their trips to deliver freight.  As the only son in the family, Law Lok Lam decided to help out his father when he opened up a small travel agency a few years later, becoming a tour guide for the agency.  At the age of 23, during the last year that the Southern Drama Group (the Acting Class for Shaw Brothers artists) was in existence, he made it into the final class and studied there for 1 year.

“After I came out from the class, I was a ‘ke le fe’ (extra), pretty much just stood around and didn’t have any lines…once the stuntman finished his action sequence, I would lie down on the floor and be the corpse.”

When he first started 40 years ago, Law Lok Lam was already doing ‘death scenes’, so with his ‘expertise’ in this area, having to ‘die’ 5 times in 1 day is not unusual at all.  However, the job of an ‘extra’ was too low-paying, so luckily, he had a side job as dancer to help him earn more money.

“In the Acting Class, there was an instructor, Mrs. Ng, who taught dance – I would go with her to various dance performances, both big and small – even if most of the time, I was just part of the ‘background scenery’, I was satisfied because I was learning a lot and eventually, I became part of the dance group.  One time, director Chang Che (張徹) was filming a movie with John Chiang (姜大衞) and Tik Lung (狄龍) as the leads – there was a scene where he needed some dancers, so our group took on the task.  The director took notice of me and wrote my name down – a few months later, Shaw Brothers’ production department called me and said that director Chang Che recommended me to sign a contract with them.  That was when my acting career officially began.”

One would think that being able to join the Shaw Brothers Company, plus being part of director Chang Che’s designated group of actors, Law Lok Lam’s career should be bright and promising, right?  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, as the huge production company had very precise separations when it came to position and rank.

“I was not one of Chang Che’s ‘god-sons’ – his true god-sons were John Chiang, Tik Lung, Chan Koon Tai (陳觀泰), Danny Lee (李修賢).  However I did get to participate in almost every one of Chang Che’s films, so I guess you could say that I was a ‘core member’ of his acting troupe.”

So as a ‘core member’, it would make sense that Law Lok Lam should become a ‘martial arts actor’, since Chang Che’s forte was in martial arts action films, however his case was exactly opposite, as Chang Che wanted him to focus on artistic films instead.

“The film where I had the most screentime was Young People (年輕人), which I believe was Agnes Chan’s (陳美齡) first film – we were paired together in the film, she would play the guitar and sing while I danced.  After about 2-3 years with Shaw Brothers, I decided to leave, as my career wasn’t really going anywhere – Chang Che signed me, but didn’t use me for martial arts.  Coincidentally, at that time, there were also other directors outside who were willing to give me opportunities, so I left to shoot action films – it was pretty much after I left Chang Che that I became a martial arts actor.”

Kung Fan Hung was opposed to Law Lok Lam dating her daughter

With his heavyset features, Law Lok Lam was perfect for the martial arts action hero roles – indeed, he expressed that he has already forgotten how many action films he has done, but in most of them, the roles were mainly supporting.  In the late 1970s, he joined Commercial Television (佳藝電視) and got the chance to participate in their version of Legend of the Condor Heroes (射鵰英雄傳), where he played one of the Senior leaders of the Beggar Clan.   After that, he was chosen by producer Hsiao Sheng (蕭笙) to play the role of Yang Guo in the Commercial Television version of Return of the Condor Heroes (神鵰俠侶) -- at the age of 28, this was the first time that Law Lok Lam got the chance to be the male lead.

The steps that life takes can be very strange – for Law Lok Lam, he first had marriage before he had a career.  At 21, he got married and not too long after that, he had 2 daughters.

“My first wife was a distant relative of my cousin’s family.  I don’t know how to explain why we got married and why we divorced – all I can say is that when fate comes, you can’t push it away and when fate is at its end, you can’t force it to stay.”

After his divorce, Law Lok Lam met actress Chan Po Yee, who had just entered Commercial Television and had already made a deep impression on audiences with her performance in Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢).  Even though there was a big age difference between them, that didn’t stop them from falling deeply in love.  Chan Po Yee’s background is quite unique:  her biological parents separated when she was very little and she ended up being adopted by a neighbor -- renowned Cantonese opera star Kung Fan Hung (宮粉紅).  Her older sister Connie Chan [Po-Chu] was also adopted by Kung Fan Hung from a young age, however the relationship between the sisters and their adoptive mother was very close.   When Law Lok Lam and Chan Po Yee first started dating, Kung Fan Hung was opposed to their union.

“I call Kung Fan Hung ‘Mom’ and have the utmost respect for her.  At that time, it made sense that Mom would want her daughter to marry someone who was more of a match for the family in terms of status and background.  Even though I had lead roles during that time, I was still a ‘small actor’ after all, so it was natural for Mom to be opposed.  I did not purposefully try to do anything to change Mom’s view of me – as she got to know me better, she eventually saw what type of person I was.  That’s how my personality is – I hate being ‘fake’;  it’s very easy to deceive others and pretend that I’m a very good person, but to be honest, the deception won’t last long and the truth will eventually come out.  Later on, Mom ended up loving me like her son and we were all very happy together.”

