Saturday 13 February 2016

TVB Love as a Predatory Affair 愛情食物鏈 Review



This series knew it had nothing really much to offer, so it tried hard to make it interesting, meaningful and thought-proactive, when really it just tries to send one simple message; don't judge a book by it's cover.

If only I judged the serial's cover and decide not to watch it.

One of my least anticipated series of 2016, it was embarrassing to watch the sales presentation clip where the CGI was awful to say the least, the cast was weak and the storyline looked nothing particularly interesting. Does this mean this series is pure trash? Perhaps, but it was still watchable because of several redeeming factors.

The redeeming factors is the ok performance by the cast. King Kong as Hung Sin played a role that was obviously was tailored for him, with his Taiwanese background. What I don't understand is his perseverance and love towards Hestia (portrayed by Samantha Ko). He was amused at Hestia's eye-watching figure, but what else? Doesn't that make his blind love swallow? His character was silly to say the least but King Kong didn't fortunately tried the best to make his character watchable.

Lau Kong as Lau Kam was also fine. Not much to comment on his veteran performance but it was adequate. Lau Kong these days seem to the TVB producer's first choice for any veteran role (also because there aren't many left), but at least Lau Kong does the job. Hestia's mum/mom was also fine though she acts the same way. For instance I watched her performance in 'Beneath the Charm' which was 2005 series and now here her expressions was almost the same! At least she's consistent.

Same goes for Susan Tse whose performance was adequate although she is in the danger zone for getting sidekick roles now. In the past, she would have been offered grand roles with heaps of room to show her acting chops such as in Rosy Business, Beyond the Realm of Conscience and a few other series, but now she seems to be underappreciated as an actress. Pity I say.

Pat Poon as Lo Sat gave another adequate performance but a dejavu one. His facial expressions and interpretation in terms of characterisation was almost identical to his role in 'All That is Bitter is Sweet'. No much to comment since he didn't have much to do.

Not much to comment about Susan and Pat's children in the series, except that their acting abilities left much to desire.

Ronald Law gave a decent performance. He looked the part and played the part well. Same goes for Tavia's sister and Timothy. Credit however goes to the little kid who was rather funny and attention-grabbing as a spoiled and demanding son.

Should I get to the big three main character? Should I?



Ok. Samantha, Kitty and Jason did ok in their respective roles but again left much to be desired.

First, Samantha Ko. Have yet to have a favourite performance of her's except for maybe when she in 'Friendly Fire'. In here her role was also tailored to her. Someone looking dashing, but can't cook. She relies on her good friend Kitty who on the other hand can cook but short. I think Samantha gave a good performance as Hestia. At times she is a bit shaky, but she did fine in some scenes, especially those that required minimal but expressive indicators, like the slight gesture of guilt or uncertainty in her expressions. That being said, I still don't think she carried the series as being the lead and found her character to be highly insulting to those who have good looks but with good personality. Deep inside, she is a nice person, but her desires to be rich and be into fame and her wants to wipe her less flashy background setting makes her quite disgusting and blind in seeing what is right and what is wrong, what is worth it and what isn't, and what is decency. Put it this way, this character could have been multi-dimensional and Samantha make it two-dimensional although it could be four-dimensional. At least it wasn't one-dimensional.

Yep one-dimensional is Jason Chan. I am still baffled how like many others in this series can interpret his character in a similar light to all his other roles. His tone of speech, his repetitive hand movements, the uncertain or speechlike expressions and his effortless attempt at bringing his character to life. Give this to Raymond Lam or Ruco Chan or even to Kenneth Ma and I'm sure they would do a much better job. That being said, I will stop short of calling it a rubbish performance by Jason Chan but simply an inadequate one. He is stuck to one-dimensional expression and while he matched and managed to convince what his character is, a nice, well-mannered and gentle person. At the end, Jason gave a minimal and bland portrayal of what his Pete could display.

 Did Kitty fare any better? Yes she did. As Kwai-Fong she did fine although again nothing spectacular. The producers of this series focused on her and I think she is the lead in this series. Like her role 16 years again in 'War of the Genders' she is innocent-looking, bubbly and kind-heartened type of girl. Small, but does a big favour to others such as Hestia. She is someone you would want to be friends with. I do think Kitty gave a consistent performance.

It wasn't the performances though that dragged this series down, but rather the simplicity and underwhelming storyline of this series that might turn others off.

P.S Stephanie Ho was refreshing in this series. She didn't have much to add to the storyline in this series yet gave a memorable performance as a restaurant worker and self-driven type of person. Watch her performance to know what I mean.

There's one thing that I am sure some will tell me, don't like it, don't watch it. But I watched it before I failed to dislike it even though there were a lot of unlikeable aspects in this series. I managed to watch it without much problem. Primarily because it was simple to watch. It's an old formula that TVB producers have long produced once again and again, but I guess it was a watchable series. That being said, my verdict is watch it if you have time, watch it if you can swallow anything, and watch it expecting... well nothing.

TVB K9 Cop 警犬巴打 Brief Episode Thoughts - Ep 2



This episodes introduces us to Linda Chung, who is typecast into sweet lady roles. In here I like the fact that this character is perseverant, patient and professional. She has a compassion towards dogs and she will do whatever it takes to save them.

