‘Bet Hur’ (賭城群英會) is a TVB drama directed by famous film director, Wong Jing that revolves on revenge started from a lost in a gambling match between two masters. The revenge continues to the younger generations. The drama is categorized as a gambling drama but gambling is only present on the first and the last episode of the whole 35-episodes series. I was very excited for this drama back then because it is a huge production drama and it has a great cast including those we have long not seen in television before such as Patrick Tse, Nat Chan, and Monica Chan. The drama also starred Kenneth Ma, Charmaine Sheh, Raymond Wong, Samantha Ko, Dominic Ho, Carlo Ng, Joseph Lee, Connie Man, Matt Yeung, Louisa Mak, etc.

What do I think of the drama? One word: Lousy! The drama’s title itself gives a huge false impression. It is so misleading. I am expecting a drama filled with intense gambling, dramatic action scenes and suspenseful plots. I ended up seeing a drama with extremely poor story, illogical plot that doesn’t flow cohesively, and emphasizes more on boring love storyline. I can only see gambling on the first and the last episodes of the drama. That’s it. No thrilling actions or plots going in between. The huge amount of time given to develop the romantic relationship between Dominic Ho and the other two girls is so unnecessary and irrelevant to the whole story. Even the love storyline between Kenneth Ma and Charmaine Sheh is not developed to that level. Everything is not balanced.

The presence of heavyweight cast in this series is a total missed opportunity. They are some great scenes for them to showcase their acting (especially some explosive or death scenes) but they are not enough to save the whole drama. It is a waste to their talents. Nevertheless, Kenneth Ma do has one scene that is amazing but that doesn’t help to push him for any award recognition this year. The old veteran that acted as the nemesis of Patrick Tse in the drama is very poor on voicing out his lines. I always cannot hear what he said. Patrick looks cool at his age but his role is so ’empty’. Nat Chan and Monica Chan couldn’t act and shouldn’t be here at all. Louisa Mak, a newbie actress, performed badly but can be forgiven since this is her first time acting. Her crying (Nat Chan’s crying too) scenes in this drama are awful. Raymond Wong and Connie Man’s characters are very minor and it makes me feel as though they are added to the story just to join in the fun.

I can literally call this drama a rubbish. There is literally nothing going on for almost 30 episodes of the drama. And as the drama nears its ending, the scriptwriter decided to kill as many characters as he/she wants. So many deaths, and surprisingly, I’m not feeling anything. The whole story is badly written. And how about the conclusion? Another bad conclusion. Kenneth’s character has to have evil intentions and has to kill innocent people to win in the end. And he is not going to jail for that? Hmm…that is sending out a bad message to audiences. Charmaine’s character made a good decision to leave him. The only happy thing is at least that the whole bad family is now gone, and the scriptwriter decided to stress on that again and again in the last episode. That is so not necessary.

Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Bet Hur’ a total of 5.0. Out of that 5, 3 points are for the stars and 2 points are for the production effort. No point at all for the story. It’s a total crap. Very disappointed with this series. Let’s get this series out of the mind and I now look forward to the next TVB drama ‘The Unholy Alliance’.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

‘A General, A Scholar And An Eunuch’ (超時空男臣) is a science-fiction comedy drama by Hong Kong’s TVB. Based on the theme of time traveling, it tells the story of three imperial officials from Ming dynasty who accidentally traveled to modern day China while searching for a missing princess. The 32-episode drama starred Edwin Siu, Raymond Cho, Matthew Ho, Grace Wong, Kristal Tin, Rebecca Zhu, David Chiang, James Ng, Tsui Wing, etc.

The series has just aired its final episode few hours ago. Finally, another TVB drama completely watched for this year. This is an interesting drama. A story about time travel. What could go wrong? The series started with many good laughs as the three officials have to adapt to the modern world. I can remember the first few episodes were seriously very funny. As the story progresses to more serious business involving Kristal’s restaurant, I am still engaged. However, I find that this drama is a bit draggy after episode 20. It loses appeal at that point but come back nicely in the last few episodes. The flow and the story would be much better if it is cut short to 28 episodes.

I noticed there are quite a number of illogical points or strange plotholes throughout the story especially when it nears its end. Well, I can ignore them since this drama is never about being logic in the first place. It was a fun premise, then added with some quick romance and challenges in businesses the modern-day characters have to encounter. I have to admit that the conclusion (final episode) was sad and appears more like an open ending. But after a second thought, I actually like this ending. It will be at least more memorable and stays away from typical happy-ending drama from TVB. Well, at least, Edwin finally admits in his heart that he do love Kristal.

Everyone in the cast did a good job in this drama. Kristal Tin has a lot of series coming up this year and I’m sure she was tired working on all of them. It must be stressful for her. However, she still managed to deliver to her role here as the anchor of the story. I’m still rooting for her to win Best Actress this year so far, not from this drama, but from ‘Destination Nowhere’ drama released earlier this year. I seldom see Edwin being good in taking on main lead role, but hey, he is actually not bad in here. His consistent posture and expression (to reflect his Ming dynasty period when he is a general) show how much he dedicated to this role. Grace Wong on the other hand is well known to be able to elevate her expression in her acting and still people don’t get disturbed by it. Due to this ability, she shined in all her recent roles including her award-winning role last year in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls.’

I do have fun watching this drama. A great and a hilarious beginning, a steady story development but a bit draggy in the middle, and an unusually sad yet memorable ending. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘A General, A Scholar And An Eunuch’ a total of 7.5. I’m guessing the four of them (including the princess portrayed by Grace) have no choice but to return to Ming dynasty to avoid rewriting the history that will affect its future (the present).

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Hmm…I was disappointed. That’s my feeling right after watching the final episode of ‘The Unholy Alliance’ (同盟) just now. It is an action crime-thriller television drama of 28 episodes produced by TVB that revolves on a modern Hong Kong crime family, led by the matriarch Ling Hung. She reunites with his son, Ko Tzi Kit who is sent to Taiwan to avoid any danger linked to the business empire her family is owning. That leads to many dangerous events and Ling Hung’s desire to leave the crime world. This drama is a follow-up production after the successful ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’ drama last year and brings back most of the cast and production crew members.

Why am I disappointed as mentioned earlier? The series started with a ‘bang’! Things are so intense and heart-stopping in every episodes. Yes, every episodes. There are suspenseful and chilling scenes in every episode. The story is fast-paced, the action sequences are awesome, the cast is doing great job (will talk more about it later), and every ending part of each episode had me yearning for more every day. This is a sign of an exciting series.

But then, as its last few episodes near, I sense downfall. The story just went downhill after Elena Kong is revealed to be the ultimate villain. I’m not saying her character is bad but every plots that are surfacing after her character is shown in the drama are terrible. Elena Kong is actually nailing this cool villain role and its definitely not her fault. It’s the storyline after her character appears that is so poorly written and messy. Those very awesome tricks in earlier episodes pulled of by Ling Hung (Nina Paw) are what made this drama intense. However, over usage of them in the last few episodes and with each covering very short span of the drama delivers no intensity. If you watched the drama, you will know what I mean. Short-lived plot twists….

Before the release of the final episode, everyone is guessing that Anthony (portrayed by Jazz Lam) is the ultimate big boss behind Kam Tien (Elena Kong). Even I am guessing the same too ever since the scene when he whispered something very evil to his brother, Ricky (Pierre Ngo) at the airport in earlier episode. There may be something evil behind this quiet kid. Yes, he is doing something wicked in the end but his character is immediately wiped out as he is not the main focus (the ultimate big boss). That role is revealed to be a group of four unknown wealthy men. This definitely puts me off. The last few episodes are messing the whole series up. It is this TVB’s recent pattern when they usually couldn’t finish a good series nicely.

How about the cast? Nina Paw did a good job taking on the role of Ling Hung. This is the first time I’m seeing her on television drama as she only works in film industry and has been crowned Film Queen before (won Best Actress in Hong Kong Film Awards). A great veteran actress. However, I find that her way of presenting her dialogue has been very rigid and being too similar (voice control and facial expression). The other two leads, Ruco Chan and Nancy Wu won both best actor and actress last year for their wonderful performances in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’. Can their winning continues to this year with their role in this sister production? Definitely no. They have no challenging roles here and their characters are too ordinary. Ruco’s sudden transition from a very naive innocent guy to an immoral and manipulative man (not considered evil but still cunning) in the last few episodes (you will notice even his clothing style changes) is too unbelievable. Many people are praising Mr Yik (portrayed by Jimmy Au) but I personally felt he is just fine. A tough guy with cool stunts delivered….nothing more. On the other hand, I have to say Joel Chan and Elaine Yiu did well. I’m supporting them for the best supporting actor and actress awards end of this year for their roles here. They are doing great. Joel is a very talented actor and his character is very likable (I thought his character would turn evil in the end, but he is a nice guy all the way to the end). Elaine nailed her role too which is very demanding as it requires a lot of emotional scenes as her character is stuck between her family (who are plotting to kill Ling Hung) and Ling Hung’s family.

So…the series is very impressive on its first three quarters. It then goes downhill to a poor and rushing script and disappointing conclusion. It would be much better if the production team placed more effort and thinking into the script for the plot’s ending and extends the drama to a little over 30 episodes. The drama should be fine (or even much better) with few more episodes. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Unholy Alliance’ a total of 7.8. If it does well on its ending part, I could have easily given this drama over 8. By the way, there are too much sexual innuendos going on between Ruco and Nancy. I knew this pairing is very much hyped now, but in real life, they are just friends. The producers made a bad decision to put in a lot of awkward sexual-related scenes for them in this drama. It felt distasteful and very unnecessary.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Before going with the drama review, I would like to take this opportunity to wish to all my Indian friends Happy Deepavali! This day reminds me of some warm and delightful Deepavali open houses that I have attended in the past, some very cool ‘kolam’ (artistic creation by using rice flour) that I have seen at malls, and some Bollywood films with excessive dancing or over-the-top scenes. Living in a multiracial country like Malaysia allows me to be exposed to variety of cultures and I’m loving it. Happy Deepavali once again!

Okay, now back to the review. ‘Line Walker: The Prelude’ is a Hong Kong drama that revolves on the effort of a police inspector on finding and working with his undercover agents in solving a large criminal case. It acts as a prequel to the successful 2014’s Line Walker that won Best Drama in that year’s TVB Anniversary Awards. Many of the original cast (Charmaine Sheh, Raymond Lam, Sammy Shum, etc) didn’t return but you can still catch a glimpse of their photographs in the final episode that tries to link back to the story in 2014’s series. Benz Hui and Michael Miu are back to lead this drama along with new cast (Priscilla Wong, Benjamin Yuen, Pakho Chau, Moses Chan, Jessica Hsuan, etc).  This new line-up of cast looks promising too.

