Review of “Forensic Heroes 3 法證先鋒III” (2011)

Cast (partial list of the main & supporting cast): Wayne Lai (黎耀祥), Maggie Cheung (張可頤), Ron Ng (吳卓羲), Kate Tsui (徐子珊), Nancy Wu (胡定欣), Yuen Wah (元華), Edwin Siu (蕭正楠), Aimee Chan (陳茵媺), Ram Tseung (蔣志光), Ruco Chan (陳展鵬)

I finished watching FH3 a few weeks ago (simultaneous broadcast with HK), however I actually put off writing a review about this series until now -- mostly because the series sort of wore me out after watching the finale and I really didn't feel like talking about it any more (I guess you could say that I was just glad it was finally over).

Now, don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying that this series was entirely bad because to be honest, I've seen way way worse (and as I will mention later, there were definitely some 'enjoyable' moments in the series) -- but by the same token, compared to many of the other TVB series that I've seen, this one definitely doesn't live up to my standards (now that I think about it though, how many TVB series from the last decade have lived up to my standards? not very many!). I actually wanted to use the word "disappointing" to describe my feeling towards this series, but after thinking about it further, it's really not accurate to say that I was "disappointed" in this series because in actuality, I didn't have any expectations of this series going into it (I've learned to stop 'expecting' anything from TVB series anymore...LOL). In fact, I wasn't even planning on watching the series in the first place, since when I first heard a few years ago that they were going to do FH3 but was going to change the cast, I was quite bitter about it (come on now -- Forensic Heroes is not the same without Bobby and Frankie, just like Burning Flame is not the same without Wong Hei) -- and quite honestly, based on the 'original' storyline concept for FH3 (the one that TVB pitched during their sales presentation a few years ago), I was actually planning on "boycotting" the series altogether (those who watched that sales presentation or read the original concept summary will probably know why I felt that way at the time). Anyway, it's a moot point now, but needless to say, at that time, I was quite ticked off, so pretty much the series didn't start off on the right foot with me, even as far back as the 'conceptual' beginning (prior to it becoming the series it eventually became). The only reason why I decided to give the series a chance was pretty much because of Wayne (and the fact that there was nothing else interesting to watch on TV, since the other series airing around the same time were extremely boring). More about Wayne's role later....

Before I go any further....for those of you who are regular readers of my reviews of TVB series (thank you!), I'm actually going to do this review a bit differently than the other ones I've done in the past. Instead of doing an in-depth analysis of each character / artist like I normally do, I'm going to take a different approach and basically just talk about my 'likes' and 'dislikes' about the series in general (figured that this was the easiest way to do this particular review).

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STORYLINE / SCRIPT

One of my biggest "issues" with this series was the seriously flawed script -- there were so many things that didn't make sense, it totally detracted from the series as a whole and made it difficult to enjoy watching it (for me at least). Over the many years that I've been following TVB and HK entertainment, I've watched plenty of TVB series and I can honestly say that I can't recall encountering a series (that I've watched from beginning to end that is) with as many 'head-scratching', 'what-the-heck' moments as this one (and I'm not exaggerating either -- I was pretty much able to find at least 1 thing from each episode that fit into the "WTH" category!). I don't know if the writers were under pressure to produce the script in a short amount of time so they rushed things without realizing it or if there was a particular intention behind the way the script was written (I'm leaning toward the latter, since the 2 writers Choi Ting Ting and Leung Mun Wah are experienced scriptwriters), but whatever the reason, the fact is that the script was very poorly written.

