The highly anticipated sequel to the successful 2003 Hong Kong drama ‘Triumph in the Skies’ ended its airing of 43 episodes last weekend. ‘Triumph in the Skies 2′ starred a huge number of popular TVB casts (expected as this is one of the heavily-promoted dramas of the year) including Francis Ng, Julian Cheung, Fala Chen, Myolie Wu, Ron Ng, Kenneth Ma, Elena Kong, Nancy Wu, Him Law, and many other supporting artists. The first one back in a decade ago was a very memorable drama centered on a group of pilots and air stewardess. And its sequel that saw some original casts not returning still had all our attention.
Its popularity should not be questioned. Even today’s morning programme of Chinese radio station here in Malaysia was discussing on this drama that concluded yesterday’s night to predicted high ratings and positive feedbacks. Despite receiving several earlier complaints particularly on the selection of the drama’s theme song, it never loses the momentum on its two months of run. After hearing the song by George Lam for a while, I find that it is not actually that bad. It’s very high in spirit, which is different with the much slower and soothing melody of the first series’ song by Eason Chan. But in the end, I still prefer the song by Eason.
Since this drama involves a much bigger group of characters, there are obviously lesser screen time for everyone. Hence, things go a bit too fast and illogical for certain character’s development particularly the supporting casts. Bigger emphasis is also placed onto Ron Ng’s character with his romantic relationship with Myolie Wu (whom face resembles his sister-in-law) in the series and his hardship en-route to become a captain. Things are much easier for Kenneth Ma’s character that I find some sort of being sidelined except for his complicated love life (I find it awkward on romance between him and Elena. Not a good pairing on screen honestly). Well, the highlight is still on between Francis, Fala and Julian. Anyway, all the casts contributed solid performance to make this drama amazing. As for Fala whom received poorer feedbacks on her acting and suitability for this main female lead role here, I think she didn’t do her best but still delivered to a satisfactory level.
Let me make it short for its review here (if not, I can write a long essay here). I find that things are a bit too draggy for like one quarter of the story dealing with death of Zoe (Captain Tong’s deceased wife). It’s one very important plot but I just find it’s been carried out unnecessarily excessive. The part I like the most is basically the training of the pre-pilots over at London. It’s fun and interesting where most of the energetic supporting characters are there. And on the other hand, I actually wished to see more exciting stuff happening in the plane (either good or bad) as most of the events in the drama took place boringly in the office and homes only. And the drama only had its shooting oversea at notably London, Paris and Sanya (Hainan). I hoped for more oversea locations actually. But it’s not a big issue.
The good thing is the plot develops and runs smoothly despite switching from this side story to another. In the end, you will not realize that you have had watched 43 episodes. You get to see parts from this pair then to another couple, before diverted to another issue within another group. You won’t get bored easily in this way. Ahh, before I forget. The one bad thing I remembered is that there are too much Adele songs playing in early episodes of the series. Songs are good but not necessarily suit several scenes. On the other hand, people would usually try to compare this one to its predecessor but I couldn’t. Both is like different thing eventhough they are linked.
The drama just like its predecessor deals mostly with romance, friendship, family bond, and most distinctively, professionalism in air transportation from various scope of related works (this time more) including pilots, steward and stewardess, engineer, maintenance technicians, executive or airport staff members. Of course, the coolest must be Captain ‘Cool’ pilot portrayed by Julian Cheung. The ending that I had watched not long ago is quite impressive. Holiday had made her right choice in the end. It’s a very well done conclusion to this solid drama. I personally like the last part involving Julian talking on the true meaning of the Guardian Angel (not to be confused with Triangel) accompanied with touching flashbacks of many scenes played on its 43-episode series. A great sequel. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Triumph in the Skies 2′ a total of 8.1.
(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)