Although this drama couldn’t live up to the intensity and the fast-paced flow of its predecessor, it is still an enjoyable drama to watch with decent story and performances. Moses Chan who portrayed the main villain in this drama is unconvincing. In 99% of his scenes, he only sat on a chair and gave out his speech (that’s so plain). He literally don’t need to do much for this drama. I couldn’t really see or feel his ‘bad’ or ‘powerful’ side in him except from his very quick and cool shooting scene in the very last episode. But that too is illogical. He can shoot around 10 person in a split second and not giving the others a chance to return fire in one scene (it shows how fast his skill is), and then get shot by Benz Hui’s character easily after that.

The ending is good but it could be better. The drama should just end with the scene of Kenneth Ma loading a gun and mentioning that he will be taking revenge on behalf of his brother (Moses Chan). He looks great as a villain and I really hope to see him in the next one since the ending gave a big hint that the series will continue again before the event in the first ‘Line Walker’ series. And then there was this scene of Benz Hui and Pakho Chau in Thailand. How can Pakho suddenly came back and didn’t die from severe gunshots in earlier episode? I prefer his character to die and it will give more sense and meaning to the ending. He just left Hong Kong and stay with Benz in Thailand. For me, it was a very irresponsible act especially to Benjamin Yuen, Priscilla Wong and Michael Miu. On the other hand, I think Pakho is still not comfortable in filming drama (he has acted in many films previously but never in drama before). I can feel that his performance in here is a bit unnatural and restrained. Priscilla Wong and Benjamin Yuen are good but they are still not ending up together (what a pity since Benjamin did a lot for Priscilla but she just couldn’t sense it) even after Pakho’s ‘departure’. Recent Miss Hong Kong winner, Louisa Mak has been criticized for her performance in ‘Bet Hur’ but she is actually doing quite well in here especially in her last crying scene before her death.

Generally, this drama is a good effort to continue this franchise that has also expanded on the film side (there’s a ‘Line Walker’ film last year that starred Louis Koo, Charmaine Sheh, Nick Cheung, Francis Ng and Benz Hui). I also like the ending theme song for the drama. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Line Walker: The Prelude’ a total of 7.7. It couldn’t go past 8 because it still lacks the intensity as seen in the first ‘Line Walker’ drama. I remember there are a lot of explosive or climatic scenes in the first drama but not much in this one. The first drama also sparked a lot of debates and discussions especially on questioning who is the real UC during its run. No for this one. Okay, enough writing for this review; now I have to go back to focus on my thesis work.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

‘Oh My Grad’ is the third installment in ‘Inbound Troubles’ series franchise that is spearheaded by Wong Cho Lam. I remember the first one is very funny and do have a chance to compete for best series that year although it ended up losing to the more popular ‘Triumph in the Skies II’ that year. There was a sequel after that. It didn’t perform as good as the first one. And now, here comes the third one. What am I expecting? Getting more bad? Yes, it is. Wong Cho Lam is no longer taking the lead role here as I read some news that he was very busy with something else during the production of ‘Oh My Grad’. Hence, he only appeared for some scenes and taking on two very minor roles.

With him not around most of the time, I’m bored. He is the funniest people to watch in the past two series. There is no doubt that he is a very talented and humorous guy. His crazy obsession to curry fish balls in this drama is not hilarious at all. This third drama eventually loses its main selling point; being funny. It instead going on for a more morally point of view by spreading great messages on the issues revolving education in Hong Kong. But, if you are focusing on a school setting for this drama, then have the effort to hire more ‘really young’ actors to portray as students. In this whole 30-episodes drama, I only see about 20 same students for the whole school. And they are so matured and irrelevant to act as students in my point of view.

The plot is boring. There is nothing interesting for me to catch up to in every episodes. The only reason I stayed till the end of the drama is because of Ada Choi. I haven’t seen her in TVB dramas for a while. She is still delivering solid performance. Roger Kwok is good as usual but his character as the headmaster appeared so unimportant. Babyjohn Choi is a film actor and this is his first work in a drama. He is actually not bad in this. His partner in the drama, Mag Lam is a bad casting. Her acting is below average and she only put on 2 faces for the whole show; acting cute and being angry. Joyce Cheng is annoying as she overacted and she was unnecessarily too loud in this drama. Bob Lam portrays a bad person in this drama and he is well suited to the role. Why? Because every time I see him, I really wanted to punch his face. It means that he did his role well as he successfully made us hate him. Koni Lui is doing well in here too. Other minor cast in this drama includes Louis Cheung, Helena Law, Bowie Wu, Cheung Chi Kwong, Eliza Sam, Mary Hon, Angela Tong, etc.

I can’t believe the fact that this is one of the anniversary dramas this year to celebrate TVB’s 50th birthday. It is such a lousy production. With school /education as the theme, this drama can be very vibrant and funny at the same time. The drama just couldn’t find the right path. This drama franchise should end. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Oh My Grad’ a total of 6.2. I’m now just looking forward to the ‘Heart and Greed’ which is also the third installment of the very successful ‘Heart of Greed’ franchise. It will start airing on 27th November. I can’t wait for it. I didn’t expect it to be as good as the first two, but I’m hoping at least it is watchable.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

After submitting my thesis report last week, I finally have the time to catch up to my past hobby; watching TVB dramas. There isn’t any TVB dramas recently that have my attention. ‘The Exorcist Meter’ which is a series about supernatural and starred Kenneth Ma, Mandy Wong, etc. The supernatural theme itself is the one that push me away from watching it and TVB is definitely not looking serious to making this kind of drama with good quality. The other drama is called ‘My Ages Apart’ and starred Kristal Tin, Bobby Au, etc. This one has a better line-up of cast but I still don’t have the interest to watch it because its premise is not appealing and it has too many episodes (50 in total).

So, I’m up to nothing but to find dramas that are released earlier and yet I haven’t watch them. Many people recommended me to watch ‘Legal Mavericks’, a drama about a blind lawyer who usually crossed the lines when solving the cases with his friends. I trusted their opinions and I am also influenced by the success of this particular series at Singapore’s Starhub TVB Awards held last month. Hence, I ended up finishing the whole drama (28 episodes in total) in less than a week. And I watched its last 8 episodes continuously today.

The drama starred Vincent Wong, Sisley Choi, Ali Lee, Owen Cheung, Pal Sinn, Tracy Chu, etc. First, I like the plot that emphasized on solving not typical large cases that involves murders but on smaller cases fighting for the rights of the minorities (although the series still has the last case being solving a murder highly important to the overall storyline). I also like the idea of giving the main character a disability (in this case being blind) besides than injecting in the similar professions that TVB love to tackle (police, doctor, etc…in this case; lawyer). It adds extra depth and gave audiences something new to see rather than conventional dramas about a single profession. This also allows the cast (particularly Vincent Wong) to showcase his acting skill as the lead actor portraying a blind lawyer who is excellent in his other four senses.

The cast did a great job. Vincent Wong deserves a best actor win from his role here. There isn’t any strong competition in lead actor category this year and I hope he wins. It’s very challenging to continuously maintaining the eyes to make them look like they are blind and at the same time carrying out the dialogues, the body gestures, the facial expressions and the emotions for the story. Vincent nailed it. People usually find Sisley Choi annoying in most of her previous series. But hey…she surprised me in this drama. Not only that I find her character enjoyable in this drama, I also think that her acting has improved significantly (particularly this year). Hence, I’m rooting for her to get Most Improved Female Artist at TVB Anniversary Awards. I pitied her character. She sacrificed so much for Vincent Wong and yet their relationship remains ambiguous even till the final episode. There are three females who love Vincent Wong (Sisley, Ali and Tracy). I find that a bit too much. Vincent’s love towards Tracy is too much and I find that very unfair to Sisley. As for Ali Lee, she at least has another admirer and lover, Owen Cheung.

Ali Lee did well in here too but I’m still surprised how she can win ‘Most Favourite Lead Actress’ in Starhub TVB Awards last month for her role here. She is beautiful and solid, but her performance here is not award-worthy in my opinion. On the other hand, this is Owen Cheung’s most heavy role to date (he is a nobody in the past and only famous for having similar voice with Chilam). I’m surprised that he has this level of acting and he delivered superbly. He is a strong contender for best supporting actor award. Even Pal Sinn who portrayed the ruthless main villain is doing very good too. I hated him so much and it means that he delivered that character very well. And one more person to compliment; veteran actor, Law Lok-lam who portrayed as Vincent’s father. His acting when his character is diagnosed with ALS is superb.

I’m a bit confused on the very last scene of this drama. Ali Lee died and yet she appeared again to join the three others for a walk. That’s weird. What does the scriptwriter want to tell us from this scene? Opening it up for the audiences to decide the ending on their own? TVB love this approach very much recently and it is overused. I rather they stick to a very clear conclusion for this drama. Anyway, this drama is still a decent one. I’m happy that I didn’t left this drama out before the year ends. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Legal Mavericks’ a total of 7.8. There is not many particularly great TVB dramas this year (also for the last few years), hence this drama do have a strong chance to emerge as winner for Best Series at the upcoming TVB Star Awards Malaysia and Hong Kong’s TVB Anniversary Awards. His other competitor so far would be ‘The Unholy Alliance’ of which I had also given 7.8 in my drama review post earlier.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Time for review to another TVB drama that I have watched completely after it aired its final episode just now in the weekend. ‘The Exorcist’s Meter’ which has 21 episodes in total, starred Kenneth Ma as a taxi driver who has accidentally awaken a kind-hearted spirit with power and duty to take down devils roaming on Earth. The drama also starred Mandy Wong, Hubert Wu, Hugo Wong, Moon Lau, Anthony Ho, Susan Tse, Ram Chiang, etc.

I didn’t have high expectation to this series before I started to watch it. To be honest, I decided to watch it because I have nothing else to watch at the moment. In the end, I was surprised by how good this drama turned out. It is not a lousy or ordinary paranormal-themed series. It’s not just about people seeing ghosts and catching demons in a heroic fashion. This series stood out over the rest in this particular genre due to the addition of some very moving storylines, heartfelt characters, and excellent performances by the cast.