Amongst the most "glaring" of flaws in the script (series) was the very obviously 'rushed' storyline -- the writers didn't spend enough time developing the areas that should have been developed (for example, the relationships of the various characters, some of the details of certain cases, etc.) and instead wasted alot of time with cases that were boring and lame (i.e. that case about the tenants and the owner of a building where the tenant dies after slipping in the bathroom and also that cosplay case near the end of the series, just to name a few). I understand that with these types of series, the premise is about crime-solving, so that should definitely be the focus, but the relationships of the characters are important as well, since, as humans, we spend most of our lives interacting with each other – so in series like these, it’s necessary to have a good balance of both. Unfortunately though, the writers didn’t do a very good job in this area….not only that, but the lack of development in the relationships with this particular series had a significant impact for me because throughout the whole time that I watched, I didn’t feel anything for any of the main pairings – it was almost as though I could care less who was paired up with whom (of course, part of this could have also been due to the lack of chemistry between the artists themselves).

Here are a few examples of the “rushed” parts that I had a problem with (not an all-inclusive list):

.-- Nancy / Wayne divorce – the way the writers wrote the divorce storyline between Nancy and Wayne’s characters was way too ‘purposeful’ to be realistic. Considering how long they had been together as a loving couple, plus they had a daughter that they needed to think about, I was surprised at how quickly they reached the decision to divorce (and pretty much over 1 incident too). The feeling I got was that they went from being the ‘model couple’ one minute to a ‘I don’t love you anymore and can’t stand the way you operate’ relationship the next minute. And of course, this whole thing pretty much happened over the course of like 1 episode (actually, not even, since there was other stuff interspersed throughout the episode) – plus with the way the whole thing played out, I definitely got the impression that neither character (Wayne and Nancy) was too emotional / distraught over the breakup (so maybe they didn’t really love each other that much after all). In any case, the way that whole piece was written was definitely lacking.

.-- Maggie / Ruco breakup – ok, I have to say that as much as I disliked the way the writers handled Nancy and Wayne’s divorce, the way that they handled Maggie and Ruco’s breakup was way worse….in fact, it was so lame and stupid, it’s not even funny! Sure, it’s not like they spent a lot of time developing Maggie and Ruco as a couple in the first place, but at least the writers did bring them together over the course of a few episodes (well, I guess you could say half the series) and up until the point they broke up, there was no indication whatsoever that they were incompatible or planning to separate in any way. Then, at the end of one of the episodes, they ‘suddenly’ mutually realize that they don’t love each other as they thought they did and literally within like 1 scene, they decide to part ways. WTH??? It was so totally random and came out of nowhere that it left me wondering what the whole point was of having Ruco and Maggie together in the first place! Oh, and at least with Nancy and Wayne, they had 1 episode to ‘divorce’ – with Ruco and Maggie, it was like 1-2 scenes max (and at the end of an episode too – by the first scene of the next episode, Ruco’s character was already ‘gone’)….how lame! If they were going to write the breakup this way, then they shouldn’t have put Ruco and Maggie together from the beginning (they definitely could have had Ruco participate in the series without making him a ‘love interest’ for Maggie)!

.-- Wayne / Maggie relationship – with the ‘rushed’ way that the breakups of the 2 main characters were done, it definitely seemed to me that the main purpose of the entire series (from a relationship perspective at least) was to have Wayne and Maggie become a couple. It’s almost as though the writers were trying to say ‘let’s get their previous relationships over with so we can get the 2 of them together’. (The two of them got together pretty much right after Maggie and Ruco broke up, plus the lame way that they did that breakup made it too obvious that the Wayne/Maggie get-together was their main objective). To be honest, I wasn’t too keen on Wayne and Maggie as a couple because I felt that their characters lacked chemistry -- to me, there was actually no difference in their relationship prior to them becoming a couple (when they worked together as partners in the forensics team) and afterwards….


The other major flaw with the script (as far as I noticed at least) was the ‘randomness’ of some of the elements / scenes / characters related to each of the cases. There were some characters and scenes ‘interspersed’ in the series that were completely irrelevant to the development of the storyline and seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever (pretty much you could take those characters out and it would have very little, if any, impact to the script / series). This actually got annoying after awhile because it didn’t just happen once or twice – it was a recurring ‘issue’ throughout the entire series.

