The Ultimate Addiction (點金勝手) is a TVB series of 30 episodes with story centred on a group of individuals working in Hong Kong’s financial world and stock market. It starred Bosco Wong, Kate Tsui, Ben Wong, Sharon Chan, Nancy Wu, Elena Kong, Toby Leung, MC Jin, etc. This type of story with finance as the theme didn’t particularly gets me interested, but since there is nothing else having my attention lately, and due to the strong line-up of casts here in this drama, I’m spending my time on this.
Like I mentioned earlier, the ‘finance’ part of the story isn’t the reason I’m watching this series. It forms the setting for the story but sometimes, this non-engaging ‘finance’ part make things so complicated and hard for audiences to digest (especially the majority whom are not expert in this particular stock market field). However, I’m still happy that TVB is now finding other themes to explore in their series rather than being too typical or sticking to the frequent professions (doctors, police, lawyers, etc) into their stories. Well, the police element is still present for ‘The Ultimate Addiction’ but that is okay. It’s unavoidable to make things more interesting in a drama. In most series, one or few of the characters must or have to be investigated.
The story progresses too slow for almost half of the series. Nothing much develops in first 10 to 15 episodes of the series. Quite draggy plot in the beginning. However, once you have the patience to continue, then you will be surprised as the momentum and climax builds up in the later part of the series. More and more thrills are coming in, and that turned disappointment to satisfaction and relief. If not, this is going to be another failing drama from TVB. But still, this series isn’t getting many audiences. Hmm…I guess the ‘finance’ theme got people away.
Now, let’s move on to the acting. Bosco Wong is as usual; performed fairly well as the first male lead. Same goes to Ben Wong, and I especially like the scene in the final episode of his tragic response once Sheung Yi (Sharon) committed suicide by falling off a building. Well, the women overwhelms this series. I’m not saying Kate Tsui, since I find her performance here came with very little effort. She appears to convey no ‘energy’ or ‘heart’ to carry out the first female lead role. Perhaps it is her character’s fault. Nothing dramatic from her. The girl that portrays Ginnie is also quite awful. The females I’m praising are Nancy Wu and Sharon Chan. These two supporting actresses did exceptionally outstanding. I like many of their scenes especially some powerful ones like a scene showing Nancy’s facial expression when Bosco kiss her but then left behind their marriage ring onto Nancy’s hand indicating that he surprisingly agreed for divorce. Sheung Yi’s 180 degree transformation from a very good cop into a bad person taking revenge onto her own hands is also very well handled by Sharon Chan. At first, I thought she is working as a spy. But nope… Elena Kong is doing great too. Her classy and dignified look and manner in this drama is well-liked. Ohh…these three actresses I’m complimenting are all former winners of TVB’s best supporting actress. Great job by them. They are the ones making me to like this drama at some point. Also not to forget some daring scenes from them in this drama.
I don’t understand why TVB nowadays love to rush things up and jam-packed everything into the final episode. It helps to make things intense and exciting, but in the end, people will find it too rushed, illogical and lacks development to explain the conclusion properly. That’s the same case for this series. The ending is good (partly happy and partly sad ending), but not a great one that I’m expecting. Finally finished this 30-episodes series, and out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Ultimate Addiction’ a total of 7.0.
(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)