First of all, the eyes of the series is on the lead actor; Kenneth Ma. After his success and popularity from his role in 2012’s ‘The Hippocratic Crush’, he didn’t have many good roles later on. This paves way for newer actors like Ruco Chan to speed ahead of him in the race to win best actor. Another newer actor, Vincent Wong is also on the rise very quickly with many fantastic roles in recent years. I’m starting to worry that Kenneth will be left out very soon if he didn’t have a good drama and a good role to take on. Finally, he is back to be noticed again with his role here as ‘Ma Kwai’ in ‘The Exorcist’s Meter’. His acting is very natural and this character gave him opportunity to showcase his acting skill through the many emotional scenes in this series. He nailed this taxi driver’s role perfectly. With his excellent performance here (and also another great work in ‘My Dearly Sinful Mind’ released early this year), I’m supporting him to win best actor at the Hong Kong’s TVB Anniversary Awards.

The other cast members were doing exceptionally well too, although they are mostly lesser-known TVB artists. Susan Tse is very convincing as Kenneth’s foster mother and I don’t mind her winning Best Supporting Actress again. Ram Chiang, Moon Lau and Hugo Wong are outstanding too. I think this drama really puts their acting to the limelight besides Kenneth. This drama also propels Hugo Wong to higher popularity from his very challenging villain role in this drama. He usually took very minor roles in the past and after this drama, I’m sure that he will be given more opportunities to take on bigger roles soon. He is also solid in ‘Recipes to Live By’ released early this year and hence, I have no doubt to support him for ‘Most Improved TVB Actor’ this year.

As mentioned earlier, this drama has a very good script. The loop scenes involving Kenneth’s dead parents, conflict and relationship between Kenneth and his foster mother, friendship between Kenneth and the stone spirit, Ber Ber (Moon Lau)’s relationship with Kenneth and her death, Anthony Ho’s tragic death, etc are all very sincere and moving. Even the action scenes involving demons in this drama are produced with effort as not to make them too typical, lousy or emotionless. Besides that, the two theme songs for this drama sang by Hubert Wu are also nice to listen too and they suit well to this drama. Well, there are still some areas in this drama that can be improved like the production designs, the CGI, some exaggerated acting (but still acceptable due to the nature of this story), etc. But overall, it is a highly enjoyable, fast-paced series that will also makes you cry several times. The ending for this series is also surprisingly good. The last scene is a great one when the stone spirit that sat in the taxi was actually Hou Zai (Kenneth’s younger brother’s soul). This is one solid, entertaining and touching drama that is not to be missed. It defies my expectation. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Exorcist’s Meter’ a total of 8.0. This is the one and only drama in the year 2017 that gets over 8 points from me.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

‘Heart and Greed’ is the third installment in the ‘Heart of Greed’ Hong Kong drama franchise. The first ‘Heart of Greed’ was released way back in 2007 with critical acclaim and the drama went on to win the most accolades at TVB Anniversary Awards that particular year. The drama has also lead to popularization of ‘golden words’ derived from some intense script in it. I enjoyed the drama a lot, particularly on the theme of inheritance-fighting, the emotional impact especially touching on the warmth of the family, and the superb performances by all the cast. It is a classic. Looking on its success, TVB decided to make a sequel entitled ‘Moonlight Resonance’ the next year (2008). Similar hype and success came in as well as the drama also become the highest rated TVB series of all time with its final episode hitting 50 points.

So about ten years later (now), TVB decided to make yet another sequel (with the same 40-episodes span). It’s called ‘Heart and Greed’. I was very excited because of how great the first two dramas turned out in the past. I also very much enjoyed drama with the theme of family and fighting for inheritance with all sort of tactics and schemes. However, I noticed that this latest drama is no longer relating to ‘inheritance’ kind of story but rather about man who would sacrifice everything to help his friend’s dying business.  This drama brought back old cast (Ha Yu, Louise Lee, Michelle Yim, Susanna Kwan, Louis Yuen, Bosco Wong, etc) and mix it up with new people (Vincent Wong, Eliza Sam, Sharon Chan, Michael Tong, Priscilla Wong, etc).

After I saw the change of cast (disappointed for not seeing Linda Chung, Tavia Yeung, Raymond Lam, Moses Chan, Fala Chen, Chris Lai anymore in here) and the change of plot’s theme, I lowered my expectation even before I started watching the drama. And yup…I am right. The drama is no where near the quality to be called a ‘classic’ like its first two predecessors. The drama lacks the intensity and the dramas that we observed in almost every single episodes for its first two series. Besides than the boring storylines of ‘Kyle falling in love with Belle’, the plain development of ‘old Mr Wong persistently helping his old friend, Alan who had once saved him’ part, the out-of-arch segment of ‘daughter of the family making immoral advance to a married man’ and lastly the illogical and rushed plot when the ‘uncle suddenly turned bad in the end’, there is nothing much going on to make this drama a memorable one.

The veteran cast is doing well in leading the whole show. Or is it? It looks to me that Michelle Yim’s role is now so small and yet she is nominated for best leading actress in the coming TVB Anniversary Awards. She is a great actress, and yet given such unimportant character this time, which is in total contrast to her award-winning performance as Yan Hung in ‘Moonlight Resonance’. On the other hand, I find that Louise Lee had been pushing too hard to act in this drama with frequent shouting kind of tone when speaking. Her age must be weakening her performance. Susanna Kwan is good though and I am impressed with her ability to memorize long script for her part. Eliza Sam is still not doing enough to carry her role while Vincent Wong is as his usual good form. Michael Tong returns with his first drama here after many years and he is doing well. Now I wonder why he and Jacqueline Ch’ng (who portrayed as Adam’s wife) are not being nominated in supporting categories for the coming TVB Anniversary Awards. They are good in their roles here. The drama lacks a few more major characters (the main family group now lacks so many people when compared to its first two dramas) to further escalate things up, to create more tensions and climax for the story.

Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Heart and Greed’ a total of 7.4 only. I would have easily rated ‘Heart of Greed’ and ‘Moonlight Resonance’ above 8 and even nears to 9 respectively. But for this third installment, it is just not that good. It is still a solid drama with some (much lesser) warm and touching family scenes, some fun (but less exciting) conflicts in business and relationship issues. The songs in this drama are nice to listen to by the way while I can see also a lot of effort and budget has been placed on the setting (house interior) and the costumes too. The producers have been forcing themselves to create another sequel to this franchise and it turned out not working that well to my earlier projection.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

TVB love to deliver shocks in their annual awards presentation by announcing result that is surprising to the majority of people. It is no exception for this year as well. The Hong Kong’s TVB Anniversary Awards 2017 is delayed a month to make way for all anniversary dramas to finish airing and also to express the much grander 50th anniversary celebration the television station is having in late 2017 that extends now until early 2018. Here below is the full result for the awards (held on the evening of 21st January 2018) along with my opinions for each categories:

TVB Anniversary Awards 2017’s Winners List:

Best Non-Drama Programme
“The Ahistoric Grandpa Cooking Show” – WINNER
“Miss Chinese International Pageant 2017”
“Love at Last Sight”
“Feng Shui for the New Year”
“Cantoxicating!”
“Dinner Ma’s”
“Eating Well with Madam Wong (Sr. 3)”
“Dream in the Ring”
“HK Gag Gag”
“Anchors with Passport (Sr. 3)”
“The Place We Call Home”
“Neighborhood Treasures (Sr. 7)”
“Public Housing Outing”
“Hong Kong Round the Clock”
“Easy Come Easy Health”
“Good Cheap Eats (Sr. 6)”
“Cantopop at 50”  – WINNER
“Pay It Forward”
“Sidewalk Scientist”
“Retiring in Paradise”
“Litigation at Home”
“Big Big Kids Awards 2017”
“All Work No Pay Holidays (Sr.2)” 
“Young and Restless”
“Buskkkkk Music”
“The Big Big Channel Nite”
“Amazing Summer Splash”
“Fun Abroad”
“Chef Minor (Sr. 3)”
“C AllStar Thai Odyssey”
“Miss Hong Kong Pageant 2017”
“Faraway Brides” – WINNER
“Starry Starry Talk”
“The Sisterhood Traveling Gang” 
“Bazaar Carnivals (Sr. 3)” – WINNER
“Sir Ben Prop Guide”
“Helen Goes to Kyushu”
“The Ultimate Street Sorcerer”
“Sammy on the Go”
“Line Walker: The Hunting Game”
“EYT: Anniversary Edition” 
“Diva Liza 50-Year Special”
“TVB Anniversary Gala”
“The Heavenly Party”
“DoDo Goes Shopping (Sr. 2)” – WINNER
“Tung Wah Charity Show 2017”
“Gala Spectacular”
“Dickies on Tour”
“J.S.G. Awards Presentation 2017”

Opinion: Didn’t expect that TVB decided to hand out five awards in this category. I enjoyed ‘The Sisterhood Traveling Gang’ but it lost. Anyway, I didn’t have much interest in this category every year. Moving on…

Best Host(s)
Lee Ka Ting & Helen Tam (“The Ahistoric Grandpa Cooking Show”)
Gigi Wong (“Eating Well with Madam Wong (Sr. 3)”)
Maria Cordero & Luk Ho Ming (“Good Cheap Eats (Sr. 6)”) 
Nancy Sit, Michael Lai, Raymond Cho & Karen Tong (“Cantopop at 50”)
Mayanne Mak, Kaki Leung, Roxanne Tong, Crystal Fun, Tiffany Lau & Bowie Cheung (“Sidewalk Scientist”)
Tony Hung (“Retiring in Paradise”)
Luk Ho Ming, Louisa Mak & Crystal Fung (“Young and Restless”)
Bob Lam, Mayanne Mak & Linna Huynh (“Chef Minor (Sr. 3)”)
Janis Chan (“Faraway Brides”)
Lai Chi San (“Starry Starry Talk”)
Evergreen Mak, Joyce Tang & Elena Kong (“Bazaar Carnivals (Sr. 3)”)
Benjamin Au Yeung, Mayanne Mak, Luk Ho Ming, Bella Lam & Liz Ji (“Sir Ben Prop Guide”)
Helen To (“Helen Goes to Kyushu”)
Sammy Leung, Samantha Ko, Mayanne Mak & Jacqueline Wong (“Sammy on the Go”) 
Carol Cheng, FAMA, Kenneth Ma, Edwin Siu & Priscilla Wong (“DoDo Goes Shopping (Sr. 2)”) – WINNER

Opinion: I do expect the hosts for ‘DoDo Goes Shopping (Sr.2)’ to win because it’s Carol Cheng. Anyway, she is really good in hosting and her chemistry with FAMA and also the other co-hosts are amazing and fun to watch.