A few of the most obvious examples of this:

.-- The ‘nephew scene’ during the tenants vs landlord case (which was already a lame case to begin with) – the guy who played the nephew (whom I found out later was one of the newer Mr HKs) only appeared for like 10 seconds in one scene (he basically had one line of dialogue), then disappeared and was never heard from again. He was mentioned briefly later on during the investigation of the case (yea, for like a minute), but turns out he had nothing to do with the case whatsoever. So what was the point in putting his character in there, especially if he was going to appear for only a few seconds and had nothing to do with the case? Totally didn’t get that part…

.-- Sire Ma’s brief appearance during the case about the murder of the college student was totally random as well. She was only in 2 scenes and had probably about 5 lines of dialogue – her total screentime was probably close to 10 minutes or so (maybe even less). I mean, I could understand putting her in the series if her character had anything at all to do with the case, but she didn’t – she was pretty much just the murdered guy’s ex-girlfriend and was never even considered as a suspect in the case. Totally random character…

.-- Felix Lok’s character was another random one that the writers put in there for no significant reason. He was literally only in 1 scene at the end of an episode, though they did talk about his character a little bit in one of the scenes prior to that. Basically, in those 2 scenes, they made him out to be some sort of powerful mob boss / businessman whom Nancy decides to work for (that’s part of her reasoning for divorcing Wayne and leaving for the U.S.) – based on the way that set things up, made it seem like he would play a significant role in one of the future cases perhaps. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case at all -- after that, his character is not mentioned again until Nancy returns – but even then, the ‘mention’ is lame because he isn’t involved with any type of case. Even with the case involving Nancy at the end of the series, he was completely irrelevant – they pretty much ‘mentioned’ that he was still in the U.S. and was sick on his deathbed (or something like that) and that’s it – never mentioned again. Huh? What was the point of his character then?

The above is just scratching the surface – there were a lot more instances / characters that were ‘interspersed’ the same way. After watching this series, it totally made me question the experience of the scriptwriters (the horribly written script made it seem like newbies who didn’t know what they were doing actually wrote it) and what they were thinking when putting together this script. It was definitely annoying to say the least.

Despite all of the ‘shortcomings’ of the script, there WERE a few enjoyable moments in the series, but unfortunately, not enough for me to ‘overlook’ the flaws. Still, here’s a brief mention of some of the ‘highlights’ of the series for me:

.-- Nancy’s court scenes and her ‘showdown’ with Wayne and Yuen Wah (who played Wayne’s father) during that one murder case involving the rich guy were definitely exceptional and well done. I literally was at the edge of my seat watching those scenes – too bad that it was short-lived though.

.-- The case involving Ram Tseung’s son in the series (the murder of the college student case) was very interesting as well and for me, it was probably one of the best cases in the series (partly because it wasn’t as easy to guess the killer). Another reason why I enjoyed that case was because Ram was heavily involved in those few episodes – since he’s one of my favorite ‘green leaf’ actors, it was definitely a ‘treat’ for me!

.-- Yuen Wah’s character was hilarious (without intending to be) – I enjoyed almost all of his scenes, especially the one in particular with Angela Tong’s character. It’s sort of sad that even though Yuen Wah didn’t have very much screentime, I absolutely enjoyed his performance over everyone else’s – even the main leads.

.-- Ruco’s character is another one that I enjoyed – in fact, I was one of those people who liked his pairing with Maggie (just about the only ‘pairing’ that I liked and felt a connection to in the entire series) – but the stupid writers had to go ruin it with that lame breakup thing that I mentioned earlier! Plus his screentime was way less than Yuen Wah’s and the way they ‘wrote him out of the series’ was quite dumb (and didn’t make sense). For me, the entire series pretty much went downhill after that -- well, it was already starting to go downhill before that quite honestly, but at least there were still scenes worth watching – but after Ruco’s case, the remaining episodes were so boring, I pretty much lost interest and stopped paying attention to the series until the finale episode.

.***.

CAST / CHARACTERS

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m not going to do a detailed character analysis in this review, as I feel it would be a waste of time to do so, especially since many people have already seen this series.