Law Lok Lam calls sister-in-law Connie Chan “3^rd Sister”;  even though he is brother-in-law of such a famous star, he expresses that he does not feel any pressure at all – he still takes the bus and the subway whenever he needs to go somewhere, he still goes to the street markets to buy groceries, etc. – basically, he continues to be himself and because of that he is able to live a relaxing life.

“Connie is a woman whom I respect a lot.  In my life, there are 2 ‘seniors’ [in the industry] whom I respect the most – one is ‘master of drama’ King Sir [Chung King Fai (鍾景輝)] and the other is 3^rd Sister [Connie].   3^rd sister’s absolute professionalism, her reverence toward her elders and those who once taught her – in today’s generation, it’s very hard to find these qualities.  Also, her piety and obedience toward her mother is absolutely admirable – she continued to live with Mom all these years, up until Mom passed away last year in her 90s [TN:  Kung Fan Hung passed away after she was rushed to the hospital when she fainted right before Connie’s Cantonese opera performance at HK Coliseum last year].  The piety and strength that she showed during that difficult time deeply moved me – the goodness that she shows toward others is not reliant on words alone, she truly demonstrates it through her actions.  Her fans are very loyal to her and every year, during the Lunar New Year holiday, they would bring their children and families to come give her well wishes…very amazing!”

A loner

When Commercial Television abruptly closed down in the late 1970s, Law Lok Lam was not only out of a job, he also was not able to get back the salary that he was still owed.  Luckily, almost immediately, Rediffusion Television [TN:  ATV’s predecessor] hired him – not long after that, his youngest daughter was born.  Soon, Law Lok Lam and his wife Chan Po Yee as well as their 3 daughters became a ‘celebrity family’ that would show up in the news every so often.

“Alex Man (萬梓良) and I were sworn brothers, so when my youngest daughter was born, he ‘adopted’ her as a god-daughter.  Even though we were from different backgrounds – he is Hakka and I am ChaoZhao – we got along quite well and always had a lot to talk about.  Alot of people say that Alex is a very ‘explosive’ person, but I didn’t think he was too bad.”

From one of Commercial Television’s ‘siu sangs’ (male lead) to ATV ‘zong sang’ (middle-aged male lead) to TVB ‘green leaf king’ (supporting actor), Law Lok Lam admits that as he got older, he started to change.  In the past, he loved to hang out with groups of friends, going to bars, playing Mahhjong, etc. – pretty much he liked to socialize and be around people.   Now, he has become more of a ‘loner’ who enjoys going to Kowloon City in the middle of the night and having a drink or two.

“At my age, it’s not unusual at all.   I like going out by myself to study the script for the series I’m filming and prepare for the next day’s work – it’s very relaxing and I’ve never felt bored.  Actually, I do have a lot of friends in various places – at night, no matter which eatery I go to, I know almost everyone at all the tables, so I don’t feel as though I’m all alone by myself.  And for those who say that I am trying to ‘drink away my troubles’ with alcohol – well, just because I have a few drinks does not mean I’m drunk or do crazy things.  Actually, people say that my ‘alcohol disposition’ is very good  -- in my case, I’m ‘enjoying’ alcohol, not ‘abusing’ it.”

Law Lok Lam admits that he is a bit of a wine connoisseur – he enjoys drinking whiskey, red wine, and brandy the most.  Many of the things that he had once ‘obsessed’ over in his life he has been able to give up – except wine.

“I understand that the benefits of wine are very few and in fact, it does more harm than good.  But I had already given up smoking decades ago and gambling too (in the past, I would often meet up with friends and we’d go play mahjong or bet on horse racing) – the only thing left now is wine.  Don’t tell me to give up wine because if I do, then everything’s over – if one day, I eventually do give up wine as well, then that means that my body is sending me a message to stop.  Everyone needs to have a hobby – I’m in my 60s now and if I had to give up wine too, then I don’t know what else I can do.”

In a different world from his wife

With his sudden popularity, there have been rumors recently of possible trouble with Law Lok Lam’s marriage to Chan Po Yee and that they still remain together purely because of their daughter.  Though he admits that he and Po Yee have been sleeping in separate rooms for quite some time, he denies any problems with his marriage.

“Back when we were dating, of course there was a lot of passion and happiness, just like what any other young couple would experience.  But as time goes on, the passion will lessen and no matter how vigorous our love was back then, love will eventually turn into affection and affection will eventually become ordinary.  I will very honestly tell you that after so many years together, there are many aspects of our relationship that are different now – the most obvious is religion.  In the past, both of us were Buddhists – every morning, I had a ritual of getting up and cleaning out the water on the blessing altar and lighting an incense stick before going to work.  My wife is a Christian now, so with our religions being different, our circle of friends is different as well – she has her world and I have mine.”

His wife is an insurance agent now, so she has more opportunities to attend social events necessary for her work – Law Lok Lam still enjoys a simple life and keeps social events to a minimum.  His biggest ‘extracurricular activity’ is hanging out in Kowloon City – even though he and his family already moved from Kowloon City to Clearwater Bay decades ago, he still has a special place in his heart for the city and in his spare time, still goes back to the local shops and eateries there.