Most Improved Female Artiste
Rebecca Zhu (“May Fortune Smile on You”, “A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”, “Hong Kong Round the Clock”)
Samantha Ko (“My Unfair Lady”, “Bet Hur”, “Sammy on the Go”, “Gag Gag Summer”) 
Mayanne Mak (“Miss Hong Kong Pageant 2017”, “Sammy on the Go”, “Line Walker: The Hunting Game”, “TVB Anniversary Gala”) – WINNER
Zoie Tam (“May Fortune Smile on You”, “My Unfair Lady”, “Legal Mavericks”, “My Ages Apart”) 
Roxanne Tong (“Provocateur”, “My Dearly Sinful Mind”, “The Tofu War”, “Sidewalk Scientist”) 
Jacqueline Wong (“Provocateur”, “Nothing Special Force”, “Sammy on the Go”) 

Opinion: The first shock of the evening. Mayanne Mak would be my last choice in this nomination list and yet she ended up winning. Artistes who are doing non-drama programmes are usually not being much acknowledged but here she comes taking home this prize to everyone’s surprise. I would prefer Jacqueline Wong to take this as I do see that she really improved a lot this year. Hey…where is Sisley Choi? She deserves a nomination here as she is seriously the most improved actress of all for this year. But hey…surprise later on.

Most Improved Male Artiste
Owen Cheung (“The No No Girl”, “Legal Mavericks”, “HK Gag Gag”, “Amazing Summer Splash”) 
Matthew Ho (“May Fortune Smile on You”, “Tiger Mom Blues”, “A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”, “Tiger Mom Blues Returns”) 
Luk Ho Ming (“Good Cheap Eats (Sr. 5)”, “Sir Ben Prop Guide”, “TVB Anniversary Gala”, “Young and Restless”)
Hugo Wong (“May Fortune Smile on You”, “Legal Mavericks”, “The Exorcist’s Meter”)
Hubert Wu (“The Exorcist’s Meter”, “My Ages Apart”)
Mat Yeung (“My Dearly Sinful Mind”, “Bet Hur”, “Love and Construction”, “All Work No Pay Holidays (Sr.2)”) – WINNER

Opinion: I knew Mat Yeung is finally going to win. His hard work for the past many years is finally paid off. The other deserving candidates, Owen Cheung, Hugo Wong and Matthew Ho can wait for the coming years to get this.

Best Supporting Actress
Stephanie Ho (“Recipes to Live By”)
Kaman Wong (“Tiger Mom Blues”)
Mandy Lam (“Lo and Behold”)
Joyce Tang (“Lo and Behold”)
Kelly Fu (“Burning Hands”)
Vivien Yeo (“My Dearly Sinful Mind”)
Eileen Yeow (“The No No Girl”)
Samantha Ko (“My Unfair Lady”) 
Zoie Tam (“My Unfair Lady”)
Toby Chan (“Legal Mavericks”)
Tracy Chu (“Legal Mavericks”)
Rebecca Zhu (“A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”) – WINNER
Grace Wong (“A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”) 
Harriet Yeung (“A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”)
Elena Kong (“The Unholy Alliance”)
Elaine Yiu (“The Unholy Alliance”) 
Alice Chan (“Line Walker: The Prelude”)
Susan Tse (“The Exorcist’s Meter”) 
Katy Kung (“My Ages Apart”)
Sharon Chan (“Heart and Greed”) 

Opinion: Second shock of the evening. TVB gave us surprise on all the awards in female categories. Yes, Rebecca Zhu has improved in her acting too, but I don’t think her performance deserves a supporting actress win yet. Her role in ‘A General, A Scholar And A Eunuch’ is also too ordinary and easily forgotten. I can see just now that she herself was very surprised when her name is announced as the winner. I would prefer Elaine Yiu, Susan Tse, Sharon Chan, Grace Wong or even Samantha Ko to win.

Best Supporting Actor
Hugo Ng (“Burning Hands”)
Matthew Ho (“Tiger Mom Blues”)
King Kong (“Destination Nowhere”)
James Ng (“Destination Nowhere”)
Mark Ma (“Lo and Behold”)
Fred Cheng (“Provocateur”)
Mat Yeung (“My Dearly Sinful Mind”) 
Max Cheung (“My Unfair Lady”)
Lai Lok Yi (“My Unfair Lady”)
Andrew Yuen (“My Unfair Lady”)
Owen Cheung (“Legal Mavericks”) 
Timothy Cheng (“A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”)
John Chiang (“A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”)
Jimmy Au (“The Unholy Alliance”)
Joel Chan (“The Unholy Alliance”)  – WINNER
Kwok Fung (“The Unholy Alliance”)
Carlo Ng (“The Unholy Alliance”)
Benz Hui (“Line Walker: The Prelude”) 
Brian Tse (“Line Walker: The Prelude”)
Kenny Wong (“Line Walker: The Prelude”)
Ram Chiang (“The Exorcist’s Meter”)
Ho Yuen Tung (“The Exorcist’s Meter”)
Hugo Wong (“The Exorcist’s Meter”) 
Hubert Wu (“The Exorcist’s Meter”)
Louis Yuen (“Heart and Greed”)

Opinion: I’m happy that Joel Chan won. I noticed him several years ago and he had already been doing awesome job back then. It’s finally time for him to win and he totally deserved it. I was quite nervous before the winner is revealed because I’m worried that Jimmy Au (another favourite and he also starred in ‘The Unholy Alliance’ with Joel Chan) may win because of his seniority and popularity as being Hong Kong’s version of James Bond. He can take that nickname but his performance is too plain. Joel is very emotional when delivering his acceptance speech.

Global Netizens Favourite Series
“Rogue Emperor”
“Recipes to Live By”
“May Fortune Smile on You”
“Burning Hands”
“Tiger Mom Blues”
“Destination Nowhere”
“Lo and Behold”
“Provocateur”
“Married but Available”
“My Dearly Sinful Mind”
“The No No Girl”
“My Unfair Lady” 
“Phoenix Rising”
“Bet Hur”
“Legal Mavericks” 
“A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch” 
“The Unholy Alliance” 
“The Tofu War”
“Line Walker: The Prelude”
“Nothing Special Force”
“Oh My Grad”
“The Exorcist’s Meter”  – WINNER
“My Ages Apart”
“Heart and Greed”

Opinion: This is a new category and it allows all people (not just from Hong Kong) to vote online for this one. I’m delighted that ‘The Exorcist’s Meter’ won because it really deserved. It’s such a small production with lesser known cast and yet able to make huge impact with great and touching storyline and wonderful performances by its actors and actresses. Does that mean this series will not win the ‘Best Drama’? Yes…unfortunately.

Most Popular TV Partnership
Vincent Wong & Natalie Tong (“My Unfair Lady”) 
Vincent Wong & Owen Cheung (“Legal Mavericks”)
Edwin Siu, Raymond Cho & Matthew Ho (“A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”)  – WINNER
Ruco Chan & Nancy Wu (“The Unholy Alliance”) 
Joel Chan & Elaine Yiu (“The Unholy Alliance”) 
Moses Chan & Jessica Hester Hsuan (“Line Walker: The Prelude”)
Benjamin Yuen, Priscilla Wong & Pakho Chau (“Line Walker: The Prelude”)
Kenneth Ma & Hubert Wu (“The Exorcist’s Meter”) 
Moses Chan & Bobby Au Yeung (“My Ages Apart”)
Ha Yu & Louise Lee (“Heart and Greed”)
Maria Cordero & Luk Ho Ming (“Good Cheap Eats (Sr. 6)”)
Benjamin Yuen & Mat Yeung (“All Work No Pay Holidays (Sr.2)”)
Myolie Wu, Nancy Wu, Mandy Wong, Elaine Yiu, Selena Li & Paisley Hu (“The Sisterhood Traveling Gang”)
Carol Cheng, C Kwan & Luk Wing (“DoDo Goes Shopping (Sr. 2)”)
Wayne Lai, Edwin Siu, Raymond Cho & Raymond Wong (“Dickies on Tour”)

Opinion: I’m happy for the three actors from ‘A General, A Scholar And A Eunuch’ to win because their chemistry on-screen is really awesome and fun to watch. I remembered a lot of funny scenes involving the three of them in that drama.

Most Popular Series Song
四方 (“Rogue Emperor”) – Hoffman Cheng
心暖 (“Rogue Emperor”) – Kenneth Ma & Niki Chow
乾杯 (“Rogue Emperor”) – Ronald Law, Hoffman Cheng & Yao Bin
天賜的味道 (“Recipes to Live By”) – Maria Cordero
財神駕到 (“May Fortune Smile on You”) – Wayne Lai, Amy Fan, Pal Sinn, Matthew Ho & Kelly Fu
一輩子守候 (“The Princess Weiyoung”) – HANA
不變的愛 (“Tiger Mom Blues”) – Edwin Siu
迷 (“Destination Nowhere”) – Fred Cheng
獨來獨往 (“Provocateur”) – Gallen Lo
地盡頭 (“Provocateur”) – Fred Cheng
真心真意 (“Married but Available”) – Fred Cheng & Stephanie Ho
印記 (“Married but Available”) – Kayee Tam
籠牢 (“My Dearly Sinful Mind”) – Alfred Hui
你走的那個晚上 (“My Dearly Sinful Mind”) – Fred Cheng
我有我美麗 (“The No No Girl”) – Nancy Wu
我不會撒嬌 (“My Unfair Lady”) – Stephanie Ho
手中沙 (“My Unfair Lady”) – HANA
陪著你走 (“My Unfair Lady”) – Kayee Tam 
我不歸去 (“The Legend of the Condor Heroes”) – Kayee Tam
用愛邁步 (“Phoenix Rising”) – Kelly Chen
久別重逢 (“Eternal Love”) – HANA
十倍奉還 (“Bet Hur”) – Fred Cheng
心眼 (“Legal Mavericks”) – Vincent Wong
愛近在眼前 (“Legal Mavericks”) – Stephanie Ho
戰勝吧 (“A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”) – Fred Cheng
一觸即發 (“The Unholy Alliance”) – Ruco Chan
家中的太陽 (“The Tofu War”) – Nancy Sit
天網 (“Line Walker: The Prelude”) – Pakho Chau
忘記我自己 (“Line Walker: The Prelude”) – HANA 
安守本分 (“Line Walker: The Prelude”) – Vivian Koo
快樂快活人 (“Nothing Special Force”) – Kayee Tam
畢業之後 (“Oh My Grad”) – Mag Lam
你在我心間 (“Nothing Gold Can Stay”) – Jinny Ng
到此一遊 (“The Exorcist’s Meter”) – Hubert Wu – WINNER
遙不可及 (“The Exorcist’s Meter”) – Hubert Wu 
泣血薔薇 (“The Exorcist’s Meter”) – Jinny Ng
誇世代 (“My Ages Apart”) – Hacken Lee
別再記起 (“My Ages Apart”) – Jinny Ng
我本無罪 (“Heart and Greed”) – Susanna Kwan 
欲言又止 (“Heart and Greed”) – Vincent Wong & HANA 
I Promise (“Heart and Greed”) – Linda Chung

Opinion: My preferred choice is the ending theme song for the series ‘Line Walker: The Prelude’ by Hana Kuk. The song and its melody is much more beautiful than the others.

