I was watching ‘The Righteous Fists’ when the ‘Modern Dynasty’ is airing back during the past Chinese New Year period. Both are Hong Kong dramas released this year. Only I watched the former while the rest of my family watched the latter. I did joined them to watch a couple of minutes of an episode around the middle of the series but felt overwhelmed by all the dialogues and lost interest.
After finished watching ‘The Righteous Fists’ and ‘Freedom Memories’ end of last month, I spent my daily’s evening on past movies or simply just browsing through YouTube videos. My urge to watch dramas came back last Saturday when I couldn’t find anything else to watch. I decided to pick ‘Modern Dynasty’ of which all of its 30 episodes have already been released. I give it a try and I made the right decision not to miss it.
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In less than a week, I finished the whole series. That shows how engaging the series is. ‘Modern Dynasty’ (家族榮耀) revolves on the ups and downs of the three generations of the wealthy Ma family after two close friends got married into the family on the same day. Many back stories and motives unfold as the plot progresses that lead to family tragedies and also downfall of their business empire. The series starred Julian Cheung, Tavia Yeung, Rain Lee, Him Law, Derek Kwok, Lynn Hung, Toby Leung, Raymond Wong, etc.
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I think this is Tavia’s comeback drama after several years. She is also reunited with her real life husband, Him Law on screen (but not act as partners in this drama). She delivered fantastic performance as the villainous second brother’s wife and CEO of the company. Her acting here is worthy of a second best actress win for her. Well, a female lead character with scheming mind and evil intention…if you nailed this kind of role, you are on course to awards. All the other main and supporting cast also did great on their respective roles within the huge family in this series. Even unfamiliar faces like Rain Lee and Lynn Hung surprised me with their cleverly delivered emotional performances.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
The storyline is interesting (enjoyed all the revelation of the evil plots and histories). Great script there accompanied with a beautiful huge residence as the main setting of the show that showcases the high status of the family. It was also quite a happy ending for the Ma family in the end after all the crisis but I felt weird with the surprised abrupt ending at the very last minute of the final episode (and also felt Gallen Lo’s cameo appearance in the final episode to be unnecessary). It could have ended in a better note.
Anyway, the series is still a solid one with great story and cast. Out of 10 points, I rate it 8.2, the same rating given also to ‘The Righteous Fists’. Both are my equal best Hong Kong dramas this year so far.
(Images in this post are from various online sources)