I think Linda is doing fine at the moment.

Thus far my favourite scene of Linda is her sweet I.Q retorts to Angel Chiang who was a sook and an annoying shopper or HK citizen.

In TVB's world, of course coincidences happen all the time and this time it appears that Linda was actually retorting to her brother's wife.

Oscar is back to raw acting but at times he was subtle. Not a bad performance.

Angel or Angie or Angle was again irritating as someone who disregards politeness and

This episode was mainly about Linda, so no comment about the others.

Am still hardly wowed by this series, but will still be watching.

TVB Short End Of The Stick - 公公出宮 Episode 1-4 Brief Thoughts



Back in 2012 I watched The Confident and ended up disliking the series for the rather empty plot and bland characterisations, which left me unamused for any sequels or spin-offs. But seems like this series can succeed without relying on the success on The Confident.

You can say Short End of the Stick is the spin-off sequel version of The Confidant. A lot of the main characters back, though different role. Same producer, but different formula. In this case, it's comedy and it's working great.

Episode 1 had me intrigued from the start to the end. It's refreshing to see a storyline on eunuchs who are dismissed after the collapse of the Qing Dynasty. Where will they be going? Are they going to be accepted in the society of the new revolution? So far, Wayne, Power and Raymond all master their roles as eunuchs. Some might think they look like sissies but they are funny without going over the top. 

Nancy Wu's costume looks great with a dose of authoritativeness and status attached to it, but I think she is lacking something at the moment. I find Nancy Wu a very competent actress but failed to see anything hilarious about her here. Her expressions thus far are rather bland. Either she is worried looking or silent. Perhaps she is a miscast and Sheren Tang or Charmaine Sheh might do a better job. 

Wayne is awesome and surprised me because of his great portrayal as a funny eunuch. He didn't hold back acting feminine (like he was in The Confidant). 

I have a few doubts about Edwin who has yet to prove how good or how bad he is. 

There are rather a few sore points thus far though. I am quite irritated by Grace Wong who speaks so bubbly, so fluffy and so high in all her roles, including this one. Yoyo also is rather inadequate with her one dimensional expressions at the moment. 

By the way, the theme song is well sung. 

So far, it's the main male leads and that little kid's great performances, along with some brilliant lines and story that makes me want to watch. Everything else is worth ignoring. 
=

TVB K9 Cop 警犬巴打 Episode Brief Thoughts - Episode 1

Watched the first episode.

Prior to watching this first episode I watched its sale presentation and was sort of anticipating it. For me I say the first episode was ok and very ordinary.

We are introduced to Fire Water Sir and Loser Sir (hope I got the names right) who are besties and also police colleagues (I find it bizarre how they are always together in the shifts). At the start of the episode we are introduced with some action scenes of Bosco trying to follow this guy who has a USB that contains evidence sufficient to arrest the main culprit, who is depicted as an supersized woman in this series. While Bosco was responsible in trying to find him, Raymond was in charge of making sure that woman doesn't go to the airport and leave. For the first ten minutes I was intrigued with the action, whilst I have some doubts on the cinematography, how the camera seems to be shaky unsteadily.

Another moment that I remember was Raymond and Tracy, who are a couple. Tracy doesn't like the fact that Raymond is a cop (due to its dangerous nature with the possibility of him being killed while on duty), and Raymond has no desire to manage his parent's rich business of restaurants and what's not. What an extraordinary storyline.

Here we also see two Koo Ming Wah (TVB had to make use the same actor for the two roles) and coincidentally one Ming Wah is friends with Bosco's sister while the other is back from jail and is angry at his brother for dubbing him in 8 years ago. Again I feel the plot is very familiar and nothing original.

Performance wise, Bosco is nicely cast into Fire Water Sir who makes the right expressions, without going over the top. Raymond is also fine at the moment. That Angel girl really reminded me of Come Home Love with that hairstyle, headphones and house-setting. Felt like she came right after acting for Come Home Love. As for Tracy, am not too keen on her voice that is a bit shaky and her rather off-key Cantonese (don't know why) but think she is ok.

Had trouble trying to watch the full of this episode and I am ready to be bashed by fans, as it seems like this series is getting a lot of positive reviews thus far. As for me, so far my impressions of this series is light-heartened, nothing too serious and nothing too funny. Can't say it's a comedy because I didn't laugh at all except found the scene where Bosco was ringing Tracy, then Raymond and then the restaurant to be a bit funny.

No Linda tonight.

I won't give up on this series yet.

Saturday 6 February 2016

Love as a Predatory Affair - Thoughts so far

Haven't been addicted to TVB lately, but still watching some of their series, like Come Home Love II and Love as a Predatory Affair.

I was ready to blast this series but as it is ending, it's not bad. By not bad I mean some decent performances, even though strictly speaking Jason Chan was effective but not a sublte actor. 

The story isn't something extraordinary. Some might think it's cheesy, some might think it's old story and it is indeed. But even formulaic stories can be enjoyable to watch. 

Samantha Ko unexpectedly was fine as Gou Fen and Kitty was fine as well.

Might make a review on this series.