Most Popular TV Female Character
Elena Kong (“Tiger Mom Blues”) 
Kristal Tin (“Destination Nowhere”)
Koni Lui (“Lo and Behold”)
Jessica Hsuan (“My Unfair Lady”) 
Samantha Ko (“My Unfair Lady”)
Natalie Tong (“My Unfair Lady”)
Sisley Choi (“Legal Mavericks”) – WINNER
Tracy Chu (“Legal Mavericks”)
Rebecca Zhu (“A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”)
Nina Paw (“The Unholy Alliance”)
Nancy Wu (“The Unholy Alliance”) 
Elaine Yiu (“The Unholy Alliance”)
Nancy Sit (“The Tofu War”)
Roxanne Tong (“The Tofu War”)
Priscilla Wong (“Line Walker: The Prelude”)
Moon Lau (The Exorcist’s Meter”)
Susan Tse (“The Exorcist’s Meter”)
Mandy Wong (“The Exorcist’s Meter”)
Ali Lee (“My Ages Apart”) 
Susanna Kwan (“Heart and Greed”)
Louise Lee (“Heart and Greed”) 
Michelle Yim (“Heart and Greed”)
Eliza Sam (“Heart and Greed”)

Opinion: Third shock of the evening…but I’m actually agreeing on this outcome. Sisley Choi defeated a lot of favourites (Ali Lee, Nancy Wu, Elaine Yiu, Elena Kong, Natalie Tong, etc) to take this prize to everyone’s surprise again. However, I find that Sisley Choi really did very well for her ugly role in ‘Legal Mavericks’. She is very natural and her performance is amazing in that one. Hence, I’m actually fine with her winning this although many others may disagree with me. This is just like what happened when Grace Wong won for her character in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’ that shocked quite a lot of people in the previous edition of this awards. No wonder there is not even a nomination for Sisley in ‘most improved’ category. She immediately elevated to the ‘favourite female character’ category. Anyway, she talked too much during her acceptance speech just now.

Most Popular TV Male Character
Tony Hung (“Recipes to Live By”)
Ben Wong (“Tiger Mom Blues”)
Gallen Lo (“Provocateur”)
Raymond Wong (“Married but Available”)
Eddie Cheung (“The No No Girl”)
Frankie Lam (“My Unfair Lady”)
Vincent Wong (“My Unfair Lady”) 
Andrew Yuen (“My Unfair Lady”)
Natalis Chan (“Bet Hur”)
Owen Cheung (“Legal Mavericks”)
Raymond Cho (“A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”)
Edwin Siu (“A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”) 
Jimmy Au (“The Unholy Alliance”)
Ruco Chan (“The Unholy Alliance”)
Cheung Wing Hong (“The Tofu War”)
Lai Yok Yi (“The Tofu War”)
Pakho Chau (“Line Walker: The Prelude”)
Michael Miu (“Line Walker: The Prelude”)
Benjamin Yuen (“Line Walker: The Prelude”) 
Kenneth Ma (“The Exorcist’s Meter”) – WINNER
Hubert Wu (“The Exorcist’s Meter”)
Bobby Au Yeung (“My Ages Apart”) 
Moses Chan (“My Ages Apart”) 
Bosco Wong (“Heart and Greed”)

Opinion: Happy for Kenneth Ma to win this award again (he had won this before back in 2012 for his role in ‘The Hippocratic Crush’). However, this means that he is not going to win best actor later and I pitied him for that. He hardly get any good roles in recent years. Then, he had this role as ‘Ma Kwai’ in ‘The Exorcist’s Meter’ and he did very well in it. This must be his chance for best actor. But again, he didn’t have the luck to snatch it. I hope that he will get more good roles later on and will one day win best actor. He deserves it.

Best Actress
Lin Xia Wei (“Burning Hands”)
Sharon Chan (“Tiger Mom Blues”)
Elena Kong (“Tiger Mom Blues”) 
Kristal Tin (“Destination Nowhere”) 
Jacqueline Wong (“Provocateur”)
Nadia Chan (“The No No Girl”)
Jessica Hsuan (“My Unfair Lady”) 
Natalie Tong (“My Unfair Lady”) – WINNER
Sisley Choi (“Legal Mavericks”)
Nina Paw (“The Unholy Alliance”) 
Nancy Wu (“The Unholy Alliance”) 
Nancy Sit (“The Tofu War”)
Roxanne Tong (“The Tofu War”)
Priscilla Wong (“Line Walker: The Prelude”)
Mandy Wong (“Nothing Special Force”)
Ali Lee (“My Ages Apart”)
Susanna Kwan (“Heart and Greed”)
Louise Lee (“Heart and Greed”) 
Michelle Yim (“Heart and Greed”)
Eliza Sam (“Heart and Greed”)

Opinion: Fourth shock of the evening. TVB really do it all wrong for the female categories. I’m really disappointed that Kristal Tin did not even make it into top 5 list as revealed in the ceremony. This is a big snub for Kristal as I find her performance in ‘Destination Nowhere’ is the best of all in 2017. It was such a challenging role and she nailed it, and yet a lot of people had simply forgotten or ignored her. She is my pick for best actress. Natalie Tong! Well, for me, she is not a leading actress material yet. My other choices would be Elena Kong, Nina Paw, Ali Lee or Jessica Hsuan. I never even have a sight on Natalie Tong and she prevailed in the end. I also disliked that drama ‘My Unfair Lady’. It was such a boring series.

Best Actor
Tony Hung (“Recipes to Live By”)
Wayne Lai (“May Fortune Smile on You”)
Ben Wong (“Tiger Mom Blues”)
Gallen Lo (“Provocateur”)
Eddie Cheung (“The No No Girl”)
Frankie Lam (“My Unfair Lady”)
Vincent Wong (“Legal Mavericks”)  – WINNER
Raymond Cho (“A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”)
Edwin Siu (“A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”)
Ruco Chan (“The Unholy Alliance”) 
Lai Yok Yi (“The Tofu War”)
Pakho Chau (“Line Walker: The Prelude”)
Michael Miu (“Line Walker: The Prelude”) 
Benjamin Yuen (“Line Walker: The Prelude”)
Roger Kwok (“Oh My Grad”)
Kenneth Ma (“The Exorcist’s Meter”) 
Bobby Au Yeung (“My Ages Apart”)
Moses Chan (“My Ages Apart”)
Ha Yu (“Heart and Greed”) 
Bosco Wong (“Heart and Greed”)

Opinion: Congratulation, Vincent Wong! He has an amazing role as a blind lawyer and he delivered in ‘Legal Mavericks’. I find both him and Kenneth Ma are equally good in 2017 and I have to give the edge to Kenneth Ma because of his seniority. Since Kenneth has won ‘My Popular TV Male Character’, Vincent must get something and so, here it is. However, I do find that he is a bit too early on winning best actor. I’m sure he would have plenty of great roles later on and hence having more chances to win this next time (but not Kenneth). That is why I felt bad for Kenneth in losing this one. I seriously don’t mind him winning both ‘My Favourite TV Male Character’ and this ‘Best Actor’.

Best Series
“Rogue Emperor”
“Recipes to Live By”
“May Fortune Smile on You”
“Burning Hands”
“Tiger Mom Blues” 
“Destination Nowhere”
“Lo and Behold”
“Provocateur”
“Married but Available”
“My Dearly Sinful Mind”
“The No No Girl”
“My Unfair Lady”
“Phoenix Rising”
“Bet Hur”
“Legal Mavericks” 
“A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”
“The Unholy Alliance” 
“The Tofu War”
“Line Walker: The Prelude”
“Nothing Special Force”
“Oh My Grad”
“The Exorcist’s Meter” 
“My Ages Apart” – WINNER
“Heart and Greed” 

Opinion: TVB should reveal the top 5 for this category. I’m particularly surprised by this outcome too. My preferred choice would be ‘The Exorcist’s Meter’. I didn’t watch ‘My Ages Apart’ but I do heard some good comments for that drama. I didn’t expect ‘those good comments’ (not really as critically-acclaimed as ‘The Exorcist’s Meter’) would translate to ‘best drama’ win, the last major prize of the evening. I didn’t expect a drama which is themed on nonsense and exaggerated stuff get to win this top honour.

Special 50th Anniversary Lifetime Achievement Awards

Liza Wang, Luo Zhongbing

Opinion: This a special award to coincide with the station’s 50th anniversary and it replaces the usual lifetime achievement awards. That means Liza Wang is getting this prize again (she had won Lifetime Achievement before several years ago). The other one, Luo Zhongbing is a behind-the-scene man who worked relentlessly for TVB and is acknowledged now with this honour.

That’s it for TVB Anniversary Awards 2017. It concluded after a ceremony that slightly exceeded its planned two and a half hour broadcast time. ‘The Exorcist’s Meter’ took the most awards (3 – theme song, popular male character, and global netizens favourite series). ‘Legal Mavericks’ is just behind with 2 wins (best actor, popular female character). ‘A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch’ also performed better than expectation with 2 wins (supporting actress, partnership). ‘The Unholy Alliance’ had one win (supporting actor). These are my favourite TVB series in 2017. And none of them won ‘best drama’ in the end as that prize went to ‘My Ages Apart’ (and I didn’t watch that because I don’t like drama that is excessively long…it has 50 episodes and I also don’t like its premise). ‘Heart and Greed’, the third installment to the highly successful ‘Heart of Greed’ franchise failed to win anything (unlike its predecessors that swept a lot of awards last time). Well, that is expected because this third installment is poorly made and is no where near the quality of the first two ones.

