‘樓奴’ (Brick Slaves) is a 2015 Hong Kong romantic-comedy television drama by TVB and starring Vincent Wong, Selena Li, Evergreen Mak, Eliza Sam and Kiki Sheung as the main cast. The theme of the storyline is based on Hong Kong’s extremely unaffordable houses. Well, we knew Hong Kong is among the cities in the world with the highest property prices. Before I get into a review for this particular drama that had just concluded, I’m just going to tell you briefly how expensive purchasing a flat at Hong Kong is now.
Based on an accurate survey, the average price per square foot for a flat at Hong Kong is about USD$ 1200 or more. I’m not even talking about those strategically-located flat at the city centre region. Hong Kong is famous for having very limited land, and so their houses are usually very small and compact. A flat in Hong Kong would be somewhere in 700 sq ft or lesser. So, let’s multiply USD$ 1200 with 700 and you will get USD$ 840 000. Convert that to Ringgit Malaysia (oppss..now it’s multiply by 4), and the amount is RM 3.4 million. Crazy, isn’t it? With the same figure, I can buy at least 5 units of apartments in Malaysia.
So, you see…how hard is the life of Hong Kong people. They have to work, work and work to save money to own a house which is the most basic ambition for them. I understand that it is always feeling stable to own a house especially for those with family to take care of. Hence, not only in Hong Kong, but everywhere that people now are mostly ‘樓奴’. Working madly just to own a house. That’s what this particular TVB series is all about. Vincent Wong worked hard in his life and he finally had enough saving to pay for the deposit of a house which is his goal to start a family with his girlfriend. However, his girlfriend broke up with him and rented half of the house to her friend, Selena Li. Both are originally very much in conflict between each other due to difference in personalities. However, as time passes, they start to know each other more and felt in love.
Well, quite a typical plot but I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline. There are also many other supporting plots which are interesting enough to pull this into one piece of good drama to watch. The series is short, having only 20 episodes, but I think that’s enough for this light-hearted romantic comedy series. That makes the series entertaining most of the time with nothing much draggy in between. Vincent Wong is the male lead in the series and his performance is not bad. I’m fine with him taking on more leading roles in the future since TVB is now lacking leading artists. He had a good chemistry with the female lead, Selena Li in this series.
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Some say Selena is over-acting in this drama. Well, I think her character in this drama needs her to be slightly exaggerated, and hence it’s not her fault. Instead, I think she delivered the role very well. It’s seriously time to acknowledge her more in future series as I find her performances are always great. Even Liza Wang praised her when she guest starred in the former’s recent series ‘Master of Destiny’. She needs more leading roles too and I believe she can do it. TVB, just don’t keep promoting those newbies too much (Grace Chan, Eliza Sam, Mandy Wong, Tracy Chu, etc). Put more focus on Selena Li or Nancy Wu besides than the already emphasized Kate Tsui, Tavia Yeung and Linda Chung.
Opps…I’m getting way too far about the series. Eliza Sam had quite a major role in ‘Brick Slaves’. I knew she tried her best but still, she couldn’t pull it off nicely. Her crying scenes were awkward and I don’t feel anything when she speaks or delivers her emotion. She still needs to work hard on her acting. Well, the boy portraying as Dor Dor is also very poor in the series. On the other hand, Evergreen Mak and the one acting as his wife in the series were both great and acted very natural. Overall, the series is enjoyable to watch but very much will be forgotten after a month or two. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Brick Slaves’ a total of 7.4. Okay…to move on with new TVB drama next month.
(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)
