‘Brother’s Keeper’ (巨輪) is a Hong Kong’s TVB series that depicts the moral life struggles of two half-brothers Tin-seng (Ruco) and Wai-son (Edwin) during the late and post-colonial periods of Hong Kong and Macau between the years 1980 and 2013. It ran in 32 episodes and had just ended yesterday’s night with a rather satisfying and meaningful finale. The drama which is one of TVB’s grand production of the year starred Ruco Chan, Linda Chung, Edwin Siu, Krystal Tin, Louise Lee, Louis Yuen, Susan Tse, Leanne Li, etc.
The first point I wish to compliment on this drama is the inclusion of true historical events that were set against the era, including Hong Kong’s 1980 Touch Base Policy, Macau’s relaxed immigration laws of 1982, the 1991 goldsmith robberies, the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong and Macau to China in late 1990s, the 1998 Hong Kong financial crisis, the 1999 Macanese triad wars and chaos, the 2003 Hong Kong SARS outbreak, and the 2008 Hong Kong financial recession, of which serves as some of the key plot vehicles that drive the changing fates of the brothers and their families. It is a very good, interesting and logical approach to develop the story.
As for casts’ performance, the one that stood out is none other than Krystal Tin. She had a very good and appealing character and she nailed it. Often nicknamed as ‘Shrewish Ying’ in the drama, she delivered outstanding performance that should be recognized with award end of this year. As for Linda Chung, her character here is a bit too sloppy and thoughtless and it is not a breakthrough role for her. However, she did improved a lot on her expressions and crying scenes that I find not annoying anymore. Nevertheless, she is regarded as the top contender for best actress this year. Ruco Chan also did a great job as the main lead with convincing acting. He is no doubt a solid lead actor. As for Edwin Siu, he carried out his role well but not good enough. And I had to dislike his character at the part when he treat Ah Ying so bad with no emotion and had been wasting her youth for a decade.
The story began in a quite an exciting and interesting pace, but then as usual to TVB’s pattern, everything will be dragged and slow in the middle portion while the final few episodes are a bit too rushed. The story is developed through flashback that went quite consistently but illogically. In 1980, Tin-seng and Wai-son roughly aged between 10 – 18. By 2013, they should be at least aged between 43 to 51, and they were still that energetic just like their younger days (especially Tin-seng that had to do all the actions to capture the triads) and they were all still ‘waiting’ for relationship outcome. The production team surely didn’t look into this error.
I’m quite happy and satisfied with the ending of the drama. I’m happy that Tin-seng didn’t really turn bad and I do get the impact at the part when the others realized they had misunderstood him. The finale basically highlights Tin-seng’s situation, how others view him and more importantly how he views himself. Eventhough the ending provides not much of climax or intense scenes, but it still delivered with solid conclusion to all characters; everything solved while leaving open possibility only in the love relationship as well as Tin-seng’s unknown future. The last few dialogues in the finale leaves a meaningful message to our life. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Brother’s Keeper’ a total of 7.6. I thoroughly enjoyed this drama. It’s a very good one, and is considered one of the best this year. Next on my watch list would be the upcoming medical-themed sequel series, ‘The Hippocratic Crush II’.
(All images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)