Alright. That’s a wrap up to TVB dramas and awards for year 2017. Now, it’s time to move on to new and coming dramas in 2018.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

‘Apple-Colada’ (果欄中的江湖大嫂) is a Hong Kong television series that centered on the life in fruit market. It starred Alice Chan as a debt-ridden retired actress who move back to Hong Kong from Malaysia to seek refuge with her niece (Eliza Sam) after her nasty divorce with ex-husband. They together run a fruit market previously owned by her deceased older brother and has been seized by a man (Tommy Wong) and his son (Raymond Wong). This drama has 30 episodes and is seen as an unrelated sequel to the 2016’s ‘My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan’ that saw some similar cast. The drama also starred Mat Yeung, Crystal Fung, Carlo Ng, Lau Kong, Kaman Kong, Andrew Yuen, etc.

The drama at first (its first few episodes) is quite interesting and that has successfully got me to catch up to the rest of the series. However, as the drama progresses, I find that the storyline to be draggy with nothing much particularly exciting or interesting going on. The plot is also very much predictable especially with the sudden appearance of Carlo Ng and Raymond Wong’s biological parents in the series. From there on, I already knew Carlo Ng would be the bad guy and yup, I was right. There is nothing new or anything worth mentioning from this series.

It is still a light-hearted drama with some funny scenes and warm family or romantic moments. But doing just that will make the series being easily not memorable and in average. I couldn’t pay my attention while watching it as there is no climax or cool stuff to get me engaged into the story and the characters. Alice Chan is a good actress and I’m fine with her leading the series. She also fits well to this role. On the other hand, Eliza Sam is awful in this series. I couldn’t stand her acting in this drama as she kept on forcing herself to raise her voice to suit her character in this drama which is totally unnecessary and annoying. She really needs to improve on her acting. With much lesser leading actresses in TVB now, she really has to do a lot of work. She felt very unnatural and I couldn’t avoid noticing that in almost every scene she was in. Raymond Wong is fine but his role with that wild and bad judgement makes his character unlikable.

The series concluded with a happy ending as predicted. Nothing new again. There are still some things (story arc) not completely resolved like unknown conclusion to Eliza Sam’s cousin brother who fall in love with Mat Yeung’s sister from the first time he met her, Lau Kong’s health condition after the trouble with the gangster hiding drugs in his fruit boxes, Andrew Yuen letting Alice Chan go so easily without much heartbreak, etc. There is not much effort and passion put in to make this a good drama, and that’s a waste considering I do have interest on its main story that is based on the fruit market setting. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Apple-Colada’ a total of 6.3.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Saving money is the priority this weekend after a heavy spending on Universal Studios last weekend. I already had an outing yesterday plus a movie and so for today, I will just stay at home most of the time. That’s the best way to keep the money in the wallet. End of the month is near and I can’t wait to get my hard earned salary. I have been spending the day mostly being online on Facebook and YouTube, taking a nice rest in preparation for busy weekdays ahead as usual, and had just watched the exciting final two episodes of TVB drama ‘Succession War’.

It is a historical drama that starred Ruco Chan, Shaun Tam, Selena Lee, Elaine Yiu, Natalie Tong, Angelina Lo, Yoyo Chen, Jonathan Cheung, Stephanie Ho, Matthew Ho, etc. The drama revolves on the last 28 days of the life of Qing dynasty court official Heshen, who is known for being the most corrupt court official in Chinese history.and focuses on the Emperor’s attempt to eliminate him. The drama has 28 episodes, and each episode reflects one day of the storyline. That’s a cool approach and it helps to get the story fast-paced and not lacking any depth, thanks to the multiple helpful flashback scenes.

Ruco Chan is very convincing as Heshen while on the other hand, Shaun Tam who is portraying as the emperor is doing very poorly in this drama. I have never seen him in any dramas before and so I think he is inexperienced. All he do in this drama is to forcefully show his very angry face in every scenes. One same facial expression (and the deep ‘Batman’ voice) for almost the entire drama. An emperor can still convey his power and fearfulness through many subtle ways, but Shaun Tam is just not knowing how to do that or is not given any useful advice by the production team. I hope he do knew all these criticism and improve on his acting skill since we will be seeing him in more dramas in the future.

The girls in this drama are just taking on minor and supporting roles but they too shine due to their great performances and story arc that binds the whole series together. Selena Lee is beautiful and excellent as the imperial noble consort. She has improved a lot over the years and I can say that by now, she is a best actress material. Too bad, this drama isn’t focusing on the females and she will not get any recognition or awards from her role here although she nailed it very well. Elaine Yiu and Natalie Tong are also great in their respective roles that are very similar (helping Ruco on his mission with all kind of sacrifices while being his lovers). Also not to be missed out is the fantastic performances by the veterans such as KK Cheung as the retired emperor and Angelina Lo as the dowager noble consort.

The number of good TVB dramas every year has been decreasing rapidly. ‘Deep in the Realm of Conscience’ is a poor drama and I was surprised by the huge rating and critical reception it gets especially from mainland China. On the other hand, I’m shocked that this ‘Succession War’ receives very low audience viewership and isn’t getting the popularity that it deserves. I personally think that ‘Succession War’ is so much better than that boring ‘Deep in the Realm of Conscience’. The former is very engaging and delivers exciting storyline in every episode up until its aired finale just now. The only bad thing from ‘Succession War’ is Shaun Tam’s acting. Other than that, everything is good. Even my dad who seldom watch dramas is praising it. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Succession War’ a total of 8.1. The best TVB drama of the year so far.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

It’s going to be a long week ahead that begins with Monday blues today. I’m getting jealous by the two days of holiday Malaysia is observing today and tomorrow in conjunction with Agong’s Birthday and Awal Muharram. They have a decent long weekend to enjoy while I’m here mumbling on why Singapore has so few public holidays annually. Not a single public holiday for this month as well as for next month. The next one will be Deepavali that falls somewhere in mid November if I’m not mistaken.

As for the short last weekend, I managed to catch a movie with my friend (my movie review for ‘The Nun’ in my previous post), saw a carnival in a mall selling various brands of mooncakes as the Mid-Autumn Festival is just around the corner (didn’t buy any as they are too expensive although I love to eat mooncake), and watching Cantonese drama (my favourite thing to do when I’m free) in a marathon mode. I think I watched 10 episodes in a row yesterday.

The drama that I’m talking about is ‘Another Era’, a 34-episode drama that acts as an unrelated sequel to 1999’s ‘At The Threshold Of An Era’ and both of them are based on the theme of Hong Kong’s financial business. ‘Another Era’ starred Roger Kwok, Niki Chow, Tavia Yeung, Frankie Lam, Benjamin Yuen, Pakho Chau, etc. I am not particularly interested on the ‘finance’ part of the drama (I don’t even bother or can’t even understand certain difficult terminology typically observed in finance sector used in this drama). However, I’m kind of being attracted to the strong cast from this drama (a number of nice veteran actors, and glad to see Linda Chung again in a drama although she only has a supporting role here).

The drama builds up pretty slowly (fortunately, it’s not being dragged too long and made to end in less than 40 episodes which is still not too bad) and from the very beginning, you already know who is going to be the bad guy and that person is certainly going to lose big in the very end. Roger Kwok took on that role (he is very experienced in portraying villain character). However, I’m starting to feel bored of his same old evil facial expression that I have seen before in his previous work like ‘Last One Standing’, ‘Black Heart White Soul’ and ‘Dead Wrong’. Nevertheless, I do enjoy his acting as usual. He is a solid actor. Frankie Lam on the other hand isn’t doing well. He is too wooden and his presence made me felt bored. His story arc with Linda Chung also felt detached from the main story. Benjamin is getting a very likable character here and his death near the end gave a much needed hit/climax. Pakho Chau is on the opposite and his character is pretty annoying (being a lazy games addict guy, not appreciating his good friends, getting mad over small matter easily, knew that his close buddy love him and yet ignoring her even till the end of the drama).

As for the females, Niki Chow outshines Tavia Yeung. That’s good. Tavia has been given a lot of chance in her previous works (she won best actress before too) and it is very welcoming to put more attention to the other female lead, Niki Chow. And she deserves that attention. She handled this role very well (being the saddest role in this drama; losing her two brothers, struggling so much to lead the huge company his father left behind without any experience, losing her father and then losing her boyfriend). Now, I think she do have a chance for best actress award this year only if many others try to pay more attention to her performance here. By the way, Tavia turning the tide and going against her husband (Roger Kwok) near the end is so predictable and hence, that plot twist didn’t work out well. Last but not least, I also find the forceful insertion of few actors from mainland China just to attract more viewers from mainland China is very unnecessary and off putting (Linda Chung’s segment too but that’s still fine because it’s refreshing to see her). Their unimportant and boring storyline do not mix well to the main plot. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Another Era’ a total of 7.0. A solid drama that could have been more intense (I see a lot of potential for this drama to be a thrilling one but the outcome only reaches halfway of that mark) to keep viewers engaged.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

A long week with toothache and lacking concentration at work is certainly not good. Fortunately, the week ends with me being very delighted to be able to get my hand on a latest music DVD all the way from Hong Kong and also being thrilled with the final episode of a TVB drama that I have been following for the past one month. The drama is called ‘The Learning Curve Of A Warlord’ (大帥哥).

This 30-episode drama starred Dicky Cheung who is promoted to a marshal in control of a small town during chaotic warlord era. From there, he faces multiple threats and challenges from three neighbouring town’s warlords, the higher rank marshal, Japanese spies, etc along with his loyal friends and three wives. Other cast in the series include Sisley Choi, Zoie Tam, Vivien Yeo, Raymond Cho, Tony Hung, Tsui Wing, etc.

This drama is very impressive. When I first know the existence of this drama and learning a bit of what the story is going to be about and its setting, I felt that this is going to be a lousy, silly and meaninglessly funny drama and that’s it. The selling point would just be the comeback of Dicky Cheung who is famous for his work in TVB decades ago (Journey to the West, etc). In the end, I’m very surprised by how good the drama turns out to be, in all areas.