Therefore, just some brief thoughts:

.-- Wayne Lai (Pro Sir) – as much as I love Wayne, I really feel that the character of Pro Sir doesn’t suit him all that much. With Wayne’s caliber of acting, this particular character is way too easy for him and in my opinion, is a complete waste of his talent (literally, he can do that character in his sleep!). He needs more dynamic, challenging roles (ones with more depth) that will truly be able to showcase his talent. Hopefully, Wayne chooses his roles more carefully in the future – with his status and position, he can definitely afford to be picky with his roles and not just take whatever (crappy) roles TVB gives him!

.-- Maggie Cheung (Dr. Chung) – Out of all of the 90s fa dans, Maggie has always been near the bottom of my list – nothing against her personally or her acting, it’s just that she has never been my ‘cup of tea’ when it comes to actresses that I enjoy watching -- so to me, her participation in this series doesn’t make much of a difference to me. Overall, I would say that Maggie did a pretty good job in her role as forensic pathologist Dr. Mandy Chung – she was convincing enough in the role and handled the complicated dialogue quite well. Other than that, I don’t really have much opinion on her performance.

.-- Ron Ng (Wind Sir) & Kate Tsui (Madam Ling) – I’m not fond of either artist, so didn’t really pay a whole lot of attention to their scenes…but even then, it was definitely obvious that their characters were ‘second fiddle’ to Wayne and Maggie’s. Honestly, I really didn’t see the value of Ron and Kate’s cop characters because it’s not like they were the ones doing most of the crime-solving anyway – in most of the episodes, it actually seemed as though Wayne and Maggie were the cops instead of Ron and Kate, since they were almost always present when the ‘big reveal’ occurred in many of the episodes (which is one of the other things that didn’t make sense about the script, but oh well). Their roles definitely weren’t memorable and in my opinion, any one of the current TVB 2nd line artists could have done the same role and it wouldn’t have mattered (actually, the other artists may even be able to do it better!).

.-- Nancy Wu (Pro Sir’s wife Eva Chow) – Nancy’s character definitely stood out in this series, as her character was quite strong and she had some of the best scenes -- her portrayal of a lawyer was very convincing and her court-scenes were well-acted. But too bad that her character changed in the latter half of the series after returning from the U.S. (she quit her attorney job and became a freelance writer for a legal journal) – basically, her role became more of a ‘vase’ character later on in the series, which was really dumb of the writers to do when her character had so much potential in the first half of the series. Not sure what the reasoning was behind why her character was written this way, but I know that if I were writing the script, I would definitely have written her character differently, perhaps even making her role more significant than Kate’s (since the cops in this series were pretty useless anyway). The writers pretty much wasted the character’s potential.

.-- Yuen Wah (Uncle Hing) – Yuen Wah’s role as Wayne’s dad in the series was actually quite enjoyable. His somewhat comical character (not purposefully comical, but he just came across that way) provided an interesting juxtaposition to Wayne’s ‘serious’ Pro Sir role. I will admit that I had my doubts at first with how Yuen Wah would fit into the role given his background (I always think of him as a kungfu guy) and with Wayne’s character being so serious and professional, but it actually worked out just fine in my opinion. In fact, I liked the chemistry he and Wayne had as father and son and definitely would have liked to see more scenes of them together. Oh, and I must mention that the scene with Angela Tong (where Yuen Wah thinks she is interested in his son and so tries to play matchmaker for them, only to find out that she is actually interested in him) was absolutely hilarious – I got quite a few good laughs out of that part! And there were other great scenes involving Yuen Wah as well (i.e. the court scene with Nancy, his reaction afterwards, etc.) – both serious and comical – that were thoroughly enjoyable. He was definitely my favorite character in the series.