“A lot of people think that I still live in Kowloon City – even the local police think that I am a Kowloon City resident because they see me around so much when they’re walking their beats around the city.  Sometimes, I would go to Kowloon City two to three times a day for various things – yes, there are supermarkets everywhere, but when I go to the market, I always choose to go to the ones in Kowloon City.”

Today, prior to our interview, Law Lok Lam allowed us to follow him around so we could understand a typical day for him (on days he doesn’t have to work, that is).  First, he goes to a vegetarian restaurant for some dim sum and 2 pots of very strong tea (to ‘clean the insides’, he says), then he takes us to a local diner for a simple meal of ox tendon noodles.  If he doesn’t have to work, then he follows his routine of going to the Kowloon City street market to buy fresh groceries, after which he goes home and cooks dinner for his wife and housekeeper (domestic helper). 

“The housekeeper doesn’t know how to cook – her job is mainly to clean the house and take care of the dogs – so I usually cook for the family.  If I have to work that night, then they usually eat take out.”

Not enough money to retire

At home, he tightly guards his kitchen; at TVB, he tightly guards his supporting actor position, working hard behind the scenes without complaint or fanfare – surprisingly, television fans were still able to ‘notice’ that he had ‘died’ 5 times in 5 different TV series within 24 hours – I guess you could consider that a type of accomplishment.

“It’s the same with all jobs – the most important thing is to actually do the work. Like with this instance, if I hadn’t filmed so many series, then there wouldn’t be the ‘coincidence’  that occurred – a lot of things were meant to be.  I don’t really choose which series I participate in – to be honest, at my age, it’s not up to me to choose anyway.”

This month, Law Lok Lam has 3 series that he is filming at once – he expresses that his ‘record’ was actually filming 5 to 6 series all at once;  in fact, there have been instances where in one night, all 3 third-line series that were airing had him in it.  With so much effort that he puts into filming series, does he feel that what he is getting in return is comparable?

“For a Hong Kong artist, it’s considered comparable.  But with my career path – doing lead roles in my youth and still working hard decades later – if I were in an international arena, I would probably have several houses, cars, and even bodyguards, by now.  However in Hong Kong, I am only an ordinary person – that’s the way things work.  If I were to constantly think about that kind of stuff, I would be depressed all the time.  That’s why I don’t think about it – as long as I still have money to pay for wine and can still buy the things that I (and my family) like to eat, then it’s OK.”

It’s hard for outsiders to understand the ‘plight’ that TVB artists endure and for most (including Law Lok Lam), the ‘suffering’ is often in silence.

“Not enough sleep, filming all day and all night – this kind of procedure is definitely problematic and you won’t find it anywhere else in the world.  The physical demands of filming a series is quite high – for example, filming two series at the same time, there is a high possibility that you won’t get to sleep for 1-2 days straight.  I’m already in my 60s – occasionally, I still have to do martial arts scenes, ride horses, wear thick ancient costumes in the scalding heat, take off my costume and have water poured on me in freezing cold weather, etc.  If one day, you want to continue filming but your body is no longer able to endure it, then you know the day has come for retirement.  If you were to ask me right now whether I have enough ‘qualifications’ for retirement, I would tell you ‘no’ – I haven’t earned enough money yet.”

Law Lok Lam laughs that he has been in the industry for over 40 years already and still, he only knows how to act, but doesn’t know how to invest, and especially doesn’t know how to do business.  As for when he will be able to retire, well, he’ll have to wait and see what the Heavens arrange.

Epilogue

Law Lok Lam only has a first year high school education, however oftentimes, he is chosen to play roles of famous professionals or generals.  His performance as famous general Yuen Sai Hoi in the series In the Chamber of Bliss (蔡鍔與小鳳仙) received much praise – Law Lok Lam expressed that his ‘research’ for the character wasn’t reliant on reading books, but rather on his ‘drinking’ habit. 

“In the process of going out for my drinks, I actually learn a lot.  Believe it or not, a lot of highly educated professionals actually like to come out for a drink at night too, so sometimes we would drink together – I would ask them what type of a person Yuen Sai Hoi was and they would tell me a lot of stories.   I also like to drink herbal tea, so on one of my trips to Kung Wo Tong [TN:  a famous herbal tea shop in HK], I met a business person who is very knowledgeable in Chinese history, medicine, and herbs, so for my character in The Herbalist’s Manual (本草藥王) for example, that’s how I did my research.”

Ever since his accomplishment of ‘dying 5 times in 24 hours’ made international news headlines, Law Lok Lam’s ‘drinking buddies’ have ‘celebrated’ by drinking the best wines with him – hopefully now, people will no longer think that he is ‘using’ alcohol to ‘drink away his troubles’ anymore.

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

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

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

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

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


CAST / CHARACTERS

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

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

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

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

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

Ok, now on to the REAL cast…..

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

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


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

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

Eddie / Kathy pairing:

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


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

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


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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


SCRIPT / STORYLINE

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

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

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



CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

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

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