Dicky Cheung is amazing as Dik Kei / Dai Sui Gor. I am very impressed by his memory skill. He can memorize super long lines of dialogue and spill them out clear, fast, continuous and sharp, along with varied range of expression he delivered in the same time. It’s perfect ‘multitasking while acting’ (that’s another level) if you know what I mean. His performance in here is no doubt splendid and him not winning best actor in last month’s TVB Anniversary Awards is totally absurd. His performance in just the first 10 episodes in this drama (before the awards ceremony) is more than enough to defeat any contenders in 2018 including the best actor winner, Joe Ma. I also got to know that Dicky do improvise certain lines of his as well as of the other cast to improve things. Now, that is great.

The supporting cast also have their shining moment in this drama. They are not left out of their character development and story arc which is good. Zoie Tam and Vivien Yeo (both portrayed as Dicky’s wives) surprised audiences with their excellent performances (both of them improved a lot and outshines the supporting boys in the drama) while the main female lead, Sisley Choi is also not bad (it is just that she couldn’t push it all out in her acting and her character’s personality is partly to blame and hence not getting higher praise compared to Zoie and Vivien).

This series has a lot of dramatic things going on to keep audiences hooked to its episode every evening. It has a lot of hilarious scenes (funny lines and multiple thoughtful reference to famous Dicky’s lines from his past memorable roles), emotional moments (a number of pretty good and heartfelt crying scenes), intense gun fighting sequence, and warm friendship moments. The final episode is intense, unpredictable, exciting. has happy conclusion, and left me moved, thrilled and impressed once again. ‘The Learning Curve Of A Warlord’ performs beyond my expectation and I would rate it a total of 8.4 out of 10. This is my most favourite TVB drama in 2018. Highly entertaining, has great ingredients and I enjoyed it very much.

(Images in this post are from online sources)

‘The Defected’ (鐵探) is a Hong Kong television drama that currently attracts a lot of audiences. The 30-episode series starred Benjamin Yuen as Inspector Sheung Sing, a policeman who becomes embroiled in a conspiracy plaguing the high-ranking officials due to an incident that almost cost him his life. The other main cast include Kara Wai, Philip Keung, Sisley Choi, Oscar Leung, Mat Yeung, Benz Hui, Ben Wong, Grace Wong, etc.

What I first like from this series is the focus on the rivalry of high-ranking police officials to get promoted rather than being another typical police drama that is all about showing undercovers and catching bad guys. The series at least went into a different direction with an uncommon plot. However, I find that the series didn’t do enough on exploring into this area.

Throughout the entire series, only Kara Wai’s character has the upper hand in almost every situation. The plot can be so much more exciting. One of my suggestions is to have several high-ranking officials (such characters with more prominent roles) plotting out some schemes to take down one another (and not just Kara Wai). There are such characters in the series such as Benz Hui, Ben Wong and Lee Shin-Cheong but they formed no important part of the story. What a wasted potential or opportunity to turn this series into one intense and memorable one.

This series had a great cast. Kara Wai is a good choice to portray the ruthless superior. She stands a chance for best actress win at the end of the year with this performance. She had win a lot from film awards but never from television awards. If the best actress competition this year is very weak, she do have a shot at it. However, in my opinion, there is not much from her role that requires her to deliver memorable acting. In most of the time, she just needs to get her eyes opened wide to show the anger while being confronted, and gets to cry for the death of her son near the end of the series. There is particularly no standout or explosive moment from her alone.

Philip Keung on the other hand nailed his role as the undercover named Bingo. He got me immersed into his performance and I particularly enjoyed his interaction with his mother (portrayed by Angelina Lo). He may have a shot at TV king title but I felt that his role is more of a supporting one (preferred him to get best supporting actor or most favourite male character). His character development is great except at the end when he died so suddenly without any honor for his contribution and sacrifice, and incomplete work that should have been finished by him too. Benjamin Yuen took that job since he is the main lead in this drama. His effort to lose weight and gets pale just for this drama is admired but there’s still huge room of improvement for his performance.

The series started off great with high expectation from me. However, it continues to be quite draggy and concluded with a rushed ending (not much climax even when it is near the end). At first, I saw similarity of quality of this series with ‘Line Walker’ (this series is very good). But in the end, ‘The Defected’ wasted most of its potential and becomes just a slightly above average drama this year to my disappointment. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Defected’ a total of 7.0.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

The post’s title above already best summarizes what I felt about this Hong Kong drama which had just aired its last episode a moment ago. ‘Barrack O’Karma’ (金宵大廈) is hands down the best Hong Kong series of the year, one of the best I have seen in recent years, and I highly recommend you to watch it if you haven’t (it’s in Cantonese by the way).

The drama, with 20 episodes, follows the supernatural journeys of several residents living in an old apartment building full of mystery and strange happenings. The drama starred Joel Chan, Selena Lee, Lau Kong, Alex Lam, Samantha Ko, Billy Luk, Kelly Cheung, Gloria Tang, Bob Cheung, etc.

The journey of each residents are categorized into different mini-stories and each one delivers deep and thoughtful meaning to viewers. Some comes with happy ending while some ended with sad note and that well resonates to our real life out here too where not all things will be good in the end. The main story arc involving the two main characters, a security guard (Ah Siu, portrayed by Joel Chan) and an air stewardess (Alex, portrayed by Selena Lee) that spans over to their past life is very moving and engaging.

This is the first drama for Joel as the main male lead. While there is still room of improvement for him, I find that he did quite good already. He is usually excellent in supporting roles in the past and I find that this is a great step for him to be the lead. He needs to brush up on his crying scenes and I find that he couldn’t put it all in yet in those scenes. On the other hand, Selena Lee delivered a remarkable performance here. Her emotional scenes are all well executed and I always find her acting already on par to previous best actress winners. Hence, I wish for her to win the best actress at TVB Anniversary Awards end of this year. She certainly deserves it. It is absurd to know that she never gets any award before from TVB. She is overdue and this is her best role to win it.

All the other supporting cast also performed very well and delivered their mini-stories convincingly. I admire the script and the execution of each stories, and I am surprised and impressed with the unprecedented approach the drama has in place. For instance, the series dealt with sensitive issues like same-sex relationship, transnational love, love with older woman, etc (there is even a sex doll involved). By just the mention of these things, you would think that this looks like an adult drama, but you have to watch it to know that the drama is very profound and simply using those to convey fresh perspective to our life.

I am also fascinated with the amount of details placed into every scene that reveals a little hint to what’s coming next. You have to pay close attention to the wall, floor, the background, or some small character’s expression that reveals some important plot point. This is a brilliant step by TVB as it has not done much in this area before in its past dramas. I also like the part where this drama links to another supernatural drama aired early this year called ‘Our Unwinding Ethos’ (surprised and felt cool to see Rosina Lam from that drama in this one as well making a guest appearance). It’s like a shared universe thingy just like Marvel films. That’s interesting, isn’t it?

I am disappointed that this drama is way too short. 20 episodes is simply not enough for such a high quality series. The drama is full of suspense and got me very engaged and eager to know what’s going to happen next. The new rendition of a classic song used for this drama in both Mandarin and Cantonese version that plays at the beginning and ending of each episode is also very addictive and suits perfectly well to the mood of the story. Unconventional, daring, touching and thought-provoking, ‘Barrack O’Karma’ (I believe the one who created this English title wants a bit of humor by linking it to the name of former US president, Barack Obama…haha, that’s weird but cool though) really surprises me.

Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Barrack O’Karma’ a total of 8.3. Best drama of the year. I don’t need to watch the remaining other dramas of the year to come to that conclusion. It’s that easy. While the series isn’t perfect (there is still some poor areas like frequent disconnectedness between stories, rushed progress to some mini-stories, over complexity of plot – I still cannot digest what’s the ending means, too many unanswered questions at the end, etc), but this drama marked a bold and successful step forward for TVB.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

I have just finished watching a TVB drama named ‘Forensic Heroes 4’ (法證先鋒IV). It is the 4th installment of a highly successful Hong Kong series franchise about forensic teams investigating variety of murder cases. I remembered the first two series were very good while the third one is still watchable. This fourth one is disappointing. This 30-episode series starred Raymond Wong, Selena Li, Shaun Tam, Alice Chan, Rebecca Zhu, Roxanne Tong, Fred Cheng, Yumiko Cheng, Kelly Cheung, Jonathan Cheung, Susan Tse, etc.

The drama started off very well with a linked murder cases; a carefully thought out story arc that has a lot of depth and plot twist in it. The first story arc also had heavyweight guest stars such as Patrick Tse and Michelle Yim. It got me engaged straightaway to the series. However, once this arc ended and more individual murder cases (following story arc) coming in, it gets more bland and lacks effort. The cases became uninteresting. All the following murder cases also become more predictable without any suspense or twist anymore (I almost immediately knew who the murderer is when every new cases appear).

On the other hand, most of the cast only need to deliver a one-tone facial expression (very serious face) during the investigation. I knew it is normal to be serious in such situation but the over-emphasis of the drama on their one-look faces throughout the entire drama is not something to enjoy looking at. The cast is poorly selected too. I don’t feel any chemistry between the partners in the series and the writing for their relationships felt very lazy and unconvincing. The only cast I can see doing good here is Roxanne Tong who is actually not in the original cast as she is only needed afterward to replace Jacqueline Wong due to the latter’s scandal last year.

The reason this drama still gets huge TV rating is because many people have no choice but to stay at home to watch it to pass time due to the recent coronavirus outbreak. It is definitely not because of the quality of the series. This drama is poorly executed. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Forensic Heroes 4’ a total of 6.0. I actually laughed a bit seeing the very last scene of the final episode. That shouldn’t be the intended reaction.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

There’s ample of time at home now during this circuit breaker period for me to watch some movies and series. Well, that’s the only possible source of entertainment at home now besides than browsing though Facebook, Instagram or playing online games. I have just finished a Cantonese series a moment ago and here comes my review for it.

It’s a TVB drama titled ‘Airport Strikers’ (機場特警) which had just aired its last episode last evening. This 25-episode drama starring Owen Cheung, Mat Yeung, Sisley Choi, Roxanne Tong, Hugo Wong, etc revolves around a group of airport police officers. What’s terribly disappointing on this series is that the story focuses too much on each main character’s background (or own problems) and romantic relationship rather than on the action in the airport itself. The drama started off with a very intense threat at the airport and so I look forward to more actions throughout the entire series.

In the end, I was just watching all the love stories going on between many characters which are very boring. The characters are also not interesting and that is made worst by the dull acting by the cast. Owen Cheung’s too-cocky character is unnecessary and it made him looks annoying in the drama. Mat Yeung is a bit dull while Sisley Choi tried her best but there is still a borderline drawn by her in her performance and she couldn’t manage to cross it. Hugo Wong is not bad but his story with his wife lacks enthusiasm.