.-- Ruco Chan (Jim Fong) – I liked Ruco’s performance, but unfortunately, he had WAY too little screentime – which also means that his character wasn’t developed enough for me to ‘enjoy’ his character as much as Yuen Wah’s. I really feel that they should have given Ruco a more significant role in the series (and develop his character more) because the little screentime that he had just wasn’t enough. In my opinion, they (the writers / producer) should have just cut Ron and Kate roles (or reduce their screentime if they wanted to keep them) and expanded Ruco and Nancy’s roles because both of them definitely outshined the ‘main’ characters in this series.

.***.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Overall, I would say that this series fell into the ‘tolerable’ category for me: the first half of the series had some good potential, but the second half of the series was sort of bad – the series definitely has that typical ‘strong start, weak ending’ element that is notorious in many of TVB’s series nowadays.

Of course, it’s hard to write a review about FH3 without mentioning FH1 and FH2, since the series IS supposed to be a “sequel” after all (though this installment has absolutely nothing to do with the first 2 in terms of storyline and cast). Without going into a huge comparison / analysis thing (because honestly, FH2 and FH3 can’t compare with the original), I will say that, as part of the same franchise, FH3 definitely did not live up to its hype. I absolutely adored the first installment of FH and the awesome chemistry that the original cast (Bobby, Frankie, Yoyo, and yes, even Linda) had – plus the cases were well-written and the storyline was fast-paced enough without rushing through things ( it’s one of the few series from the post 2000 era that I actually like and can re-watch over and over again without getting bored). FH2 ruined that chemistry with the addition of Charmaine and Kevin, thereby resulting in a reduction in screen time for the original cast (so that the focus could be on 2006’s TV King and Queen, no doubt) – in my opinion though, the script was already poorly written starting with that installment (as I remember there were a lot of scenes that didn’t make sense in that installment as well, though not to the extent of FH3)…the only ‘redeeming factor’ for FH2 that made it watchable was the fact that it still had Bobby and Frankie, so it was less of a struggle to sit through (since I could just forward through other people’s scenes). Now with FH3, not only was the cast completely changed and the characters poorly developed, the script was also poorly written – for me, those 2 factors alone made the installment worse than the previous two.

Lastly, I’d like to briefly talk about the ratings for FH3 – those who know me know that I’ve never been one to care much about ratings, since to me, ratings mean nothing when it comes to determining a ‘quality’ series (high ratings DOES NOT EQUAL quality!). In the HK entertainment industry especially, TV ratings mean absolutely nothing given that the entire industry is monopolized by only 1 TV station (which means that HK audiences pretty much don’t have a choice in terms of which TV station to watch, so naturally the ratings would be high, since basically the entire region watches the same station). I personally feel that the HK media’s obsession with TV ratings is stupid given the dynamics I just described, but for the sake of argument, I will ‘entertain’ the ratings thing for a second – when FH3 aired in HK, its ratings were so high that it became the ‘highest rated series’ of 2011, taking the #1 spot from the Laughing Gor series “Lives of Omission” (for me, the only ‘good’ thing about FH3’s ratings is that it knocked LOO out of the #1 spot – nothing satisfies me more than seeing another series finally beat the crap out of that arrogant Laughing Gor, even if it’s something as stupid as meaningless TV ratings!). Ironically, out of all the FH installments, FH3 was the highest rated, even though it was the worst one of the 3…go figure! Well, whatever – my viewing habits and opinions toward TVB series are rarely in line with the brainwashed HK audiences’ anyway.

One last thought….obviously, I’m not too fond of this series, but if you were to ask me whether I recommend it or not – well, it depends on what context we’re looking at. If you’re looking at 2011 TVB series only, then sure, this series was probably one of the better ones in the bunch (after “Sentinel”, FH3 was the only other series from this year that I was able to sit through from beginning to end), but it definitely was NOT the best series of 2011. If you’re looking at the entire FH franchise (or if you’re like me and have a certain affinity for the original FH series), then no, I wouldn’t recommend it because most likely you will get ticked off (as I did) at how TVB ruined yet another ‘franchise’!

Review of "When Lanes Merge 情越雙白線"

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

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

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

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

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

Here are some of the highlights:

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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


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

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


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

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

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Concluding thoughts:

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

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