I was so glad that I managed to finish the whole series because it is simply too boring. The officers’ actions in the airport are only restricted to only normal patrolling and then that’s it. Focus is back on the love storylines again. I only enjoyed the front part when the new officers undergo intensive training. Only that part which covers first few episodes deserve my attention. For the rest, no! This drama should not be called ‘Airport Strikers’; it should be called ‘Romance in the Airport’ instead and then I would not have certainly start on this series at all. Very misleading.

I also cannot stand the way each episode at the latter part of the series ends with a glimpse of the main villain exercising in his dark room and showing a very forced evil expression. This happens for more than 5 episodes. Totally too repetitive and not necessary. The director must be thinking that it will help build the intensity but it actually built up our disgust to the drama. Out of 10 points, I can only rate ‘Airport Strikers’ a total of 4.5. This series is so bad to the point that this is the first time I’m giving a rating lower than 5. Very poorly done. This series which claimed to be the first Hong Kong series centered on airport police isn’t really emphasizing on that. This series can go into trash can immediately (sorry for being rude, but that’s my straightforward opinion).

Fortunately, there is another TVB drama that aired concurrently that is worth watching. The drama is called ‘Brutally Young’. So far, this series is very good and I think it will keep such momentum to its end. I will post my review to this once it ends somewhere around two weeks later.

I have also watched some new films in the past month and they are ‘Vivarium’ ,’1BR’ and ‘Fantasy Island’. I won’t be giving full review to them but I have to compliment the very creative and interesting idea behind each of these films that got me very engaged. The content of these films may not be suitable for everyone (some may find it boring or not logical) but they suits me who like to see new unexplored ideas/stories in films. Give them a try when you are free or too bored at home.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

We are now entering into 6th weekend of the circuit breaker. There was only 1 local Covid-19 case here in Singapore yesterday but there were still over 700 cases among foreign workers living in dormitories. With this statistic, it looks like the circuit breaker will most probably ends on June 1st without any more extension (I certainly hope so!) but there would still be many restrictions in place. The number of cases among foreign workers daily are still very high due to the extensive testing and this number isn’t expected to go much lower any time soon since Singapore had over 300 000 foreign workers living in dormitories and only a small percentage of them have been tested so far.

Let’s get back to the main topic of this post; my review to another Hong Kong TVB drama called ‘Brutally Young’ (十八年後的終極告白). I have not had any expectation before watching this 20-episode series, thinking of it as just another drama for me to kill off time on every weekday’s evening. The outcome is; this series is a surprising hit! Starring Shaun Tam, Joel Chan, Mandy Wong, Vivien Yeo, Anthony Ho, Dominic Lam, etc, the drama revolves on the life of seven high school friends through obstacles and worries after a body that they have buried 18 years ago was discovered and led to police investigation. They were unsure of the identity of the killer and trying all ways to keep the secret to their own.

The plot is interesting and the story development is fast paced and intense on every episode. I even find that 20 episode isn’t enough to do this drama a justice. This drama can be delivered in 25 episodes or more. I felt it’s a waste that nice dramas ended so quickly (similar to Barrack O’Karma last year that is also a surprising hit and only has 20 episodes too). And then, we have an awful drama like ‘Airport Strikers’ that has 25 episodes and every single episode is a trash. When you have the urge to know what happened next, or guessing who is the killer, or curious on the conclusion to these characters, then you know it is a good drama. It gets you hooked to the storyline immediately. This series nailed it.

I never liked Shaun Tam as I find his acting is mediocre. However, he improved a lot in this drama as the main male lead. Perhaps it is most probably due to the very good script and overall good quality of the series that elevate his performance. There are many ‘explosive’ scenes of him that demand huge emotions and he started to deliver them satisfactorily. It’s a huge contrast to his typical overly bland performances in the past. Mandy Wong complements him well in this drama and she too delivered a solid performance (she also appears as main female lead in another concurrently airing drama that I’m watching too; ‘The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter).

Joel Chan is good as usual and her romance with Vivien Yeo in this series is quite interesting and touching to watch. I wouldn’t say Vivien Yeo is an excellent actress but I can say without any doubt that this is her best performance to date. Her role as a deaf-mute girl here is very well executed. Her effort in delivering the sign language while showing intense emotions at the same time deserve praises. My last compliment would be to Dominic Lam who takes investigation over his son’s death into his own hands and to Anthony Ho as well. These two supporting actors are above the rest in this series.

The final episode of the series (aired yesterday) gives a worthy ending to the story. Spoiler ahead; Shaun admitted to his crimes in the end and most importantly admitted that his way of using lies on top of lies to cover secrets are wrong. This shouldn’t be the way in our life. ‘Admitting a mistake just took few seconds but having a guilty conscience takes a lifetime’; a very awesome yet hard-hitting quote from the final episode of this series. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Brutally Young’ a total of 8.6. It’s definitely the best series I have watched so far for this year. No competition…This series is also getting rave reviews from most audiences. It deserves all the praise. I do recommend you to watch it especially in this time when all of us have to stay at home most of the time and need something to occupy ourselves.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

The original TVB supernatural drama ‘The Exorcist’s Meter’ which was released three years ago was a surprise hit. The drama captured the heart of many audiences and won couple of awards that year too. Supernatural genre is very uncommon in TVB and such series will usually not perform very well. ‘The Exorcist’s Meter’ broke the norm with its surprisingly meaningful and touching storylines paired with impressive performances by the cast. It offers a very refreshing take / direction on supernatural theme.

Everyone is expecting a sequel and finally it comes out this year. In ‘The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter’, Siu Ma continues his full-time job as a taxi driver while committed to being a skilled demon hunter. He embarks on an adventure to free the spirit of his childhood friend, Ho Zai from a curse by a sea spirit. This 25-episode series starred many returning cast (Kenneth Ma, Hubert Wu, Susan Tse, Ram Chiang, Moon Lau, Mandy Wong, etc) and new ones too (Zoie Tam, Gloria Tang, C Kwan, etc).

There has been a famous saying that there is no other actor who can portray as a taxi driver as real as Kenneth Ma. His award-winning performance in the first series is a memorable one. He continues to do well here but this sequel plays down his role a bit to allocate screen time evenly to all the other supporting roles (a lot more secondary characters to focus on this time).

Although Mandy Wong is the first female lead here, but I felt she is outshined by other female cast (Moon, Susan and even Gloria). There is no important storyline or character development for her. On the other hand, many people seems to like Moon Lau in this series but I am not. I felt her cutesy voice and expression are a bit over. In the episode when she finally leaves the world which is supposed to be very moving, I hardly felt anything. Instead, I actually wish her to leave as quick as possible.

There are a lot of scenes that require huge emotional delivery from Susan Tse and this veteran actress nailed it. The scene where she had to let Siu Ma to kill Ho Zai (both are his sons) in the final episode is so heartbreaking. Besides that, there are also quite a number of tear-jerking scenes in this drama. This is what distinguish this drama franchise from the past supernatural series; touching storylines of which I have highlighted earlier.

Although this sequel is not as good as its predecessor, but it is still a decent sequel. There are some unanswered questions (people may be complaining of several open endings like what did Siu Ma see when he looked to the backseat of his taxi again – same ending in the first series too, no conclusion to Kenneth-Mandy pairing, and who is that mysterious spirit that has the ability to grant life to a person by taking the soul of another, etc) but no worry…the third series will be coming to answer those. There are news saying that this is a 3-part series. Hope that is confirmed.

Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter’ a total of 7.7. It doesn’t get beyond 8 point from me because it still has some fair share of slightly disappointing aspects like the character’s development of the sea spirit that is written badly near the end, annoying presence of Moon Lau (she seems okay in first series but not in this), and poor CGIs.

By the way, this series has a very nice sub-theme song sang by Hubert although not quite as compelling as the songs in the first series also.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

I have just completed a 25-episode series in the last weekend and within a few days I have completed yet another series, and it has more number of episodes; 30. I started on this new series on Tuesday and I finished it today. It took me only 5 days and an average of 6 episodes a day (one episode is about 40 minutes long). This is easily done in this period when everyone is stuck at home most of the time. And thank goodness, finally, I am no longer that occupied with work after 2 months busy handling my job assignments. Hence, I have more free time to binge-watch.

The series is called ‘Flying Tiger 2’ (飞虎之雷霆极战). It is a sequel to the original series released in 2018. I didn’t watch the first one but it doesn’t matter as the story in this sequel is independent and not related to the former. The story revolves on a special police unit formed to tackle unprecedented or special cases. The series starred Michael Miu, Bosco Wong, Ron Ng, Kenneth Ma, Oscar Leung, Yoyo Mung, Dominic Lam, Kelly Cheung, Joel Chan, Lee Pace, etc.

The whole drama only centers on one large terrorism case involving multiple nations. Storyline do gets a bit complicated near the end with many subplots surfacing and more connections between many characters. I couldn’t follow through in details but I do feel that is necessary to add more depth and a little more complexity to the story since the whole 30-episode only revolves on one case. On the other hand, I’m also impressed with quite a number of exhilarating action scenes; properly executed chasing and gunfight scenes.

It’s also nice to see 3 of the former 5 very popular young TVB actors back in 2000s collaborating again. Kenneth, Bosco and Ron are here (missing ones are Raymond Lam and Sammul Chan…Raymond did sing the ending theme song for the series though). It’s near impossible to get all 5 of them back to collaborate in one series/project but at least now we get to see 3 of them in one series. They are all in their 40s already, and their acting have certainly improve and mature over the years. Michael Miu is now typecast in senior police officer roles for many years. He is perfectly fine for such roles (and he matches such roles very well too) as his bland acting is sufficient to carry on these type of characters which are usually only needed to be very composed, firm and deliver lines in serious manner. Yoyo Mung…I couldn’t see a single tear from her eyes when she acted in those emotional scenes (when both of her parents died). That explains very much on her acting.

The male cast members are great but the female lineups are lacklustre. I knew those female characters are not central to the story but at least look for a slightly more famous actresses to pair up with the boys. Overall, this series is pretty good. A big-budget production (involves also a Hollywood actor in a major supporting role…a rare occasion for Hong Kong series) that has decent story, action scenes and good performance and chemistry by the male leads. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Flying Tiger 2’ a total of 7.8.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)